[aruanan]

Dozens of people trapped at the top of the burning World Trade Centre in New York could have been airlifted to safety if doors had not been locked, it emerged today.

So what was stopping police and fire helicopters from landing on the roof and then breaking the doors down?

[SuziQ]

As always, hidsight is 20/20. It is likely that the heat from the fire, and updrafts created by it may have prevented helicopters from getting close enough to land or even hover in order to take people off the roof. No one can know for sure, and it is useless to beat people over the head NOW about what MIGHT have been done.

[EggsAckley]

This is very disturbing. I also find it disturbing that the people in tower 2 were told by the port authority to go back up to their offices, that their building was secure. There has been very little press coverage of that, and I think it should be investigated.

[hellinahandcart]

You know, from my vantage point in front of the TV that day, the tops of the towers appeared to be completely engulfed in smoke most of the time. I don't think a helicopter could have landed.

[Ward Smythe]

Dozens of people trapped at the top of the burning World Trade Centre in New York could have been airlifted to safety if doors had not been locked, it emerged today.

For one thing, we could never have imagined those buildings collapsing. And, in the chaos of that morning, how would we have known another plane wasn't on the way. The buildings collapsed so quickly. This is all speculation. It may have helped, but we'll never know for sure how effective they could've been.

That's not to say we shouldn't review the policy and that perhaps changes need to be made. But I just hope we never again have the opportunity to need/try that type of rescue.

[KC Burke]

In a Code conflict such as this, where doors meant to be emergency exits are locked for good and valid operation issues, a well functioning code authority would have required an Engineered Solution to meet the intent of the code.

Locks can be deactivated

[Teacher317]

By the time the helicopters would have found pilots, gone through pre-flight checks, taken off into SUDDENLY VERY QUESTIONABLE airspace, and landed on the roof... the towers would have collapsed. (It was only about 30 minutes, IIRC). Most likely, they would not have saved a soul, and may have been lost themselves.

[ben richards]

If the doors remain unlocked people would go to the roof to kill themselves or throw things off of the roof or similar stunts. When this happens, Port Authority gets sued and is forced to keep the doors locked. Doors locked, no one gets out in the event of a fire. Such is the world in which we live.

[BearCub]

I've heard the stories of locked doors, blocked stairwells and whatnot. In my building, once you're in the stairwell, you can't get out except at the ground floor (i.e., all doors out of the stairwell are locked). This seems like a terrible way to do it. In a fire, people need options - to be able to exit the stairwell and cross the building to a different one, for example. The lawsuits will start soon...

-bc

[Pontiac]

But afterwards the Port Authority used its exemption from local fire rules to insist that the towers' roofs were kept locked to prevent people committing suicide or launching stunts from the top.

And a turf war between the police and fire departments meant fire chiefs rejected the idea of helicopter rescues

Just goes to show, don’t trust your life to government bureaucrats.

[LibWhacker]

. . . which included a police aircraft which came within 200 metres of the second hijacked plane to hurtle into the towers.

Wonder what these cops thought that jet was doing?

[fone]

You've got to see this!

We were just conversing the other day about the elementary school in Cleveland that burned down at the turn of the last century, trapping hundreds of teachers and children inside because the doors opened inward.
Shortly after that the law was passed requiring all public buildings to have doors that open outward.

I feel sick. When are we going to learn?

[Stefan Stackhouse]

Now that so many people have cell phones, it appears in retrospect that it would have been wise to have used a combination keypad lock on these doors. An off-site number to call to get the combination for emergency access could have been posted, and these unfortunate people could have been on the roof with only a couple minutes delay.

I don't know if a helicopter rescue would have been feasible or not. I do know that if I were one of the people trapped at the top of the tower, I would have certainly wanted somebody to TRY. A slim chance of rescue sure looks better than the zero chance these people ended up having. Yes, I know that it would have been risky for the chopper pilots, but they wouldn't have been the only rescuers taking risks that day.

Between this and the report that Port Authority rent-a-cops told people in Tower 2 to head back to their offices, I smell a mega-class-action lawsuit brewing. I'm not saying this is good or bad, just inevitable.

[ninachka]

Dozens of people trapped at the top of the burning World Trade Centre in New York could have been airlifted to safety if doors had not been locked, it emerged today.

According to the 911 dispatch transcripts the helocoptor pilots said that a rooftop landing was not possible due to the high heat and the massive amounts of rising smoke. They tried but couldn't do it - they circled the towers in an attempt to land but the horrible conditions prevented it. In the transcripts I read no pilot said anything about beign able to land. I read the transcripts in the NY Daily News in September after the attacks.

Today's Daily News has an article about this as well: WTC Roof Doors Locked

[VRWC_minion]

There was nobody on the roof," Greg Semendinger told the Wall Street Journal

He is forgeting the tourist guy and his photographer.

[Red Jones]

So, the fire department chief demanded after the 1993 events to put an end to helicopter roof rescues and as a result they locked the door to the roof to stop people from getting to the roof during an emergency. But they knew that if people's lives were at stake that they could get through an ordinary door with an ordinary lock. They put in a special solid steel door with an electronic lock so that it couldn't possibly be open even by desperate people to save their lives. Only a bureaucrat/manager can see the logic of such a policy, but friends the fire chief in New York is the one who forced this policy of locking those doors.

[VRWC_minion]

The locked door thing is a no brainer. In hotels there are doors held open by magnets which automatically close when their is a fire. We also have elevators designed not to stop at floors when the temperature is too high or to go to bottom floor when there is a fire.

How hard would it be to design a locked door that automatically becomes unlocked in a case of a fire ?

[Andrew Byler]

The people who were trapped above this fire were trapped," spokesman Frank Gribbon said.

"Perhaps their only recourse might have been to get to the roof, but it might not have been likely that they would make it, either.

"Up until now, we've never really had more than one floor burning in a fully-occupied high-rise building.

"Did we ever plan for something of this magnitude? No."

Gosh, do I ever smell a class action lawsuit brewing!

What a bunch of lame-ass excuses. "We've never had more than one floor burning". Well, golly gee! You didn't look very far at what's happened in other cities like Philadelphia or Los Angeles, with multi-story infernos.

Another howler: "Perhaps their only recourse might have been to get to the roof, but it might not have been likely that they would make it, either."

Well, I'll take "not very likely to survive" over "certainly dead" any day!

You have to wonder what these folks were thinking. Assume, for a moment, the fire had been controlled or burnt itself out, and the towers not collapsed. At least six floors of the North Tower had been demolished by the plane's impact, including all the emergency staircases (why the folks up there couldn't get out). How were they proposing to get people down? They certainly couldn't have them all come out into the middle of the unsupported floors liable to collapse. Obviously, the only way out was "up" for those above the fire.

This lame-brains comments, and the WSJ article only reinforce my conviction about a total lack of planning among NYC Emergency Services for what might happen in any high rise in the city with a big fire.

[coloradan]

But afterwards the Port Authority used its exemption from local fire rules to insist that the towers' roofs were kept locked to prevent people committing suicide or launching stunts from the top.

Aren't those rules formulated for our "safety" and our "protection?" If so, then why exempt yourself from having to follow them as well? Live by the self-exemption, die by the self-exemption ... except that it killed a lot of innocents as well.

[Fred]

Good thing those doors on THE ROOF were locked. Would not want anyone sneaking in the building...