International. The NFPA shared an analysisb on assessing the reaction of building occupants to fire alarms: Phase 1. The study includes background of the project, introduction, poor response to alarms, signal recognition, use of mobile technology, selection of stimuli, analysis of deficiencies and their conclusions.
The NFPA Research Foundation's Detection and Alarm Research Council highlighted people who do not respond to alarms in buildings as a high priority at its 2016 research planning meeting. The following questions were proposed to be answered by the research: Why don't people respond to alarms? Is the signal recognizable? How do the different types of voice alerts/warnings compare? How can we take better advantage of mobile technology? Are we using the right stimulus to notify occupants in the event of an emergency in a building?
The overall objective of the project is to develop a guide for best practices on emergency notification of occupants in buildings.
This part of Phase 1 of the overall project collected information from available materials relevant to the topic and identified gaps that lead to the need for further research. Previous research has focused on the ability of auditory signals to effectively convey information to people. This includes determining the effectiveness of the T-3 signal, as well as identifying the information needs of people receiving voice messages. The effectiveness of signals that point to other directions or are based on systems other than those permanently installed in the building have not been studied in detail.
Current fire alarm system design practices may be inadequate to trigger the human behaviors needed to accelerate an immediate response to the situation. Properly designed voice messages can lead to better response, but they still have limitations. An occupant of the building will make a decision when they feel they have received all the information they will need. This process can be instantaneous from the start of a T-3 alarm or it may require time for a person to collect and process more information.
The number of factors that affect the speed of decision-making varies greatly from occupation to occupation and from person to person. More research is needed to determine the most effective ways to deliver information that will lead to a rapid evacuation. A technological breakthrough is also needed to develop notification systems that effectively communicate relevant information to each occupant. New and different strategies that lead to the evacuation of people in an earlier and more efficient manner should be investigated.
The report can be viewed by clicking here.
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