Phased evacuation - Revision history

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← Older revision		Revision as of 18:13, 2 November 2026
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	== How a phased evacuation is carried out ==		== How a phased evacuation is carried out ==
	The sequence starts on the fire floor. In the World Trade Center towers, occupants were trained to move three floors below the fire floor, as instructed by the floor warden or the deputy fire safety director.<ref name="Averill-41">Averill et al. (2005), p. 41.</ref> A prepared public address announcement informed other floors that "an orderly evacuation of floors" was taking place. Occupants were asked to wait until their floor number was announced.<ref name="Averill-35">Averill et al. (2005), pp. 35–36.</ref> A separate announcement then told each floor that it was time to evacuate and to use the nearest stairs.<ref name="Averill-35" />		The sequence starts on the fire floor. In the World Trade Center towers, occupants were trained to move three floors below the fire floor, as instructed by the floor warden or the deputy fire safety director.<ref name="Averill-41">Averill et al. (2005), p. 41.</ref> A prepared public address announcement informed other floors that "an orderly evacuation of floors" was taking place. Occupants were asked to wait until their floor number was announced.<ref name="Averill-35">Averill et al. (2005), pp. 35–36.</ref> A separate announcement then told each floor that it was time to evacuate and to use the nearest stairs.<ref name="Averill-35" />

			[[File:fse-phased-evacuation-v1.svg\|thumb\|upright=1.5\|alt=Section through a tall building: the fire floor and its neighbours walk down a stair to three floors below; other floors are on alert.\|Phased evacuation in a tall building: the fire floor and its neighbours move first to floors below the fire, while the other floors are placed on alert. Based on National Institute of Standards and Technology (2005), p. 155, and Averill et al. (2005), pp. 41 and 247.]]

	The order of the floors depends on the expected spread of smoke. In a drill in a 21-storey office building in Ottawa in 1971, the presumed fire was on the third floor.<ref name="Proulx-358">Proulx (2002), p. 3-358.</ref> Because smoke was expected to move up the building, the procedure first cleared the fire floor. It then cleared all floors above it, starting with the 21st floor and progressing downwards.<ref name="Proulx-358" />		The order of the floors depends on the expected spread of smoke. In a drill in a 21-storey office building in Ottawa in 1971, the presumed fire was on the third floor.<ref name="Proulx-358">Proulx (2002), p. 3-358.</ref> Because smoke was expected to move up the building, the procedure first cleared the fire floor. It then cleared all floors above it, starting with the 21st floor and progressing downwards.<ref name="Proulx-358" />
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	In a two-stage system, a building-wide alert sounds while the evacuation tone sounds on the fire floor. The system then cascades through the other floors, giving priority to those closest to the fire floor.<ref name="ABCB-258">Australian Building Codes Board (2020a), Data Sheet D1, p. 258.</ref> The data sheets include this alarm type for consistency with modern systems set up for phased evacuations.<ref name="ABCB-258" />		In a two-stage system, a building-wide alert sounds while the evacuation tone sounds on the fire floor. The system then cascades through the other floors, giving priority to those closest to the fire floor.<ref name="ABCB-258">Australian Building Codes Board (2020a), Data Sheet D1, p. 258.</ref> The data sheets include this alarm type for consistency with modern systems set up for phased evacuations.<ref name="ABCB-258" />

			[[File:fse-phased-evacuation-v2.svg\|thumb\|upright=1.5\|alt=Chart of floors against time: the fire floor switches to the evacuation tone first, neighbouring floors follow later, other floors keep the alert tone.\|Two-stage alarm in a phased evacuation: the evacuation tone starts on the fire floor and cascades outwards, while the other floors hear the alert tone. Based on Australian Building Codes Board (2020a), Data Sheet D1, pp. 243–244 and 258.]]

