Human behaviour during evacuation of primary schools: Investigations on pre-evacuation times, movement on stairways and movement on the horizontal plane

doi:10.1016/j.firesaf.2017.04.016

Fire Safety Journal

Volume 91, July 2017, Pages 937-946

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.firesaf.2017.04.016 Get rights and content

Highlights

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Investigations on 12 no. full scale evacuations are presented.
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Factors influencing pre-evacuation time from classrooms are discussed.
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Horizontal and vertical travel speeds were obtained and analysed for trends.
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The influence of age, gender and group leader on travel speeds is discussed.

Abstract

Children are a vulnerable group in society and less is known about their characteristics during evacuation than that of adults. This may lead to fire safety design of child centric buildings that fail to account for or acknowledge accurately the characteristics of children. Previous studies have indicated a distinction between adults and children in response to fire cues, however, the existing child specific literature lacks the depth required to provide certainty in design assumptions. This paper focuses on the human behaviour of children during evacuation. The key aim is to contribute to the limited existing data on the pedestrian dynamics and behavioural actions of children during an evacuation. Data from twelve full scale evacuations of four primary schools (educating children aged 4–12) is analysed. As might be expected, longer pre-evacuation times were obtained for classes accommodating younger children. A reduction in pre- evacuation times was observed through repetition of evacuation drills. The movement characteristics of children on the horizontal plane and on stairways were found to be influenced by age, and variances in travel speeds within each class group were observed. On stairways children in the lower classes moved slower and were more cautious than older children. Interestingly, it was more common for groups to be led by a pupil, resulting in faster movement speeds than those led by an adult. Observations and analysis are further discussed along with directions for further research.

Introduction

Children are considered a vulnerable group in society with respect to fire safety and comprise of 21% and 25% of the population in the UK and Ireland respectively [4]. In Ireland 12.5% of the population are within the age range for primary school education [4]. Hence, the primary school setting provides an obvious concentration of children in the younger age ranges leading to the proposition: Are primary schools fire safe? A question requiring more investigation and empirical data to draw conclusions.

Significant research has been undertaken over the past 30 years in the area of human behaviour in fire, to garner a greater understanding of the human involvement and interaction with the fire. However, research conducted in the area of the evacuation of children is limited and research that has been undertaken [2], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18] has suggested that age is factor and variable in the movement parameters of children. In addition, the cognitive ability of children, especially in the lower age ranges, does not equate to the cognitive functioning of an adult, leading to the possibility of unpredictable decision making.

This paper endeavors to broaden the existing data on the human behaviour of children in fire, making comparisons to existing relevant studies, in the hope that greater knowledge shall draw attention to this vulnerable group and the salient need for acknowledgement of the characteristics of children in the design of buildings.

Section snippets

Justification

The advent of performance fire codes and application of fire safety engineering to achieve fire safe designs has driven the need for research in physical and behavioural human factors that are prevalent during a building evacuation. This is critical in vulnerable populations and research by Boyce et al. [19], [20], [21], [22] in the area of persons with impairments was notable for this sub-group of society. Children are deemed vulnerable due to reduced cognitive and physical capabilities when

Experimental method

This paper is part of a wider study on fire safety and evacuation of primary schools being undertaken by the authors pursuant to an M.Sc. Degree, and focuses on pre-evacuation times and both horizontal and vertical movement of children during evacuations of primary schools. In Ireland, primary school children are in the age range 4–12, comprising of 8 no. class groups with a maximum teacher to pupil ratio guideline of 1:27, although individual classroom ratios may be higher. In accordance with

Pre-evacuation phase

Simultaneous evacuation procedures were employed in each of the schools, however, two instances occurred where the children were held at the doorway by the teacher until the corridor was clear. This holding time is indicated as a component of the pre-evacuation time by Cuesta and Gwynne [18] along with the preparation time. The current study does not consider the holding time to be part of the pre-evacuation time. The average pre-evacuation time observed was 18.5 s. This is comparable with

Conclusions

This paper provides empirical data on the evacuation parameters of children in the primary school setting and is based on analysis of data recorded during twelve full scale evacuations of four separate primary schools. Comparisons are made to previous studies and it is hoped this data shall improve the knowledge base for code writers and regulators in the development and implementation of standards applicable to schools.

This paper is part of a wider study on fire safety and evacuation of

Acknowledgement

Thanks to the Society of Fire Protection Engineers for awarding this research the Dr Guyléne Proulx OC Scholarship in 2016. Thanks to my employer Donegal County Council for assistance under the staff education scheme. Thanks to Letterkenny Institute of Technology for providing the opportunity and platform to undertake what I believe is an important study. Thanks to the participating schools for providing access to obtain the data.

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View full text

Human behaviour during evacuation of primary schools: Investigations on pre-evacuation times, movement on stairways and movement on the horizontal plane

Highlights

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Justification

Experimental method

Pre-evacuation phase

Conclusions

Acknowledgement

Saf. Sci.

Saf. Sci.

Study of children evacuation from pre‐school education institutions

Fire Mater.

Pre-school and school children building evacuation

Evacuation of Children: focusing on daycare centers and elementary schools

Evacuation dynamics of children–walking speeds, flows through doors in daycare centers

Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics

Evacuation of children: movement on Stairs and on Horizontal plane

Fire Technol.

Empirical data analysis and modelling of the evacuation children from three multi‐storey day‐care centers

A Step Towards Including Children's Evacuation Parameters and Behavior in Fire Safe Building Design

Fire Saf. Sci.

An experimental data-set on pre-school children evacuation

Fire Technol.