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Purpose: The balcony in the apartment is important space not only as a fire escape but also as a buffer for heat and sound insulation. However, with the legalization of balcony expansion for residential apartments in Korea in 2006, many households have eliminated the balcony space altogether to increase the inner space, often without sufficient consideration for the effects on the indoor environment. This study examined the sound insulation performance of exterior-facing windows in enclosed balconies and the changes in the indoor acoustic environment due to expansion to provide a basis for appropriate balcony expansion. The apartments for the field test were chosen where two balcony types can be compared, and the sound insulation performance for the eighteen balcony windows was measured. The windows installed were typical double window with thickness 16 mm or 22 mm. Measurements of the weighted standard sound pressure level difference showed a decrease of about 3 dB in sound insulation performance due to expansion. For common exterior noise levels of 70-85 dB(A), the indoor noise level can exceed 45 dB(A), the limit level regulated in Korea. However, it was found that the sound insulation performance of the window and the quality of the construction have more influence on indoor noise levels than balcony expansion itself.

People’s behavior in the fire circumstances of the high-rise building is a typical study instance of environmental stresses. We replicated this scene in our virtual environment using Unity 3D. The technology creates a virtual environment by combining 3D modeling technology, computer graphics, wide-angle stereo display and a series of hardware and software technologies. The project built a high-rise building fire escape system which providing a highly immersive virtual environment and giving participants a more realistic experience. Virtual reality was used to simulate the fire scene, and data of how people reacted was collected to analyze the credibility and effectiveness of virtual environment on studying environmental stresses.

Background Smoke alarms have been demonstrated to reduce the risk of death in fire. It is recommend that families develop and practice fire escape plans. This study aims to utilise a smartphone app, Safety In Seconds, to deliver a theory-based tailored education to improve fire safety practices of parents in Little Rock, Arkansas and Baltimore, Maryland Methods Parents of children aged 4–7 visiting the paediatric emergency room in the two participating sites (regardless of the reason for the visit) were recruited. With assistance from a research assistant study participants downloaded the Safety In Seconds app onto their smartphone and were randomised to the intervention (fire safety) or control (car seat) group. Both groups completed a 10 min assessment about their safety knowledge and behaviours and received tailored feedback relevant to their study group. The app contained a portal with educational links and sent monthly push notification reminders for parents to interact with the app. Parents completed follow-up assessments at 3 months and 6 months. Results A total of n=1129 parents were enrolled, and 742 (66%) completed the 6 month follow-up survey. At follow-up relative to the CG, parents in the IG were more likely to report having long-life lithium battery smoke alarms (22% vs 16%; p=0.03) and having practiced a fire escape plan (65% vs. 71%; p=0.08). Conclusions Smartphone applications may be a promising tool to improve home safety behaviours.

Fire safety engineering requires a detailed understanding of fire behaviour and of its effects on structures and people. Many factors may condition the fire scenario, as for example, heat transfer between the flame and the boundary structures. Currently advanced numerical codes for the prediction of the fire behaviour are available. However, these solutions often require heavy calculations and long times. In this context analytical solutions can be useful for a fast analysis of simplified schematizations. After that, it is more effective the final utilization of the advanced fire codes. In this contribution, the temperature in a fire escape passage, separated with a thermally resistant wall from a fire room, is analysed. The escape space is included in a building where the neighbouring rooms are at a constant undisturbed temperature. The presence of the neighbouring rooms is considered with an equivalent heat transfer coefficient, in a boundary condition of the third type. An analytical solution is used to predict the temperature distribution during the fire. It allows to obtain useful information on the temperature reached in the escape area in contact with a burning room; it is useful also for a fast choice of the thermal characteristics of a firewall.

In view of the high frequency of the fire happened in city housing, and the situation that it is difficult for people to run out from fire due to the outdatedness of low-rise escape system, low-rise escape system was designed for low-rise resident to escape from fire. Based on the load, the transmission time, temperature, etc, the design of this escape system was accomplished. The main components, layouts and working principles of the system are introduced. Then the fixation plate, the circular guide, the main rivet, etc. are selected or designed based on the knowledge of , structural mechanics and material mechanics and so on. Performance test showed that the load range of the low-rise escape system is about 120-150 kilograms per side, the overall capacity is 300-350 kg, escape speed is about 30 seconds per person, it is resistant to high temperature and tear, and all the parameters meet the expected goals.

The way-finding behaviour and response during a fire emergency in a virtual environment (VE) was experimentally investigated. Forty participants, divided into two groups, were required to find the emergency exit as soon as possible in a virtual hotel building because of a fire escape demand under condition 1 (VE without virtual fire, control group) and condition 2 (VE with virtual fire, treatment group). Compared to the control group, the treatment group induced significantly higher skin conductivity and heart rate, experienced more stress, took longer time to notice the evacuation signs, had quicker visual search and had a longer escape time to find the exit. These results indicated that the treatment condition induced higher physiological and psychological stress, and had influenced the escape behaviour compared to the control group. In practice, fire evacuation education and fire evacuation system design should consider the response characteristics in a fire emergency.

The Hong Kong Metro System has been operating for more than 30 years. With the increase in population, some of the stations are crowded in most time of a day. To facilitate the design and the alteration works for a station, the crowding and passenger movement pattern, especially the escape pattern in case of fire, should be studied. This article illustrated an agent-based people movement model, and a case targeting at the people movement pattern and egress process in a metro station has been studied. The simulation results demonstrate that the model is useful for assisting building designers to evaluate different design alternatives and to support fire safety performance studies.

