Methodology to validate the "faster is slower" concept

IFireSS – International Fire Safety Symposium Coimbra, Portugal, 20th-23rd April 201

Egress from a hospital ward during fire emergency

There are many issues in a hospital evacuation, related both to conditions of the patients and to building complexity. Moreover, as consequences of fire, there may be delays in surgeries and medical diagnosis, or interruption in treatment for both inpatient and outpatient. This work identifies and assesses problems that arise in the egress from the ward located at third floor of the Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital of Rome, using a simulation software. Moreover, we perform a comparison between simulation results and experimental results by means of a real fire drill. We have considered a maximum of 116 people in the ward to its maximum capacity. We have created three different fire scenarios: fire in the electrical room, in the kitchen room and in a patient room. The time needed to evacuate fully the ward was far behind the fire resistance time of the structures. More than that, there was an overcrowded area in the ward that acted as a bottleneck: the so-called “smoke proof filter”; this area is intended to separates the two near wards and, although built according to the Italian fire department regulation, it holds back people and beds

EVACUAÇÃO DE MULTIDÕES EM SITUAÇÃO DE EMERGÊNCIA

Existem vários tipos de eventos que podendo ser de caracter social, recreativo, desportivo, político ou religioso reúnem num determinado local um grande número de pessoas. O comportamento das pessoas nestes locais é consideravelmente diferente, em especial quando ocorre um incidente crítico. A evacuação de locais com uma grande concentração de público tem sido objeto de diversos estudos, procurando compreender a dinâmica das pessoas de forma a prever o seu comportamento em emergência, mais especificamente, no que diz respeito à análise do risco. Identificar os pontos críticos e onde podem ocorrer desastres é crucial na gestão de emergência, pelo que os modelos existentes têm possibilitado a compreensão de fenómenos associados à evacuação. Este artigo baseia-se numa revisão de literatura, pretendendo melhorar a compreensão dos fenómenos associados ao processo de evacuação em reuniões de massas, destacando algumas lacunas de pesquisa no contexto da segurança.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Reuniões de massas - Fenómenos e modelos de evacuação

Reuniões em massa, fazem parte do dia a dia e podem ocorrer em diferentes lugares, dependendo das especificidades do evento. Devido à baixa perceção de risco as pessoas tendem a subestimar a probabilidade de ocorrência de um desastre e as suas consequências negativas, no entanto a história mundial evidência que os tumultos nestas reuniões ocorrem frequentemente, sendo necessário estudar o comportamento da multidão. Este pressuposto permitiu desenvolver um trabalho de pesquisa através de revisão de literatura, analisando de forma abrangente os estudos existentes. A evacuação em larga escala é uma medida eficaz para mitigar o risco numa emergência, no entanto, sob a perspetiva da segurança apresenta um conjunto de desafios devido ao comportamento psicomotor do individuo interferir em todo o processo. Depois de décadas de modelos teóricos e onde a evacuação se limitava à análise prévia da arquitetura do espaço e ao número de sobreviventes, a simulação computacional tornou-se uma ferramenta padrão para planear e avaliar a evacuação de multidões, no entanto, muitos modelos são estruturalmente diferentes e poucos foram rigorosamente testados. A grande vantagem é a antevisão de diversos cenários, sem colocar em risco os indivíduos, verifica-se, no entanto, que reproduzir emoções, comportamentos experiências e conhecimentos é muito difícil.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Investigation of Pre-evacuation and Wayfinding Behaviors Impacts using Agent-Based Simulation for Smart Evacuation Technology.

Despite significant safety improvements, the mining industry remains one of the most hazardous occupations globally and the evacuation of Miners, when an uncontrollable incident occurs in the mine, is the best bet to saving lives. However, Human factors/behaviors during an emergency are likely to influence the evacuation performance. Other industries have made a significant effort to determine these human factors that can impede evacuation performance, however, the current state-of-the-art in mine evacuation or self-rescue is that the evacuation route is predetermined, and a static sign is used to direct miners to the predetermined safe location. This method is limited in representing actual conditions that arise in a real emergency, neglecting the different behaviors displayed by humans. As optimization of the evacuation of a mine plays a fundamental role in emergencies and modelling evacuation behavior and movement of miners is a complex task, this research utilized Agent-Based simulations to simulate the evacuation behavior and performance. It was observed that people with the smart evacuation device made evacuated faster than the passive signage scenario and chaotic scenario. It is imperative to consider the impact of pre-evacuation and wayfinding behavior of people when designing the evacuation protocols

Human factors investigation of the behavioural response to cues of a fire emergency

