The Implications of Individual Behavior and Actions during a Fire Emergency - Case Study Example

FIRE INVESTIGATION INSERT NAME COURSE INSTITUTION INSTRUCTOR DATE OF SUBMISSION Introduction Crises and disasters are part of day-to-day life and although majority of them are avoidable, individuals have to enhance their understanding on how to deal with disasters. Among the worst disasters in daily life are fire disasters that have the capacity to destroy lives and property. Notably, the ability to reduce or increase the destruction brought about by fire depends on the individual responses of the affected. Individual behaviour and actions determine the ability of the afflicted to deal with the fire and limit its effects. This assessment paper aims at discussing the implications of individual behaviour and actions during a fire emergency. Additionally, this paper will seek to identify the various decision processes adopted by individuals that determine their actions and behaviours. Towards achieving these objectives, past research studies will be used to elaborate on the role of human behaviour in reducing or accelerating the impacts of fire disasters. Decision Process of the Individual Different individuals react differently to fire disasters and depending on the majority group’s reaction, the impact of the fire disaster can be limited or accelerated. An individual’s reaction to a fire disaster is based heavily on either a past experience or the reactions of the other individuals. Sinha states that individuals that have witnessed or been affected by a fire disaster are capable of handling the disaster with a clear mind ((2005, p7). This is especially true where they learnt of their previous mistakes when handling the fire. On the other hand, individuals with no previous experience on fire disasters are most likely to handle the situation with panic that directly affects their judgmental ability. People facing a fire disaster may react differently across a time period depending on their human needs at the time of the disaster. A number of factors determine the individual’s decision making process includes the individual’s age. Young and elderly individuals are less capable of handling the fire situation and are therefore more likely to follow the actions of others. Individuals in these age groups are highly susceptible to the effects of fire and thus have to be evacuated first in the event of a fire disaster. Secondly, individuals with high body masses are capable of tolerating high levels of harmful substances caused by fires. Despite this advantage, larger people are highly immobile and this may result into the loss of life if they are not evacuated sooner. Thirdly, the consumption of medical and hard drugs reduces an individual’s ability to identify dangerous situations and react to them. This is because drugs reduces an individual’s cognitive abilities and thus result into reduced recognition of dangerous environments. Lastly, an individual’s respiratory capacity greatly determines an individual’s ability to fall victim to fire disasters. Health conditions such as asthma reduce an individual’s ability to withstand smoke that results from fire disasters (Flannery 2001, p3). These factors are unique to individuals and thus the variation in decision making among individuals faced by a fire disaster. The decision making process comprises of several steps all that require the availability of information, its processing, output and resultant feedback (The Instt. for Strategic Clarity 2004). Firstly, individuals have to realise on the looming danger within their immediate environment. In this case the danger involves the possibility of losing their lives and property. Having identified the threat in itself, the individual embarks on identifying the seriousness of the threat to their safety and that of their properties. After the validation stage, the individual seeks to get an exact measurement of the threat by looking at its various perspectives. At this stage the individual seeks to find whether those within the same environment perceive the threat in a similar manner. Afterwards, the individual responds to the threat by ascertaining whether the fire can be controlled or initiate the evacuation process among other options. Fifthly, the individual deploys the fire fighting plan developed earlier in an attempt to respond to the fire emergency. Finally, the individual will re-assess the impact of the fire disaster to the point of their satisfaction (Flannery 2001, p9). Influential Actions on People’s Reaction to Fire When individuals are collectively involved in facing a fire disaster, the actions of a single individual can directly influence on the actions of other people whilst responding to the disaster. Denial of unpleasant situations among people is an act of defence in its psychological perspective. Due to the panic and bodily threats associated with fire, individuals tend to distance themselves from the disaster during the early stages. Psychologically, no one would like to place themselves at the receiving end of a fire disaster and as a result they initially consider fire disasters as a false alarm. The second action involves increased focus on a particular activity such that it is easier to ignore or fail to realise potential harm developing within the immediate environment. Reluctance in individual response to fire alarms causes delay by other people and thus increase the number of casualty cases in the event of a fire disaster. Group mentality is common among individuals especially due to natural human behaviour. in the event of a disaster, individuals unite irrespective of their past relations among themselves. Individual response to a fire alarm depends upon the speed of the slowest member in their group. Social relations therefore directly impact on an individual’s actions towards fire disasters (Zastrow & Karen 2009, p38). Lastly, familiarity with the immediate environment determines an individual’s ability to respond to a fire alarm. As a result, individuals turn to people familiar with the surrounding environment during fire disasters (Flannery 2001, p10). Physical Setting Fire disasters are known to have the worst effects when they occur within buildings and especially the storey buildings. This is because these buildings have limited spaces and exit points available to facilitate emergency evacuations. In the past, rescue operations conducted within storey buildings have proved difficult compared to buildings with large compounds. Limited interior and exterior access provided within storey buildings makes it difficult for rescue workers to evacuate the building. Additionally, the fear of the building collapsing plays a major role in responding to fire alarms among individuals (Andreassi 2006, p61). Therefore, the nature of the building and its ability to facilitate a rescue operation goes a long way in influencing human behaviour. Human behaviour comprises of an instinctive response to dangers within the immediate environment. Cognitively, human beings may pick on some building elements that enable them decide on their safety in the event of a fire disaster. To begin with, human beings ensure the presence of precautionary gear such as fire