Fire as One the Most Dreaded Fears of the Human Mind - Essay Example

Most of the time the immediate response is failure to recognize the cue. Cues can come in different forms; visual, audio and olfactory cues. These cues instigate a different behavioural response. There are also other cues in the form of surround energy, change in the atmospheric temperature and the like that also compete for human response.

Exploring human response in terms of visual cues shows that people underestimate the implication of visual cues like the flashing of light through various visual notification appliances. The first reaction is ignorance and the second is confusion because in case of too much smoke the human movement is paralysed. ‘The importance of smoke as a serious cue to be attended to and the menace to survival from which one has to stay out as much as possible needs to be reinforced in the general public.’ (Ploug, Hasle & Oinas-kukkonen, 2010)

In terms of the olfactory cues, the human response to the sense of smell is quicker in the case of fire. The olfactory cues include all smells associated with fire from smoke to burning objects. However, the audible cues take precedence over the visual and olfactory cues as in most part of the world people are familiarize with the alarm system to get them all hyped up to fight danger. Other cues also trigger human behaviour which includes the increased temperature of the surrounding and changes in the air pressure as the burning fire uses up oxygen leaving less for human consumption.

The pre-movement delays also know as the evacuation initiation delays are caused due to various factors. Poor fire drills and insufficient planning to fight fire are some of the major reasons causing the delay. People are not aware of the fire exits and the buildings are not efficiently designed to minimize the chaos brought about by the fire thus increasing delay and damage. ‘Stairway geometry, another configuration aspect of the building, also affects the movement of the occupants.’ (Klingsch, Rogsch & Schadschneider, 2008)

The major reason for the fire alarms’ failure to being recognized is its audibility and familiarity. Sometimes the fire alarm is not properly heard by the people and there are times when they are not familiar with the alarm. Too few fire drills keep the general public alienated with the fire alarms and too many drills just mar their importance and people start ignoring them. These alarms are only recognized where there are proper drills and ample pre-planning and awareness sessions to educate the people regarding the fire outbreak.

The temporal three-alarm signal is a mandatory requirement for the building being built in North America. This alarm system also known as the T-3 system and has a particular alarm pattern used for the immediate evacuation of buildings. This alarm system is designed to become the standardized alarm signal throughout the world. However, it has not been influential enough to gain that status as people need more education to follow a siren and simply evacuate from their homes leaving everything behind.

In my opinion, the alarm needs to have a single loud tone rather than a melody of all the instruments combined. In order to introduce the alarm signal throughout the world media advertisement would be used because I believe the more familiar we are with the sound of that alarm the more successfully the T-3 system will service its cause. Financially this modification into a single tone horn will not be a burden and will help the alarm system stand out and yell ‘evacuate the building – FAST!’