NFPA Releases 9/11 Collection Highlighting Lasting Safety Lessons
The collection examines evacuation, firefighter safety and building safety lessons that emerged from the World Trade Center attacks 25 years ago.
- By Stasia DeMarco
- Aug 24, 2026
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has released a collection of materials examining the safety lessons that emerged from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the changes that followed in building safety, evacuation procedures and emergency response.
Released ahead of the 25th anniversary of the attacks, “NFPA and the World Trade Center: 25 Years Later” includes surveys, photographs, videos, presentations, reports and correspondence documenting the events and subsequent efforts to improve 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,” Lorraine Carli, NFPA vice president of outreach and advocacy, said in a statement. “At the same time, this horrific event exposed gaps and vulnerabilities that needed to be addressed.”
Much of the collection comes from materials created or compiled by former and current NFPA staff members Rita Fahy and Robert Duval, who contributed to reports published by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Duval, who was an NFPA fire investigator in 2001, served on FEMA's Building Performance Assessment Team. He visited the World Trade Center recovery site and contributed to FEMA's building performance study and other reports. He currently serves as a fire investigator and NFPA's New England regional director.
The collection also contains examples of evacuation experience surveys conducted by Fahy following both the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 2001 attacks. Her research examined evacuation behavior, statistical modeling and firefighter safety.
According to NFPA, findings from Fahy's research following the 1993 bombing helped inform changes to evacuation practices before the 2001 attacks.
“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,” Carli said. “These survey results were instrumental in making changes to evacuations that likely saved many lives in 2001.”
Fahy retired from NFPA in 2022 and died the following year.
Some materials in the NFPA Research Library collection are publicly accessible, while most are available by research request. Materials that are not publicly available can be accessed through the NFPA library's research request form.
Additional information about the 25th anniversary of 9/11 is available in the Fall 2026 issue of NFPA Journal, which examines the attacks and their aftermath through the experiences of four fire officials and safety professionals, including two who participated in response efforts at Ground Zero.