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The effect of fire source location (FSL) on compartment fire phenomena with a single natural ceiling vent was experimentally investigated under various vent area (VA) and heat release rate (HRR) conditions. Two FSL cases, where the fire source was located at the centre (FSLC) and on the side (FSLS) of the floor, were tested. In the bidirectional vent flow patterns of FSLC and FSLS, the detailed locations where the smoke outflow and the fresh air inflow occurred were different. Empirical correlations were proposed for predicting the smoke outflow areas. FSLC exhibited a higher central velocity of the outflow, larger estimated mass flow rate of the outflow, and lower temperatures inside the compartment than FSLS. The estimated mass flow rate of the outflow depended more on VA than on HRR. A previous correlation was more suitable for FSLS than FSLC in predicting the mass flow rate of the outflow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]