Influence of design and installation of emergency exit signs on evacuation speed

Gyu-Yeob Jeon,Wook-Jeong Na,Won-Hwa Hong,Jin-Kook Lee

doi:10.1080/13467581.2019.1599897

Abstract

ABSTRACT Emergency exit signs have an important role in the fire safety of buildings. Exit signs help evacuees rapidly escape fire by following the fastest and safest escape routes immediately after the detection of fire. In other words, evacuation can greatly vary according to environmental factors regarding evacuation within the building. In this study, change in the evacuation speed by exit signs and environmental conditions was analyzed through experiments with 138 subjects. Four environmental factors in the experiment are visibility, distance between exit sign and evacuees, spatial configuration, and size and brightness of exit sign. In conclusion, changes in the spatial conditions around exit signs influenced the evacuation speeds of the subjects in poor visibility, and the changes in physical conditions of exit signs exerted more influence when the visibility was relatively better.

Highlights

One of the most important functions of a building is the safe egress of all occupants out of the building in the case of a fire event
The main problems leading to a failure of fire escape, as identified in previous studies of fire incidents, are smoke-induced poor visibility and irritation caused by difficulties in wayfinding (Jeon and Hong 2009a; Jin 2002)
In level 2 visibility, the subjects assigned to W-20-TYP-2 moved most rapidly and the subjects assigned to W-15-TYP-2 moved most slowly

Summary

Introduction

One of the most important functions of a building is the safe egress of all occupants out of the building in the case of a fire event. Failure to provide safe evacuation of the building in the initial phase of fire increases the risk of mass casualties. The determinant factors for the failure to provide for a fast and safe escape from a burning building are the panic reactions of the evacuees and the environmental inadequacy of the building. A number of fire incidents with mass casualties, such as the 2013 Daegu subway fire, vividly exemplify the importance of safe evacuation in the incipient phase of fire and the high risk of casualties as a consequence of failure to ensure fast evacuation. Long and complex escape routes of a building coupled with poor visibility due to smoke and flames place the building occupants at great risk of failure in self-evacuating the building. Evacuation efficiency can greatly vary according to the type of egress facilities and environmental factors within the building

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