This body of work provides detailed information on the nature of the fire problem for policymakers who must decide on allocations of resources between fire and other pressing problems, and within the fire service to improve codes and code enforcement, training, public fire education, building technology, and other related areas.

The course of the fire is traced in terms of developing fire phenomena. Special emphasis is given to burning rate of building furnishings, smoke layer temperature, layer level, oxygen consumption, combustion efficiency, flashover, exterior fire propagation, detector response, sprinkler operation, smoke movement and some contamination.