For layout space in the limited land resources and improving the utilization efficiency of urban transportation bridge and traffic conditions, in this paper, according to the request of four lanes of roof, two-way urban light rail traffic in the box, considering the requirements of pipeline layout, water supply and drainage, and fire escape, lighting, ventilated at the same time, based on the existing related specification, give full play to the characteristics of the concrete box girder, preliminarily design out of the single box three rooms inclined web box girder for double-deck traffic of urban bridge, in order to provide the reference design.

Fire and herbivory are the main disturbances shaping the structure of savannas. In these ecosystems, the key strategies by which woody plants escape fire are either early height growth (the lanky strategy) or early bark growth (the corky strategy). We hypothesize that the dominance of each strategy in different savannas depends on the prevailing disturbance regimes. Given the importance of herbivory in afrotropical savanna, we expect woody plants in these savannas to be taller and have thinner barks (the lanky strategy) than plants in neotropical savanna where fire tends to be more intense (the corky strategy). We compiled data on bark thickness and stem height in relation to stem diameter for afrotropical and neotropical savanna woody species and tested for differences in the allometric relationship between these two savannas with a general linear mixed model (GLMM). Fire intensities were higher in neotropical than in afrotropical savannas. Afrotropical savanna plants were taller and had thinner barks for a given diameter than neotropical savanna plants - supporting our hypothesis that because of the contrasting disturbance regimes, the lanky strategy is more adaptive in afrotropical savannas, whereas the corky strategy is more adaptive in neotropical savannas. Synthesis. While the lanky strategy is more associated with heavily browsed and fuel-controlled savannas, the corky strategy is associated with lightly browsed savannas that experience more intense fires. Because the relative role of disturbances varies across the globe, we suggest that the height-bark-diameter scheme is a powerful framework for understanding the ecology of many savannas. In savanna ecosystems there are two main strategies to scape fire. The lanky strategy (early alocation to height) is more associated with heavily-browsed and fuel-controlled savannas, while the corky strategy (early allocation to a thick bark) is associated with lightly-browsed savannas that experience more intense fires. Because the relative role of disturbances varies across the globe, we suggest that the height-bark-diameter scheme is a powerful framework for understanding the ecology of many savannas. © 2013 British Ecological Society., The authors are grateful to the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP; process: 2010/01835-0); the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES; process: 1019-11-2); and the Spanish Government (VIRRA and TREVOL projects, CGL2009-12048/BOS and CGL2012-39938-C02-00) for financial support and the scholarships granted to the authors.

Facility Management (FM) is well known for its interdisciplinary knowledge and along with the growing number of green buildings and low-carbon buildings, the FM system become increasingly complex. Many practitioners consider Building Information Modeling (BIM) as the most important technology to bring about improvements. The purpose of this paper is to develop a BIM-enabled FM system which integrates FM, BIM and building management system to improve information sharing and monitoring, FM system control, and equipment management. A case study is implemented to validate the feasibility of the BIM-enabled FM system. Four functionalities are demonstrated in detail: Equipment Information Monitoring (EIM), Dynamic Data Display and Warning (D3W), Energy-Saving Analysis (ESA), and Intelligent Fire Escape Route (IFER). The results show that BIM-enabled FM system facilitates the FM more accurate, timely, safe and efficient.

Objective To explore the knowledge and reported thermal injury prevention practices among parents of children aged 0–4 years in disadvantaged areas. Methods Parents of pre-school children in Children9s Centres in four study areas in England (Nottingham, Newcastle, Norwich and Bristol) were interviewed using a structured schedule. Interviews covered smoke alarms, bedtime routines, fire escape plans, other thermal prevention practices and parental knowledge of first aid. Results Of the 200 respondents, most reported ownership of at least one smoke alarm (n=191, 96%), of which 95% were working. Half reported a fire prevention bedtime routine (n=105, 53%) or fire escape plan (n=81, 42%). Most parents had matches or lighters in the home (n=159, 80%), some stored where children under 5 years of age could reach them (n=30, 19%). There was a high prevalence of irons (n=188, 94%) and hair straighteners (n=140, 70%). A third of both devices were used daily. Just 17 (12%) parents reported leaving hair straighteners, when hot but not in use, in a heatproof bag. Knowledge of correct initial first aid for a small burn was good (n=165, 83%), but parents reported other potentially harmful actions, for example, applying ointment (n=44, 22%). Conclusions Most families report at least one working smoke alarm, but many do not have fire escape plans or fire prevention bedtime routines. A number of reported practices could compromise child safety, such as storage of matches or lighters and leaving hair straighteners to cool unprotected. Reappraisal of health promotion messages, in light of new household consumables, is necessary.

On one of the buildings, the red flag. I started to climb on a fire escape with a tricolour between my teeth. With some difficulty, for it was a great height, I reached the roof. I climbed onto it and crawled to the top. I tore down the red flag and, surrounded by truly indescribable cheers which lasted for minutes, I hoisted and secured the tricolour flag. From there I spoke.

Background Although proven measures for reducing injury due to motor vehicle collision and residential fires exist, the number of families properly and consistently using child passenger restraints and smoke alarms remains low. This paper describes the design of the Safety In Seconds (SIS) 2.0 study, which aims to evaluate the impact of a smartphone app on parents9 use of child restraints and smoke alarms. Methods SIS is a multisite randomised controlled trial. Participants are parents of children aged 4–7 years who are visiting the Pediatric Emergency Department or Pediatric Trauma Service. Parents are randomised to receive tailored education about child passenger safety or about fire safety via the SIS smartphone app. A baseline and two follow-up surveys at 3 months and 6 months are conducted. Primary outcomes are: (1) having the correct child restraint for the child9s age and size; (2) restraining the child in the back seat of the car; (3) buckling the child up for every ride; (4) having the restraint inspected by a child passenger safety technician; (5) having a working smoke alarm on every level of the home; (6) having hard-wired or lithium battery smoke alarms; (7) having and (8) practising a fire escape plan. Discussion Finding ways to communicate with parents about child passenger and fire safety continues to be a research priority. This study will contribute to the evidence about how to promote benefits of proper and consistent child restraint and smoke alarm use. Trial registration number NCT02345941; Pre-results.

