Fire spread mitigation for closely-spaced houses

Spatial separation is one of the measures to reduce the potential for fire spread between neighbouring buildings and subsequent fire development to conflagration. With rising land and infrastructure costs, there is increasing pressure to allow new houses to be built closer together. While most code requirements and recommended practices of exterior wall construction are still based on fire studies involving cellulosic fuels, building contents have changed with increased amount of non-cellulosic materials.La s\ue9paration spatiale, entre autres mesures, r\ue9duit le risque de transmission du feu jusqu'aux immeubles voisins et, donc, le risque de conflagration. La hausse du co\ufbt des terrains et des infrastructures a intensifi\ue9 la tendance \ue0 construire les maisons plus pr\ue8s les unes des autres. Bien que la plupart des exigences du Code du b\ue2timent et des pratiques recommand\ue9es quant \ue0 la construction de murs ext\ue9rieurs soient encore fond\ue9es sur des \ue9tudes d'incendies impliquant des combustibles cellulosiques, la composition des immeubles a progress\ue9 de fa\ue7on telle que ceux-ci contiennent de plus en plus de mat\ue9riaux non cellulosiques.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye