Modelling the influence of crowd control railings on the Kiss nightclub evacuation

Abstract

Fires in crowded gathering places such as nightclubs generate imminent risks to people’s lives, as supported by historical facts. Building evacuation is defined as fundamental to prevent the occurrence of a tragedy. In the Kiss nightclub fire, many people could not reach the exit because of the controlling rails positioned in front of exit doors, as pointed-out by firefighters and survivors. This study aimed to evaluate the influence of these barriers in the escaping of Kiss nightclub, using computerassisted simulation. Four simulations were run, considering two types of capacity, each one with and without the rails. As preliminary analyses, the simulations presented a reduction of nearly 50% of the total time for the nightclub evacuation without the rails, confirming the barriers as a factor that considerably increased evacuation time of the nightclub occupants.