Posted By Frank Neville Johnson Barry Fire loading simply is the amount of combustible material in the building that might be available to a fire if you had one. This is only one of a number of considerations a fire officer will take into account when carrying out a risk assessment and ought not to be considered in isolation. The reason for this is that a high fire loading, which might be necessary for certain processes may be made acceptable for life safety purposes by the provision of other measures, for example, automatic fire detection, sprinklers or fire resisting compartmentation and separation. Also reduced travel distances to means of escape might be required if the risk is deemed too high. Another point is there are essentially two ways of looking at the problem. 1. Life safety considerations i.e. statutory requirements, and 2. Collateral loss considerations i.e. losses other than life risk. Insurance companies will often make requirements over and above those necessary for life safety as a pre requisite for insurance. This seems like such a requirement. I suggest you keep combustible stock and packaging in the work area to a minimum. Where you need such stock keep it in a store separated from the main work area by construction preferably to a minimum of 60-min fire resistance to BS476. Consider separating the building up into compartments to a minimum of 60-min fire resistance to BS476, so that if a fire occurs only one of the compartments will be totally lost thus denying a considerable fire load to the potential fire. Replace furniture and fitting's, machinery and other items that are inherently combustible with non-combustible items. Lastly I suggest you seek the advice of your local fire officer who has a duty under the Fire Services Act 1947 s 1(1)(f) to give you the advice you seek free. He/she may be able to suggest some cost-effective solutions. Best of luck Frank