Egress concepts and design approaches

Abstract

Among the most important concepts in fire safety in buildings is to manage those potentially exposed to the fire and its effects, either by protecting them in place or by moving them to a place of safety. Protected spaces and paths of travel needed to accomplish this are the egress components, systems and procedures that are discussed in this chapter. The chapter presents an overview of considerations, concepts, methods, and strategies utilized globally for emergency egress system design. Approaches to full or partial evacuation using stairs or elevators, egress for people with disabilities, protect-in-place strategies, and alternatives to evacuation, are presented. Prescriptive and performance-based approaches are discussed and strategies for selecting specific systems are summarized.