In remembrance of the attack on the World Trade Center 25 years ago, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Research Library and Archives has released “NFPA and the World Trade Center: 25 Years Later,” a collection of materials from the tragedy of September 11, 2001. The compilation provides a multi-faceted overview of the events that unfolded, focusing on lessons learned and subsequent efforts by NFPA and other organizations to strengthen safety procedures and protocols for high-rise buildings and other occupancies.
“When the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, occurred and an unthinkable set of circumstances played out, we witnessed in real-time the impact of established fire and life safety systems and standards that enabled many people to escape to safety,” said Lorraine Carli, vice president of outreach and advocacy at NFPA. “At the same time, this horrific event exposed gaps and vulnerabilities that needed to be addressed.”
Featuring born-digital and digitized surveys, images, videos, presentations, reports, and correspondence, the collection largely originates from materials created and compiled by Robert Duval and Rita Fahy, NFPA staff members who contributed to reports published by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). It includes photographs and notes from Duval, who in 2001 was an NFPA fire investigator and a member of FEMA’s Building Performance Assessment Team. Duval visited the World Trade Center recovery site and contributed to FEMA’s building performance study as well as a number of other related reports. He currently serves as fire investigator and the New England regional director at NFPA.
The collection also includes examples of Fahy’s evacuation experience surveys, work she conducted following the 1993 and 2001 evacuations of the World Trade Center. Fahy’s groundbreaking studies focused on fire evacuation behavior, statistical modelling, and firefighter safety, research interests shaped in large part by her World Trade Center surveys.
“Rita Fahy’s research efforts captured unexpected findings from the 1993 bombing, including the fact that people behaved quite differently than previous research would have suggested. These survey results were instrumental in making changes to evacuations that likely saved many lives in 2001,” said Carli.
Fahy retired from NFPA in 2022 and died the following year.
Some materials in the NFPA Research Library collection are publicly accessible, but the majority are available by research request only. Material not publicly available can be accessed by contacting the NFPA library through a research request form.
Additional information covering the 25th anniversary of 9/11 can be found in the Fall 2026 issue of NFPA Journal, which explores the tragic event and its outcomes through the lens of four fire officials and safety professionals – two of whom were involved in Ground Zero response efforts. Their accounts and perspectives vividly illustrate the complexities and far-reaching impacts of that infamous day.
The full NFPA collection is available here.