Perspectives of Occupants with Mobility Impairments on Fire Evacuation and Elevators
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NIST Technical Note 1923 Perspectives of Occupants with Mobility Impairments on Fire Evacuation and Elevators Kathryn M. Butler Susanne M. Furman Erica D. Kuligowski Richard D. Peacock This publication is available free of charge from: http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.1923 NIST Technical Note 1923 Perspectives of Occupants with Mobility Impairments on Fire Evacuation and Elevators Kathryn M. Butler Fire Research Division Engineering Laboratory Susanne M. Furman Information Access Division Information Technology Laboratory Erica D. Kuligowski Fire Research Division Engineering Laboratory Richard D. Peacock Fire Research Division Engineering Laboratory This publication is available free of charge from: http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.1923 August 2016 U.S. Department of Commerce Penny Pritzker, Secretary National Institute of Standards and Technology Willie May, Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and Director Certain commercial entities, equipment, or materials may be identified in this document in order to describe an experimental procedure or concept adequately. Such identification is not intended to imply recommendation or endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, nor is it intended to imply that the entities, materials, or equipment are necessarily the best available for the purpose. National Institute of Standards and Technology Technical Note 1923 Natl. Inst. Stand. Technol. Tech. Note 1923, 81 pages (August 2016) CODEN: NTNOEF This publication is available free of charge from: http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.1923 ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract Safe evacuation during a fire or other catastrophic event is crucial for the safety of the building’s occupants. Since the tragic loss of life in the World Trade Center disaster, This efforts have refocused on the provision of safe and efficient evacuation procedures, especially for occupants who cannot negotiate exit stairs without assistance. Several publication evacuation options have been designed specifically for people with mobility impairments, including occupant evacuation elevators (OEEs). The purpose of this report is to provide guidance to assist designers, facility managers, and fire emergency personnel on how they might improve designs, technologies, and emergency procedures for safer evacuation of occupants with mobility impairments during fire emergencies. is available Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 51 participants with mobility impairments working in buildings located in five major metropolitan areas within the U.S. The dual goals in this study were to gain an understanding of how building occupants with free mobility impairments evacuate multi-story buildings during fire emergencies and to identify the concerns about using elevators during fire evacuations. To gain insight of toward these two goals, the following three main questions were asked: charge 1. How do participants describe their everyday mobility while at work? 2. What experiences have the participants had during fire drills or fire emergencies while at work? from: 3. What do participants currently think about using elevators as a means to evacuate a building during a fire evacuation? http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.1923 The results of this study lead to guidance on evacuation planning and procedures, the use of existing elevators for evacuation of people with mobility impairments, and the use of occupant evacuation elevators. This guidance highlights the importance of reducing anxiety about fire evacuation and increasing trust in the occupant evacuation elevator system via a variety of means, including education and consultation in preparation for the evacuation, information and attention to occupant needs while the evacuation is taking place, and two-way feedback and discussions afterwards. Key to all of these issues is the need to include those with mobility impairments in the planning and execution of fire evacuations and to facilitate their ability for self-evacuation as much as is practicable. Keywords: fire evacuation, elevators, people with mobility impairments i ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ This publication is available free of charge from: http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.1923 ii ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Executive Summary Natural or human-influenced disasters can have devastating consequences for individuals This in multi-story buildings, including injury or loss of life. Safe evacuation during a fire or other catastrophic event is crucial for the safety of the building’s occupants. The World publication Trade Center (WTC) disaster in New York City on September 11, 2001, where more than 2 000 building occupants perished, provided important lessons on the evacuation of multi-story buildings, including evacuation procedures and practices, initiation and length of time for evacuation, and the effects of building construction and technical conditions on evacuation. is available Since the tragic loss of life in the WTC disaster, efforts have refocused on the provision of safe and efficient evacuation procedures, especially for occupants who cannot negotiate exit stairs without assistance. Several evacuation options have been designed to free address people with mobility impairments, including occupant evacuation elevators (OEEs). The International Code Council (ICC) and the National Fire Protection of Association (NFPA) provide requirements for the use of elevators for both occupant charge evacuation and fire fighter access into tall buildings. To support the development of these codes and standards, previous research on elevators, performed at NIST and elsewhere, has primarily focused on the technical aspects of ensuring safe and reliable evacuation for from: the occupants of tall buildings. However, little guidance is currently available on how occupants, particularly those with mobility impairments, can most effectively evacuate http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.1923 buildings during fire emergencies. There is a need for research on the ways in which elevator technologies could be appropriate and should be considered for evacuation. To address this gap, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 51 participants with mobility impairments working in buildings located in five major metropolitan areas within the U.S. The causes of mobility difficulties for the participants included congenital conditions, progressive diseases, and injuries, and the vast majority use wheelchairs at work. The dual goals in this study were to gain an understanding of how building occupants with mobility impairments evacuate multi-story buildings during fire emergencies and to identify the concerns about using elevators during fire evacuations. To gain insight toward these two goals, the following three main questions were asked: 1. How do participants describe their everyday mobility while at work? 2. What experiences have the participants had during fire drills or fire emergencies while at work? 3. What do participants currently think about using elevators as a means to evacuate a building during a fire evacuation? A qualitative approach was chosen to carry out this research project. The goal of qualitative research is to uncover the range of behavior of a group of people related to some topic or issue and to understand the thoughts and emotions that drive the behavior. iii ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ During the interviews, participants were asked about their experiences with building evacuations and evacuation training, their comfort level and concerns regarding the evacuation options with which they were familiar, and their thoughts about the use of elevators for evacuation during fire emergencies. The semi-structured interview protocol consisted of a list of basic questions to be covered by the interviewer plus optional probing questions to draw out more detailed information and encourage the recounting of This anecdotes. The questions included demographics, background information on the publication workplace and on mobility issues, and in-depth questions on everyday activities, fire evacuation experience, fire evacuation procedures and training, and fire evacuation by elevator. Near the end of each interview, participants were shown a short video describing technical and operational improvements in the development of OEEs that could allow OEEs to be implemented for evacuation. After the video, participants were is asked for their comments. available Results of this study provided insight on participants’ evacuation experiences, perspectives on existing evacuation methods, experience with evacuation plans and training, and free perspectives on the benefits of and concerns with OEEs. Overall, this study identifies a wide range of issues surrounding the evacuation of occupants with mobility impairments. of charge A variety of evacuation experiences were described by the participants, some of which are briefly summarized in the report. Characteristics of evacuations that left participants with a positive feeling about the experience included continuing communication about the from: situation and the efforts that were being made on their behalf, planning that included the input of the participant, regular training on what to do in an emergency,