	In hospitals and care buildings, the phases are horizontal before they are vertical. Nursing staff first move patients to an adjacent smoke zone or fire compartment, and other floors are evacuated only if the threat continues.<ref name="IFEG-2.8-2" /> The deemed-to-satisfy provisions of the Australian National Construction Code (NCC), as quoted in the 2020 data sheets, reflect this. Patient care areas are divided into smoke compartments of no more than 500 m².<ref name="ABCB-247">Australian Building Codes Board (2020a), Data Sheet D1, p. 247.</ref> Horizontal exits must offer at least 2.5 m² of clear floor area per patient on the safe side.<ref name="ABCB-247" /> The data sheets describe these rules as consistent with a phased evacuation with staff assistance.<ref name="ABCB-247" />		In hospitals and care buildings, the phases are horizontal before they are vertical. Nursing staff first move patients to an adjacent smoke zone or fire compartment, and other floors are evacuated only if the threat continues.<ref name="IFEG-2.8-2" /> The deemed-to-satisfy provisions of the Australian National Construction Code (NCC), as quoted in the 2020 data sheets, reflect this. Patient care areas are divided into smoke compartments of no more than 500 m².<ref name="ABCB-247">Australian Building Codes Board (2020a), Data Sheet D1, p. 247.</ref> Horizontal exits must offer at least 2.5 m² of clear floor area per patient on the safe side.<ref name="ABCB-247" /> The data sheets describe these rules as consistent with a phased evacuation with staff assistance.<ref name="ABCB-247" />

			[[File:fse-phased-evacuation-v3.svg\|thumb\|upright=1.5\|alt=Plan of a hospital floor split into two smoke compartments; staff move patients in beds through a door in the dividing wall to the safe side.\|Horizontal phase of a hospital evacuation: staff move patients into the adjacent smoke compartment before any vertical evacuation. Based on National Research Council of Canada et al. (2005), p. 2.8-2, and Australian Building Codes Board (2020a), Data Sheet D1, p. 247.]]

	== Alarm, communication and management ==		== Alarm, communication and management ==
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	NIST simulated a phased evacuation in a World Trade Center tower with three evacuation models. Two hundred people on each of floors 47 to 49 had to reach floor 45, three levels below the fire floor, floor 48.<ref name="Averill-247">Averill et al. (2005), p. 247.</ref> All 600 people were clear in 3.5 to 4 minutes if they started immediately. With random start delays between 0 and 10 minutes, the time rose to 11 to 11.5 minutes.<ref name="Averill-160" /> A full evacuation of a tower with 19,800 occupants took 92 to 112 minutes in the same models.<ref name="Averill-xxxv" /> NIST adds that some mid-rise buildings planned for phased evacuation can be fully evacuated at full capacity in less than 20 minutes.<ref name="Averill-257">Averill et al. (2005), p. 257.</ref>		NIST simulated a phased evacuation in a World Trade Center tower with three evacuation models. Two hundred people on each of floors 47 to 49 had to reach floor 45, three levels below the fire floor, floor 48.<ref name="Averill-247">Averill et al. (2005), p. 247.</ref> All 600 people were clear in 3.5 to 4 minutes if they started immediately. With random start delays between 0 and 10 minutes, the time rose to 11 to 11.5 minutes.<ref name="Averill-160" /> A full evacuation of a tower with 19,800 occupants took 92 to 112 minutes in the same models.<ref name="Averill-xxxv" /> NIST adds that some mid-rise buildings planned for phased evacuation can be fully evacuated at full capacity in less than 20 minutes.<ref name="Averill-257">Averill et al. (2005), p. 257.</ref>

			[[File:fse-phased-evacuation-v4.svg\|thumb\|upright=1.5\|alt=Range bars: phased evacuation of 600 people 3.5 to 11.5 min; full evacuation of 19,800 people 92 to 112 min, of 25,500 people 114 to 142 min.\|Simulated evacuation times for a World Trade Center tower: a phased evacuation of three floors compared with full evacuations. Based on Averill et al. (2005), pp. xxxv and 160.]]

	== Phased evacuation in fire engineering analysis ==		== Phased evacuation in fire engineering analysis ==

Daan: New FSE wiki article: Phased evacuation (written by Claude Opus 5.5)

2026-11-01T22:37:47Z

New FSE wiki article: Phased evacuation (written by Claude Opus 5.5)

New page

A '''phased evacuation''' is an [[evacuation strategy]] in which the occupants of a building leave in a planned sequence, starting with the people most at risk from the fire. In a [[high-rise building]], the fire floor and the floors next to it are evacuated first, while occupants on floors further away are placed on alert. They are evacuated progressively only if the fire continues to develop.<ref name="IFEG-2.8-2">National Research Council of Canada et al. (2005), p. 2.8-2.</ref> In hospitals, the first step is usually a horizontal move of patients to an adjacent smoke zone or fire compartment.<ref name="IFEG-2.8-2" /> The literature uses several names for the strategy, including staged evacuation, controlled selective evacuation and defend-in-place.<ref name="IFEG-2.8-2" /><ref name="Proulx-355">Proulx (2002), p. 3-355.</ref><ref name="Averill-160">Averill et al. (2005), p. 160.</ref>

