A11100 115516

a*. NBSIR 81-2438

Vb^atIONs

Human Behavior and Fire

j Emergencies: An Annotated

Bibliography

December 1 981

Sponsored by

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Bureau of Standards

Center for Fire Research

Washington, DC 20234

and

Cr

100

. U56

U.S. Department of Health

and Human Services

Washington, DC 20201

81-2438

1981

c. 2

FEB 1 0 1982

NBSIR 81-2438 n

HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND FIRE

EMERGENCIES: AN ANNOTATED

BIBLIOGRAPHY

R. L. Paulsen

December 1 981

Sponsored by

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Bureau of Standards

Center for Fire Research

Washington, DC 20234

and

U.S. Department of Health

and Human Services

Washington, DC 20201

2

< C o

o*3

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, Malcolm Baldrige, Secretary

NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS. Ernest Ambler. Director
.V *"535©*

SE« t 821
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to extend my sincere appreciation

to Mr. Harold Nelson of the National Bureau

of Standards Center for Fire Research (CFR)

for his many helpful suggestions and enthusiastic support of this work. I am also indebted

to Ms. Nora Jason of the CFR Information

Services for her guidance in editorial matters

and with regard to bibliographic format. I wish to particularly thank Dr. Bernard Levin

of CFR for his assistance in the selection of

references and his explanations and interpretations regarding the technical content of

references

.

ii

PREFACE

This report is a product of a joint effort of the Department of Health

and Human Services (HHS) and the National Bureau of Standards (NBS)

Center for Fire Research. The program is a continuing activity initiated

in 1975. It consists of projects in the areas of: decision analysis,

fire and smoke detection, smoke movement and control, automatic extinguishment, and behavior of institutional and other populations in fire situations.

Many of the National Bureau of Standards' reports referenced in this

bibliography were also produced as a part of this joint effort with the

Department of Health and Human Services.

This bibliography contains an extensive, though by no means exhaustive,

annotated listing of references pertaining to human behavior and fires.

The scope is broad: the references cover the full range of behavioral

responses through the different stages of a fire emergency in the context

of a variety of occupancy settings. Many research approaches are represented, e.g., case studies of individual incidents, survey studies of

large numbers of incidents, theoretical analyses and representations of

the fire situation, computer models, literature surveys, and psychological

studies of selected populations.

Many of the references in this annotated bibliography are also contained

in the report, NBS GCR 78-138, "Human Behavior in Fire - a Bibliography,"

entry number 16 in this bibliography. My appreciation is extended to

Dr. John Bryan of the University of Maryland for this valuable source of

references

.

Although not a publication and therefore not listed in this bibliography,

I would like to call to the reader's attention another important product

of the joint HHS/NBS effort in the field of fire and life safety—the

film "Flashover: Point of No Return." This 12-minute training film

explains the important concept of flashover and illustrates appropriate

behaviors for staff in health care institutions during fire emergencies.

Information on obtaining this presentation is contained in the "Ordering

Information" section of this report.

The reader should also be aware that Mr. Jake Pauls of the National

Research Council of Canada is currently preparing an extensive review of

the literature on evacuation. It may be distributed formally as a Building Research Note of the Division of Building Research/National

Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Canada K1A 0R6. This review is

scheduled to be ready for the November 1981 International Life Safety

and Egress Seminar which Dr. John Bryan is hosting at the University of

Maryland

.

A comprehensive, up-to-date bibliography is an important aid to other

researchers, particularly in a new and developing field such as human

behavior and fires. Knowledge of behavior in response to fires can

be of assistance in the development of effective fire safety emergency

plans and training programs, and in the choice of appropriate facility

design and fire safety hardware.

iii
XV
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract . 1

Introduction 3

Topical Index....... 21

Author Index 23

Annotations 25

Ordering Information 128

v
vi
Abstract

This report contains an annotated listing of 161

selected references pertaining to human behavior and

fire emergencies. The scope is broad: the references

cover the full range of behavioral responses through

the different stages of a fire emergency in the context

of a variety of occupancy settings. Health care institutions are the most frequently represented occupancy

type. Many research approaches are included; e.g., case studies of individual incidents, survey studies of

large numbers of incidents, theoretical analyses and

representations of the fire situation, computer models,

literature surveys, and psychological studies of

selected populations. The work of researchers from

many nations, including the United States, Canada,

Great Britain, Japan, West Germany, France, Belgium,

and the U.S.S.R., is referenced. Annotations for

papers from the first two international conferences

on human behavior in fires (March 1977 and October 1978)

are contained in this bibliography. There is a topical index to provide the reader with a preliminary

guide to those references regarding a particular

occupancy type, research approach, design feature,

or category of behavioral response. An introductory

essay provides an overview of the field of human

behavior and fires and develops some common themes

found in the literature.

1
2
HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND FIRES:

AN INTRODUCTION

The study of human response and capabilities in fire emergencies is

an essential part of a total, systematic, assault on the problem of fire

fatalities and losses in all types of occupancies. On the negative

side, there is the human factor in ignition of unwanted fire, whether

1

through intent or carelessness, and the role of people in exacerbating

a situation through generally inappropriate actions, or actions which

undermine the effectiveness of the installed fire safety systems. From

a positive viewpoint, human capabilities can be utilized, to a degree,

to enhance installed fire safety systems or compensate for shortcomings

in such systems.

The study of human behavior and fires is still in its infancy,

although in the 1970's, beginning with the Wood study completed in 1972,

there was an intensification of interest and effort, with some major,

systematic studies and numerous smaller ones subsequently being carried

out. This area of scientific study is beset by methodological problems

2 experimental subjects obviously cannot be placed in real fire situations,

3

after-the-fact testimony from participants in fires may contain errors,

and where samples are limited or not representative, conclusions must be

1

Improper use of cigarettes and alcohol, and the prevalence of arson are particularly significant. See references: 8, 78, and those listed in

the index under "f iresetters .

2

A reference of interest here is 108; also see references listed in the

index under "experimental studies."

3

A reference of interest here is 119.

3
drawn cautiously. Nevertheless, there is considerable consensus among

researchers concerning certain recurrent themes which have emerged from

these, studies. The central perspective on human behavior in fires which

researchers have developed can be stated as follows: Despite the highly

stressful environment, people generally respond to emergencies in a

’rational , " often altruistic manner, in so far as is possible within the

constraints imposed on their knowledge, perceptions, and actions by the

effects of the fire. In short, "instinctive,' 1 "panic" type reactions

are net the norm. The historic emphasis in the press and regulatory

literature on the likelihood of "instinctive" or "panic" reactions is

1

inaccurate and counterproductive. The serious researcher might cringe

2

at such dramatic headlines in the popular press as "Panic Kills 300" or

3 "...when confronted by a blaze, most people behave pretty foolishly..."

Such attention-getters are either erroneous or, at best, oversimplifications.

Approaches

Researchers have turned their attention to the whole range of

behaviors exhibited by persons in fires, from their first awareness of

a possible problem through completion of the evacuation process. The

bulk of the data has been obtained through studies of actual fire

1

For examples, see reference 125, pp. 64-71.

2a British newspaper headline regarding the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire,

from reference 125

3

from Parade, the Sunday Newspaper Magazine, February 10, 1980

4
incidents. In-depth case studies of individual incidents have been

conducted as well as statistical, summary studies of large numbers of

incidents. There has been a progression from largely descriptive studies

what was done, how often, by whom, in what order—to more complex analytical

studies which attempt to extract typical behavior patterns or relate

1 both behavior and fire development in a time sequence. Relating behavioral

actions to a time frame is particularly important, since the appropriateness

of an act such as "fighting the fire" is critically related to the stage

of fire development at which it occurs. (38, p.132; 148, p.90) The

whole behavioral process is taking place as the fire itself may be

rapidly developing, and "what is an appropriate action at one stage may

be quite inappropriate a minute later." (109, p.37)

A further direction which research can take (with implications for

training and education), suggested by such researchers as Wood, Keating,

and Bryan, is the exploration of the reasoning and motivation behind a

participant's choice from among the alternative actions available to

him. Why did he choose to perform a given act first, and how did the

outcome of his actions match his expectations?

Much attention has been directed toward identifying sequences of

actions followed by those involved in fires. Unfortunately, it is not

as simple to prescribe the appropriate sequence of actions to follow in

a fire emergency, as it is to specify a step-by-step procedure as, for

example, in the assemblage of a piece of electronic equipment.

1

For a description of the latter technique, see Lerup references 85 and 88.

Bryan has used this technique in an extensive series of case studies of

health care facility fires. In particular, see reference 27.

5
Letup states the point strongly: "There are at present no official

strategies for life safety that can stipulate a correct sequence of

actions to follow. ..the physical environment cannot be designed to

literally reflect a specified sequence of actions. . .no two fires are

alike..." (86, pp.155, 156) Canter similarly makes this point. (36,

p.5) Bickman, in his study of the effectiveness of training of nursing

home staff on knowledge of appropriate behavior in fire, (70) encountered

the difficulty with sequence of actions when quizzing staff on the

selection of first and second actions to be performed in case of emergency.

The plan of the nursing home under study contained contradictory instructions--at one point staff were instructed to remove residents from the

fire area and then pull the alarm, while further down the same page

exactly opposite instructions were written. Bickman concludes that the

decision of which action to perform first might be regarded as being

"situationally-bound , " that is, dependent on the severity of the fire,

number of patients in immediate danger, distance to a pull alarm box,

and so forth.

There are, nonetheless, some simple, critically important directives

which are generally applicable to fire emergencies: for example, response

to alarms should be immediate and appropriate (without time being wasted

seeking verification of the existence of a fire); the occupant should

not attempt to fight any but very small, contained fires; the door to

the room of fire origin should be closed immediately after all persons

have left; and rooms (or buildings) should not be reentered during the

course of a fire to retrieve possessions. In the case of a health care

institution, frequently more then one staff member is close by, so that

while one staff member is evacuating the immediately endangered patient

another can be pulling the alarm, closing other doors, etc. In many

instances, automatic detection devices will have sounded the alarm.

6
People and Design

Exit systems

This bibliography contains numerous descriptions and analyses of

the evacuation process. The initial physical science "carrying capacity"

approach to egress assumes that occupants respond immediately to an

emergency (like water or gas particles) and are affected only by spatial

configuration and density during the actual evacuation process. The

"human response" school of research also considers the influence on

evacuation time of such human factors as decision-making in an ambiguous

situation or organizational factors such as the presence of trained

supervisors or communications systems. (133) Stahl’s computer simulations

of egress behavior in building fires are notable for their incorporation

of human interaction and decision-making variables. (127-129)

Behavioral research has shown that it is erroneous to assume that

behavior in fires is a simple process largely controlled by exit and

alarm systems. (109) From his observations of large scale evacuations

of high-rise office buildings, Pauls concluded that an exit that is not

normally used will carry significantly fewer people in an evacuation.

Codes currently credit exit capacity to stairs regardless of their

normal use. Pauls' work is perhaps best known for exposing problems in

the traditional 22-inch unit-exit-width basis for exit rules. (106) He

asserts that "even in simple, total evacuation drills, evacuation times

have been observed to be as much as twice as long as had previously been

predicted" and "Given. .. improved awareness of the complexity of behavior

in fires, we should think of evacuation time predictions-even those

based on realistic conservative flow assumptions-as minimums and not

maximums, as is sometimes argued." (109, p. 39)

7
In one nursing home fire, perimeter stairs not normally used by

residents were not used by staff to evacuate residents in a fire emergency,

even though their use in the emergency would have been most appropriate.

Rather, a center stairway was used, although it meant that most residents

were moving toward the fire, A security alarm had been set off often in

the past by residents who had attempted to leave through the perimeter

exits, and some residents who were caught using these exits had been

scolded. (51)

One possible explanation for the tendency to use habitual routes during

emergency evacuations may be found in the psychological research on fear

and stress: "...under heightened anxiety, people’s attention becomes narrowly focused; they are aware of only the most obvious aspects of their environment. Peripheral cues, which are usually easily processed, remain unobserved."

(79a, p. 19)

Alarms

The question of the effectiveness of alarms is dealt with frequently

in this bibliography, either directly and exclusively as in accounts of

experimental studies or as a part of fire incident case studies. Whether

or not an alarm will awaken a person is dependent on more than just the

noise level of the alarm or its noise level in relation to ambient

noises. Sounds that have "meaning" for the sleeping person are more

likely to awaken him. Not only do individuals differ from one another

as to the noise level necessary for awakening, but a given individual

will require different levels at different times depending upon such

conditions as sleep stage, time of night, or medication. (10, 103, 111)

The frequency of false alarms, the possible ambiguity of meaning of

the alarm, and the tendency for people to look for confirming evidence

8
of a fire rather than to immediately evacuate are all factors which tend

to determine the effectiveness of alarms in producing prompt evacuation.

Several references are interesting in these regards, (e.g., 15, 38, 51,

87, 119)

Area of refuge

There is a general consensus among several researchers who have

concerned themselves with high-rise occupancies that simple alarm

systems are not adequate for many such occupancies. Total evacuation

within a reasonable amount of time is not a feasible option. Comparatively

complex voice communications systems have been instituted in some of

these buildings so that partial, selective evacuations might be conducted.

(56, 93, 108) This raises the interesting question of how willing

people will be to wait their turn to evacuate or simply remain in a

"safe area" once they are aware of the existence of a fire emergency.

The fire in the World Trade Center on April 17, 1975, demonstrated that

even though reassurances are provided through a public address system,

it may still be difficult to convince people they are not in danger when

they see an obvious problem such as smoke. In this case, a small trash

fire in the fifth floor resulted in the evacuation of the 9th through

the 22nd floor because of occupants’ concern over smoke. The fire

safety director had initially urged people to return to their offices;

when it became obvious they were not going to do so, he ordered the

evacuation. (83)

One aspect of partial, selective evacuations which could prove

difficult is the condition where people working on the floor above a

fire might be asked to go up a flight to prevent them from clogging

narrow stairwells leading from the fire floor. It is to be expected

that most people would want to go down stairs and leave the building .

9
However, Keating, Loftus, and Groner found in several buildings that

there were no instances during test drills when people failed to follow

the somewhat counterinstinctive direction to go up stairways, although

several occupants were to question the sense of this directive. (92)

(The occupants could not be certain that this was only a test.)

In large buildings without voice communications systems, occupants

may be forced themselves to choose between using their living units as

areas of refuge or attempting to evacuate. References with relevance

here include: 21, 83, 89.

A recent trend has been to provide increased access to public

buildings to the physically handicapped. The elevators used to provide

access for these individuals under normal conditions commonly are not

designed to be used in the event of a fire emergency. Thus there are

increasing recommendations to establish adequate areas of refuge in

these buildings. It will be necessary to inspire confidence in the

adequacy of such areas."*'

Panic

Probably no word has been used more commonly than panic to refer to

2 behavior in fire, nor has any word been more tantalizing or frustrating

1

See reference 89 for a major reference on fire safety and the handicapped.

This publication is a product of a Conference on Fire and Life Safety for

the Handicapped held at the National Bureau of Standards on November 26-29, 1979.

2Why the popularity of the notion of panic as a cause of fire deaths? Keating

and Loftus mention one possible explanation which may be found in a theory

of social psychology. Attribution theory suggests that "when the failures

of others threaten the stability and predictability of our own world, we try

to distance those failures from ourselves. Thus we tend to dismiss accidental fire deaths as the victims' fault: they panicked, but we would not..."

"we often want to believe that the dead or injured were victims of their own maladaptive or panic behavior." (79a, p. 14)

10
to the behavioral researcher. The basic problem lies in the diffusion

of meaning of the word. It has been used at various times to refer to

emotion and/or action; to flight behavior alone, or to jumping or immobility

reactions; to the initial reaction of an individual to a fire situation,

or to the "stampede" of a crowd as smoke and flames rush into a room

with inadequate or blocked exits. Panic can refer to actions which

might be labelled maladaptive or adaptive, rational or irrational,

depending upon the outcome of the actions or whose survival is being

considered. With this complexity in mind, Quarantelli, as chairman of a

panel on panic at an international seminar on behavior in fires, posed

the following question to the assembled panel of experts: Do you see

the concept of panic as a useful one for scientific purposes? (115)

The feeling of the panel was that the concept was exceedingly troublesome,

but its use inescapable due to the long tradition of use and its frequent

appearance in press accounts.

Behavioral scientists can take a nonscientif ic word like panic and

attempt to attach an operational definition to it for study purposes.

But even here there are intricacies as, when one attempts to attach

modifying words, like "irrational" or "maladaptive" to actions like

"flight." What may seem like "irrational" behavior from the point of

view of an outside observer (with his hindsight and access to more

complete knowledge of the total situation) may have been rational behavior

from the point of view of the participant (98, 125); what is 'maladaptive''

for the welfare of the group (with the goal of saving the greatest

number possible) may be adaptive for a given individual. Movement

within a burning building against the press of an exiting crowd by a

parent attempting to find a child is adaptive from the parent’s viewpoint,

but not for the group of people trying to get out.

11
Should the behavior of the two students who jumped from fifth floor

dormitory windows, receiving serious injuries, be labelled as "panic?”

(30) Note that both of these individuals before jumping had experienced

unsuccessful evacuation attempts, receiving burns in the process.

The Beverly Hills Supper Club fire in Southgate, Kentucky on

May 28, 1977, in which 165 people died, is a case where a superficial

look might lead one to ascribe many fatalities to panic. Sime quotes a

British newspaper report with the headline "Panic Kills 300." (125, p.63)

Contrary to this, researchers agree that panic, in the sense of aggressive

behavior which would add to the danger to self and others presented by

1

the fire itself, did not occur. Rather "it seems reasonable to conclude

that there was a maximum of altruistic behavior." (137, p.74) The

essential behavioral problem lay in failure to appreciate the seriousness of the situation soon enough—there was a false sense of security

felt by the fact that the Cabaret Room where most of the patrons were

located was a long way from the room of fire origin. "Hence fire safety

education should consider people’s erroneous conceptions about distance

being related to safety and the time needed to escape from a fire emergency.

(137, p.108) Some patrons initially regarded the busboy’s announcement

of fire from the stage as a part of the comedy routine.

Sime maintains that "Research of fires shows that people need

sufficient information about a fire before they can or are prepared to

leave a building. There is growing evidence that the delay in warning

people in a number of major fires has been a primary reason why people

1 Bryan asserts that the existing physical evidence of human behavior after

a fire when carefully examined can provide indications of adaptive or non-adaptive actions. In the panel discussion on panic at the Second

International Seminar on Behavior in Fires, he pointed out that most of

the bodies from the Beverly Hills fire were not bruised, did not have cloth

ing torn off, did not have cuts...

12
have been unable to escape in time. An emphasis on avoiding ’panic’

contributes to delays." (126, p.214) Any hesitation to inform people of

a potentially dangerous situation out of fear of causing panic may

ironically lead to a situation in which panic (i.e., rapid, mass competitive flight) must inevitably occur.

A better focus of concern would be what might be considered the

reverse of panic—inaction, denial, a fear of appearing foolish by

overreacting, the need to investigate before leaving a burning building,

re-entry of it, or persistence in fighting a fire too large to control

rather than promptly leaving. The Wood and Bryan surveys (147, 19)

revealed considerable re-entry behavior. In Scanlon’s study (119),

people re-entered an apartment building to get possessions after reaching

safety even after having seen smoke and flames while outside in the

/ courtyard. The classic experimental studies of Latane and Darley (82)

are interesting in that they indicated that the presence of others

lessens the chances of an individual reacting promptly to a potential

emergency. Male undergraduate subjects found themselves in a smokefilling room. When alone, 75% of the subjects reported the smoke. In

the presence of two nonreacting others (confederates of the experimenters)

only 10% of the subjects reported the smoke during the experimental

period

.

Behavioral Tendencies

One strong pattern identified by the literature is the tendency of

people in fires to do the familiar: they use familiar exits; they

assume familiar roles.

Swartz found evidence in his behavioral study of the Beverly Hills

fire that the people involved continued to fulfill the roles they had

13
prior to the fire. In that fire, the staff consistently took actions to

assist patrons, whereas patrons followed or took a more passive role.

Staff members took care of the patrons they would normally serve. Thus

Swartz concludes that "firesafety plans for places of public assembly

should examine the roles that people normally play, and not seek to

prescribe emergency actions that are contrary to these roles." (137,

p .108)

Bryan's extensive study of nursing home fire incidents (27) showed

that nursing staff perform in accordance with their role of responsibility

for patients even when at some risk to themselves.

Behaviors in accordance with traditional male/female roles have

been identified by several researchers. For example, a University of

Surrey study (38, pp.120, 122) found that the "variability of the actions

which follow the encountering of the smoke and fire itself is explained

by male/female differences. Females are more likely to warn others and

wait for further instruction (for example, if husband and wife are both

present). Alternatively they will close the door to the room of fire

origin and leave the house. In both cases, females are more likely to

seek assistance from neighbours. Male occupants are most likely to

attempt to fight the fire. Male neighbours are more likely to search

for people in smoke and attempt a rescue." The Wood study (148) revealed

sex differences—women were again more likely to warn others and evacuate

the family while men were more likely to attempt firefighting. Conventional sex role behavior was also found in the Bryan (19) , Keating and

Loftus (79a), and Kobayashi and Horiuchi (81) studies.

Another strong behavioral pattern identified is the tendency of

people to seek verification of fire cues (both those which are characteristics

of the fire, and alarms) before evacuating. There is also the problem

of non-response due to negative conditioning by false alarms. Some of

the relevant references here are: (15, 38, 51, 87, 119).

14
Decision-making

With very limited time available in which to decide on a course of

action, people involved in fires often face difficult decisions:

intellectually difficult in the context of limited knowledge of the

engineered safety or of the basic configuration of the occupied structure

or limited knowledge of the development of the fire itself; difficult

due to the sometimes counter-instinctive nature of the correct response;

or difficult due to the fact that some additional risk to one’s self is

incurred by a decision to alert or assist others. Further complicating

matters is the possible negative physiological/psychological effects of

toxic gases or oxygen deprivation even before these factors produce

severe physical symptoms. (58, 112, 134a)

In an Illinois nursing home experimental study (70), it was found

that staff were resistant to accepting the concept that ambulatory

patients should be evacuated first. A group which received training on

the home’s fire emergency plan scored significantly better than a control

group on test items regarding simple factual information relevant to

fire safety, but no significant difference was found between the training

and no-training groups with regard to the question of whether to evacuate

ambulatory or non-ambulatory patients first. A majority of both groups

incorrectly indicated that non-ambulatory patients should be evacuated

first. The experimenters concluded that, in instances like this, where

there are strong erroneous preconceptions regarding appropriate behavior

in fire, more thorough training methods, including simple explanations

of why such beliefs are in error, are needed.

Nursing staff in a Mississauga, Ontario nursing home fire (49a),

which resulted in 25 patient deaths, were faced with the problem of

15
trying to save a patient in the room of fire origin. When the nurse

arrived at this room, several items, including the bed and chair, were

on fire. She could not enter the room, but was aware of the patient

still in there, lying on the floor moaning. She closed the door and

reportedly went to get wet sheets and blankets to attempt to remove the

patient. A supervisor returned to the room, reopened the door, but

unfortunately was unable to close it again due to the great volume of

fire and smoke.

The degree of altruism and capability exhibited by people in some

of the case studies is perhaps surprising. Some cases in point: the

behavior of the nurse’s aide in the St. Joseph's Hospital fire (24), the

evacuation assistance rendered by a resident of the Taylor House to

another blind resident (29), and the instances of occupants assisting

other less able occupants in the Georgian Towers apartment fire (21).

Summary

Research directions and preliminary findings

This introduction has served to acquaint the reader with the broad

range of research done in the area of human behavior and fires, to give

an overview of human response patterns to various fire safety design

features, and to, wherever possible, point out some areas where various

researchers have arrived at similar findings regarding behavioral tendencies

in response to fire emergencies.

'Panic" behavior has been singled out for special attention.

Whether or not "panic" occurred in a given situation to some extent

seems to depend upon the definition one assigns to panic. However, the

16
concept of panic is too prevalent and too important to be dismissed

merely as a semantic matter. Panic is no doubt the behavior most commonly

associated with fire emergencies by the public in general and historically

by those with professional interests in fire safety. Institutional fire

safety plans and general safety guidelines to the public routinely and

repeatedly warn against panic.

Researchers now tend to discount the importance of panic as a

factor which adds to the injuries or loss of life which would result

from the fire itself. |*An early research study (20) is interesting in

that panic behavior is an assumption, not a condition to be defined or

verifiedTj It is important to distinguish between panic, as an emotion,

and panic, as an action with aggressive, maladaptive, or irrational

components. People naturally feel strong anxiety in a fire emergency,

but this strong emotion does not necessarily preclude appropriate life1

saving actions.

The consensus among diaster researchers at the human behavior in

fires conference in 1978 was that the popular belief in the widespread

prevalence of panic in disasters in general is a "myth." Some caution

is perhaps in order, as Black pointed out during the discussions, when

generalizing this downgrading of the importance of panic reactions in

disasters to fire emergencies. Because of the extremely limited time

for reaction and the possibility of sensory deprivation, fires may

present a special category of disaster.

Although evidence of panic reactions should continue to be looked

for by fire investigators and researchers, it has been suggested that

1 Reference no. 74 provides an interesting theoretical analysis of the possible

relationship between anxiety and appropriate behavioral action.

17
more attention to other potentially harmful behaviors such as failure to

respond to alarms or re-entry of a burning building may prove more

useful

.

Decision-making during the various stages of a fire emergency can

present a severe challenge to the participants. Since every situation

is somewhat different, successful coping with a fire emergency can

demand more of the participant than following a set of previously memorized

correct actions. It has been suggested that analysis of the decisionmaking process, based on in-depth interviews with participants, is one

direction which might be emphasized in future research.

Prediction and risk

An important goal of behavioral research is to understand the

capabilities of people in fires and to be able to predict their likely

reactions in emergencies. The extent to which human behavior is predictable

(even with improved knowledge) is still an open question. Since human

response in a fire emergency tends to be difficult to predict (individuals

vary from one another and also a given individual's performance may vary

with the time and setting) , it can be argued that an ideal system of

fire safety might be one in which there was no dependence on human

response, and the approach could be classified as "idiot proof." In a

practical sense, however, there is no safety system that cannot be

enhanced by appropriate human actions or defeated by inappropriate

actions. To some degree, human response can compensate for shortcomings

in the physical safety of the environment and vice versa. Each, however,

has an area of participation in overall safety that is not interchangeable

with the other.

18
The appropriate balance of all safeguards, both physically installed

and human response in nature, is needed. In this balance, all factors

including potential safety, reliability, failure mode and effect, cost

and other impacts—need consideration. Absolute safety against fire

injury and death is, of course, unattainable. Authorities must implicitly

accept a certain "reasonable" level of risk when they make decisions in

the area of resource allocation for fire safety. (Several references

pertinent to this general topic are listed under "risk" in the index.)

With regard to vulnerable populations—’the aged, the physically

handicapped, and the mentally impaired, the acceptance of a certain

degree of risk is done with the intent of improving the "quality of

life." Such individuals have been moved from institutional settings—

with greater built-in fire protection—to smaller residences with more

homelike atmospheres. (See reference number 70a for a discussion of

deinstitutionalization and the major implications of this trend for fire

safety.) Greater access to public buildings has been provided for the

handicapped through ramps and elevators, placing them at greater risk

from fire, but improving their freedom of movement. Bur gun maintains

that the handicapped should be allowed to take the kinds of risk we all

accept as part of normal life, since if all elements of risk are denied

handicapped persons, then essential developmental opportunities are also

denied. He also contends that the handicapped should not have to endure

more or increased risks than those who are not disabled, and that some

special provisions will therefore have to be made for the handicapped.

(33)

Determination of the appropriate share of the limited funds available

for social concerns to devote to life safety from fire, and consideration

19
of the proper balance between "reasonable" safety from fire and "quality

of life" are two of the complex, underlying philosophical challenges

which face administrators and fire officials,,

20
TOPICAL INDEX

This index can provide an initial guide to the human behavior and fires

literature. References pertaining to various occupancies, research approaches,

or the different stages and types of response are indexed. The indexing is

rough and preliminary; for example, some mention of "alarms" would be a feature of practically all the case studies of fire incidents, but a case

study reference might not be indexed under alarms unless some feature of the

alarm system was particularly important to the outcome of the incident.

alarms - 7, 7a, 10, 21, 23, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 34, 45, 46, 49a, 51, 62, 65,

79b, 80, 84, 89, 93, 94, 103, 111, 119, 124, 125, 133a, 136, 144

area of refuge - 21, 23, 28, 55, 79b, 83, 89

bibliography - 16

boarding home(s)* - 6, 7, 7a, 28, 29, 70a, 78, 105, 110a, 117, 141a

codes and standards - 4, 6, 7, 29, 33, 41, 42, 49a, 50, 56, 70a, 89, 94, 96,

109, 110a, 113, 123, 125, 133, 133a, 134

communications - 20, 23, *1, 42, 55, 56,, 65, 75, 76, 79b, 80, 83, 89, 92, 93, 101,

108, 113, 124, 133

computer model - 53, 57, 127., 128, 129, 131, 132

concep aal model - 2, 3, 5,

86, 87, 88, 96, 140

12, 15, 17, 35, 38, 40, 51, 60, 63, 69, 74, 85,

egress model - 2, 4, 9, 53, 54, 96, 97, 106, 106a, 122, 127 , 128 , 129, 131, 132

evacuation - 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 40, 49a,

«,-•> Jl, si 107, 108

52, 54, 55,

, 109, 112,

68, 70, 71, 72, 75,

114, 117, 122, 133,

79b,

133a

81, 83, 89, 92,

, 138, 147, 148

97, 106, 106a

,

experimental study (ies) - 13, 32, 63, 64, 65, 68, 70, 71, 74, 75, 76, 79, 79a,

79b, 80, 82, 103, 106, 114, 124, 130, 134a

fire drills - 7a, 13, 54, 56, 79b, 106, 106a, 107, 108, 117, 122, 133a, 138

fire emergency planning - 2, 13, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 52, 70, 73, 79b, 89, 92, 100,

101, 104, 106a, 108, 118, 133a, 137, 141a. 145, 146, 151

fire extinguishers - 7, 27, 29, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 52, 150, 151

fire fatality (ies) - 1, 6, 7, 7a, 8, 9, 11, 20, 24, 25, 28, 29, 34, 49a, 51, 67,

69, 70a, 72, 78, 79a, 84, 86, 102, 104, 110, 110a, 119, 120, 121, 123, 136,

137, 144, 149

fire incident statistics - 1, 8, 19, 27, 31, 35, 43, 47, 48, 49, 59, 61,

69, 78, 79, 99, 102, 131, 143, 145, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151

* in a broad sense — including homes for the developmentally disabled, hotels

for the elderly, half-way houses, board and care homes for the mentally

retarded and aged.

