You may have read this book, or seen the film that was based on it. The man on the cover is Rick Rescorla. Born in Cornwall, he served as a US Army Officer in Vietnam, after having served with the British Paras in Egypt.
So, what is his connection to high rise #FireSafety? 1/

He was a courageous and inspirational leader.
Fast forward to Sept 11 2001 and he is Head of Security at Morgan Stanley HQ in South Tower. They were the largest tenants with over 2,700 staff across 22 storeys. He was appalled at the chaotic evacuation after the 1993 bomb. 2/

Against the wishes of building managers and many high ranking colleagues, he absolutely insisted on periodic emergency evacuation practices involving the 2,700 MS employees. 3/

When the first plane hit North Tower, the Port Authorities immediately announced over the PA in the South Tower for everybody to be calm and stay put. Astounded, Rick picked up his loud hailer and started immediately evacuating MS staff. He over-ruled the order to stay put. 4/

He's credited with saving 2,678 Morgan Stanley colleagues. He died when he re-entered the building to go and get thirteen colleagues that hadn't made it out of the building. He sang to the people he escorted out, to keep them calm under pressure #Respect https://americamatters.com/rick-rescorla-saved-2687-lives-on-september-11/

Never underestimate the importance of an #EvacuationStrategy for tall buildings, the potential cost for doing so can be very, very high.

#StayPut is not an evacuation strategy.