- Author
- Sime, J. | Breaux, J. | Canter, D.
- Title
- Human Behavior Patterns in Domestic and Hospital Fires.
- Coporate
- Fire Research Station, Borehamwood, England
- Report
- BRE Occasional Paper 59, May 1994, 104 p.
- Keywords
- residential buildings | hospitals | human behavior | case histories
- Abstract
- These two studies formed part of the work that enabled the University of Surrey to develop a coherent model of human behavior in fire. Extracts from the studies were also reproduced in "Fires and Human Behavior", which Professor David Canter, who led the Fire Research Unit at Surrey, contributed to and edited. Copies of the internal notes were made available to the research community at the time, but the work 'WAS NOT PUBLISHED'. The Fire Risk Unit of the Fire Research Station, in developing its simulation aproach to risk analysis, initially in the context of dwellings, has had occasion to revisit this material in much greater detail to ensure that its modelling of the extremely complex human behavior in dwelling fires will track the circumstances of some of these studies. It is therefore appropriate that BRE should publish the early work so that other research groups can follow this path independently. It has not proved possible to make adequate copies of the illustrations of buildings which appeared in the original reports, but little has been lost by omitting them. Statistics indicate that the majority of deaths and casualties caused by fire in the UK occur in households. It has been noted that, on average, only one fire in 500 in non-domestic buildings involves deaths, compared with one fatality in 80 fires in dwellings. The rate of casualties per thousand fires is comparable in hotels, but the number of fires in dwellings far outnumbers that in other building and occupancy types. Statistics collected in the USA also reflect the high number of casualties in households.