Self-preservation ability and residential fire emergencies

Area of Science:

• Fire Safety Engineering
• Disability Studies
• Risk Assessment

Background:

• Assessing fire safety risks for vulnerable populations is crucial.
• Previous research has not comprehensively evaluated individual self-preservation capabilities against environmental fire risks for the developmentally disabled.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine Perske's concept of risk in fire safety for developmentally disabled individuals.
• To define and measure individual and environmental risks related to fire evacuation.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the National Bureau of Standards measurement of self-preservation ability to create the Evacuation Assistance Score (EAS).
• Assessed environmental risk by evaluating residences against National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Life Safety Code standards.
• Analyzed data for approximately 46,000 developmentally disabled persons in New York.

Main Results:

• The EAS effectively quantifies risks impeding safe evacuation during fire emergencies.
• A majority of developmentally disabled individuals studied demonstrated full self-preservation capability.
• Demographic characteristics of residents were not significant predictors of EAS.
• The correlation between individual risk vulnerability and physical environment risk was not strong.

Conclusions:

• The Evacuation Assistance Score is a valuable tool for assessing fire evacuation risks in this population.
• Findings suggest that most developmentally disabled individuals possess adequate self-preservation skills for fire emergencies.
• Environmental fire safety standards and individual capabilities may not be strongly linked for this group, indicating a need for nuanced risk assessment.