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PUBLICATIONS

Modeling the Evacuation of the World Trade Center Towers on September 11, 2001

Published

Author(s)

Erica D. Kuligowski, Richard D. Peacock, Jason D. Averill

Abstract

This paper provides an analysis of the evacuation of the World Trade Center towers culled from telephone and face-to-face interviews with survivors. A decedent analysis explores where occupants were located when each tower was attacked. Multiple regression models were built to explore the sources of evacuation initiation delay (why people did not immediately start to leave the building), as well as stairwell evacuation time (how long the average occupant spent in the stairwells per floor). Issues identified as contributing to either slowing or aiding the evacuation process were explored.
Citation
Journal of Fire Protection Engineering
Volume
49
Pub Type
Journals

Download Paper

DOI Link

Keywords

building fires, egress, egress modeling, emergency communication, evacuation, human behavior, interviews, World Trade Center
Buildings and Construction, Fire and Fire modeling

Citation

Kuligowski, E. , Peacock, R. and Averill, J. (2013), Modeling the Evacuation of the World Trade Center Towers on September 11, 2001, Journal of Fire Protection Engineering, [online], https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-011-0240-y (Accessed October 7, 2025)

Issues

If you have any questions about this publication or are having problems accessing it, please contact [email protected].

Created January 31, 2013, Updated January 30, 2025
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