extinguishers within the building. Apart from the fire fighting equipment, the presence of sprinklers and smoke detectors enable individuals to respond to fire disasters faster. This is because they will be alerted soon enough for them to head for the exit points within the building. Powell and Thorne notes that exit notifications should be placed at each and every exit point within the building to enhance decision making among individuals (2003, p98). Additionally, the presence of instructions display indicating on what to do in the event of a fire enables individuals to respond to a fire by adopting a common approach. On the building’s exterior, the presence of stairways is very important as the individual can be able to pick up their location when entering the building. When faced by a fire disaster, individuals will tend to move towards the direction of the stair cases due to the possibility of accessing exit points. Zastrow and Karen state that the presence of a fire assembly point is very important to ensure that everybody is evacuated from the building (2009, p175). This point can be indicated by the use of a sign that clearly states the purpose of the point. Individuals should be directed towards this point to facilitate a head count on the number of people that have successfully made it out of the building. In turn, this exercise will allow the rescue team search for individuals that might have been trapped within the building or have gone missing. Therefore, a building’s physical setting plays a great role in determining human behaviour during a fire and facilitates a smooth rescue operation. Hazards from Fire Towards responding to a fire, individuals are known to consider various elements pertaining to fires. A variation among individuals in their response to fire disasters pertains to their vulnerability to the perceived threats. During a fire disaster, individuals experience an increase in room temperatures that will alert them of a looming fire disaster. Increase in room temperatures directly influence humidity and oxygen levels within the room making it difficult for individuals to breath. Flannery notes that high environmental temperatures affect human body conditions and deprive them of their normal functioning (2001, p3). Due to increased room temperatures, individuals respond to fire disasters depending on the ability of their bodies to withstand the high temperatures. The second characteristic involves the ability of the human body to absorb heat without sustaining major injuries. Heat and temperature are positively correlated and thus the higher the temperatures the higher the chances of sustaining a burn injury. Thirdly, smoke emanating from fire impairs an individual’s ability to see and also inhale. Smoke toxicity also inhibits an individual’s normal bodily functioning and thus causing panic among individuals. Due to these negative effects of smoke, individuals tend to flee in the early stages of the fire when they still can. As the fire develops, reduced visibility and breathing capacity makes it almost difficult for the individuals to escape without sustaining major injuries. Once outside the building, individuals are reluctant to return to the burning building and prefer to keep distance. Lastly, reduced oxygen percentage levels directly impact on human behaviour (Flannery 2001, p3). In turn this affects the individual’s ability to breathe thus impairing the normal body function. As a result, an individual suffers physiologically, reducing their chances of making a successful escape. In line with this characteristic is the presence of harmful gases during a fire disaster that easily choke the red blood cells that carry oxygen. The build-up of these harmful gases may totally inhibit the proper body functioning of an individual thus resulting to immediate death. Case Study In early 2004, fire gutted a 6-storey building in a residential area within the city of Manchester, England and left scores of people dead and others injured. The fire disaster took place at night when the neighbourhood was asleep. The fire started in the second floor of the building that was later found to have been caused by an electrical mishap. Occupants of the house had not installed smoke detectors and had no fire fighting equipment available in their apartment. They fell victim to the fire as they were choked to death in their sleep. The fire spread across the second floor blocking the stairways and lift that served the occupants of the building. Although the building had been fitted with fire alarms that were triggered by the smoke detectors, within the previous month the occupants had responded to a number of false alarms. This time round, the occupants were hesitant to respond to the fire owing to the numerous false alarms. Apparently, a neighbour living in the adjacent building noticed the fire developing on the second floor and called a friend living in the building. He raised an alarm that the building was on fire and called his immediate neighbours. Due to the panic he caused, individuals in the upper floors of the building ran to the exterior stairways that served as exit points. However, the stairways had not been operational for a long time and rust had inhibited their utilisation. Individuals began to jump from the building some losing their lives and others sustaining major fractures and injuries. By this time the fire had already spread to the third floor and individuals were unable to escape due to the reduced visibility and respiration caused by the smoke. Although the individual had no option but to raise alarm, he created panic among the other occupants of the building. Upon realising that they might be trapped in the building, they decided to rush out of the building without putting in much consideration. Conclusion Individual behaviour during emergencies has a great impact on the losses resulting from the disaster. Perceptions, beliefs and assumptions made by the majority group influence the behaviours of the entire population affected by the disaster. By studying human behaviour during emergencies, behavioural researchers find it important to ensure that the larger population is well informed on the procedures to follow during emergencies. Basically, the human decision process is distinctive among individuals due to differences in mental and emotional processes. References Andreassi, JL 2006, Psychophysiology: Human Behaviour & Physiological Response, Washington: Routledge. Betsch, T & Haberstroh, S 2005, The Routines of Dec. Making, Washington: Routledge. Flannery, 2001, Intro. To Fire Science: Human Behaviour & Fire, Flannery Assoc. Kathleen, MK & Vaught, C 2004, Jdgment & Decision Making Under Stress: An Overview for Emergency Mgrs, Accessed on Nov. 29, 2009 from < http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/pubs/pdfs/jadmu.pdf >. Powell, P & Thorne, K 2003, Human Behaviour in Fire Emergencies, Pennsylvania: National Fire Protection Assoc. Sinha, R 2005, Impact of Experience on Dec. Making on Emergency Situation, Accessed on Nov. 29, 2009 from < http://epubl.luth.se/1402-1781/2005/15/LTU-CDUPP-0515- SE.pdf >. Zastrow, C & Karen, KK 2009, Understanding Human Behaviour & the Social Env., Boston: Cengage Learning. Read More