Abstract: High building residents' behavioral responses after hearing fire signals and before determining to escape are studied. The virtual interactive residential interior scenes are methodologically constructed. Based on the scenes, participants' behaviors in the period of pre-movement are investigated. The results indicate that, 1) while the fire signals are sent out, few people make an immediate escape in reaction; 2) behaviors of participants living in the higher rises are relatively fewer and the total time spent in pre-movement is shorter than that of those in the lower rises; and 3) the number of floors and risk acceptance exert a significant impact on the total time spent in pre-movement.