Modeling pre-evacuation delay by occupants in World Trade Center Towers 1 and 2 on September 11, 2001

On September 11, 2001, two airplanes hit World Trade Center (WTC) 1 and 2 sixteen minutes apart, which forced one of the largest evacuations from high-rise buildings in US history. Path analysis is used to analyze telephone data obtained from WTC survivors to empirically determine if the theories from community evacuation hold true for building fires. Results show that community evacuation theories do hold true for building fires; specifically in WTC 1 and 2. In general, longer pre-evacuation times were predicted by witnessing a higher number of environmental cues, being on a lower floor in the building, obtaining more information, seeking additional information, and performing a higher number of pre-evacuation actions. A deeper understanding of human behavior in fire events can be gained by using path analysis techniques, which can ultimately improve evacuation education, training, and procedures for high-rise buildings across the world as well as future evacuation prediction techniques.