A remarkable, large fire occurred in a 20 stories high‐rise apartments in 1996 in Hiroshima City. The fire spread from the fire origin apartment unit on the 9th floor up to the top 20th floor, very quickly by external flame spread through balconies. The authors investigated the evacuation behaviour of the occupants including reaction to fire cues, motives for starting evacuation, and choice of evacuation route by means of questionnaire survey and also peer interviews with some of them, focusing on the use of elevators in evacuation by floor height and/or age group in this very rare fire incident. From the investigation, the following results were obtained. (1) Probably due to the experience of many past small fires, there was a time lag between the perception of fire and starting the evacuation. Many respondents started their evacuation on the directions of others, not by direct fire cues such as smoke. Also, the reaction of occupants after the perception of fire is affected by their perception of the seriousness of the fire. (2) The likelihood of elevator use in evacuation is mainly related to the floor height in which the occupants live, but is not so closely related to the age of the occupants. The proportion of elevator use in evacuation grows dramactically from the 10th to 13th floor. (3) People are likely to choose ‘the route they usually use’ or ‘a safer route’ rather than ‘a closer route’. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Post-earthquake fire risk can be different from other design scenarios because fire protection systems can be non-functional even when a building itself is structurally sound. We have developed a prototype of a seismic-induced fire risk assessment method to evaluate fire risk based on factors such as size and type of buildings, installed fire protection systems, and the intensity of input earthquake motion. This paper describes the outline of the framework and examples of results from a case study applying a tentative simplified model. Results from our study show that sprinkler systems that are designed to be seismically resistant have a significant effect in mitigating fire risk associated with earthquakes.
A computational model that simulates human behavior under fire and earthquake emergencies has been developed, using the object‐oriented language Smalltalk‐80. The present model consists of a space model, a scenario model and a human model. In the space model, the spaces in which people can move are represented by nodes connected by links. The nodes incorporate exit, guidelight and staircase facility data. Also, they feature environmental data including the darkness of the lighting system and the density of smoke. Seismic hazards such as a power failure and occurrence and expansion of fire and smoke are represented in the scenario model. This kind of information is then furnished from the scenario model to the space model as obstruction information. In the human model, a suitable knowledge‐based model has been constructed for representing evacuation behavior: people choose the evacuation path based on the production rules with certainty values, and move to the target exit along the evacuation links. The present simulation model is experimentally applied to examine the behavior which masses of people take in an underground structure under an emergency condition caused by an earthquake, and the results obtained confirm that the model is able to simulate correctly the principal human behavior enacted in an emergency evacuation.
The purpose of this study 重 s to develop a simulation model which is designed to handle both indi −
A remarkable, large 5re occurred in a 20 stories high-rise apartments in 1996 in Hiroshima City. The 5re spread from the 5re origin apartment unit on the 9th 6oor up to the top 20th 6oor, very quickly by external 6ame spread through balconies. The authors investigated the evacuation behaviour of the occupants including reaction to 5re cues, motives for starting evacuation, and choice of evacuation route by means of questionnaire survey and also peer interviews with some of them, focusing on the use of elevators in evacuation by 6oor height and/or age group in this very rare 5re incident. From the investigation, the following results were obtained.(1) Probably due to the experience of many past small 5res, there was a time lag between the perception of 5re and starting the evacuation. Many respondents started their evacuation on the directions of others, not by direct 5re cues such as smoke. Also, the reaction of occupants after the perception of 5re is a4ected by their perception of the seriousness of the 5re.(2) The likelihood of elevator use in evacuation is mainly related to the 6oor height in which the occupants live, but is not so closely related to the age of the occupants. The proportion of elevator use in evacuation grows dramactically from the 10th to 13th 6oor.(3) People are likely to choose 9the route they usually use: or 9a safer route: rather than 9a closer route:.
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