
Analysis of published accounts relating to the evacuation
of the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001
Following the WTC disaster, the
Building Disaster Assessment Group (BDAG) of
the UK Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, funded the Fire Safety Engineering
Group (FSEG) of the University of Greenwich to gather, collate, categorise,
electronically store and finally analyse data concerning human behaviour during
the WTC evacuation.
Two types of material were collected and analysed, the results for which are
presented in two separate reports.
REPORT 1: Collection and
Analysis of Human Behaviour Data appearing in the mass media relating to the
evacuation of The World Trade Centre Towers of 11 September 2001.
REPORT 2: Collection and Analysis of
Emergency Services Data Relating to the Evacuation of the World Trade Centre
Towers of 11 September 2001.
REPORT 1 Overview: Evacuation accounts were gathered from the literature published in the public
domain. Material sources ranged from survivor accounts printed in newspapers and
newspaper web sites, interviews in the electronic media, survivor web sites and
books. Over 250 separate accounts were gathered that described occupant
behaviour. Information appearing in print newspapers represents 70% of the
accounts while information from websites (news and personal) represents 16% of
the accounts. The remainder of the accounts have appeared in books, journals and
the electronic media. These accounts provided information concerning 120 people
from WTC1 (north tower or WTC1) and 119 from WTC2 (south tower or WTC2) and 21
of unknown origin.
The collected accounts were entered into a specially developed database. The
database itself was designed to be a flexible qualitative research tool enabling
the categorisation of occupants’ experiences during the data input process. As
part of the data entry, the entire verbatim data account was stored. In
addition, each individual experience described within the account were stored
and assigned specific behavioural references. This is similar to traditional
qualitative analysis tools that allow users to categorise portions of textual
accounts during the input process. The database contains reference to a total of
3291 experiences from 260 people (1869 accounts from WTC1, 1411 from WTC2 and 11
from unknown locations).
In reviewing the findings of this report, it must be remembered that the data on
which the analysis is based was not collected in a scientific manner but from
accounts in the public domain, primarily press accounts. As such it is difficult
to generalise many of the findings. However, as much of the data was reported
days after the incident, it provides a unique and insightful glimpse into the
human response to such emergencies. The key findings of this research may be
found in Report 1. The results are presented under the following headings:
- OCCUPANT PRE-EVACUATON TIMES:
Of the 115 people who provided information on which a pre-evacuation time
could be estimated, 60% responded within an estimated 5 minutes of the assault
on WTC1 and some 13% took longer than an estimated 17 minutes to respond.
Occupants in WTC2 responded quicker to the assault than occupants in WTC1 - the
first tower to be attacked. This occurred in WTC2 despite instructions issued
over the PA system in WTC2 instructing occupants that there was no need to
evacuate WTC2.
- OCCUPANT PRE-EVACUATION ACTIONS:
(i) State of mind. (ii) Nature of pre-evacuation actions. (iii) Knowledge of the event: (iv) Usage of telephones: (v) Collecting Items:
(i) Flow conditions within the towers (ii) Obstructions to flow (iii) Usage of elevators as a means of evacuation in WTC2 (iv) Group Behaviour (v) Stair Travel Speeds (vi) Fire Wardens (vii) Fatigue
This study has provided insight into the response of people subjected to extreme
emergency conditions in high rise buildings. The information is useful in its
own right in understanding how the evacuation of the World Trade Centre Towers
evolved on 11 September 2001. More significantly, the insight gained will be
useful in shaping our building codes and devising emergency procedures for
evacuation. Furthermore, the information collected will be invaluable in
assisting the development of behaviour models that are key components of
evacuation models used in performance based building design and in providing
data for model scenario specification.
The data collected and analysed in this study will be used as the starting point
for a much larger project into the evacuation of the WTC. The project, called
HEED – High-rise Evacuation Evaluation Database – funded by the UK EPSRC
(project GR/S74201/01) and involving the Universities of Greenwich, Ulster and
Liverpool, aims to interview 2000 survivors of the WTC twin towers evacuation.
Download Report 1: PDF 1.86 MB
REPORT 2 Overview: Towards the end of 2003, FSEG obtained six PDF documents comprising
approximately 5,000 pages of data relating to the WTC evacuation. This
information consisted of:
- Four PDF documents of telephone and radio calls and conversations which
occurred on the 11 September 2001 between New York and New Jersey Police
agencies and callers.
- Two PDF documents comprised letters of commendation for individual Police
Officers and an account of the incident by the Officer concerned.
BDAG requested that FSEG should enter this information into the database and
analyse the information. The report focuses on the effectiveness of the
emergency response and attempts to identify issues which might help future
planning. The key findings of this research may be found in Report 2. The
results are presented under the following headings:
(i) Recognition of the situation (ii) Police logistical and tactical response (iii) Evacuation of tower concourses (iv) Police ascent of towers (v) Emergency Equipment (vi) Command Posts
(vii) Communications (viii) Decision to evacuate the towers (ix) Trapped occupants (x) Locked exit routes (xi) Telephone calls by and to the Police
This study has provided insight into the response of the rescue services
operating under extreme emergency conditions in high rise buildings. The
information is useful in its own right in understanding how the emergency
services responded to the World Trade Centre disaster of 11 September 2001. More
significantly, the insight gained will be useful in shaping our emergency
procedures for evacuation.
Download Report 2: PDF
355 KB
Reference: Collection and Analysis of Human Behaviour Data appearing in the mass media
relating to the evacuation of the World Trade Centre Towers of 11 September
2001, Galea E.R and Blake S., University of Greenwich Fire Safety Engineering
Group. A report prepared for the Building Disaster Assessment Group of the UK
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. 30/07/04.
Collection and Analysis of Emergency Services data relating to the evacuation of
the World Trade Centre Towers of 11 September 2001, Galea E.R and Dixon A.,
University of Greenwich Fire Safety Engineering Group. A report prepared for the
Building Disaster Assessment Group of the UK Office of the Deputy Prime
Minister. 31/07/04.
See publications #162, 95
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