Currently, elevators are not considered as a proper means of escape in fires and people have been educated and trained to use staircases for fire escape. However, it is difficult for all the occupants to evacuate only by staircases timely and safely in super high-rise buildings, especially for the old and disabled. Considering the fact that super high-rise buildings are constructed in increasing numbers in many Asian cities, it becomes much more necessary to reconsider the use of elevators for emergency escape. Besides a mechanically safe elevator system, people’s cooperation is of critical importance to assure an efficient egress process. To explore people’s attitude to the use of elevators for fire escape in high-rise buildings and the diversity based on demographics, a study was conducted via face-to-face interviews in two different cities of China. Respondents’ demographics and their responses to hypothetical fire scenarios were collected via a set of structured questions. The results showed that most people would consider using elevators for fire escape in super high-rise buildings. The main influencing factors of their attitude were firemen’s instruction and the height of their location in the building. Statistical diversity was found based on demographics. These results indicated that people’s attitude to elevator evacuation was positive and further study should be very important.

Problem statement: The aim of this research is to investigate the fire evacuation problem from the student dormitory by using the Numerical method. The Fire Dynamics Simulator Software was used in the research with the evacuation function (FDS + Evac.). The problem under investigation concerns the building that has the open-air centre. The characteristics of the building are included with 5 floors, 2 open-air fire escape stairs located at 2 sides of the building. In addition, there is a single exit to the outside of the building and the sprinkler system is not installed inside the building. Approach: The simulation was designed to study the problem that has a source of fire occurring at the room closed to the open-air stair. The stairs will be severely affected by the smoke. The experimentation's are composed of 4 cases, which are (1) the first case assumes the true size of the door is 1 m (2) the second case assumes the true size of the door is 1 m and the smoke barrier is installed at the beam located before the stair entrance (3) the third case assumes the true size of the door is 2 m and (4) the fourth case assumes the true size of the door is 2 m and the smoke barrier is installed. Results: The results are shown that the escape time from the building with the 1 m door is 465 sec and the 2 m door is 265 sec. The time differentiation between the 1 m door and the 2 m door is 200 sec. The reason is the waiting occurred at the entrance if the smoke barrier is not installed. In this case, the smoke in the stairs without a smoke barrier installation has more than the smoke in case if the smoke barrier is installed. However, this research collected the data of the gas volume and found that the gas volume is not yet harmful to human life but the gas can be an obstacle to evacuation in the building that has an open-air centre. Conclusion: For safety reasons, the building’s user should improve the door size and install the smoke barrier at 2 sides of the stairs for all floors to increase the evacuation ability.

Increased scrutiny of federally funded programs combined with changes in fire management reflects a demand for new fire program analysis tools. We formulated an integer linear programming (ILP) model for initial attack resource allocation that operates in a performance-based, cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) environment. The model optimizes the deployment of initial attack resources for a user-defined set of fires that a manager would like to be prepared for across alternative budget levels. The model also incorporates fire spread, multiple ignitions, simultaneous ignitions, and monitoring of resources on a landscape. It also evaluates the cost effectiveness of alternate firefighting resources and alternative pre-positioning locations. Fires that escape initial attack are costly during the extended attack phase of fire management. To address this within the scope of initial attack, we constructed and analyzed alternative objective functions that incorporate a proxy for internalizing the cost of fires that escape initial attack. This type of model can provide the basis for a wider scale formulation with the potential to measure an organization's performance and promote a higher level of accountability and efficiency in fire programs. Keywords fire escape, initial attack, integer linear programming, optimal deployment, performance, wildland fire Language: en

One of the worst industrial disasters in American history occurred just over one hundred years ago at the factory of Triangle Waist Company (often referred to as the Triangle Shirtwaist Company), located near New York City's Washington Square Park, the hub of the downtown community at the time, on March 25, 1911. Minutes before quitting time, a fire broke out on the eighth floor of the sweatshop. By the time the fire was extinguished, less than half an hour later, 146 workers--mostly young immigrant women--had perished. Many of them died publicly and in the most horrific manner imaginable--by throwing themselves, in some cases ablaze, out of the upper story windows of the burning building. While numerous photographs document the actions of individuals during the blaze, one of the most widely disseminated of them, Triangle Fire, (1) has long been read as a picture captured during the fire; however, upon closer consideration, Triangle Fire is most likely a staged shot taken after the conflagration was over. (2) Recognition of this image's constructed origin may allow historians to more effectively explore the connotations of the dramatized and aestheticized photograph within its historical and cultural context. If Triangle Fire was indeed posed, we can understand its creation and historical usage as an illustration of the paradox of empathy. Paul Slovic describes this paradox by stating that this mechanism involves the capacity to experience affect, the positive and negative feelings that combine with reasoned analysis to guide our judgments, decisions, and actions. ... [Yet] statistics of ... [disasters], no matter how large the numbers, fail to convey the true meaning of such atrocities. The numbers fail to spark identification and thus fail to motivate action. (3) This explains why the ostensibly candid photographs of the deceased women sprawled on Greene Street after the fire, for example, are unable to evoke transference--thus exemplifying the numbing reaction to the statistics of atrocities Slovic describes. By extension, it further demonstrates that tragedies such as the Triangle fire arc processed through mythmaking--therefore becoming constructed realities to satisfy the human need to distill and encompass experience. In the fashion industry today, the concept of zero-waste design (the financially and ecologically motivated movement to "leave not so much as a scrap of fabric on the cutting room floor" (4)) stands in stark contrast to the practices of dressmaking one hundred years ago, when a disregard for environmental hazards and a lack of concern about worker safety made such devastating accidents almost inevitable. At the Triangle, scraps of cloth, lace, thread, and paper patterns were strewn in bins at the workers' feet, left on tables, and piled on the wooden floors. The air was filled with lint, and industrial oil was on hand to lubricate the sewing machines. There was an insufficient number of water buckets (inefficient equipment at best), the fire escape was rickety, the fire hoses were rotted through, escape routes (such as windows and doors) were impeded or blocked, thus trapping the workers inside. And to make matters worse, within this environment smoking was common among the men. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As a result of these conditions, at approximately 4:40pm, "there was a flash of flames, leaping first among the girls in the southeast corner of the eighth floor and then suddenly over the entire room." (5) The flames tore through factory floors, burning and asphyxiating the people inside. Most of the dead were thirteen to twenty-six year-old Jewish and Italian immigrant women who toiled on the eighth and ninth floors. For the survivors and descendents of these victims, as well as for all those for whom labor, women's rights, immigrants' rights, and civic management are of concern, the immediacy of the fire is still palpable today. …

