Security Perceived as Most Important Building Feature, According to Survey
April 2009
Building security topped a list of characteristics as Americans’ most important feature in public buildings, according to a nationwide survey conducted by the Society for Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE). The list included comfort, fire safety, environmental friendliness and other amenities.
The survey revealed 28 percent of Americans feel security is the most
important feature, while 12 percent of respondents indicated that fire safety is the most important aspect of a building’s design. Americans also ranked comfort and amenities higher than fire safety.
The results are similar to SFPE’s 2006 survey, in which the same question was asked.
The survey also revealed that when compared to natural disasters, 45 percent believe
fire is the event that will most likely cause harm to them or their family. Included in this list were lighting strikes, hurricanes, earthquakes and floods.
These findings support statistics that show people are more likely to be harmed by fire when compared to natural disasters. Although natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes are covered widely in the national news media, many more people die each year as a result of fire.
Another finding reveals that over 58 percent of those surveyed worry about the dangers of fire less than once a year. At the same time, wealthy Americans think about the risk of fire less frequently than those with lower incomes.
The survey commissioned by the Society for Fire Protection Engineers and conducted in February 2009 by Synovate, polled more than one thousand American adults.
