Abstract: The personal safety criteria in most of existing performance-based fire design codes and guidelines were investigated for considering their rationality. The criteria for critical smoke layer height, heat, visibility and concentration of toxic gas were included. Results show that the criterion for critical smoke layer height is affected by the building height, therefore compartments such as atrium and warehouse should be considered,that the tolerance of human to convection heat is affected by the humidity, so the increasing in humidity due to water-based fire extinguishment needs to be considered, that the criterion for critical visibility should be established according to the compartment size, as well as the effect of irritant gas in smoke on people, and that before the criterion for toxic gas is established,the acceptable personal safety level should be defined.

Key words: performance-based fire design, personal safety criterion, smoke layer height, heat, visibility, toxic gas