21
fire incident study - 5, 6, 7, 7a, 9, 11, 15, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27,

28, 29, 30, 34, 38, 49a, 51, 56, 66, 67, 72, 73, 78, 79a, 81, 83, 84, 85,

86, 87, 88, 91, 104, 110, 110a, 119, 120, 121, 123, 125, 134, 136, 137,

144, 147, 148

firesetters - 67, 79, 135, 139, 140, 141, 144

handicapped - 4, 6, 7a, 21, 29, 31, 33, 70a, 77, 89, 97, 105, 108, 117, 127,

138, 141a

high-rise building(s) - 21, 27, 28, 44, 45, 46, 53, 54, 55, 56, 71, 79a, 79b, 81,

83, 92, 93, 101 , 106, 106a, 107, 108, 118, 122, 124, 132, 145,, 146, 151

hospital

(

s) - 2, 4, 5, 23, 24, 27, 32, 38, 44, 45, 46, 52,, 65, 66

,

68, 72, 73,

00 o 84, 91, 92, 95, 145, 146, 149

Lerup mapping technique - 21,, 22, 23,, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29 , 30, 00 Ui v

00 o

00 88

literature review - 2, 39 56,, 60, 63,, 77, 79, 109, 111 > 112, 118, 133, 133a,

140, 141

nursing liome(s) - 2, 11, 13, 22, 25, 27, 32, 34, 49a, 51 , 66, 67, 70, 80, 85

86, 87, 88, 110, 111 , 11>0, 121, 123, 134 , 144

overview - behavior in fire - 36, 95, 109

panic - 3, 4, 14, 18, 20, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 67, 74, 79a, 98, 109, 112, 115,

116, 125, 126, 136, 137, 142, 147, 148

risk - 33, 63, 64, 69, 69a, 89, 96, 149

residential occupancy (ies) - 19, 21, 23, 38, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 59,

69, 72, 77, 78, 91, 99, 100, 103, 104, 119, 143, 145, 147, 148, 151

schools - 27, 30, 122, 138

smoke detectors - 10, 25, 27, 32, 45, 46, 47, 49, 52, 103, 104, 110a, 121, 151

smoke, influence of - 19, 75, 76, 82, 83, 112, 147, 148

sprinklers - 27, 45, 46, 121

toxic gases, influence of - 58, 112, 134a

training and education - 13, 24, 47, 49, 51, 68, 70, 73, 79, 79a, 79b, 89, 91, 100

106a, 108, 110a, 111, 117, 130, 133a, 134, 135, 136, 137, 141a, 143, 147, 148

22
AUTHOR INDEX

A

Andrade, Raoul, 57

Appleton, Ian C., 1, 4

Archea, John, 2, 133

B

Baker, George W. , 3

Baldwin, Roger, 4

Baretta, Edward D., 134a

Beard, A.N. , 5 Bell, James R. , 6, 7, 7a

Berl, Walter G. , 8

Berlin, Geoffrey N., 9

Berry, Charles H. , 10

Best, Richard R. , 11

Bickman, Leonard E., 12, 13, 51,

70, 99, 100

Black, Corinne M. , 14

Breaux, John, 15, 38

Brown, R. , 64

Bryan, John L. , 16-30

Buchbinder, Benjamin, 69a

Buchbinder, Laura B., 31, 135

Bukowski, Richard W. , 32

Burgun, J. Armand, 33

Burke, John S., 88

Burns, Robert, 34

C

Canter, David, 15, 35-38

Carmack, Betty J. , 39

Chandessais, Charles, 40

Chapman, Dwight W. , 3

Clifton, Charles, 103

Cohen, Arthur, 118

Collins, Belinda L. , 41, 42

Condon, E.D., 151

Cronrath, David, 86, 87

Crossman, Edward R.F.W., 43-49,

58-61, 146, 150, 151

Crosson, James J. , 133a

Custer, Richard L.P., 84

D

Darley, John M. , 82

Demers, David P., 49a

DiNenno, Philip J., 21-30

Dodd, Hugh C., 134a

E

Edelman, Perry, 12, 13, 51,

70, 99, 100

F

Fechter, John V., 77, 117

Finucane, M. , 52

Fisher, Terrance N., 134a

Francis, Richard L., 53

G

Galbreath, M. , 54

Glass, Robert A., 55, 56

Globerson, Shlomo, 57-61

Gosswiller, Earl, 62

Green, Colin H. , 63, 64

Greenwood, David, 88

Groner, Norman E., 65

H

Haber, Gilda M. , 66, 67

Hall, Janet, 68

Halpin, Byron M. , 8

Harari, Oren, 43

Harrison, Gregory A. , 84

Helzer, Susan G., 69

Herrmann, Anthony A., 134a

Herz, Elicia, 13, 51, 70,

99, 100

Holton, David, 70a

Hosko, Michael J., 134a

Horiuchi, Saburo, 71, 81

I

Iacobell, Frank P., 73

Innes, John M. , 74

J

Jin, Tadahisa, 75, 76

John, R. , 122

Johnson, Charles C., 103

Jones, Brian K. , 108, 109

Jones, Clarke E., 77

Jones, Jon C. , 78

23
K Q

Kafry, Ditsa, 79

Keating, John P., 65, 79a, 79b, 80, 93

Kobayashi, Masami, 81

L

Latane, Bibb, 82

Lathrop, James K. , 83, 84

Lerner, Neil D. , 113

Lerup, Lars, 85-88

Levin, Bernard M. , 89, 90, 139

Liu, John K.C. , 86, 87

Loader, Kathryn, 91

Loftus, Elizabeth, F. , 65, 79a, 79b

80, 92, 93

M

Mande, Irving, 94

Marchant, Eric W. , 52, 95-97

Margulis, Stephen T. , 2, 133a

Mawson, A.R., 98

McDaniel, Michael A. , 12, 99, 100

Meisen, Walter A. , 101

Melinek, Stanley J. , 4

Milinskii, A. I., 114

Milke, James A., 27-30

N

Nagarvala, Phiroze, 102

Nober, E. Harris, 103

0

Offensend, Fred L. , 69a

Ottoson, John, 104

Overboe, Carol J., 105

P

Pauls, Jake L. , 106-109, 106a

Peirce, Henry, 103

Peterson, Carl E., 110, 110a

Peterson, Jack E., 134a

Pezoldt, Valmon J. , 111

Phillips, Anne W. , 112

Pierman, Brian C., 41, 42, 113

Pigman, W. , 49

Predtechenskii, V.M. , 114

Quarantelli, E.L., 115, 116

Quan E . C . , 151

R

Ramey- Smith, Ann M, , 117

Reinsel, Ronald E., 101

Rivers, David, 13

Rubin, Arthur I., 55, 56, 118

S

Saunders, Patsy B., 53

Scanlon, Joseph, 119

Schodowski, Leonard, 73

Sears, Jr., Albert, 120, 121

Seeger, Peter G. , 122

Sharry, John A., 123

Shavit, Gideon, 124

Sime, Jonathan D. , 15, 38,

125, 126

Stahl, Fred I., 127-133, 133a

Stevens, Richard E., 134

Stewart, Richard D. , 134a

Strother, Richard R. , 135

Strother-Smith, N.C., 136

Swartz, Joseph A., 137

V

Van Bogaert, A.F., 138

Van Cott, Harold P., Ill

Vreeland , Robert G. , 139-141, 141a

W

Waller, Marcus B. , 140, 141, 141a

Wang, Yvonne Y., 105

Well, Arnold, 103

Wenger, Dennis, 142

Whittington, Claire, 143

Willey, A. Elwood, 144

Wilson, John R., 143

Wirth, Itzhak, 44-46, 145, 146

Wood, Peter G. , 147, 148

Wooliscroft, M.J., 149

Z

Zachary, William B., 43, 47-49,

150, 151

24
1. Appleton, I. The Requirements of Research into the Behaviour of People

in Fires. In: Fires and Human Behaviour, edited by David Canter,

Chapter 2, pp. 13-30. New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1980. 338 pages.

A variety of fire statistics for the United Kingdom for the years

1965-1976 are presented. These include data on financial losses,

number of fires in various occupancy types, ignition sources in

occupied buildings, and number of casualties—fatal and non-fatal.

Some international fire statistics are presented for comparison.

Governments attempt to deal with the losses represented by these

statistics through regulations. Regulations should be formulated

from assumptions derived from fire data on buildings and their

contents, and on people and fire behaviors. In developing objectives

for regulations, the safety goals should be stated in terms of

performance objectives (i.e., the probability that one person is

killed by fire per annum in a building), rather than in terms of

standards for specific components of a building. The performance

requirement itself must be determined from what society regards as an acceptable risk for that particular setting. The author describes

the efforts being made by the British Fire Research Station to meet

the research needs of the above scheme for coping with fire losses.

Index Words: Fire fatalities; fire incident statistics.

2„ Archea, J. and Margulis, S.T., Editor. The Evacuation of Non-Ambulatory

Patients from Hospital and Nursing Home Fires: A Framework for a Model. National Bureau of Standards Report No. NBSIR 79-1906.

November 1979. NTIS Order No. PB 80-119530.

This is an analysis of the evacuation process in nursing homes or other health care facilities where large numbers of dependent, non- ambulatory patients are involved. The factors which must be considered

in developing evacuation plans and assessing their worth are identified.

The evacuation process is divided into 5 sequential phases:

(1) the manpower supply phase, (2) the patient preparation phase,

(3) the patient removal phase, (4) the rest and recovery phase, and

(5) the manpower resupply phase. In each phase, the relevant

patient, building and staff factors (including decision-making

ones) are detailed. Five overall system parameters are identified:

Fire development, weighted mobility status, spatial distribution of

patients and staff, task proficiency and manpower organization.

These parameters are presented as a starting point for the modeling

of evacuation systems for non-ambulatory patients in health care facilities

.

An extensive research agenda for developing further understanding

of the evacuation process is provided. Such research would fall

25
into three broad categories: (1) initial condition measures

(determination of the normal positions and/or status of the building } staff , and occupants),, (2) performance measures (determination of

the levels of performance required for a successful evacuation and

the levels of staff and patient capabilities), and (3) intermediate

protection and evacuation trade-offs (effectiveness of protect in

place vs. evacuation).

Index Words: Conceptual model; egress model; evacuation; fire

emergency planning; hospitals; literature review; nursing homes.

3. Baker, G.W. and Chapman, D.W., Editors Man and Society in Disaster.

New York, Basic Books, Inc., 1962. 442 pages.

This is a general background reference on the behavior of individuals

and groups in response to the stresses imposed by natural or man- made disasters such as bombings, tornadoes, or fires. Both research

methods and models and specific subjects such as the family, the

aged, and the community in disaster are covered.

The Committee on Disaster Studies was established in 1952 by the

National Academy of Sciences and its component member, the National

Research Council. This book is an outcome of the work of the

Committee

.

Index Words: Conceptual model; evacuation; panic.

4. Baldwin, R. , Melinek, S.J. and Appleton, I.C. Evacuation of Buildings.

In: International Fire Protection Seminar, 5th. Vol. 2, pp. 71-

83. Sponsored by the Vereinigung zur Forderung des Beutschen

Brandschutzes e.V. Karlsruhe, West Germany, September 22-24, 1976.

This paper examines some of the data underlying the calculations of

exit capacity and escape times from buildings in evacuation standards.

Data on crowd movement are used to predict the time necessary to

evacuate buildings of varying dimensions and densities of occupation.

These calculations are then compared with data on evacuation of

buildings in experimental situations, fire drills, etc. The cost

implications of escape requirements in buildings are examined.

Data based on the movement of normal, active people, are contrasted

with some recent experiments in hospitals where problems are encountered in evacuating handicapped patients within an acceptable

time

.

This paper also describes the constraints regarding capacity and

layout of exits upon which existing United Kingdom codes of practice

are based. One requirement—that compartments should be evacuated

to a place of safety within 21/2 minutes—was based upon the

psychological assumption that 21/2 minutes was felt to be the

longest people would be prepared to wait without panic.

Index Words: Codes and standards; egress model; evacuation;

handicapped; hospitals; panic.

26
5. Beard, A.N. A Suggested Methodology for Approaching Fire Safety and Its

Relation to Fault-Tree Analysis. In; Second International Seminar

on Human Behavior in Fire Emergencies, October 29 - November 1,

1978 — Proceedings of Seminar, pp. 3-12. National Bureau of

Standards Report No. NBSIR 80-2070. Issued June 1980.

NTIS Order No. PB 80-204738.

Fire safety (or lack of it) is the end result of the working of an entire system. A possible methodology for analyzing and evaluating

such a system is presented.

The methodology is broken down into eight sequential steps (for

example--“formulation of the problem, development of models, examination

of specific failure situations, generation of ideas to solve the

problem, carrying out of possible solutions, and appraisal of

results). The process is never "closed; 1 ' at any point the need may

arise to return to earlier steps and repeat the sequence with new

or revised ideas.

One of the techniques which might be used at the modeling step is

fault-tree analysis. This is a method by which failures that can contribute to an undesired event are organized logically. The

various factors and events which contribute to a major failure,

when arranged schematically, present a tree-like structure with the

most undesired event being at the final convergence of all the

branches. Branches (factors) may be connected by "and" or "or"

gates: an "and" gate means all input factors must be present to

produce the failure while an "or" gate means just one or more of

the factors will produce the failure.

Use of fault-tree analysis with regard to fire development is more

complex than its use in some "hard" engineering systems. The

logical connections in the fire development tree depend upon time

in a very complex way, and this complicates the modeling. Also,

there are a very large number of elements to consider involving

material properties, geometry, and people’s behavior. Nevertheless,

a preliminary attempt to use fault-tree analysis to model fire

development is made, using the fire incident at Coldharbour Hospital

in July 1972 which resulted in 30 fatalities. First, the system as

it existed at Coldharbour is modeled probabilistically; then,

alternative systems which would represent a few fire safety measures

having been taken are modeled.

Index Words: Conceptual model; fire incident study; hospital.

6. Bell, J.R. Fourteen Die in Ohio Boarding Home Fire. Fire Journal,

Vol. 74, No. 4, 28-31, 87, July 1980.

Fourteen people died in a fire at the Coats Rooming House in

Pioneer, Ohio on November 11, 1979. The 100-year-old, two-story

boarding home provided room and board for eleven elderly private

residents and eight mentally retarded residents referred to the

27
boarding home after release from a state mental health care facility.

Two apartment units in the building had an additional five occupants.

The fire originated in one of the apartment units in a sofa on which two children had been sleeping.

Factors contributing to the large number of fatalities include:

combustible interior finish, heavy fuel loading, lack of compartmentation,

a single means of egress from the second floor, and an apparent

lack of reponse of some of the residents to fire conditions.

The building had been operated as a nursi-ng home from 1958 to 1973,

when the state of Ohio adopted NFRA 101, the Life Safety Code, for

Intermediate Care Facilities, The home could not meet the requirements

and was converted to a rooming and boarding house. Code requirements

for this type of occupancy were left up to the local jurisdiction;

in this case, there were no local requirements that had to be met.

Index Words: Codes and standards; boarding home; fire fatalities;

fire incident study; handicapped.

7. Bell, J.R. Halfway House Fire in Washington, D.C. Kills Ten. Fire

Journal, Vol. 74, No. 2, 45-47, 50-53, March 1980.

This is an account and analysis of the fire on April 11, 1979, at a community residence for psychiatric outpatients in Washington, D.C.

Of the 21 residents in the east side of the duplex structure in

which the fire originated, 10 died. Of all the factors contributing

to the fatal outcomes, two-—the lack of a stairway enclosure and

the lack of a second means of egress to allow escape from the

second and third f loors—produced an overwhelming degree of hazard

that could not be overcome by other safety features present.

There is a discussion of the rather complex situation which existed

regarding licensing and enforcement of applicable codes. On August 5,

1977, the District of Columbia a.mor>ded its "Health Care Facilities

Regulation" by the "Community Residence Facilities Licensure Act of

1977." This amendment defined community residences. In general,

these residences are those which provide a sheltered living arrangement

for those who are ambulatory and able to perform activities of

daily living with minimal assistance. The regulation amended the

District of Columbia "Building Code" to include by definition a "community residence facility housing more than 15 residents as an L-l Residential Occupancy." The inspections and licensing program

for community residence facilities which was consolidated under the

city's Department of Human Resources (DHR) was not put into effect

because DHR lacked money and personnel. In August 1978, the Department

of Economic Development issued a Certificate of Occupancy for use

of the structure for the purpose of "Room and Boarding for Adults - 51 persons," although it was later determined that the building did

not meet DC "Building Code" requirements. Within the three months

prior to the August certification, the building had been inspected

three different times—first, by personnel from the Buildings

Inspection Department, then by the DHR, and finally, by the Fire

28
Marshal Division of the DC Fire Department. If the requirements of

the "Building Code" or the "Community Residence Facilities’ Licensure

Act" had been met, either a second interior stairway or an exterior

stairway or fire escape would have been required. However, the

author believes that their effectiveness as second means of egress

would have been jeopardized by the unenclosed stairway which allowed

rapid heat and smoke buildup in the hallways.

See also reference: Bryan, J.L., Mi Ike, J.A., and DiNenno, P.J.

An Examination. . .Taylor House. .

.

Index Words: Codes and standards; alarms; boarding home; evacuation;

fire extinguishers; fire fatalities; fire incident study.

7a. Bell, J.R. 24 Die in New Jersey Hotel Fire. Fire Journal, Vol. 75,

No. 2, 57-63, 98, March 1981.

On July 26, 1980, a late evening fire in a residence for the elderly

and mentally impaired in the town of Bradley Beach, New Jersey took

the lives of 24 of the 38 residents of the facility. The fire,

probably of electrical origin, started in a concealed space above

the ceiling of a basement recreation room.

The Brinley Inn was licensed by the state as a hotel. No regular care of any kind was provided for residents. The owners had

petitioned the state for permission to turn the hotel into a "sheltercare" facility but dropped the petition when the state required

extensive improvements to meet licensing requirements.

The primary factor that contributed to the fatalities was an unenclosed

stairway running from the first to the third floors on the south

end of the residence, which ended in an unprotected first floor

lobby. Additionally, the manager, alerted by the activation of the

fire alarm system, opened the door of the basement to investigate

and left the door open. Thus the fire was allowed to spread quickly

from the basement to the second and third floors.

Other factors contributing to the fatalities were: the lack of an

early warning fire detection system, the lack of an approved second

means of egress, and louvered guest room doors.

The origin and propagation of the fire in the concealed space above

the basement ceiling delayed response of the heat detection system

in the room of fire origin. Enough smoke reached a third floor

smoke detector to activate it before the alarm was initiated by the

heat detection system. By the time the heat detection system

activated, residents were faced with rapidly deteriorating conditions.

29
There was a lack of an acceptable second means of egress from the

second and third floors. The corridor on the second floor did have

a north exit door that led to the flat roof of a one-story kitchen

extension. A very steep metal fire escape provided the second

means of egress from the third-floor corridor to the kitchen roof.

A vertical metal ladder attached to the building provided the only access from this roof to the ground level below. Reportedly, these

exits had not been used during twice monthly fire drills conducted

at the Inn because of the the danger to the elderly in trying to

navigate these exits. During the fire, police and firefighters

helped some residents who were standing on the roof climb down the

ladder to the ground.

Some residents who remained in their rooms were rescued. However,

others died as smoke entered the rooms through louvered doors.

Index Words: Alarms; boarding home; fire drills; fire fatalities;

fire incident study; handicapped.

8. Berl, W.G. and Halpin, B.M. Human Fatalities from Unwanted Fires. The

Johns Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory. National

Bureau of Standards Report No. NBS-GCR-79-168 . December 1978.

Final Report. NTIS Order No. PB-295411.

This study presents some worldwide demographic information on human

fire fatalities, and then details findings from a study of 463 fire

fatalities during 1972-1977 in the State of Maryland.

There are marked differences in fire fatality rates among various

countries, and, within the U.S., among the various states. Efforts

to account for these wide differences by correlation with various

social or economic indicators have proved difficult.

In the Maryland study of fire fatalities, the factors of age,

location, sex, race, and drugs (alcohol) were considered. Some

findings from the Maryland data are: the likelihood of being a fire fatality is somewhat elevated in the age group 0-9 and

highest in the age group 60+; high consumption of alcohol by men

seems to increase the probability of becoming a fire fatality; and

black children in the age group 0-9 are at particularly high

risk. Data are presented on the medical consequences to the victims

as found from detailed autopsies and on the physical causes of the

fatal fires. Ignition by cigarettes was the most damaging single cause

.

Index Words: Fire incident statistics; fire fatalities.

9. Berlin, G.N. A Modeling Procedure for Analyzing the Effect of Design on Emergency Escape Potential. In: Second International Seminar on Human Behavior in Fire Emergencies, October 29 - November 1, 1978

Proceedings of Seminar, pp. 13-41. National Bureau of Standards

Report No. NBSIR 80-2070. Issued June 1980. NTIS Order No.

PB 80-204738.

A technique which can be used to analyze the effects of a building's

design on emergency escape potential is presented. The technique

30
is used to calculate the number of directed escape routes both

initially and during various stages of a fire as the opportunities

for escape change due to the spread of flame and accumulation of

combustion products. It assumes that the extension of a route is

always directed toward a designated location of safety and that

opposing movement through a room is prohibited. "Backtracking" and

"circling," in which an occupant passes through the same room more

than once, are not allowed in this definition of an escape route.

The layout of the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky,

which was the site of a fire on May 28, 1977 resulting in 165

fatalities, is used to illustrate this technique. The floor plan

of the Club and an accompanying "escape graph" showing the possible

directed escape routes for pre-fire conditions are given. A table

shows the number of directed escape routes from each of the various

locations in the building before the start of the fire and during

three different time periods of the actual fire.

Index Words: Egress model; evacuation; fire fatalities; fire

incident study.

10. Berry, C.H. Will Your Smoke Detector Wake You? Fire Journal, Vol. 72,

" No . 4, 105-108, July 1978.

Various research findings regarding the dBA level necessary to

awaken subjects in differing sleep stages are cited. Determination

of an effective dBA level for detectors is complicated by the fact

that not only do individuals vary fairly widely in regard to the

dBA level necessary for awakening, but the same individual has

differing thresholds under different sets of psychological and

physiological conditions. The level of 75 dB might be regarded as

a minimum level that should arrive at the ears of a "normal" person.

The problem of high background noise level is considered. It is

possible to conclude intuitively that as the difference between

background noise level and alarm level decreases, so does the

likelihood that the alarm will waken the person. An "awakening"

worksheet is presented which the homeowner might use to determine

the probability that his detector alarm will awaken him in an emergency. It includes such factors as distance from sleeper to

alarm and number of normally closed doors between sleeper and

alarm.

Index Words: Alarms; smoke detectors.

11. Best, R. The Wincrest Nursing Home Fire. Fire Journal, Vol. 70, No. 5,

12-15, September 1976.

A fire occurred in the Wincrest Nursing Home in Chicago, Illinois, on January 30, 1976 which resulted in 24 fatalities from among 83

residents. The fire originated in a wooden clothes wardrobe in a patient room. All of the residents who died with the possible

31
exception of 2 were located in a chapel on the same floor. A nurse

shut the door to the room of fire origin but subsequently the door was left open after futile attempts by a priest and a maintenance

man to extinguish the fire. This open door and the open corridor

to the chapel allowed the fatal spread of the smoke and toxic gas.

inaex Words : Fire fatalities; fire incident study; nursing home.

. 12 . Bickman, L. , Edelman, P. and McDaniel, M. A Model of Human Behavior in

a Fire Emergency. Loyola University of Chicago. National Bureau

of Standards Report Mo. NBS-GCR-78-120. December 1977. Final

Report. NTIS Order No. PB-277773.

The model of human behavior in a fire emergency proposed consists

of 3 stages: detection of cues, definition of the situation, and

coping behavior. In this model, the individual is depicted basically

as a reactor to the environment; however, instances are included in

the fire coping s-tage in which the individual impacts on the environment.

The focus is upon the individual's perceptions of the situation,

not the absolute reality of it, as a determinant of behavior.

The 4 broad categories of cues (stage 1) are: characteristics of

the fire, alarms, indications from others, and alarm-- indications

from others (refers to prerecorded messages activated during a fire

as might be encountered in a high-rise building). In stage 2, the

individual evaluates the cues and may define the situation as "fire," "no fire," or "possible fire." For stage 3, 10 exhaustive

categories of fire coping behaviors are described. These are:

suppress/contain fire, warn/rescue others, activate alarm system,

protect self, remove property from fire, seek information, prepare

for further action, panic, escape, and no action. Finally, the

author lists and expands upon a number of factors which influence

the individual throughout these three stages. These determinants

of behavior may be classified as: physiological/physical, intrapersonal,

education/preparation, social, fire characteristics, and physical

environment. The way in which the model may be used is illustrated.

Index Word: Conceptual model.

13. Bickman, L. , Herz, E., Edelman, P. and Rivers, D. An Evaluation of

Planning and Training for Fire Safety in Health Care Facilities

Phase Two. Loyola University of Chicago. National Bureau of

Standards Report No. MBS-GCR-79-179 . January 1979. Issued August

1979. Final Report. NTIS Order No. PB-299023

This experimental study evaluates the effectiveness of a single,

one-hour training session for nursing home staff in improving

recipients* knowledge and behavior with regard to fire emergencies.

Six nursing homes in Evanston, Illinois were randomly assigned to

experimental and comparison groups. The research design involved

the use of a knowledge survey before training, a training session

32
consisting of a 10 minute slide show and a 45 minute lecture (given

to staff in experimental homes only), and the use of a different

form of the knowledge survey after completion of the training

sessions. Two observation sessions of fire drills in each nursing

home were held both in the experimental (training) and comparison

(no-training) homes—one observation before and one after the time

of the training period. The drills were analyzed from the point of

view of content (the execution of appropriate actions) and time

(the speed with which the actions were accomplished).

Results indicated that training increased knowledge in the experimental group as expected. Various threats to the internal and

external validity of the experimental design were ruled out, on a statistical basis, as plausible alternative explanations for the

training effect. The results of the fire drill behavior analyses

also indicated a measurable positive impact of training on the

overall behavior of the experimental group during the post-training

fire drills.

Throughout this report, the many problems in a study of this nature

are described. For example, it was considered desirable to have

the drills initiated by the discovery by a staff member of a "fire

flag" to simulate a real fire occurrence in a given location

rather than by having a drill initiated by sounding an alarm.

However, many of the individuals involved did not react to the

discovery of a "fire flag," and several of the fire drills conducted

had to be initiated by the pulling of an alarm.

It is suggested that one means of improving the training procedure

might be to use, in addition to the lecture format session, a roleplaying session in which the staff act out the behaviors involved

in a fire situation.

The fire emergency plans of the six nursing homes in the study were rewritten in order to improve both content and organization. The

appendix of the report contains a set of guidelines for developing

fire emergency plans for nursing homes.

Index Words: Experimental study; fire drills; fire emergency planning;

nursing homes; training and education.

14» Black, C.M. Panic: Some Anthropological Insights. In: Second International

Seminar on Human Behavior in Fire Emergencies, October 29 - November 1,

1978 — Proceedings of Seminar, pp. 204-206. National Bureau of

Standards Report No. NBSIR 80-2070. Issued June 1980. NTIS Order

No. PB 80 204738.

Panic is seen as a remnant of our evolutionary past, one which

became maladaptive with the advent of civilization. The subjective

and objective aspects of panic are explored with the aim of presenting

a working definition. The subjective aspects include: acute fear,

33
perception of a crisis, loss of ties to others, confusion, extreme

frustration, a sense of chaos and a feeling of entrapment. The

objective factors include: flight, contagion and a variety of

other behavioral responses. It is suggested that panic behavior

develops in a number of stages. There is a pre-panic condition in

which people feel ''panicky" but do not actually panic. This can lead to "partial panic," a state in which some forms of social

behavior may still occur. Finally, there comes total panic during

which there is complete loss of self-control and all sense of

others is obliterated. Areas where intensive work is needed include

the following: sophisticated debriefing of people who engage in

panic done by an interdisciplinary team; work in the area of design;

more knowledge about the role in panic of the different components

of a fire situation; and better understanding of the role of

leadership in reducing a sense of chaos.*

*Annotation is based on author's abstract with modifications and/or

additions

.

See also reference: Quarantelli, E.L. Five Papers...

Index Word: Panic.

13 . Breaux, J. , Canter D. and Sime, J. Psychological Aspects of Behaviour

of People in Fire Situations. In: International Fire Protection

Seminar, 5th. Vol. 2, pp. 39-50. Sponsored by the Vereinigung zur Forderung des Deutschen Brandschutzes e.V. Karlsruhe, West Germany,

September 22-24, 1976.

This report outlines a preliminary model for behavior in fires

centering around 3 process states: (1) Recognition/ Interpretation/

Verification (2) Behaviour (Action/No Action) and (3) Outcomes

(Evaluation and Long Range Effects). The report concentrates upon

the initial stage of recognition/interpretation. There is a discussion of cues, both direct (perception of noise, smoke) and indirect

(visual or auditory perception of others behavior) . The manner in

which a person recognizes a fire and takes action is also dependent

on past experience and "current state factors," (e.g., the activity

he is engaging in at the time of the fire)

.

To date, the Surrey Fire Research Unit had collected over 80 interviews relating to about 16 events. In nearly all incidents surveyed,

there was an initial reluctance by the "discoverer" to equate fire cues with the actual presence of a fire. Noise cues typically tend

to be attributed to events more probable than a fire. In a number

of cases people needed to verify for themselves more precisely that

there really was a fire even when the first cue or cues were particularly suggestive—e. g. , smoke and smell.

Index Words: Conceptual model; fire incident study.

34
16. Bryan, J.L. Human Behavior in Fire - A Bibliography. University of

Maryland. National Bureau of Standards Report No. NBS-GCR-78-138

.

August 1978. NTIS Order No. PB-287412.

This is a listing of 245 references pertaining to human behavior in

fire. This bibliography was used as a source for some of the

references in the present bibliography.

It "was originally prepared for the Third Joint Panel Meeting,

United States - Japan Natural Resources Panel on Fire Research at

the Center for Fire Research, National Bureau of Standards,

March 13-17, 1978. The bibliography was revised as the result of

additional literature reviews during August, 1978. The previously

developed bibliographies of Dr. Leonard Bickman, Fire and Human

Behavior Research Center, Applied Social Psychology Program, Loyola

University of Chicago; Fred I. Stahl and John Archea of the Center

for Building Technology, National Engineering Laboratory, National

Bureau of Standards; J.L. Pauls of the Division of Building Research,

National Research Council of Canada; and Dr. Tadahisa Jin, Fire

Research Institute, Fire Defense Agency, Ministry of Home Affairs,

Japan, were valuable sources of citations."*

*from author’s abstract

Index Word: Bibliography.

17. Bryan, J.L. Human Behavior in the Fire Situation. Journal of Fire and

Flammability, Vol. 6, 17-27, January 1975.

The many, complex, interrelated variables which influence human

perception and response during a fire threat are considered. These

variables are grouped into five basic areas: the characteristics

and location of the fire which determine the person’s estimate of

the severity of the situation and the time available for response;

the basic characteristics of the building; the type, suitability,

response time and effectiveness of its fire protection systems: the

physical and psychological nature of the individual and his cultirral

and experiential background; and the structure and nature of the

building population.

Index Word: Conceptual model.

18 Bryan, J.L. Panic or Non-Adaptive Behavior in the Fire Incident, An

Empirical Concept. In: Second International Seminar on Human

Behavior in Fire Emergencies, October 29 - November 1, 1978 —

Proceedings of Seminar, pp. 206-208. National Bureau of Standards

Report No. NBSIR 80-2070. Issued June 1980. NTIS Order No.

PB 80 204738.

Panic as a term appears to have value in communicating with the

public and with obtaining support for investigations and studies.

35
As a basis for scientific study, it does not appear to be as useful

as the concept of group or individual non-adaptive behavior. The

existing physical evidence of human behavior following a fire

incident (e.g., a damaged fire extinguisher) vrhen carefully examined

can provide indications of adaptive or non-adaptive behavioral

actions. Non-adaptive behavior should not be applied solely to

flight behavior, since any behavioral action in a fire incident may

be adaptive or non-adaptive relative to the individual, the group,

or the fire incident. The causes of non-adaptive behavior in fires are complex. We need to examine the pre-existing conditions in the

group and the physical conditions and structure of the fire incident

environment to identify favorable conditions for adaptive or non- adaptive behavior. The terminology or label we attach to the

behavior is not critical so long as the term is operationally

defined .

