Owners and designers frequently have a hard time understanding and appreciating the benefits of using sacrificial construction in burn buildings.

There are a number of critical advantages:

1.  A fire training prop that includes a structural frame, protected with a thermal lining, and non-load-bearing, unprotected sacrificial walls, is much less expensive to construct than a typical wall bearing structure which frequently requires a much greater quantity of expensive lining systems to protect the large structural wall surfaces.
2. Sacrificial concrete block walls help to absorb and dissipate heat in burn rooms. Consequently, the rooms do not become overheated as quickly as do fully lined rooms.
3. Sacrificial walls can be demolished and/or relocated with relative ease, and without concern to the structural integrity of the building.
4. Sacrificial walls are relatively cheap and easy to maintain. Usually, most of these walls do not require replacement. Only those portions of the walls that are closest to the burn pads require periodic replacement. Remember, an 8″ concrete block, installed, typically costs less than $10/s.f. Thermal linings are much more expensive ($30 to $70/s.f), and some of them require replacement just as frequently, if not more frequently than the sacrificial block.
5. Design details associated with allowances for expansion and contraction are an even greater challenge when working with load bearing walls.

Using burn racks is an important consideration as they pick the heat up off the floor; they define a fuel load; and they move the fires away from the walls. All of these things help to protect the live fire training structure as well as your personnel.

There are a number of tricks to making this design scheme work, so please do not hesitate to contact us for more information.