In recent years, "high hell" fire events occurred frequently, and there is difficult to find a perfect solution to prevent the burning in buildings from outside to inside. Through a comparative analysis, this article considers that to build an escape tower or an independent high-level bridge can solve this problem in a certain extent. This article also elaborates on the advantages and disadvantages of this design. Hopefully in the future architectural practices there will be more secured high-rise building coming out.

Problem statement: This study investigates the fire evacuation problem of the library building by using the Fire Dynamics Simulator with Evacuation (FDS+Evac.) programming. Approach: The assumption is made that the sprinkler system is installed in the building but the system is malfunction, which is considered as the worst case of the situation. The simulations are divided into 4 cases, which are case 1; the numbers of evacuating persons are 517 persons and the heat release rate is 5 MW, case 2; the numbers of evacuating persons are 517 persons and the heat release rate is 7 MW, case 3; the numbers of evacuating persons are 788 persons and the heat release rate is 5 MW and case 4; the numbers of evacuating persons are 788 persons and the heat release rate is 7 MW. Results: The results are shown that the 1st case and the 2nd case have the evacuation times of 8.63 and 8.81 min, respectively. There is no dead person found from both cases. For the 3rd and the last case, the evacuation times are 18.17 and 18.83 min, respectively. The 3rd case has 1 dead person and the last case has 18 dead persons, respectively. Conclusion: The number of evacuating person and a size of fire have a directly impact on the evacuating person. The reasons are the crowded situation of evacuation and a higher toxicity that is occurred. So, the stairway of the building has to be improved and changed to be the fire escape. This brings to the increasing in the capability of the evacuation.

For the current lack of convenient, reliable and safe lifting of the fire escape equipment, design a device along the rope, using functions with self-locking worm gear structure. Then assess the strength of the contact state and reliability of the structure, use ANSYS to analysis the contact stress and dynamic characteristics. Finally, improve the winch device design to increase the safety factor. The check calculation and experiments showed that the device can be safely hoisting the target.

A differential computer model specifically designed to quantify smoke movement during a fire in a high-rise structure is described. The basic conservation equations are transformed into a computer code which can be used to determine the paths that smoke will take during a fire. The program is a tool for fire protection engineers to design a smoke management plan with the ultimate goal of improving occupant safety in the event of a fire. The computer code is based on a modified and improved differential smoke control model for the conditions in the floor spaces, stairwells and elevator shafts and it considers a complete set of variables that influence the motion of smoke throughout the building. Program output suggests ways to alter the pressure distribution within the building by using air handling equipment, so that occupants will have smoke-free areas on the floors and inside of the fire escape stairwells. Results for several example cases are provided, and the results are used to illustrate how smoke movement can be managed in order to mitigate dangerous conditions within the building.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the uses and exterior design of the balconies in urban housing from the ancient times to the 19th century. In doing so, the paper seeks to investigate the cultural identity of the balcony in urban housing. The results are as follow. First, in the urban housing the balcony space were made for protection from the heat, light and ventilation; gardening; views toward the streets, city, waterside, inner court, domain for men; breathing french air; watching ceremony, festivals and events; simple houseworks like drying, carpet cleaning and hair coloring; lever installation and fire escape. Second, as part of exterior design the typical projecting characteristic of the balconies was emphasized and they became an impotent decorative element. The monotonous facade changed to a lively design with a rhythmical sense. On the facade the effects of horizontal movement, symmetry or asymmetry from the main entrance, and the center-projection (rialto) were created. In the urban housing the balconies were used for cultural activities which supplement and enlarge the function of the interior space, and moreover the rich effects of the facade contributed to the creation of attractive urban landscape.

A study on building occupant characteristics in mass rapid transit (MRT) stations in Singapore is reported in this paper. The characteristics studied include age group and gender distributions, commuters’ response to fire emergency alarms and their awareness of locations of exits, their walking speeds on walkways and stairs. The study took advantage of the fare card system used in Singapore to ascertain the age group spectrum of the commuters. Surveys were conducted among the MRT commuters to establish their intended response to three types of fire alarm systems, namely the fire alarm bell, the live announcement and the pre-recorded message. Commuter walking speeds were measured with the aid of video recording and on-site observation. The distributions of age groups in the MRT commuters were found to be statistically significantly different from that of general public, as there were mainly adults and fewer children and elderly in comparison to the general population. The distributions of gender groups in the MRT commuters were also found to be statistically significantly different from that of general public, as the female/male ratio among the commuters was greater than that in the general population. The survey results indicated that commuters intended more likely to respond to live announcement warning system than to the other two systems. The commuters’ awareness of egress routes was poor. It was also noted that there was no statistically significant difference in the responses by the two gender groups to the three fire alarm warning systems but the study indicated the statistically significant gender difference in the awareness of fire escape routes. A significantly large proportion of commuters was found unaware of or unfamiliar with the current fire escape route provisions in the MRT stations from the survey. The unimpeded walking speed was found to be gender and age dependant and it may not be appropriate to apply one walking speed for all commuters. Weak correlations were found for linear fit of walking speeds over a wide range of pedestrian density on walkways and staircases. Keywords: Commuters; Evacuation

