The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 1 - 63

Residence Hall Inhabitants' Responses to Fire Alarms

of other individuals, to determine if a situation is an emergency and to decide how to
respond. Some ﬁre safety researchers (e.g.,
Tong & Canter, 1985) have built on these
ﬁndings to examine speciﬁc responses to a
ﬁre alarm. For example, Shields, Boyce, and
Silcock (1998) examined evacuation rates in
response to an unannounced and unexpected
ﬁre drill in a large retail store. On average,
customers began to move 25 seconds after
the alarm sounded, which was largely credited to the the sales staff. All cash counters
were closed within 30 seconds of the alarm
and staff promptly initiated evacuation, which
suggest that the customers in this case were
likely to pick up cues from others.
However, research also has shown that
evacuation often can be delayed (Sime, 1985;
Proulx, 2001). For example, a study examining Canadian government buildings found
occupants averaged 50 seconds to begin their
evacuation even when the ofﬁce workers had
received training regarding standard ﬁre
procedure (Proulx & Pineau, 1996). Video
recordings showed occupants partaking in
non-evacuation behaviors such as ﬁling papers,
gathering belongings, and ﬁnishing phone
calls even though training had been provided.
In addition, Proulx (1993) suggested that the
stressful nature of an emergency situation can
also lead to a delay as people work to ﬁgure out
what is happening and how best to respond.
Proulx and Sime (1991) observed that passengers in an underground transport station
reacted much faster to a ﬁre alarm when messages from a voice communication system informed passengers of the type of incident, its
location, and provided instructions on what
to do. The voice communication system may

have alleviated some of the ambiguity of the
situation and prompted proper evacuation. If
groups of people participate in non-evacuation
behaviors during ﬁre alarms, others may interpret the lack of urgency as an indicator of a
non-threatening situation through the effects
of pluralistic ignorance. This is problematic
because if non-evacuation behaviors become
the norm in public buildings, people may not
react swiftly to threatening situations.

Since 2000, campus ﬁres in the
United States have claimed the lives
of 122 individuals and have resulted
in millions of dollars in damages.

Fires pose a potential threat to residence
hall inhabitants, and one emergency situation could result in a catastrophic tragedy.
The current study extends the limited body
of research examining the role of social inﬂuence on responses to ﬁres in a residence hall
setting. Anecdotal information from the researchers' own university also provides some
support for the need for this research: Observations of the local ﬁre marshal during a
recent ﬁre alarm in one of our residence halls
reported an evacuation rate of approximately
20%-only one-ﬁfth of residence hall inhabitants at our university responded appropriately
to the alarm (Bengston, 2011). To try to better
understand this low rate of evacuation, we
examine resident students' beliefs about ﬁre
safety and assess the extent to which particiV O L U M E 4 3 , NO. 1 * 2 0 1 6

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 1

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 1