*This annotation is closely based on the author's abstract with

some modifications and/or additions.

See also reference: Quarantelli, E.L, Five Papers...

Index Word: Panic.

19. Bryan, J.L. Smoke as a Determinant of Human Behavior in Fire Situations

(Project People). University of Maryland. National Bureau of

Standards Report No. NBS-GCR-77-94. June 30, 1977. Final Report.

NTIS Order No. PB-271755.

This extensive study statistically analyzes the interrelationships

between various factors (sex of occupant, previous training, belief

in safety of the building, etc., and, most particularly, perception

of smoke) and the actions of people involved in fire incidents.

584 participants in 335 fire incidents which occurred between

January 15, 1975 and April 30, 1976 in the Washington, D.C. and

Baltimore, Maryland metropolitan areas were interviewed. A structured interview questionnaire form was used by fire department

personnel at the scene of the incident. The roost prevalent occu- pancy in the incident population was the single family dwelling.

Survey results indicated that the most frequently initiated first

action consisted of the notification of other individuals and the

choice of this action appeared unrelated to the sex of the notifier.

In other first action categories, some statistically significant sex differences were found-—i.e., males were more likely to "search

for the fire" or "obtain an extinguisher."

The movement of the participant population through smoke was the

critical concern of this study. Approximately 62.7% of the tptal

participant population moved through smoke during the fire incidents

included in this study. Interestingly, of the participant population

which moved through smoke, 46.4% moved through smoke a greater

distance than their visibility through the smoke. The author

concludes that, in view of the large percentage of the participants

36
who moved through smoke, the presence of smoke, if it is not of

sufficient density or irritant quality to force the participants to

turn back, does not appear to deter the evacuation behavior. On

the other hand, about 1/3 of the participants who moved through

smoke did turn back because of the smoke or the combination of

smoke and heat.

Results were compared with those of a similar study conducted by

Wood in England. The results of the two studies were in general

agreement, with the differences in large part explainable by the

larger percentage of residential fires in this study.

Index Words: Evacuation; fire incident statistics; fire incident

study; residential occupancies; smoke, influence of.

20. Bryan, J.L. A Study of the Survivors' Reports on the Panic in the Fire

at the Arundel Park Hall in Brooklyn, Maryland, on January 29,

1956. Fire Protection Curriculum, University of Maryland, College

Park, Maryland, 1957.

This report analyzes the fire which occurred on January 29, 1956,

in the Arundel Park Hall in Brooklyn, Maryland at a church sponsored

oyster roast. The hall was occupied by between 1100 and 1200

people; of these, 11 persons were killed and about 250 were injured.

Data for the study was obtained from recorded interviews conducted

by police personnel with 61 persons present when the fire occurred.

The primary purpose of the report was "to attempt to clarify some

of the factors affecting the panic behavior that occurred..."

After heavy smoke had built up and the lights went out, panic

prevailed, in that, people fought for exits and many were knocked

down or lost their footing and were trampled. (Many of the persons

who had fallen to the floor were picked up and carried from the

building.) Fallen chairs and overturned tables added to the confusion. Factors contributing to the panic behavior included: an initial period of delay when the fire appeared small and was attacked

with extinguishers, giving the impression of a minor occurrence and

thus, false security; the rapid spread of the fire once it appeared

threatening, with a high rate of heat and dense smoke; the crowded

condition of the hall; and the failure of the lighting system.

Thirty-eight of the persons interviewed were asked the question:

"Did you notice if any of the doors had exit lights lit over them?"

Only one of these persons stated that he knew the exit lights were

on. The fact that so many persons (including firemen and policemen)

did not notice the exit lights raises the question of the effectiveness of these lights for attracting the attention of people in

places of public assembly.

Index Words: Evacuation; fire fatalities; fire incident study;

panic ; communications

.

37
21. Bryan, J.L. and DiNenno, P.J. An Examination and Analysis of the

Dynamics of the Human Behavior in the Fire Incident at the Georgian

Towers on January 9, 1979. University of Maryland. National

Bureau of Standards Report No. NBS-GCR-79-187 . April 30, 1979.

Issued December 1979. NTIS Order No. PB 80-148596.

This is an analysis of the human behavior and fire development in

the fire incident at the Georgian Towers apartment complex in

Silver Spring, Maryland which occurred on January 9, 1979. There

were no fatalities; however about 21 occupants required emergency

medical treatment, 17 for smoke inhalation. Data was obtained

through the use of structured questionnaires and interviews. Of

416 questionnaires distributed to residents; 110 were returned. 23

interviews were held with residents; 8, with fire department personnel „

An occupant unsuccessfully attempted to remove the mattress in

which the fire started from his second floor apartment and then

left the apartment, leaving the door open, to run down to the

receptionist desk to call the fire department. Flashover occurred

in the apartment about the time of fire department arrival, but the

fire did not extend beyond the immediately exposed second floor

corridor area. Smoke permeated most of the building.

The alerting, information-seeking, and evacuation behaviors of

other residents are described. The failure of the local alarm

system to operate for an efficient period of time resulted in the

occupants being alerted over an extended period of time by various

sounds related to the fire incident rather than by the alarm. The

fire department advised occupants to remain in their apartments

until after extinguishment and ventilation. Apartments and apartment

balconies were used by some residents as areas of refuge. Several

persons used complex egress routes to reach an area of refuge after

being unsuccessful at an initial evacuation attempt. The evacuation

behavior and attempted evacuation efforts of some residents resulted

in the majority of smoke inhalation cases requiring treatment.

Instances of occupants assisting other less able occupants are recounted

.

Index Words: Alarms; area of refuge; evacuation; fire incident

study; handicapped; high-rise building; Lerup mapping technique;

residential occupancy.

22. Bryan, J.L. and DiNenno, P.J. An Examination and Analysis of the Dynamics

of the Human Behavior in the Fire Incident at the Kensington Gardens

Nursing Home on January 1, 1978. University of Maryland. National

Bureau of Standards Report No. NBS-GCR-79-159. June 30, 1978.

Issued January 1979. Final Report. NTIS Order No. PB-290892.

The fire incident which occurred on January 1, 1978 at the Kensington

Gardens Nursing Home in Montgomery County, Maryland is analyzed

38
using the Lerup mapping technique. (See Lerup references.) This

fire which originated in an upholstered chair in a patient room was detected by a nurse's aide who was checking on a patient. All seven patients in the fire zone were rescued successfully—three of

them by staff before conditions in the corridor became untenable,

and four, by the fire department. The closing of the door to the

room of fire origin and of the other patient room doors in the fire zone enabled all patients to survive despite the fact that conditions

were untenable in the corridor approximately six minutes before the

rescue of the last four patients by firefighters.

Index Words: Fire Incident study; Lerup mapping technique; nursing

home

.

23. Bryan, J.L. and DiNenno, P.J. An Examination and Analysis of the Human

Behavior in the Fire Incident at the National Institutes of Health

Clinical Center on April 21, 1979. University of Maryland. National

Bureau of Standards Report No. NBS-GCR-80-192 . January 1980. NTIS

Order No. PB 80-177264.

This is a description and analysis of the serious fire incident

which occurred at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center,

Bethesda, Maryland, on April 21, 1979. The fire involved the

entire area of a ninth floor solarium lounge and spread down the

corridor for a distance of about 50 feet. Smoke spread through

many areas of the building, eventually spreading from the seventh

to the fourteenth floors. All the patients and visitors in the

third to the fourteenth floor areas of the building were evacuated

to the first and second floors and to the exterior. There were no fatalities. However seven persons were hospitalized for medical

observation or treatment as a result of the fire: four fire department

personnel, one police officer, one visitor, and one patient.

The occupancy of the unit of fire origin at the time of the fire

consisted of six patients, two visitors, and three nurses. In the

context of the rapidly developing fire, nursing staff evacuated

four ambulatory patients and two visitors from the unit, leaving

behind one ambulatory 18 year old and an infant. Staff informed

maintenance engineers that a baby was still in the unit. The

engineers were able to rescue the 18 year old who was yelling for

help, but the infant was not rescued until later by fire department

personnel using portable oxygen equipment. The oxygen support unit

of the infant provided an effective area of refuge. Also the

closed door to the nursery and the fire resistive room construction

prevented untenable heat conditions from developing before rescue.

The activation of the local alarm box in this incident led, according

to plan, to a "page 100" announcement over the public address

system, with the location of the emergency being given. Personnel

initially appeared to interpret the verbal fire alarm public address

system annoucement as a routine announcement, not requiring patient

39
evacuation preparation, due to the conditioning effect of numerous announcements in the facility, (Three previous "page 100" announce- ments had been given in the Center on April 21, 1979, one less than

20 minutes prior to the incident.) Evacuation seems to have been

initiated more as a result of receiving verbal information from

other staff members as to the extent of the fire, or of becoming

aware of the fire through the odor of smoke or arrival of the fire

department, than as a result of the public address announcement.

Index Words: Alarms; area of refuge; communications; evacuation;

fire incident study; hospital; Lerup mapping technique.

24. Bryan, J.L. and DiNenno, P.J. An Examination and Analysis of the Dynamics

of the Human Behavior in the Fire Incident at St. Joseph's Hospital,

Philadelphia, Pa. on August 10, 1977. University of Maryland.

National Bureau of Standards Report No. NBS-GCR-78-140. May 1978.

Final Report. NTIS Order No. PB-287935.

This analysis of the serious fire incident which occurred at

St. Joseph's Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 10,

1977 uses the Lerup mapping technique. Staff performed well and

loss of life was small (two fatalities) in the context of a fire

already at post flashover development at the time of detection and

in an old building with a low fire safety evaluation as determined

by NBS/HEW procedure.

The fire which originated in a bathroom was detected first by a nurse's aide who, without supervisory guidance, initiated the

evacuation of the immediately threatened patients from the fire

zone. The seven nursing staff assigned to the area of fire origin

evacuated 34 patients in a period of six to seven minutes. The two

patients who remained in the fire zone at the time of fire department arrival were removed by firefighters. Both died. With excellent cooperation between hospital staff and fire and police department personnel, total evacuation of the hospital's 171 patients was accomplished in approximately 16 to 19 minutes. There was much

helpful involvement of neighborhood citizens in the patient relocation process.

The tendency to call the fire department even when it has already

been notified, a recurrent behavior identified by Lerup, Greenwood,

and Burke, did not occur. This was probably due to the training of

the staff, which prohibited use of the phone, and their knowledge

of the automatic transmission of the manual fire alarm to the fire

department, with the telephone operator calling the fire department

to confirm its reception.

Index Words: Evacuation; fire incident study; fire fatalities;

Lerup mapping technique; hospital; training and education.

40
25. Bryan, J.L. and DiNenno, P.J. An Examination and Analysis of the Dynamics

of the Human Behavior in the Fire Incident at the University Nursing

Home on April 13, 1979. University of Maryland. National Bureau

of Standards Report No. NBS-GCR-80-191. January 1980. NTIS Order

No. PB 80-158157.

Described and analyzed are the human behavior and fire development

in the serious fire incident which occurred on April 13, 1979 in

Silver Spring, Maryland at the University Nursing Home, a two-story

building of protected, noncombustible construction.

The staff was alerted to an already "fully developed fire" in a patient room by the activation of a smoke detector which automatically activated the local alarm system. The detector was located in a lounge approximately 15 feet from the door to the room. Flashover

probably occurred approximately two minutes after the activation of

the smoke detector while the nursing staff were closing patient

room doors. Due to heavy smoke and heat, staff were unable to

close the door to the fire room, although they were able to close

all the other patient room doors in the involved wing.

In all, 47 patients were evacuated by various means (wheelchairs,

blanket carry, arm carry, beds), with the initial evacuation being

by fire department ladder due to the extremely heavy smoke conditions

in the corridor. Seventeen patients and eight staff were transported

to the hospital for medical treatment. Two of these patients

subsequently died; one, on April 16 of a heart condition and the

other, on April 24 of complications from smoke inhalation. Both of

these patients were located on the same corridor as the room of

fire origin; the one, in the room just across from it.

The critical initial staff action of closing patient room doors

resulted in the reduction of patient casualties. The staff performed

well in the face of a rapidly deteriorating environment.

See also reference: Bryan, J.L. and DiNenno, P.J. Human Behavior...

Index Words: Alarms; evacuation; fire fatalities; fire incident

study; Lerup mapping technique; nursing home; smoke detectors.

26. Bryan, J.L. and DiNenno, P.J. Human Behavior in a Nursing Home Fire.

Fire Journal, Vol. 74, No. 3, 44-47, 141-142, May 1980.

The fire which occurred at the University Nursing Home in Silver

Spring, Maryland, on April 13, 1979 is described and analyzed.

This article contains an extensive summary of the information in

the National Bureau of Standards Report No. NBS-GCR-80-191. See

reference: Bryan, J.L. and DiNenno, P.J. An Examination and ... University Nursing Home...

41
yan s J.L., DiNenno, P.J. and Milke, J.A. The Determination of Behavior

Response Patterns in Fire Situations, Project People II. Final

Report - Incident Reports August, 1977 to June, 1980. University

of Maryland. August 1980. National Bureau of Standards Report

No. NBS-GCR-80-297. NTIS Order No. PB-81-224545 . 234 pp.

The results of a research project funded by the U.S. Department of

Health and Human Services entitled, "The Determination of Behavior

Response Patterns in Fire Situations, Project People II" are summarized and given preliminary analysis in this report. The

objective of the study was to relate behavior in fire in an institutional setting to such factors as previous training, exhibited

stress, the fire protection features of the structure, and the

nature of the fire emergency.

Sixty-five incidents which occurred between August 10, 1977 and

June 25, 1980 were studied. The facilities involved were primarily

health care facilities. The sample included 25 nursing home or convalescent home incidents and 33 hospital incidents. In addition,

two schools, two high-rise apartments, two university dormitories,

and one correctional institution were included. The facilities

were located in the State of Maryland with the exception of one fire incident in Phi idelphia, Pennsylvania and three in Washington,

D.C. With some exceptions, these are incidents which were handled

successfully by the building occupants with no serious injuries or fatalities. The study procedure utilized both an open-ended,

individual interview technique (with one project member interviewing

one occupant in a private situation) and a structured questionnaire.

The report contains: a table describing the basic construction of

the facility and the fire resistant nature of various features of

the fire zone for each incident; a table summarizing staff and fire

department actions with the number of persons evacuated, the means

of evacuation, the extinguishment behavior, the closing of doors,

and the ventilation of smoke through windows shown for each incident;

and a table showing specific fire protection features of each

facility (sprinklers, alarm systems, etc.).

Each fire incident is also covered separately. Presented are:

abstracts from the individual reports on each of the incidents,

diagrams illustrating the development of the fire and the movements

and actions of the participants, and conclusions derived from the

incident studies.

Index Words: Alarms; evacuation; fire extinguishers; fire incident

statistics; fire incident study; high-rise buildings; hospitals;

Lerup mapping technique; nursing homes; schools, smoke detectors;

sprinklers

.

42
28. Bryan, J.L., Milke, J.A. and DiNenno, P.J. An Examination and Analysis

of the Dynamics of the Human Behavior in the Fire Incident at the

Roosevelt Hotel on April 24, 1979. University of Maryland. National

Bureau of Standards Report No. NBS-GCR-80-253 . October 1979.

Issued July 1980. NTIS Order No. PB 80-220429.

On April 24, 1979 a fire occurred on the eighth floor of the

Roosevelt Hotel for senior citizens in Washington, D.C. The fire

originated in a top floor bedroom, room 818, apparently on the bed.

The fully-developed room fire produced extensive quantities of

smoke which spread through all of the eighth floor corridors and

into some eighth floor rooms despite the closed door to the room of

fire origin. The fire was initially detected by an eighth floor

resident who smelled smoke and reported it to the hotel receptionist.

For the most part, evacuation of the eighth floor residents was accomplished on a one-to-one basis by fire fighters, after they had

extinguished the fire in room 818. In some cases, the fire fighters

placed their face masks from self-contained breathing apparatus on residents due to the heavy smoke. Residents had been told to

remain in their rooms in this incident and previous situations, and

thus had utilized their rooms as areas of refuge until a fire

fighter came to evacuate them.

There was one fatality—the sole occupant of room 818; four other

residents received medical treatment at hospitals.

Index Words: Area of refuge; evacuation; fire fatality; fire

incident study; high-rise building; Lerup mapping technique;

residential occupancy.

29. Bryan, J.L., Milke, J.A. and DiNenno, P.J. An Examination and Analysis

of the Dynamics of the Human Behavior in the Fire Incident at the

Taylor House on April 11, 1979. University of Maryland. National

Bureau of Standards Report No. NBS-GCR-80-200. October 1979.

Issued April 1980. NTIS Order No. PB 80-179054.

A fatal fire occurred on April 11, 1979, on Lamont Street in Washington,

D.C., in a community residence for psychiatric outpatients called

the Taylor House. There were a total of 21 residents and two staff

members in the part of the duplex unit directly involved in the

fire. A total of ten resident fatalities resulted from this fire

which originated in a sofa on the first floor lounge (probably from

smoking materials) . The facility would not have met the requirements

of the National Fire Protection Association Life Safety Code for

health care occupancies or hotel occupancies (under which it would

be classified due to the number of occupants)

.

Many factors contributed to the disastrous outcome. The resident

detecting the fire, before contacting a staff member in residence,

43
lost time by attempting to extinguish the fire by pouring water

from a coffee jar onto it four different times. The activation of

the local alarm system by the maintenance man only activated the

bells throughout the 1717 duplex unit and not in the unit of fire

origin. Also, the portable fire extinguisher failed to operate for

the maintenance man attempting to use it. The combustibility of

the first floor lounge area furniture permitted the fire to rapidly

propagate within the lounge area. The open interior stairway with

combustible finish resulted in the rapid spread of fire and smoke

to the second and third floors. There was no second means of

egress. Residents were forced to evacuate through windows down

fire department ladders. Two residents jumped, with one receiving

fatal injuries.

Adaptive behaviors were demonstrated by some residents. A resident

from the duplex unit not directly involved in the fire proceeded to

the unit of fire origin to assist a blind resident on that floor to

evacuate. Three residents evacuated to roofs and awaited fire

department rescue. Three other residents waited for the placement

of fire department ladders at the windows of their rooms.

See reference: Bell, J.R. Halfway House Fire...

Index Words: Alarms; boarding home; codes and standards; evacuation;

fire extinguishers; fire fatalities; fire incident study; handicapped;

Lerup mapping technique.

30. Bryan, J.L., Milke, J.A. and DiNenno, P.J. An Examination and Analysis

of the Dynamics of the Human Behavior in the Fire Incident at

Thurston Hall on April 19, 1979. University of Maryland. National

Bureau of Standards Report No. NBS-GCR-80-193 . July 1979. Issued

February 1980. NTIS Order No. PB 80 163017.

On April 19, 1979, a fire occurred on the fifth floor of Thurston

Hall Dormitory, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

During the fire, two students jumped from fifth floor windows and

received serious injuries while about 37 occupants in all required

emergency medical treatment. Of the 812 questionnaires mailed to

students to gather data for this study of the fire, 402 were returned.

Individual interviews were also conducted.

The fire was initially detected by five students independently of

each other who, upon hearing unusual noises, opened the doors of

their rooms to investigate and discovered the fire in the corridor.

One of these left the room door open and the fire spread into this room. Besides this one room, the furthest extent of the fire was about 3/4 of the way down one corridor and about 1/2 of the way

down the adjoining corridor. Smoke conditions became heavy through44
out the fifth floor, and there was also extensive smoke spread in

the floors above the fire floor. The method of evacuation of the

fifth floor fire zone depended largely upon proximity to the fire.

Occupants confronted by heavy smoke and heat generally waited for

fire department assistance. In the case of the two occupants who

fell or jumped from fifth floor windows, both had experienced

unsuccessful evacuation attempts, receiving burns in the process.

In general, occupants of the dormitory tended to interpret the

local fire alarm system abbreviated activation as a false alarm,

not requiring evacuation, due to past experience with numerous

false alarms in the facility. They tended to evacuate upon receiving reinforcing cues of smoke or smoke odor.

Index Words: Alarms; evacuation; fire incident study; Lerup

mapping technique; schools.

31. B’lchbinder, L.B. Human Activity Patterns and Injury Severity in Fire

Incidents Involving Apparel. Journal of Fire and Flammability/

Consumer Product Flammability, Vol. 1, 4-18, March 1974.

Fire incidents involving wearing apparel are analyzed, considering

the relationships among such factors as type of accident (i.e.,

involvement of flammable liquids, no involvement of flammable

liquids, etc.), activity of the victim preceding the accident, his

reactions, age, sex, and severity of burn injury. Data on 1126 cases from the National Bureau of Standards' Flammable Fabrics

Accident Case and Testing System (FFACTS) data base (cutoff date - November 1, 1972) were used for the study.

Some of the major findings were: "After age six, activity patterns

were strongly related to the victim's sex, with men the primary

victims of accidents involving flammable liquids, gases, or high

voltage electricity, and women more susceptible to direct flame

ignition. The majority of cases studied had burns over less than

20% of the total area of their body. When flammable liquids were

involved, there tended to be fewer minor injuries and more moderately

serious injuries than in accidents not involving intermediary

materials. Age and defensive capability were major factors determining extent of injury, with persons over 65 and those with limited

ability suffering more serious injuries than other groups."*

*from author's abstract

Index Words: Fire incident statistics; handicapped.

45
Bukowski, R.W. Tests on the Performance of Automatic Fire Detectors in

Health Care Occupancies - A Preliminary Report. National Bureau of

Standards Interagency Report No. NBSIR 79-1739. April 1979.

Preliminary Report. NTXS Order No. PB-297150.

This preliminary report gives the results of the first series of

eight full-scale fire tests to evaluate the response of automatic

fire detectors in health care occupancies to flaming ignition

mattress fires. Comparisons were made between three types of

detectors (ionization, photoelectric, and heat) installed in the

patient room versus in the corridors. The times available for

escape or rescue provided by each method of detection were determined by the ti.me provided between detector alarm and the time that one of several criteria selected for occupant tenability was exceeded.

(Limits imposed by carbon monoxide, heat, or smoke factors were

used as criteria.)

For the fire scenario selected (flaming ignition of bedding and

mattress), the results indicated that the ionization-type detectors

in the patient room provided the maximum time for escape. The

maximum time period available for either rescue of a non-ambulatory

patient in the room of origin or for use of the corridor past the

room of origin as a means of escape averaged only about five minutes.

This relatively short time available for rescue suggests "the need

to use other approaches to increase the amount of time available

for escape and rescue or to better manage the time available through

preplanning and training." The author proposes connecting the

detectors in the patient room to the nurse call system in addition

to the fire alarm system as a method of better directing the rescue efforts of the staff to make optimum use of the time available.*

*The annotation is based on the author’s abstract, with some additional information from the report inserted.

Index Words: Experimental study; hospitals; nursing homes; smoke

detectors

.

33„ Burgun, J.A. The Right to Risk - Normalization. In: Second International

Seminar on Human Behavior in Fire Emergencies, October 29 - November 1,

1978 — Proceedings of Seminar, pp. 45-48. National Bureau of

Standards Report No. NBSIR 80-2070. Issued June 1980.

NTIS Order No. PB 80-204738.

The contemporary trend toward normalization of the lives of handicapped

people has important implications for maintaining an adequate level

of fire safety for individuals in all types of occupancies. As

entry to various buildings for handicapped persons becomes possible

due to the removal of physical barriers, the question arises as to

whether these persons could exit these same buildings rapidly

enough in case of an emergency, or alternately remain in these

buildings in protected areas of refuge.

46
This paper presents the philosophical basis for the trend toward

integrating the handicapped into all aspects of society as fully as possible. The author believes that the handicapped should be

allowed to take the kinds of risk we all accept as part of normal

life, since if all elements of risk are denied handicapped persons,

then essential developmental opportunities are also denied. He

also contends that the handicapped should not have to endure more

or increased risks than those who are not disabled, and that some special provisions will therefore have to be made for the handicapped.

To this end, as Chairman of the Committee on Safety to Life, he

appointed a sub-committee to prepare special provisions for the

handicapped to be placed in all occupancies sections of the 1980

Life Safety Code, NFPA-101.

The author maintains that extremely costly alterations will not be

achieved because of the economic impact on the community. Proposed

measures must be evaluated to determine whether they are absolutely

essential, cost-effective and not overly restrictive.

Index Words: Codes and standards; handicapped; risk.

34. Burns, R. 10 Die in N.J. Rest Home Fire. Fire Engineering, Vol. 126,

No. 4, 58-59, April 1973.

Ten out of sixteen residents of the Street’s Rest Home in Pleasantville

,

N.J. died in a fire on January 20, 1973. The Home had a heat

detection system which was designed to directly transmit an alarm

to fire department headquarters but which failed to do so in this

case. The rest home also had an interior fire alarm system. When

the alarm bells sounded in the home, no one phoned in an alarm

because they thought the alarm was also sounding at the fire

department. This allowed the fire to roar out of control before

the fire department was notified by a policeman passing nearby.

This fire incident is graphically described and analyzed in the

reference: Lerup, L., Greenwood, D. and Burke, J . S . . .NBS-GCR-76-73

.

Index Words: Alarms; fire fatalities; fire incident study; nursing

home.

35. Canter, D. Fires and Human Behaviour: Emerging Issues. In: Second

International Seminar on Human Behavior in Fire Emergencies,

October 29 - November 1, 1978 — Proceedings of Seminar, pp. 49-64.

National Bureau of Standards Report No. NBSIR 80-2070. Issued June 1980.

NTIS Order No. PB 80-204738.

Major topics and issues where research is needed in the area of

human behavior and fire emergencies are discussed. These are

47
organized within the framework of a five stage sequential model of

human behavior and fires. The stages are: preparation before a fire begins, recognition of a fire once it occurs, actions during

the fire, escape, and the aftereffects of the fire experience.

Issues specific to fire safety may be related to general concerns

in social psychology; e.g., the way in which an individual interprets

fire cues such as alarms and gathers further information in order

to determine a course of action is relevant to the general area of

social-psychological studies of the definition of situations.

Some studies conducted by the Fire Research Unit at the University

of Surrey under the author's direction are described. These include

a statistical analysis of the effects of a firemen's strike, a study of emergency calls, and a content analysis of media reporting

of fires. There were found to be fewer reported fires during the

period of a firemen's strike than would ordinarily have been expected;

this suggests the importance of social control over fire incidents

perhaps through trhe exercise of more care to prevent fires, a decrease in purposely set fires, or successful attempts to cope

with fires by residents themselves. The research regarding media

representation of fires revealed that newspapers tend to describe

fires as either disasters accompanied by "panic" behavior or great

heroic rescue ventures. The study of media representation of fires

is important because, as important sources of people's information

about fires, the media can be expected to influence their preparation for them.

The author concludes that behavioral studies of fires hold the

potential for a radical impact on fire prevention and safety.

Index Words: Conceptual model; fire incident statistics; panic.

36. Canter, D. Fires and Human Behaviour—an Introduction. In: Fires and

Human Behaviour, edited by David Canter, Chapter 1, pp. 1-12.

New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1980. 338 pages.

This introductory chapter for the book, "Fires and Human Behaviour"

presents the author's basic philosophy regarding the role of

behavioral research in fire safety, provides an overview of the

remaining contents of the book, identifies recurrent themes in the

researchers* accounts, and suggests directions for future research.

There is a scarcity of systematic knowledge about human behavior in

fire. Past emphasis has been upon engineering solutions to fire

safety problems; however engineering solutions are not adequate by

themselves. There remain the human causes of fires and the human

errors which can magnify the damaging effects of fires.

Recurrent themes found in the human behavior in fire research are

48
identified within four general areas: human causes of fires; early

responses to a fire situation; evacuation; and the effects on individuals and society of fires. Some of the themes are:

The early stage of fire recognition is typically characterized

by ambiguity. Acceptance of the situation as a serious fire

emergency is frequently delayed.

There are a range of human responses to a fire situation which

occur in varying combinations and sequences. No general

guidance can be given about which sequence is the safest for

all circumstances.

The term "panic" is not a helpful one for researchers. There

is very little evidence for it actually occurring in fires.

In fact, people seem generally to continue to carry out their

normal roles.

Some future emphases for human behavior and fire research are outlined. In the past, much thinking about fire prevention has

revolved around the notion of balancing costs and benefits; e.g.,

the reduction of expenditure on insurance through the purchase of

hardware which will reduce risks. The basis of such calculations

should be broadened to include the broad social consequences of

fires; e.g., costs to health services, the social services required

by people left homeless, etc. In the area of modelling of behavior

in fires, predictive models based on roles of individuals and

occupancy types need to be developed. Finally, the way in which

this research can best impact on code makers and legislators needs

to be studied.

Index Words: Overview—behavior in fire; panic.

37. Canter, D., Editor Fires and Human Behaviour. New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1980. 338 pages.

This book is a compilation of papers by various researchers. The

chapters are annotated separately and referenced in this bibliography

under the authors' names.

Annotated chapters are by: (in order of presentation in the book)

David Canter; Ian Appleton; Robert G. Vreeland and Bernard M.

Levin; Ditsa Kafry; Jonathan Sime; Peter Wood; Claire Whittington

and John Wilson; David Canter, John Breaux, and Jonathan Sime;

Gilda Haber; Lars Lerup, David Cronrath and John Liu; Perry Edelman,

Elicia Herz and Leonard Bickman; Janet Hall; Jake Pauls and Brian

Jones; Jake Pauls; Colin Green; Eric Marchant; Richard Strother and

Laura Buchbinder.

For an overview of the book's contents, see reference for chapter 1,

Canter, D. Fires and Human Behaviour-An Introduction.

49
38* Canter, D., Breaux, J. and Sime, J. Domestic, Multiple Occupancy, and

Hospital Fires. In: Fires and Human Behaviour, edited by David

Canter, Chapter 8, pp. 117-136. New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1980.

338 pages.

This is a report on a project conducted at the University of Surrey,

England, to study and model behavior patterns of people involved in

fires

.

A group of domestic, multiple occupancy, and hospital fire incidents

was studied to determine the existence, the frequency, and sequence

of the full range of actions of the participants in the fire situations

Using an interview technique, the researchers obtained the accounts

of 41 people involved in 14 domestic fires, 96 people in 8 multiple

occupancy fires, and 61 people in 6 hospital fires. The actions of

participants and their sequences were analyzed using a transition

matrix. A separate diagram summarizing the decomposition of the

matrix is presented for each of the following: all cases - domestic

fires, males - domestic fires, females - domestic fires, all cases - multiple occupancies, and all cases - hospitals. These diagrams

show the complex sequences of actions which may take place in

fires. Numbers on the diagrams linking any two acts give a measure

of the strength of association of any two acts; i.e., the more

likely that given the occurrence of one act, the one specified will

follow it. The fire situation becomes increasingly complex as one moves from domestic, to multiple occupancy, to hospital fire situations

and this is reflected in the increasingly elaborate models needed

to describe the behavior in those settings.

A summary general model of behavior was also developed, and is

presented as a flow chart. It is evident from this chart that a number of acts recur at different stages in the sequence. The

authors maintain that the survival implications of these acts can be determined only in relation to the position in the sequence at

which they occur. Studies which only consider the percentage of

occurrence of particular acts without relating the acts to a time

sequence are ambiguous and perhaps misleading.

Finally, the general model is simplified into a three-part model

consisting of interpretation, preparation, and action stages. The

individual must choose between options as he moves from one stage

to the next. There is a discussion of the building and behavioral

factors which influence this selection of options.

