• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.1-8
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• 2016

In cars, the amount of combustibles, such as plastics, textiles, etc., have increased dramatically to improve the fuel efficiency of cars by reducing the gross vehicle weight according to the increases in an oil price and to reduce environmental problems. One or two cars were involved in a parking lot fire prior to the mid-2000 s. On the other hand, there were many parking lot fires where the entire car was destroyed due to increasing the use of plastics. In this study, the quantity of combustibles in a car was 316.2 kg over a total weight 1935 kg. This is 16.34% of total weight and 10 times greater than that three decades earlier. When a sprinkler is installed as a parking lot fire protection system as a substitute for water spray, the water discharge of the sprinkler must maintain the original density of water spray, $20lpm/m^2$. In addition, the use of a hose reel $CO_2$ system at pilotis parking lots must be prohibited because the hose reel $CO_2$ system has no adaptability for a car fire. Instead, this study proposes foam, dry powder, loaded stream systems be used in parking lot fire suppression systems.