Could The Fall Of The Towers Have Been Prevented

8 Pages 2000 Words

It is a mystery that thousands of people will have to live for the rest of time. No one will ever know exactly how many people did die immediately from the impact of the plane crashes into the Twin Towers. But what happened in, and to, the stairwells will be looked at for quite some time. For the lucky 18 people who escaped from the floors above the crash location in the South Tower, due to a detour in the vertical path of the stairwell was the reason they had a clear escape path.

Contrary to initial reports, experts now know that the common office furnishings and equipment found on those floors also fueled the fires, not just the jet fuel that was consumed in about nine minutes. And with the other five stairwells destroyed and the standpipes severed, hundreds of people trapped on those floors died from the burning interiors and the resultant collapses.

The following picture was taken on September 11, it shows a firefighter ascending the North Tower stairwell.

This picture shows a problem that firefighters and human factors experts have known for decades: that the standard widths of most buildings staircases are inadequate for evacuation and firefighting use.

The current Building Code was enacted by the City of New York Council on October 22, 1968, and approved by the Mayor on November 6, 1968. It became effective on December 6, 1968, superseding the Building Code enacted in 1938. The "New Code" is based largely upon nationally accepted performance standards and specifications for materials and construction assemblies. The present edition available of the Building Code was updated on December 31, 2002.

The following is part of a section of the New York City Building Codes that speaks of means of egress for interior stairs:
§[C26-604.8] 27-375 Interior stairs. - Interior stairs shall comply with the following requirements:
(a) Capacity. - The capacity of interior stairs shall be as listed in table 6-1.
(b) Widt...