human behaviour and hotel fseg: modelling safety and ... galea...• fseg are involved in an eu...

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5 Star Fire Safety – Crewe UK 1 Feb 2011 Web: http://fseg.gre.ac.uk Email: [email protected]

Human Behaviour and Hotel Evacuation

Prof Ed GaleaDirector Fire Safety Engineering Group

University of Greenwich [email protected]://fseg.gre.ac.uk

5 Star Fire Safety 20115 Star Fire Safety – Crewe UK 1 Feb 2011

Web: http://fseg.gre.ac.uk Email: [email protected]

FSEG: Modelling safety and security• FSEG was Founded in 1986 by Prof Galea

in response to the Manchester Airport disaster.

• Today it consists of 32 researchers including:– fire engineers, CFD specialists,

psychologists, mathematicians and software engineers.

• Research interests include the mathematical modellingand experimental analysisof:– evacuation dynamics in complex spaces,– pedestrian dynamics in complex spaces,– combustion and fire/smoke spread, – fire suppression,– homeland security

• Application areas include:– aerospace, built environment, marine

and rail.

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Applications of FSEG software

Rail Stations

Large PAX Ships Naval Ships

Royal Ascot Historic Buildings

A380 – Super Jumbo Millennium Dome Stadium AustraliaAirbus flying wing

Canary Wharf

Beijing Olympic Stadium

WTC 9/11 analysis Pentagon ShieldStatue of LibertyForensic analysis

Rhode Island5 Star Fire Safety – Crewe UK 1 Feb 2011

Web: http://fseg.gre.ac.uk Email: [email protected]

How much time do I have?

Fire development time:a) Approximately 5 minutes

b) Less than 10 minutes

c) Less than 20 minutes

d) Less than 40 minutes

e) Less than 60 minutes

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buildingEXODUS and SMARTFIRE simulation of Station Nightclub fire

•Link fire simulation directly with evacuation analysis•Directly expose agents to developing hazard environment •Predict fatalities and injury levels.

• Last survivor evacuates after approx 127 seconds.• Simulation predicts :

•84 fatalities compared with 100 in actual incident.•25 serious injuries, of which 6 are life threatening.


WTC1 8239 people, actual RT, predicted evacuation time, 1 hr 27min +/- 2min

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General Issues Associated with Hotel Evacuation


Hotel Evacuation• Success of evacuation in hotels requires not only

appropriate facilities but well trained and regularly trained staff.

• Simply providing staff with a lecture or leaflet on how to undertake such an exercise is no substitute for regular “hands-on” training.

• Complexities associated with managing an efficient hotel evacuation should not be underestimated:– As hotel layouts differ, training obtained from one hotel

not necessarily fully applicable in another hotel.– Team work is a key factor in achieving an efficient

evacuation.– High turnover of staff means that regular training should

be undertaken

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Hotel Evacuation Issues• In hotels, occupants tend to:

- be less familiar with the layout of the entire structure

- be less familiar with other occupants

- have poor visual access

- have long periods of time where they are likely to be asleep and may be intoxicated

• In emergency evacuation situations this can lead to: – Potentially long response times

– Significant wayfinding necessary.

– A high degree of investigation.

• Heterogeneous nature of such populations adds to the complexity of situation,

e.g. language barrier, different cultural/social/familial/economic groups may each have separate evacuation agendas.


Wayfinding• Example of poor exit route, Hotel Prague 2007:

• Route starts from outside my room on the second floor.• Highly complex route - unmemorable

• Unintuitive route – climb up stairs to get out!

• Many decision points.

• Poor signage

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Signage and Wayfinding


Sign Recognition

• Female, naïve subject, 2 sec decision time, makes correct decision. From questionnaire subject said they saw and followed the sign.

• Female, naïve subject, 9 sec decision region, makes incorrect decision. From questionnaire did not see sign

• For T intersection, 61% of naïve subjects failed to “see” the sign.• Of those who “registered presence of sign”, 100% followed instructions• Average decision time for those who see sign 2.6 s, those who do not see sign 5.6s

•Correct choice •Incorrect choice

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Sign Recognition – Improved affordance

• Greater sign affordance will increase the chance that the sign will be seen.


OTHER PROBLEMS IN HOTELS

• poor exit affordance • locked emergency exits • Unintuitive steps in exit path

• Using emergency stairs as store rooms

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Does Culture Influence how we respond in emergencies?• FSEG are involved in an EU Framework 7 project called BeSeCu the

main aim of which is to investigate possible cross-cultural and ethnicdifferences of human behaviour in crisis situations

Czech Republic RT average = 130 sPoland RT average = 70 s

UK RT average = 92 s Turkey RT average = 56 s


Confusing signs, communicating to non-native speakers, elevators

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• 50 floor building, 7840 agents, 32 lifts, 4 stairs• Top down strategy, closest elevator

EXODUS Lift Model


Elevator Use in Emergencies• Under what conditions will people wait for the lift?

