fire room

Meanings

1. 1nouncountabletechnical

   a room on a ship or in a building where the boilers or furnaces are kept and tended.

   Grammar: Use 'a fire room' or 'the fire room'; the plural is 'fire rooms'.

   Patterns

   • in the fire room
   • work in the fire room
   • fire room crew

   The stokers worked in the fire room, shoveling coal into the furnaces.

   Temperatures in the fire room could reach over 50 degrees Celsius.

   The ship's fire room was located below the waterline.

2. 2nouncountable

   a room in a building designed to be safe from fire, or a room where firefighting equipment is stored.

   Grammar: This sense is less common and often replaced by 'fireproof room' or 'fire control room'.

   Patterns

   • fire room door
   • fire room equipment
   • designated fire room

   All important documents are kept in a fire room with special doors.

   The firefighters assembled in the fire room before entering the burning building.

Word forms

Common combinations

in the fire room

The engineer spent hours in the fire room checking the pressure gauges.

fire room crew

The fire room crew worked in shifts around the clock.

coal-fired fire room

The old steamship had a coal-fired fire room.

fire room temperature

The fire room temperature was recorded every hour.

Synonyms and how they differ

boiler room

The modern everyday term for a room with boilers; 'fire room' is older and more specific to ships.

stokehold

A nautical term for the area where stokers work; it is even more technical and old-fashioned.

Word family

fireman noun

A person who tends fires on a ship or works as a firefighter.

firebox noun

The part of a furnace or engine where the fire burns.

Commonly confused: fire room or fire room vs. boiler room?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “fire room”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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