Abstract:Fire resistance of building structures and fire evacuation are two important research areas in building fire science. The targets of these two issues that were paid most attention to are fire resistance time and evacuation time, respectively, which are both related to time. However, the studies of these two issues are almost independent. In this article, the current research status and present issues of fire resistance of building structures and fire evacuation are summarized firstly. The relationship between fire resistance of structures and fire evacuation is discussed from two aspects, including evacuation scope and evacuation time. Based on the relationships, a new limit state for performance-based structural fire design, i.e. the limit state of safe evacuation, is proposed. The research on fire resistance of structures and safe evacuation can then be combined by this limit state. The limit state equation is further established using the time variable. A new idea for performance-based structural fire resistance design is provided. Finally, the key problems that need to be further investigated are presented.