Fire Flow Calculator

Our fire flow calculator is an efficient tool for determining the required fire flow (RFF) for suppressing and controlling fire.

If you're looking to determine the required fire flow for a particular structure or incident, you're in the right place. Whether you're a firefighter, a fire protection engineer, or simply interested in fire safety, this tool will assist you in your fire flow calculations.

Be sure to check out our flow rate calculator or, a more specific tool, the pipe flow calculator, to learn more about this metric in fluid mechanics!

Fire flow refers to the amount of water required to suppress or control a fire effectively. It represents the flow rate of water, typically measured in gallons per minute (GPM), that needs to be delivered to the fire scene.

Effective firefighting requires courage, skills, and a good understanding of fundamental calculations such as fire flow. Essential in assessing the volume of water necessary to extinguish a fire, fire flow calculation plays a critical role in fire suppression. Let's delve deeper into what fire flow is, why it's vital, and how to compute it accurately. We have chosen the National Fire Academy (NFA) method to introduce the topic and the IOWA fire flow formula as a supplementary method, but there are at least five other recognized ways of calculating fire flow.

To find the required fire flow $\mathrm{RFF}$ in gallons per minute for an area on fire with the NFA method, you need to:

1. Multiply length $L$ and width $W$ of the area (both in feet).
2. Divide the result by 3.
3. Multiply by number of floors $F$ that are on fire.

Additionally, to increase the result's precision, you can specify how much percent of the building is burning and how many interior and exterior objects are exposed to fire. The former is a simple fire flow percentage calculation, e.g., 50% fire involvement results in half of $\mathrm{RFF}$, while the number of exposures adds an additional 25% to the $\mathrm{RFF}$.

You can use our fire flow calculator to determine the necessary fire flow, taking into account all the mentioned factors. Be sure to check its interior and exterior exposures section and see the gallons per minute calculator if you want to learn more about this unit.

Fire flow calculation is integral to the efficiency of firefighting operations. It allows firefighters to develop a strategic attack plan based on an estimate of the size of the fire and the resources at their disposal. Moreover, it helps prevent the wastage of resources and minimizes potential damage caused by excessive water usage.

Two common formulae for fire flow calculation are the National Fire Academy (NFA) method and the Iowa State University (ISU) method. We already explained the former when we introduced the needed fire flow calculator in previous sections. You can find more information on the NFA fire flow formula on the Firehouse website.

Now, let's focus on the IOWA fire flow formula (ISU method), which is as follows:

where:

• $\mathrm{RFF}$ — Required fire flow in gallons per minute (GPM);
• $V$ — Volume of the building on fire; and
• $L$, $W$, $H$ — Length, width, and height of the building, respectively, allowing us to find $V$ from the volume of a rectangular prism formula.

Let's use an example to present how to use the needed fire flow calculator. Let's assume we want to test the fire flow for one of the single-story buildings in your area. You need to:

• Determine the length of the building: let's say it's $\mathrm{20 \ ft}$.
• Determine its width: for this example width is also $\mathrm{20 \ ft}$.
• Calculate the fire flow using the NFA formula:

Remember that these calculations only provide an estimate. You can increase the precision by considering additional factors available in our fire flow calculator's interior and exterior exposures section. Still, the actual fire flow needed may vary based on various factors, such as the nature of the fire, wind conditions, and materials involved in the fire.