Index Words: Conceptual model; fire incident study; hospitals;

panic; residential occupancies.

50
39.

Carmack, B.J. Human Behavior in Fires. Journal of Fire and Flammability,

Vol. 7, 559-565, October 1976.

The content of this article was based both on a review of the

literature and interviews with firefighters. The author was Assistant Professor, School of Nursing, University of San Francisco.

There is a discussion of the phenomenon of panic. The difference

in viewpoints between the firefighters interviewed, who felt panic was a frequent occurrence, and disaster researchers, who have

concluded the opposite, is described. Perhaps some of the disagreement between these two groups can be accounted for by semantic

differences in the use of the word "panic." Considered specifically are the behaviors of jumping from a burning building and reentry

of it, and the influence of familial ties on behavior in fire

emergencies. The major reasons for failure of people to escape

from a fire are explored.

Index Words: Literature review; panic.

40.

Chandessais, C. Panic-Flight-Evacuation. In: Second International

Seminar on Human Behavior in Fire Emergencies, October 29 - November 1,

1978 — Proceedings of Seminar, pp. 65-90. National Bureau of

Standards Report No. NBSIR 80-2070. Issued June 1980.

NTIS Order No. PB 80-204738.

This paper uses 17 detailed diagrams to present the results of

numerous French studies on the phenomenon of panic. It defines,

analyzes and relates the components of panic; explores the mechanism

of "contagion" in panic; considers the concept of individual predisposition

for the inadaptive behaviors of panic; and presents observations on evacuations .

*Annotation is based on author’s abstract with additions.

Index Words: Conceptual model; evacuation; panic.

41.

Collins, B.L. and Pierman, B.C. Evaluation of Safety Symbols. National

Bureau of Standards Report No. NBSIR 79-1760. June 1979. NTIS

Order No. PB-298175.

The increasing use of nonverbal symbols or pictograms to convey

fire safety or other essential information is discussed. Research

data indicates that symbols can convey information accurately and

rapidly, and that, in some cases, they can be more effective than

words in communicating a small amount of information. They can, of

course, give the same message to people who speak different languages.

There are, however, some difficulties connected with the development

51
and use of symbols. Symbols are developed by a variety of groups,

and this can lead to several different symbols being used in different

settings to convey the same meaning. In addition to this standardization problem, there is the even more critical problem of the

under standability of a given symbol. Symbols may not be understood

or even given a meaning opposite to what was intended. This was

the case for a fire-safety symbol, proposed by an International

Standards Organization (ISO) committee, which is intended to mean

''no exit" but was interpreted as meaning "safe refuge" by some subjects in a validation study described in this report. This

study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of 22 fire safety

symbols being considered as a draft international standard by the

ISO TC 21 subcommittee on Fire Safety Symbols. Each of these

symbols is presented along with the percentage of subjects in the

study who identified the correct meaning of the symbol. There was great variability in correct response for the various symbols (from

1% to 95% correct)

.

Index Words: Codes and standards; communications.

42. Collins, B.L. and Pierman, B.C. Evaluation of Safety Symbols. In:

Second International Seminar on Human Behavior in Fire Emergencies,

October 29 - November 1, 1978 — Proceedings of Seminar, pp. 91-

114. National Bureau of Standards Report No. NBSIR 80-2070.

Issued June 1980. NTIS Order No. PB 80-204738.

See reference: Collins, B.L. and Pierman, B.C. Evaluation of

Safety Symbols .. .NBSIR 79-1760.

Index Words: Codes and standards; communications.

43. Crossman, E.R.F.W., Harari, 0. and Zachary, W.B. Cost-Effective Techniques

for Improving Return-Rate in Fire-Oriented Mail Surveys. Report

No. UCB FRG WP 76-13. University of California at Berkeley.

September 1976.

The Human Factors Subgroup of the Berkeley Fire Research Group

developed a survey methodology termed FIRRST (Fire Incident, Risk,

and Readiness Survey Technique) . This methodology used a one-page

questionnaire seeking information on such matters as fire and heatusing activities and actually experienced fire incidents. Since an adequate return-rate is needed to ensure relative freedom from bias

in surveys of this type, the problem of adequate return-rate was considered. This report discusses how district level returnrates may be increased without incurring disproportionate cost

increases. Results showed that pre-contact and post-contact of

respondents, and a small gift are cost-effective measures which can produce a "good" (67% or better) or "fair" (33 to 67%) return52
rate using the FIRSST questionnaire format.

Index Words: Fire incident statistics; residential occupancies.

44.

Crossman, E.R.F.W. and Wirth, I. Fire Safety Organization of High-Rise

Building Occupancies. Report Ho. UCB FRG 74-15. University of

California, Berkeley. August 1974.

This paper deals with organization for fire safety in high-rise

buildings. It reviews some prior studies of intra-building fire

safety organization. It presents results from a survey in 1973 of

20 high-rise buildings in central business districts of San Francisco,

Oakland, and Berkeley. Data are given on the general characteristics

of the buildings, the. fire protection equipment present, and the

fire safety organization. While in hospitals and single-industry

buildings, the level of fire safety effort seemed adequate in

relation to the risk as measured by maximum occupancy, it seemed

inadequate in the apartment buildings studied, and grossly inadequate

in the general offices. Thus the authors recommend increased fire

safety effort in general-office and apartment occupancies.

Index Words: Fire emergency planning; high-rise buildings; hospitals;

residential occupancies.

45.

Crossman, E.R.F.W. and Wirth, I. Fire Safety Organization and Management

of High-Rise Buildings: Field Data and Recommendations. Fire

Journal, Vol. 69, No. 2, 75-81, March 1975.

This magazine article is based on a University of California at

Berkeley report. See reference: Crossman, E.R.F.W. and Wirth, I. Fire Safety Organization. . .Report No. UCB FRG WP 74-9...

46.

Crossman, E.R.F.W. and Wirth, I. Fire Safety Organization and

Management of High-Rise Buildings: Field Data and Recommendations.

Report No. UCB FRG WP 74-9. University of California, Berkeley.

April 1974.

This is a study of fire safety organization in high-rise buildings

of different types and occupancies. A survey of 20 high-rise

buildings in central business districts throughout the San Francisco

Bay Area was conducted. The occupancy types covered were: hospital,

industry (newspaper), single organization, hotel, general office

(private), and apartment building. Data are presented on: the

physical characteristics of the building; fire safety equipment

available; dimensions of the fire safety organization (i.e., level

of fire safety manager in general building organization, number of

levels in fire organization, and number of positions in fire organ53
ization); and manpower allocation to fire safety organization.

Hospitals achieved the highest scores on both equipment availability

and manpower allocation; apartment buildings consistently scored at

the lowest level.

Index Words: Alarms; fire emergency planning; fire extinguishers;

high-rise buildings; hospitals; residential occupancies; smoke

detectors; sprinklers.

47.

Crossman, E.R.F.W. and Zachary, W.B. A Fire Risk and Readiness Study of

Berkeley Households, 1974. Fire Journal, Vol. 71, No. 1, 67-74,

January 1977.

This magazine article is based on a University of California at

Berkeley report. See reference: Crossman, E.R.F.W., Zachary, W.B.

and Pigman, W. FIRSST. . .Report No. UCB FRG/WP 75-5...

48.

Crossman, E.R.F.W. and Zachary, W.B. Occupant Response to Domestic

Fire Incidents. Minitalk at NFPA Annual Conference - Miami, May

20-24, 1974. Report No. UCB FRG WP 74-8. University of California,

Berkeley. May 1974.

There is a need for information from sources other than fire department records on occupant response to fire at the ignition and early

development stage. This study explores some data gathering approaches

and provides some preliminary results. Described is the uniformdensity geographical sampling technique used. This approach was designed to yield as nearly unbiased sampling as could be expected

at moderate cost in a given administrative area. 400 questionnaires

were randomly distributed in 4 Berkeley Fire Districts (Nov. 1973

and Jan. 1974). One large problem encountered was the poor return

rate of the questionnaires from the lower socioeconomic areas. Some interview data was also collected. Some sample results are presented for: hazard (exposure) rates, fire incident frequencies

by source, actual extinguishment methods, hypothetical extinguishment

choices, and fire preparedness.

Index Words: Fire emergency planning; fire extinguishers; fire incident

statistics; residential occupancies.

49.

Crossman, E.R.F.W., Zachary, W.B. and Pigman, W. FIRSST; A Fire Risk

and Readiness Study of Berkeley Households, 1974. Report No. UCB

FRG/WP 75-5. University of California at Berkeley. May 1975.

This report details the methodology used and results obtained from

a survey conducted in May 1974 of a geographically random sample of

3,500 households in seven fire districts of Berkeley, California.

The information obtained using a one-page questionnaire involved

54
three main areas: presence of fire hazards, preparedness (availability of fire protection equipment and fire knowledge of respondents), and opinions regarding fire safety policy.

Some conclusions were: This type of survey is necessary to obtain

complete data since many household fire incidents do not come to

the attention of the fire department; in this sample, household

members relied largely on their own efforts for fire protection;

and a major focus of fire safety activity should be the provision

of information and education related to fire suppression technique.

See also reference: Crossman, E.R.F.W. and Zachary, W.B. A Fire

Risk. . .Fire Journal...

Index Words: Fire emergency planning; fire extinguishers; fire

incident statistics; residential occupancies; smoke detectors;

training and education.

49a. Demers, D.P. 25 Die in Nursing Home. Fire Journal, Vol. 75 , No. 1 , 30-35, January 1981.

A fire occurred on July 14, 1980 in the Extendicare Skilled Nursing

Facility in Mississauga, Ontario, which resulted in 25 patient

deaths. The facility had complied with Province of Ontario fire

regulations

.

The fire originated in a patient room, probably through misuse of

smoking materials. The first notification of the fire was by

activation of the fire alarm system, most likely by the heat detector

in the room of origin. A nurse was unable to enter this room because of the fire, but knew a patient was still in there. She

closed the room door and reportedly went to get wet sheets and

blankets to attempt to remove the patient. A supervisor returned

to the room, reopened the door, but was unable to close it again

due to the fire. The 25 fatalities consisted of the entire patient

population of the wing of fire origin. Eight of these victims were

in rooms on which the doors had been closed. A great deal of difficulty was encountered in evacuating other occupants of the fire

floor. Problems were encountered due to rescuers moving stretchers

and wheelchairs down the stairs, while firefighters and other rescue personnel were going up the stairs.

This article uses the 1976 edition of NFPA 101, the Life Safety

Code, for purposes of analysis. One variation from the Code's

requirements for existing health care facilities was the lack of

automatic fire alarm transmission to the Mississauga Fire Department.

The most significant factors that contributed to the multiple

fatalities were: rapid fire development, failure to extinguish

55
the fire in its incipient stage, failure to keep the door of the

room of origin closed, improper actions of the staff, and delayed

alarm to the fire department.

Index Words: Alarms; codes and standards; evacuation; fire fatalities;

fire incident study; nursing home.

50. Design and Construction of Building Exits. NBS Miscellaneous Publication

M151. October 1935.

This is an early study of building exit capacities conducted by the

National Bureau of Standards which had a great impact on the Life

Safety Code. A survey was made of existing exit design practice in

buildings. People movement through exits was also surveyed.

Measurements were taken of the number of people that traversed

various exit components and the time during which the components

were traversed. Methods of calculating necessary exit widths were discussed. The study resulted in establishing capacities for

stairs, doorways, corridors, ramps, and escalators.

Index Words: Codes and standards; evacuation.

51. Edelman, P., Herz, E., and Bickman, L. A Model of Behaviour in Fires

Applied to a Nursing Home Fire. In: Fires and Human Behaviour,

edited by David Canter, Chapter 11, pp. 181-203. New York, John

Wiley & Sons, 1980. 338 pages.

The authors present a general model of human response to fire and

apply it to the actions of staff and residents in a nursing home

fire which resulted in two fatalities. Twenty- two residents from

the nursing home were interviewed approximately two to four weeks

after the fire occurred. Most had been in good condition in terms

of mobility. Using a flow chart arrangement, the data obtained was applied to the three stages of the model: detection of initial

cues, definition of the situation, and coping behaviors. Lastly,

the factors which may influence the types of behaviors exhibited in

the three stages are considered. These "determinants of behavior"

may be physiological/ physical, intrapersonal (past experiences),

educational/preparatory, or social in nature. In addition, they

may be characteristics of the fire or the physical environment in

general.

The sounding of the alarm by itself was found not to convince

respondents of the existence of a fire and the need to escape.

Other cues, such as indications from others or perceiving smoke or flames, were needed to motivate escape behavior. The lack of

response to the alarm was probably a result of frequent false

alarms in the past.

One of the most significant findings of the study was the failure

to use the emergency stairs at the end of the hallway. There was

56
no indication that any exit aside from the center stairway was used

by any resident of the fire floor (except those few who used the

elevators or were assisted by firefighters) . As many as 85 residents

were evacuated down one of four possible stairways. Use of the

center stairway meant most residents were moving toward the fire.

Failure to use the most appropriate means of escape stemmed from

several factors: lack of practice using emergency exits, lack of

proper instruction and example by staff during the fire, and negative

associations with the use of emergency exits coupled with signs on the emergency doors which strengthened these negative associations.

An alarm had been set off often in the past by residents who had

attempted to leave through these exits, and some respondents

mentioned that residents who were caught using these exit doors

were scolded.

Index Words: Alarms; conceptual model; evacuation; fire fatalities;

fire incident study; nursing homes; training and education.

52. Finucane, M. and Marchant, E.W. Hospital Fire Safety, Non-Attendance

and Patient Mobility. In: Second International Seminar on Human

Behavior in Fire Emergencies, October 29- November 1, 1978 —

Proceedings of Seminar, pp. 115-144. National Bureau of Standards

Report No. NBSIR 80-2070. Issued June 1980. NTIS Order No.

PB 80-204738.

This paper focusses on two staff-related aspects of the hospital

fire safety problem: (1) the amount of time that a patient-occupied

space may be unattended by staff, and (2) the staff help needed by

various types of patients to make a successful evacuation in the

event of fire. The data for the studies was obtained from some preliminary observations carried out in some hospitals around

Edinburgh, Scotland.

Non-attendance times for one type of ward (post-natal) are presented.

In all the activity spaces in this postnatal ward, periods of non- attendance exceeding five minutes were observed. Spaces associated

with, or adjacent to, patient spaces, from which a fire could

threaten patient-occupied spaces directly, were found to be unstaffed

for periods up to 72 hours. The additional risk of a fire not

being detected in its initial stages resulting from these periods

of nonattendance needs to be taken into consideration in fire

safety planning.

A second part of the study dealt with the problems of preparing

patients for evacuation and moving them to a place of safety. A

concept called the Patient Mobility Factor is introduced as a mean

of identifying the difficulty of evacuating a particular type of

ward and of comparing it to other types of wards. It is a ratio of

the total number of staff actions required (both to prepare for and

57
maintain evacuation) to the number of patients in the ward. In some wards, the number of staff that would be required for simultaneous evacuation could not be made available, and timely evacua- tion of all patients is not feasible. Emphasis in these cases would be better placed on other measures such as surveillance

(automatic or manual) to discover an ignition early and effective

fire suppression techniques (automatic or manual)

.

Index Words: Evacuation; fire emergency planning; hospitals; smoke

detectors

.

53. Francis, R.L. and Saunders, P.B. EVACNET: Prototype Network Optimization

Models for Building Evacuation. National Bureau of Standards

Report No. NBSIR 79-1738. October 1979. NTIS Order No. PB 80 113780.

The evacuation of buildings is analyzed by means of computerized

network flow optimization models. Such an evacuation model was constructed for an eleven floor building which is part of the

National Bureau of Standards complex in Gaithersburg, Maryland. A

"skeletal" network model of the building was constructed which

represents the following entities (as well as paths of movement

between them): workplaces, halls, doors between workplaces and

halls, stairwells, doors between halls and stairwells, doors between

stairwells and the lobby, and lobby doors. The model determines by

itself an evacuation routing of the people in the building so as to

minimize the time to evacuate the building. The model depicts the

evacuation of the building as it changes over time: time is divided

into discrete time periods, and the model indicates the changes in

the evacuation status during each time period, as well as the

evacuation status at the end of each time period. Data for the

model include such things as the numbers of people in workplaces

prior to evacuation, stairwell flow-rate capacities, hall and lobby

flow-rate capacities, as well as static capacities such as the

total number of people a hall, workplace, or stairwell can accommodate. By making repeated computer runs of the model with different

data sets, such questions can be addressed as: What if we could use "express elevators" to facilitate evacuating the building?

What if a fire blocks a stairwell and/or some halls? Etc.

This computer model has some clear advantages over such other

approaches as the use of graphical models, pictorial representations

of building evacuation, and actual trial building evacuations. The

computer model is often quicker, cheaper, can handle larger problems,

and greatly facilitates the comparison of many alternatives.*

*Annotation is excerpted from author’s extended abstract.

Index Words: Computer model; egress model; high-rise building.

58
54. Galbreath, M. Time of Evacuation by Stairs in High Buildings. Building

Research Note 8. Division of Building Research, National Research

Council of Canada, Ottawa. 1969.

Evacuation times for multi-story buildings are predicted taking

into account such variables as number of floors, number of occupants

per floor, and area of exit stairs.

Some early U.S. and British evacuation studies are summarized.

Data regarding the relationship between concentration of people on stairs and speed of forward movement and resultant discharge from

stairs are presented. A formula for calculating the time for

complete evacuation of a building by stairs is given which uses these variables: number of people above the first floor; number of

people who can stand on the stairs at 3 sq. ft. /person or the

number of people on the floor, whichever is less; the rate of

discharge of the stairs in people per unit exit width per minute;

and the number of units of exit width in the stair (i.e., the

number of 22-inch increments)

.

The results of a survey of 10 office buildings (1968) are given.

The data show evacuation times in practice drills relative to

building height, area of stairs, and number of occupants per floor

at the time of the survey. These evacuation times are compared to

those calculated by the formula. The calculated times were on the

average less than the drill times by about two minutes. The greater

differences were associated with buildings having long corridor

systems and those with low population density.

Evacuation times for various building heights and occupant densities

are calculated. The maximum number of occupants per floor (one 44-

inch stair) which can be evacuated in 10, 7 1/2, and 5 minutes in

buildings from 3 to 20 stories in height are shown. Also, given in

another table, are evacuation times for buildings of 15 - 50 stories

(based on one 44-inch stair) for densities of 240, 120, and 60

persons per floor. Many of these times are impractically long.

Index Words: Egress model; evacuation; fire drills; high-rise

buildings

.

55. Glass, R.A. and Rubin, A. I. Emergency Communications in High-Rise

Buildings. In: Human Response to Tall Buildings. Conway, D.J.,

Editor. Ch. 22, pp. 293-301. Stroudsburg, PA, Dowden, Hutchinson

& Ross , Inc . , 1977

.

This chapter presents a brief history of the development of highrise buildings and discusses the problem of communications in a fire situation in modern high-rise buildings. Total evacuation is

impractical and areas of refuge must be provided. No single approach

to fire safety is adequate. The authors emphasize the need for a

59
control center rather than a simple communications network in this

complex situation. Described are some physical design problems

with present communications systems. Also detailed are psychological problems such as possible ambiguity of voice communications

and anxiety of those occupants who are aware of a fire situation

but not on floors designated for evacuation.

Index Words: Area of refuge; communications; evacuation; high-rise

buildings

.

56. Glass, R.A. and Rubin, A. I. Fire Safety for High-Rise Buildings: The

Role of Communications. National Bureau of Standards Building

Science Series 115. April 1979. GPO: Stock No. 003-003-02016-8.

This literature survey reviews the communication requirements for

fire safety in high-rise buildings. The various factors which

contribute to the complexity of the fire safety problem in these

buildings are explored—for example, the great variety of occupant

characteristics and building types and the fact that total building

evacuation in high-rise structures is not considered feasible. A

voice communications system with a control center is needed in

addition to a general alarm if partial evacuations are to be substituted for total evacuation. The various options in a voice communications system are described: one-way or two-way communication,

the proper mix of live and recorded messages, content of the messages, and the staffing of the control center. References are made

to the voice communications system in the Seattle Federal Building.

It is emphasized that any communications designed for fire safety

must be in accord with a total "systems approach" to be optimally

effective. Design requirements for visual and auditory warning

devices are discussed as well as the physical design problems

relating to equipment malfunctions and the passage of communication

cables through parts of a building on fire.

Three studies of fire safety are detailed: the fire in the World

Trade Center in New York in 1975 in which people would not behave

according to the communications system plan, Jake Pauls’ observations of a fire drill involving the use of a voice communications

system in a rather complex movement of people, and a study by John

Bryan with relevance for the problem of visual communications.

Portions of several model codes which cover communications systems

are presented.

Index Words: Codes and standards; communications; fire drills; fire

incident study; high-rise buildings; literature survey.

60
57.

Globerson, S. and Andrade, R. Simulation of Fire Incidents with Emphasis

on Human Behavior. Report No. UCB FRG WP 74-7. University of

California, Berkeley. August 1973.

This paper describes a system-level computer simulation model of

fire ignition, propagation and control. The objectives in building

the model were: to acquire more familiarity with variables which

may influence the outcome of a fire incident, to make a preliminary

sensitivity analysis which would help discriminate between the less

and the more important variables, and to use it as an experimental

tool for predicting the results of different fire-protection policies. Appendix A contains a Technical Manual for the Fire Simulation Program. Appendix B contains a Users' Manual which describes

how to run a fire simulation experiment (without necessarily knowing the details of the computer commands given in Appendix A)

.

Index Words: Computer model.

58.

Globerson, S. and Crossman, E.R.F.W. Behavior Dynamics of Carbon

Monoxide and Other Toxic Gases in Relation to Fire Safety. Report

No. UCB FRG WP 74-14. University of California, Berkeley.

August 1973.

There is some evidence victims' unawareness of fire situations is

sometimes due to the effect of carbon monoxide. This report contains

a mathematical description of the chemistry involved in the body's

intake of carbon monoxide. It lists physical symptoms at varying

concentrations of carboxyhemoglobin. Even low levels of carboxyhemoglobin (without severe symptoms) may have an influence on the

ability to discriminate and respond. Psychological and physiological effects of a combination of two or more toxic gases are not

simply additive on one another. The report presents a model showing

the dynamics of the interaction between the different gases and the

subject involved.

Index Words: Toxic gases, influence of.

59.

Globerson, S. and Crossman, E.R.F.W. Berkeley Fire Incident Survey

Initial Results. Report No. UCB FRG WP 74-2. University of

California, Berkeley. August 1971.

Five hundred forms were distributed to randomly selected staff

members of the University of California, Berkeley, in August 1971.

One hundred fifty-three forms were returned; of these, forty-two

reported a fire incident. Data are presented on time of incidents,

locations, firefighting methods used, and notification of the fire

department. Approximately 60% of the total fire incidents reported

were in the kitchen (much higher than the 15% or so encountered in

normal fire accident statistics) . Only 21% of the fire incidents

were reported to the fire department.

Index Words: Fire incident statistics; residential occupancies.

61
60= Globerson, S. and Crossman, E.R.F.W. Human Factors in Fire Safety:

Literature Survey and Preliminary Analysis. Report No. UCB FRG

WP 74-3. University of California, Berkeley. June 1972.

This report analyzes human behavior factors in fire safety based

both on a literature survey and an original point of view. It

presents a system analysis of the fire process. One flow chart

describes normal activities related to fire (prevention of un- desired ignition, detection of undesired ignition, the control

process) . Another chart presents abnormal activities related to

fire (false alarms, arson, panic).

Index Words: Conceptual model; literature review.

61. Globerson, S. and Crossman, E.R.F.W. Statistics on Fire Hazard, USA and

UK, 1940-1970. Report No. UCB FRG WP 74-1. University of California,

Berkeley. August 1971,

Presented are statistics on fire losses, time of fires, and causes

of fires in various occupancies in US and UK. Statistics on human

error (i.e., cooking activity) as a cause are too general to be of

value. The overall conclusion is that while the available statistics

were useful in dimensioning the major human factor problem areas,

they would be of rela /ely little use in formulating scientific

models needed for a systematic engineering application to human

factors in fire safety.

Index Words: Fire incident statistics.

62. Gosswiller, E. The "Slow Whoop" An Alternative Standard Fire Alarm

Signal. Fire Journal, Vol. 69, No. 5, 21-23, 100, September 1975.

Arguments for regarding the "Slow Whoop" sound as the best choice

for a standard fire alarm signal are presented. Technically the

"Slow Whoop" is a "frequency modulated square wave tone that starts

at a base frequency of 500 to 700 Hz and gradually rises approximately

one octave (twice base frequency) in 2.5 to 4.0 seconds. Then it

cuts off and, after a short pause of 0.3 to 0.5 seconds, it starts

again at the base frequency and repeats."

Some of the points in favor of the "Slow Whoop" are: its sirentype tone (universally recognizable as a warning of danger; its

tonal complexity, with one-half of its sound energy in the fundamental frequencies, providing a more effective signal than bells or horns, which release a large part of their energy in the high

frequency range; and its capacity to be generated by electronic,

electromechanical, or pneumatic means. While conventional fire

alarm bells or horns have limited acoustic output, the "Slow Whoop" can be generated with any desired amount of power.

Index Word: Alarms.

62
63. Green, C.H. Risk: Beliefs and Attitudes. In: Fires and Human Behaviour,

edited by David Canter, Chapter 15, pp. 277-291. New York, John

Wiley & Sons, 1980. 338 pages.

The author's principal interest was in determining what is an acceptable or optimum risk in relation to the fire hazard in buildings.

Various experimental studies relevant to this determination are cited, including those conducted by the author and colleagues at

the University of Dundee, Scotland. The attitudes involved relate

to the "acceptability" of any given level of risk; the relevant

beliefs are primarily those concerning people's perception of what

level of risk is involved in various situations and activities.

The meaning of the term "risk" and the potential for confusion in

its use is explored. It may refer to the probability of an event

occurring, or this probability coupled with a consideration of the

severity of the event, or it may be used to refer to the feature of

the situation which gives rise to the possibility of an accident

(i. e. , a hazard)

.

People's attitudes and beliefs about risk are built up by a knowledge

of accidents experienced by themselves or others and these attitudes

and beliefs have an effect upon such behaviors as "demands for

decreased risk" or "response to accidents." Attitudes and beliefs

may be revised as new knowledge of accidents is acquired, with

behaviors being correspondingly affected. A graphical model is

presented to demonstrate these interrelationships.

In order to derive an appropriate "measure" of safety, various

quantitative characteristics of the situation may be determined

(i.e., chance of an accident, annual risk of death., risk of serious

injury). A consideration of acceptable levels of safety also

involves such qualitative considerations as whether the activity is

voluntary or involuntary, or whether the person at risk can control

the probability of an accident. In practice, the use of a concept

of an acceptable level of safety as a design criterion would presuppose that some accidents at some frequency will be accepted.

Index Words: Conceptual model; experimental studies; literature

review; risk.

64. Green, C.H. and Brown, R. Life Safety: What Is It And How Much Is It

Worth? British Research Establishment Current Paper CP 52/78.

Fire Research Station, Borehamwood, Great Britain. June 1978.

This report is relevant to the broad question of the level of

safety which society regards as necessary to maintain through

regulation and design features. Since the amount of resources

available for safety are not limitless, knowledge of attitudes

63
regarding safety are relevant to a determination of where too much

or too little safety has been required.

A study was conducted using a variety of questionnaires administered mainly to students (also a small sample of non-students) to

determine what factors influence the perceived relative safety of

situations and to determine the strength of preferences for different levels of safety in a variety of situations. Individuals

were found to be highly consistent over time in their beliefs as to

the relative safety of different situations. The perceived safety

of an activity or situation was correlated with various factors

such as perceived likelihood of an accident occurring and type of

activity (voluntary vs. involuntary). To determine strength of

preference for safety, i.e., how much someone prefers one level of

safety to another, respondents were asked to express how satisfied

they would be if the present level of safety in one hazard were

that prevailing in some other. It is concluded that there is

insufficient evidence as to whether the same level of safety is

required in all situations or whether lower levels of safety are accepted in voluntary activities than in involuntary activities.

There is a general discussion of societal attitudes toward safety.

Society seems more concerned with multi-fatality accidents than

individual accident deaths. Preliminary study points to the

explanation that people tend to blame the person killed in a single

person accident for getting himself killed due to carelessness,

etc., whereas with multiple fatality accidents, it is less credible

to blame the victims for their own deaths.

Index Words: Experimental studies; risk.

65. Groner, N.E., Loftus, E.F. and Keating, J.P. Calling Nurse Blaze:

Tailoring Programs to Fit Human Behavior. Journal of the American

Hospital Association, Vol. 52, No. 14, 111-115, July 16, 1978.

Researchers conducted a study to analyze hospital fire safety

procedures and training, with a particular emphasis on verbal alarm

systems. Interviews were conducted with the safety specialists of

four general hospitals in the Puget Sound area. In three of these

hospitals, color coded announcements were used to alert the staff;

the other hospital used a simple alarm bell. A broader investigation

covered 150 hospitals in the Washington State area. Only three

hospitals used undisguised verbal instructions to alert personnel.

Combined bell and disguised verbal messages or verbal messages only

were commonly used. A remarkable variability in verbal coded

messages to alert staff was found, from "code red" to "Smokey the

Bear in the west wing."

The alarm systems commonly in use often fail to meet several

desired criteria. These include: a standardized alarm for all

64
medical facilities, an alarm that is disguised from patients and

visitors, and an alarm that makes the exact nature and location of

emergencies immediately apparent without confusing the staff. The

fire alarm message, "Nurse Blaze, (floor and wing designation)" was chosen as satisfying the desired criteria. The surname "Blaze" was arrived at after two types of studies—one, a word association test

to determine a name to connote that a fire was in progress and two,

a test to determine the plausibility of surnames from the two most

fire-associated words from the first study.

A more complete report of this study is found in NBS-GCR-77-102

,

"Vocal Emergency Alarms in Hospitals and Nursing Facilities:

Practice and Potential" as listed in this bibliography under

"Keating, J.P..."

Index Words: Alarms; communications; experimental study; hospitals.

66. Haber, G.M. Human Behavior in Fire Depending Upon Types of Occupancy:

Health Care, Penal and Leisuretime Occupancies. In: Second

International Seminar on Human Behavior in Fire Emergencies,

October 29 - November 1, 1978 — Proceedings of Seminar, pp. 147-

158. National Bureau of Standards Report No. NBSIR 80-2070.

Issued June 1980. NTIS Order No. PB 80-204738.

This paper postulates that an important factor influencing human

behavior patterns in fire emergencies is the type of occupancy in

which the fire occurs. Two major categories of institutions, total

and non-total, with differing social structures and lines of

authority, are described. Expectations for types of behavior for

these types of occupancies are given along with information obtained

regarding actual fire incidents.

Hospitals, nursing homes and prisons (total institutions) are highly organized, lines of authority are highly structured, and the

patients or inmates are highly dependent on the staff; whereas

leisuretime occupancies such as night-clubs (non-total institutions)

have limited organization, no authoritarian staff, and a changing

occupancy often having limited familiarity with the layout of the

building. Within the total institution category, penal institutions

present special problems since they are designed to prevent escape;

prisoners often set fires; fire-fighting equipment is often not

readily accessible; etc. In a contrasting occupancy—nightclubs,

disastrous fires have resulted from such factors as overcrowding,

locked exits, highly flammable furnishings, and delay upon the part

of staff and owners in notifying the fire department.

