This second edition of Fires and Human Behaviour was originally published in 1990 and since the first edition in 1980 there continued to be considerable loss of life in small and large fires throughout the world. The most significant of these from a behavioural point of view was the Kings Cross underground station in 1988. This was a relatively small fire caused by inappropriate human actions.

What appeared to remain timeless and of value ten years after the first edition was published were the details of what actually happens in fires and the psychological models that emerged from studying those details. This second edition was therefore edited to keep the original detailed case studies and to add information about some major incidents that had occurred since 1980.