The purpose of this visual inquiry using ethnographic photographic research was to examine fire safety in homes of 42 urban older adults. Photographs were taken to document home fire safety (HFS) practices and grouped according to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Home Safety Checklist categories. Participants had a mean age of 74 years, and were mostly African-American (n=21, 57%), and female (n=32, 78%). Major findings from the photographs demonstrated unsafe electrical, cooking, and heating practices. Other HFS hazards related to installation and maintenance of carbon monoxide (CO) and smoke alarms, smoking safety, and identification and practice of home fire escape plans. The findings will provide future direction for community education and fire prevention advocacy for older adults. Keywords: Home Fire Safety, Older Adults, Visual Inquiry.Seniors in the United States (US) account for approximately 13% of the population, an estimated 40.3 million people; of which nearly 1/3 of non-institutionalized older adults live alone (Leahy et al., 2012; US Department of Commerce, 2011). By 2030, it is expected that seniors will make up roughly 19% of the US population (Leahy et al., 2012; US Department of Commerce, 2011). As many as 85% of older adults, age 65 and older, report having at least one chronic illness (Frosch, Rincon, Ochoa, & Mangione, 2010). Despite this growing demographic, coupled with their healthcare related needs, few studies have been conducted examining fire safety and burn prevention practices among older adults living in the US (e.g., Shields et al., 2013). The majority of fire safety and burn prevention studies have focused on the pediatric population, primarily school-aged children. The few studies that have examined older adults (e.g., Broerse, Zweekhorst, van Rensen, & de Haan, 2009; Taira et al., 2011) have either conducted retrospective studies or focused largely on burn survivors. In this study, we conducted a prospective, ethnographic study examining fire safety practices among older adults.For many years sociologists and anthropologists have been using visual techniques such as photography to examine and understand the social and cultural world around us. Photo-inquiry is a technique in which photographs are systematically presented to participants by the researcher to provide an analysis of a specific area of study. The images in this case documented older adults' home fire safety (HFS) behaviors. The US Fire Administration (USFA) has specific criteria to determine if a home is safe for older adults (US Fire Administration [USFA], ND).Sometimes photographic documentation is elicited from the participant; however, in this ethnographic exemplar we were trying to tell the story in a narrative that introduced a problematic area of safety in older adults living in the community. National and local initiatives are exploring better ways to enable older adults to safely "age in place" avoiding potentially irreversible pain and suffering. Most of those injuries are falls in individuals 65 and older causing further limitations and costly procedures later in life (Frosch, Rincon, Ochoa, & Mangione, 2010). Risk and severity of fire and scald injury increase with age (Peck, 2011). Although the risks for injury and death are well documented (Peck, 2011), little has been done to evaluate the presence of counter measures in the homes of older adults. The goal of this study was to describe, via photographic inquiry, the home fire safety knowledge and behaviors of older urban dwellers.Specific AimsThe primary aim of this project was to describe, using photographs, the HFS hazards found in the homes of urban older adults (over 50 years of age) during a HFS check. Another aim was to take the photographs and analyze them using qualitative research techniques to identify common themes and gain a better understanding of the HFS environment in a group of urban seniors. …

BACKGROUND: Homes in rural areas have a higher fire death rate. Although successful exit from a home fire could greatly reduce fire-related deaths and injuries, little is known about factors associated with behaviors of developing and practicing an escape plan. METHODS: Between July 2003 and June 2004, a baseline survey was administered, in person, to 691 rural households. Information collected included a history of previous home fire, perceived risk of home fire, existing smoke alarms and their working status, and home fire safety practices, as well as home and occupant characteristics. The association of residents' perceived risk of home fire and fire escape plans was assessed. RESULTS: Forty-two percent of rural households reported having a fire escape plan. Of the households with a plan, less than two thirds (56.9%) discussed or practiced the plan. Households with children were more likely to develop and practice a fire escape plan. Households with an elderly or disabled person were less likely to develop or practice the plan. Compared to respondents who perceived low or very low risk of home fire, those who perceived a high or very high risk had 3.5 times greater odds of having a fire escape plan and 5.5 times greater odds of discussion or practicing their plan. CONCLUSIONS: Increasing awareness of the potential risk of home fires may help occupants develop and practice home fire escape plans. In order to reduce fire deaths and injuries, different strategies need to be developed for those households in which the occupants lack the ability to escape.

Evaluation and implementation of the forest policy of emulating natural fire patterns in harvest planning require a good understanding of both natural and human influenced fire regimes. The SEM-LAND model (Spatially Explicit Model for LANdscape Dynamics) was employed to simulate both natural and current fire regimes in central Saskatchewan. The model used the indexes and relationships summarized in the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System and the Canadian Forest Fire Behavior Prediction System to simulate the interactions among fire events, landscape structures, topography, and weather conditions. The impact of fire suppression operations on fire spread simulated the following three stages: fire ignition, initial attack, and fire escape. Our results suggest that fire suppression could lead to longer fire cycles, smaller mean fire sizes, more fire numbers per year, and increased mean forest age (time-since-fire). The relationship between mean forest age and annual area burned was estimated from the results of this model experiment. This relationship can be used to determine the ideal fire management target of annual allowable area burned from expected future forest conditions. We conclude that the SEM-LAND model was capable of simulating fire regimes in Saskatchewan.

