An Overview of Behaviour in Fires

The major differences between fires in the patterns of behaviour that are associated with them are not due to variations between the personalities of the people present or to particular physical details of the design of the buildings involved. Rather they relate to the type of 'place' in which the fires occur. The term 'place' here is used in the sense discussed by Canter (1977), implying a combination of social and physical processes that give any setting its particular qualities. In the parlance of the fire brigades a place is very similar in meaning to a 'building occupancy', because each occupancy has its own characteristic physical structure as well as its own type of organisation and associated fire risk. The following summaries will therefore consider fires in relation to the type of setting in which they occur. In order to clarify and elaborate these aspects, details of behaviour in various types of buildings are worthy of closer consideration