Occupants' behaviour in response to the high-rise apartments fire in Hiroshima City

A remarkable, large fire occurred in a 20 stories high-rise apartments in 1996 in Hiroshima City. The fire spread from the fire origin apartment unit on the 9th floor up to the top 20th floor, very quickly by external flame spread through balconies. The authors investigated the evacuation behaviour of the occupants including reaction to fire cues, motives for starting evacuation, and choice of evacuation route by means of questionnaire survey and also peer interviews with some of them, focusing on the use of elevators in evacuation by floor height and/or age group in this very rare fire incident. From the investigation, the following results were obtained. (1) Probably due to the experience of many past small fires, there was a time lag between the perception of fire and starting the evacuation. Many respondents started their evacuation on the directions of others, not by direct fire cues such as smoke. Also, the reaction of occupants after the perception of fire is affected by their perception of the seriousness of the fire. (2) The likelihood of elevator use in evacuation is mainly related to the floor height in which the occupants live, but is not so closely related to the age of the occupants. The proportion of elevator use in evacuation grows dramactically from the 10th to 13th floor. (3) People are likely to choose ‘the route they usually use’ or ‘a safer route’ rather than ‘a closer route’. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.