The fire is detected in the building. Please evacuate. Do not use the elevator.

I’ve heard this emergency message perhaps a thousand times. It is deeply engraved in my mind to the extent that the moment I hear the first beep of the fire alarm, I know this message will come up. I heard the chime sound, and I knew I should evacuate and not use the elevator.

But in all seriousness, why? Why shouldn’t I use the elevator, and what would happen if I did (in case the building would not prevent me from doing so…)? 

This is the reason I’ve invited Dr Axel Mossberg from Bengt Dahlgren Fire Research, who has done his PhD on the subject of behavioural aspects in elevator evacuation and was involved in the design of multiple buildings in which elevator evacuation strategy was employed. In this episode, we try to figure out where the stigma comes from. We compare the staircase and elevator evacuation in terms of their efficiencies and the occupant behaviour/choices related to the process. We also discuss the features of a safe elevator that can provide an equivalent level of safety to an area of refuge, and perhaps even to a staircase.

If you would like to learn more about the topic, I highly recommend:

•  Axel’s PhD thesis, which is available here: https://portal.research.lu.se/files/118613954/Axel_Mossberg_e_spik.pdf
• Axel's paper on Evaluating new evacuation systems related to human behaviour using a situational awareness approach – A study of the implementation of evacuation elevators in an underground facility, 
•  Axel's paper on Unannounced Evacuation Experiment in a High-Rise Hotel Building with Evacuation Elevators: A Study of Evacuation Behaviour Using Eye-Tracking
• As well as this paper by Erika Kuligowski from 2003 given to CTBUH, which remains very actual 20 years later: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267797629_Elevators_for_occupant_evacuation_and_fire_department_access 

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