Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Data on human behavior was collected and analyzed from reports of mass media and interviews to survivors from the twin towers of World Trade Center collapsed on September 11, 2001. The escape behaviors show some problems to be reconsidered on the evacuation design strategy for high-rise buildings. For solving these problems on evacuation from high-rise buildings, a new design strategy is required for safety evacuation. It was reported that a man who worked on the 69th floor of WTC1 was able to make an escape by using an emergency chair designed for down the stairs. In this study, the experiments of using evacuation chair in twenty stories building have been carried out. This type of evacuation chair is handled by one person easily. According to the experiment results, descending speed of evacuation chair is a half of walking speed. It can be used in 1.2 meter width staircases.