- Author
-
Stahl, F. I.
- Title
- Preliminary Findings Concerning the Validity of "BFIRES": A Comparison of Simulated with Actual Fire Events. Final Report.
- Coporate
- National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
-
NBSIR 79-1796,
August 1979,
21 p.
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Keywords
-
building fires
|
fire research
|
fire safety
|
human performance
|
simulation
|
occupants
- Abstract
- This report presents preliminary findings regarding the validity of BFIRES/VERSION 1, a computer program developed at the National Bureau of Standards to simulate egress movement by building occupants during fires. A computer simulation experiment was conducted in order to compare outcomes from BFIRES runs with data selected from an archival file summarizing actual fire results. Findings from this experiment suggest that BFIRES is capable of reporducing such important fire outcomes as loss-of-life indices and numbers of persons ultimately escaping. In addition, patterns of egress behavior produced by BFIRES were compared with those found in the literature, with professional opinions, and with impressions gathered from anedotal accounts. With few exceptions, these comparisons illustrate agreement between simulations and other data sources.