EVACUATION TIME AND MOVEMENT IN APARTMENT BUILDINGS

An experiment was designed to observe evacuation time and occupant movement in four apartment buildings during a simulated fire emergency. The buildings were 6-7 storeys high containing between 80 and 130 apartments and had an average population of 150 occupants. The buildings chosen were characterized as mired occupancy housing; that is, they included adults, children, seniors and people with disabilities. The evacuation drills were recorded on video cameras located throughout the buildings. The results were analyzed regarding the behaviour of the people, the occupants' time to start to evacuate and their rime to reach an outside exit. The impact of the physical organization of the buildings, the evacuation strategies and the occupants, response and movement are discussed. It was concluded that elderly people and people with disabilities did not impede the evacuation since occupants who were mobility impaired waited in their units to be rescued. In buildings 1 and 3, problems arose when the firefighters tried to communicate with occupants remaining in their units because the fire alarm was too loud and most people had moved to their balconies. Buildings 2 and 3 were typical with long delays before evacuation as some mobile occupants did not hear the fire alarm and started their evacuation only when the firefighters knocked on their doors.