Enhancing Fire Safety of Buildings’ Occupants: An Integrated Fire Risk Concept into Reliability-Based Evacuation Design Optimization Method Focused on At-Risk Groups

Abstract Fire poses a continuous threat to human life, and minimizing the number of building residents who may become trapped in a fire is a central concern in fire safety. At-risk groups are particularly susceptible to fire-related perils. This study underscores the need to address fire-related risks faced by building occupants, especially vulnerable groups with mobility or cognitive impairments. A probabilistic risk analysis is used to establish the observed Expected Risk to Life (ERL) for the research’s focus groups. By integrating the observed ERL with reliability considerations, criteria for life safety are defined, including target failure probabilities for safe evacuation, which inform reliability-based design for fire evacuation. A sensitivity analysis identifies the most influential factors affecting evacuation model outcomes. Minimizing the risk of occupants becoming trapped a in fire drives this research’s focus on Reliability-Based Design Optimization (RBDO) principles. By applying RBDO to fire evacuation design, values for impactful design factors are recommended to enhance evacuation reliability by decreasing the failure probability of safe evacuation. The results demonstrate the considerable impact of at-risk group characteristics and building geometry design variables on fire evacuation safety levels, emphasizing the need for reliability-driven design strategies.