Effectiveness study on applications of evacuation guidance systems in elderly welfare facilities when fire occurs

In recent years, major fire incidents in Japan, Russia, Belgium, Argentina, and Korea have led to the deaths of 6 to 23 people in elderly welfare facilities. Therefore, for the evacuation of the elderly and the disabled safety, it is necessary to provide them with a safe and effective building as an evacuation space. Directional evacuation lights with voice and sound have been developed in Europe, the United States, Japan, and China and applied to evacuation places. This study took the signs and equipment with flash or sound guidance actually installed in elderly welfare facilities in Taiwan as an example and conducted a questionnaire survey to summarize and analyze the effectiveness of such signs and facilities as well as where improvements should be made, in order to provide elderly welfare facilities with the analysis on improvement and effectiveness of evacuation guidance equipment, which may be beneficial to the use and safety of buildings. This study found that the installation of signs and equipment with flash or sound guidance could help evacuees to accurately find out the evacuation routes. Moreover, the evacuation guidance information should be comprehensible. It was advised to complete the installation of evacuation signs and equipment in places where the elderly and disabled live as soon as possible according to the laws.