Is high-rise building evacuation different from other buildings?
Due to the high occupancy, it is not practicable or desirable to carry out total evacuation in a typical fire emergency. Instead, tall building is designed and constructed to allow for a phased evacuation. The construction, fire protection and life safety systems installed in high-rise buildings, including automatic sprinkler protection, are designed to control a fire so as to lessen the need to evacuate all occupants to the street level. Nearly every city with high-rise buildings has embraced the staged evacuation or staged relocation concept, this is a version of the defend in place strategy. The occupants of the fire floor and floors immediately above and below it should immediately use the exit stairs to descend to a floor level that is at least a few floors below the fire floor. The occupants can then reenter the occupied space on those safe floors so as to await further instructions, with progressive extensions to the evacuated area if the fire risk persists. Another by-product o
