Simulation of pedestrian evacuation based on Jilin fire

Abstract

In the fire of the factory of Jilin poultry company occurred on 3 June, 2013, which was the biggest fire disaster in the recent 13 years, 120 people were burned. One of the most important reasons lies in the shut off of 3 out of 6 exits, and further, the staff did not know which exit can be used to evacuate. In this paper, we simulate the evacuation process of the fire of Jilin using the foor field model, and show the importance of each exit and the influence of the shut off of exits. Results show that, if only there had been one more exit opened when the fire occurred, about 54.3% of the burned pedestrians could survive, and if all the exits ware opened, 76.6% of the burned pedestrians would survive. In addition, if the pedestrians had got the information of the availability of each exit, the number of burned pedestrians would reduce 21.6%. Hence, it is crucial to maintain the availability of the exits and spread the availability information for preventing loss of life and property.