More needs to be known about the prevalence of risk and protective factors for fires, burns, and carbon monoxide poisoning in U.S. households.A random-digit-dial survey was conducted about home safety with 1003 respondents representing households in the continental United States. Descriptive statistics assess the prevalence of risk and protective factors for fires, burns, and carbon monoxide overall, and by demographic characteristics, household structure, region, and residential tenure. The data were weighted to adjust for nonresponse and to reflect the U.S. population.Although most respondents reported having a smoke alarm (97%), and 80% reported having one on each level of their home,20% reported checking the alarm at least every 3 months. Seventy-one percent reported having a fire extinguisher, 29% had a carbon monoxide detector, and 51% of those living with at least one other person had a fire escape plan. Few could report the temperature of their hot water at the tap (9%), or the setting on the hot water heater (25%). Only 6% had an antiscald device.Results suggest that there is much room for improvement regarding adoption of measures to prevent fires, burns, and carbon monoxide poisoning. Further investigations of the efficacy of carbon monoxide detectors, fire extinguishers, and escape plans, as well as effectiveness studies of fire and burn-prevention efforts are needed.

This study focuses on the life risk investigations in residential building fires. A total of 419 cases in residential building fires during 1998-2000 in some area of Taiwan are examined. Contexts of investigations include possible influencing variables or factors related to the activities of pre-fire as well as during fire and the resulting life casualties. Possible influencing variables or factors are measured by two questionnaires that include both fire departments and the households who owned or lived in the fire-hit residential buildings. The resultant fire life risk (the dependent variable) in this study is a dichotomous variable with two categories, casualties and non-casualties. Factors such as fire-fighting situations, degree of difficulty of fire escape, and disabled people in the building are mostly significant to estimate the life risk. That disabled people exist in the building in case of a fire has the strongest effect on life risk. A statistical interpretation is given of the model-developed estimates in terms of the odds ratio. Given that particular identified characteristics considered in residential buildings exist or not, the changes of the probabilities of causing casualties in case of a fire are predicted. The findings show that logistic regression used in this research provides good meaningful interpretations that can be used for future safety improvements.

Although the likelihood of fire-related death in homes with smoke alarms is about one-half that in homes without alarms, alarm effectiveness is limited by behavior. Only 16% of residents of homes with alarms have developed and practiced plans for escape when the alarm sounds. We reviewed literature to identify behavioral constructs that influence smoke alarm use. We then convened experts in the behavioral aspects of smoke alarms who reviewed the constructs and determined that the appropriate areas for behavioral focus were formulating, practicing, and implementing escape plans should an alarm sound. They subsequently identified important behaviors to be addressed by burn-prevention programs and incorporated the constructs into a behavioral model for use in such programs. Finally, we organized the available literature to support this model and make programmatic recommendations. Many gaps remain in behavioral research to improve fire escape planning and practice. Future research must select the target behavior, apply behavioral theories, and distinguish between initiation and maintenance of behaviors associated with planning, practicing, and implementing home fire escape plans.

Performance-based design on building fire safety provisions as an alternative to prescriptive code design is going to be developed in Hong Kong. But how to do this is not yet clear. In this transition period, alternative approach to design for projects with difficulties in complying with prescriptive codes is allowed. Projects would be considered case by case individually. There are always arguments on the design for means of escape (MoE), as the usable floor area will be affected. In this paper, the prescriptive approach of the MoE code with respect to the local buildings characteristics and occupants characteristics are reviewed. Deficiency and inadequacy of the MoE code, which is not yet updated quick enough for getting an appropriate fire safety solution for some building or occupancy types, are discussed. The possibility of adopting performance-based design approach in this transition period is examined. MoE design in a public transport interchange is taken as an example in this paper. Evacuation for...

The article traces the history of the fire escape - in its classic form, a system of iron balconies and ladders on the outside of a building, which is used for emergency exit - in the United States. It shows how this device was called into being by state and city laws in the latter half of the nineteenth century and how, when its drawbacks as a means of egress from large buildings became clear to lawmakers and property owners, was abandoned and replaced with another system: protected, interior stairs. The fire escape is an example of a publicly-constructed technology, in that its existence, development, and demise were controlled by local government rather than the market.

Open pile burning (OPB) forest residues have been limited due to several concerns, including atmospheric pollution, risk of fire spread, and weather conditions restrictions. Air Curtain Burner (ACB) systems could be an alternative to OPB and can avoid some of the negative effects that may result from OPB. The main objective was to compare the burning consumption rates and costs of two types of ACB machines, the S-220 and BurnBoss. In addition, we tested a hand-pile burning (HPB) consumption rate for a comparison with BurnBoss unit. The S-220’s burning consumption rates ranged between 5.7 and 6.8 green metric ton (GmT)/scheduled machine hour (SMH) at a cost between US $12.8 and US $10.8/GmT, respectively. Costs were 70% higher when using the BurnBoss unit. Burning residue consumption rates and cost of disposal were considerably different: they were highly dependent on machine size, species, and fuel age of forest residues. Particularly, BurnBoss test burned over 40% more than HPB method and produced clean burn by airflow. The results from this study suggest that ACBs can be a useful tool to dispose of forest residues piled in many forests areas with less concerns of air quality and fire escape risks.

