- Author
-
Proulx, G.
|
Ouellette, M. J.
|
Leroux, P.
|
Bailey, K. R.
- Title
- Study of the Occupants' Behavior During the Ambleside Fire in Ottawa, Ontario on 31 January 1997.
- Coporate
- National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
Office of the Fire Marshal, Ontario, Canada
- Report
-
IRC-IR 771,
October 1998,
42 p.
- Keywords
-
occupant response
|
high rise buildings
|
apartments
|
elderly persons
|
evacuation
|
communication networks
|
human behavior
|
human response
|
fire safety
|
education
|
training
|
handicapped
- Abstract
- On 31 January 1997, a fire occurred in a 25-storey highrise apartment building located in Ottawa, Ontario. The building contains 296 condominium-apartments owned mainly by senior citizens. The fire started in an apartment on the 6th floor and rapidly burned through the apartment entrance door to migrate into the corridor. One of the two elderly occupants of the apartment of fire origin called 911 at 16:34. The local fire department arrived on location at 16:39 and extinguished the fire within 10 minutes. The National Research Council of Canada in collaboration with the Office of the Fire Marshal of Ontario decided to study the occupants' behavior during this fire to document this event. A questionnaire, sent to every unit, was used to gather data. The results show that occupants had different rationales to explain their decisions to protect in place or to attempt to evacuate. Implications for codes, training and education are discussed.