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The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has examined data collected by NFPA on firefighter fatalities due to structural collapse from 1979 through 2002 (not including those firefighters lost in the 2001 collapse of the World Trade Center.) The analysis included, but was not limited to, the following factors: firefighter’s age, rank, experience level, and activity at the time of the incident. Also examined were the types of property involved, cause and nature of death, and the time of incident.
Among the trends discovered in the data was that the number of fire fighters lost annually in residential collapses has tripled since the 1980’s even though there has been a decrease in the average number of annual fatalities during the same time period. Under the scope of the study no attempt was made to explain the underlying reasons for this and other trends discovered.
The study was sponsored by the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA).
Full results are published in the NIST technical report NISTIR 7069, Trends in Firefighter Fatalities Due to Structural Collapse, 1979-2002. (click to open PDF file)
For additional information contact Lori Brassell (1) + 301-975-5644 or lori.brassell@nist.gov
The number of firefighter fatalities in collapse incidents by property type for three time periods. The totals given are for each period and all property types.
The tragic events of September 11, 2001 have led to creative ways to not only capture the events that occurred in New York City, Washington, DC, and western Pennsylvania and their aftermath, but to create a digital record of the history of 911 and its aftermath from the materials submitted by individuals.
The September 11 Digital Archive (http://www.911digital archive.org/) was created by the Center for History and New Media, George Mason University, and the American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York,
and funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Its partnership with the Library of Congress assures the long-term preservation of the collection.
Still growing, the Archive contains more than 130,000 items. The media categories are: stories, e-mail, still images, moving images, audio, and documents. Anyone who wants to have recorded in the archive what they did, saw or heard on September 11 can do so electronically through the web site http://www.911digital archive.org/stories/add.html. As examples of the content: under moving images, there is a three minute video production
“September 11 Hero Tribute”, a 19 minute (7 Mb) slide show “America Attacked 911,” and a collection of games and animations dealing with bringing harm to Osama Bin Laden. New images, videos, or original electronic creations can be submitted by contacting the 911 archive organization at info@911digitalarchive.org
Of particular interest to the fire service is a searchable collection of the Fire Department of New York Incident Action Plans for 9/21/01 – 1/17/02 which are available here: http://911digitalarchive.org/documents/ documents_collections.html.
Readers are encouraged to submit material to the site to help all Americans remember 911 though the experiences of those who have direct knowledge of the tragic events and their impact on the nation.
Michael Jehn, Image #2021, The September 11 Digital Archive, (Looking east from the Hudson River.)
