Occupant Behavior and Evacuation during the Chicago Cook County Administration Building Fire

The fire in the unsprinklered 36-story Cook County Administration Building on 17 October 2003, resulted in six fatalities and left a dozen people injured. A human behavior study using a questionnaire survey was used to gain an understanding of the existing conditions in the building prior to the fire, past training and occupant awareness of the evacuation procedure, and to document the occupants' behavior and evacuation on the day of the fire. Results show that although 85% of the survey respondents had received fire safety training, only 20% understood the phased-evacuation plan. There were only around 250 occupants still in the building at the time of the fire; half of them used an elevator to exit. Unfortunately, the combination of locked doors that prevented re-entry on to the floors from the stairwells and fire fighting activity taking place from the stairwell, contributed to this tragedy. Various means to improve fire safety management in high-rise office buildings are discussed in this article.