- Author
-
Peacock, R. D.
|
Kuligowski, E. D.
- Title
- Introduction.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
-
NIST SP 1032,
January 2005,
- Book or Conf
- Workshop on Building Occupant Movement During Fire Emergencies. Proceedings. June 10-11, 2004,
Gaithersburg, MD,
Peacock, R. D.; Kuligowski, E. D., Editors,
3-3 p.,
2005
- Keywords
-
occupants
|
people movement
|
emergencies
|
codes
|
standards
|
evacuation
|
egress
- Abstract
- Both before and since the World Trade Center tower collapses, there have been far too frequent events in which there was extensive life loss because the time needed for safe evacuation from a threatened building was not available - it was less than the time available for escape. There is a broad range of emergency scenarios for which there is an alarming gap between the public expectation of safety and the ability to provide it. These include man-made threats, natural disasters, and the more common system failures (e.g., gas leaks and power outages). The urgency of response to knowing something is very wrong within a building is now being accentuated and perhaps even changed, as the old paradigms of "orderly movement will get you out in time" and "find a safe part of the building and wait for rescue" are open to question. Thus, the need for accurate, quantitative assessment of people movement in emergencies has never been greater than it is today.