Publications and Research
Document Type
Presentation
Publication Date
2025
Abstract
The Christian Regenhard Center for Emergency Response Studies, leveraging the expertise of its faculty, staff, Advisory Board and colleagues, has consistently programmed activities focused on high-rise fire safety. The upcoming 50th anniversary of the film The Towering Inferno was an inspiration.
We decided this would be more lighthearted and less purely technical than many of our events. We wanted to consider both the film, and use it to reflect on the state of fire safety in tall buildings in New York City.
Of course it does not escape us that the topic of fire safety is a serious one, and this grim matter is our day-to-day focus. I am struck by the awful foreshadowing of major high-rise fires following on the Towering Inferno, which was for many years dismissed as a farcical worst-case distortion of possibility. In the wake of 9/11, Grenfell Tower, and several major façade fires this undercurrent of unease remains with all of us working in this area.
Included in
Emergency and Disaster Management Commons, Film and Media Studies Commons, State and Local Government Law Commons, Structural Engineering Commons
Comments
Contains link to videos of presentations.