How some of WTC's 2,749 lost might have been saved
The collapse of the World Trade Center shows the United States should update fire standards for skyscrapers and develop new materials that can better protect tall buildings in the event of an inferno, investigators announced Thursday.
Engineers with the National Institute of Standards and Technology also urged installation of "fire-protected and structurally hardened elevators to improve emergency response activities in tall buildings."
"Such elevators should be installed for exclusive use by emergency responders during emergencies," NIST said in draft recommendations from its building and fire safety investigation of the twin tower collapse, released at a press briefing in Lower Manhattan.
NIST, a federal agency, does not have the authority to change building codes to institute the changes, but hopes to convince local authorities to change their building codes.
"We believe that the recommendations are realistic and achievable," said Shyam Sunder, who led the NIST investigation.
The three-year probe has gathered reams of data on everything from fire tests on steel to office worker behavior in evacuating, to create an exhaustive sequence of exactly how the towers fell.
Their analysis has not blamed the collapse on the steel or design of the 110-story towers.
NIST engineers have determined the towers probably would have remained standing if the impact of the airplanes had not stripped away fireproofing material on steel columns.
Without that fireproofing, fires continued to burn inside offices, weakening sections of the building's skeleton until it collapsed under its own weight.
The ultimate goal, Sunder said, is to create buildings that can achieve "burnout without collapse" so that a major fire, like the ones in the World Trade Center buildings, don't bring down the entire structure and kill everyone still inside.
The NIST report calls for "the development and evaluation of new fire resistive coating materials, systems and technologies with significantly enhanced performance and durability to provide protection following major events."
Among the 2,749 lives lost at the World Trade Center, some might have been saved with stronger evacuation systems and better communication among rescuers, investigators concluded.
The NIST group also found emergency workers need to change how they coordinate their rescue efforts. On Sept. 11, the fire department located its command centers in the buildings' lobbies, and many personnel died when the towers collapsed.
The investigators said much of the intelligence-gathering and decision-making done onsite should be transmitted outside the building, and even suggested keeping a "black box," like the ones in airplanes, to record critical information for study after a major incident.
To ensure better communication among rescuers, the
group called for development of "real-time offsite secure transmission of
valuable information from fire alarm and other monitored building systems for
use by emergency responders, at any location, to enhance situational awareness
and response decisions and maintain safe and efficient operations."
Originally published on June 23, 2005