I was wondering yesterday how the residents acted and how I would've responded. Like most of those people in the building, I was in NYC for 9/11 so my first instinct would probably be to flee as soon as possible if I were in a highrise fire. For 9/11, that would've been the best thing to do. However, in general, that's probably not the best thing to do (I'm not saying this with a lot of confidence, but just repeating the general advice for highrise dwellers).
This New York Times article talked about what the residents and visitors did. Well, only a few people were mentioned in the article, but sounds like these people tried to get out of Dodge right away. However, the real estate broker interviewed mentioned the peril of fleeing--heavy smoke in the stairwell. From my own visits to various highrise condos/coops in NYC, they seem pretty fire resistant, so people sheltering in their units would likely have been fine, while these people trying to immediately flee could've become overcome by smoke (and that has happened in real life, too). Sheltering and waiting for FDNY to get the fire under control and waiting for them to come to your floor to retrieve you would've been the "wise" course of action for the residents. And I suppose that in the vast majority of modern highrise fires, that's true. Unfortunately, a spectacular event like 9/11 always makes you think about the exception that goes against the general rule.
Anyway, not to criticize what the people there did or didn't do. But it does highlight how we are often influenced more by the unusual events in our lives than the advice that covers 99% of the probable events we're likely to encounter. Or, to borrow a military adage, we're always preparing to fight the last war. If getting out ASAP was best for the last disaster, e.g. 9/11, then by George, that's what I'm doing the next time.