Fires are states of emergencies in which people need help. Smoke spreads at a speed of up to 10m/s. 95% of fire victims suffer from smoke poisoning, because they don’t make it to leave the building on time. This means that the biggest problem during a fire is the smoke and not the fire itself. How does smoke usually develop and how does this affect escape route luminaires?
The smoke rises and conglomerates on the ceiling. General lighting and emergency lighting disappears very fast behind the dense blanket of smoke. The direction arrows on the escape signs are barely or no longer visible. On the ground, on the other hand, only little smoke accumulates.
While high mounted escape signs are covered by smoke, safety routing systems near the ground offer additional, clearly visible orientation. In addition escape sign luminaires with integrated flash function make it easier to find the escape routes in case of heavy smoke or very bright surrounding during evacuation.
Empirical investigations in our in-house laboratory have clearly shown, that emergency exits are better visible and can be found more quickly thanks to an adaptive flash function in the escape sign luminaires.
