The World Trade Center: Legacy in Codes and the Struggle for Change
The attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11 was the culmination of decades of concern by fire officials and advocates about safety in the buildings. Improvements after the 1993 terror attack saved lives on 9/11. Following the unprecedented collapse of the twin towers, the largest engineering failure in history, there was little effort to investigate and learn from the event. This class will tell the "behind the scenes" story of advocacy started by firefighters' and victims' families and initial opposition from national organizations and emergency services. Savvy campaigning and congressional support enabled funding of mutliple federal investigations and the NIST reports, which explained key aspects of the collapse and evacuations. These efforts also included successful advocacy for code changes in New York City and the national codes and formation of the High Rise Building Safety Advisory Committee, which made multiple recommendations for improvements to NFPA codes.
