Behaviour under stress: people in fires

This is a report of an investigation into how occupants react to a fire in a building. Although there has been little directly relevant previous work, a number of allied research areas appear pertinent. These studies fall broadly into three categories, namely disaster research, panic research and fire simulation research. From these one may derive a general conceptual model which postulates that the determining factor in stress behaviour is the need for the individual to reduce, by whatever means are available, the level of perceived threat. In view of the limited resources available, the original research plan envisaged the collection of in-depth information from a small sample of fire incidents. A Pilot Study conducted on this basis, with the researcher acting as interviewer, indicated a number of serious difficulties. A second Pilot Study was undertaken utilising Fire Service personnel as the agents for data collection. This proved to be a feasible technique, and a revised research plan was conceived incorporating both large scale and small-scale studies. This strategy called for a quantitative examination of behaviour in a broad range of fire incidents, together with a qualitative investigation of a sub-sample of these, fires which resulted in rescues, injuries and fatalities. [Continues.]