The LWF Blog

Fire Safety for Facilities Management Personnel – Do people panic? – Part 287

January 20, 2025 11:48 am

Lawrence Webster Forrest (LWF) is a specialist fire engineering and fire risk management consultancy whose aim is to give information on best practice in fire safety for facilities management personnel through this blog series. In part 286, LWF discussed the concept of panic in a fire situation. In part 287, we continue looking at the case for panic and the examples that back the theory of calm, rational behaviour in fire situations.

Although traditional wisdom has, in the past, pointed towards not letting the public know there is a fire in the building, this has been proved to be incorrect. Academic research and the findings of inquiries into fire disasters have shown clearly that there should be no reticence to inform people about a fire. It has clearly pointed to the provision of additional information.

In 1981, more than 800 people attended the Stardust nightclub in Artane, Dublin. A fire occurred, caused by an electrical fault and resulted in 48 fatalities and 214 people sustaining injuries. The inquiry into the fire concluded that many of the disco occupants had moved rapidly to the nearest exits and behaved rationally. The resulting confusion and disorder was inevitable as exits were obstructed or chained shut, visibility was vastly reduced due to the area filling with black smoke and the lighting system failure. It was concluded that although witnesses had reported people panicking, that this was inevitable due to the conditions and would not have occurred if the exits had been accessible and back-up lighting in place.

Indeed, the DJ at the event feared people would panic and so announced that people should remain calm and walk to the exits. In this way, his instincts allied with more modern voice alarm systems, which would give much the same information.

The inquiry suggested, in fact, that if the Stardust club management had made an announcement sooner and had injected a note of urgency into the instruction to evacuate, more lives would have been saved. As it was, some occupants did not make moves to evacuate and instead stayed to watch developments.

Without a doubt, had the emergency exits not been blocked to avoid people sneaking into the club without paying and the windows not been barred so securely that not even firefighters using their appliance could winch them free, fewer lives would have been lost.

In part 288 of this series, LWF will discuss the role in a fire situation of those staff in charge. In the meantime, if you have any queries about your own facilities or wish to discuss this blog series, please contact LWF on freephone 0800 410 1130.

Lawrence Webster Forrest is a fire engineering consultancy based in Surrey with over 35 years’ experience, which provides a wide range of consultancy services to professionals involved in the design, development and construction and operation of buildings.

 

While care has been taken to ensure that information contained in LWF’s publications is true and correct at the time of publication, changes in circumstances after the time of publication may impact on the accuracy of this information.