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Abstract

The fire floor of a hotel fire that resulted in serious casualties in Taiwan was reconstructed as the site of a full-scale evacuation test. Health status assessments were conducted on 50 adults between ages of 25 and 75, and then their horizontal movement speed was measured as a function of three physical conditions: normal health, wheelchair bound and on crutches. The 50 subjects were divided into nine groups for three kinds of evacuation strategies in order to measure the evacuation time of each group. In addition, taking into consideration the three aforementioned kinds of physical conditions, 40 of the 50 subjects were organized into six types of conditions to conduct exit width tests by measuring the evacuation time for passing through exits with widths of 0.75 m and 1.2 m. The two kinds of evacuation test results can be used as a reference for improving fire safety strategies for future hotel construction.

Keywords

Hotel fire accident full-scale test evacuation time exit width tests evacuation test fire safety strategies

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An analysis of occupant evacuation time during a hotel fire using evacuation tests

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