On the importance of building evacuation system components

How can building occupants be safely evacuated in the case of an emergency? To address this question, this paper presents several measures of the criticality of evacuation system components, inspired by reliability theory. The escapeways in a building are modeled as a network, with links and nodes. This paper discusses how it is possible to identify the importance of different network components. The evacuees are modeled as discrete flow objects with certain attributes. This paper discusses the importance of different personal attributes. Also, management decisions are important, e.g., establishing emergency plans and strategies.