To study the influence of sidewall effect on flame characteristics and burning rate, a series of experiments with heptane pools was conducted. The results showed that as the fires were placed close to the sidewall, the flames inclined to the sidewall due to the restriction on air entrainment, and the burning rate increased on the whole, which could be mainly due to the enhanced radiation from the heated sidewall and ceiling flame. However, regardless of fuel pool shape, the burning rate obtained the peak value when the fire was near the sidewall, rather than attached to the sidewall, resulting from less flame radiation from the vertical flame part to the fuel in the latter case. The ratio of longitudinal ceiling flame length to transverse length tended to decrease with the fire moving close to the sidewall. For cases with the largest length and wall fires, the ratio was nearly 0.5, which could be explained according to the theory of mirror effect. Also, due to the non-monotonous sidewall effect, a higher burning rate did not necessarily lead to a larger ceiling flame length. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.