A phased evacuation depends on people receiving different messages on different floors at different times. Such evacuations are therefore managed by trained personnel, using a [[voice alarm system]] or a zoned [[evacuation alarm system]] with intercommunication.<ref name="IFEG-2.8-2" /><ref name="ABCB-C3-97">Australian Building Codes Board (2020a), Data Sheet C3, p. 97.</ref> In simulations of a World Trade Center tower, a phased evacuation of three floors took about 4 minutes when occupants started immediately. A full evacuation of the fully occupied tower took 92 to 112 minutes.<ref name="Averill-xxxv">Averill et al. (2005), p. xxxv.</ref> The strategy differs from a [[stay-put strategy]], in which occupants remain where they are rather than move through corridors or stairs that may be filled with smoke.<ref name="IFEG-2.8-2" />

== Terminology and related strategies ==
The International Fire Engineering Guidelines (2005) describe the evacuation plan of a building first as controlled or uncontrolled. A controlled evacuation can then be full, zone or staged.<ref name="IFEG-1.8-6">National Research Council of Canada et al. (2005), p. 1.8-6.</ref> The guidelines recommend that this choice is made during the preparation of the fire engineering brief.<ref name="IFEG-2.8-4">National Research Council of Canada et al. (2005), p. 2.8-4.</ref> Proulx distinguishes between "uncontrolled total evacuation" and "controlled selective evacuation" of multistorey office buildings.<ref name="Proulx-355" /> The first type depends mainly on how evacuees defer to each other in the stairs. The second depends on the type of control imposed and on the availability of a voice communication system.<ref name="Proulx-355" />

The NIST investigation of the World Trade Center uses "phased evacuation" and notes that the strategy is also known as defend-in-place.<ref name="Averill-160" /> In the procedures of the towers, it was called a local evacuation. The people on the floors near the threat would move to three floors below the incident.<ref name="NIST-155">National Institute of Standards and Technology (2005), p. 155.</ref> Only under more severe circumstances would a full building evacuation be ordered.<ref name="NIST-155" />

Phased evacuation sits between two other approaches. In a total evacuation, all occupants are alerted at once and leave at the same time. In the "protect in place" concept for fully sprinklered residential buildings, occupants are encouraged to stay where they are.<ref name="IFEG-2.8-2" /> The concept of a fire safe refuge, a special fire compartment where people await rescue by the fire service, is a further variant.<ref name="IFEG-2.8-2" /> In New Zealand, C/VM2 (second edition, 2025) groups strategies in which occupants stay in place or move to a place of safety inside the building under "delayed evacuation strategies".<ref name="MBIE25-34">Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (2025b), p. 34.</ref> Such a place of safety must meet the definition in C/VM2, which requires fire separations that withstand burnout and an automatic sprinkler system.<ref name="MBIE25-34" /><ref name="MBIE25-68">Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (2025b), p. 68.</ref>

== Why buildings use phased evacuation ==
In a tall building, all occupants cannot use the stairs at the same moment without long queues. Proulx describes a hypothetical fire on the tenth floor of a 15-storey office building in which everybody attempts to leave at once.<ref name="Proulx-356">Proulx (2002), p. 3-356.</ref> The occupants of the most threatened floors would then have to queue near those floors for several minutes.<ref name="Proulx-356" /> With the stair doors open on the fire floor, smoke would enter the stairs. Occupants descending from the floors above the fire would have to move through it.<ref name="Proulx-356" />

Field studies confirm that this happens in real fires. In two high-rise residential fires, about 96 percent of the occupants located above the fire floor moved through smoke.<ref name="Proulx-362">Proulx (2002), p. 3-362.</ref> Proulx explains this by the simultaneous movement of many occupants. People on the fire floor open the stair door, and occupants on upper floors open the same stair on their way down.<ref name="Proulx-362" /> Even a pressurised stair can then become contaminated, so that the stairs may be the most dangerous place in the building after the room of fire origin and the fire floor.<ref name="Proulx-362" />

A phased evacuation reduces this problem because fewer doors to the stairs are open at the same time. Klote notes that only a few stair doors may be open simultaneously when a staged evacuation plan is used.<ref name="Klote-4-286">Klote (2002), p. 4-286.</ref> Some pressurisation designs, such as stairs divided into compartments, only work when the number of open doors is limited. They suit a staged evacuation plan but not a densely populated building in which total evacuation is planned.<ref name="Klote-4-287">Klote (2002), p. 4-287.</ref>

