Guylene Proulx

A stress model for people facing a fire

The safe evacuation of public buildings in an emergency requires the user to engage in rapid and appropriate decision-making under stressful conditions. To illustrate the complexity of the interaction components and the users effort to psychologically cope with a fire, a stress model has been developed. This stress model accounts for different emotional stages users can experience during a fire emergency. The emotional stages of control, uncertainty, fear, worry and confusion are defined. The stress model is used to argue that information must be provided during the emergency to motivate evacuation behaviour, reduce stress and support the decision-making process required in a successful evacuation. Although the stress model was not tested as such, results from an evacuation experiment and a real fire report are used to illustrate the models stages.

Human Behavior in the World Trade Center Evacuation

An explosion below the World Trade Center plaza in New York City on February 26, 1993, killed six workers, and resulted in injuries to over 1,000 occupants as they made their way out of the affected buildings. The explosion and subsequent fne caused extensive structural damage on several basement levels, interfered with the operation of the fire protection and other emergency systems and resulted in the evacuation of tens of thousands of occupants of the complex. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) undertook a research project, funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the General Services Administration, NFPA and NRC, to study the behavior of building occupants in this incident and to document, to the extent possible, those engineering details such as building design, fne safety features, training, and smoke spread, that effected behavior. Over 400 occupants of the two 110-story office towers responded to a survey sent to the approximately 1,600 employees and tenants who were members of the fire safety team. This paper summarizes their responses, compares the responses between the two towers, and summarizes data on response times and initial actions.

Modelling Concepts for the Risk-cost Assessment Model FIRECAMTM and its Application to a Canadian Government Office Building

To support the introduction of performance-based building regulations in Canada in the year 2001, the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) is developing a computer fire riskcost assessment model that can be used to assess both the expected risk to life to the occupants and the expected costs of fire protection and fire losses in a building. The computer model that is being developed at NRC is called FiRECAMTM (Qre Risk Evaluation and Cost Assessment Model). This paper provides a description of the modelling concepts of FiRECAMTM and the results of its application to a six-storey Canadian federal government office building where the existing fire protection systems were being re-evaluated to see how they could be upgraded to meet the current building code requirements. The project was a collaboration between NRC and Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) which owns the building. The objective was to determine whether all the required upgrades were necessary. The results showed that one of the required upgrades, closing the stair vents, was not necessary, meaning a saving of

Effectiveness of a Photoluminescent Wayguidance System

37,000 (Canadian).

Occupant Response Model: A Sub-model For The Nrcc Risk-cost Assessment Model

A field study was conducted in an office building to assess the effectiveness of photoluminescent material to facilitate occupant evacuation. The office buildings four identical stairwells were set with different conditions; one had full lighting, one had reduced lighting, another one had reduced lighting with photoluminescent signs and wayguidance system and one had photoluminescent signs and wayguidance system with no other lighting. Non-informed occupants evacuated through the 4 stairwells. Speed of movement in the four stairwells, recorded using video cameras, showed a similar speed of movement when considering the different density of the 4 stairwells. Of the evacuees who descended the photoluminescent stairwell, with no other lighting, 70% gave a very positive assessment of the system. However, one-third of the evacuees of that stairwell, had some criticisms that could be alleviated by adding more material or increasing the brightness of the material.

Audibility Problems with Fire Alarms in Apartment Buildings

The Occupant Response Model is a sub-model of the Risk-Cost Assessment Model for apartment building being developed at the National Fire Laboratory of the National Research Council of Canada. The Occupant Response Model simulates human response to information indicating the presence of a fire. The perception of the information, interpretation and resulting action is called the PIA process. The PIA process is performed at each state of fire growth obtained from the Fire Growth Model. Interpretation levels have been defined according to the information sources reaching the occupants in the building. Further, the interpretation level introduces a time delay to interpret information and to take actions before the occupants start evacuation. The probabilities of perception of the various types of information depend on the state of fire growth, the occupant location and the actions of other occupants. Calculations are made from the nearest location to the fire to the furthest for three interpretation levels. Each interpretation level determines the delay time before the occupants start to evacuate the building. The model outputs are the probabilities of occupants starting to evacuate at six timeframes before flashover. These values will be used by the Occupant Evacuation Model and the Fire Brigade Action Model, which are parts of the Risk-Cost Assessment Model.

Understanding the Effectiveness of Notification Technologies in Assisting Vulnerable Populations

A previous study of apartment building evacuation drills showed that as many as 25% of the occupants mentioned not hearing the fire alarm from inside their apartments. A new experiment was developed to observe evacuation drills and to measure the sound level of the fire alarms in three high-rise apartment buildings. These buildings, built during the 1980s, met the local building regulations regarding the provision of fire alarms at the time of construction. Each building contained approximately 200 apartments, with 1 to 4 persons per apartment. For each building, the printed fire safety procedures stated that all occupants should leave the building or move to an area of refuge, upon hearing the building fire alarm. During each evacuation drill, video cameras, were located in corridors and staircases, to record the movement time and behaviour of occupants. Using a digital audio tape recorder, precise sound samples of the fire alarm and background noise were taken from different locations in the buildings. Analyses of the alarm sound spectrum and levels were performed. Results confirm the subjective assessment of occupants who mentioned not hearing the fire alarm in specific locations of the building. It was also found that, in some other areas, the alarm was overpowering. The impact of alarm audibility on fire safety is discussed.

Federal Investigation of the Evacuation of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Different sections of the general population were examined to establish two criteria: whether they were particularly vulnerable to death in fire incidents; and whether these vulnerabilities could be reduced through developing and/or applying specific notification technologies. This study was conducted in order to establish where there were omissions in our current understanding and where this coincided with technological solutions of particular interest. An approach was developed to identify vulnerabilities and prioritize them in order to focus future research. The approach adopted was able to achieve this goal. The suggested research was then conducted and allowed guidance to be developed regarding the use of different notification technologies. This article describes the development of this analytical framework and the analysis of some of the results produced.

The Station Nightclub Fire - An Analysis of Witness Statements

This paper presents the findings of the NIST World Trade Center Investigation describing the occupant evacuation of WTC 1 and WTC 2 on September 11, 2001. The egress system, including stairwells and elevators, is described along with the evacuation procedures. The population in WTC 1 and WTC 2 on September 11, 2001 at 8:46 a.m. is enumerated and described, where the background of the population was relevant to the subsequent evacuation, including training, experience, mobility status, among others. The progress of the evacuation of both towers is described in a quasi-chronological manner. A decedent analysis explores where occupants were located when each tower was attacked. Multiple regression models were built to explore the sources of evacuation initiation delay (why people did not immediately start to leave the building), as well as stairwell evacuation time (how long the average occupant spent in the stairwells per floor). Issues identified as contributing to either slowing or aiding the evacuation process were explored. Egress simulations provided context for estimating how long WTC 1 and WTC 2 would have taken to evacuate with different populations, using three different models, and subject to different assumptions of damage to the building.

Evacuation Movement in Photoluminescent Stairwells

Pyrotechnic devices activated in a small nightclub ignited a fire that killed 100 people and injured at least 200 others in February, 2003. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the National Research Council of Canada (NRCC) undertook a research project to study the behavior of building occupants in this incident as they evacuated the building. The analysis was based on a content analysis of witness statements collected by various police agencies after the fire. Statements were available from 355 survivors present in the building at the time of the fire. This paper summarizes their reactions and responses, exit route choices and travel paths.