Agreements to Facilitate World Trade Center Study

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has reached an agreement with the City of New York (NYC) that will allow NIST to review additional information related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC). That information includes NYC 9-1-1 tapes and the transcripts of approximately 500 interviews of employees of the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) who were involved in WTC emergency response activities. The review of materials will take place at NYC offices.

A second agreement enables NIST to collect its own first-person data from New York City's WTC first responders.

Data obtained from the 9-1-1 tapes, the NYC interviews and the NIST interviews will be used to study occupant behavior and evacuation, and emergency response as part of the agency's federal building and fire safety investigation of the WTC disaster. Under the National Construction Safety Team Act (NCST), the NIST Director has taken action to protect the privacy of the information it receives by the two agreements. With the agreements in place, NYC will provide NIST investigators with access to the tapes and transcripts no later than Dec. 31, 2003. NIST expects to begin its interviews of FDNY and New York Police Department (NYPD) employees shortly.

NIST will conduct two types of interviews with FDNY and NYPD personnel: face-to-face and focus group. The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the 9-11 Commission) will participate with NIST in the interview process.

A comprehensive Web site on the NIST WTC investigation is available.