Emergency building evacuation

News and Updates

Building that has been destroyed by a tornado

NIST, NSF Award More Than $7.6 Million to Support Disaster Resilience Research

May 4, 2022

The agencies are funding 20 projects to be conducted across 24 institutions through the Disaster Resilience Research Grant (DRRG) program, which they manage

Three people looking at drawing of Fire Escape Plan

NIST Study Suggests Frailty Makes Elderly More Likely to Die in Home Fires

August 22, 2017

A new study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows scientifically for the first time that an individual’s ability to respond quickly

Projects and Programs

Indoor Localization and Tracking

Completed

Please see the page that describes NIST work in this area.

Publications

Influence of Dispositional and Situational Factors on Human Perceptions of Fire Risk

June 25, 2020

Author(s)

Isaac T. Leventon, Justin W. Bonny

Studies of human behavior during emergencies have observed that when presented with situational cues that a hazard may be present, humans can fail to act on

Towards a Process to Quantify the Hazard of Fire Protection Design Alternatives

May 1, 2019

Author(s)

Paul A. Reneke, Morgan Bruns, Stanley W. Gilbert, Chandler P. MacLaren, Richard D. Peacock, Thomas G. Cleary, David T. Butry

There are a variety of fire protection technologies that have the potential to improve life safety in residences including barrier fabrics for upholstered

Cognitive Biases Within Decision Making During Fire Evacuations

March 8, 2019

Author(s)

Michael Kinsey, Steve Gwynne, Erica D. Kuligowski, Max Kinateder

During a fire evacuation, once an individual perceives cues from a fire event, they must interpret them to assess the new situation and determine whether action

A Pre-Evacuation Database for Use in Egress Simulations

January 11, 2019

Author(s)

Ruggiero Lovreglio, Erica D. Kuligowski, Steve Gwynne, Karen E. Boyce

Quantifying the pre-evacuation time; i.e., the time between first awareness and deliberate evacuation movement, is a key task for evacuation model users and