Index Words: Fire incident study; hospitals; nursing homes. /

65
67. Haber, G.M. Human Behaviour in Fires in Total Institutions. In: Fires

and Human Behaviour, edited by David Canter, Chapter 9, pp. 137-

154. New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1980. 338 pages.

Detailed accounts of three fires in total institutions are given.

Total institutions are defined as those providing 24 hour care for

residents or inmates, with staff having considerable or total

authority. These cases were selected to illustrate three types of

situations: "catastrophe"'—a nursing home; "near catastrophe" —

a

penal institution; and "success'—-a home for the retired aged.

Design recommendations of the author and changes in fire protection

measures made by authorities after the incidents are presented.

The nursing home fire resulted in 21 patient deaths. People in a social hall died largely because the lack of a door on the hall

allowed smoke to pour in. Further, the door of the room of fire

origin, initially shut, was subsequently opened. In the fire in

the penal institution, delays were caused by inadequate communication

between female staff and the male officers who were called to cope

with the situation. In response to the matron's call for help,

initially only two men were sent to the affected area. They brought

no fire-fighting equipment and were unfamiliar with the layout of

the women's section. Severe conflict was experienced by the

matron who wanted to let the prisoners out of the fire area, but was faced with the problem of their possible escape.

Index Words: Fire fatalities; fire incident study; firesetters;

nursing home; panic.

68. Hall, J. Patient Evacuation in Hospitals. In: Fires and Human Behaviour,

edited by David Canter, Chapter 12, pp. 205-225. New York, John Wiley

& Sons, 1980. 338 pages.

Nursing staff in a fire situation are faced with the dilemma of

deciding whether to leave patients in an area of presumed safety or to evacuate them to an area of greater safety, incurring some risk

to themselves and the patients in the evacuation process. The

study described in this chapter assumes that the decision to evacuate

has been made, and is aimed at determining from the wide variety of

evacuation methods taught those which are most appropriate to use

in a given environmental or fire condition. The study analyzed

three evacuation exercises conducted at Hackney Hospital in Great

Britain in 1975. The effectiveness of the evacuation methods was evaluated using these criteria: speed, minimum physical effort,

minimum number of staff, easily learned procedure, safety for

patients and staff, and minimum risk of malfunction. Both horizontal

(no use of stairs) and vertical evacuations (not appropriate for

all methods) were conducted.

Recommendations are made for methods appropriate to three types of

fires. In the "Type A situation," there is an immediate threat to

patient safety from smoke and fire, and evacuation must be completed

as rapidly as possible. The priority is to keep patients and staff

66
as low as possible; hence, although slower and more strenuous than

many methods, the blanket and "pyjama" methods (involve dragging

the patient along the floor) are recommended for this situation.

In "Type B" evacuation, where the danger to life is not immediate

but speed is still essential, the various lifts or movement by bed

or wheelchair are advised. These methods are quick; however, for

lifts, the staff must have adequate strength, and for movement by

bed or wheelchair, the dimensions of the route must be adequate and

the route must be relatively free of obstructions. In the exercises

at Hackney, staff spent 2.5 minutes just shifting furniture.

In "Type C" precautionary evacuation, where the fire is in an adjoining building or floor, and there is more time; bed, wheelchair,

and lifts are all possible methods, with the wheelchair method

being the most suitable provided it is not dangerous to transfer

the patient from the bed.

Index Words: Evacuation; experimental study; hospital; training

and education.

69. Helzer, S.G. Using Behavioral Data in Fire Safety Analysis. In:

Second International Seminar on Human Behavior in Fire Emergencies,

October 29 - November 1, 1978 — Proceedings of Seminar, pp. 159-

171. National Bureau of Standards Report No. NBSIR 80-2070.

Issued June 1980. NTIS Order No. PB 80-204738.

A method for evaluating alternative approaches to reducing fire

losses called decision analysis is described in general, and then

illustrated using the example of fire losses due to the ignition of

upholstered furniture. The need for more behavioral data is emphasized.

The steps in the decision analysis procedure are to: define the

problem; identify alternatives; model for each alternative estimated

fire losses under it as well as the cost of implementing the alternative;

perform sensitivity analyses, and either come to a decision or decide to gather more data and repeat the analysis.

Losses were modeled for upholstered furniture fires using a probability

tree structure. Various elements in the fire scenario, such as types of ignition, the presence or absence of an awake person, and

the presence or absence of a functional smoke detector, were used

to determine the branches of the probability tree. Probability

values were assigned to the various branches of the tree. The

primary source for assigning probability values was the best "judgment 1, of fire research experts; the researchers would have preferred to use direct human behavioral data had it been available.

The fire loss model briefly sketched above was used to calculate

predictions of future annual fire losses under each of three alternatives

no action, required installation of smoke detectors in residences.

67
and a mandatory flammability standard for upholstered furniture.

To evaluate alternatives, it was also necessary to consider the

"cost" of the various alternatives over time. The "best" alternative

can be considered to be the one for which the sum of the cost of

its implementation plus fire losses incurred under it has the

lowest value. The "cost plus loss" under the proposed flammability

standard is initially quite high but becomes quite low in the long

run. On the other hand, the "cost plus loss" under the detector

alternative is initially lower than under the proposed standard,

but in the long run is higher.

Sensitivity analyses were used to determine how outcome values

would be affected by changes in assumptions and the values assigned

to parameters. For example, if a nominal value of $300,000 is

assigned to represent the amount that society would be willing to

pay to prevent a single fire fatality, the standard and detector

alternatives are about equally attractive and preferred to no action. However, if a value is assigned in the range between

$60,000 and $300,000, the detector alternative becomes the most

attractive; for values above $300,000, the proposed standard is

most attractive; for values less than $60,000, no action is preferred.

Index Words: Conceptual model; fire fatalities; fire incident

statistics; residential occupancies; risk.

69a. Helzer, S.G., Buchbinder, B. and Offensend, F.L. Decision Analysis of

Strategies for Reducing Upholstered Furniture Fire Losses. National

Bureau of Standards Technical Note 1101. June 1979. GPO Order

No. 003-003-02078-8.

This is the complete report of the research described in reference

number 69, above.

70. Herz , E., Edelman, P. and Bickman, L. The Impact of Fire Emergency

Training on Knowledge of Appropriate Behavior in Fires. Loyola

University of Chicago. National Bureau of Standards Report No.

NBS-GCR-78-137 . January 1978. Final Report. NTIS Order No. PB285472.

This experimental study was designed to determine the effectiveness

of a lecture training session in increasing nursing home staff's

knowledge of the home's fire emergency plan. Attitudes toward fire

preparedness and general knowledge of appropriate behavior in fire

were also assessed.

Staff members from a nursing home in Evanston, Illinois were randomly

assigned to "training" and "no-training" groups. Members of the

"training" group attended a 50—minute lecture given by a member of

the fire department covering the first page of the institution's

fire emergency plan. Both groups completed the same 16-page questionnaire .

In general, it was found that nursing home staff members in both

groups held positive attitudes toward training for fire emergencies.

Significant differences in attitudes were not expected and not

found between the two experimental groups, with the exception of

the response to one item in this series. Significantly more of the

no-training group than of the training group agreed with the statement.

68
"The thought of my being in a fire is very disturbing." Perhaps

staff members in the training group felt more competent to handle

a fire emergency as a result of the lecture.

A large proportion of the staff members were unfamiliar with some aspects of the fire emergency plan. This lack of knowledge can be

explained by the fact that only 17% of the respondents had ever read the plan, and the fact that the plan was unclear and apparently

contradictory in some instances.

The training group was expected to have more knowledge about the

first page of the fire emergency plan since it was covered in the

training lecture. Analysis of items testing this knowledge gave

mixed results, with significant differences between the two groups'

performances on some items but not on others. The training group

scored significantly better on some items testing simple factual

information; e.g., questions of the location of fire extinguishers

and the nature of the fire alarm system. However, no significant

difference was found between the training and no-training groups

with regard to a question on whether to evacuate ambulatory or non- ambulatory patients first. A majority of both groups incorrectly

indicated that non-ambulatory patients should be evacuated first.

In instances like this, where there are strong erroneous preconceptions regarding appropriate behavior in fire, more thorough training

methods, including simple explanations of why such beliefs are in

error, are needed.

This was the pilot study for a more extended study which involved

six Illinois nursing homes and assessed the impact of training on staff behavior in fire drills as well as on staff knowledge of

appropriate behavior. See reference: Bickman, L., Herz, E.,

Edelman, P. and Rivers, D. . .NBS-GCR-79-179 . .

.

Index Words: Evacuation; experimental study; fire emergency planning; nursing home; training and education.

70a. Holton, D. Boarding Homes — The New "Residential" Fire Problem? Fire

Journal, Vol. 75, No. 2, 53-56, March 1981.

The factors contributing to the establishment of residential care facilities for the physically disabled, mentally impaired, and the

aged; and the nature and scope of the fire safety problem in such

facilities are discussed. These facilities are variously referred

to as halfway houses, boarding homes, unlicensed nursing homes,

sheltered care homes, etc. They provide room, board, and some personal services to the residents. The level of service is less

than in a nursing home.

69
Beginning with the fire at the Wayside Inn Boarding Home in Farmington

Missouri on April 2, 1979; in all, eight boarding home fires in a year and a half killed a total of 120 elderly and impaired individuals

There are an estimated 300,000 residential care facilities in the

U.S. —12 times more than the number of nursing homes. Unless

present circumstances change, it can be anticipated that serious

further loss of life will occur.

A large number of residential care facility residents have been

deinstitutionalized, that is, discharged from state mental hospitals,

training schools, and veterans hospitals and placed into these

community residences. The factors which have come together to

produce the deinstitutionalization movement are described. These

are: the unbridled growth of the state mental hospital system and

its ultimate decline, the advent of psychoactive medications, the

Supreme Court rulings concerning patients’ rights, and certain

financial incentives to states. A strong inducement for states to

support a policy of deinstitutionalization comes from the fact that

it is financially advantageous for the state to discharge a person

from a state mental hospital, where little of the cost of maintaining

the individual is reimbursable from the federal government, and

instead place him in a boarding home and on the federal Supplemental

Security Income (SSI) rolls.

In return for certain federal matching grants to states, the states

must agree to license boarding homes and certify that SSI recipients

living in them are in a safe environment in a home in compliance

with state law. All states have stated their intention to comply

with the law, but there has not been a serious effort at enforcement.

State and local laws vary greatly in their stringency. In practically

all jurisdictions, the fire codes applied to these structures are improper or inadequate based upon current building occupancy and

usage. A comprehensive national model standard, which could be

mandated federally and/or adopted locally, needs to be developed as quickly as possible.

The author of this article is the Chief Investigator for the TJ.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Aging, chaired by U.S.

Representative Claude Pepper.

Index Words: Boarding homes; codes and standards; fire fatalities;

handicapped

.

71. Horiuchi, S. An Experimental Study on Exit Choice Behavior of Occupant

in an Evacuation under Building Fire. In: Second International

Seminar on Human Behavior in Fire Emergencies, October 29 - November

1, 1978 -— Proceedings of Seminar, pp. 173-185. National Bureau of

Standards Report No. NBSIR 80-2070. Issued June 1980.

NTIS Order No. PB 80-204738.

This study considers the problem of evacuating the occupants from a multi-story building with multiple stairways in the event of fire.

A dangerous situation may develop when the concentration of people

at the entrances of stairs becomes too great. This study aimed to

find out the factors which affect these concentrations and to

obtain data to determine the reasonable width of stairs needed for

safe evacuation.

An empirical determination of stairway concentrations was made by

70
an experiment conducted on the sixth floor (area - 3000 sq. meters)

of a department store using as subjects 80 persons who were members

of the Kobe-City Fire Department and who were unfamiliar with the

building. Three theoretical calculating methods were also used to

predict concentration and were based on these assumptions:

(1) number of persons going to a given stairs is proportional to

the width of the stairs' entrance, (2) each person will run to the

nearest stair from his starting point, and (3) person's choice of

stairs can be affected by visibility of stairs' entrance as well as nearness. The third calculating method gave the closest approximation

to the results of the experiment.*

*Annotation is author's abstract.

Index Words: Evacuation; experimental study; high-rise buildings.

72. Human Behavior in Fires. Fire Chief Magazine, Vol. 23, No. 1, 56-57,

January 1979.

This article reports on the Second International Seminar on Behavior

in Fire held at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) in Gaithersburg,

Maryland on October 29 - November 1, 1978. At this conference,

sponsored by the NBS Center for Fire Research, researchers from the

United States, Great Britain, Japan, Canada, the Federal Republic

of Germany, and France gathered to discuss their research findings

and problems. The article briefly discusses Saburo Horiuchi's

report on an experimental study of evacuation behavior in a department store, John Bryan's study of the St. Joseph's Hospital fire,

Joseph Scanlon's study of a fatal apartment building fire, and

David Canter's and John Breaux's study of human actions in 29 fires

occurring in varying types of occupancies.

Index Words: Evacuation; fire fatalities; fire incident study;

hospital; residential occupancy.

73. Iacobell, F.P. and Schodowski, L. Fire Reaction Training That Really

Works. Hospitals, Vol. 54, No. 3, 64-66, February 1, 1980.

Detroit's Hutzel Hospital developed a new training program designed

to increase participation and provide more realistic training for

its staff. The training proved effective when a major fire occurred.

The training was conducted in three phases over a five-month period.

The first phase consisted of instruction in the use of fire extinguishers

accompanied by an application exercise where staff actually employed

extinguishers on burning mattresses, etc. In the second phase,

employees studied the hospital fire plans. The final and most

critical phase of the program consisted of instructions and practical

exercises in the safe removal of patients in an emergency. Removal

techniques were practiced on volunteers by staff at their own work

locations

.

ft

71
Just a few weeks after the final segment of the training was completed,

a major fire resulting in $2.5 million in damages broke out in the

hospital in an area used for educational and administrative purposes.

It became necessary to relocate a total of 76 adults and 30 newborn

infants. Floor and master census charts were continually updated

to keep track of all patients during the transfer. The relocation

process was so smooth that no patient missed a single medication

dose during the entire emergency. Despite the size of the fire,

only one employee sustained minor injury during the emergency when

he slipped and fell on a wet floor.

Index Words: Fire emergency plans; fire incident; hospital; training

and education.

72
74. Innes, J.M. Human Behavior under Stress. Fire, Vol. 67, No. 839, 601-

603, May 1975.

This is a general, theoretical discussion of the reactions of

people to stressful situations. References are made to socialpsychological laboratory experiments.

The idea is presented that there is a certain optimum, intermediate

level of fear at which the individual will accept warnings and

advice from some authoritative source and modify his behavior, with

any further increase in fear resulting in a rapid fall-off of such

acceptance. This relationship between the degree of threat (fear)

and the probability of behavior change is graphically pictured as

a curvilinear relationship. A state of acute panic (with disorganization

of perception, cognition and motor ability) would be represented by

a rapid fall-off of the curve to a level below baseline behavior.

Group reaction to stress is also considered. Some research data

shows that the presence of others decreases the probability of

doing anything in an emergency (Darley and Latane)

.

The complex "panic" or entrapment situation is analyzed. An individual,

behaving rationally according to his own interest by rushing an exit, rather than waiting his turn, can contribute to the failure

of the group to escape. Thus, the separate actions of rational,

thinking individuals can produce incoordination of group activity,

with fear arousal not necessarily an element. Fear arousal is,

however, an additional factor acting to increase incoordination

further.

Index Words: Conceptual model; experimental studies; panic.

75, Jin, T. Evaluation of Fire Exit Signs in Smoke. In: CIB Symposium,

Systems Approach to Fire Safety in Buildings. Proceedings. Japan.

August 29-30, 1979. Vol. 2, Session 3.

An experimental study was conducted to determine the level of smoke

density which would permit people not familiar with the inside

geometry of a burning building to escape. This smoke density was found to be a low density likely to be encountered in the early

stages of a fire.

The "psychological steadiness" of the experimental subjects in varying smoke densities was tested in the following manner. The subject

sat at a table and manipulated a "steadiness tester" while the test

room filled with smoke. He had to thrust a metal stylus into 4

holes of progressively smaller size in a metal plate in a specified

order, trying not to touch the hole edges with the stylus. As smoke

density increased, there was an increasing frequency of contact

between the stylus and the hole edges. From the results, the author

concludes that the limit of smoke density which would allow safe

evacuation of the general public is 0.25/m or less (density as

73
measured by light extinction coefficient) . For people who are very

familiar with a building, the density of 0.5/m would be the threshold

permitting safe evacuation.

The report also describes the results of tests on the visibility of

emergency exit signs in smoke and gives an evaluation of the effectiv

ness of those signs.

Index Words: Communications; evacuation; experimental study;

smoke, influence of.

76 . Jin, T. Visibility Through Fire Smoke. Journal of Fire and Flammability,

Vol. 9, 135-155, April 1978.

Experimental studies on the effects of smoke density on visibility

are described. Signs in a smoke-filled chamber were observed from

outside through a glass window. The mathematical product of

visibility and smoke density was found to be almost constant. The

value of the product depended mainly on the brightness of the

object and the brightness of the illuminating light. The visibility

of blue light through smoke was compared with that of red. Visibilities of red lighted signs were found to be 20 to 40% greater for

smoldering smoke and 20 to 30% greater for flaming smoke than for

those of blue lighted signs of the same brightness.

The effects of different types of smoke on visibility were also

explored, A 20-meter long corridor was filled with smoke corres- ponding to an early stage of fire. A highly irritant white smoke

was produced by burning wood cribs with narrow spacing between the

sticks, and a less irritant black smoke was produced by burning

kerosene. Subjects walked into the corridor from one end and

recorded the places where they saw a lighted fire exit sign at the

other end or where they were able to read the words on the sign.

In the case of irritant smoke, the simple relationship between

visibility and smoke density mentioned above can apply only at low

smoke densities. Visibility in irritant smoke decreases sharply at

the smoke density exceeding a certain level. In thick irritant

smoke subjects had difficulty keeping their eyes open. Walking

speed decreased as smoke density increased. At a given density,

walking speed in thick irritant smoke was slower compared to that

in non-irritant thick smoke. In irritant smoke, the subjects could

no longer walk straight and began to go zigzag or walk along the

wall. At low smoke density, the irritation factor was insignificant,

and walking speeds were about the same in both types of smoke.

Presented are some values for visibility distance and allowable

smoke density for escape from fire proposed by various researchers.

The visibility range needed would vary depending upon the occupant's

familiarity with the layout of the building.

Index Words: Communications; experimental study; smoke, influence

of

.

74
77, Jones, C.E. and Fechter, J.V. Safe Environments—Anthropometric,

Biomechanical, and Activity Considerations. National Bureau of

Standards Report No. NBSIR 80-2014. September 1979. Issued June

1980. NTIS Order No. PB 80 199128.

This. report provides a wide range of data obtained largely through

literature searches on the characteristics of people and their

activities in "normal" homes. The data are those which were considered

to be most relevant to the problem of creating safe home environments,

and in particular, to the establishment of safe non-institutional

residences for the disabled. For example, in setting standards for

emergency exit doors it is important to know the dimensions of

people and the push forces they can exert on a panic door latch.

Data summaries are organized into four sections: Anthropometry and

Biomechanics, Household Safety, Disability, and Household Operations.

The first section provides data on such matters as maneuvering

space needed for wheelchair occupants, and arm reach and force

exertion capabilities. The second section concerns aspects of the

home or its residents that are associated with accidents (use of

alcohol, household equipment, etc.). The disability section presents

information on the distribution of disabilities in the U.S. population

as well as qualitative information on the cluster of physical and

mental deficiences associated with various disabling diseases or conditions. The household operations section provides data on the

proportion of time spent in various household activities and household

equipment use.

Index Words: Handicapped; literature review; residential occupancies.

78. Jones, J.C. 1979 Multiple-Death Fires in the United States. Fire

Journal, Vol. 74, No. 4, 58-63, 66-69, 90, July 1980.

Detailed statistics are presented for the year 1979 for multipledeath fires (those fires that kill three or more people) in the

United States. Overall, there were 271 multiple-death fires in the

U.S. in 1979, and 1804 associated deaths, as reported to the NFPA.

In 1979, residential properties continued to account for the major

portion of the multiple-death fires; 244, or 90% were in residential

properties. The article contains a table showing leading ignition

scenarios for residential multiple-death fires, 1971 to 1979, based

upon a study of 683 residential multiple-death incidents reported

to the NFPA from 1971 to 1979. The leading ignition scenario

involved fires that originated in the living room, where a cigarette

ignited upholstered furniture. The most common area of origin of

residential multiple-death fires for 1979 (based upon 210 fires) was the living room. About 3/4 of the residential multiple-death

fires (based upon 232 fires) occurred between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.,

during which most people sleep.

75
Of special concern is the fact that four of the eight fires that

resulted in 10 or more deaths in 1979 occurred in boarding facilities.

The residents are for the most part capable of self-care, but may

require some supervision. They include the elderly, the mentally

retarded, the emotionally disturbed, etc. In many states, these

facilities operate with a minimum of regulation. This article

includes descriptions of these four boarding home fires: Boarding

Home, Connellsville, Pennsylvania, April 1, 1979—10 fatalities;

Boarding House, Farmington, Missouri, April 2, 1979—25 fatalities;

Halfway House, Washington, D.C., April 11, 1979—10 fatalities; and

Boarding Home, Pioneer, Ohio, November 11, 1979—14 fatalities.

Index Words: Boarding homes; fire fatalities; fire incident statistics;

fire incident study; residential occupancies.

9. Kafry, D. Playing with Matches: Children and Fire. In: Fires and

Human Behaviour, edited by David Canter, Chapter 4, pp. 47-61.

New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1980. 338 pages.

The results of a research study which investigated fire behavior

and knowledge in a sample of young, normal boys are presented. A

random sample of 99 boys from the kindergarten, second and fourth

grades of the Berkeley, California school district participated in

the study. Fire-play (the lighting of matches without parental

approval and/or supervision) was performed by 45% of the boys

studied. Fires, which were mostly small and easily extinguished,

were set by 21% of the boys studied. Thus, the study indicated a high prevalence of fireplay which often resulted in actual fires.

Children's interest in fire was found to be uniformly high in all

three age groups. The study showed a decreasing tendency in the

number of fires set beyond the age of seven with none being set

after age eight from this sample.

The chapter contains a general discussion of the characteristics of

children who play with matches and their family backgrounds, drawing

from the general research literature as well as the Berkeley study.

It has been found that "match-players" tend to be more energetic,

adventurous, and impulsive than usual. The lack of "impulse control"

found among these children implies the need for the setting of

disciplinary "limits" and for the provision of many constructive

outlets for their energies. It may be more effective for fire

prevention in some cases to provide the child with the opportunity

for a controlled, experimental use of fire rather than completely

prohibiting its use.

Index Words: Experimental study; fire incident statistics; firesetters;

literature review; training and education.

76
79a. Keating, J.P. and Loftus, E.F. The Logic of Fire Escape. Psychology

Today, pp . 14-19, June 1981.

Human behavior in recent hotel fires is discussed as well as the

authors' own experimental research in the areas of interview

techniques, recall of fire incident events, and people's knowledge

of appropriate behavior in fires.

Some of the deaths in fires at the MGM Grand Hotel and the Hilton

in Las Vegas could be attributed to panic (those who jumped) or incorrect evacuation procedures (those who used elevators). However,

others died who did not panic or use improper procedures. "In both

blazes, most of the victims were found dead on the upper floors...

overcome by toxic gases that rushed into their rooms through airhandling equipment, stairwells, and elevator shafts. Nine people

at the MGM followed fire-safety directions and used the stairwells

to escape, but the stairs were unprotected from smoke, and all nine

died in the enclosures above the 20th floor."

In their own research, the authors have developed a method of

interviewing fire incident participants that attempts to minimize

distortions in memory. The person is first asked to give an account

of the incident in his own words. The interviewer then goes back

through this account with the person, recording in order, the cues responded to, the response, and the person's reason for doing what

he did. The authors have found little evidence of panic. With

rare exception, survivors give rational explanations for their

behaviors

.

With the intent of exploring methods of enhancing people's memories

of fires, a study was conducted in which a group of subjects

including U. of Washington students and arson investigators—viewed

a very disturbing film of a fire and were then tested on their

recollections of the film. The trained arson investigators were no more accurate than the student population on nontechnical matters

but more accurate on items that specifically relate to firefighting,

such as the number of hose lines ordered into and out of the building.

(It is easier for a person to assimilate new knowledge when it is

related to knowledge he already has.) Thus, as people become more educated about fires, they can be expected to recall fire-related

information with greater accuracy.

Index Words: Experimental studies; fire fatalities; fire incident

study; high-rise buildings; panic; training and education.

77
79b. Keating, J.P. and Loftus, E.F. Vocal Alarm Systems for High-Rise Buildings

A Case Study. Mass Emergencies, Vol. 2, 25-34, 1977.

This article discusses desirable characteristics for vocal alarm

systems (VAS) for high-rise buildings, and presents as a case study

the operation of a VAS in the Seattle Federal Building.

The system includes an initial alerting sound, and various prerecorded

emergency messages for occupants of elevators, the fire floor,

adjoining floors, and floors receiving occupants from evacuated

areas. Total evacuation of the building is not planned. Occupants

are generally only moved from the fire floor and adjacent floors.

The authors were asked to make recommendations for the system

regarding the most effective warning signal, the content of the

instructional messages, and voice qualities of the communicator.

This VAS system was evaluated using two unannounced fire drills

within a period of one hour in the Seattle Federal Building. Two

sections of the building were involved in the two separate fire

drills, floors 20-24 and floors 14-18, with floors 22 and 16 respectively

being designated as the fire floors. Only occupants of floors 20-

24 had been given training prior to the drills. No instruction on the new system had been given to occupants of floors 14-18. Observations

were made by the investigators. General Services Administration

personnel, and the Seattle Fire Department personnel. In addition,

questionnaires were distributed to participants after the drill.

It was concluded that there were no observable differences in the

behavior and evacuation between persons given orientation about the

new alarm system and those provided with no such orientation. Thus

it seems that the vocal alarm system itself and not the prior

orientation was principally responsible for the rapid, orderly

evacuation which was observed. Analysis of the questionnaire

showed no significant differences between the two groups on any

question. Respondents felt that this drill was less confusing than

others they had been in and expressed a preference for a VAS over a usual bell emergency signal.

See also reference 93.

Index Words: Alarms; area of refuge; communications; evacuation;

experimental study; fire drills; fire emergency planning; high-rise

building; training and education.

78
80. Keating, J.P. and Loftus, E.F. Vocal Emergency Alarms in Hospitals and

Nursing Facilities: Practice and Potential. University of Washington,

Seattle. National Bureau of Standards Report No. NBS-GCR-77-102

.

July 1977. Final Report. NTIS Order No. PB-273165.

This is the full report of the study conducted by John Keating and

Elizabeth Loftus of the University of Washington, Seattle, on vocal

emergency alarms in hospitals and nursing facilities. (This study was reported on in the July 16, 1978 issue of the Journal of the

American Hospital Association. See item, "Groner, N.E..." in this

bibliography.) This full report presents seven recommended guidelines for the development of fire alarm messages and a sample

message. The evidence for the validity of these recommendations is

given.

Index Words: Alarms; communications; experimental study; hospitals;

nur s ing home s

.

81. Kobayashi, M. and Horiuchi, S. Analysis of Occupant Behavior in an Office Building Under Fire. In: Second International Seminar on Human Behavior in Fire Emergencies, October 29 - November 1, 1978 — Proceedings of Seminar, pp. 187-201. National Bureau of Standards

Report No. NBSIR 80-2070. Issued June 1980.

NTIS Order No. PB 80 204738.

This paper analyzes the occupant behavior which occurred in an office building fire. Data was obtained from a questionnaire

distributed to occupants of an insurance company building in Osaka,

Japan, in which a fire occurred on April 6, 1978. The building

contained 9 stories above and 5 underground. The fire occurred at

the kitchen's ventilation duct in the second basement, and smoke

spread through the building through the duct and a staircase.

Approximately 2000 occupants escaped from the building without

injury.

The interrelationships among three items—occupation and sex, first

action after perceiving fire, and evacuation behavior—were analyzed

to find characteristic behavior patterns. Two types of behavior

patterns were extracted. They were: the behavior of those in the

occupations of store owner and male store clerk to take responsible

actions when they perceived a fire, and then to escape via the

route that they had previously decided to take in fire situations;

and the behavior of female office clerks to wait for superior

officers' instructions and then escape by following instructions

and guidance. (The specific behaviors within these patterns were

not the most common behaviors.)*

*Annotation is author's abstract.

Index Words: Evacuation; fire incident study; high-rise buildings.

79
/

82 4 Latane , B. and Barley, J .M. Group Inhibition of Bystander Intervention

in Emergencies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,

Vol. 10, No. 3, 215-221, 1968.

Some experimental studies are presented which indicate that a person is less likely to intervene in or respond in some way to an emergency situation if other people are present. For a person to

intervene in an emergency, he must "notice" the event, "interpret"

it as an emergency, and decide that it is his "reponsibility" to

act. These stages of the decision process are explored.

In one experiment, subjects heard a person undergoing a severe epileptic-like fit in another room. In one experimental condition,

the subject thought he was the only person to be aware of the

emergency; in another condition, the subject knew that four other

persons were also aware of the seizure (but he could not interact

with the other four persons). Subjects alone with the victim were much more likely to intervene on his behalf, and on the average

reacted in less than 1/3 the time required by subjects who thought

others were present. The principle of "diffusion of responsibility"

is offered as an explanation for this result. When an individual

believes others are present, he may feel his own responsibility for

taking action is lessened.

Another experiment focussed on the second step of the decision

process, interpreting an ambiguous event. Male undergraduate

students found themselves in a smoke-filling room either alone, or with two nonreacting others (confederates of the experimenters) , or in groups of three (all naive). When alone, 75% of the subjects

reported the smoke; in the presence of two nonreacting others, only

10% did; while in groups of three, in only 38% of the eight groups

in this condition did even one subject report the smoke during the

experimental period. In general, seeing other people remain passive

apparently led subjects to interpret the smoke as not dangerous.

Index Words: Experimental studies; smoke, influence of.

83. Lathrop, J.K. Two Fires Demonstrate Evacuation Problems in High-Rise

Buildings. Fire Journal, Vol. 70, No. 1, 65-70, January 1976.

This is an account of two fires in New York City high-rise buildings

the fire in the World Trade Center’s South Tower on April 17, 1975

and the fire in the Squibb Building on July 11, 1975.

The World Trade Center fire demonstrated the fact that even though

reassurances are provided through a public address system, it may

still be difficult to convince people they are not in danger when

they see an obvious problem such as smoke. In this case, a small

trash fire on the fifth floor resulted in the needless evacuation

of the ninth through the twenty-second floors because of occupants'

concern over smoke. The fire safety director had initially urged

80
people to return to their offices; when it became obvious they were

not going to do so, he ordered the evacuation.

In the Squibb Building fire, approximately 40 employees became

trapped on the fire floor (18th floor) when both stairways became

inaccessible—one, due to the location of the fire and, the other,

due to a door having been blocked open. The occupants appropriately retreated to a large office in the corner of the building,

stuffed clothing around door cracks and into vents to stop smoke

from entering the room, and broke out some windows. They were able

to survive until Fire Department rescue. This building had no evacuation alarms and no general public address system.

Index Words: Area of refuge; communications; evacuation; fire incident

study; high-rise buildings; smoke, influence of.

84. Latnrop, J.K., Harrison, G.A. and Custer, R.L.P. In Osceola, A Matter

of Contents. Fire Journal, Vol. 67, No. 3, 20-26, 91, May 1975.

