In today’s often multilingual and multicultural society planners and legislators face a number of challenges in providing for life safety and means of escape. Complex buildings, often innovative in the design and construction, present particular challenges, as do very large structures such as enclosed sports or exhibition arenas, shopping malls and multi-screen cinema complexes. Even the humble warehouse can become a death trap for an employee who cannot find an exit in an emergency.

Despite the sign above the door and even the illumination and other indicators steering people toward it, it is not unknown for the patrons to ignore an obvious exit and make for the check-out or the entrance/exit normally used. 

This is not a new phenomenon, and studies done by the late Jonathan Syme and others have shown repeatedly that this is very much a part of the human behaviour spectrum in a crisis. This is one of the reasons why BS 9999: 2008, Approved Document B; the guidance issued to support the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order; the various NFPA codes; and almost every EU code or norm dealing with life and fire protection insists on signage, on intelligent alarm systems, on voice alarm systems (where these are appropriate) and on trained staff to get the patrons moving. 

Even then there will always be the unexpected response. In many of these premises the only way to ensure an evacuation runs smoothly is to have a clear way finding system in place.

Multi-purpose signage, while useful can be confusing. At least it is all in pictograms, but that, in itself, assumes that the reader can interpret the pictograms easily. This is not always the case, but it is probably better than the experience of visiting a country with a different alphabet to your own and having to try and interpret the signs. This was the author’s experience on a recent visit to the Far East where I encountered signs in Chinese characters and Cyrillic - but notably not in pictograms or Latin characters. 

Experience during a trial drill in a very large shopping mall during the early 1980’s brought to light a bit of human behaviour that safety officers had not taken into account. 

Provision of escape corridors from the main mall to the car parks north and south of the mall itself, had, we thought, created a situation in which everyone would leave through the nearest corridor and leave the building. It failed to work and when challenged the almost invariable answer from the patrons was “we don’t know where that goes too,” or, “but I’m parked on the other side of the building”.

It certainly highlighted the need for clear information and the need to take into consideration the natural reluctance to abandon familiar routes or to travel in a direction away from your possessions whatever they may be. This was certainly born out tragically in the disastrous fire at Summerland on the Isle of Man, UK. 

Parents were close to an exit, yet fought their way deeper into the burning building to find children who were in a separate area – and who had already been evacuated by a separate route. This fire resulted in major changes to the planning of such facilities, not least in a policy of placing the child care facilities close to the entrance and ensuring that parents knew the escape procedure and assembly point for the children.

Technology has moved forward by leaps and bounds since the Summerland disaster, yet it is sometimes the simple things which can cause even the best planned system for evacuation to fail. Many new systems are now available which will assist in planning the evacuation but which can also be an important feature in assisting visitors to find their way around the building safely. The new ISO 23601 Standard: Safety identification – Escape and Evacuation Plan Signs, promises to bring together several of the issues raised here and address them. This may be particularly important in buildings designed in compliance with Fire Safety Engineered standards or against a risk based approach such as that set out in BS 9999:2008. 

Way finding isn’t new, but it has become an important element in dealing with life safety in large complex buildings, ships such as cruise liners and ferries and even large cargo vessels. It can also be vital in large industrial buildings where employees may not have a clear sight of an exit or even of the route to an exit route. 

Way finding is best described as a combination of signs, lighting, alarms, visuals and other components designed to provide the clearest possible guide to the escape routes from anywhere in the building. This is recognised in almost every guide to life and fire safety, yet it is often not fully understood or implemented.

The issue of way finding was highlighted in the many studies resulting from the Twin Towers attack (9/11) when many of those using mobile phones to call for help from the staircases could not identify which floor they were on or which staircase they were in without first exiting the stair in order to check. In the Scandanavian Star fire, and in the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster, passengers found themselves having to cope with finding their way out of danger with little to help them make informed choices as to where safety lay. The fire in an airliner in Manchester airport brought up the same learning point – with high level signs obscured by smoke, people had difficulty identifying the escape routes. 

The International Maritime Organisation responded with changes to the Safety of Life at Sea Convention which brought in low level lighting and way finding systems on passenger vessels and this has spilled over into the cargo carriers as well. The Civil Aviation Authorities around the world soon recognised the benefit of low level lights and way finding in aircraft. Since 9/11 the New York authorities have introduced legislation in the form of Local Law 26 and subsequently guidance in the form of NYC Reference Standard 6-1. Other standards and codes have followed suit and the latest move in this direction is ISO 23601 which requires clear and easy to read plans or maps of the escape route to be provided.

