- Author
- Keating, J. P.
- Title
- Human Reaction During Residential Fires: Establishing a Data Base.
- Coporate
- Washington Univ., Seattle
- Report
- NBSIR 85-3118
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Book or Conf
- National Bureau of Standards. 7th Joint Panel Meeting of the UJNR Panel on Fire Research and Safety. October 24-28, 1983, Gaithersburg, MD, 41-52 p., ['1983', '1985']
- Keywords
- human behavior | personnel evacuation | occupants
- Abstract
- An opportunity to apply psychological principles to fire egress problems was provided us in 1974, when we were asked by the General Services Administration to design the wording for the vocal evacuation system for the Seattle Federal Building. This building was developed by the federal government to provide a prototype of a high-rise structure which incorporated a total fire safety system concept. The basic hardware of the safety system was designed, and several important decisions concerning the personnel evacuation were made before our involvement. The most significant innovation of the system was the incorporation of a public address component capable of broadcasting prerecorded directions to communicate with building occupants who might be affected by a fire. While a vocal alarm was the egress system recommended by several fire safety conferences for high-rises, systematic development of the wording to be used in such a system was not attempted until our efforts (Keating and Loftus, 1977).