Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

On evacuation in fire, the time of determine to start evacuation from perceiving fire cue is usually longer than the time for moving out of buildings. There are not a few fire cases that delay of starting evacuation caused loss of human lives. The starting time of evacuation is an important factor in evacuation at fire. On the past studies about the starting time of evacuation, it is estimated by actual fire cases. In this study, we collected and analyzed the starting time of evacuation when the drill fire bell sounds during sleeping condition. As a result, About 90 % of all participants starts to evacuate within 120 seconds from "the operation of emergency bell" in the state of sleeping. Action such as "waiting for the indication of the emergency broadcasting" and "waking up a person at the room" were taken until starting evacuation after they woke by emergency bell .