Evacuation Analysis in Nursery Schools: Challenges of Parameterizing the Behavior of Children

In this study evacuation exercises in various nursery schools in Germany were carried out The evacuation organization and behavioral patterns were examined in case of an alarm Additionally, the walking speed and pre-movement times were measured.

In general, the educators, a short moment after they themselves have interpreted the alarm, assemble the children in order to initiate an in a body evacuation The children react differently to this call – also depending on the distance to the educators The collective escape movement does not begin until all children have assembled Consequently, the individual pre-movement times of the children as well as their individual mobility until reaching their group significantly influence the group-related pre-movement time.