Am I safe in here? an assessment of building safety perception of a sample of puerto rican islanders

NFPA and OSHA pose that the majority of the persons are unaware about how to act safely during emergency situations, however much of the people safety correlates to the structure in which they cohabit. This study aimed to assess the perception a group of Puerto Rican regarding the safety measures their building offers to help them survive in case of emergency. An electronic survey was conducted among Puerto Ricans workers and students using snowball sampling technique. 308 participants completed a 33 items original questionnaire containing 10 questions measuring perception of building safety in case of an emergency event. Internal reliability of the scale scored a Crobanch á of .83. Approximately 25% of the participants reported their building had 70% of the safety measures required in the regulations; only 1 in 10 of the participants reported full compliance. Bivariate analysis showed statistically significant differences in compliance perception by gender, geographical areas, educational level of participants (p < .001), but not age. Also moderate to strong correlation was found among that those who had been in an emergency situation, know the emergency preparedness plan, practice it at least once a year, and know the NFPA OHSA regulation (p < .001). Last multiple regression analysis is used to model effective interventions for the population. In conclusion, although perception of compliance is low among participants, results suggest that knowledge and participating in emergency preparedness exercises could help reduce the risk of injury and death due to bad perceptions of building safety.