ACTION RESEARCH ON EVACUATION METHOD IN EMERGENT SITUATION (I)

COMPARISON BETWEEN FOLLOW-DIRECTION METHOD AND FOLLOW-ME METHOD

Abstract

Two evacuation methods in emergent situation were compared in a field experiment. One was a traditional method, named “Follow-direction evacuation method”, in which each leader indicated an exit for evacuees with loud voice and large gesture, also himself moving toward the exit. The other was a new method, named “Follow-me evacuation method”, in which each leader acted on one or two evacuees to follow him and actually took them to the exit. In Follow-me method, the leader neither called out to many evacuees nor indicated the direction of the exit.
Field experiment was conducted in a shopping underground arcade, eight meters wide and seventy-five meters long, with forty-two evacuees Scattered uniformly. Leaders were eight workers in the shopping arcade. Four of them led evacuees to the south exit with Follow-direction method and the other led evacuees to the north exit with Follow-me method.
As a result, Follow-direction method evacuated fifteen evacuees in eighty-five seconds from beginning of alarm, while Follow-me method evacuated twety-seven evacuees in sixty-five seconds. Effectiveness of Follow-me method was considered as an effect of small groups which were instantly generated around the leaders.