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NIST NCSTAR 1-7 Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster Occupant Behavior, Egress, and Emergency Communications Jason D. Averill Dennis S. Mileti Richard D. Peacock Erica D. Kuligowski Norman Groner Guylene Proulx Paul A. Reneke Harold E. Nelson NIST NCSTAR 1-7 Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster Occupant Behavior, Egress, and Emergency Communications Jason D. Averill Norman Groner Building and Fire Research Laboratory John Jay College National Institute of Standards and Technology Guylene Proulx Dennis S. Mileti National Research Council Canada University of Colorado – Boulder Paul A. Reneke Richard D. Peacock Building and Fire Research Laboratory Erica D. Kuligowski National Institute of Standards and Technology Building and Fire Research Laboratory National Institute of Standards and Technology Harold E. Nelson Consultant September 2005 U.S. Department of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez, Secretary Technology Administration Michelle O’Neill, Acting Under Secretary for Technology National Institute of Standards and Technology William Jeffrey, Director Disclaimer No. 1 Certain commercial entities, equipment, products, or materials are identified in this document in order to describe a procedure or concept adequately or to trace the history of the procedures and practices used. Such identification is not intended to imply recommendation, endorsement, or implication that the entities, products, materials, or equipment are necessarily the best available for the purpose. Nor does such identification imply a finding of fault or negligence by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Disclaimer No. 2 The policy of NIST is to use the International System of Units (metric units) in all publications. In this document, however, units are presented in metric units or the inch-pound system, whichever is prevalent in the discipline. Disclaimer No. 3 Pursuant to section 7 of the National Construction Safety Team Act, the NIST Director has determined that certain evidence received by NIST in the course of this Investigation is “voluntarily provided safety-related information” that is “not directly related to the building failure being investigated” and that “disclosure of that information would inhibit the voluntary provision of that type of information” (15 USC 7306c). In addition, a substantial portion of the evidence collected by NIST in the course of the Investigation has been provided to NIST under nondisclosure agreements. Disclaimer No. 4 NIST takes no position as to whether the design or construction of a WTC building was compliant with any code since, due to the destruction of the WTC buildings, NIST could not verify the actual (or as-built) construction, the properties and condition of the materials used, or changes to the original construction made over the life of the buildings. In addition, NIST could not verify the interpretations of codes used by applicable authorities in determining compliance when implementing building codes. Where an Investigation report states whether a system was designed or installed as required by a code provision, NIST has documentary or anecdotal evidence indicating whether the requirement was met, or NIST has independently conducted tests or analyses indicating whether the requirement was met. Use in Legal Proceedings No part of any report resulting from a NIST investigation into a structural failure or from an investigation under the National Construction Safety Team Act may be used in any suit or action for damages arising out of any matter mentioned in such report (15 USC 281a; as amended by P.L. 107-231). National Institute of Standards and Technology National Construction Safety Team Act Report 1-7 Natl. Inst. Stand. Technol. Natl. Constr. Sfty. Tm. Act Rpt. 1-7, 298 pages (September 2005) CODEN: NSPUE2 U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 2005 _________________________________________ For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov — Phone: (202) 512-1800 — Fax: (202) 512-2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-0001 ABSTRACT This report describes the occupant evacuation of World Trade Center (WTC) 1 and WTC 2 on September 11, 2001. Multiple sources of information were collected and analyzed: over 1,000 new interviews with survivors (including 803 telephone interviews, 225 face-to-face interviews, and 5 focus groups); over 700 published interviews; 9-1-1 emergency calls; transcripts of emergency communications, historical building design drawings, memoranda, and calculations; formal complaints filed with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration; and other relevant materials. The egress system, including stairwells and elevators, was described and compared to requirement of both contemporary and current code requirements. This report documents the emergency procedures, both as they were designed to be implemented, as well as how they were actually implemented on September 11, 2001. The population in WTC 1 and WTC 2 on September 11, 2001, at 8:46:30 a.m. was enumerated and described, where the characteristics of the population were relevant to the subsequent evacuation, including training, experience, mobility status, among others. The progress of the evacuation of both towers was described in a quasi-chronological manner from 8:46:30 a.m. when WTC 1 was attacked, until 10:28:22 a.m., when WTC 1 collapsed. Causal models were built to explore the sources of evacuation initiation delay (why people did not immediately start to leave the building) as well as normalized stairwell evacuation time (how long the average occupant spent in the stairwells per floor). Issues identified as contributing to either speeding or aiding the evacuation process were explored. Egress simulations provided context for estimating how long WTC 1 and WTC 2 would have taken to evacuate with different populations, using different models, and subject to different damage to the building. Keywords: Building fires, egress, egress modeling, emergency communication, evacuation, human behavior, interviews, World Trade Center. NIST NCSTAR 1-7, WTC Investigation iii Abstract This page intentionally left blank iv NIST NCSTAR 1-7, WTC Investigation TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract........................................................................................................................................................iii List of Figures.............................................................................................................................................. ix List of Tables ............................................................................................................................................... xi List of Acronyms and Abbreviations.........................................................................................................xiii Metric Conversion Table ............................................................................................................................ xv Preface ....................................................................................................................................................... xix Acknowledgments.................................................................................................................................... xxix Executive Summary................................................................................................................................. xxix Chapter 1 Background and Introduction....................................................................................................1 1.1 Historical Incidents in Which Egress Was Significant.................................................................. 1 1.2 Previous Fires and Evacuation Incidents in the World Trade Center............................................ 4 1.3 Scope of Occupant Behavior, Egress, and Emergency Communications Project for the NIST World Trade Center Investigation ....................................................................................... 6 1.4 Report Organization ...................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 2 Design of the World Trade Center Egress System .................................................................. 9 2.1 Overall Building Description......................................................................................................... 9 2.1.1 Description of the Towers ............................................................................................. 10 2.2 Building Systems......................................................................................................................... 18 2.2.1 Egress Calculations........................................................................................................ 18 2.2.2 Stairwells ....................................................................................................................... 27 2.2.3 Elevators........................................................................................................................ 32 2.2.4 Emergency Communication System.............................................................................. 35 2.3 The Human Element.................................................................................................................... 37 2.3.1 Responsibilities of the Fire Safety Director..................................................................