This 'YouTube' footage (below) gives an interesting insight into human behaviour in fire. The BBC news website described the incident (in the early hours of 1st January 2009) as follows:
Fireworks cause fire at nightclubAbout 400 people had to be evacuated from an Edinburgh nightclub after indoor pyrotechnics set fire to plastic netting stretched across the ceiling.
The netting melted and fell on to the crowd below, slightly burning two women and a member of staff.
They were treated at the scene but were not taken to hospital.
The fire broke out on the ground floor of the Luna nightclub in Picardy Place, just after midnight. Fire officers are investigating.
What the news report doesn't say is that most of the people there didn't evacuate. They stayed to watch the roof burning. Some even started singing the club anthem "the roof is on fire"!
Comment from SW:
"Would be interesting to know whether it was clear to occupants that the fire was not going to spread, i.e. ceiling itself apparently non-combustible. If this was not the case then it is quite scary to see the lack of awareness of an impending disaster, after similar fires have lend to multiple fatalities. Fire awareness training needed?!"
I wonder what outcome would an evacuation model predict? Would it lay within the expected error bars? Were the EXIT signs illuminated enough?
ReplyDelete