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A major study into the way people form different countries behave in a fire or other emergency is being conducted by professor Ed Galea of the University of Greenwich. The study, funded to the tune of 2 million euros by the European Union, will compare how people behave when fleeing from emergencies in seven countries:
Germany; Spain; Sweden; Turkey; Poland; the UK and the Czech Republic. The research team will conduct evacuation trials in each country, using people of similar age and occupation, and the same type of building.
“If fire breaks out on a plane, in a building or on a ship, how long will it take the occupants to get out?” said Professor Galea. “And do people from different countries behave differently in a crisis? This research asks whether culture and ethnicity play a role in determining how people respond in disasters. Our findings will give us confidence to predict how people will behave in emergencies, knowing that our computer models are based on how real people behave.”
The computer models could then be used to help design safer buildings and develop safer emergency procedures.
The fire safety engineering team at the University of Greenwich, which is headed by professor Galea, recently won the Jack Bono Communication Award form the US Society of Fire Protection Engineers.