Crowd Dynamics Ltd - Evacuation Strategies

Evacuation Strategies

(updated 31st August 2007)

Keywords: simulating people, simulating crowds, simulating crowd dynamics, workshops

National Homeland Security Knowledgebase

Planning an evacuation strategy from complex spaces (major financial districts, one of our flagship projects was Canary Wharf - UK) is a formidable problem when the threat may be "unknown". As global terrorism escalates we have been developing workshops and training programmes, information systems and location technology with our partners around the world. At present we are working with police and local authorities to evaluate a wide range of tools/techniques and methodologies for planning coherent multi-building evacuation strategies.

We are currently advising on large scale (mass) evacuations for cities around the UK and USA.

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Multi-Site Evacuation tools developed by Crowd Dynamics and deployed at the UK Financial District in Canary Wharf.

Co-ordinates the multi-site evacuation strategy.

"Canary Wharf is one of Europe's most vibrant, dynamic business districts and prides itself on the quality of environment and service available to its tenants. CWG contacted Crowd Dynamics to assist us in evaluating our public areas for crowd control in a wide range of situations. Crowd Dynamics has an international reputation for developing mathematical models and solutions for various public events. In this case, we wanted a tool to provide a common basis for occupants of the Canary Wharf estate to develop compatible responses to various security and safety related incidents. While the Canary Wharf estate currently has 60,000 staff employed in the development, a robust tool capable of dealing with crowds over 100,000 has been developed in conjunction with our major business tenants. We believe this innovative approach is another first for Canary Wharf and Crowd Dynamics." Anthony Partington (Canary Wharf Managing Director - March 2004)

Why do you need an evacuation strategy - the following news items highlight that this is NOT just in response to the growing terrorist threat.

Hollywood stars flee London hotel fire.

Thu 16 Dec, 2004 18:16:17 GMT

LONDON (Reuters) - Hollywood actor Jim Carrey, in London to promote his latest movie "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events", has been forced to flee his hotel after a fire broke out. The film, in which Carrey plays the menacing Count Olaf, centres around three children whose parents are killed in a house fire. "The movie's all about fire and disaster and so I get up for the (press) junket today and suddenly my house is burning down, and I'm on the balcony like a damsel screaming with a very high pitched voice," Carrey told Reuters Television on Thursday. "No one rescued me, no one came, I had to find my own way out." Despite the drama at London's plush Claridge's Hotel, Carrey was upbeat. "I think it's a very good sign." He was not the only film star affected by the fire, which broke out in the kitchen of a hotel restaurant. Brad Pitt and Matt Damon had to cancel a press conference in the same building to promote their new blockbuster "Ocean's Twelve".

Industrial solvent triggers US Capitol scare

The US Capitol building in Washington has been evacuated after a sensor detected a possible biohazard in the basement of the building's Senate wing, but the problem turned out to be an industrial solvent. The building was nearly empty at the time as Congress is in holiday recess. Capitol Police spokeswoman Jessica Gissebel said field tests came up negative for harmful materials. Samples were being sent to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore for further analysis. The building was cleared for reoccupation after hazardous-material teams completed their work.

04/01/2004 06:18

Station evacuated in hunt for gunman

(Aol News 30th Dec 2003)

York Railway Station was evacuated and sealed off after a reported sighting of Nathan Wayne Coleman - the prime suspect in the hunt for the murder of a traffic policeman who died on Boxing Day. Pc Ian Broadhurst was shot and a colleague was injured while on duty in Leeds. A North Yorkshire police spokesman said all trains at the station were stopped and the station, which was later reopended, was earlier evacuated. Eyewitnesses at the scene said armed police officers have been deployed as hundreds of passengers wait behind cordons outside the concourse.

Coleman, 37, the man police urgently want to talk to about the killing of Pc Ian Broadhurst in Leeds, has been spotted in Bradford city centre and in Brighouse town centre. Detective Superintendent Chris Gregg, who is leading a team of 50 officers in the investigation, said he had also heard from a taxi driver who took nightclub doorman Coleman to Bradford within hours of the shooting. The detective told a press conference in Leeds: "We are satisfied that these sightings are him. We are confident he has been here in West Yorkshire very recently." Mr Gregg also revealed officers involved in the inquiry had raided a self-storage unit in Leeds after a tip-off and found a quantity of home-made bullets as well as machinery for making ammunition. He said forensic inquiries were under way to see if there was any link between the rounds recovered and those used in the Boxing Day shootings. Married Pc Broadhurst, 34, from Cookridge, Leeds, died after he was shot by a man who had been sitting in the back of his police car in Dib Lane, Leeds.

