Experimental Study on the Evaluation and Influencing Factors on Individual’s Emergency Escape Capability in Subway Fire

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health 2021-09, Vol.18 (19), p.10203
• Main Authors: Chen, Na, Zhao, Ming, Gao, Kun, Zhao, Jun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age; Behavior; Correlation; Decision making; Efficiency; Emergency management; Emergency preparedness; Evacuation; Evacuations & rescues; Experiments; Familiarity; Heart rate; Mountains; Older people; Personality; Personality traits; Physiology; Subway stations; Virtual reality; Women
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph181910203

Studying an individual’s emergency escape capability and its influencing factors is of great practical significance for evacuation and escape in subway emergencies. Taking Zhengzhou Zijing Mountain Subway station as the prototype, and using VR technology, a virtual subway fire escape scene was built. Combined with the total escape time, the total contact time with fire, and the total contact time with smoke, it proposed a calculation formula on emergency escape capability. A total of 34 participants with equal gender distribution were recruited to carry out the virtual subway fire escape experiment, and participants’ physiological data (heart rate variability, skin conductance) were real-time recorded by ErgoLAB V3.0 throughout the whole experiment. The emergency escape capability of each participant was evaluated quantitatively, and the related influencing factors were analyzed. The results show that for the age ranges (19–22 years old) in the experiment, the emergency escape capability of women is significantly lower than that of men (p < 0.05); although there is no significance in emergency escape capability in DISC personality types (p > 0.05), the mean emergency escape capability of people with influence personality type is the worst, and that of people with compliance type is the best; during virtual fire escape vs. baseline, Mean_SC and Mean_HR both increased very significantly (all p < 0.01), and participants were under stress during their virtual fire escape. There is a significant negative correlation between emergency escape capability and LF_increase_rate (p < 0.05), and a remarkably significant negative correlation between emergency escape capability and LF/HF_increase_rate (p < 0.01); the greater the increase rate of LF or LF/HF, the smaller the emergency escape capability, with excessive stress probably not being conducive to emergency escape. There is a very significant negative correlation between an individual’s emergency escape capability and the degree of familiarity with the Zijing Mountain subway station (p < 0.01). The findings provide references and suggestions on the emergency management and emergency evacuation for government and subway departments.