Investigation Of A Behavioural Response Model For Fire Emergency Situations In Secondary Schools

Abstract

Though a large number of studies have been carried out in emergency movement and egress only few have considered evacuation of schools. A model to investigate and simulate the probable behavioural responses during fire related emergency situations has been developed for primary (elementary) and secondary (junior and senior high) schools. As part of this broader research program, a more limited study has been undertaken. The aim of this study is to determine the likelihood of responses by secondary school students to fire alarms and cues. A questionnaire was used and the behaviours were considered in terms of how they changed as a function of a number of variables such as different fire cues and social environment, grade level, gender, previous fire and drill experience. Responses to the questionnaire were analysed to determine the most likely and unlikely behaviours from the model. The results indicate that for adolescents social environment can be the most pertinent variable influencing the decision to initiate risk reducing behaviour. Therefore fire safety training for this age group must include presentation of psychological and social factors (such as the concepts of "pluralistic ignorance" and "diffusion of responsibility") that could influence an individual's behaviour during an emergency.

The Collection Of Pre-Evacuation Times From Evacuation Trials Involving A Hospital Outpatient Area And A University Library Facility

“…However, it has been demonstrated that a proportion of these students (approximately 50%) were willing to evacuate without prompting, whilst the rest required the arrival of a member of staff and/or the cajoling by those around them. This statement implicitly suggests an important relationship with the surrounding population, in both its existence and its willingness to evacuate, as has been suggested in previous work [13]. The application of the current procedure had little impact upon these individuals.…”

“…The development of such modelling techniques is highly dependent upon the availability of data [12]. However, the amount and quality of data generally available is quite limited [2,4,7,[13][14][15][16]. The majority of data is collected during evacuation trials (where the purpose of the examination might be the study of the structural performance) or real incidents (where the data is usually based on anecdotal reports).…”

Design Occupant Groups Concept Applied To Fire Safety Engineering Human Behaviour Studies

“…For example, in a classroom when a teacher is present the detection and pre -movement times would most likely be dictated by the teacher. However, in the absence of a teacher the students become the detection and pre-movement subgroup [3]. To elaborate on the hospital example.…”

The introduction of social adaptation within evacuation modelling

“…Given that the majority of individuals do not evacuate in isolation, their behaviour is conducted, to some degree, in relation to the surrounding crowd. Indeed, the very presence of other people has been shown to affect the likelihood of performing certain actions [17,27,28]. Therefore, although it is acknowledged that a percentage of the population will evacuate independently of and irrespective of the surrounding population, it is not generally the most influential or common behaviour during an evacuation.…”

“…The response to significant others, whether they are members of a social grouping, a respected figure of authority, or an individual who spontaneously joins a social group, is governed by a number of factors including the type of information that might be passed between the two [6], the seriousness with which that information is treated and the likelihood of utilizing that piece of information [6,7] and the possibility of refraining from or engaging in specific actions due to the identity of the population around you [8,28].…”