The risk of progressive collapse in steel framed buildings under fire conditions is gradually rising due to the increasing use of combustible materials. The fire resistance of such steel framed buildings is evaluated by fire tests. Recently, the application of performance based fire engineering makes it easier to evaluate the fire resistance owing to various engineering techniques and fire science. The fire resistance of steel structural members can be evaluated by the comparison of the limiting temperatures and maximum temperatures of structural steel members. The limiting temperature is derived at the moment that the failure of structural member results from the rise in temperature and the maximum temperature is calculated by using a heat transfer analysis. To obtain the limiting temperatures for structural steel of grades SS400 and SM490 in Korea, tensile strength tests of coupons at high temperature were conducted. The limiting temperatures obtained by the tensile coupon tests were compared with the limiting temperatures reported in the literature and the results of column fire tests under four types of loading with different load ratios. Simple limiting temperature formulas for SS400 and SM490 steel based on the fire tests of the tensile coupons are proposed. The limiting temperature predictions using the proposed formulas were proven to be conservative in comparison with those obtained from H-section and hollow section column fire tests.