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Analysis of response behavior of people in fire incidents where residential fire alarms successfully worked
Author(s) -
Sekizawa Ai,
Mizuno Masayuki
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
fire and materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1099-1018
pISSN - 0308-0501
DOI - 10.1002/fam.2434
Subject(s) - fire safety , poison control , engineering , firefighting , human factors and ergonomics , fire protection , forensic engineering , wildfire suppression , occupational safety and health , aeronautics , medical emergency , civil engineering , geography , medicine , cartography , pathology
Summary All residential homes in Japan have been required to install residential fire alarms since 2006. According to a survey by Tokyo Fire Department in 2011, the installation rate of residential fire alarms per household within the jurisdiction of the Tokyo Fire Department is 80.6%. The authors carried out an analysis of reports of cases, where residential fire alarms successfully worked. The information in these real fire incident reports is very useful for us to understand the actual circumstances as well as the behavior of the people involved in and nearby a fire incident. In many cases of successful activation of fire alarms for fires originating in a living room and bedroom, the occupants were likely to be in sleeping in the room of fire origin and did not become aware of the fire alarm, even if it sounded. By contrast, other family members and/or neighbors outside the room of fire origin were more likely to hear the sound and initiated the response activity to the fire incident. This indicates the potential for persons in the room of fire origin at the time of fire to be saved by others nearby because of the activation of residential fire alarms, even if they are sleeping and do not respond by themselves to the alarm sound. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.