Dear all,

Regarding the concepts of PRE-MOVEMENT TIME and RESPONSE TIME, I have a 'doubt'.

The British fire safety codes (BS9999 and PD7974-6) define pre-movement time as “the interval between the time at which a warning of a fire is given and the time at which the first move is made towards an exit”. The attached table illustrates this definition.

These documents say that: PRE-MOVEMENT TIME = RECOGNITION TIME + RESPONSE TIME.

Therefore, PRE-MOVEMENT TIME is different from RESPONSE TIME; and, in fact, RESPONSE TIME is a component of PRE-MOVEMENT TIME.

Some evacuation models have the "response time" function; others have the "pre-movement time" function.

Any objective thought on that would be appreciated.

In addition to that, do you know, by any chance, any other reference(s) which defines the following concepts:

- PRE-MOVEMENT TIME;
- RESPONSE TIME;
- “PANIC”.

And finally, can I also say that PRE-MOVEMENT TIME = PRE-EVACUATION TIME?

Many thanks in advance.

Rodrigo

p.s.: The British fire safety codes which I have mentioned:

1)BS 9999:2008 Code of practice for fire safety in the design, management and use of buildings;

2) PD 7974-6:2004 The application of fire safety engineering principles to fire safety design of buildings - Part 6: Human factors: Life safety strategies - Occupant evacuation, behaviour and condition (Sub-system 6)

Whilst I think some models/people use 'PRE-MOVEMENT TIME = PRE-EVACUATION TIME' I don't think this is necessarily correct as a person can start to perform pre-evacuation tasks (and move) without beginning their evacuation e.g. information seeking, collecting life jackets, searching for family members etc.

I think the RESPONSE TIME = PRE-MOVEMENT TIME is also perhaps not totally correct as responding to some kind of stimulus (e.g. smoke alarm, fire, someone telling you to evacuate) does not necessarily mean 'move' or 'evacuate'.

Regarding PANIC, there was an interesting discussion regarding this on www.Ped-Net.org:

http://www.ped-net.org/forum/topic.php?id=296

Thanks for your comments, especially regarding the “pre-movement time” and “pre-evacuation time” concepts. It does make sense; although I have heard many people using these 2 terminologies as synonymies. Hopefully an official “glossary” would come out soon (if this hasn’t happened yet? I am not sure though).