Originally Posted By: Susan
How many people were in the WTC on 9/11?

How many of those people were considered merely cattle by their management?

There's not much you can do if you don't know something is wrong, but those who ignore warnings and fire alarms are just plain stupid.

On 9/11, there wasn't even proper communication between the EMERGENCY services, and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if that hasn't changed much.

People just have to take responsibility for themselves. Why would anyone hear alarms/shots/explosions and then ask other people if they should evacuate? Are people so incredibly dumb that they need to be told? If their supervisor told them to go back to work, I wonder what percentage would do just that?

I know the owner/mods here don't like the S-word in relation to people, but sometimes it's the only appropriate description.

Sue


Sue, I generally have a great deal of respect for your posts, but this one touched a nerve with me. Please don't take it personally.

This topic - and where the discussion has gone - hits a bit close to home. You see, I was in the World Trade Center on 9/11. I personally knew people who died at their desks (or trying to find their way out - they were last heard from at their desks and didn't make it out).

Before you criticize the people who stayed put, it's helpful to remember the may things that changed from pre-9/11 to post-9/11.

It used to be, if you were on a hijacked plane, the common wisdom and training was to do whatever the hijackers wanted, and nobody would get hurt. Of course, nobody would think of following that advice now.

But here's something that has not changed: in NYC hi-rise office buildings, in the event of a fire we are trained to evacuate the fire floor, and the three floors above and below. In fact, if you are evacuated from your desk, you are told to re-enter the building after descending four flights of stairs, and not to continue all the way to the lobby. Most buildings were not constructed with the appropriate systems to evacuate all of the occupants. If they tried, the fire department would have no way of getting up to the fire floor.

So it's not so surprising that people did not evacuate on their own - we have been trained over and over again that self-evacuation is NOT what you are supposed to do. This training continues to this day, and is supported by the fire marshals and FDNY. Nobody ever considered that what happened on that day could happen, and unfortunately, the training that generally made emergency responses work more smoothly cost lives.

That said, there is a large group of people working in NYC these days who routinely ignore this training and bug out early and often. As you may be able to guess, I'm firmly in this group!