This article describes a fatal fire which occurred on December 2,

1974, in a modern one-story hospital in Osceola, Missouri, whose

construction essentially complied with the NFPA Life Safety Code

No. 101-67. Seven of the nine patients in the wing of origin died

of smoke inhalation; another died when his oxygen supply was inadvertently

cut off.

Staff became aware of the fire through smell and sight of smoke. They

were unable to cope with this rapidly developing fire with very

heavy smoke production. They fled past smoke barrier doors which

were automatically closing and were prevented by the heavy smoke

conditions from returning to the corridor. None of the patient

room doors on the fire corridor were closed. Contrary to the

hospital’s fire plan the fire department was not notified immediately.

Rather, the nurse in charge first placed a call to the head nurse

at her home, then to the county sheriff, and finally to the volunteer

Fire Department. An oxygen valve, mistaken by a nurse’s aide for a fire alarm because the plastic cover over the valve was red, was

shut off. This resulted in a patient death. The registered nurse

in charge of the shift had not attended the 11 fire drills held in

the last year, and the licensed practical nurse who was second in

command was new at the facility.

Index Words: Alarms; fire fatalities; fire incident study; hospital.

85. Lerup, L. People in Fires: A Manual for Mapping. University of

California at Berkeley. National Bureau of Standards Report No.

NBS-GCR-77-106. 1977. NTIS Order No. PB-275155.

This manual is the second of two reports which describe the technique called mapping developed by Lerup and his colleagues to

assist fire analysts in their reporting of fire incidents. (For a

81
description of the first report, see entry "Lerup . . . NBS-GCR-76-

73.”) The technique is intended to be an additional tool rather

than a substitute for the report systems already in use. While the

first report provides the conceptual framework and rationale for

mapping, this report illustrates the technique itself. It provides

step by step instructions for the investigation, data-gathering and

organization, and graphic mapping procedures involved in this

graphic presentation of both the fire development and human behavior

patterns in fire incidents. The case used as an example throughout

is the Geiger Nursing Home fire which took place in Texas Township,

Pennsylvania on October 19, 1971.

Index Words: Conceptual model; fire incident study; Lerup mapping

technique; nursing home.

86* Lerup, L., Cronrath, D., and Liu, J.K.C. Fires in Nursing Facilities.

In: Fires and Human Behaviour, edited by David Canter, Chapter 10,

pp. 155-180. New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1980. 338 pages.

Ten fatal nursing home fires were analyzed for the purpose of

developing recommendations for building design which would improve

fire safety. Data was drawn from a variety of sources including

newspaper clippings, interviews with survivors and reports by

experts in the fire field. Supporting data were drawn from the

Fire Incident Data Organization (FIDO) file maintained by the

National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)

.

A model was developed to structure both the data regarding human

behavior in fires and the development of the fire itself. Graphic

representations (maps) of the series of human actions and the fire

development are presented together in a time sequence so that it is

possible to consider the relationships between fire development and

human actions. The major types of human behaviors are divided into

"episodes,” i.e., periods where a specific goal is being pursued.

The types of episodes identified by Lerup are: investigation,

alarm, attack, flight, rescue, and no action. At the beginning or end of each episode are "decision points," at which time it is

decided to pursue a new course of action. Similarly the fire

development is organized into "realms" divided by "critical events"

which mark changes in the course of a fire. For example, flashover

would be a critical event.

The data organized by this model was further analyzed by the use of

"design maps," which illustrate the lifesaving actions performed in

relation to the existing environmental conditions and suggest some possible changes to the environment which could have favorably

affected the outcome of the fire incident.

From this analysis, seven design implications were generated from

the ten case studies, and organized into their order of importance.

The design implications placed at the head of the list were: a

82
feedback signal, telling staff that the fire department has been

notified, and a nursing station located centrally in each major

compartment. It is emphasized that any physical change to be

effective needs to be accompanied by behavioral changes involving

both the knowledge of occupants and the management of the facility.

Index Words: Conceptual model; fire fatalities; fire incident study;

studies; Lerup mapping technique; nursing homes.

87. Lerup, L. , Cronrath, D. and Liu, J. K. C. Human Behavior in Institutional

Fires and Its Design Implications. University of California at

Berkeley. National Bureau of Standards Report No. NBS-GCR-77-93

.

February 28, 1977. Final Report. NTIS Order No. PB-271980.

The object of this study was to derive design implications from the

analysis of behavior in institutional settings under fire. Data was drawn from 10 case studies of significant nursing home fires

which occurred in the U.S. between 1970 and 1974. This report

describes the model used for the analysis of the interaction between

human behavior and the fire. The "maps" for the 10 nursing home

fires which illustrate both human behavior and fire development are included. Data are also derived from 23 nursing home fire cases showing frequency and sequence of patient and staff life saving

actions (investigation, alarm, attack, flight, rescue, no action).

The major behavioral findings from the 10 case studies were: the

tendency for staff to call the fire department even when it has

already been notified, and the apparent need of staff to investigate

face-to-face and verify the existence and severity of the fire

emergency despite assurances from patients and even automatic alarm

systems. The report presents 7 major design implications. These

include: a feedback signal from the fire department to the staff,

and a nursing station located in each major compartment (derived

from the behavioral findings given above).

Index Words: Conceptual model; fire incident study; Lerup mapping

technique; nursing homes.

88. Lerup, L., Greenwood, D. and Burke, J. S. Mapping of Recurrent Behavior

Patterns in Institutional Buildings Under Fire: Ten Case Studies

of Nursing Facilities. University of California at Berkeley.

National Bureau of Standards Report No. NBS-GCR 76-73. July 1976.

Final Report. NTIS Order No. PB-257424.

This report presents a descriptive analysis, using a technique

called mapping, of ten previously conventionally reported case studies of fires in nursing homes which occurred between 1970 and

1974. Mapping refers to the graphic display of the state of the

physical setting and the location and activity of occupants at

certain crucial times during the fire incident. In the conceptual

83
framework of mapping, the development of the fire is divided into

segments called "realms," while the human behavior sequences are divided into "episodes," "Critical events" are division points

between "realms" in the description of the fire, and "decision

points" similarly divide "episodes" in the description of behavior.

With respect to the Harmar House Fire and the Geiger Home Fire, in

addition to the mappings, case study source notes are included

which provide examples of the nature of the information used to

produce the maps.

Index Words: Conceptual model; fire incident study; Lerup mapping

technique; nursing homes.

89. Levin, B.M., Editor. Fire and Life Safety for the Handicapped. National

Bureau of Standards Special Publication 585. Issued July 1980.

154 pp. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C.

GPO No. SN 003-003-02210-1.

Federal, state, and local regulations have worked to make buildings

used by the public increasingly accessible to the handicapped.

This has led to concern over whether there is adequate provision

for the life safety of the handicapped under fire conditions in

these same buildings. To address these life safety concerns, on November 26-29, 1979, a conference on Fire and Life Safety for the

Handicapped was held at the National Bureau of Standards in Gaithersburg,

Maryland. The work of the conference was accomplished by seven panels meeting in parallel sessions. Conference participants were assigned to panels in a manner to insure that each panel would have

members with a wide range of backgrounds (engineering, codes,

advocacy, etc.) so that ideas could be evaluated from a number of

perspectives

.

This publication is a product of the conference and is designed to

be a basic source document for this area of concern. It contains:

the reports of the seven panels which met during the conference

(overview, alarm systems, egress, refuge, self-protection, management

actions, and emergency service actions); the reports of six workshops

which were held in preparation for the conference during August and

September 1979 (codes and standards, emergency preparedness planning,

building design, education, consumer interests, and products);

conference speeches; and supplementary commentaries by some of the

participants

.

The panel reports define problem areas and issues and present

findings and recommendations. Major points are made regarding:

basic philosophy — The issue of the disabled person’s "right

to risk" and the effects of measures to make his risk "reasonable"

on non-disabled persons are considered.

84
research and data needs — Data is needed in such areas as the

basic performance capabilities and limitations of handicapped

people in coping with fire emergencies, the number and distribution

of handicapped persons in buildings, past experiences of the

handicapped in fire situations, and the interactions of handicapped

and non-handicapped persons in fire emergencies.

specific problem areas — For example, many current alarm

systems with their steady non-coded signal inhibit communications

between building occupants; any audible alarm system may

disorient the blind who depend on normal building noises for

navigation. Elevators used to give access to the disabled are generally not considered safe to use in fire emergencies.

implementation problems and strategies — Possible incentives

to buildings owners and managers to make building improvements

,

to carry out proper maintenance, and to include the handicapped

in emergency planning are described. The special educational

and training peeds of the handicapped and the responsible

managers are considered.

Index Words: Alarms; area of refuge; codes and standards; com- munications; evacuation; fire emergency planning; handicapped;

risk; training and education.

90. Levin, B.M. and Paulsen, R.L., Editors. Second International Seminar on Human Behavior in Fire Emergencies, October 29-November 1, 1978

Proceedings of Seminar. National Bureau of Standards Report No.

NBSIR 80-2070. Issued June 1980. 282 pp. NTIS Order No. PB 80-

204738.

This is a compilation of the papers given by researchers at this

conference. Each paper has been referenced separately under the

author’s name.

The authors are: Beard, A.N.; Berlin, G.N.; Burgun, J.A.; Canter, D .

;

Chandessais, C.; Collins, B.L. and Pierman, B.C.; Finucane, M. and

Marchant, E.W.; Haber, G.M. ; Helzer, S.G.; Horiuchi, S.; Kobayashi, M.;

Quarantelli, E.L.; Black, C.M.; Bryan, J.L.; Mawson, A.R.; Sime, J.D.;

Wenger, D.; Seeger, P.G. and John, R.; Stahl, F.I.; and Van Bogaert, A.F.

91. Loader, K. Behaviour of People in Fires. Fire Prevention, No. 127,

26-29, October 1978.

Reference is made to an article by N.C. Strother Smith (Fire Prevention,

No. 121) which concluded that appropriate training could considerably

reduce the unpredictability of behavior of people in fires. The

present article builds upon this previous article by presenting 5

85
additional case studies which support the value of training. The

fires occurred in: a mental hospital in Surrey, England on February 8, 1978; a supper club in Southgate, Kentucky on May 28,

1977; a multi-occupancy building in Manchester, England on January 20, 1977; a hotel in Amsterdam on May 9, 1977; and a house

in North Carolina on December 8, 1977. The author also outlines

factors in fire safety that need further consideration in controlled

situations (e.g., workplaces) and less easily controlled places

(e . g. , homes)

.

Index Words: Fire incident study; hospital; residential occupancy;

training and education.

92. Loftus, E.F. Words That Could Save Your Life. Psychology Today,

Vol . 13, No. 6, 102-103, 105-106, 110, 136-137, November 1979.

The relatively new notion that the wording and method of delivery

of evacuation messages for emergency situations in places of public

occupancy are of great importance, and the proper concern of social

psychologists, is considered.

After a fire aboard a San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit System

(BART) subway train in January 1979, the California Public Utilities

Commission ordered the tunnel closed until BART authorities could

demonstrate that the subway system was safe. An engineering firm

hired to draft a safety plan devised an evacuation message which

was found to be unsatisfactory. A test fire drill using this

message had been conducted, and it was concluded that the message

was too long and confusing. The author was hired to develop an improved message. Her message was judged to be an acceptable part

of an evacuation plan, although the message was not tested because

of the expense of running another drill. The evacuation plan was accepted, and service was resumed on BART.

The accepted message contained these elements: a statement of

exactly what was happening; the use of the term. ''Bart Central" to

give passengers the feeling that there was an authority in control;

the destination of the evacuation movement; and an announcement

that the instructions would be repeated to reassure passengers that

they would hear the instructions again, in case they missed an important detail. One problem remaining with the new system is

that the message is not prerecorded but is to be recited by train

drivers who could become emotional under stressful conditions.

In making her recommendations for BART, the author benefited from

her earlier work with J. Keating and N. Groner, developing evacuation

messages for high-rise buildings and hospitals. This earlier work

is also described in the article.

Index Words: Communications; evacuation; fire emergency planning;

high-rise buildings; hospitals.

86
93, Loftus, E.F. and Keating, J.P. The Psychology of Emergency Communications.

In: Proceedings of the Public Buildings Service International

Conference on Firesafety in High-Rise Buildings, November 1974.

Washington, D.C., General Services Administration, Public Buildings

Service, 1974.

The problem of emergency communications in high-rise buildings

where total evacuation is not considered desirable is considered.

The desirable components of an emergency communications system for

high-rise buildings are listed. These include pre-recorded voice

announcements which can be used automatically to respond to manual

or automatic fire alarms, and a voice system to modify or update

information. The 37-story Seattle Federal Building was designed to

incorporate these components.

Presented are sample dialogues for pre-recorded messages directed

towards people in elevators at the time a fire is reported, and

toward those on the fire floor and adjacent floors. The rationale

for the wording of the messages is given.

Another section of this report discusses the alerting tone which

precedes the voice messages and is designed to capture the attention

of the people. The recommendation is to use the Federal Communication

Commission warning signal (1000 Hz pure sine wave tone) as the

alerting tone.

Index Words: Alarms; communications; high-rise buildings.

94. Mande, I. A Standard Fire Alarm Signal, Temporal or "Slow Whoop."

Fire Journal, Vol. 69, No. 6, 25-29, November 1975.

This article contains the text of the speech given by Irving Mande,

Chairman of the NFPA Sectional Committee on Protective Signaling

Systems, at the 1975 NFPA Annual Meeting, May 12-16, Chicago. The

paper gives a history of the development of this committee’s proposal

which recommended a standard fire alarm signal based on a distinct

temporal pattern rather than a distinct sound. An advisory group,

the Committee on Hearing, Bioacoustics, and Biomechanics, of the

Assembly of Behavioral and Social Sciences of the National Research

Council, (CHABA) had concluded that to satisfy the requirement of

detectability, it would be best not to limit the standard to any one sound, such as the electronically generated "Slow Whoop," but

to allow the most suitable sound to be used at each location, and

to interrupt whatever sound was required in an easily recognizable

pattern.

Index Words: Alarms; codes and standards.

87
95 . MarUant, E.W. Human Behaviour in Fire. Fire, Vol. 70, No. 865, 76,

July 1977.

This is an account of an international meeting on human behavior

and fire safety held in the spring of 1977 at the University of

Surrey, England. Twenty researchers, representing the U.S., Canada,

Austria, and the United Kingdom, discussed recently completed or on-going research.

Some of the topics covered were: systematic analysis of fire

safety problems; observational research on crowd movement; computer

programs with relevance for escape route design; and, in particular,

fire safety in health care buildings.

Index Words: Hospitals; overview - behavior in fire.

96 . Merchant, E.W. Modelling Fire Safety and Risk. In: Fires and Human

Behaviour, edited by David Canter, Chapter 16, pp. 293-314.

New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1980. 338 pages.

A variety of models are used by researchers and fire protection

engineers to represent the complex real fire situation. These

models vary from representation of small parts of the combustion

process to representations of the full range of components in a fire situation—including people and building factors. Models can help the fire safety engineer to identify weaknesses in the relationships

between the components and determine which factors to adjust to

produce a desired level of safety with the least amount of resources. The information used in modelling can come from a variety of sources

such as statistics, experiments, observations of real fires, and

professional value judgments. Processing input information can involve a consideration by individuals or industry of what constitutes

an "acceptable" risk.

Some of the systems approaches to fire safety discussed are: the

fire death scenarios of Clarke and Ottoson, the National Bureau of

Standards (NBS) evaluation system for health care facilities, and

fault-tree analysis. The Clarke and Ottoson scenarios help identify

those areas of fire investigation which should be given a high

priority. The elements of the scenario are—type of loss, type of

occupancy, ignited agent, and ignition source. Using this analysis,

a major death scenario has been found to be the situation in residences

where smoking materials have ignited furnishings. The NBS evaluation

system may be considered a comparative model. It identifies various

occupancy factors which contribute to life safety risk and compares

this occupancy risk with the general level of safety provided by

various features of the building. The objective of the system is

to provide an alternative, which emphasizes performance capability,

to strict adherence to the construction standards specified in the

88
National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Life Safety Code.

There is also a brief discussion of fault-tree analysis. (See

reference: Beard, A.N. A Suggested Methodology for Approaching

Fire Safety and Its Relation to Fault-Tree Analysis . . . for an explanation of fault-tree analysis.)

Index Words: Codes and standards; conceptual model; egress model;

risk.

97 . Marchant, E.W. Some Aspects of Human Behaviour and Escape Route Design.

In: International Fire Protection Seminar, 5th. Vol. 2, pp. 85-

101. Sponsored by the Vereinigung zur Forderung des Deutschen

Brandschutzes e.V. Karlsruhe, West Germany, September 22-24, 1976.

This paper presents an analysis of escape from fire as a time

dependent activity. It describes sensory, psychological, physiological,

and physical factors contributing to the time for occupants to

perceive, react to, and escape from a fire situation. The concepts

of "effective number of people" and "time block analysis" are introduced as aids to escape design. The need for the concept of

effective number derives from the fact that a heterogeneous crowd

in a large retail store will contain a small percentage of mobility

impaired people who cannot move at the optimum rate. An effective

number of people (larger than actual) is a way of accommodating

these differences so that design intensities can be increased.

Time block analysis is a simple method of assessing the number (or

effective number of people) on any part of an escape route at any

time after commencement of evacuation.

Index Words: Egress model; evacuation; handicapped.

98. Mawson, A.R. Is the Concept of Panic Useful for Scientific Purposes?

In: Second International Seminar on Human Behavior in Fire Emergencies,

October 29 - November 1, 1978 — Proceedings of Seminar, pp. 208-

211. National Bureau of Standards Report No. NBSIR 80-2070.

Issued June 1980. NTIS Order No. PB 80 204738.

The term "panic" refers to fear and/or flight behavior that is

either (a) inappropriate and maladaptive, or (b) highly intense.

Both senses of the term are unreliable as descriptions of actual

events . There is the problem of what criteria to use in determining

the appropriateness of the behavior, and from whose point of view

the behavior is to be judged—that of the participant or the observer.

The term "flight" is recommended as an evaluatively-neutral substitute

for "panic." Current explanations of flight emphasize the perception

of imminent danger and limited escape routes. However, whether or not flight occurs in a situation of danger seems to depend largely

on the whereabouts of attachment objects (familiar persons and

89
places). If attachment objects are present In the situation, the

likelihood of flight is reduced; if they are absent, the probability

of flight is increased.*

*Annotation is based on the author’s abstract with modifications

and/or additions.

See also reference: Quarantelli, E.L. Five Papers...

Index Word: Panic.

99, McDaniel, M.A., Bickman, L., Edelman, P. and Herz, E. An Exploration of

Non-sampling Error in Fire Incident Surveys. Loyola University of

Chicago. National Bureau of Standards Report No. NBS-GCR-78-135

.

December 1977. Final Report. NTIS Order No. PB-284849.

This report provides information relevant to the problem of non- sampling error in fire incident surveys. It details survey findings

related to fire victims’ reporting biases of fire incidents. The

telephone numbers of household fire victims in a midwestern city,

during the months of September 1975 through August 1976, were obtained from the fire department. All eligible and cooperative

respondents were asked a series of questions concerning whether

they experienced a fire during the target interval and, if they had

a fire, they were questioned about it. Approximately one-half of

the respondents who, according to fire department records, had had

a fire failed to report it to the interviewer. Results indicated

that respondents who had more serious fires, reported the incident

to the interviewer significantly more often than respondents who

had less serious fires. Also, fires which occurred later in the 12

month reference period (i.e. , closer to the time of the interview)

were more often reported to the interviewer than those which occurred

earlier in the reference period. In most cases the fire reporters'

responses agreed with fire department records concerning the characteristics of the fire incident; however, total agreement was seldom

found .

*Annotation is based on authors’ abstract.

Index Words: Fire incident statistics; residential occupancies.

100. McDaniel, M.A., Bickman, L. , Edelman, P. and Herz, E. A Survey of Fire

Preparedness in a Midwestern City. Loyola University of Chicago.

National Bureau of Standards Report No. NBS-GCR-78-136 . December

1977. Final Report. NTIS Order No. PB-285458.

This report presents the results of a survey undertaken to explore

the nature and extent of fire preparedness in a midwestern city.

The survey explored respondents’ attitudes toward fire safety,

their knowledge of appropriate behavior in fire emergencies, and

90
their fire preparation practices and hardware as well as other

items relating to fire preparedness. The survey was administered

to persons from a randomly selected sample of households as well as to a sample of persons known to have been victims of fires. It was concluded that there were no apparent response differences between

the fire victims and the random sample of household respondents on the variables measured. While respondents reported favorable

attitudes toward training and prevention, a significant number

showed a lack of knowledge of appropriate behavior in fire emergencies

as measured by responses to scenarios.*

*Annotation is based on authors' abstract.

Index Words: Fire emergency planning; residential occupancies;

training and education.

101. Meisen, W. and Reinsel.R. Emergencies in Tall Buildings: The Designers

Respond to the Human Response. In: Human Response to Tall Buildings.

Conway, D.J., Editor. Ch. 23, pp. 302-309. Stroudsburg, PA,

Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross, Inc., 1977.

This chapter contains a paper prepared under the auspices of the

Public Buildings Service (PBS) of the U.S. General Services Administration

(GSA) . It contains a brief account of the 3 major high-rise

safety conferences sponsored by GSA since 1971. It gives the

essential elements of a GSA "Building Firesafety System." The

Seattle Federal Building was designed as a prototype of this system.

Categories of response to fire emergency are described. These

range from leadership role to complete withdrawal. The proportion

of persons in these categories is dependent upon an adaptive time

factor and a group composition factor. The authors list the essential

attributes of a Vocal Alarm System (VAS) which is part of the GSA

fire safety prototype. Examples of the language used in the VAS

and the rationale behind the choice of language are presented.

Details of the positive results of VAS field tests are also presented.

Index Words: Communications; fire emergency planning; high-rise

buildings

.

102. Nagarvala, P. Data Sources and Statistics on Human Behavioral Aspects

of Fire Safety in the U.S. A. Report No. UCB FRG WP 74-5. University

of California, Berkeley. August 1973.

This report gives data on dollar losses and causes of building

fires in the U.S. (1955-1970). It describes problems in gathering

statistics of fire-related deaths; e.g., deaths due to jumping from

high places to escape fire officially reported as being caused by

"injury" or "falls." It proposes sources from which information on human and monetary losses to fire may be obtained. Data indicate

that time between ignition and detection is far more crucial than

91
interval between detection and arrival of professional help with

respect to the probability of fire spread. Data are given on the

probability of fire spread beyond the room of origin for different

sources of ignition, and on the probability of a large fire (involving

losses over $24,000) vs. the probability of a fire spreading outside

its original ignition room for different construction/occupation

conditions. The relationship between fire loss and probability of

fire spread is such that even a small decrease in spread would pay

off well in terms of preventing large losses.

Index Words: Fire fatalities; fire incident statistics.

103 o Nober, E.H. , Peirce, H., Well, A., Johnson, C.C. and Clifton, C. Waking

Effectiveness of Household Smoke and Fire Detection Devices.

University of Massachusetts. National Bureau of Standards Report

No. NBS-GCR-80-284 . September 1980. Issued October 1980. NTIS

Order No. PB 81-127565.

This is a report on an experimental study of the waking effectiveness

of home smoke detector alarms of varying dBA levels, both under

quiet background conditions and with background noise.

"Normal-hearing, young adults were subjected to home smoke detector

alarm signals of 85, 70, and 55 dBA while asleep in their own bedrooms under quiet background conditions. In addition, other

adults received 70 and 55 dBA alarm signals masked by window air

conditioner background noise. Each person, upon awakening from the

alarm signal, was instructed to shut off the alarm and telephone

the local fire department. The 85, 70, and 55 dBA alarm levels

were all sufficient to awaken the subjects at varying hours of the

night and days of the week, under quiet background conditions.

While there were statistically significant differences in waking

times between 55 dBA and the other two alarm levels, the total

times never exceeded 115 seconds for the combined alarm shutoff and

the fire department telephone call at any alarm level. With background noise, waking times for the 70 and 55 dBA alarm levels

increased (85 dBA not tested) . At 70 dBA, the total time for the

alarm shutoff and the fire department telephone call ranged from 36

to 119 seconds. At 55 dBA, two persons failed to awaken and one person awakened after the four-minute test termination criteria.

For the remaining seven persons, the total time for the combined

alarm shutoff and the fire department telephone call ranged from 45

to 137 seconds."*

*This paragraph is the authors' abstract.

Index Words: Alarms; experimental study; residential occupancies;

smoke detectors.

92
10A. Ottoson, John Three Residential Fires-The Human Factor. Fire Journal,

Vol. 69, No. 3, 5-9, 105, May 1975.

This article provides details regarding three residential fires,

with fatalities occurring in two of these. An analysis of the 3

major factors involved in the safe escape of people from their

homes in event of fire is given with references to these three

fires. They are: (1) a detection system sensitive enough to

detect a fire still small enough to permit escape (unfortunately,

in the second fire the detector battery had been removed) ; (2)

adequate resident knowledge and planning (first fire - failure to

close door, second fire - each thought the other had rescued child);

and (3) fire protection equipment maintenance and Fire Department

capability. Residents must know how to escape without assistance

from fire fighters since rapidly growing fires often make Fire

Department rescue too late.

Index Words: Fire emergency planning; fire fatalities; fire

incident study; residential occupancies; smoke detectors.

105. Overboe, C.J. and Wang, Y.Y. Behavioral and Physical Characteristics of

Developmentally Disabled Individuals. Waisman Center, University

of Wiscons in-Madison. National Bureau of Standards Report No. NBSGCR-79-167. October 1978. Issued March 1979. Final Report. NTIS

Order No. PB 294970.

This report presents an overview of the behavioral and physical

characteristics of developmentally disabled individuals. The study

consisted of a comprehensive search and review of the research

literature related to mental retardation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy,

autism, and multiply-handicapping conditions. The goal of the

study was to provide a. baseline of information to assist decisionmakers in determining realistic requirements for fire/life safety

in community housing for the developmentally disabled.

Index Words: Boarding homes; handicapped.

106. Pauls, J.L. Building Evacuation: Research Findings and Recommendations.

In: Fires and Human Behaviour, edited by David Canter, Chapter 14,

pp. 251-275. New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1980. 338 pages.

Results from numerous studies of evacuations from high-rise office

buildings in Canada over the past ten years are considered. The

chapter focuses on factors affecting flow rates, and a formula for

predicting total evacuation time under certain specified conditions

is derived.

Confusions in earlier research which can lead to predictions of

93
unrealistically high flow rates are discussed: (1) Test results

from ideal experimental conditions may not be applicable to normal

situations. (2) There has been confusion between "peak or maximum

flows" and "sustained mean" flows. Flows that are only briefly

sustained maxima have been used for design or performance prediction.

Another possible source of error is to base calculations on "measured

stair width" as opposed to "effective stair width." Observations

of evacuations indicate that there is a border area near each wall

which is not used by evacuees. This area should be subtracted from

the stair width to obtain the "effective width" (measured width

minus 300 mm. or 12 in.).

Other factors affecting flow rate are discussed. The size of the

evacuation population was found to have a positive effect upon the

flow rate. An increase in evacuation population (persons/meter of

effective stair width) led to an increase in mean evacuation flow

(persons per sec. per meter of effective stair width) with the

effect being most pronounced for small populations. The wearing of

coats and the existence of rough textured stairway walls decrease

evacuation flow rates. Stairs that discharge through a main lobby

at ground level tend to have a higher evacuation population and a higher flow. Density of people on stairs is a factor which can be

expected to influence speeds and thus flow rates. The observed

effects of density on speeds and flow rates are presented graphically.

An optimum density for best flow is derived.

A formula for predicting total evacuation times based on observed

evacuation times for Canadian office buildings is given. The

formula applies to office buildings where the total evacuation

procedure* is used, the building is under 15 stories, and the

evacuation population is less than 800 persons per meter of effective

stair width. The model assumes capacity flows after an initial

delay period between the sounding of the alarm and a buildup to

capacity flow.

*See reference: Pauls, J.L. and Jones, B.K. Building Evacuation:

Research... for a definition of this procedure.

Index Words: Egress model; experimental studies; evacuation; fire

drills; high-rise buildings.

94
106a. Pauls, J.L. Management and Movement of Building Occupants in Emergencies.

National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa. Report No. NRCC 16845,

DBR Paper No. 788, 1977.

This paper discusses evacuation procedures in high-rise buildings

and large public assembly buildings such as grandstands and arenas. Key findings from Canadian studies are presented, and some predictive

models, using empirically derived relations, are illustrated.

Described are procedures for evacuation by stairs alone (total and

selective evacuations) and by a combination of stairs and elevators

(staged evacuation). In the latter case, movement is by stairway

to a refuge floor, and then by express elevator to ground floor.

Also presented are some cautions regarding the setting up of fire

safety plans in any occupancy:

Don't overplan—the plan should state guidelines and principles

rather than specifics. "...a massive disaster plan is no plan at

all if no one knows what it says..."

Plans should be tried out to uncover minor but crucial flaws.

In holding drills, distinguish between the goal of training

and education, and the goal of evaluation. In pre-announced drills

take time to communicate general explanations in addition to specific

directives. Other drills, unannounced, can be held to evaluate

occupant preparedness, evacuation times, etc.

Index Words: Egress model; evacuation; fire drills; fire emergency

planning; high-rise buildings; training and education.

107. Pauls, J.L. Movement of People in Building Evacuations. In: Human

Response to Tall Buildings. Conway, D.J., Editor. Ch. 21, pp. 281-

292. Stroudsburg, PA, Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross, Inc., 1977.

The author conducted observations between 1970 and 1974 of some 40

test evacuations of office buildings between 8 and 29 stories in

height. A majority of these evacuations were total evacuations in

95
which all occupants attempted to leave the building more or less

simultaneously by way of exit stairs. Presented are findings and

interrelationships with regard to such variables as density and

personal space, speed of descent, flow, stairway width and evacuation

time. There were some observations of more selective procedures in

which particular floors were cleared in a predetermined sequence

starting with the presumed fire area.

Index Words: Evacuation; fire drills; high-rise buildings.

108 . Pauls, J.L. and Jones, B.K. Building Evacuation: Research Methods and

Case Studies. In: Fires and Human Behaviour, edited by David

Canter, Chapter 13, pp. 227-249. New York, John Wiley & Sons,

1980. 338 pages.

Two case studies of large scale evacuation drills conducted without

prior warning in government high-rise, office buildings in Ottawa,

Canada are considered in detail. One case study involved the

traditional total evacuation method; the other considered an early

trial of the selective, sequential approach to evacuation of a building. The authors believe that there is enough similarity

between conditions in these drills and those in a real emergency to

make findings from these drills relevant to an understanding of

actual emergencies. Participants in drills can be unsure of

whether there is a real emergency or even conclude there is one when none exists (as was the case for some occupants in the selective

evacuation case study). Hence, their behaviors can be considered

representative of what might occur in some real emergencies. In one actual fire incident, in a building in which a drill had been

observed earlier, the behavior of occupants as reported by evacuees

and wardens was essentially the same as it had been observed in the

drill.

The total evacuation drill conducted in "Building A" in October

1972 involved 1453 able-bodied persons using four perimeter exit

stairs and 73 persons (those who were disabled, assistants, and some fire wardens) using the central stair. There were 14 typical

office floors above ground level. Seventeen observers were used

five at the exit discharges and twelve who moved with the evacuees. Observers were given detailed instructions and portable cassette

recorders to record all observations during the drill. From these

observations, data on speed of descent, density of people, and flow

from the exit discharge points is graphically presented. An attempt

by the building emergency plan to evenly distribute occupants to

the four perimeter exits did not work out. Hence, the times measured

for all evacuees (except stragglers separated from the main flow)

to reach ground level at the various exits varied. The shortest

time was 6.6 minutes; the longest, 9.3; and the average time was

7.8 minutes. The average time compared well with a predicted time

96
of 7.0 minutes. (See previous reference: Pauls, J.L. , Building

Evacuation: Research Findings ... for an account of the method

used to predict evacuation time.)

