A Video from SFPE, from a Conference on Tall Building Fire Safety

This video was created by the Society of Fire Prevention Engineers (SFPE, https://www.sfpe.org/) and was presented at the Tall Building Fire Safety Conference, London, May 2022 (https://www.tallbuildingfiresafety.com/).  Many thanks to Chris Jelenewicz and Russ Timpson!

SFPE released 1st Edition of the, SFPE Engineering Guide:  Fire Safety Guide for Very Tall Buildings, in 2013.  They released the 2nd Edition of the, SFPE Engineering Guide:  Fire Safety Guide for Very Tall Buildings, in 2021.  Both guides are available in various formats from SFPE, Amazon and other sources.

The video is at this link.

9/11. NIST issued their final report, in September 2005, on the collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, NYC, after being struck by airplanes in a horrific terrorist attack. The following article from the NY Times, dated July 2002, does not need illustrations. The writing tells the story.

In addition to the terrible destruction, this article clearly describes a lack of coordination of the first responders – fire, police and Emergency Medical Services. Most problematic were communication systems between the services and absence of command coordination. All the services wanted to help but that resulted in too many people located where they could not best help the occupants of the towers evacuate and protect first responders. Heroes, all.

It may be impossible to coordinate training and the rescue response of the men and women of such a broad mix of emergency services. And, this was an extraordinary tragedy.

FATAL CONFUSION – The NY Times, 7 July 2002