Currently, limited research on large-fire suppression effectiveness suggests fire managers may over-allocate resources relative to values to be protected. Coupled with observations that weather may be more important than resource abundance to achieve control objectives, resource use may be driven more by risk aversion than efficiency. To explore this potential, we investigated observed percentage of perimeter contained and self-reported containment values, the exposure index, and patterns of resource use during the containment and control phases of fire response. Fireline production capacity of responding resources typically exceeds final fire perimeter, often by an order of magnitude or more. Additionally, on average, 21% of total incident resource productive capacity was observed on the fire during the control phase, that is, after the fires cease to grow. Our results suggest self-reported percentage containment significantly underestimates actual percentage of perimeter contained throughout an incident, with reported values averaging only 70% contained at actual fire cessation. Combined, these results suggest a fire manager’s risk perception influences resource use and may unnecessarily expose responders to fireline hazards. These results suggest a considerable opportunity to improve large-fire management efficiency by balancing the likelihood and consequences of fire escape against the opportunity cost of resource use.

One author, Diana Anderson, is a physician and an architect whose career is aimed at bridging the gap that exists between medicine, research, and architecture in order to improve design and operational efficiency of the clinical environment. She has worked in many hospitals and healthcare environments that are not supportive of staff well being nor sometimes even patient healing. Dr. Anderson often uses clinical anecdotes in her writing, linking them back to design in order to increase awareness of design's impact among her clinical colleagues. A recently published piece in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (Anderson & Hamilton, 2014) recounted her experience with critical care unit delirium and the potential impact of windows on a patient's physiologic response; a synopsis of this encounter is detailed below.The other author, Penelope Ann Shaw (Penny), is a nursing home resident who has been living in a facility in a bed by a window for 11 years. She is a survivor of critical care (having spent 4 months in an ICU on life support) from an acute phase of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neuromuscular disorder in which a person's immune system damages the nerve cells, in her case causing almost total paralysis. That was followed by a year in a respiratory rehabilitation hospital. Of the 11 years in her current facility, she was mostly in bed for 3½ years with a tracheostomy and a feeding tube.Penny reached out to Diana after reading that piece in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society in order to relate her story of how a window changed her experience dramatically while in long-term care. They teamed up to write a piece that builds on the topic of windows and exterior views. In the following sections, they provide insight into how these architectural elements can be life changing for patients and of vital importance for staff.Penny's Patient PerspectiveDuring these many years in my nursing home I've had the good luck to have a bed next to a large 5' by 6' window. The light streams through with daily and seasonal changes. I see light, bright warm sunshine, sunrise and sunset, lightning, overcast skies, and fog. The color of the sky alternately may be white, light or dark grey, blue, red, or leave my window completely black in the middle of the night. Sometimes the clouds in various formations may be visible.There is a beautiful maple tree directly outside my window with a building behind that I enjoy for its architectural details including rounded and circular windows. There is a wooden fire escape up and down which people walk. I follow the tree seasonally from the empty dark limbs of winter sometimes frosted in snow, to the early yellowish-green buds of spring, to the mature dark green of summer, to the autumn changes of red, orange, yellow, and brown, after which the cycle begins again. The motion and force of the wind brushes snow off the tree in flurries and leaves off the tree in great abundance.Staff members use my window to check the weather, see how much snow is falling and whether they'll have to scrape their cars after the storm. It's a conversation opener for them to stop for a moment in their busy schedule and chat.The sounds I hear through the window are another source of pleasure. The wind may be soft and mild or harsh and howling. When it rains there are the sounds of thunder, and other times the delicate pings and spatterings of rain and snow against the pane. Sometimes the droplets fall in many straight lines side by side, appearing like a beaded curtain that makes the window opaque, letting little light in between. The windowpane is a canvas for the elements to draw abstract geometric patterns that can absorb and distract me, creating a form of entertainment for several minutes. Another sound I hear through the window is that of the whistle of an Amtrak train going by, reminding me of people traveling from place to place, living their lives, enjoyably I hope, connecting me with the larger world. …

Lack of awareness of potential fire hazards is a leading factor of fire, especially when the child is alone. This paper presents a simulation training system to help children learn fire hazards knowledge and escape skills. The first part of this system is an application designed for theoretical study, which is featured by gesture interaction using Microsoft Kinect and large screen display environment. It includes three modules, namely animation, quizzes, and a 3D serious game. The second part is a simulated environment of fire escape route, which aims to test learning outcomes. Experimental results show the fire escape skills of 100 children are greatly improved.

In this study, a multi-agent simulation is conducted to explore the relationship between fire escape survival rate and occupants' risk preferences and stress capacity. The results indicate that, the escape survival rates for occupants with different risk preferences and stress capacities can be significantly different. More specifically, the simulation shows that the smaller the number of occupants is in a fire, the higher the survival rate can be expected. In addition, the simulation shows that the larger the number of individuals with stronger stress capacities is in a group, the higher the escape survival rate the group has. Moreover, the simulation shows that the more disperse the individuals' risk preferences is in a group, the higher the escape survival rate the group has. Based on the simulation results, the paper proposes a framework of E-evacuation system to guide the rational escape and evacuation when enterprise workshop fire occurs. Suggestions for increasing escape survival rates during fires are provided.

The paper presents a novel framework for 3D autonomous navigation for tracked vehicles. The framework takes care of clustering and segmentation of point clouds, traversability analysis, autonomous 3D path planning, motion planning and flippers control. Results illustrated in an exper- iment section show that the framework is promising to face harsh terrains. Robot performance is proved in three main experiments taken in a training rescue area, on fire escape stairs and in a non-planar testing environment, built ad-hoc to prove 3D path planning functionalities. Performance tests are also presented.

The paper research the choosing of the optimal escape routes in fire emergency simulation. Aiming at the lack of fire emergency behavior description and its path pre-processing mechanism without dynamic adapting, this paper presented a novel algorithm based on geometry method in order to make the simulation according with the facts. We abstracted complex scenes as the graph model, and established an adaptive dynamic path query table to create the dynamically generated map, and proposed a model of population density to restrict the escape expectation velocity, which reflects the population movement of social group behavior in emergency situations. Experimental results show that the algorithm can not only access the dynamic optimal escape route, but also realistically describe the crowd social escape behavior under fire emergency situations.

