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Firefighting Flow-rates                 It is with great sadness that we report that New Zealand Fire Engineer Cliff Barnett passed away on Saturday 21 June 2008 after a long illness. Cliff was a global contributor to the Fire Engineering profession and his work is featured throughout this website. Please take a moment to think of Cliff and appreciate his life-long service. CLICK HERE Needed Fire Flows  The concept of establishing a required water flow-rate for firefighting purposes is most useful for fire protection engineers when designing structural layouts and building complexes. It enables them to predict potential water requirements for initial responses or worse case fire scenarios and include effective fire protection systems during the construction phase. There are several complex engineering calculations that have been formulated specifically for this purpose by various authorities. The possibility of using such calculations to estimate water requirements whilst operating at an actual fire, is prevented  from a practical viewpoint by their complexity. However, there have been several notable attempts at providing a simple but reliable fire-ground calculation for use by on-scene fire commanders. This website provides important information on firefighting flow-rates, from the point of view of  fire-ground incident commanders, firefighters, pump operators, engineers and scientists. It explores the latest research and explains the limitations in applying each of the various approaches to 'real-world' fires.