This study used an extended version of Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) to identify the variables that influence fire safety preparedness in apartment buildings. PMT was extended to include an individual’s perceived responsibility for fire safety within their building.

A survey of 455 respondents living in apartments in Dublin, Ireland, was undertaken to ascertain the level of fire safety awareness and preparedness among residents. Data analysis included correlations, ordinary least squares regressions and probit analysis.

The findings reveal a worrying lack of preparedness and that fire safety preparedness motivation is complex, sometimes producing counterintuitive results. For example, a high level of worry about a fire increased the probability that a respondent tested their smoke detector(s) by 27.4 pp, yet was associated with a 33.3 pp reduction in the probability that a respondent acted in line with the building evacuation policy. The factors which influenced preparedness motivation also varied depending on the specific safety measure. For instance, assuming a personal responsibility for fire safety in the building was positively associated with perceived preparedness and having an extinguisher or fire blanket. Conversely, no relationship was observed between personal responsibility for fire safety and the presence of household fire plans, appropriate fire alarm response behaviour, or smoke detector testing.

The critical contribution of this study is the identification of factors that act as barriers to, or facilitators of, fire safety in residential apartments. Understanding what drives fire safety can be used to enhance the effectiveness of preparedness messaging to inform public fire safety campaigns.

本研究使用保护动机理论 (PMT) 的扩展版本来确定影响公寓楼消防安全准备的变量。PMT 被扩展为包括个人对其建筑物内消防安全的感知责任。

对居住在爱尔兰都柏林公寓的 455 名受访者进行了一项调查，以确定居民的消防安全意识和准备程度。数据分析包括相关性、普通最小二乘回归和概率分析。

调查结果揭示了令人担忧的准备不足，并且消防安全准备动机很复杂，有时会产生违反直觉的结果。例如，对火灾的高度担忧使受访者测试其烟雾探测器的概率增加了 27.4 个百分点，但与受访者按照建筑物疏散政策行事的概率降低了 33.3 个百分点. 影响准备动机的因素也因具体的安全措施而异。例如，承担建筑物内消防安全的个人责任与感知准备和拥有灭火器或防火毯呈正相关。相反，没有观察到个人对消防安全的责任与家庭防火计划的存在之间的关系，

本研究的关键贡献是确定了阻碍或促进住宅公寓消防安全的因素。了解推动消防安全的因素可用于提高准备信息的有效性，从而为公共消防安全活动提供信息。