Safety is a significant priority in the contemporary building environment and a focus for many organisations and businesses. Studies have been conducted to review different factors regarding human behaviour during fire evacuation and to utilize the findings to model improved egress procedures and to train occupants on how to evacuate safely. However, much is still unknown about the processes of perceiving and responding to an emergency when cues from different information sources conflict. For example, when a fire evacuation warning has been issued, but the conditions in the area appear to be fine, some of the building occupants may have uncertainty about the correct action to take. There are several cues to an emergency, and some of these may not lead to optimum behaviour. For example, prior research has shown that, in cases where there has been a prevalence of nuisance alarms such as false alarms, occupants may not take action when a real fire alarm is sounded (Proulx, 2007). Moreover, cues to an emergency are often ambiguous and may not be immediately perceived as a threat. This research was conducted to understand the human responses to cues of an emergency in greater detail. It was based on the Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) (Lindell & Perry, 2012), which outlines the research framework conducted within this PhD. PADM provides a formal model of human behaviour during an emergency. Still, it should be expanded into a more comprehensive method of predicting how people behave in a fire or an evacuation (Kuligowski, 2013). The PADM model identifies several stages in the process of emergency detection and response. The first stage defines several factors that influence awareness of a fire scenario; environmental and social contexts, information sources, warning messages, channel access, and receiver characteristics. This PhD conducted a series of experimental studies to identify the influence of some of these factors on user response to fire alarm cues. The research also compared the use of different research methods, specifically, scenario talk through and virtual reality (VR) simulation, to evaluate user behaviour in response to a fire alarm. Four studies have been conducted: the first extended the talk-through method previously used by Lawson et al. (2013) by adding the influence of social cues to the fire scenario. The second study presented the same fire scenario and influence of social cues as study 1, using VR. The pattern of results was consistent with previous literature in that passive behaviour of others resulted in longer evacuation times for the participants. Thus, these methods can reveal the influence of social behaviour on predicting human responses to an emergency. Study three extended the VR scenario to include other factors from stage one of the PADM model. These factors include the source of information during an emergency, the content of the information, and the recipient's characteristics. Therefore, the source of information, level of details, and information channels were all identified as significant in emergencies such as fire evacuations. Finally, the fourth study was conducted to understand the effects of social cues (passive or active conflict) on an authority figure or siren in the evacuation process. Again, three groups were identified and exposed to three different messages in a virtual environment. Results showed that an authority figure in an active conflict situation showed a significant reduction in the evacuation times. Thus, this thesis will show that understanding behavioural response to fire emergency cues has potential value in predicting human behaviour in a fire emergency

Human factors investigation of the behavioural response to cues of a fire emergency

Safety is a significant priority in the contemporary building environment and a focus for many organisations and businesses. Studies have been conducted to review different factors regarding human behaviour during fire evacuation and to utilize the findings to model improved egress procedures and to train occupants on how to evacuate safely. However, much is still unknown about the processes of perceiving and responding to an emergency when cues from different information sources conflict. For example, when a fire evacuation warning has been issued, but the conditions in the area appear to be fine, some of the building occupants may have uncertainty about the correct action to take. There are several cues to an emergency, and some of these may not lead to optimum behaviour. For example, prior research has shown that, in cases where there has been a prevalence of nuisance alarms such as false alarms, occupants may not take action when a real fire alarm is sounded (Proulx, 2007). Moreover, cues to an emergency are often ambiguous and may not be immediately perceived as a threat. This research was conducted to understand the human responses to cues of an emergency in greater detail. It was based on the Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) (Lindell & Perry, 2012), which outlines the research framework conducted within this PhD. PADM provides a formal model of human behaviour during an emergency. Still, it should be expanded into a more comprehensive method of predicting how people behave in a fire or an evacuation (Kuligowski, 2013). The PADM model identifies several stages in the process of emergency detection and response. The first stage defines several factors that influence awareness of a fire scenario; environmental and social contexts, information sources, warning messages, channel access, and receiver characteristics. This PhD conducted a series of experimental studies to identify the influence of some of these factors on user response to fire alarm cues. The research also compared the use of different research methods, specifically, scenario talk through and virtual reality (VR) simulation, to evaluate user behaviour in response to a fire alarm. Four studies have been conducted: the first extended the talk-through method previously used by Lawson et al. (2013) by adding the influence of social cues to the fire scenario. The second study presented the same fire scenario and influence of social cues as study 1, using VR. The pattern of results was consistent with previous literature in that passive behaviour of others resulted in longer evacuation times for the participants. Thus, these methods can reveal the influence of social behaviour on predicting human responses to an emergency. Study three extended the VR scenario to include other factors from stage one of the PADM model. These factors include the source of information during an emergency, the content of the information, and the recipient's characteristics. Therefore, the source of information, level of details, and information channels were all identified as significant in emergencies such as fire evacuations. Finally, the fourth study was conducted to understand the effects of social cues (passive or active conflict) on an authority figure or siren in the evacuation process. Again, three groups were identified and exposed to three different messages in a virtual environment. Results showed that an authority figure in an active conflict situation showed a significant reduction in the evacuation times. Thus, this thesis will show that understanding behavioural response to fire emergency cues has potential value in predicting human behaviour in a fire emergency