Human behaviour during evacuation of primary schools: Investigations on pre-evacuation times, movement on stairways and movement on the horizontal plane

Children are a vulnerable group in society and less is known about their characteristics during evacuation than that of adults. This may lead to fire safety design of child centric buildings that fail to account for or acknowledge accurately the characteristics of children. Previous studies have indicated a distinction between adults and children in response to fire cues, however, the existing child specific literature lacks the depth required to provide certainty in design assumptions. This paper focuses on the human behaviour of children during evacuation. The key aim is to contribute to the limited existing data on the pedestrian dynamics and behavioural actions of children during an evacuation. Data from twelve full scale evacuations of four primary schools (educating children aged 4–12) is analysed. As might be expected, longer pre-evacuation times were obtained for classes accommodating younger children. A reduction in pre- evacuation times was observed through repetition of evacuation drills. The movement characteristics of children on the horizontal plane and on stairways were found to be influenced by age, and variances in travel speeds within each class group were observed. On stairways children in the lower classes moved slower and were more cautious than older children. Interestingly, it was more common for groups to be led by a pupil, resulting in faster movement speeds than those led by an adult. Observations and analysis are further discussed along with directions for further research.