Plane steel portal frames, with pitched roof, exposed to fire, are examined. First, a determinate frame is analysed by hand. For flexible columns and shallow roof, snap-through occurs before plastic hinges mechanism is formed. An indeterminate frame with shorter columns and taller roof is also analysed by hand. Then, the same frame is simulated by a truss and a nonlinear static analysis is performed by use of a short computer program. The results of computer analysis by use of truss model are compared with those of analysis by hand and a satisfactory approximation between them is observed.