Citation

Thielsch MT, Kirsch J, Thölking H, Tangelder L, Lamers C. Ergonomics 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/00140139.2020.1825824

PMID

32966161

Abstract

Within minutes, an incipient fire can develop into a life-threatening full fire. Consequently, it should be fought as early as possible. But are laypersons capable of doing this? In such a situation, how do they behave and feel? These questions are addressed in the current study. Persons without any professional firefighting training (N = 64) were confronted in two experimental runs with a real incipient fire in the form of a burning pillow. The results show that most participants were motivated and able to extinguish the fire successfully. However, most of them made a number of mistakes. Of central importance for extinguishing the fire was self-efficacy. Furthermore, participants improved enormously in the second round, especially regarding reaction time span and various psychological variables (e.g., stress, mood). Particularly on the basis of these exercise effects, we can derive a number of practical implications.

Practitioner summary: Laypersons are willing and able to successfully fight an incipient fire. Yet, their behaviour is not optimal and could lead to self-endangerment. Thus, it is critically important that people perform practical exercises as part of fire safety trainings and repeat them after some time.

Language: en

Keywords

attitudes; self-efficacy; firefighting; laypeople; training effects