NIST NCSTAR 1-7 (Draft) Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster Occupant Behavior, Egress, and Emergency Communications (Draft) Jason D. Averill Dennis S. Mileti Richard D. Peacock Erica D. Kuligowski Norman Groner Guylene Proulx Paul A. Reneke Harold E. Nelson For Public Comment NIST NCSTAR 1-7 (Draft) For Public Comment Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster Occupant Behavior, Egress, and Emergency Communications (Draft) 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 Phillip J. Bond, Under Secretary for Technology National Institute of Standards and Technology Hratch G. Semerjian, Acting 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 (Draft) Natl. Inst. Stand. Technol. Natl. Constr. Sfty. Tm. Act Rpt. 1-7 (Draft), 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 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of a number of people, without whom, this project would not have been successful. Robyn Gershon, Erin Hogan, and Stephen Morse, Columbia University; Nora Marshall and others from the National Transportation Safety Board; Henry Quarantelli, and Benigno Aguirre from the Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware; Linda Bourque – University of California – Los Angeles; Richard Mendelson, Occupational Safety and Health Administration; Jake Pauls; and Edwina Juillet all provided professional insight into issues, procedures, and pitfalls of conducting research involving human behavior in disasters. Rita Fahy, National Fire Protection Association analyzed media accounts of the September 11, 2001, attacks and provided the EXIT89 model and support in its use. Jay Cohen and George Duke, employees of the Corporation Counsel of the City of New York, provided access to emergency communications and 9-1-1 records that provided details of the experiences and conditions above the floors of impact in the WTC towers. Frank Lombardi, Saroj Bhol, and Nancy Seliga, PANYNJ provided access to numerous Port Authority records on the World Trade Center egress system and building procedures and facilitated access to Port Authority personnel with extensive knowledge of the building operation and the events of September 11, 2001. Patti Adler, Julie Gailus, Janet Jacobs, and Lori Peek – University of Colorado - Boulder; Martha van Haitsma and Virginia Bartot – University of Chicago provided guidance on the analysis of qualitative interview data. Peter Thompson, Integrated Environmental Solutions, Inc.; Ed Galea and Steven Gwynne, University of Greenwich – UK; and Jeremy Fraser-Mitchell, BRE – FRS, UK provided support and suggestions on appropriate techniques for modeling evacuation in high-rise structures. Finally, National Institute of Standards and Technology would like to gratefully acknowledge the more than 1,000 survivors and families of victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks that generously agreed to be interviewed about their difficult and often tragic experiences on September 11, 2001. Their detailed accounts provide a continuing memory of the attacks and the victims of September 11, 2001. NIST NCSTAR 1-7, WTC Investigation iii Acknowledgments Draft for Public Comment This page intentionally left blank. iv NIST NCSTAR 1-7, WTC Investigation 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 v Abstract Draft for Public Comment This page intentionally left blank vi NIST NCSTAR 1-7, WTC Investigation TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments........................................................................................................................................iii Abstract......................................................................................................................................................... v List of Figures.............................................................................................................................................. xi List of Tables .............................................................................................................................................xiii List of Acronyms and Abbreviations.........................................................................................................