- Author
- Paulsen, R. L.
- Title
- Human Behavior and Fire Emergencies: An Annotated Bibliography.
- Coporate
- National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
- Sponsor
- Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC
- Report
- NBSIR 81-2438, December 1981, 135 p.
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Keywords
- bibliographies | evacuation | fire alarm systems | fire fatalities | fires | high rise buildings | hospitals | human behavior | nursing homes | panic | smoke detectors | sprinkler systems
- Abstract
- This report contains an annotated listing of 161 selected references pertaining to human behavior and fire emergencies. The scope is broad: the references cover the full range of behavioral responses through the different stages of a fire emergency in the context of a variety of occupancy settings. Health care institutions are the most frequently represented occupancy type. May research approaches are included; e.g., case studies of individual incidents, survey studies of large numbers of incidents, theoretical analyses and representations of the fire situation, computer models, literature surveys, and psychological studies of selected populations. The work of researchers from many nations, including the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Japan, West Germany, France, Belgium, and the U.S.S.R., is referenced. Annotations for papers from the first two international conferences on human behavior in fires (March 1977 and October 1978) are contained in this bibliography. There is a topical index to provide the reader with a preliminary guide to those references regarding a particular occupancy type, research approach, design freature, or category of behavioral response. An introductory essay provides an overiew of the field of human behavior and fires and develops some common themes found in the literature.