High-Rise Building Evacuation Post 911 - Addressing the Issues

The 911 evacuation of the WTC was one of the largest high-rise building evacuations of modern times – requiring the evacuation of some 17,400 people. Many consider the evacuation of the twin towers as a success as ‘only’ an estimated 2,092 (12%) building occupants failed to escape. However, studies into the evacuation suggest that there were a number of issues which hampered the evacuation including; wayfinding, many occupants did not know where the emergency stairs were located, evacuation of people with reduced mobility (PRM) and the time required to empty the building had the buildings been fully occupied, predicted evacuation times exceeded 2 hours. Here we describe research undertaken by FSEG following 911 to investigate these issues including; the development of a novel emergency signage system, the use of assist devices to aid PRM and the use of lifts for full-building evacuation.

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