Increasing awareness in classroom evacuation situations using agent-based modeling

Educational properties have recorded an average of 4980 structure fires between 2011 and 2015 according to US National Fire Protection Association. It has been determined that four out of five fires in schools have occurred between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., when pupils were around. Even though the percentage of structure fires in educational properties has fallen over the years, there is still place for improvement and knowing how to react in such situations can contribute to reducing pupils' injuries and also to their lifesaving. Thus, the present paper analysis the possibility of using agent-based simulations in NetLogo for a classroom with two exits in order to increase pupils' awareness on how to act during an evacuation process caused by a fire. Based on an empirical study, it has been observed that after presenting the NetLogo evacuation simulation, the pupils' awareness has increased with up to 22.99%, having a direct result on the overall evacuation time and their safety. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.