There is also a practical and social reason. An uncontrolled total evacuation is increasingly seen as too upsetting for the many occupants who are not threatened.<ref name="Proulx-356" /> NIST concluded that, under certain circumstances, a phased evacuation moves the occupants most at risk to relative safety much faster and with less total impact on building tenants.<ref name="Averill-164">Averill et al. (2005), p. 164.</ref>

== How a phased evacuation is carried out ==
The sequence starts on the fire floor. In the World Trade Center towers, occupants were trained to move three floors below the fire floor, as instructed by the floor warden or the deputy fire safety director.<ref name="Averill-41">Averill et al. (2005), p. 41.</ref> A prepared public address announcement informed other floors that "an orderly evacuation of floors" was taking place. Occupants were asked to wait until their floor number was announced.<ref name="Averill-35">Averill et al. (2005), pp. 35–36.</ref> A separate announcement then told each floor that it was time to evacuate and to use the nearest stairs.<ref name="Averill-35" />

The order of the floors depends on the expected spread of smoke. In a drill in a 21-storey office building in Ottawa in 1971, the presumed fire was on the third floor.<ref name="Proulx-358">Proulx (2002), p. 3-358.</ref> Because smoke was expected to move up the building, the procedure first cleared the fire floor. It then cleared all floors above it, starting with the 21st floor and progressing downwards.<ref name="Proulx-358" />

The Australian data sheets for the Fire Safety Verification Method describe how alarm systems support this sequence. Systems for phased evacuation commonly have two tones: an alert tone and an evacuation tone.<ref name="ABCB-243">Australian Building Codes Board (2020a), Data Sheet D1, pp. 243–244.</ref> The alert tone means "prepare for an evacuation". Occupants may then turn off equipment, pack up personal valuables and wait for instructions from wardens or announcements.<ref name="ABCB-243" /> The evacuation tone means "evacuate the building immediately".<ref name="ABCB-243" />

In a two-stage system, a building-wide alert sounds while the evacuation tone sounds on the fire floor. The system then cascades through the other floors, giving priority to those closest to the fire floor.<ref name="ABCB-258">Australian Building Codes Board (2020a), Data Sheet D1, p. 258.</ref> The data sheets include this alarm type for consistency with modern systems set up for phased evacuations.<ref name="ABCB-258" />

In hospitals and care buildings, the phases are horizontal before they are vertical. Nursing staff first move patients to an adjacent smoke zone or fire compartment, and other floors are evacuated only if the threat continues.<ref name="IFEG-2.8-2" /> The deemed-to-satisfy provisions of the Australian National Construction Code (NCC), as quoted in the 2020 data sheets, reflect this. Patient care areas are divided into smoke compartments of no more than 500 m².<ref name="ABCB-247">Australian Building Codes Board (2020a), Data Sheet D1, p. 247.</ref> Horizontal exits must offer at least 2.5 m² of clear floor area per patient on the safe side.<ref name="ABCB-247" /> The data sheets describe these rules as consistent with a phased evacuation with staff assistance.<ref name="ABCB-247" />

== Alarm, communication and management ==
A phased evacuation cannot work with a simple bell that sounds everywhere at once. NIST notes that voice communication systems in the United States were a response to phased evacuation.<ref name="Lew-150">Lew et al. (2005), p. 150.</ref> Occupants who were relocated or held inside the building needed instructions, at least until they were told to leave.<ref name="Lew-150" /> In the 1970s, shortly after New York City adopted Local Law 5 of 1973, discussions of phased evacuation led to high-rise voice communication systems and fire command centres from which incident commanders managed fires.<ref name="Lew-162">Lew et al. (2005), p. 162.</ref> Requirements for voice systems appeared in national standards in the mid-1980s, for example in the 1985 edition of NFPA 72F.<ref name="Lew-150" />

In Australia, multi-zoned evacuation systems are used where buildings are split into zones to facilitate phased evacuations.<ref name="ABCB-C3-97" /> Each zone is controlled individually and has its own speakers for evacuation tones and public address.<ref name="ABCB-C3-97" /> In Australia, clause E4.9 of the NCC, as quoted in the 2020 data sheets, requires an emergency warning and intercom system in buildings with an effective height of more than 25 m, among others.<ref name="ABCB-248">Australian Building Codes Board (2020a), Data Sheet D1, p. 248.</ref> The data sheets regard such systems as consistent with a managed, phased evacuation.<ref name="ABCB-247" />

