Kuligowski, E.
and Hoskins, B.
(2010),
Occupant Behavior in a High-rise Office Building Fire, Technical Note (NIST TN), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=905294
(Accessed October 9, 2025)
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Occupant Behavior in a High-rise Office Building Fire
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Abstract
Survey responses from occupants involved in a 32-story high-rise building evacuation during an actual fire were collected and analyzed to study the pre-evacuation period. Multiple regression models were used to test whether specific occupant, building, and environmental factors predicted pre-evacuation times. This study found that the main influential factors of pre-evacuation times were actions taken during this period, especially by certain groups of occupants, and floor (mostly likely due to the information that occupants received on these floors). This study also quantified the relationships between factors and pre-evacuation time, showing how much pre-evacuation time was required for each factor.Citation
Technical Note (NIST TN) - 1664
Report Number
1664
NIST Pub Series
Pub Type
NIST Pubs
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Keywords
pre-evacuation, response delay, human behavior, high-rise, occupant behavior
Citation
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Created June 10, 2010, Updated February 19, 2017