• Board and care facilities
• Hotels and motels
• Fires in vacant buildings
• School fires
• Religious and funeral properties
• Campus and dorm fires
• Oil refineries
• High-rise buildings
• FAQs about building evacuation
• Changes to NFPA documents
• High-rise apartment and condo safety tips
• Reports and statistics
• Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
• Nightclubs/assembly occupancies
• Nursing homes

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High-rise buildings

People living in a high-rise apartment or condominium building need to think ahead and be prepared in the event of a fire. Read all of NFPA's high-rise apartments & condominiums safety tips and download our free safety tip sheet. AUDIO Division Director of Fire Analysis and Research Dr. John Hall on the NFPA High-Rise Report: What is the definition of 'high-rise'?   What are the fire risks of high-rises compared to regular buildings?   Are high rise buildings getting safer? If so, why?

The multiple floors of a high-rise building create the cumulative effect of requiring great numbers of persons to travel great vertical distances on stairs in order to evacuate the building. In the evacuation of the World Trade Center high-rise office towers following the terrorist bombing in 1993, the tens of thousands of building occupants successfully and safely traversed some five million person-flights of stairs.

Evacuation and planning information

• Developing a Preparedness Plan and Conducting Emergency Evacuation Drills (PDF, 4.3 MB)
• Emergency Evacuation Planning Guide for People with Disabilities
• Strategies for cre ating evacuation messages

NFPA report
 "High-Rise Building Fires", by John R. Hall, Jr., December 2011.

 

In this Section:

FAQs about building evacuation Information for consumers Reports and statistics NFPA reports and other research on high-rise buildings.

Changes to NFPA documents Changes made or pending to NFPA documents or programs as a result of the 9/11 attacks. Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat The world's leading body in the field of tall buildings. The CTBUH studies and reports on all aspects of the planning, design, construction and operation of tall buildings and the sustainable urban environment.

High-rise apartment and condo safety tips People living in a high-rise apartment or condominium building need to think ahead and be prepared in the event of a fire.