Impact of architectural layout on exit preference of RMG workers during fire emergency

Abstract

Fire in the Readymade Garments (RMG) sector has become a common event in recent years and causing colossal damage of lives and properties. The high density of workers in RMG results in a large number of injuries and fatalities in the event of a fire accident. Fast and effective evacuation during fire emergency depends on occupants' fast egress towards the safe area before the environment become hazardous. Performance of the evacuation highly depends on the behaviour and preference of users during an emergency event. Individuals exit choice is mostly affected by the condition of their immediate environment and the familiarity of the space. The architectural layout of RMG buildings, as well as crowd characteristics, might have an important role for fast and safe evacuation as part of hazard management, and this is needed to be considered for fire safety design. This research aims to develop architectural planning strategies to meet the requirements and procedures of adequate crowd safety in evacuation with a focus on the exit preference of the occupants during fire emergencies in thqe context of RMG buildings of Bangladesh. The literature review has been done to understand RMG building evacuation system, current building codes, guidelines, standards and requirements for fire safety and evacuation, and to understand human behaviour in fire, the crowd dynamics, management, and communication techniques with the users in a fire emergency. Exit preferences of users in RMG buildings were studied using field observation and questionnaire survey, and by using agent-based crowd simulation and analyzing framework 'Anylogic'. The findings from the associated questionnaires and logistic analysis of the data showed that "familiarity" and "distance" with the building and the users were the two most important factors for exit preference in RMG buildings. Frequent training for a fire drill, good audible alarm and staff intervention reduce the response phase time, as well as reduce the evacuation time of the evacuees. Imbalanced use of exit doors considerably increases the evacuation time. Simulation study emphasized the difference between evacuation assumptions in current building guidance compared with the results of real-life experiments. It is expected that the recommendations from this research will contribute in architectural layout guidelines by considering evacuees' exit preference to achieve adequate fire safety in RMG buildings of Bangladesh. Keywords Emergency evacuation, human behaviour, exit preference, evacuation modelling, fire safety design.