Large multistory steel-framed factory buildings quickly collapse due to fire Go
Unprotected steel fails in Madrid's Windsor Building fire, concrete core stands. Go
Collapse mechanism of the Madrid Windsor Building Go
BBC Report: Windsor building fire Go
Unprotected steel truss roof quickly fails in fire at McCormick Place, Chicago Go
Fire damage to protected steel in One Meridian Plaza, Philadelphia Go
Noises in steel buildings during fire equals danger! Go
JREF, Unfit4Command: Examples of steel destroyed by fire Go
Steel fails in paper factory fire Go
A building fire and structural failure (Steel buildings collapse due to fire) Go
Loss of fireproofing on steel leads to collapse (PDF) Go
NIST and FEMA Experiments, Studies, and Reports
NCSTAR 1-1 Design, Construction, and Maintenance of Structural and Life Safety Systems
NCSTAR 1-4 Active Fire Protection Systems
NCSTAR 1-5 Reconstruction of the Fires in the World Trade Center Towers
NCSTAR 1-6 Structural Fire Response and Probable Collapse Sequence of the World Trade Center Towers
NCSTAR 1-7 Occupant Behavior, Egress, and Emergency Communication
NCSTAR 1-8 The Emergency Response Operations
FEMA 403 Appendix A: Overview of Fire Protection in Buildings (pdf) Go
NIST: Fire Protection of Structural Steel in High-Rise buildings (white paper) Go
Underwriters Labs post-9/11 WTC fire testing, ASTM E119 standard Go
NIST early WTC fire simulation experiments and photos Go
Report of WTC fire code compliance--1993 (pdf Released via nistreview.org FOIA request) Go
NIST's Safety of Threatened Buildings Research Projects
NIST: 2-D Analysis of a Building Frame Under Gravity Load and Fire.
Fire Protection Engineering: "The future of fire simulation at NIST" (PDF)
NIST Gallery of WTC Fire Experiment #6
NIST project 6 structural fire response & collapse analysis
NIST Collected Publications Related to the Use of Elevators During Fires
Fire Protection Engineering Magazine on Computer Modeling / NIST
NIST fire tests: steel residential floor assemblies last 4 mins.
Similar test to above: steel lasts 4.5 minutes, wood, 9 minutes.
Some comments on Fire Testing and Modeling in the NIST WTC 1&2 report
FIRE CHIEFS REPORT ON 9/11 COMMISSION REPORT
Ryan Mackey on NIST recovered steel and fire models Go
JREF Ktesbios on NIST workstation actual tests Go
JREF RWGuinn on testing models to failure Go
Ryan Mackey on NIST fuel load estimates Go
Building Code Changes and Recommendations Resulting from WTC Collapses
Sally Regenhard Calls for New High-Rise Codes and Code Group Composition (Fire Engineering Mag. 4/02)
Engineering News-Record: Skyscrapers' Supporters Infuriated By Fire Fearmongers (response to Regenhard & SyscraperSafety.org)
SWEEPING CHANGES PUSHED FOR CODE ON CITY HIGH-RISES (NYT Aug 2, 2002)
City Reshaping Building Codes To U.S. Model (NYT May 17, 2004)
9/11 Has Spurred Only Modest Changes in New York City and National Building Codes (NYT 9/9/06)
First Comprehensive Set of Model Code Changes Adopted Based on Recommendations from Commerce’s NIST World Trade Center Investigation (June, 2007)
NYC Building Code – Fire Protection
UK reached same NIST conclusions 3 years earlier: ARUP, New Civil Engineer Plus Go
NYC Dept. of Buildings WTC Task Force recommendations report Go
The AIA's Response to NIST's Draft Report and Recommendations (PDF)
The World Trade Center Collapse and its Implications for International Standards – W. Gene Corley ISO Focus, January 2004 (PDF)
"Reexamining Premises for High-Rise Design" Security Management magazine (PDF)
In this article from Security Management magazine, Dr. Gene Corley discusses lessons from the World Trade Center investigation and how they might affect future building design.
NIBS Building Code Experts: Translating WTC Recommendations into Model Building Codes
TOWERS' COLLAPSE RAISES NEW DOUBTS ABOUT FIRE TESTS (NYT April 8, 2002)
''If I say, 'That product passed the test,' you as John Q. Public may be happy,'' said Dr. James G. Quintiere, a professor in fire protection engineering at the University of Maryland. ''But if we say, 'It passed the test, but we don't know how it will function in your house,' you would not be happy.''
