Evacuation analysis: Comparison between NFPA 130 and a micro-simulation model

This paper presents an analysis of an emergency evacuation during a train fire in a mass transit station; the station behaviour has been evaluated with two different approaches. On one hand, the exiting calculation approach in NFPA 130 is applied to perform a parametric study. On the other hand, the passengers' evacuation has been analyzed with a micro-simulation model. Both methods give consistent predictions of the exiting times even if they approach the evaluation with different methodology: NFPA 130 provides an assessment of the time required to evacuate with a deterministic model while the micro simulation software takes into account features such as human behaviour and decision making. Moreover, the results demonstrate that the exiting times meet the requirements for a station emergency scenario.