The introduction of New Zealand’s performance-based building code in 1991 has increased emphasis on understanding and responding to human behaviour in the design and management of buildings. Few other aspects of fire engineering incorporate as many complex influences as human behaviour, and few fire engineering issues have received more scrutiny by practitioners from different but related disciplines in recent years.

These pages attempt to summarise key findings of recent research on this important and diverse subject as an aid to building designers, building owners, evacuation planners and others for whom an understanding of human behaviour in fire situations is important. The information provided in this section hopes to promote an understanding of fire-related human behaviour that will prove useful in mitigating the human costs and consequences of fire. We hope these insights will aid users in developing evacuation schemes, training staff and managing their organisation's fire risk exposures.