Max Fire Area from Available Foam Concentrate
The largest fire area the concentrate on the apparatus can cover for the full duration.
Example
You enter
- Available concentrate (gal) 100
- Application rate (gpm/ft²) 0.1
- Foam concentrate (percent) 3
- Duration (min) 15
You get
- Max coverage area 2222 ft^2
Checked against published worked examples from: NFPA.
Details, formula, and sources
ScopeMax area = concentrate / (application rate x foam percentage x duration). 100 gal at 0.10 gpm/ft^2, 3%, 15 min covers up to ~2,222 ft^2; a leaner percentage or shorter duration stretches it further. The rate and duration come from the fuel and the SOP. A planning aid; incident command governs.
Formula or tablemax_area_ft2 = available_concentrate_gal / (application_rate_gpm_per_ft2 × (foam_percentage/100) × duration_min), the NFPA 11 concentrate = area × rate × pct × duration relation solved for the area.
Source and editionNFPA 11 (Standard for Low-, Medium-, and High-Expansion Foam) by name; manufacturer foam-concentrate technical data (National Foam, Chemguard, Solberg) by name.
Free accessNFPA 11 read-only at nfpa.org/freeaccess.
What governsEstimate. AHJ and licensed fire protection engineer govern.
API field namesavailable_concentrate_gal, application_rate_gpm_per_ft2, foam_percentage, duration_min, max_area_ft2
- Application-rate default 0.10 gpm/ft² default (3% concentrate and 15 min are also prefilled); NFPA 11 sets the rate by hazard and foam type, so enter the rate the fuel, the foam, and the SOP call forNFPA 11
- Fixed supply the concentrate on hand is the constraint; rate and duration are set by the fuel and SOPNFPA 11 / department SOP