Building Construction (2nd Edition)
Chapter 1 - Building Construction & The Fire Service
"By the Numbers"

• Life span of a building may be 50 to 100 years or more.
• Model building codes usually have 5 major construction classifications: Fire-resistive, Non-combustible, Masonry (ordinary), Heavy Timber, and Wood Frame.
• Each model building code classification is divided into 1, 2, or 3 subclassifications.
• Wood Frame has 2 subclassifications based on whether plaster or gypsum board protects the wood frame.
• The Stefan-Boltzmann law states that the intensity of thermal radiation is a function of the 4th power of the absolute temperature of the thermal radiation source (T⁴).
• A temperature of 70^oF is approximately 530^o (294^oK) in the absolute temperature scale.
• Laws of physics state that as the distance from a source of heat is doubled, the thermal radiation level is reduced 4 times.