The content of the message matters. According to the ''Introduction to Fire Safety Engineering'', a spoken message is more effective than a slow-whoop tone. Live announcements, by public address, in person or by telephone, are followed faster than automatic alarms.<ref name="VR-7.3">Van Rossum (2027), §7.3.</ref> The same source notes that a well-trained evacuation organisation greatly increases the chance that an alarm is taken seriously.<ref name="VR-7.3" />

Proulx regards a voice communication system with informative live messages as probably the best way to initiate a fast response.<ref name="Proulx-350">Proulx (2002), p. 3-350.</ref> In New Zealand, C/VM2 (second edition, 2025) reflects this in its design values. For hotel guests remote from the fire, the pre-travel activity time drops from 600 s with a standard alarm to 300 s with a voice alarm.<ref name="MBIE25-30">Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (2025b), p. 30.</ref>

Phased evacuation also demands more from building management. Proulx notes that an uncontrolled total evacuation is simple and needs no sophisticated systems or training.<ref name="Proulx-356" /> The systems and training for a controlled evacuation are expensive. They may also cause a long delay before the occupants who should leave are told to do so.<ref name="Proulx-356" /> The Australian data sheets therefore require the fire safety strategy to describe the evacuation management strategy and the performance it must achieve.<ref name="ABCB-248" /><ref name="ABCB-249">Australian Building Codes Board (2020a), Data Sheet D1, p. 249.</ref>

== Evacuation times ==
Proulx compares the two procedures for a 15-storey office building with 70 people on each floor and two exit stairs of 1,120 mm.<ref name="Proulx-355" /> In an uncontrolled total evacuation, about 9 minutes are needed to move all 980 occupants to the ground.<ref name="Proulx-355" /> A controlled selective evacuation clears the tenth-floor fire area, the floors above it and the ninth floor. Because of the time needed to start and control the sequence, it also needs about 9 minutes to move 490 people below the ninth floor.<ref name="Proulx-355" /> The advantage is therefore not speed for the building as a whole. It lies in sparing the people on the threatened floors from queuing near the fire and in smoke.<ref name="Proulx-356" />

The Ottawa drill of 1971 cleared the whole 21-storey building, about 2,100 people, over 30 minutes.<ref name="Proulx-358" /> The sequential procedure could, however, have been stopped after 6 minutes, once the fire floor and two adjacent floors were clear.<ref name="Proulx-358" /> An uncontrolled total evacuation of the same building through its two 1,040 mm stairs would have taken nearly 20 minutes. People from the highest floors might have queued for 14 of those 20 minutes.<ref name="Proulx-358" /><ref name="Proulx-359">Proulx (2002), p. 3-359.</ref>

NIST simulated a phased evacuation in a World Trade Center tower with three evacuation models. Two hundred people on each of floors 47 to 49 had to reach floor 45, three levels below the fire floor, floor 48.<ref name="Averill-247">Averill et al. (2005), p. 247.</ref> All 600 people were clear in 3.5 to 4 minutes if they started immediately. With random start delays between 0 and 10 minutes, the time rose to 11 to 11.5 minutes.<ref name="Averill-160" /> A full evacuation of a tower with 19,800 occupants took 92 to 112 minutes in the same models.<ref name="Averill-xxxv" /> NIST adds that some mid-rise buildings planned for phased evacuation can be fully evacuated at full capacity in less than 20 minutes.<ref name="Averill-257">Averill et al. (2005), p. 257.</ref>

== Phased evacuation in fire engineering analysis ==
In a performance-based design, a phased evacuation changes the [[required safe egress time]] for each part of the building. The Australian data sheets state that, where the alarm is delayed to certain areas, these delays must be included in the analysis.<ref name="ABCB-243" /> On floors distant from the fire, access to the fire-isolated stair may be delayed to give priority to the floor of fire origin.<ref name="ABCB-246">Australian Building Codes Board (2020a), Data Sheet D1, p. 246.</ref> In evacuation calculations, waiting until instructed to leave counts as a delay at a node of the route.<ref name="ABCB-276">Australian Building Codes Board (2020a), Data Sheet D1, p. 276.</ref> With a two-stage alarm, the response on the fire floor resembles that of a single-stage system. The start of evacuation from other floors is delayed accordingly.<ref name="ABCB-258" />

C/VM2 (second edition, 2025) uses a notification time of 30 s for standard evacuation strategies. For non-standard strategies, the extended notification time must be taken into account.<ref name="MBIE25-29">Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (2025b), p. 29.</ref> For hospital wards, it allows 60 s for staff to respond and then 120 s per patient for each team of two staff to move patients to the next firecell.<ref name="MBIE25-30" /> This assumes that an adjacent enclosure is available for horizontal evacuation. Without one, the pre-travel activity time may need to be increased.<ref name="MBIE25-31">Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (2025b), p. 31.</ref>

