Human Behavior in the Fire Hazards - Essay Example

Introduction In the past four decades many serious fire incidences in the world have created many emergency situations for the people. The knowledge of human behavior in the fire hazards has not been given due consideration. This field of study is generally lacking research. However, this has been proved useful that such knowledge will definitely and deeply impact the people’s lives at risk in the fire emergency situations. Therefore, it is necessary that basic principles of human behavior and its relation to the emergency situations must be properly investigated. This essay aims at discussion of factors that can be classified as relevant to the individual and groups of individuals including other fire dimensions coming into play. This easy includes behaviors of family members, the impacts of physical settings in a fire hazard situation, and characteristics of fire with particular reference to the fire incidents. Special emphasis is put on the human behavior and characteristics that cause and impact on the outcomes of a particular fire incident. 1-Discussion of the factors which can be classified as relevant to the individual It is known that there are more than one ways how the individuals can be alerted to a fire threat. Vocal alerting system in the building, the quality of wires, pitch volume and content of the message are important for the individuals to perceive the threat of fire. Some individuals perceive the threat of fire by the smell of smoke. More individuals are personally notified by their family members or their noise. The sudden running up and down on the stairs and corridors also alerts many people about the fires. Studies have shown that evacuation of the buildings, alerting the fire departments and individual people alerts the communities about the fires in England and USA (Fire and Life Educator, 2nd Edition, 1997, IFSTA). The male individuals in these countries are reported to proactively taking part in the fire fighting while females were seriously predominated in alerting the others and helping the people in leaving the buildings. In England in comparison with the USA human behaviors have been noted as200% more alert than in the case of USA. However, gender wise responses and reactions of the individuals in England and USA have been quite differently interpreted in different studies. Their behaviors have been variously studied in notifying others, searching for fire, calling fire department, building evacuation, waking up, getting extinguishers, saving personal properties, Reaching fire area, telephoning other, pulling fire alarms, using extinguishers and helping each other etc. however generally mass media in both the countries of USA and England has always shown fire and panic totally linked together. Studies over thirty years have shown that excessive use of alarm has created panics in the bodies of individuals. Doctor John Keating (1982 in NFPA magazine of fire journal) wrote about the “myth of panic” that it was a non-rational, non-social, fear induced fight behavior. The human panic can be analyzed into 4 basic elements which are a hope for escape, aggressive reaction, illogical response and a contagious human behavior to an emergency situation. But Doctor Keating has explained that these elements may not be essentially present in the human behavior while reacting to a fire situation. When there is no hope for escape there is no panic. Panic occurs in the situations when the group actions are not followed. Usually people help each other even at great personal risks. Escape strategies in the fire incidents are usually not irrational. In this way he has concluded that at the Beverly Hills super club fire incidents none of the 164 victims were panicked, whereas, only 1/3rd of the victims were panicked in Coconut Grove. However, the human behavior can be rationalized and made sensible during the fire incidents by the way of grouping together in a process called decision process of the individuals. This process can be divided into the steps of recognition, validation, definition, evaluation, commitment, reassessment etc. all these ingredients when followed in a systematic, procedural and well considered manner the results are usually encouraging while dealing with the fire situations. 2-Factors relevant to the individual behavior Fire related human behavior is directly related to the psychological, social, and physical settings of the space where people have to move and react in case of hazards. Yet the following actions emerging out of human behavior in a fire situation can also be dangerous. For example avoidance of a fire situation, feeling oneself committed to the activities other than perceiving a fire situation and reacting to it (NFPA Fire Protection Handbook, 18th Edition, 1997). Feeling affiliated oneself to the family and not leaving the children or parents when someone can save his own life or perceiving the role for self as a bigger or lesser than helping oneself in a fire situation can not be helpful. The recommended life safety strategy with respect to the human behavior is fire prevention, fire management, equipment management and emergency reliability systems. It relates to the control of heat sources and contacting with burnable fuels. Human beings themselves can be the main reason of fire. Safety of life basically involves protection of the human life from the harmful exposures to the fire combustion. The first principle is to eliminate the initial occurrence of ignition. The second principle is to have a full control on the abrupt and blazing fire process. The third principle lies in the separation of individuals from the dangerous effects and products of fire combustion by the employment of time, distance and shielding. 