"Building B," a 21 story office building was one of the first in

Ottawa to have a selective, sequential evacuation procedure. With

a large population and only two exit stairs, it would have required

about 20 minutes to totally evacuate, an unacceptably long time.

In selective evacuation, the fire floor is evacuated immediately.

If conditions warrant it, the two floors immediately adjacent are evacuated next, then others, if necessary, starting from the top of

the building. No extensive training in this new procedure was given to building occupants prior to this May 1971 drill. The

drill was held without prior warning to all but a few occupants

the chief fire warden and some assistants. There were both stationary

and moving observers. Their observations plus the use of the

public address and emergency telephone systems were recorded. In

addition, 200 copies of a questionnaire were distributed, of which

176 were returned by people who had taken part in the evacuation.

In the evacuation, there were 2006 persons using the stairs and

approximately 70 disabled using the elevator. The observed evacuation

time of 29.5 minutes can be compared with an adjusted prediction

time of 26.6 minutes. This extra time used in the drill can partially

be explained by the excessive and premature use of one of the two

exits. Problems were encountered with the communications system,

e.g., the initial public address system announcement was not carried

due to an incorrectly set control, and the message when finally

carried was ambiguous, not making it clear that only those on the

third "fire" floor were to evacuate immediately. The problems

encountered in this evacuation are not as likely to occur now in

government-occupied office buildings in Ottawa since rigorous

training programs and testing procedures have been introduced.

The authors recommend that, in this selective evacuation procedure,

there be less centralized control. Instead of someone at the

central control determining when the next floor in the sequence

should begin evacuation, the warden of the floor where evacuation

has been completed could directly inform the next floor in the

sequence to evacuate. Central control personnel could monitor this

activity and make public address announcements to floors where

evacuation is to begin.

Index Words: Communications; evacuation; fire drills; fire emergency

planning; handicapped; high-rise buildings; training and education.

109. Pauls, J.L. and Jones, B.K. Research in Human Behavior. Fire Journal,

Vol. 74, No. 3, 35-41, May 1980.

This is a good overview of the research and literature to date in

the field of human behavior in fire emergencies. The interest and

effort in this field increased markedly in the 1970's following the

publication of Wood's pioneer survey study on "The Behaviour of

97
People in Fires" in 1972. Research on human behavior related to

fire, though increasing, still represents only a small percentage

of the total fire research effort.

Major findings with regard to the various aspects of behavior in

fires are discussed. Careless smoking habits and alcohol consumption

greatly influence fire ignition and survival possibilities. People

tend to do the familiar in fire emergencies - they take on familiar

roles, they use familiar exits. Panic, in the sense of antisocial,

aggressive, non-adaptive behavior is a rarity rather than the rule.

Immediate well-organized evacuation appears to be the exception

rather than the rule when people hear a fire alarm.

The authors emphasize the importance of regarding behavior in fires

as a complex process, and point out specific areas in which failure

to see this complexity can result in erroneous assumptions. They

quote the definition of behavior in fire by Canter, Breaux, and

Sime: "...behavior in fires can be understood as a 'logical'

attempt to deal with a complex, rapidly changing situation in which

minimal information for action is available." This contrasts with

some earlier conceptions of people's responses to fire as being

largely "instinctive" panic type reactions.

The close relationship between normal occupancy activities and

emergency behavior has implications for design and management which

need to be considered. For example, codes incorrectly credit exit

capacity to stairs regardless of normal use despite the fact than an exit that is not normally used or not convenient will carry

significantly fewer people in evacuations. Pauls' work (observing

evacuation drills in Ottawa office buildings) exposed errors in the

traditional 22 inch unit-exit-width basis for exit rules. He

believes that "we should think of evacuation-time predictions—even those based on realistic, conservative flow assumptions—as minimums

and not maximums, as is sometimes argued."

Index Words: Codes and standards; evacuation; literature review;

overview - behavior in fire; panic.

110. Peterson, C.E. Geiger Nursing Home Fire. Fire Journal, Vol. 66, No. 1,

33-35, 38, January 1972.

The fire in the Geiger Nursing Home in Texas Township, Pennsylvania,

on October 19, 1971, resulted in the deaths of all 15 of its elderly

residents. All but one of the patients had been ambulatory. The

fire originated in a clothes dryer in a utility room with no door on it. The one licensed practical nurse on duty was unable by

shouting to arouse the patients, all of whom had been sedated for

the night. Unsuccessful in her attempts to reach the fire department

by telephoning from the nurses' station, she ran to the nearest

residence, and the fire department was called from there. Although

the fire department responded promptly, it was not in time to save any of the patients' lives.

Index Words: Fire fatalities; fire incident study; nursing homes.

98
110a. Peterson, C.E. 25 Die in "Boarding House" Fire. Fire Journal, Vol. 73,

No. 6, 26-28, 30-33, 90, November 1979.

A fatal fire occurred on April 2, 1979, at the Wayside Inn, a licensed boarding house, near Farmington, Missouri. Twenty-five of

the 37 residents were killed. The fire, probably electrical in

origin, began sometime before 4:30 a.m. in the attic over the

kitchen of this one-story, wood frame building.

The residents had ranged in age from 24 to 96 years of age. Some

were deinstitutionalized mental patients, others were discharged

veterans' hospital patients, and the remainder were individuals who

chose to live at the Wayside Inn rather than maintain a separate

residence for themselves. All of the residents were ambulatory,

and certified as being able to care for themselves, needing only

occasional personal services.

The licensure requirements for the facility stipulated that the

facility must conform to the fire regulations of the location.

However, in this case, no regulations were in effect because the

facility was located in unincorporated county area, and there were

no general state requirements.

It was concluded from this study of the fire that these three

factors led to the large number of fatalities: 1) the undivided

attic space through which the fire traveled in its initial stages,

2) the lack of a complete fire detection system with interconnected

smoke detectors tied into the evacuation alarm, which would have

given early notification of the fire, and 3) Hack of fire emergency

planning and training of staff and residents. Many of the residents

were found in various states of dress, indicating they spent time

trying to dress rather than immediately leaving the building.

Index Words: Boarding home; codes and standards; fire fatalities;

fire incident study; smoke detectors; training and education.

99
Pesoldt , V.J. and Van Cott, H.P. Arousal from Sleep by Emergency Alarms:

Implications from the Scientific Literature. National Bureau of

Standards Interagency Report No. NBSIR-78-1484 (HEW). June 1978.

Final Report. NTIS Order No. PB-284044.

This report reviews the sleep research and other literature pertaining

to arousal from sleep by external auditory signals with emphasis on findings relevant for a nursing home population. Various factors

which influence whether an alarm will produce arousal are considered.

These include the intensity and other characteristics of the sound

and the subject's age, sensory capacities, drug use, and stage of

sleep as well as the time of night and meaningfulness of the sound

for the subject. The problem of performance following abrupt

arousal is also considered.

It is concluded that the currently available data do not provide an adequate basis for specifying the signal characteristics which will

offer a high assurance of awakening a sleeping population. However,

some generalizations can be made at this point which have value as hypotheses for future research efforts. For example, in some ways,

older people may be considered easier to awaken than younger subjects

due to the relatively lower proportion of their sleeping time spent

in the stages of deep sleep and to the greater frequency of spontaneous

arousals with increasing age. This presumed advantage may be

offset by the impaired sensory functioning which also may accompany

aging. Another finding is that stimuli which have personal meaning

may produce arousal at lower levels of intensity than neutral

stimuli. Further, previously neutral stimuli can obtain significance

through learning or instruction.

Index Words: Alarms; literature review; nursing homes; training

and education.

112 . Phillips, A.W. The Effects of Smoke on Human Behavior—A Review of the

Literature. Fire Journal, Vol. 72, No. 3, 69-71, 74-77, 122-123,

May 1978.

This discussion of the effects of smoke on human behavior is broad

in scope; it considers physical and physiological effects of smoke

which can be expected to influence behavior, and presents anecdotal

100
and survey results regarding human behavior in fire.

The physical effects of both visible smoke (particulate matter) and

invisible smoke (fire gases) are considered. Although there is

considerable data on exposure to gases inhaled singly for prolonged

exposures, there is a lack of data on the complex problem of the

effect of fire gases in combination (a common fire situation) on

the human body. While knowledge of the physical and physiological

effects of gases in combination is poor, knowledge of the psychological

and behavioral effects of exposure to combinations of gases is

virtually nonexistent.

Described are the known physical effects of the various types of

individual hazardous gases: pulmonary irritants, hypnotic, narcotic,

and anesthetic gases; and "undetected killers" like carbon monoxide.

Oxygen deprivation may cause fire victims to behave in an irrational

manner

.

How a person will respond in a smoke environment (provided the

smoke is not totally disabling) depends on various factors such as familiarity with the building, training, past fire experience, and

the presence of loved ones. Such factors are discussed in this

article

.

Data relevant to movement through smoke from P.G. Wood's comprehensive

study of behavior in fires is given: People were willing to reenter

buildings even in the presence of smoke; people tended to move

through smoke farther when close members of the family were not

present, etc.

Index Words: Evacuation; literature review; panic; smoke, influence of;

toxic gases, influence of.

113. Pierman, B.C. and Lerner, N.D. Testing Symbols for Fire Situations.

Fire Command, Vol. 47, No. 3, 12-13, March 1980.

The National Bureau of Standards has cooperated with the NFPA

Firesafety Symbols Committee in the development and testing of

standardized symbols for use in fire situations. Basically, two

sets of symbols have been considered: (1) fire safety symbols for

alerting building occupants regarding egress, fire fighting, and

general fire safety, and (2) fire fighting symbols to aid fire

fighters in locating and identifying equipment and utilities. The

article describes the initial testing of proposed International

Standards Organization (ISO) standards for fire safety symbols

directed primarily at building occupants. The work of the NFPA

Firesafety Symbols Committee in developing and testing symbols

directed at firefighters (like those for identifying standpipe

connections, automatic sprinkler control valves, and electric

shutoff panels) is also described.

Index Words: Codes and standards; communications.

101
14, Predtechenskii , V.M. and Milinskii, A. I. Planning for Foot Traffic Flow

in Buildings. Moscow, Stroiizdat Publishers, 1969. Translated

from Russian. Published for the National Bureau of Standards, U.S.

Department of Commerce, and the National Science Foundation, Washington,

D. C. by Amerind Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 1978. 240 pp.

This is a highly technical book on research done in the Soviet

Union on movement of people in public buildings.

"'During the last 30 years, experimental and theoretical studies on the movement of people in public buildings have been conducted in

the Soviet Union... This research revealed certain patterns governing

the flow of people and led to an understanding of the basic principles

involved. The results gave architects and builders entirely new requirements for the standardization calculation and selection of

optimum architectural designs for public buildings with considerable

foot traf fic. . .This book presents the methodology and results of

experimental and theoretical study of the movement of people, the

fundamentals of the theory and the calculation of the process, as well as practical recommendations for incorporating the findings in

the planning and design of public buildings."*

*excerpted from the book’s preface

Index Words: Evacuation; experimental studies.

15. Quarantelli, E.L. Five Papers from a Panel Session on Panic. In:

Second International Seminar on Human Behavior in Fire Emergencies,

October 29 - November 1, 1978 — Proceedings of Seminar, p. 203.

National Bureau of Standards Report No. NBSIR 80-2070. Issued

June 1980. NTIS Order No. PB 80 204738.

E. L. Quarantelli of the Ohio State University Disaster Research

Center chaired a panel on "panic" at an international seminar on human behavior in fire emergencies. The five panelists were asked

by Mr. Quarantelli to reply in their individual presentations to

these questions:

1) Do you see the concept of panic as a useful one for study

purposes?

2) How do you conceptualize panic and what are the factors responsible

for the phenomena?

3) What are both the research consequences and practical implications

of thinking about panic in the way you do?

The panelists were: Corinne Black of Princeton University, John

Bryan of the University of Maryland, A.R. Mawson of Loyola University

in New Orleans, Jonathon Sime of the University of Surrey, England,

102
and Dennis Wenger of the University of Delaware.

For summaries of the panelists remarks see references:

Black, C.M. Panic: Some Anthropological Insights...

Bryan, J.L. Panic or Non-Adaptive Behavior in the Fire Incident...

Mawson, A.R. Is the Concept of Panic Useful for Scientific Purposes?...

Sime, J.D. The Concept of 'Panic in Fires': A Brief Appraisal...

Wenger, D. Some Observations on the Nature of Panic Behavior:

A Normative Orientation...

Index Word: Panic.

116. Quarantelli, E.L. Panic Behavior: Some Empirical Observations. In:

Human P.esponse to Tall Buildings. Conway, D.J., Editor. Ch. 27,

pp. 336-349. Stroudsburg, PA, Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross, Inc.,

1977.

The common view is that people will react irrationally in extreme

stress situations. Examples of official "inaction" based on this

belief are detailed. Based on research done since early 1950 's at

the Ohio State University Disaster Research Center (author's location)

and at other centers throughout the world, there is general consensus among researchers that the common view is false and that behavior

under extreme stress is relatively controlled and rational.

A definition of panic as an acute fear reaction marked by flight

behavior is expanded upon. Covert and overt features are identified.

Described are conditions for panic such as: perception of possible

entrapment, sense of powerlessness, and feeling of sole dependency

upon oneself in a crisis.

Index Word: Panic.

117. Ramey-Smith, A.M. and Fechter, J.V. Group Homes for the Developmentally

Disabled: Case Histories of Demographics, Household Activities,

and Room Use. National Bureau of Standards Report No. NBSIR 79-

1727. Final Report. October 1978. Issued April 1979. NTIS Order

No. PB 295037.

The objective of this study was to provide data useful for the

development of fire/life safety requirements appropriate for group

homes for the developmentally disabled. Nine geographically dispersed

group homes, housing between 5 and 40 residents, were included in

the study.

Survey techniques were used to compile summary data on residents'

room use and activities, characteristics of the group home facilities,

and demographics of the supervisors and residents. The data for

103
room use and activities of developmentally disabled residents are compared to results available for the normal population. It was concluded that residents of group homes and residents of normal

households do not differ appreciably in their use of rooms within

the respective households, and that the developmentally disabled

engage in the same general types of activities as the normal population

Data are also presented on evacuation times in fire drills held at

the group homes. In all cases the evacuation times were less than

three minutes. The authors conclude that education and practice in

fire evacuation is essential and should involve experience with

multiple escape routes, blocked exits, and meeting at an assigned area outside the facility. However, a point of diminishing returns

may be reached when fire drills are held too frequently, with

residents becoming desensitized to the necessity of immediate

evacuation

.

Index Words: Boarding homes; evacuation; fire drills; handicapped;

training and education.

118 . Rubin, A. I. and Cohen, A. Occupant Behavior in Building Fires. National

Bureau of Standards Report No. TN-818. Issued February 1974. U.S.

Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. SD Catalog No. C13.46.818

This is an overview of the problem of fire safety in high-rise

buildings, with emphasis on the need to develop fire safety systems

which are genuinely responsive to occupants' needs and realistically

reflect human capabilities and liabilities. There is a discussion

of the value of a "performance" approach to fire safety with its use of system analysis to overcome the constraints inherent in a "prescriptive" approach which tends to stifle innovative solutions.

Some literature specific to behavior of people in fires is reviewed

as well as some background literature on behavior under stress or in disasters in general. The findings of the Airlie House Conference

on Fire Safety in High-Rise Buildings (April 1971) on design/management

problems are reviewed.

Index Words: Fire emergency planning; high-rise buildings; literature

review.

119 . Scanlon, Joseph Human Behavior in a Fatal Apartment Fire—Research

Problems and Findings. Fire Journal, Vol. 73, No. 3, 76-79, 122-

123, May 1979.

A study of the Fort Garry Court apartment fire which occurred on February 21, 1976 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and which resulted

in 5 fatalities (ages 60-90) was done by the Emergency Communications

Research Unit (ECRU) at Carleton University as part of a continuous

study of behavior in response to unexpected events.

104
120 .

This article describes the special problems encountered and methods

used in locating those persons who were in the building at the time

of the fire. Checking techniques were used to try to verify the

accounts of those who were found and interviewed: i.e., occupants’

accounts were compared to firemen's accounts and accounts were

checked against the physical layout of the building (difficult

because of the irrational layout of the building)

.

Some findings and conclusions were: false alarms may condition

people to reject the alarm alone as a meaningful warning—often

people went to look for confirming evidence of a fire; many left

slowly—females more so than males; people did re-enter to get

possessions after reaching safety even after having seen smoke and

flames while outside in the courtyard; and those who had left

immediately were most likely to go back in after being outside.

ECRU's findings in this study are compared and sometimes contrasted

with those of other researchers (Wood, Bickman, Bryan) in work done

elsewhere.

Index Words: Alarms; fire fatalities; fire incident study; residential

occupancies

.

Sears, Jr., A.B. Nursing Home Fire. Fire Journal, Vol. 64, No. 3, 5-9,

May 1970.

This is an account of a disastrous fire in a modern one-story

nursing home built almost entirely of noncombustible materials.

The fire in the Harmar House Convalescent Home in Marietta, Ohio on January 9, 1970 resulted in the deaths of 31 out of the 46 patients,

with smoke inhalation being listed as the cause of most of the

deaths

.

The fire originated in a wastebasket in a patient room and was detected through the activation of the heat detection system which

sounded an alarm at the nurses' station. There was, however, no direct connection from the detection system to the Fire Department,

and there was a delay in alerting the Fire Department. Staff

removed the patient from the room of fire origin but neglected to

close the door behind them. Flames spread rapidly down the hallway.

There were no smokestop partitions in the corridors of the building

to prevent the spread of smoke to the other corridors of the building.

Many of the 21 who died during the fire were sleeping in rooms with

the doors left open. Two patients who were sleeping in a room with

the door closed just two rooms away from the room of fire origin

survived

.

See the following entry in this bibliography for an account of

modifications made in this nursing home when remodeled after the

105
fire in an effort to prevent future tragedies.

Index Words: Fire fatalities; fire incident study; nursing home.

121. Sears, Jr., A.B. Nursing Home Fire Follow-Up. Fire Journal, Vol. 65,

No. 2, 37-39, March 1971.

Described are the modifications made in the Harmar House Convalescent

Home in Marietta, Ohio after the fire on January 9, 1970 which took

the lives of 31 elderly patients. Three sets of smokestop doors

were added, separating each of the three patient room wings from

the center section. They close automatically if a detector or sprinkler operates. The previous heat detection system was replaced

by a combination heat and smoke detection system in order to give

earlier warning of fires that generate smoke but not much heat

during the early stages. An automatic sprinkler system, protecting

the entire building including closets and lavatory facilities in

patient rooms, was installed. The rubber-backed nylon floor covering

which was the principal source of smoke in the fatal fire was replaced with non-rubber-backed nylon.

Index Words: Fire fatalities; fire incident study; nursing home;

smoke detectors; sprinklers.

122. Seeger, P.G. and John, R. Evacuation Tests in High-Rise Office

Buildings and in Large 2-Story Buildings. In: Second International

Seminar on Human Behavior in Fire Emergencies, October 29 - November 1,

1978 — Proceedings of Seminar, pp. 221-247. National Bureau of

Standards Report No. NBSIR 80-2070. Issued June 1980.

NTIS Order No. PB 80-204738.

This study reports on evacuation tests carried out in three highrise administration buildings and three large-area integrated

schools in cooperation with the professional fire brigades in Koln,

Dusseldorf and Hamburg in October 1976. Video cameras were used to

record the movement flows of people. From these video records, the

factors of density of people and rate of flow of people were determined.

In the evacuation tests in the three administration buildings, only

the flow of people on staircases was studied, while in the three

integrated schools, the flow of people in corridors was investigated.

Data showing rate of flow of people as a function of density of

people for the various test settings are presented graphically.

Values for evacuation times found in these evacuation tests are compared with the results predicted by three theoretical calculation

methods. The calculated values, using all three methods, were below the measured values. This can partly be explained by the

fact that none of the calculation methods allows for a delay time

between the time of the alarm sounding and the beginning of the

evacuation. However, if an allowance for reaction time is added to

106
the values calculated using the methods of Predtetschenski et al

and Muller, then the resultant values are in close agreement with

the real evacuation times obtained during the evacuation tests in

the three administration buildings.*

*Annotation is authors’ abstract.

Index Words: Egress model; evacuation; fire drills; high-rise

buildings; schools.

123 o Sharry, J.A. Another Pennsylvania Nursing Home Fire. Fire Journal,

Vol. 68, No. 3, 11-14, May 1974.

The fire in the Caley Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Wayne,

Pennsylvania on December 4, 1973 took the lives of 15 out of the 96

patients. It originated in a clothes closet in a patient room in an old section of the facility and was detected by a nonambulatory

occupant who alerted her roommate. The roommate walked to the

nurses' station to report the fire. The initial evacuation was by

two maintenance men who carried out patients until the fire became

so intense it caused flashover into the lobby. Two patients in the

fire area could not be reached by firefighters before extinguishment and were found dead.

The remaining 13 of the 15 fatalities were victims of smoke inhalation

and occupied the new wings which were not directly involved in the

fire. There was a lack of smokestop doors in the wall separating

the new and old sections of the building, and this departure from

the NFPA 1967 Life Safety Code appears to have been the most critical

in contributing to the large loss of life.

Index Words: Codes and standards; fire fatalities; fire incident

study; nursing home.

124. Shavit, G. Evacuation: Testing the Effect of Voice-Message Formats.

ASHRAE Journal, 38-41, July 1978.

The article is concerned with the alarm function in fire management

in high-rise buildings. The author is Chairman of Advanced Engineering,

Honeywell, Inc. Arlington Heights, IL. The research work was done

with the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois.

A set of experiments was conducted to determine the most effective

attention-getting signals. Eight different stimuli were selected

and used in three different experimental settings to study responses

to the signals under different levels of a participant’s involvement

with his surroundings and the ambient noise levels. An alarm

beeping sound was found to be the optimal alerting signal.

107
Other experiments were designed to identify desirable charcteristcs

of accompanying voice messages. Factors such as brevity, identification

of authority figure, and clarity were considered. It was found

that latency of response correlated quite highly with message

length, which suggests the need to keep the message brief so that

occupants can and will act sooner. Results showed that less than

half of the meaningful bits of information were recalled. It was found that persons just as readily followed instructions to move up

to safety as to move down.

Index Words: Alarms; communications; experimental studies; high-rise

buildings

.

125 , Sime, J.D. The Concept of ’Panic. 1 In: Fires and Human Behaviour,

edited by David Canter, Chapter 5, pp. 63-81. New York, John Wiley

& Sons, 1980. 338 pages.

This is a discussion of the widespread, often misleading, use of

the term "panic" in the newspapers, in building regulations and the

design literature, and in the academic literature, to describe the

typical human response to a fire situation. The term panic has

been used to mean the highly emotional, automatic response to

noxious stimuli such as smoke and flames, usually in the form of

irrational, disorganized flight behavior. The author feels that

this oversimplification of human responses to a fire situation has

been harmful in that it has replaced a more systematic psychological appraisal of the full range of behaviors of people in fires.

Newspaper accounts tend to regard an unfavorable outcome of a fire

as automatic evidence that "panic" occurred and produced the outcome.

The British press attributed the deaths in the Beverly Hills Supper

Club fire in Kentucky (1977) to panic; in contrast, a well-researched

National Fire Protection Association (U.S.) report attributed the

deaths to other human factors (delay in notification of the occupants)

as well as to building factors. In French and British design and

regulatory literature, panic is regarded as the major psychological

factor contributing to disasters. This assumption has led to

strategies in which provision of information to the general public

regarding a fire is delayed or minimized. An example of such a strategy is the dual alarm system in department stores in Britain,

in which an alarm sounds first in the staff area. Delay in notification

can have harmful consequences, as in the Beverly Hills fire and the

Summerland fire. Isle of Man (1973).

In a general discussion of the concept of panic, the author strongly

objects to the tendency to label all flight behavior as panic,

especially when rapid, somewhat disorganized flight may be the only

rational option, and he objects to the failure to take into account

the individual’s limited perspectives and knowledge in a fire. It

is inappropriate to label a peron’s behavior as irrational for not

108
using an alternate available exit, if the person has not been

previously made aware of the existence of this exit.

Index Words: Alarms; codes and standards; fire incident study;

panic

.

126. Sime, J.D. The Concept of 'Panic in Fires': A Brief Appraisal. In:

Second International Seminar on Human Behavior in Fire Emergencies,

October 29 - November 1, 1978 — Proceedings of Seminar, pp. 211-

214. National Bureau of Standards Report No. NBSIR 80-2070.

Issued June 1980. NTIS Order No. PB 80 204738.

The author argues that rather than considering panic as a definable

phenomenon that can be readily measured, more attention should be

directed to the way the concept is used. The concept figures

prominently as a justification for certain fire safety measures.

It is also used retrospectively to explain apparently inappropriate

behavior in fires. Basic weaknesses in the way the concept is used

are considered, in particular the differing perspectives of fire

victim and observer of the outcome of a fire tragedy. Confusions

also arise because the evidence for panic is usually based on "external criteria" which define the most efficient pattern of

behavior in the situation. Behavior should be assessed against

"internal criteria," that is, the alternative courses of action

which individuals could have been aware of at the time of their

involvement in a fire. The most important practical implication of

the way the concept has been used concerns the information people

in a public building on fire are given about the potential danger.

Research shows that people need sufficient information about a fire

before they can or are prepared to leave a building. An emphasis

on avoiding "panic" contributes to delays in providing this information.

The kind of rapid flight behaviour associated retrospectively with

panic then becomes necessary if people are to have any chance of

escape.*

*Annotation is based on the author's abstract with modifications

and additions.

See also reference: Quarantelli, E.L. Five Papers...

Index Word: Panic.

127. Stahl, Fred I. BFIRES/Version 2: Documentation of Program Modifications.

National Bureau of Standards Report No. NBSIR 80-1982. March 1980.

NTIS Order No. PB 80-169949.

This report documents recent modifications to BFIRES, a computer

program designed to simulate the emergency egress behavior of

building occupants during fires.

109
Discussed are several limitations to the use of the previous BFIRES/

VERSION 1. (See Stahl, F.I. NBSIR 79-1713, Final Report on the

"BFIRES/VERSION 1" Computer Simulation of Emergency Egress Behavior

During Fires: Calibration and Analysis.) Chief among these are

the program's inability to simulate rescue activities during fire

events, and to simulate direct interactions between occupant behavior

and toxic qualities of smoke-filled environments. This report

documents a revised program, BFIRES/VERSION 2, which contains new subroutines developed to address these problems. These subroutines

are grouped into two modules: (1) a ’'smoke' 1 module designed to

simulate the experience of inhabiting a smoke filled environment,

and (2) a "rescue" module intended to permit the rescue of physically

immobile occupants.

This report is meant as a companion to the earlier publication. As

a convenience to the reader, however, a complete FORTRAN listing of

BFIRES is provided in the appendix.*

*Annotation is based on author's abstract with additions.

Index Words: Computer model; egress model; handicapped.

328. Stahl, F.I. A Computer Simulation of Human Behavior in Building Fires:

Interim Report. National Bureau of Standards Report No. NBSIR 78-

1514. Issued September 1978. March 13, 1978. NTIS Order No. PB289 272.

This interim report presents the conceptual development, structure,

and function of BFIRES, a computer program designed to simulate

human movement behavior during building fires. It can aid in the

prediction of escape times and escape routes of building occupants

during fires.

The basic model underlying BFIRES is derived from a non-stationary

,

discrete time Markov Process. This model postulates that occupants

construct their emergency responses and behavioral decisions dynamically,

in response to continually changing social and environmental information

fields. The simulation of this process is accomplished through the

BFIRES computer program written in FORTRAN V. The report contains

the flow diagrams for the executive program and the various subroutines

as well as the FORTRAN V listing of the program.*

*Annotation is based on the author's abstract with additions.

Index Words: Computer model; egress model.

110
129. Stahl, F.I. Final Report on the "BFIRES/Version 1" Computer Simulation

of Emergency Egress Behavior During Fires: Calibration and Analysis.

National Bureau of Standards Interagency Report No. NBSIR 79-1713.

October 15, 1978. Issued March 1979. Final Report. NTIS Order

No. PB-295063

.

This report is the product of an effort to develop and analyze a computer simulation of human egress behavior during fires. It

documents computer simulation experiments designed to calibrate and

analyze this computer program (BFIRES/Version 1)

.

The findings concerning the calibration and sensitivity of BFIRES

are discussed. In particular, it is shown that: (a) a variety of

general egress situations may be simulated through the application

of BFIRES; (b) every such event is unique, and is defined by the

set of user-supplied input parameter values which describe the

building, the threat, and the occupants; (c) BFIRES may be used in

simulated environments of known (or desired) spatial dimension, and

events of known (or desired) temporal duration; and (d) BFIRES

simulation outcomes are sensitive to variations in a number of

parameters of immediate interest to the building design and regulatory

communities .

*Annotation is based on author’s abstract.

Index Words: Computer model; egress model.

130. Stahl, F.I. Human Response to Fire: Three Designs for Research.

National Bureau of Standards Interagency Report No. NBSIR 78-1508.

March 1978. Interim Report. NTIS Order No. PB-284959.

The author feels that there is a need for more rigorous experimental

designs in studies of occupant response to fires. He accordingly

developed three sample research designs, utilizing both exploratory

and field experimental approaches.

The role of the experience survey and structured interview as exploratory approaches which may serve to identify hypotheses for

further more focused studies is discussed.

Two possible field-experimental designs are detailed. One would

analyze building occupants’ predispositions for various responses

in fire emergencies and consider factors such as sex, functional

role, location within a building, and context, i.e., at home vs. at

work. (An individual’s predispositions for response to an emergency

could vary with different contexts.)

A second field-experimental design would relate to the general

question of the effectiveness of pre-emergency training in promoting

111
appropriate behaviors during actual fire emergencies. In particular,

the effect of general vs. "building specific" (which would consider

the problem of life safety in the occupants’ own building) training

programs on occupants’ egress knowledge for buildings of simple and

of complex physical layout and design might be tested.

Index Words: Experimental studies; training and education.

131. Stahl , F.I. Preliminary Findings Concerning the Validity of "BFIRES":

A Comparison of Simulated with Actual Fire Events. In: Second

International Seminar on Human Behavior in Fire Emergencies, October 29-

November 1, 1978 — Proceedings of Seminar, pp. 249-258. National

Bureau of Standards Report No. NBSIR 80-2070. Issued June 1980.

NT1S Order No. PB 80-204738.

This report presents preliminary findings regarding the validity of

BFIRES/ VERSION 1, a computer program developed at the National

Bureau of Standards to simulate egress movement by building occupants

during fires. A computer simulation experiment was conducted in

order to compare outcomes from BFIRES runs with data selected from

an archival file summarizing actual fire results. Findings from

this experiment suggest that BFIRES is capable of reproducing such

important fire outcomes as loss-of-life and numbers of persons

ultimately escaping. In addition, patterns of egress behavior

produced by BFIRES were compared with those found in the literature,

with professional opinions, and with impressions gathered from

anecdotal accounts. With few exceptions, these comparisons illustrate

agreement between simulations and other data sources.*

*Annotation is author’s abstract.

Index Words: Computer model; egress model; fire incident statistics.

