Fire risk perception and building evacuation by vulnerable persons: Points of view of laypersons, fire victims and experts

Fire risk perception and its influence on building evacuation were studied in order to improve building evacuation processes. The sample adopted in this study consisted of (i) laypersons, mostly elderly; (ii) healthcare professionals working with vulnerable individuals who live with disability on an everyday basis, for their point of view on disabled persons; (iii) fire victims for their experience (persons who suffered burns in a fire). Qualitative research was used to study fire risk perception and to understand the attitudes and behaviours of individuals. The information was collected during interviews following a questionnaire that combined questions of a general nature, questions referring to the fire and questions focused on the experience of evacuating a building. Results of this inductive, exploratory and qualitative method showed differences between the analysis of experts, the point of view of laypersons and the experience of fire victims. They also showed that risk perception is influenced by psychological, social, physical, political (here regulatory and normative) and cultural factors. Fire risk perception is based on the individual-environment-risk paradigm. Among the factors characterising risk perception, we noted the preponderant role of trust emerges, as well as that of the human environments (daily and emergency), the physical environment (building) and the climate of safety in which the event takes place. These different dimensions of fire risk perception show that it is a combination of psychometric and cultural paradigms. Building evacuation is seen as a psychological process involving both emotion and cognition. The resulting model aims to improve the understanding of a building evacuation process and to provide tools to anticipate crises. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.