• WTC survivor from the 77th floor of North Tower who evacuated on 9/11 said:

“Let me add too that, at the 44th floor there was what they call an inter-zone elevator bank, we were led off the stairwell at the 44th floor and shown to that elevator where there are

hundreds of people milling and I looked at that and I turned around to my team and I said ‘no, I am not waiting for an

elevator in a building on fire. Let’s go’ and I walked back to the stairwell and they did too and then we proceeded down”

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• In total 468 people from 23 countries completed the questionnaire:

Participant Demographics

Country

BMI Occupation

AgeGender

Place of work/residence


Evacuation – Results (1)• Approx 1 in 3 (154)participants would consider using a lift

during an evacuation, and of these:• 7.2% (11) would ALWAYS use a lift.• 78.6% (121)would be influenced by the height of the floor

they were on.• 65.4% (89)would be influenced by the height of the building

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Evacuation of the non-ambulant• Simply moving Non-Ambulant guests to a place of

safety or refuge may not be sufficient in severe situations.

• Multi-floor hotels (and care-facilities), pose particular challenges to staff and rescue personnel.

• In severe situations it may be necessary to evacuate non-ambulant guests to an external place of safety.

• How long will this take? How much time is available?

• Rescue of a non-ambulant patient from hospital fire in Spain


• Assist devices are essential to aid in evacuation of the non-ambulant, particularly down stairs.

• Several types of devices are available:

– Stretcher, Carry-Chair, Drag Sheet and Evac+Chair

• How long does it take to evacuate non-ambulant person using these devices?

• How many people are required to use the device?

• Is training necessary? – WTC 911, 12 well intentioned but untrained men carried colleague using Evac+Chair device when only one trained person necessary

• What impact do these devices have on the flow of other people down the stairs?

• Stairs at Royal Marsden during evacuation Jan 2008

Full Building Evacuation

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Assist devices for non-ambulant• Assist devices are essential to aid in evacuation of the non-ambulant.

• Several types of devices are available:

– Stretcher, Carry-Chair, Drag Mattress and Evac+Chair

• How long does it take to evacuate non-ambulant person using these devices?

• How many people are required to use the device?

• What impact do these devices have on the flow of other people down the stairs?

• NOTE: This research project was undertaken as part of the FSEG run MSc by Research by MSc Student Ton Adams.


Assist devices for non-ambulant

0126Number of stops

1243Number of operators

0.860.820.630.39Stair speed (m/s)

1.511.080.991.44Horizontal speed (m/s)

31.251.466.932.6Preparation time (s)

Evac+ChairDrag Mattress

StretcherCarry Chair

•Results are for a single trial using an experienced male team carrying the same non-ambulant patient in all cases

•Prep time is measured from “hands on” to “ready to go”.

• Corridor has 3 doors to navigate and a single right angle corner.

• Descent is through 11 floors on a 1.4m wide stair.

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Assist devices for non-ambulant – Impact on other stair users


buildingEXODUS prototype bed movement capability

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• Hotels offer many evacuation challenges to both able and disabled guests.

• Assist devices can be used to aid in the vertical evacuation of occupants with movement disabilities however,

– Essential to have well trained staff who know how to use the device and who have regular refresher training.

• Lifts can be used for evacuation of both able and disabled occupants however,

– Determining optimal evacuation strategy is complex and human behaviour associated with lift evacuation is currently an unknown quantity

• Computer simulation can be used in the Hotel environment to: – Evaluate existing evacuation procedures,– Propose improved procedures,– Investigate number of staff required to efficiently evacuate non-ambulant occupants,– Identify pinch points leading to congestion,– Assess impact of fire on evacuation.

• Essential to have appropriate data to characterise the performance of special groups such as assisted non-ambulant individuals.

CONCLUDING COMMENTS

• The right to exit safely is MORE important than the right to easy access


• FSEG offer two 5 day short courses for fire professionals:– One concerned with fire dynamics and fire modelling called:

• Principles and Practices of Fire Modelling

– One concerned with human behaviour and evacuation modelling called:

• Principles and Practice of Evacuation Modelling

• Each course carries approx 40 hrs CPD approved by the IFE

• Full details can be found at: – http://fseg.gre.ac.uk/course1.html

Two Five Day Short Courses

human behaviour and hotel fseg: modelling safety and ... galea...• fseg are involved in an eu...

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