Can you apply the Cellular Automata function to a grid containing numbers?

Im attempting to simulate a simple evacuation model using cellular automata theory.My study aims to determine whether Cellular Automata can effectively represent how people would behave in a fire situation.

I have a grid filled with values that represents the floor plan of a building (see below) and I wish to write rules that will dictate the occupants movement when evacuating. The corridor is supposed to be the safe area although I may have to adjust it slightly so that just the end corridors are the safe area. I am looking to model a fire evacuation, so each cell will contain one person. I was going to assign the value of 0 to cells that contain fire, injured people or debris (obstacles). when designing the simulation by hand I used rules such as if the product of the 2 neighbouring cells was less than 20 the person could move to the next cell, if the product was 20 the cell remained the same and if the product was 0 (when cells meet fire, obstacles etc) then the cell dies and becomes 0 itself. It worked well but obviously I need to now apply a system similar into Mathematica. I have been looking at using 2 options to do this:

1. use the built in cellular automata function


2. write my own cell states as functions and use an update function to update the system.

Any suggestions which one would be better to use?

Below is the grid I have set up, the values 500 represent walls, 1 represents the doorways and evacuation route, the other numbers 2-7 represent the distance from the nearest exit.

{
 {500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500},
 {500, 1, 1, 500, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 7, 500, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 500, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 500, 1, 1, 500},
 {500, 1, 1, 500, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 500, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 6, 500, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 500, 1, 1, 500},
 {500, 1, 1, 500, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 500, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 500, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 500, 1, 1, 500},

 {500, 1, 1, 500, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 500, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 500, 3, 2, 2, 2, 3, 500, 1, 1, 500},
 {500, 1, 1, 500, 500, 500, 1, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 1, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 1, 500, 500, 500, 1, 1, 500},
 {500, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 500},
 {500, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 500},
 {500, 1, 1, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 1, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 1, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 1, 500, 500, 500, 1, 1, 500},
 {500, 1, 1, 500, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 500, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 500, 3, 2, 2, 2, 3, 500, 1, 1, 500},
 {500, 1, 1, 500, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 500, 6, 5, 4, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 500, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 500, 1, 1, 500},
 {500, 1, 1, 500, 7, 6, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 500, 6, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 500, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 500, 1, 1, 500},
 {500, 1, 1, 500, 7, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 500, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 500, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 500, 1, 1, 500},
 {500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500, 500}

}