Response Phase Behaviours and Response Time Predictors of the 9/11 World Trade Center Evacuation

The evacuation of the World Trade Center (WTC) Twin Towers on 9/11 is one of the largest full scale high-rise emergency evacuations to date and provides an opportunity to learn from survivor experiences. Here, quantitative and qualitative data extracted from the UK WTC High-rise Evacuation Evaluation Database (HEED) study were used to: (i) calculate more fine-grained response times useful for evacuation modelling; (ii) investigate Response Phase behaviours; and (iii) see which of these behaviours and other factors predicted the response times. Analyses revealed that the majority of participants’ response times were within 0 min to 1 min of WTC1 being hit (rapid responders) and 1 min to 4 min (moderate responders). Logistic regression indicated that rapid responders were more likely to be participants in WTC2 than participants in WTC1, the tower that was currently under attack. Higher perceived risk and undertaking fewer if any tasks prior to evacuation also significantly predicted rapid response times. Conversely, response times beyond 1 min from WTC1 impact were significantly predicted only by increased numbers of Information Tasks being undertaken prior to evacuation. These tasks appeared to be undertaken more frequently prior to evacuation than were Action Tasks.

[1]  K. Krippendorff.  Krippendorff, Klaus, Content Analysis: An Introduction to its Methodology . Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1980. , 1980 .

[2]  David V. Canter,et al.  Fires and human behaviour , 1980 .

[3]  J. Yuille,et al.  A case study of eyewitness memory of a crime. , 1986, The Journal of applied psychology.

[4]  Elizabeth F. Loftus,et al.  Time went by so slowly: Overestimation of event duration by males and females , 1987 .

[5]  P. Slovic.  Perception of risk. , 1987, Science.

[6]  R. Fisher,et al.  Field test of the Cognitive Interview: enhancing the recollection of actual victims and witnesses of crime. , 1989, The Journal of applied psychology.

[7]  G. Proulx,et al.  To Prevent 'Panic' In An Underground Emergency: Why Not Tell People The Truth? , 1991 .

[8]  R. Fisher,et al.  Memory-Enhancing Techniques for Investigative Interviewing: The Cognitive Interview , 1992 .

[9]  Daniel Reisberg,et al.  Remembering emotional events , 1992, Memory & cognition.

[10]  Joelle Pineau,et al.  Differences in the Evacuation Behaviour of Office and Apartment Building Occupants , 1996 .

[11]  L. F. Barrett.  The Relationships among Momentary Emotion Experiences, Personality Descriptions, and Retrospective Ratings of Emotion , 1997 .

[12]  R. Bull,et al.  The cognitive interview: A meta-analysis , 1999 .

[13]  Karen Boyce,et al.  A study of evacuation from large retail stores , 2000 .

[14]  Michael D. Robinson,et al.  Belief and feeling: evidence for an accessibility model of emotional self-report. , 2002, Psychological bulletin.

[15]  S. Gwynne,et al.  The Collection and Analysis of Pre-evacuation Times Derived from Evacuation Trials and Their Application to Evacuation Modelling , 2003 .

[16]  Nicolas Franck,et al.  Being the agent: Memory for action events , 2003, Consciousness and Cognition.

[17]  S. Blake.  AN ANALYSIS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR DURING THE WTC DISASTER OF 11 SEPTEMBER 2001 BASED ON PUBLISHED SURVIVOR ACCOUNTS , 2004 .

[18]  J. Dwyer,et al.  102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers , 2005 .

[19]  Jason D. Averill,et al.  Occupant behavior, egress, and emergency communications , 2005 .

[20]  Harold E. Nelson,et al.  Occupant Behavior, Egress, and Emergency Communication. Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster (NIST NCSTAR 1-7) | NIST , 2005 .

[21]  Edwin R. Galea,et al.  Methodologies employed in the collection, retrieval and storage of human factors information derived from first hand accounts of survivors of the WTC disaster of 11 September 2001 , 2006 .

[22]  Robyn R M Gershon,et al.  Factors Associated with High-Rise Evacuation: Qualitative Results from the World Trade Center Evacuation Study , 2007, Prehospital and Disaster Medicine.

[23]  S. Gwynne,et al.  Collection and Analysis of Pre-evacuation Time Data Collected from Evacuation Trials Conducted in Library Facilities in Brazil , 2007 .

[24]  R. Cabeza,et al.  Role of amygdala connectivity in the persistence of emotional memories over time: an event-related FMRI investigation. , 2008, Cerebral cortex.

[25]  Dennis S. Mileti,et al.  Modeling Pre-Evacuation Delay by Occupants in World Trade Center Towers 1 and 2 on September 11, 2001 , 2009 .

[26]  Edwin R. Galea,et al.  The UK 9/11 evacuation study: Analysis of survivors’ recognition and response phase in WTC1 , 2010 .

[27]  Edwin R. Galea,et al.  Investigating the impact of culture on evacuation behaviour , 2010 .

[28]  Edwin R. Galea,et al.  Investigating the Impact of Culture on Evacuation Behavior - A Turkish Data-Set , 2011 .

[29]  Robyn R. M. Gershon,et al.  Modeling pre-evacuation delay by evacuees in World Trade Center Towers 1 and 2 on September 11, 2001 , 2011 .

[30]  Edwin R. Galea,et al.  The UK WTC 9/11 evacuation study: an overview of findings derived from first‐hand interview data and computer modelling , 2012 .