3- A discussion of factors which are relevant to groups and the additional dimensions which come into play when family members are assembled together Group behavior of individuals is always changing and varied according to the group-size, durability of contact, intensity of response and frequency of reactions etc. After the occurrence and development of fire the smoke and heat creates a dangerous environment around the individuals and properties. Prediction of an incidence depends upon various variables that are specific to the fire situation. Fires can ablaze at any rate. Sometimes the fire can be detected and sometimes not. Fires can not be necessarily humanly controllable. The raised temperatures, toxic conditions and the physical conditions of the individuals caught in a fire are the determining factors of a fire hazard (http;//www.ifsta.org). From heat stress to the total parching of human bodies can be a result of a fire hazard. For example an individual with a heart problem can immediately die with a heat stress rather than a normal and physically well-built individual who will die of serious fire wounds. However, it is very important that the interval for action is filled with an intervention by the fire safety staff. This action is usually dependent on the availability of time for operating the equipments for a total extinguishing or containing the fire. It is very necessary that the fire should be discovered as soon as possible. Usually the initial control of the fire yields more and better results in the control of fire. In the following paragraphs we shall be dealing with the most important factor in the fire safety investigation that is intervening human behavior. It is evident that different people react differently in same situations whenever it occurs. It is also proven that same persons act differently in different situations and at different times. Certain common factors bench marks the human behavior in a risk situation. Since the dangers in the fire hazards are heat, smoke and flame, therefore the reactions of following categories of individuals is different to different fire situations. Usually the very young and old people can not withstand the fire effects. Number and size of the people in trapped situation can have both positive and negative effects. Sometimes the larger size of people can yield fewer hazards due to the sharing of stress and toxicity. Larger number of people can create more panic and more harm unto each other particularly when they lack physical conditioning. The pre-existing physical conditions like muscular or skeletal diseases, lack of mobility, problems with the aerobic conditions or cardiac problems can cause serious problems in the survival of fire victims in a fire situation. It is well known that most of the deaths occur as a result of inhalation of smoke. The smoke makes respiratory capacity of a victim critical to his survival. The respiratory diseases such as asthma make this condition more serious. 4-Physical settings The characteristics of physical settings determine the spread or containment of fire explosions. Under faulty physical settings, Flue, pneumonia and other such conditions also make the conditions of fire victims vulnerable. Some of the individuals who are used to take frequently drugs and alcohol become more prone to the fire situations because they can not react and recognize a fire situation. Generally the people from age 20 to 50 are found more vulnerable. Men are more affected by drugs and alcohol than women. It has been studied and proved that the following levels of temperatures during the fire situations causes the following harms to the human body. 5- Discussion on the impact of the characteristics of the fire Fire related human behavior and its impacts is the matter of human perception at the individual and group levels. However necessary data is given as under. Temperature Physical impacts 140 F Heat stroke 212F Skin burns 260 F Breathing stops by nose 300F Breathing stops by mouth 320 F Unbearable pain of skin 390 F Collapse of respiratory system Source; http;//www.nfpa.org Burn injuries occur at increased temperatures of fire. While measuring the heat which is available for transfer to the human skins it is estimated that 2.5 KW/mm for 3 minutes can withstand without a severe pain. As far as the smoke obscuration is concerned for the human body it is investigated that smoke has got several negative effects such as reducing the visibility, irritation of the eyes, causing toxicity to the organs by the way of inhalation and causing fear of death in the individuals. These conditions greatly reduce the ability of person to successfully escape from a fire situation. In the fire situation the oxygen is also depleted. Since in the normal atmosphere oxygen is present at the rate of 21%, its sudden reduction causes the following physiological effects. When it drops to 17%, muscular coordination is impaired and respiratory rate is increased. When it drops to 10% it causes sudden dizziness, headache and very rapid fatigue in the human body. When it further drops to 9% it makes the people unconscious. However, at the level of 6% availability of oxygen in the atmosphere of fire situation the death of the individuals occurs within a few minutes. This is not only the reduction of oxygen that is only responsible for the death and destruction of individual life but are many other toxic gases which come out of the fumes and flames of fire in such a hazardous condition. Carbon-monoxide is the main gas responsible for the death. Because this gas immediately attaches itself to the red blood cells of the human body in search of more oxygen to convert itself into carbon dioxide (Cote and Bugbee, 1976, NFPA). In this process the availability of oxygen to the body of victims is further reduced to the minimum level. Even the very small amount of CO is dangerous for the human body. This gas is accumulative in nature. And it can readily build up in the human body and becomes fatal and deadly. It can be simply deadly at 1.26% of Air. Next Section 5-B case study For instance the attacks of 9/11 on twin tower buildings in the United States have witnessed more than 30000 deaths. The deaths that occurred immediately after the incident also ran into hundreds. More destruction of human lives occurred due to the chaos and unmanaged human response in wake of fire and devastation. As a case study many people believe that it was not possible to control the human bizarre reaction. But critique has proved that the situation could have been less destructive if angle of human behavior in the incident could have been controlled. It can, therefore, be concluded that the most important factor in fire situation is the behavior of individual and members of their families in particular situation. The desirable human behaviors are timely perception of fire threat, calling fire safety department, instant use of fire safety equipments, informing others, helping others in evacuation and assessing the situation as per procedure narrated above and reacting to it in a positive manner. It is most important that physically and psychologically unfit people should be given special consideration in a fire situation. Reliable alerts systems like emergency lighting, alerting messages, sirens and exit routes in the bigger building should be clearly displayed. A positive human behavior is more important than any fire equipment in a fire situation. Sources 1- NFPA.1997.18th Edition Fire Protection Handbook, 2- Principles of Fire Protection, by Cote and Bugbee, 1976, NFPA 3- Fire and Life Educator, 2nd Edition, 1997, IFSTA 4- http;//www.nfpa.org 5- http;//www.ifsta.org Read More