A Study on the System Improvement for Ensuring Evacuation Safety of People Vulnerable to Disasters in Case of a Fire in the Building

Abstract

As the disabled and the elderly are relatively lacking in the ability to cope with crisis compared to the general public, they can become major victims of casualties in the event of the outbreak of a fire in a building. The investigation of the fire trends in facilities for the old and the youth mainly used by people vulnerable to disasters revealed that the degree of casualties per fire case in such facilities was higher than the overall degree of casualties from fire. As most of the provisions in the current building evacuation regulations and crisis response systems in South Korea are devised for the health and safety of the general public, there is a lack of crisis response safety systems for people vulnerable to disasters. In this regard, this paper proposed system improvement measures to enhance the evacuation safety of the disabled and the elderly in the event of a fire in a building, through case studies of fires that occurred in disabled and elderly welfare facilities and analysis of the relevant regulations and standards.