Emergency Response Operations. Appendices A-I. Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster.
Emergency Response Operations. Appendices A-I. Federal
Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World
Trade Center Disaster.
(17651 K)
Lawson, J. R.; Vettori, R. L.
NIST NCSTAR 1-8; 272 p. September 2005.
Keywords:
World Trade Center; high rise buildings; building
collapse; disasters; fire safety; fire investigations;
emergency responders; medical services; emergencies;
evacuation; fire fighters; fire fighting; rescue;
communication networks; planning; elevators (lifts);
regulations; office buildings; training
Abstract:
The September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center
(WTC) caused the deaths of 2,749 people. Included in the
group were approximately 421 emergency responders from
The Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), The
New York City Police Department (NYPD), the Port
Authority Police Department (PAPD), The Port Authority
of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), from WTC security
firms, and volunteer emergency responders who were in
the WTC area of the city when the attack occurred. This
report addresses the operations of these emergency
responders, the technologies used during WTC operations,
and the guidelines and practices that governed these
operations. The objectives of this study were to 1)
fully document what happened during the response by the
emergency services to the attacks on the WTC, up to the
time of collapse of WTC 7; (2) identify issues that need
to be addressed in changes to practice, standards, and
codes; (3) identify alternative practices and/or
technologies that may address these issues; and (4)
identify R&D needs that advance the safety of the fire
service in responding to massive fires in tall
buildings. The approach taken was to conduct a
comprehensive search for data September 11, 2001,
analyze the data, and report on the findings. Data
gathering included the collection of written documents,
electronic recordings, visual data (both photographs and
video), and first-person accounts of what happened
during WTC operations. Results from the emergency
responders were faced with the greatest disaster of the
last 100 years in the United States. The emergency
responders had one common focus: to save as many victims
of this attack as possible. During the response,
emergency responders had to function under war-like
conditions as they carried out their rescue and
evacuation efforts. Emergency responders operated with
equipment, human endurance, and emergency response
practices that were stretched well beyond normal limits.
This report discusses how the emergency response
activities and equipment were challenged. The emergency
responders paid a heavy price in the loss of hundreds of
their own lives when the WTC buildings collapsed. This
study focused on the following topics: emergency
responder dispatch and response to the WTC; emergency
responder access to the WTC site and towers; command and
control associated with the emergency response;
communications during operations and the of
communications in tall buildings; fire fighting in
high-rise buildings and the evacuation from the WTC
towers; emergency responder situational awareness and
the physiological impact of conducting operations in
tall buildings.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899