Evacuation Behavior During Building Fires

Lawrence R. Eichner, P.E.

Course Outline

In 2011, the US recorded 484,500 structure fires resulting in 15,635 civilian injuries and 2,640 deaths.  Over 67% of the injured and over 50% of the fatalities could have evacuated but for behaviors that delayed them from reaching safety, such as searching for belongings and information, fighting the fire, and helping others.  Most evacuation models largely ignore these delaying behaviors and primarily focus on purposive evacuation movement, which can lead to unrealistic estimates of actual evacuation time in a fire event.  All building design professionals involved in evacuation modeling and life safety analysis should recognize a model’s limiting assumptions and simplifications as well as understand occupant evacuation behavior during building fires.  This online course explains the behavioral process and suggests a basic conceptual model of occupant behavior during fire evacuations.  The course materials are based entirely on; Modeling Human Behavior during Building Fires by Erica D. Kuligowski, NIST Technical Note 1619, 2008, and The Process of Human Behavior in Fires by Erica D. Kuligowski, NIST Technical Note 1632, 2009.  The course is intended to give engineers and architects a fundamental understanding of evacuation behavior for inclusion into evacuation models, which in turn could promote safer, cost effective, and efficient building designs.

This course requires the completion of a multiple-choice quiz at its conclusion in order to obtain the necessary certification.

Learning Objective

At the conclusion of this course, the student will be aware of:

• Why it is necessary to recognize and include occupant behavior in evacuation models;
• The benefits of developing a validated theory of behavior during evacuation;
• How building evacuation models work;
• The significant limitations of two typical methods that account for basic occupant behavior;
• The three primary uses for building evacuation models;
• How most evacuation models can be improved;
• The scientific theory of occupant behavior during building fires;
• The conceptual model of the behavior process;
• The four phases that characterize the behavior process;
• The critical differences between three types of evacuation models;
• The importance of developing a comprehensive behavioral model;
• Areas in each phase where additional research and quantitative data is need;
• Recognizing direct and indirect factors that influence each phase of the behavior process;
• Difficulties in linking phases;
• A suggested basic behavioral model for Phase 1 and 2;
• The two main types of direct factors that influence Phase 1 and 2;
• A detailed characterization of the direct factors;
• A qualitative analysis of the influence of the direct factors upon Phase 1 and 2; and
• A general path forward for the development of a comprehensive, predictive, behavioral model for a building fire evacuation.=

Intended Audience

This course is intended for engineers and architects.

Benefit to Attendees

Attendee will appreciate the limiting assumptions and simplifications of evacuation models and understand how occupant behavior can significantly influence actual evacuation time in building fires.

Course Introduction

In a building fire, the factors that influence evacuation actions are specific to the occupants in the building, the building itself, and the fire event.  Rather than purposive evacuation movement in a building fire, research finds that some occupants perform activities that delay their reaching safety in a timely manner, ultimately resulting in injury or death.  However, most evacuation models focus solely on estimating how long it will take for an occupant to move from an initial position to safety, while ignoring or greatly simplifying critical behaviors (e.g. searching for possessions) that might delay their safety.  This course provides building design professionals with an understanding of the theory of evacuation behavior and suggests a basic conceptual model of occupant behavior that might serve to improve the accuracy of estimates of the time it actually takes to evacuate a building. 

Course Content

In this lesson, you are required to download and study the following document:

Modeling Human Behavior during Building Fires by Erica D. Kuligowski, NIST Technical Note 1619, 2008 [PDF]

The Process of Human Behavior in Fires by Erica D. Kuligowski, NIST Technical Note 1632, 2009 [PDF]

Please click on the above underlined hypertext to view, download or print the document for your study. Because of the large file size, we recommend that you first save the file to your computer by right clicking the mouse and choosing "Save Target As ...", and then open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Course Summary

Based on NIST Technical Notes 1619 and 1632, this course explains the theory of evacuation behavior and suggests a basic conceptual model of occupant behavior in building fires.  NIST Technical Note 1619 covers these topics in seven sections:

• Introduction
• Scope
• Building Evacuation Models
• Theory of Occupant Behavior during Building Fires
• Discussion
• Future Research – How Can We Use This Theory?
• Conclusion

NIST Technical Note 1619 covers these topics in four sections:

• Introduction
• Theory of Occupant Behavior during Building Fires
• Conceptual Model for Evacuation Behavior in Building Fires
• Conclusion

Related Links

For additional technical information related to this subject, please visit the following website:

Building and Fire Publications Review of Building Evacuation Models, Kuligowski, E. D.; Peacock, R. D. NIST Technical Note 1471; 2005.

Quiz

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.

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DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.

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