Do you know the location of your nearest fire extinguisher?

For most people, on a daily basis, most of our time is spent in the same building. Whether it be as employers, employees, students, etc. If I were to ask you now to tell me where your nearest fire extinguisher is located, would you be able to tell me?

There is a very interesting article written named ‘Inattentional blindness and amnesia for the location of fire extinguishers’ by Alan D. Castel, Michael Vendetti & Keith J. Holyoak (Aug 2012).

Below is a small extraction from that study.

Fire extinguishers can save lives and are placed in locations that make them easily accessible and in plain view in case of an emergency. However, despite having viewed these bright red objects many times, people may be unaware of their precise locations or even of the fact that they have seen them so often in their workplace environment. We tested the ability of occupants of an office building to recall the location of the nearest fire extinguisher, as well as other objects (e.g., clock, drinking fountain). Despite years of exposure to it, a majority failed to remember the location of the nearest fire extinguisher, although they were able to locate it relatively quickly when asked to search for it. The results support an important distinction between seeing and noticing objects and reveal a novel form of inattentional amnesia for salient objects. The study also created an important learning event via failed retrieval, which could be essential to survival.

In their study, Castel et. al examine inattentional blindness and amnesia in fire emergencies, with hopes to observe people’s ability to recall the location of a fire extinguisher when one is needed. Fire extinguishers are important for fire protection and safety, as they can save lives when deployed in an emergency. As required by various health and safety codes, fire extinguishers are strategically placed in buildings for easy access to the device in an emergency. Individuals pass by these devices, but rarely embed their location into their minds for future use. Castel et. al’s study serves to highlight this issue, as well as, how it may be explained by “goal-directed attention processes on memory”. The study was conducted at the University of California Los Angeles Department of Psychology and included fifty-four participants from the department’s faculty, staff, and students. Participants were tested on five floors of a campus building, each with similar spatial layouts. Fire extinguishers were placed in the same location on all floors, usually within twenty-five feet of office doorways. Participants were asked to complete a survey about building safety, along with whether they knew where the nearest extinguisher was located and their level of confidence of knowing the location. Following these questions, participants were asked to physically locate the nearest extinguisher. Participants were also asked whether they had noticed the extinguisher’s location before the test and if they were surprised about their knowledge of the location.

The results of the study demonstrate important notions about fire safety in emergencies. Of the 54 participants, only 13 of them were able to accurately locate the nearest fire extinguisher. A total of 8 of these participants were able to locate a fire extinguisher in general. These participants located an extinguisher that was not the closest one to their location. 92 percent of participants were able to locate a fire extinguisher when asked to go and physically find one. While this study focuses more so on the psychological concepts of inattentional blindness and memory, its results relate more broadly to fire safety education and training, within the bounds of deblackboxing the fire extinguisher. In this circumstance, individuals were asked to locate a fire extinguisher in an experimental setting. Participants were not set in a fire emergency situation, where the pressure of finding a fire extinguisher is more important. The remaining 41 participants in this study who were unable to locate the nearest fire extinguisher highlight a significant problem in terms of fire safety. If the majority of participants were unaware of the nearest extinguisher, their safety in an actual emergency is at an extremely high risk.

Castel et. al’s work provides another reason for implementing fire safety training into larger social systems. Individuals need to become more aware of where the nearest extinguishers are in their lives in a greater attempt to protect themselves from danger in fire emergencies.

If you require Fire Extinguisher Training for your workplace, contact ALL Ready SAFE to arrange a suitable date and time. Make sure you know the locations of your fire safety equipment!