ABSTRACT
The chapter focuses on behaviour during a life-threatening event, with a particular emphasis on fires. There are many accounts predicting what people do when they are caught up in a threatening incident such as a fire, earthquake, or tsunami. The main expectations are that people will panic, freeze, or turn to destructive criminal action. The chapter demonstrates that in most situations each of those predictions is wrong. Rather than freeze, people will tend to help and assist others. Rather than resulting in criminal acts, crime usually fall following a major incident. People do not panic. Instead, empirical studies are consistent in showing that people’s behaviour is usually rational and follows the same patterns and structures found in everyday life. The chapter includes studies of fires in homes, multiple occupancies, hospitals, and a major disaster, the King’s Cross Underground Fire in London. Researching and understanding what people typically do as an incident unfolds, provides insights that allow environmental psychology to specify guidance based on empirical evidence rather than assumption stereotype and ‘disaster myths’.
