Human-Behaviour under Fire situations in High Rise residential Building

Gerges, Michael and Mayouf, Mohammad and Rumley, Peter and Moore, David (2017) Human-Behaviour under Fire situations in High Rise residential Building. International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation, 35 (1). pp. 90-106. ISSN 2398-4708

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Abstract

Purpose- The purpose of this paper is to identify the challenges resulted from human-behaviour under fire situation in high-rise residential buildings to support the evacuation process.

Design/methodology/approach- Mixed research method approach was used using both quantitative and qualitative data. A literature review was initially conducted to identify different factors that influence human behaviour during a fire situation and identify various challenges faced during the evacuation. Both questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were conducted to investigate the challenges that occupants face during evacuation. A high-rise building in Egypt was used in collecting the primary evidence for this paper.

Findings- The paper has identified, based on the feedback from the interviews and questionnaires, three challenges that affect occupants’ decision during fire emergency in high-rise residential buildings. The first challenge is occupants’ knowledge and skills when dealing with fire emergencies. The second challenge is that occupants tend to rely on other routes than using the designated evacuation routes (only 33.87% of respondents) when escaping the building. The third challenge is that some occupants tend to ignore the fire alarm (74.17% of the respondents) and instead investigate whether the alarm is true or false.

Originality value- The paper draws many vital inputs, which can support decision-making for fire engineers, facility managers, building owners, and other construction stakeholders during the design phase for high-rise buildings to ensure occupants’ safety during fire emergency situations.

Item Type: Article
Identification Number: https://doi.10.1108/IJBPA-09-2016-0022
Dates:
DateEvent
15 February 2017Accepted
10 April 2017Published Online
Uncontrolled Keywords: Egypt, Evacuation, Fire safety, High-rise residential building, Human behaviour, Panic
Subjects: CAH13 - architecture, building and planning > CAH13-01 - architecture, building and planning > CAH13-01-01 - architecture
CAH13 - architecture, building and planning > CAH13-01 - architecture, building and planning > CAH13-01-02 - building
CAH13 - architecture, building and planning > CAH13-01 - architecture, building and planning > CAH13-01-04 - planning (urban, rural and regional)
Divisions: Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment
Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment > School of Engineering and the Built Environment
Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment > School of Engineering and the Built Environment > School of Built Environment
Depositing User: Ian Mcdonald
Date Deposited: 21 Aug 2017 09:01
Last Modified: 22 Mar 2023 12:15
URI: https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/5001

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