A wide variety of options are now available to designers including a new generation of photoluminescent materials which will give an extended period of light from exposure to light levels as low as twenty-five lux. 

Tests done in the laboratories of the National Research Council of Canada and in field trials by Dr Guylene Proulx and others have shown that people can escape down staircases lit only by photoluminescent strips, signs and toeing on the stair risers. 

LED strips laid along corridors and down the sides of staircases can also provide more than adequate lighting for normal escape and have the advantage of requiring very little power. Strip lights can also be programmed to act as a “moving arrow” to guide escape toward the exits. This means, in effect, that these systems can provide escape light even where mains failure has cut electrical supplies to every other system in the building.

Information, information, information

Information is essential to occupant escape. They need to know what is happening, which routes are no longer available and exactly where they are in the escape route. As the Twin Towers event showed, people inside the staircases attempting to contact rescuers had difficulty identifying their location. This can be readily addressed by the provision of adequate signs indicating clearly the storey number and the staircase identifier.

Now, it is also worth remembering that all the standards we rely on to create a safe environment are minimum criteria.

The new ISO is, in reality, merely formalising a system that is already used in several different forms. There are a number of different systems available and each has its advantages. The choice will depend heavily on the people numbers, the complexity of the routes to be dealt with and the size and height of the building. 

As a general rule, simplicity has definite advantages, but it may not always be appropriate.

One new system is computer-based and allows the user to generate 2D and 3D floor plans on which the shortest/quickest route to any point in the building, or the nearest exit, can be generated. This uses interactive screens to generate the maps of the building and can show routes that include changes of storey, staircases and corridors to the desired destination. The downside of that is that these screens will need, if they are a part of the emergency system, to be wired to a suitable independent supply that remains active when all other normal systems fail. 

On the positive side this system would appear to provide an answer to several problems. In normal use it provides an interactive information point allowing people to find their primary destination easily. It may also have a security function allowing the operators to track certain requests or give a speedy response when needed, and thirdly, it provides a ready-made means to giving the vital exit information instantly.

The new guides, codes and local laws all seek to achieve a means of escape solution for every building which will give the best possible options for all occupants to escape in the event of a fire or some other emergency. Obviously, as 9/11 showed, it is not possible at present to plan for every eventuality, but the advent of new tools, new technologies for protecting escape routes, for illuminating them and indicating where they are goes a long way toward mitigating the unforeseeable.

Understanding response is half the battle

Understanding the likely response, as Syme, Galea and others have shown, is half the battle in selecting the right system for your situation. What cultural influences might be at work? Are your people likely to respond without instruction, or do they need orders from an authority figure? Is there a need to use voice instructions and how much information should be given? What about disabled refuges? Do you need to include some means of allowing anyone in these to communicate with potential rescuers – or some means of identifying not just where these are, but whether they are occupied or not?

Signage is the baseline starting point for anyone planning for the evacuation of large numbers of people. Too much signage can be as counterproductive as too little. Striking the right balance is essential and the next question must be whether or not it is visible and clear. 

Way finding systems should not be seen as a luxury, but rather as an essential adjunct to the safe operation of any complex building, ship or any other vehicle used for mass transportation. The new ISO Standard attempts to set out a sensible means of providing information for escape, and the standards applicable for life safety, fire protection, fire alarms and illumination all need to be considered carefully both during the planning stages but perhaps much more importantly, during the life of the building, ship or aircraft. As things change and adapt, so there is a need to make sure the evacuation system keeps pace.

It is the one system that you overlook at your peril, yet it is often forgotten – until it’s needed.

References

ISO 23601: Standard: Safety identification - Escape and evacuation plan signs; International Standards Organisation

BS 9999: 2008; Code of Practice for the Design, Management and use of Buildings; British Standards Institute

BS 5499-10:2006 BS 5499-10:2006. Safety signs, including fire safety signs. British Standards Institute

IP17/89 Photoluminescent Markings on Escape Routes; BRE Information Paper

Assessment of Photoluminescent Material during Office Occupant Evacuation: National Research Council Canada April 1999; Proulx G Dr, Tiller D, Kyle B and Creak J.

Means of Escape - Guide to Fire Safety Signs and Signing; Jalite PLC.

Safety Way Guidance Systems come of age. Creak J, Jalite PLC: International Fire Protection Journal

NYC Reference Standard 6-1: New York City Code

Local Law 26: New York City

Evacuation Innovation: Escape Plans - Fire Plans: Evactools Brochure:

Code Compliance in the post 9/11 era; Zetek Corporation: White Paper by Zetek:

Hotel security in the wake of Mumbai: Zetek Corporation; White Paper by Zetek

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