An analysis of human behaviour during the WTC disaster of 9/11 based on published survivor accounts

This paper presents an analysis of survivor experiences from the World Trade Centre (WTC) evacuation of 11 September 2001. The experiences were collected from published accounts appearing in the print and electronic mass media and are stored in a relational database specifically developed for this purpose.

The 2001 World Trade Centre evacuation

The WTC evacuation of 11 September 2001 provides an unrepeatable opportunity to probe into and understand the very nature of evacuation dynamics and with this improved understanding, contribute to the design of safer, more evacuation efficient, yet highly functional, high rise buildings. Following 9/11 the Fire Safety Engineering Group (FSEG) of the University of Greenwich embarked on a study of survivor experiences from the WTC Twin Towers evacuation. The experiences were collected from published accounts appearing in the print and electronic mass media and are stored in a relational data base specifically developed for this purpose. Using these accounts and other available sources of information FSEG also undertook a series of numerical simulations of the WTC North Tower. This paper represents an overview of the results from both studies.