Improving fire-safety awareness and assessing simulated evacuation-route adherence using building information modeling and immersive virtual reality: A multi-site field study in under-construction buildings

Fire hazards pose substantial risks on construction sites, where rapidly changing layouts, temporary installations, and obstructed circulation routes can hinder safe evacuation. This study evaluated a low-cost fire-safety training framework integrating Building Information Modeling and immersive Virtual Reality among 178 construction workers recruited from three active construction sites in Bangladesh. Fire-safety awareness was assessed using an eight-item instrument before training, immediately afterward, and at a two-week follow-up. Mean composite scores increased from 2.43 to 6.89, representing a mean improvement of 4.46 points and a very large paired-samples effect size of 3.79. Exact McNemar tests showed significant improvement across all eight fire-safety items. At follow-up, 162 participants achieved a mean score of 6.21, retaining 85.2% of the improvement above the pre-training baseline. Post-training simulated evacuation-route deviation averaged 6.59%. Multiple regression explained 33.8% of the variance in route deviation, with age and prior fire-safety training identified as significant predictors. These findings provide strong within-participant evidence of substantial and sustained improvement in fire-safety awareness following the low-cost immersive training framework, while demonstrating the feasibility of scalable assessment of simulated route adherence using mobile hardware.