132. Stahl, F.I. Simulating Human Behavior in High-Rise Building Fires:

Modeling Occupant Movement Through a Fire-Floor from Initial Alert

to Safe Egress. National Bureau of Standards Report No. NBS-GCR77-92. Issued August 1977. June 26, 1975. NTIS Order No. PB-273-

166.

There are difficulties involved in the use of field experimentation

for testing hypotheses about emergency behaviors. These include

the relative infrequency and irregularity with which building fires occur and questions of the validity and reliability of the data

obtained from participants. This report explores an alternative

approach, the use of simulation modeling techniques, through which

to predict emergency behaviors and describe building fire systems.

Simulation models allow the examination of the life safety potential

of building designs while these are still on the drawing board.

112
One section of the report describes previous research involving

simulation of human movement behavior in a spatial field. The

major portion of the report presents the statement of a loosely

structured hypothetical model of human behavior in a high-rise

building fire, a description of the main routine of this dynamic

model and the various subroutines, and prospects for its use. The

model would operate within the boundaries of a single floor in a high-rise office building. It would permit simulation of individual

or group decision-making in a spatial field containing information

about an advancing fire threat and in response to sudden interruptions

to goal-directed behavior.

Index Words: Computer model; egress model; high-rise building.

133. Stahl, F.I. and Archea, J. An Assessment of the Technical Literature on Emergency Egress from Buildings. National Bureau of Standards

Report No. NBSIR 77-1313. October 1977. NTIS Order No. PB-273944.

This literature search was conducted to determine the extent to

which current standards for emergency egress in facilities regulated

by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) were

based on empirical research, and to determine the adequacy of

available research findings from which OSHA emergency egress regulations

may be developed.

Three areas of research on emergency egress were identified: (1)

the carrying capacity of exitways, (2) signage, lighting, and

visibility through smoke, and (3) occupant responses to, and experiences

in building fires. The report analyzes and shows the historical

development of two different approaches to egress research—the

initial physical science "carrying capacity" school and the "human

response" school of research. The former approach assumes occupants

respond immediately to the emergency (like water or gas particles)

and are affected only by spatial configuration and density during

the actual evacuation process. The latter approach also considers

the influence on evacuation time of such human factors as decisionmaking in an ambiguous situation or organizational factors such as the presence of trained supervisors or communications systems.

The problems inherent in the various methodologies for studying

egress (field based quasi-experimental research designs, post-hoc

survey and laboratory designs) are assessed.

The author concludes that only research on the carrying capacity of

exitways appears to have had direct impact on current OSHA regulations,

which are based largely on empirical findings reported in 1935. A

table analyzing various OSHA regulations with reference to the

available data base and providing recommendations for future research

is contained in the report.

Index Words: Codes and standards; communications; evacuation; literature review.

113
133a. Stahl, F.I., Crosson, J.J. and Margulis, S„T. Time-Based Capabilities

of Occupants to Escape Fires in Public Buildings: A Review of Code

Provisions and the Technical Literature. In press.

This report reviews both the available technical research pertaining

to exit facility design and the emergency escape provisions of the

National Fire Protection Association’s Life Safety Code (1976

Edition), in order to determine the technical support for such

provisions. The report focuses on the time-based capabilities of

building occupants to effect rapid evacuations, in relation to

evacuation time available during fires. A number of functional

criteria (e.g., maximum travel distance, building configuration,

and barriers to egress flow) are examined in relation to Code

provisions which influence the design of means of egress and fire

protection and protective signalling systems for places of assembly,

residential occupancies, mercantile occupancies, and business

occupancies. Provisions affecting fire exit drill and building

management practices are also considered.

This report organizes Code provisions and related technical discussions

under these areas of potential impact: pre-emergency training and

preparation, perception of the emergency environment and recognition

of egress facilities, egress strategy formation, disciplined egress

behavior and crowd movement, occupants' capabilities to safely and

rapidly negotiate egress ways, and the capacity of means of egress.

Within each section of the report, provisions of the Code which

have a common area of potential impact, and human behavioral assumptions

underlying these provisions, are enumerated. The technical literature

bearing on these provisions and assumptions is also presented. The

validity and generalizability of the findings in this literature is

discussed, and the degree of technical support currently available

for egress provisions of the Code is evaluated.

Preliminary conclusions about the supportability of Code provisions

are presented. Where technical support for human behavioral

assumptions underlying these provisions is either weak or unattainable,

the authors do not recommend eliminating or otherwise modifying

these provisions. Rather, in such instances it is suggested that

further technical investigations be conducted.*

*Annotation is derived closely from the authors’ abstract and

executive summary.

Index Words: Alarms; codes and standards; evacuation; fire drills;

fire emergency planning; literature review; training and education.

114
134. Stevens, R.E. Behavior and Protection of People in Fire Emergencies.

In: International Fire Protection Seminar, 5th. Vol. 2, 13-21.

Sponsored by the Vereinigung zur Forderung des Deutschen Brandschutzes

e.V. Karlsruhe, West Germany, September 22-24, 1976.

This paper discusses characteristics and behavior patterns of

people that are relevant to fire safe design. Described are:

special problems encountered in nursing homes, characteristics of a good fire safety educational program, and the behavior of occupants

in several case study fires. A brief history of the development of

the National Fire Protection Association Life Safety Code, NFPA 101,

is given. The author outlines some code requirements that are predicated upon human behavior in fire emergencies as shown by case histories. He recommends, for future research, studies of the

behavior of those with special responsibilities in a fire situation

and of the methods by which people can be motivated to be aware of

fire danger and to react to it rationally.

Index Words: Codes and standards; fire incident study; nursing

homes; training and education.

13^a. Stewart, R.D., Peterson, J.E., Fisher, T.N., Hosko, M.J., Baretta, E.D.,

Dodd, H.C. and Herrmann, A. A. Experimental Human Exposure to High

Concentrations of Carbon Monoxide. Arch Environ Health, Vol. 26,

1-7, January 1973.

The results of an experimental study on human exposure to high

concentrations of carbon monoxide are given. The main objective of

the study was to determine the rate of CO absorption during brief

exposures to the gas in the concentrations found in automobile

exhaust and in burning buildings, concentrations not previously

studied in human volunteers. The experimenters also wished to

observe any change in normal physiological status that might occur during these experiments. Two of the subjects experienced an abrupt onset of mild frontal headache immediately following their

exposures to these high concentrations of CO.

A technical description of this experiment is as follows: "Six

healthy male human volunteers were exposed to seven high carbon

monoxide (CO) concentrations ranging from 1000 ppm for ten minutes

to 35,600 ppm for 45 seconds. Carbon monoxide was rapidly absorbed

and the increase in percent carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) saturation in

venous blood per liter of CO mixture inhaled could be accurately

predicted by the equation, log (A% carboxyhemoglobin/ liter ) = 1.036 log (ppm CO inhaled) -4.4793. The abrupt increase in carboxyhemoglobin concentration of 11.6% and 9.1% saturation in two subjects

produced the immediate onset of mild frontal headache. The subject

exposed to 35,600 ppm demonstrated slight sagging of the ST-segment

of lead 11. This occurred 20 seconds after the exposure had started

and persisted for ten minutes after exposure. Neither the spontaneous

nor the evoked electrical activity of the brain exhibited significant

changes which could be attributed to CO exposure over the range

studied .

Index Words: Experimental study; toxic gases, influence of.

115
135, Strother, R.R. and Buchbinder, L.B. Communications Strategies for Fire

Loss Reduction. In: Fires and Human Behaviour, edited by David

Canter, Chapter 17, pp . 315-321. New York, John Wiley & Sons,

1980. 338 pages.

Strategies being used by the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) to

achieve fire loss reduction within communities through educational

programs are described. The Office of Planning and Education (OPE)

identified and studied fire education programs which had been

successful in the past in reducing fire losses. Two major factors

associated with success were found to be: the targeting of education

programs at specific local fire problems and community involvement

in program development and implementation. These factors were illustrated in the successful program in 1973 in Beauregard Parish,

Louisiana, by the U.S. Forest Service and Louisiana State University,

to reduce intentional burning of woods in rural areas. Influential

local opinion leaders were used to reinforce mass media education

messages regarding the setting of fires.

A National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) study in 1975 led to

the conclusion that fire prevention messages must be explicit and

must show the desired behavior in the context where the action

should occur. People's apparent apathy to fire prevention messages,

despite their strong fear and concern about fire, can result from

feelings of inability to cope with vague and complex fire safety

procedures

.

The Public Education Assistance Program (PEAP) , developed by OPE,

to implement successful education strategies is described. PEAP

assists states by providing administrative guidance, fire education

resource materials, and by providing technical guidance in planning,

implementing, and evaluating public education programs to the

communities within their jurisdiction.

Index Words: Firesetters; training and education.

116
136. Strother-Smith, N.C. A Study of the Behavior of People in Fires.

Fire Prevention, No. 121, 16-24, October 1977.

This article details numerous case histories illustrating a wide

range of both inappropriate and appropriate behavior of people in

fires. It summarizes findings of the survey conducted in 1972 by

P.G. Wood of the British Research Station. It describes a 2-stage

alarm system designed primarily for department stores as an alternative

to one general alarm which may either cause panic or be ignored.

Two large fatality fires —the Brussels department store fire in

1968 and the Joelma building fire, Sao Paulo in 1974—in which

panic behavior occurred are described. The author's main conclusion

is that the behavior of people in fires is unpredictable, but he

nevertheless feels that proper training could increase coping

skills

.

Index Words: Alarms; fire fatalities; fire incident study; panic;

training and education.

137. Swartz, J.A. Human Behavior in the Beverly Hills Fire. Fire Journal,

Vol . 73, No. 3, 73-74, 108, May 1979.

This study of the fire at the Beverly Hills Club in Southgate,

Kentucky, on May 28, 1977, which resulted in 165 deaths, analyzes

the human behavior aspects of the emergency and, in particular,

considers the impact of "role assumption" on fire emergency conduct.

Information was obtained from questionnaires and taped interviews

of building occupants, key staff personnel, and fire officers who

responded to the emergency.

It was found that the people involved continued to fulfill the

roles they assumed prior to the fire. Staff consistently took

actions to assist patrons, whereas patrons followed or took a more

passive role. Staff members took care of the patrons which they

would normally serve. Thus firesafety plans for public places

should not prescribe emergency actions that are contrary to people's

normal roles

.

The author concludes that occupants of the Club felt safe not only

before but after being notified of the fire and provides reasons

for their feelings and for the underestimation of the severity of

the fire by both staff and patrons. There was a false sense of

117
security felt by the fact that the Cabaret Room where most of the

patrons were was a long way from the room of fire origin. Hence

fire safety education should consider people's erroneous conceptions

of distance being related to safety and the time to escape.

Panic seems not to have occurred, at least in the antisocial,

destructive sense of the word.

Index Words: Fire emergency planning; fire fatalities; fire incident

study; panic; training and education.

138. Van Bogaert, A.F. Fire Prevention in Schools and Boarding Schools

for Handicapped. In: Second International Seminar on Human Behavior

in Fire Emergencies, October 29 - November 1, 1978—Proceedings of

Seminar, pp. 261-277. National Bureau of Standards Report No.

NBSIR 80-2070. Issued June 1980. NTIS Order No. PB 80-204738.

This study was designed to assist in developing new safety requirements

for schools and boarding schools for handicapped children and

adolescents. Existing requirements did not satisfy the Belgian

School Building Fund (SBF).

The deficiencies of the handicapped fall into the areas of perception,

response, and mobility. Four categories of disabled—children with

mental handicaps or with emotional disturbance, children with

physical handicaps only, children with auditive deficiencies, and

children with visual deficiencies— are described in terms of these

areas, and recommendations are made with regard to building design,

construction, equipment and staffing. Under existing classifications

of the handicapped, children who are both bodily and mentally

handicapped are classified according to their mental impairments.

Hence the SBF organized an investigation (December 1977) to get

information on the number of pupils in mentally handicapped groupings

who also had mobility problems. Data are given for schools and

boarding schools on percentage of nonambulatory among mentally,

emotionally, or functionally handicapped students and on the percentage

of nonambulatory among the physically handicapped.

This paper considers the problem of evacuation in schools for the

handicapped. It describes a hypothetical egress pattern for schools

for mentally or physically handicapped housing a mixture of ambulatory

and nonambulatory students; discusses existing and desirable personnel/pupil

rations; gives data on two nighttime fire drills from special

boarding schools; discusses limited versus complete evacuation, and

recommends those building levels on which children with various

types of handicaps might be placed.*

*Annotation is author's abstract.

Index Words: Evacuation; fire drills; handicapped; schools.

118
139. Vreeland, R.G. and Levin, B.M. Psychological Aspects of Firesetting.

In: Fires and Human Behaviour, edited by David Canter, Chapter 3,

pp. 31-46. New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1980. 338 pages.

This chapter presents findings from an extensive search of the

relevant literature regarding the motives of firesetters, the

etiology of this behavior, and the treatment of firesetting.

Categories of firesetters are defined and described, and there is an attempt to extract a picture of a "typical firesetter." Many of

the conclusions in this chapter are drawn from the classic study by

Lewis and Yarnell (1951) which covered a large sample of over 1300 cases and a wide range of types of firesetters.

Levin has identified three major groups of firesetters: arson-forprofit firesetters, solitary firesetters, and group firesetters.

There is little in the psychological literature about the first

group, which would include the business man who sets fire to his own business to collect the insurance, presumably because this type

of act might be considered "rational." The solitary firesetters

(excluding those with a profit motive) who set fires in secret are

the group most widely studied by researchers. This group includes

"pyromaniacs" who set fires simply because of an "irresistible

impulse" and "would be hero" firesetters who start fires and help

firefighters put them out. Groups set fires for political purposes,

to vandalize, and in the course of riots.

The "typical" firesetter exhibits many maladaptive behaviors in

addition to firesetting. He has experienced a great deal of failure

in social activities, and, if he chooses to engage in aggressive

behavior, he will avoid direct confrontation with the victim. The

similarities between malicious firesetters and other criminals are more striking than the differences. However, the authors tentatively

suggest that arsonists may be more prone to commit crimes against

property, not counting the firesetting, than other criminals.

Index Words: Firesetters; literature review.

140. Vreeland, R.G. and Waller, M.B. Personality Theory and Firesetting: an Elaboration of a Psychological Model. University of North Carolina,

Chapel Hill. National Bureau of Standards Report No. NBS-GCR-80-

194. December 1979. Issued February 1980. NTIS Order No. PB BO161599.

This report is designed to place what is known about firesetting

within the broad context of current knowledge of personality and

behavior. It is more technical in nature and its target audience

is narrower than an earlier companion report. (See reference:

Vreeland, R.G. and Waller, M.B. The Psychology of Firesetting...)

This report is aimed at behavioral scientists and clinicians who

119
are interested in understanding and treating deviant firesetting

behavior

.

Social learning theory was chosen as the theoretical framework for

understanding the development of firesetting behavior. Three types

of interactions between a person and his environment are considered:

(1) the person acts upon and is acted upon by the environment

(behavioral processes), (2) modelling and instructional influences are received (vicarious processes), and (3) the person selects,

encodes, and evaluates incoming information about the social environment (cognitive processes). These basic components of a person's

adaptation to the environment sometimes interact in ways which

produce and maintain deviant behaviors such as firesetting. Implications

derived from social learning theory for treatment of firesetting in

children and adults are described.

Index Words: Conceptual model; firesetters; literature review.

141. Vreeland, R.G. and Waller, M.B. The Psychology of Firesetting: A

Review and Appraisal. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

National Bureau of Standards Report No. NBS-GCR-79-157 . January 1979.

38 pp. NTIS Order No. PB-290821.

This report reviews the literature on firesetting and presents a new approach for categorizing firesetters. Relatively little is

known about the determinants of firesetting, partly because of the

barriers to carrying out systematic, well-controlled research.

Various legal problems and the fact that relatively few arsonists

are apprehended make it likely that research samples will be

narrow and biased.

Firesetters have often been typed in terms of their motive for the

act (insurance fraud, revenge, etc.) or simply according to a characteristic of the sample being studied (sex, age, etc.). The

authors present a new classification approach which involves a consideration of four major factors: antecedent environmental

conditions, organismic variables (i.e., such personal variables as sex, age, genetic factors), actual firesetting behavior, and the

consequences of firesetting. "Understanding a firesetter's behavior

requires an assessment of each of these categories, and types of

firesetters may eventually be defined by clusters or patterns of

characteristics rather than by a single, overriding feature."

A picture of a "typical" adult firesetter is derived. Firesetting

is just one of the person's several maladaptive behavior patterns

which have social ineffectiveness as a common factor.

Index Words: Firesetters; literature review.

120
141a. Waller, M.B. and Vreeland, R.G. Report of a Conference on Fire Emergency

Plans in Group Homes for the Developmentally Disabled. University of

North Carolina, Chapel Hill. National Bureau of Standards Report

No. NBS-GCR-81-315 . March 1981. NTIS Order No. PB 81-180960.

This report is the product of a conference held on June 1, 2, and

3, 1980 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The participants in the

conference were brought together to discuss guidelines for fire emergency

plans in group homes for the developmentally disabled. Participants

included a broad cross section of those concerned about fire safety

in group homes for the developmentally disabled, including fire

protection engineers, group home owners and operators, fire service

personnel, as well as experts in training group home staff and in

developmental disabilities, insurance, and behavior in fire. This

report contains some of the substance of their discussions. The

guidelines provided in this report include suggestions regarding

training programs and facility fire emergency plans. A checklist

for both local fire service personnel and group home staff is

provided to assist these groups in developing adequate fire emergency

plans. Recommendations are made in the areas of information

availability, incentive systems, and evaluation procedures.*

*Annotation is the report's abstract.

Index Words: Boarding home; fire emergency planning; handicapped;

training and education.

121
142. Wenger, D. Some Observations on the Nature of Panic Behavior: A Normative

Orientation. In: Second International Seminar on Human Behavior

in Fire Emergencies, October 29 - November 1, 1978 — Proceedings

of Seminar, pp. 214-217. National Bureau of Standards Report

No. NBSIR 80-2070. Issued June 1980. NTIS Order No. PB 80 204738.

The terra, panic, has varied meanings. The various usages, with

some disparity of meaning and a lack of conceptual rigor, limit its

usefulness as a concept for scientific study. From a nominalist

perspective, however, the concept has utility in the fields of

disaster research and collective behavior. Given an interest in

examining the social forms of panic, it is proposed that panic be

defined as mass behavior existent within a normatively competitive

situation that results in increasing the danger to self and others,

rather than reducing it. Individuals, in the context of a social

crisis, engage in behavior that may be labelled as panic when the norms that emerge from their interaction define competition, not

cooperation, as appropriate activity. Panic is neither irrational

nor rational behavior. As opposed to considering rationality,

attention should be focused upon the process of social interaction

that results in a collective definition of the situation which

proposes that competitive flight behavior is appropriate. Those

conditions which produce panic in a given situation are discussed,

including the existence of a social crisis, inadequate crisis

management, and the milling process. It is noted that hope spurs

panic, not hopelessness.*

*Annotation is based on the author's abstract with modifications

and additions.

See also reference: Quarantelli, E.L. Five Papers...

Index Word: Panic.

143. Whittington, C. and Wilson, J.R. Fat Fires: A Domestic Hazard. In:

Fires and Human Behaviour, edited by David Canter, Chapter 7,

pp. 97-115. New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1980. 338 pages.

This chapter deals with the magnitude and nature of the problem of

domestic fat fires in the United Kingdom through 1974. A variety

of statistics are presented on the frequency of fat-pan fires, the causes of the fires, the appliances involved, actions taken by

residents to put out the fires, and associated non-fatal casualties.

The problem is a significant one. Approximately one- third of all

domestic fires reported in 1973 in the United Kingdom originated in

cooking appliances. Approximately 80% of these resulted from the

ignition of cooking fats. The rate of occurrence of fat pan fires

reported to fire brigades on electric cookers (ranges) is over four

122
times that for gas cookers. The majority of fat fires result from

the inattention of the person responsible for the cooking. The

proportion of cooking appliances fires which involves a casualty is

lower than for other major sources of domestic fires (although the

overall number of non-fatal casualties associated with cooking

appliances fires is greater than for any other source) . The casualties

which do occur seem to derive mostly from handling the pan to

remove it out of doors.

Both hardware and behavioral approaches to the problem are described.

A greater use of thermostatically controlled deep fat fryers and

the marketing of temperature controlled warning devices attached to

chip-pans are possible solutions to the problem. A television

educational campaign providing prevention and extinguishment information

which appeared to be successful in the short run is described.

Index Words: Fire incident statistics; residential occupancies;

training and education.

144. Willey, A.E. The Lil* Haven Nursing Home Fire. Fire Journal, Vol. 66,

No. 1, 21-26, January 1972.

On September 15, 1971, 6 of the 17 residents of the Lil’ Haven

Nursing Home in Salt Lake City, Utah died as a result of a fire set

by a patient. He started the fire by spreading a combustible

liquid and igniting it in a first floor sleeping room. The automatic

detection system operated, sounding the local alarm bells and

sending a signal to the Fire Department. Despite the fact that

rescue and fire-fighting operations were begun within approximately

three minutes after activation of the alarm system, five second

floor patients died from toxic products of combustion from the

uncontrolled fire which spread up the stairs and through the second

floor corridor. A sixth patient died as a result of jumping from a second floor window. The stairway door to the second floor had

been blocked open. There was a single door to the exterior serving

the second floor which discharged from a sleeping room across a ramp to grade, and some patients did escape via this route.

The author concludes that this fire indicates the limitations of

total reliance on automatic fire detection and manual fire-fighting

to ensure reasonable life safety for patients.

Index Words: Alarms; fire fatalities; fire incident study; firesetters; nursing home.

145. Wirth, I. Fire Safety in Urban Housing. Report No. UCB FRG 74-24.

University of California, Berkeley. November 1974.

This paper describes the major study areas of an interdisciplinary

fire research program of the University of California at Berkeley.

123
These areas are 1) housing materials and their reaction to fire, 2)

building structure response to fire, and 3) human response to

building fire. The human response was studied at 2 different

levels, i.e„, individual occupant behavior, and organized response

by building occupancy as a whole. Their research to date regarding

the role of individual residents in causation and control of unwanted

fires in residential housing was mainly concerned with methodology

development, particularly survey techniques for acquisition of data

on: the incidence of minor fires, their relation to normal domestic

use of fire and heat, and residents’ readiness to cope with unwanted

fire. To investigate behavioral aspects of fire safety organization

in high-rise buildings, an initial field survey was conducted in

the San Francisco Bay Area covering two or more high-rise buildings

in each of the following classes: hospitals, office buildings,

hotels, industrial buildings, and apartment buildings. The ongoing

organizational commitment to fire safety and the fire safety equipment

for each building was assessed. A table is presented which summarizes

fire protection status by occupancy type.

Index Words: Fire emergency planning; fire incident statistics;

high-rise buildings; hospitals; residential occupancies.

146. Wirth, I. and Crossman, E.R.F.W. Fire Safety Organization in HighRise Buildings: A Pilot Survey and Analysis. Report No. UCB FRG

WP 74-13. University of California, Berkeley. August 1973.

Reported are the results of a pilot survey designed to determine

the current status of fire safety organization in high-rise and

other large buildings. Detailed reports of nine interviews with

persons (building engineers, superintendents, etc.) occupying

active roles in the maintenance of the fire safety systems in such

buildings are given. The report lists six types of organizations

involved in fire safety issues in high-rise buildings and briefly

assesses the degree and nature of involvement of each.

Index Words: Fire emergency planning; high-rise buildings; hospitals.

147. Wood, P.G. The Behaviour of People in Fires. Fire Research Note No. 953.

Loughborough University of Technology, England. November 1972.

This study presents a general analysis of actions taken by people

when confronted with a fire emergency, and a more intensive report on two particular behaviors—evacuation of the building and movement

through smoke. A questionnaire administered by Fire Brigade officers

at the scene of the fire was utilized for the main body of the

study. Data was collected from nearly 1000 fire incidents, and the

more than 2000 people who were involved in them. Listed are 7 classes of actions accounting for almost 80% of the first actions

124
taken. Findings are given with regard to the effect of such variables

as previous training, previous involvement in fire, sex differences,

etc., upon first action taken.

For some additional information on this reference, see the

following entry.

148. Wood, P.G. A Survey of Behaviour in Fires. In: Fires and Human Behaviour,

edited by David Canter, Chapter 6, pp. 83-95. New York, John Wiley

& Sons, 1980. 338 pages.

A project was carried out under the direction of Peter Wood at the

University of Surrey, England, to study a wide range of human

responses to fire emergencies, and the relationship between these

responses and variables such as sex, training, or previous fire

experience. Data was collected from more than 2000 people involved

in nearly 1000 incidents. Interviews were conducted by fire service

personnel at the scene of the incident, using a questionnaire

format. Slightly more than 50% of the incidents occurred in dwelling

houses

.

Behavior was examined at two levels: a general analysis of actions

taken (including first actions and other actions in sequence) and a more intensive study of two behaviors—evacuation and movement

through smoke. Statistics are presented on the percentage of

participants undertaking various behaviors as their first action;

on the percentages of people leaving and re-entering the occupancy

broken down according to such factors as sex, the presence or absence of smoke, and previous involvement with fire; and on movement

through smoke.

Some of the results were not anticipated, namely, the large percentage

of people who moved through smoke, the high percentage who reentered

the building, and the popularity of firefighting as a course of

action. In particular, the absence in some cases of a clear relationship

between training frequency and frequency of firefighting was surprising

to Wood.

Some clear sex differences emerged. Women were more likely to warn

others and evacuate the family while men were more likely to attempt

firefighting. Men were also more likely to reenter a building and

move through smoke. People who were previously involved in another

fire were less likely to leave immediately and more likely to

firefight in addition to moving further through smoke.

In this descriptive study, people were simply asked what they did

in the fire situation without reference to other options they may

have considered. Wood feels that, in future studies, participants

125
should be asked why they chose certain courses of action over others in order to provide the researcher with insight into decision

processes

.

Index Words: Evacuation; fire incident statistics; fire incident

study; panic; residential occupancies; smoke, influence of; training

and education.

149. Wooliscroft, M.J. The Hospital Fire Problem—Towards a Rational Approach.

Fire, Vol. 68, No. 849, 511-512, March 1976.

An approach to the calculation of hospital fire risk is presented,

with emphasis on the idea that efforts to reduce this risk be cost

effective

.

In the six years, 1968-73, some 90 people were killed in hospital

fires. To put these fatalities into perspective, the risk of

death in a hospital fire is compared with the risk of death in

other settings. Statistics on multiple death hospital fires in

Great Britain for the years 1968-1972 are given. These statistics

indicate that the main hospital fire problem is the multiple fatality

fire in a mental illness, mental handicap, or geriatric ward. In

addressing this problem, it must be considered that "in spending

money on fire precautions in hospitals, we are in principle deciding

not to spend money on other things." The cost effectiveness of

spending money on medical means of saving lives versus spending

money on fire safety measures is considered.

Index Words: Fire fatalities; fire incident statistics; hospitals;

risk

.

150. Zachary, Wm.B. and Crossman, E.R.F.W. Manual Control of Unwanted

Firespread by Building Occupants: A Preliminary Survey of Equipment,

Techniques, and Behavior. Report No. UCB FRG WP 74-6. University

of California, Berkeley. August 1973.

Statistics indicate that occupant fire fighting efforts are an important part of fire control. A case can thus be developed for

increasing expenditure on occupant fire fighting facilities as against professional services. Water appears to be the primary

extinguishant applied to fires by residential occupants. The

report presents statistics on method of extinction of fires extinguished

before arrival of professional fire fighters (United Kingdom, 1962

and Berkeley Firesafety Survey, 1971). The survey data tend to

show that occupants use materials which are readily available

(water, rug and towel, dirt), cheap, and familiar; and extinguishers

appear to be used less than their availability would suggest. The

author questions the value of an increased emphasis on provision of

126
extinguishers and suggests alternatives.

Index Words: Fire extinguishers; fire incident statistics.

151. Zachary, W.B., Crossman, E.R.F.W., Quan, E.C., and Condon, E.D. Household

Fire Hazard and Defense Capability: A Survey Study of San Francisco

High-Rise Residential Occupancies. Report No. UCB FRG 76-14.

University of California, Berkeley. September 1976.

This report is part of a larger study to determine occupant response

to and preparedness for fires. This particular report focuses on San Francisco high-rise residential occupancies. A one page survey

questionnaire was used which sought information from residents

about domestic fire-related behaviors. The topics covered were

fire hazards, fire preparedness, fire incidents, fire policy opinions,

and demographic characteristics of the respondents.

Some findings were: About 75% of the fire incidents occurring

within the respondents' own households were not reported to the

fire department; home materials were applied as extinguishants in

80% of the incidents in the sample; while fire extinguishers were

frequently available and their locations known, relatively few

respondents were aware of extinguisher type or would use extinguishers

in actual incidents. Age and sex differences were found—for

example, younger people were more likely to extinguish the fire

themselves, and men appeared more certain with regard to coping

with most types of fires but were less sensible with regard to

smoking- in bed.

Index Words: Fire emergency planning; fire extinguishers; fire

incident statistics; high-rise buildings; residential occupancies;

smoke detectors.

127
ORDERING INFORMATION

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128
NBS-114A irev. 2 -ec) U.S. DEPT. OF COMM. 1. PUBLICATION OR 2. Performing Organ. Report No. BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA

REPORT NO.

SHEET (See instructions) NBSIR 81-2438

3. Publication Date December 1981

4.

TITLE AND SUBTITLE

Human Behavior and Fire Emergencies:

An Annotated Bibliography

5.

AUTHOR(S)

R.L. Paulsen

6.

PERFORMING ORGANIZATION (If joint or other than N BS, see instructions)

NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20234

7. Contract/Grant No.

8 . Type of Report & Period Covered

9.

SPONSORING ORGANIZATION NAME AND COMPLETE ADDRESS (Street. City. State . ZIP)

10.

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES

Sponsored by the HHS/NBS Life/Fire Safety Program

| Document describes a computer program; SF-185, FIPS Software Summary, is attached.

11.

ABSTRACT (A 200-word or less factual summary of most significant information. If document includes a significant

bibliography or literature survey, mention it here)

This report contains an annotated listing of 161 selected references pertaining to

human behavior and fire emergencies. The scope is broad: the references cover the full range of behavioral responses through the different stages of a fire

emergency in the context of a variety of occupancy settings. Health care institutions are the most frequently represented occupancy type. Many research approaches

are included; e.g., case studies of individual incidents, survey studies of large

numbers of incidents, theoretical analyses and representations of the fire situation,

computer models, literature surveys, and psychological studies of selected populations. The work of researchers from many nations, including the United States,

Canada, Great Britain, Japan, West Germany, France, Belgium, and the U.S.S.R., is

referenced. Annotations for papers from the first two international conferences

on human behavior in fires (March 1977 and October 1978) are contained in this

bibliography. There is a topical index to provide the reader with a preliminary

guide to those references regarding a particular occupancy type, research approach,

design feature, or category of behavioral response. An introductory essay provides

an overview of the field of human behavior and fires and develops some common

themes found in the literature.

12.

KEY WORDS (Six to twelve entries; alphabetical order; capitalize only proper names; and separate key words by semicolon s) bibliographies; evacuation; fire alarm systems; fire fatalities; fires;

high-rise buildings; hospitals; human behavior; nursing homes; panic;

smoke detectors; sprinkler systems

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pyl Unlimited

| | For Official Distribution. Do Not Release to NTIS

[2ZI Order From Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402.

[~xl Order From National Technical Information Service (NTIS), Springfield, VA. 22161

14. NO. OF

PRINTED PAGES

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