== Limits and risks ==
Phased evacuation is designed for fires that stay within the design envelope of the life safety systems. NIST describes it as efficient for "routine" emergencies or emergencies that fit within that envelope.<ref name="Averill-160" /> It was not an appropriate strategy for an emergency on the scale of 11 September 2001.<ref name="Averill-164" /> NIST therefore recommended that tall buildings be designed to allow a timely full building evacuation when required, for example in major earthquakes, fires, explosions or terrorist attacks.<ref name="NIST-215">National Institute of Standards and Technology (2005), p. 215.</ref>

The strategy is also sensitive to fire spread. The Australian data sheets warn that rapid fire spread to several floors via the façade can defeat a phased approach. They ask for procedures for that case and for scenarios in which the alarm or intercom system fails.<ref name="ABCB-250">Australian Building Codes Board (2020a), Data Sheet D1, p. 250.</ref>

Communication can fail in practice. In the Ottawa drill, an incorrectly set switch delayed the first announcement until nearly 3 minutes into the drill.<ref name="Proulx-358" /> The announcement was ambiguous, and as many as 350 people left their floors before their turn. This delayed the intended earlier evacuation of floors 3, 4 and 2.<ref name="Proulx-358" />

Before the announcement, only 17 percent of the questioned occupants thought the alarm meant a fire, while nearly 60 percent thought of a circuit malfunction.<ref name="Proulx-358" /> On 11 September 2001, occupants of the second tower first heard that their building was secure and that they should return to their offices.<ref name="Averill-98">Averill et al. (2005), p. 98.</ref> A contradicting announcement followed at 9:02 a.m., one minute before the tower was struck.<ref name="Averill-98" />

Finally, people do not always wait for their turn. The ''Introduction to Fire Safety Engineering'' notes that group behaviour and authority shape the response to an alarm. People may conform to those around them or wait until a manager gives permission to leave.<ref name="VR-7.3" /> The same tendencies can also help: when enough people make the right decision, as in a well-practised evacuation organisation, the others tend to follow.<ref name="VR-7.3" />

== See also ==
* [[Evacuation lift]]
* [[Progressive horizontal evacuation]]
* [[Occupant load]]
* [[Pre-movement time]]

== Notes ==
<references />

== References ==
* Australian Building Codes Board. (2020a). ''Data sheets: Fire Safety Verification Method'' (Handbook annex, Print version 1.1).
* Averill, J. D., Mileti, D. S., Peacock, R. D., Kuligowski, E. D., Groner, N., Proulx, G., Reneke, P. A., & Nelson, H. E. (2005). ''Occupant behavior, egress, and emergency communications'' (NIST NCSTAR 1-7). National Institute of Standards and Technology.
* Klote, J. H. (2002). Smoke control. In P. J. DiNenno, D. Drysdale, C. L. Beyler, W. D. Walton, R. L. P. Custer, J. R. Hall Jr., & J. M. Watts Jr. (Eds.), ''SFPE handbook of fire protection engineering'' (3rd ed., pp. 4-274–4-291). National Fire Protection Association; Society of Fire Protection Engineers.
* Lew, H. S., Bukowski, R. W., & Carino, N. J. (2005). ''Design, construction, and maintenance of structural and life safety systems'' (NIST NCSTAR 1-1). National Institute of Standards and Technology.
* Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. (2025b). ''Verification Method C/VM2: Framework for fire safety design'' (2nd ed.).
* National Institute of Standards and Technology. (2005). ''Final report on the collapse of the World Trade Center towers'' (NIST NCSTAR 1).
* National Research Council of Canada, International Code Council, Department of Building and Housing, & Australian Building Codes Board. (2005). ''International fire engineering guidelines'' (2005 ed.). Australian Building Codes Board.
* Proulx, G. (2002). Movement of people: The evacuation timing. In P. J. DiNenno, D. Drysdale, C. L. Beyler, W. D. Walton, R. L. P. Custer, J. R. Hall Jr., & J. M. Watts Jr. (Eds.), ''SFPE handbook of fire protection engineering'' (3rd ed., pp. 3-342–3-366). National Fire Protection Association; Society of Fire Protection Engineers.
* Van Rossum, E. (2027). ''Introduction to Fire Safety Engineering''. Fire Safety Academy.

[[Category:Human Behaviour & Evacuation]]