Comparison was conducted related to the current methods for calculating thermal radiation intensity developed by the scientific organizations of EMERCOM of Russia. The bottleneck areas of these methods are specified:

• definition of liquid flow rate for identifying spillage mass, due to failure to consider pumps and compressors operation, is not always accurate;
• lack of data and recommendations for determining the saturated vapor density at the boiling point of liquid and the molar weight of saturated vapor for various petroleum products used to calculate the damaging factors of thermal radiation;
• characteristics of types of fuel (required for calculations) are not provided in the tables on defining the average surface density of the flame thermal radiation depending on the diameter of the source area;
• assumption of the same thermal radiation intensity windward for the same pool fire area at any wind velocities.

The approaches and methods for expansion of practical use of the current approved regulatory methods; formulas (used for calculating thermal radiation intensity) to determine saturated vapor density at boiling point are proposed in the article.

To optimize the current methods the formulas for calculating the molar masses of saturated vapor of petroleum products are given. It is proposed to include them in the current methods for the purpose of making calculations in the absence of the required data.

The results of the calculations and graphic representation of thermal radiation zones  caused by the pool fire are presented, which were obtained with the help of formulas to optimize the current methods on determination of the thermal radiation intensity.

The proposed formulas and approaches facilitate the use of the approved methods and eliminate the situations when the user of these methods must himself search for the required formulas and reference data required for calculation.