"Fishing for Burn Prevention" is an interactive educational burn and fire safety program designed to stimulate family involvement at health fairs, and it provides an alternative to handing out safety information. The program attracts preschoolers through preteens and is staffed by burn center personnel. The design consists of a small pool, a wooden fishing rod, several cutout fish, and hook-and-loop fasteners. Words that will stimulate interaction between the presenter and the participant are written on the fish; these can include "smoke detector," "cool the burn," "fire escape plan," "matches," "grease fire," and "120 degrees F." Providing an interactive, hands-on activity at health fairs can increase burn and fire safety awareness for the entire family.

Forty-eight workers who had escaped large underground coal-mine fires were interviewed using an open-ended protocol. This information, and the actual experiences of one eight-person mine-section crew who escaped from a fire, were used to construct an 18-frame (page) table-top simulation exercise, which was then field tested with 134 miners. The exercise is a research tool that measures miners' proficiency in the information-gathering and decision-making skills related to escaping from a mine fire. It also helps miners to learn and practice these cognitive skills. The exercise was found to be valid and reliable. All miners reported that the exercise was authentic and would help them to remember important information. The exercise total score, and all but two item scores, significantly discriminated among miners with different levels of training. The two items that did not discriminate dealt with whether or not to abandon a helpless fellow miner. When the exercise total score data were pooled, only 13.6% of the miners achieved a desirable score of 90% mastery or greater. The simulation is important because it teaches and assesses critical judgment and decision-making skills that are rarely addressed in miner training.

The objective of this study was to determine the impact of a community based fire prevention intervention directed only to parents on the fire safety knowledge and behavior in elementary school children. This was a prospective, quasi-randomized controlled study in which third and fourth grade students from two elementary schools in an urban, poor, minority community completed knowledge/behavior surveys at baseline and following completion of the intervention. The intervention group received an in-home visit from fire department personnel who installed free lithium smoke detectors and provided a fire escape plan. After accounting for a small difference in baseline summary scores of knowledge and behavior between the control and intervention groups, this study found a modest improvement in fire safety behavior among children whose families received a fire prevention intervention reflecting a change in household fire safety practices. However, there was no significant change in fire safety knowledge.

With the rapid development of space technology, space remote sensing activities get a full extension and application. Remote sensing information has become an essential part of geographic information data source. As a very important kind of geographic information in remote sensing information, road information has a wide range of applications in the field of traffic navigation, urban planning, and military reconnaissance. To acquire road information accurately and rapidly is the only way to meet the needs of practical application. But due to the high complexity of remote sensing information of the road, and the modern computer automation has not yet reached the level of the corresponding demand, so far there is still not a mature and reliable automatic road extraction method, so the automatic road extraction technology has become a research hotspot in remote sensing information processing. This paper presents an automatic algorithm based on fuzzy connectedness which can extract road information from the remote sensing images. The algorithm detects the edge of the image with Canny operator and connected domain elimination. Then extend the road with the fuzzy connectedness to form a road image. After using fuzzy connectedness expansion algorithm, the automatic identification of the road can be achieved. In many trials of treating remote sensing images as objects, the performance of this extraction algorithm has high accuracy and greater versatility. The results of the experiment are in line with basic human identification results. Road information is critical to the public when disaster comes, having a full knowledge of the road information may help reducing the casualties. As a result, road extraction is vital to the safety of our citizens as well as our government's emergency warning, preparedness and planning. Road extraction has great significance in the earthquake relief and forest fire escape, thus plays an important role in emergency rescue and relief work.

En analyse av tre kjente typer evakueringsstrømper sett opp mot teknisk forskrift sine krav til rømningsvei i nye og eksisterende bygninger i Norge Norsk Sikkerhetspartner AS

Most of buildings in modern society become bigger and higher, the fire can cause serious damage in such as a large and complex building. Because of this, escape environment is very important when the fire occurs in the building. This paper suggests Robot-based Context-Aware Fire Escape Service Model that can provide optimal escape routes considering fire information and context to user through user’s smart phone with real time. The service model provides safe escape routes to user who did not find an escape route from disaster situation through smart phone and robot. In addition, the service model can expect rapid fire suppression and minimal expected casualty by teaching the present information in building to the rescue party.

The safety evacuation from the fire affected building is the most imported thing, which is bound to the fire safety of building. The evacuation of persons is necessary process and procedure which can safe lives and health in the most of extraordinary event caused by fire of buildings or technologies. The typical efect attend fires set in buildings, which threaten persons, property and fire - fighting fire brigades. These threaten efects are products of combustion, flame, heat and deficiency of oxygen. I present the way how to use the fire safety devices in various types of buildings in my diploma work, above all towards to safety escape persons from the fire affected building. I describe the practical positive and also negative finding during installation and mutual coordination the fire safety devices.

The alarming loss of forested areas containing red pine (Pinus resinosa Ait.) and eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.) in eastern Canada is a situation that must be addressed promptly by changing management approaches. Since the ecological role of fire in the regeneration and perpetuation of these pines is well known, it makes sense to use fire to maintain pine ecosystems through forest management that uses an understory prescribed burn program. Fears of fire escape and a poor knowledge of applying fire correctly to these ecosystems are the result of poor training in the use of prescribed fire, which normally concentrates solely on post-harvest slash sites; this has prevented extensive use of understory prescribed burning in the past. However, research in Canada, principally using the Canadian Forest Fire Behavior Prediction (FBP) System coupled with the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) System, allows forest managers to develop burning prescriptions that are safe and economical while meeting objectives for seedbed preparation, natural seeding and control of competing vegetation. Key words: crown scorching, eastern white pine, fire, natural regeneration, red pine, seedbed preparation, understory prescribed burning, vegetation control.