Occupants' behaviour in response to the high-rise apartments fire in Hiroshima City
✍ Scribed by A. Sekizawa; M. Ebihara; H. Notake; K. Kubota; M. Nakano; Y. Ohmiya; H. Kaneko
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 579 KB
- Volume
- 23
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0308-0501
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✦ Synopsis
A remarkable, large 5re occurred in a 20 stories high-rise apartments in 1996 in Hiroshima City. The 5re spread from the 5re origin apartment unit on the 9th 6oor up to the top 20th 6oor, very quickly by external 6ame spread through balconies. The authors investigated the evacuation behaviour of the occupants including reaction to 5re cues, motives for starting evacuation, and choice of evacuation route by means of questionnaire survey and also peer interviews with some of them, focusing on the use of elevators in evacuation by 6oor height and/or age group in this very rare 5re incident. From the investigation, the following results were obtained.
(1) Probably due to the experience of many past small 5res, there was a time lag between the perception of 5re and starting the evacuation. Many respondents started their evacuation on the directions of others, not by direct 5re cues such as smoke. Also, the reaction of occupants after the perception of 5re is a4ected by their perception of the seriousness of the 5re.
(2) The likelihood of elevator use in evacuation is mainly related to the 6oor height in which the occupants live, but is not so closely related to the age of the occupants. The proportion of elevator use in evacuation grows dramactically from the 10th to 13th 6oor.
(3) People are likely to choose 9the route they usually use: or 9a safer route: rather than 9a closer route:.