Fighting Fire with Psychology - Essay Example

Fighting Fire with Psychology This article deals with the psychological aspects related with firefighters and how best they could cope up with the internal pressures that seem to engulf their lives every now and then. Lea Winerman has penned it. This article asserts the psychological side of people when they are told of a fire that has erupted in a building or complex. Their ability to leave the premises depends a great deal on their physical capacities and each one of these people has different strengths so to speak.

Thus the fire alarm plays a psychological role within the lives of different types of people. They usually rush out and leave the area in no time. They find the nearest exit from where they could flee and reach to a point of safety. This also depends a great deal on the message that has been transmitted to them telling about the spread of a fire in the first place. The intensity of this fire plays a huge role in their leaving off the area. Majority of the people spend a huge amount of time finding information related with fire and its causes.

They seem to go deep inside the very basis of a fire and its spread. These types of findings usually play a very significant role in the works of architects, engineers as well as the emergency planners since a real case of fire provides as much learning experience and exposure for these people as they could possibly think of. Thus they document every minor detail that they can get their hands on and try to understand the rational behind the very same. After 9/11 the research has become even more significant since the people seem to have an alarming anxiety within them intensely as compared to what used to be the case pre-9/11 era.

It could be due to the falling of the two World Trade Center towers. They just do not want themselves to be caught up in such a situation all said and done. The article sums up the research findings by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which have played a tremendous role at the learning regimes of the human behaviors which are exhibited in fire-related scenarios and instances. With that, the researchers are also trying their best to examine what actually must have happened at the time of 9/11 in the twin towers.

What this will ultimately do is to provide a basis for future preparations in cases of attacks, fires and blasts within buildings, complexes and high rises. This article has discussed the research that has been done post-9/11 era since the effect of 9/11 was indeed very momentous on humanity and just about everyone was shocked with what had happened that fateful day. Researchers are doing their best to find out ways in the wake of fires in line with people’s behaviors. Some of these include situations like a few do not panic, then there are people who help each other and most of them exit through the door from which they entered.

Some of them do not mind the fire alarm and continue doing their work, as the article highlights this category as well. BIBLIOGRAPHYWinerman, Lea. Fighting Fire with Psychology. Monitor StaffWord Count: 544