New ISO technical report will contribute to more effective building evacuation during fires

A new ISO technical report on how people behave when fire breaks out will help in designing safer buildings that make escape easier and reduce exposure to flames and heat.

‘ISO/TR 16738:2009, Fire-safety engineering – Technical information on methods for evaluating behaviour and movement of people’, provides information on engineering methods used for the evaluation of life-safety aspects of fire-safety engineering design for built environments, including structures such as tunnels, underground complexes, ships and vehicles.

It gives advice on the evaluation, quantification and management of human behaviour, particularly escape behaviour, during a fire emergency, as well as on the evaluation of people's susceptibility to the effects of exposure to fire and fire effluents.

For all scenarios, it is important to be able to assess the likely behavioural responses, either as part of the original design, or as part of a fire risk assessment. In particular, ISO/TR 16738:2009 provides guidance on:

* The evaluation of escape and evacuation times from buildings both for occupants not directly exposed to the fire or fire effluents and also for exposed occupants on the influence of fire, smoke and heat on required safe-escape time (RSET)

* The evaluation of available safe-escape time (ASET) in relation to the human capacity of to resist fire and heat.

www.iso.org

•Date: 8th Oct 2009• Region: World •Type: Article •Topic: BC facilities
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