TOWERS UNTESTED FOR MAJOR FIRE, INQUIRY SUGGESTS (NYT May 8, 2003)
Federal investigators studying the collapse of the twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001, say they now believe that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the government agency that built the towers, never performed the fundamental tests needed to determine how their innovative structures would perform in a fire
Papers and articles about fire vs. structural steel, specific to the WTC
The behavior of lightweight composite floor trusses in fire Go
Did the Ban on Asbestos Lead to Loss of Life? (Guy Tozzoli, 707, PA discontinued asbestos use before required to do so. $ NYT 9/18/01)
Asbestos Use in the Construction of the World Trade Center
Faulty Fireproofing Is Reviewed as Factor in Trade Center Collapse (Frederick Mowrer, Alan REiss, Roger Morse. $ NYT Dec 13, 2001)
Comparing 2 Sets Of Twin Towers; Malaysian Buildings Offered as Model (Charles Thornton on Petronas Towers / High-strength concrete / Robertson / Nordenson NYT Oct. 23, 2002)
Some interesting thoughts on WTC fire protection, steel vs. concrete, redundancy, new materials Go
Charles H. Thornton, a structural engineer who is co-chairman of the Thornton-Tomasetti Group and also a member of the investigation's advisory committee, said the work would go a long way toward putting the field on a par with research on weaponry and space travel, which also require precise calculation of the effects of heat and blast on structures. ''It's never been done before in the building industry,'' said Mr. Thornton, who collaborated in the design of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, currently the world's tallest structures. Especially puzzling is that the analysis of hazards posed by earthquakes and high winds has far outstripped similar work on fires. But just as earthquake engineering lurched forward after the major California quakes of 1971, 1989 and 1994, fire science is advancing after the events of Sept. 11, 2001. Reliving 9/11, With Fire as Teacher (NYT Jan 6, 2004)
Role of Fire Resistance Issues in the Collapse of the Twin Towers (PDF. Institute for Research in Construction, Canada)
Papers and articles about fire vs. structural steel, not specific to the WTC
Restrained fire resistance ratings in structural steel buildings Go
Structural Fire Engineering: Database: Cardington Fire Test Data Go
JREF: Dave_46 on the Cardington Lab Tests
Determination of fire induced collapse mechanisms of multi-story steel framed structures Go
A New Approach to Multi-Storey Steel Framed Buildings Fire and Steel Construction.
Rein et all, Multi-Story Fire Analysis for High Rise Buildings, 11th Interflam, London, September 2007
Performance of unprotected steel and composite steel frames exposed to fire (Master's Thesis) Go
Effect of Support Conditions on Steel Beams Exposed of Fire (Master's Thesis) Go
Fire safety engineering forum (numerous papers) Go
Recent advances in fire–structure analysis. Fire Safety Journal, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 20 August 2007, Dat Duthinh, Kevin McGrattan and Abed Khaskia
Coupled fire dynamics and thermal response of complex building structures. Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, Volume 30, Issue 2, January 2005, Pages 2255-2262 Kuldeep Prasad and Howard R. Baum
"Cabling in commercial buildings is frequently in close proximity to structural steel beams – which can lose structural integrity at fire temperatures as low as 800 degrees centigrade. Combustible cabling can burn at temperatures as high as 1,000 degrees centigrade — sufficient to cause the collapse of tall buildings under certain conditions.
The average ten-story commercial building with 100 office workstations per floor can contain more than 1 million feet of combustible "exception" cabling in concealed spaces; equivalent to the fuel load of 1,500 gallons of gasoline." http://www.cablefireresearch.org/cabling/risk.asp
Skyscraper fire protection in practice after 9/11, innovations, proposals
The discipline of structural fire protection after 9/11 Go
Arup: Innovative Structural Engineering for Tall builings in Fire (2005, PDF) Go
Arup Fire – Fire engineers present latest tall building structural response in severe fire studies (2005) Go
Structural fire engineering: Free advice from structural fire group in Manchester University. Go
Fire and Structures: The Implications of the World Trade Center (PDF) Go
Scientific American: New Thinking to Make Skyscrapers Safer Go
A Midtown Skyscraper Quietly Adds Armor (Citigroup Center NYT Aug 15, 2002)
Report Sees Lower Towers That Can Empty Faster (NYT March 28, 2002)
9/11 Prompts New Caution In Design of U.S. Skyscrapers (300 Mad., NYT Bldg, AOL Time Warner. NYT Sept. 9, 2002)
Structural Fire Engineering, World Trade Center Incident (9-11) & Fire Serviceability Limit States
Interact Fire Solutions--Passive Fire Protection using cast epoxy intumescent
Scientific American: New thinking to make skyscrapers safer
Interesting approach to protecting steel using fluid in channels
Cables hold promise in protecting existing buildings from bombs, researchers find
ARCHITECTURE; High Anxiety (Freedom Tower. NYT March 14, 2004)
The Fire Next Time: Skyscraper safety: the push for NY's high-rises to learn not to burn (VV July 5, 2005)
Increasing use of concrete in skyscrapers.
Astaneh recommends concrete shear walls
Lloyd's commissions study: King Concrete - 08 December 2001 - New Scientist
Concrete: Changing Uses Post-9/11 (New York Construction News May, 2003)
Public Issues and the World Trade Center Disaster (Masonry Contractors Association)
Features of the new WTC 7
Video: New WTC 7: safety and structural features
Fire engineering history, general publications
Dr. James Quintiere presentation on the history of fire science, fire science & education (PDF)
Eurocode: Introduction to Structural Fire Engineering (Powerpoint presentation) Go
Fire Engineering archives (subscription) and FDNY Chief Hayden podcasts (free)
Structural Fire Engineering One Stop Shop
Publications of the Fire Safety Association
Book: Collapse of Burning Buildings : A Guide to Fireground Safety – Vincent Dunn Go
Links to several fire studies from Peter, an architect with experience in designing high-rises
Publications of the University of Sheffield Fire Engineering Research Program Go
Arup Fire on Tall Buildings and the Events of 9/11 Go
Determination of Fire Induced Collapse Mechanisms of Multi-Storey Steel Framed Structures Go
Miscellaneous related links
AIA Building Security Through Design
Where does black smoke come from? (dark vs. light smoke explanation)
Oil rig destroyed in two hours by fire.
Elevator shaft smoke explosion Boston Go
Physicist Manuel Garcia Jr.: The Thermodynamics of 9/11 Go
Chris Marrion of ARUP USA Go
Book: Why Buildings Fall Down (great for the layman)
