Interactions Between Human Behaviour and Technology: Implications for Fire Safety Science

Abstract

Here we present a number of studies showing how human behaviour may influence the effectiveness of fire safety equipment. The paper initially focuses on smoke alarms and first reviews studies on the waking effectiveness of smoke alarms, including the increased waking effectiveness of a low frequency 520 Hz square wave. Section 2.2 presents research on the impact of changes in the open or shut status of doors and windows on alarm performance. When all doors were closed, the average alarm volume in other rooms fell to a mere 36 dBA. Time for alarm activation by smoke was very strongly influenced by shutting interconnecting doors. The analysis in Sect. 2.3, using detailed coroner’s files, suggests that for many fire fatalities a smoke alarm is likely to have been irrelevant to whether or not a person died in the fire. Part 3 presents research examining the use of fire extinguishers and fire blankets by older adults. Blanket use was more successful than the fire extinguisher, with 22% of participants unable to remove the fire extinguisher safety tag. We conclude that any new fire safety technologies or developments need to explicitly take into account human factors in their design. Further, consideration must be made about whether a new product is likely to be located, installed, available, maintained and/or appropriately used by the people who are most at risk. The paper closes with a discussion of some preventative strategies.