Guidance for the Model User on Representing Human Behavior in Egress Models.

Structures are currently designed and constructed in accordance with prescriptive and performance-based (PBD) methodologies to ensure a certain level of occupant safety during fire emergencies. The performance-based approach requires the quantification of both ASET (Available Safe Egress Time) and RSET (Required Safe Egress Time) to determine the degree of safety provided. This article focuses on the RSET side of the equation, for which a fire protection or fire safety engineer would use some type of egress modelling approach to estimate evacuation performance. Often, simple engineering equations are applied to estimate the RSET value. Over time, more sophisticated computational tools have appeared-that go beyond basic flow calculations; e.g. simulating individual agent movement. Irrespective of the approach adopted, appropriate and accurate representation of human behavior in response to fire within these approaches is limited, mainly due to the lack of a comprehensive conceptual model of evacuee decision-making and behavior during fire emergencies. This article initially presents the set of behavioral statements, or mini-theories, currently available from various fire and disaster studies, organized using the overarching theory of decision-making and human behavior in disasters. Once presented, guidance is provided on how these behavioral statements might be incorporated into an evacuation model, in order to better represent human behavior in fire within the safety analysis being performed. The intent here is to improve the accuracy of the results produced by performance-based calculations and analyses.

Predictors of postevent distress and growth among firefighters after work-related emergencies--A cross-national study.

Firefighters may experience posttraumatic stress symptomatology (i.e., postevent distress) as a consequence of exposure to work-related distressing incidents. However, positive psychological changes (i.e., postevent growth) should also be taken into account. The aim of this cross-national study was to investigate both postevent distress and growth in firefighters following distressing incidents. A sample of 1,916 firefighters from 8 predominantly European countries recalled a work-related distressing incident. Two hierarchical regression analyses were run to reveal predictors of postevent distress and growth, respectively. Predictors included person pre-event characteristics, objective (e.g., type of incident, time since incident, fatalities) and subjective (e.g., perceived life-threat, peri-event distress, most distressing aspect) incident features, and the participant's country. Postevent distress was measured by the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) and growth by the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory-Short Form (PTGI-SF). The final models explained 29% of the variation in postevent distress and 26% in growth. Postevent distress and growth were predicted by different variables. Country differences were found after controlling for all other variables. Further research is needed to explain these differences.

Behavioural, emotional, and cognitive responses in European disasters: results of survivor interviews.

In the European multi-centre study BeSeCu (Behaviour, Security, Culture), interviews were conducted in seven countries to explore survivors' emotional, behavioural, and cognitive responses during disasters. Interviews, either in groups or one-to-one, were convened according to type of event: collapse of a building; earthquake; fire; flood; and terror attack. The content analysis of interviews resulted in a theoretical framework, describing the course of the events, behavioural responses, and the emotional and cognitive processing of survivors. While the environmental cues and the ability to recognise what was happening varied in different disasters, survivors' responses tended to be more universal across events, and most often were adaptive and non-selfish. Several peri-traumatic factors related to current levels of post-traumatic stress were identified, while memory quantity did not differ as a function of event type or post-traumatic stress. Time since the event had a minor effect on recall. Based on the findings, several suggestions for emergency training are made.

Risk perception, experience, and objective risk: a cross-national study with European emergency survivors.

Understanding public risk perceptions and their underlying processes is important in order to learn more about the way people interpret and respond to hazardous emergency events. Direct experience with an involuntary hazard has been found to heighten the perceived risk of experiencing the same hazard and its consequences in the future, but it remains unclear if cross-over effects are possible (i.e., experience with one hazard influencing perceived risk for other hazards also). Furthermore, the impact of objective risk and country of residence on perceived risk is not well understood. As part of the BeSeCu (Behavior, Security, and Culture) Project, a sample of 1,045 survivors of emergencies from seven European countries (i.e., Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, Sweden, Spain, Turkey, and Italy) was drawn. Results revealed heightened perceived risk for emergency events (i.e., domestic and public fires, earthquakes, floods, and terrorist attacks) when the event had been experienced previously plus some evidence of cross-over effects, although these effects were not so strong. The largest country differences in perceived risk were observed for earthquakes, but this effect was significantly reduced by taking into account the objective earthquake risk. For fires, floods, terrorist attacks, and traffic accidents, only small country differences in perceived risk were found. Further studies including a larger number of countries are welcomed.

Post- and peritraumatic stress in disaster survivors: an explorative study about the influence of individual and event characteristics across different types of disasters.

BACKGROUND: Examination of existing research on posttraumatic adjustment after disasters suggests that survivors' posttraumatic stress levels might be better understood by investigating the influence of the characteristics of the event experienced on how people thought and felt, during the event as well as afterwards. OBJECTIVE: To compare survivors' perceived post- and peritraumatic emotional and cognitive reactions across different types of disasters. Additionally, to investigate individual and event characteristics. DESIGN: In a European multi-centre study, 102 survivors of different disasters terror attack, flood, fire and collapse of a building were interviewed about their responses during the event. Survivors' perceived posttraumatic stress levels were assessed with the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R). Peritraumatic emotional stress and risk perception were rated retrospectively. Influences of individual characteristics, such as socio-demographic data, and event characteristics, such as time and exposure factors, on post- and peritraumatic outcomes were analyzed. RESULTS: Levels of reported post- and peritraumatic outcomes differed significantly between types of disasters. Type of disaster was a significant predictor of all three outcome variables but the factors gender, education, time since event, injuries and fatalities were only significant for certain outcomes. CONCLUSION: Results support the hypothesis that there are differences in perceived post- and peritraumatic emotional and cognitive reactions after experiencing different types of disasters. However, it should be noted that these findings were not only explained by the type of disaster itself but also by individual and event characteristics. As the study followed an explorative approach, further research paths are discussed to better understand the relationships between variables.

Emotional arousal and memory: a test of the poststimulus processing hypothesis.

Emotional arousal is believed to enhance memory for details central to an episode but impair memory for peripheral details. However, new research suggests that arousal induced thematically (i.e., through involvement with an unfolding event) produces only memory enhancements. This article examines whether consciously controlled elaborative processing in the aftermath of an arousing experience is responsible. A dual task manipulation was used to prevent participants from ruminating over a video that depicted an abduction and attack. Several indices of recall showed greater memory for emotional event details than for details from a neutral control video, which remained the case when the opportunity for post-stimulus elaboration was prevented. Thus, superior retention of the content of emotional experiences may arise from the way in which arousal is induced rather than through immediate postevent cognitions.