A fire safety improvement framework for residential buildings: a socio-ecological behaviour modification approach

Abstract

This study is important because it addresses the significant issue of fire prevention in residential properties, where fires currently lead to major social and economic hardship in every country in the world. It provides a new direction in considering fire prevention strategies by including human behaviour, engineering and administrative aspects together over the lifecycle of residential buildings. It adopts an ecological approach to behavioural change that allows participation from a wide cross section of the community who can enter at different stages of fire safety awareness, and is intended to facilitate increased awareness. This will provide better ownership of the principles and bring wider community acceptance of sound fire preventative measures. The study is also based on fire incident data from two very different social and geographic regions of the world and, while validated primarily within the Australian context, has potential for adoption within wider fire safety management systems globally. This means that its adoption will bring widespread and meaningful reductions in residential fires and improved fire safety.

This study presents a new Fire Safety Improvement Framework (the Framework).

Development of the Framework is based upon statistical analysis of 11,611 fire incidents recorded by central fire authorities from suburban Sydney, Australia, encompassing 4.4 million residents in 2011 (www.censusdata.abs.gov.au), and 2,490 incidents from equivalent city areas, Jakarta and Surabaya, of Indonesia, representing 11 million residents in 2010 (Jakarta in figures 2010 and Surabaya in figures 2010), over the period 2004 2009. The development of the Framework was also informed by a review of modern human behaviour theories, including the Socio-Ecological Model and the Precaution Adoption Process Model that were eventually adopted, and modified following one-on-one interviews. Validation of the Framework was conducted through field surveys involving one-on-one interviews with 12 respondents from fire authorities, architecture firms, city councils and a psychologist, and a questionnaire survey with 249 respondents consisting of fire experts, building practitioners, and householders in Sydney.

A single entity, three faceted Framework comprising structural objectives, participants, and behavioural change is proposed. It is likely that any action in one facet will influence the situation in the other two facets and so weightages from each will depend on overall circumstances and were not defined. The structural objectives are targeted at increased knowledge and awareness of individuals toward residential fire safety, improved quality of the physical environment and hardware, utilisation of incentives, and effective use of controls and enforcement. The participants are those who influence fire safety at various levels in both physical and social environments. Behavioural change is the process that participants go through in their awareness and consciousness of residential fire safety issues. The major contributions of this study have been to connect aspects of fire safety at the design and operation stages of buildings, address the neglect of human behaviour as a significant influence on matters related to fire safety, and to introduce a new fire safety framework that incorporates design, operational and human behavioural aspects into a holistic improvement scheme that will reduce the unintentional fire occurrences in residential buildings over their lifetime.

It is proposed that the resulting Framework be incorporated into existing fire safety management systems. The Framework should have practical application at local, national and international levels and be implementable by individuals and organisations that influence fire safety in residential buildings. For example, governmental and public bodies might use the Framework when introducing legislation, members of City Councils, fire fighters, and school teachers and students in their administration of and implementation of regulations and training, building practitioners and manufacturers, and members of societies and clubs, in their introduction of and installation of new equipment or promotion of new fire safety measures. These all provide ecological settings in which the Framework could be applied. The Framework should also be adaptable as an important basis for fire safety management frameworks in various socioeconomic environments in different global settings in the future. Validation of the benefits brought by the Framework to these applications will require further research, and so it is proposed that longitudinal studies be carried out on specific applications.