Wed, 25th October 2006 Cities 'unprepared for disaster'

None of the UK's major cities is fully ready to deal with a major disaster or a terrorist attack on the scale of the 7 July bombings, a survey has claimed. The Reader's Digest looked at emergency planning in 10 cities and concluded that Liverpool was the least-prepared. The city was given a "readiness score" of 55% - its ambulance response times and police force being criticised. Birmingham was found to be the most ready (79%), with London on 70% and Leeds, Manchester and Bradford on 61%. Edinburgh, Glasgow, Sheffield and Cardiff each received a readiness score of 58%. Inadequate information Katherine Walker, of Readers Digest, said things had improved since the 7 July London bombings, but several cities would struggle to cope in the aftermath of a disaster. "Not one of the 10 provides adequate information on evacuation for the elderly and disabled, who are uniquely vulnerable in any crisis," she said. The survey used 11 indicators to assess how prepared the cities were to deal with a major natural disaster, terrorist attack, industrial accident or pandemic. It found that emergency planning in all the cities fell down in at least one respect. 'Crude and simplistic' Liverpool came in for particular criticism, with the survey saying communications systems used by emergency services in the city were incompatible. As a result, the report's authors claimed police, firefighters and paramedics would struggle to talk to one another in a crisis. And they said Liverpool's emergency evacuation plan was not clearly explained on the city's website. But the Merseyside authorities rejected the survey's findings, labelling them "superficial and inaccurate". In a statement, the Merseyside emergency services said: "Emergency planning is much broader than the crude and over-simplistic measurements contained in this report." The survey "in no way reflects the ability of a multi-agency response to deal with a disaster or large-scale emergency", the statement said. Birmingham scored top marks in five of the 11 indicators. London - identified as the UK's number one terrorist target - scored poorly on police capacity to cope with 999 calls and a shortage of acute hospital beds.

London bombing plot foiled

LONDON, June 29: Police defused a car bomb packed with petrol, gas and nails in London’s busy theatre district on Friday, foiling an attack that could have killed many people and which echoed a previous Al Qaeda plot, police said.

Police also sealed off two more central London streets — Park Lane and Fleet Street — as they investigated other suspicious vehicles. The bomb was found in a green Mercedes parked outside a night club shortly after 1am, when hundreds of people were packed in the busy night-life district 1km from the prime minister’s Downing Street residence. The police, alerted by ambulance workers who thought they saw smoke inside the car, defused the bomb, which Sky News said was rigged to detonate with a mobile-phone-triggered device.

Authorities said they did not know who left the bomb but they had begun a counter-terrorism investigation.

“It is obvious that if the device had detonated there could have been significant injury or loss of life,” said Peter Clarke, the head of London’s anti-terrorist police.

He said there were similarities between Friday’s incident and an earlier plot, uncovered in 2004, in which an Al Qaeda militant planned to detonate gas-fuelled bombs inside limousines in London, among other targets. It might also have echoes of another recent plot to attack targets including a high-profile nightclub, Clarke said. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, facing a major challenge two days after succeeding Tony Blair, convened Britain’s top security committee, Cobra. —Reuters

BBC: Blazing car crashes into airport ( Glasgow Scotland--Deliberate attack )
Saturday, 30 June 2007, 16:55 GMT 17:55 UK | BBC Staff
Posted on 06/30/2007 10:04:30 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach

A car on fire has been driven at the main terminal building at Glasgow Airport, police have confirmed.

Eyewitnesses have described a Jeep Cherokee being driven at speed towards the building with flames coming out from underneath. They have also described seeing two Asian men, one of whom was on fire, who had been in the car. Strathclyde Police said two people had been arrested and detained in connection with the incident.

The airport has been evacuated and all flights suspended following the incident at 1515 BST. A Whitehall spokesman said the incident was not being treated as a national security threat. One eyewitness said: "I heard the sound of a car's wheels spinning and smoke coming out. "I saw a Jeep Cherokee apparently as if it was trying to get right through the doors into the terminal building.

"There were flames coming out from underneath then some men appeared from in amongst the flames.

"The police ran over and the people started fighting with the police. I then heard what sounded like an explosion."

Molotov cocktails

Eye-witness Richard Grey told BBC News 24: "A green Jeep was in the middle of the doorway burning. "There was an Asian guy who was pulled out of the car by two police officers, who he was trying to fight off. They've got him on the ground.

"The car didn't actually explode. There were a few pops and bangs which presumably was the petrol."

Stephen Clarkson said he saw people running towards him and "panicking" then noticed a crashed Cherokee jeep.

He said he helped police restrain one of the men.

"It was lucky that I was there," he said.

"I managed to knock the man to the ground with my forearm and the police got on top of him and restrained him and put handcuffs on him."

Thomas Conroy, a maintenance worker at the airport believes the men deliberately tried to set the car on fire.

"It looked like they had molotov cocktails with them," he said.

"They sort of burst them round about the flames to make sure the car would go up big style.

"Within minutes it was up and the terminal caught as well."

'No accident'

Dr Rak Nandwani was at the airport building to pick up relatives when he saw a plume of black smoke. He said: "The whole place has come to a standstill, the terminal building has been evacuated. I have spoken to my relatives and they have been moved to outside the building.

"They were told they could not pick their baggage up from the baggage collection area.

"There must be about 50 police cars at the airport. Me and my son, along with everyone else, have been moved to the car rental area."

Taxi driver Ian Crosby said: "This was no accident. This was a deliberate attack on Glasgow Airport."

The reaction of members of the public was not to help the men in the car, but to restrain them, he told the BBC. Mr Crosby, who said he served in Northern Ireland, told how he shepherded people away from the scene in case of a secondary explosion or a nail-bomb. Two men, one of whom was reported to be badly burned, were seen being led away in handcuffs. A number of people are stuck on aeroplanes while others have been told they might not be able to leave the airport complex until at least 2100 BST.