Rescue and Recovery Effort After The September 11 Attacks - Building Evacuation

Building Evacuation

After American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower (1 WTC) of the World Trade Center, a standard announcement was given to tenants in the South Tower (2 WTC) to stay put and that the building was secure. However, many defied those instructions and proceeded to evacuate the South Tower (most notably, Rick Rescorla, Morgan Stanley Security Director, evacuated 2687 of the 2700 Morgan Stanley employees in the building). All people evacuating were ordered through a door on the mezzanine level that lead to a bridge to another building, and everyone was evacuated through the neighboring building. The firefighters in charge did not want anyone going through the front doors at first due to falling debris, and then because of falling people who had jumped from the towers. Standard evacuation procedures for fires in the World Trade Center called for evacuating only the floors immediately above and below the fire, as simultaneous evacuation of up to 50,000 workers would be chaotic.