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Human behaviour in fire engineering: the North American experience
H u m a n b e h a v i o u r i n f i r e e n g i n e e r i n g : t h e
N o r t h A m e r i c a n e x p e r i e n c e
N R C C - 4 9 7 0 1
P r o u l x , G .
A version of this document is published in / Une version de ce document se trouve dans: The Institution of Fire Engineers, Proceedings of the 2007 AGM Conference and
Exhibition, Extending the Boundaries of Fire Engineering, Cambridge, UK, July 12-13, 2007, pp. 1-3
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The Institution of Fire Engineers, 2007 AGM, Conference and Exhibition, Extending the Boundaries of Fire Engineering,Cambridge UK, July 12-13, 2007
Human Behaviour in Fire Engineering: The North American Experience
Guylène Proulx, Ph.D.
Fire Research Program
Institute for Research in Construction National Research Council Canada
Good codes requirements, passive and active fire protection in a building do not ensure that there will be no fire or loss of life if a fire takes place. There is ample evidence from post-fire investigations that, in most cases, building occupants are the ones who inadvertently started the fire. Actions taken by occupants following fire ignition sometimes contribute to the fire, increasing the danger and the time taken to start evacuation. Fire protection engineers are developing systems to improve the detection, notification and control of fire and smoke but these systems may not perform as planned if occupants’ behaviour is not taken into account.
In North America, in the past few decades, there has been an increasing number of studies on human behaviour in fires. Findings from these studies have
demonstrated that occupants faced with an emergency engage in similar
responses such as investigating cues and discussing with others before starting their evacuation. These behaviours need to be taken into account in the planning of a fire safety system. The different elements of a system that are installed in a building need to be thought through with the reality and capacity of the building occupants. There is a shift in perspective in approaching fire safety particularly with performance-based designs. Instead of attempting to control the occupants and assuming they will do exactly what is planned, the approach is much more about managing the situation with a broader view. This new approach requires the participation of a multi-disciplinary team to devise an integrated solution. For example, developing a Building Emergency Action Plan has become much more common for a large variety of buildings. This has led to the discovery that
occupants need information prior to an emergency through training and during an
emergency, thus the push for the installation of voice communication systems in a large array of occupancies to provide information and instructions to occupants while the emergency unfolds.
There are three recent fire safety developments in North America that involved the work of multi-disciplinary teams. The first is the introduction of the Reduced-Ignition-Propensity (RIP) cigarette in Canada in 2005 and in 14 states so far in the USA. The RIP cigarette, or fire-safe cigarette, will self extinguish if left
unattended or if not regularly puffed-on. Since cigarette fires are the first cause of fatal fires in North America the introduction of this cigarette should dramatically reduce the fire death rate.
The World Trade Center disaster had a major impact on the North American approach to fire safety and building evacuation. This event demonstrated the importance of offering support to the evacuation process. The slow movement of evacuees in the crowded stairwell, despite the fact that the building was only 1/3 occupied, showed that many more occupants would have perished if the two towers had been full. It also became clear that with the actual aging of the population and the physical limitations of an increasing number of occupants, stairwell evacuation is impractical in high-rise structures. It is evidence that the use of elevators for egress needs to be considered. Requirements to install “safe-elevators” in high-rise structures are being developed and are likely to become common practice in the years to come.
A few years after the World Trade Center evacuation of 9-11 several thousand occupants also experienced an evacuation during the 2-day northeast blackout in August 2003. Although many buildings were equipped with generators and battery-packs emergency lights, several of these systems failed during the
blackout, which led to massive evacuation occuring in totally dark stairwells. The response of New York City to this problem was to require the immediate
The Institution of Fire Engineers, 2007 AGM, Conference and Exhibition, Extending the Boundaries of Fire Engineering,Cambridge UK, July 12-13, 2007
installation of photoluminescent wayguidance marking systems in all new and existing high-rise office buildings. Similar requirements are going to be part of the next editions of the building codes.
Overall, this multi-disciplinary approach is beneficial in helping to find innovative solutions to fire problems. Technical solutions that work in the lab may not ensure safety in the real world. Considering the reality of human behaviour during an emergency is contributing to bringing solutions that are more likely to be effective in improving safety in the built environment.
