QUINCY, MA — Two technical staff members for the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) who serve on committees that examined the Sept. 11 collapse of the World Trade Center (WTC) buildings will discuss investigative team findings during NFPA’s World Safety Conference & Exposition™ in Minneapolis on May 20.

Robert Duval, NFPA’s senior fire investigator who served on FEMA’s Building Performance Assessment Team (BPAT), and Robert E. Solomon, P.E., NFPA’s assistant vice president, building and life safety codes, who served on the special task force on the Future of Tall Buildings, formed by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), will be joined by BPAT team member James Milke, Ph.D., of the University of Maryland, for a presentation, followed by a question-and-answer session.

BPAT concluded its findings this month and released a report that recommended an extensive national study examining broader issues surrounding the collapse. The CTBUH continues to focus on new strategies that might be considered, including means of egress and performance-based design, in hopes of increasing the performance of tall buildings subjected to extreme events.

NFPA has responded to terrorism threats in the past. Technical staff for the organization investigated the 1993 bombing of the WTC and issued a report on its findings. Also, shortly after Sept. 11, NFPA began offering free online high-rise information for building owners and managers. For more information, visit www.nfpa.org (website).

Publication date: 05/20/2002