Fire safety provisions for ultra highrise buildings consequent to the World Trade Center incident

There are numerous ultra highrise buildings built or to be built in big cities in the Far East. Consequent to the World Trade Center catastrophe on September 11, 2001 in New York, fire safety provisions in buildings of height over 300 m are reviewed by many countries. Some projects are even suspended as new fire safety objectives are to be worked out, not just for protecting against accidental fires as used to be. Arson fires or even terrorist attack fires might have to be considered for those symbolic buildings in countries which are neither politically nor socially stable. Design and provisions in several aspects relevant to fire safety in buildings should be revisited to provide appropriate fire safety level to the built environment. In this article, some points of concern observed from the World Trade Center incident will be reviewed first. Several points on passive construction design including the fire resisting structure and egress system, active fire engineering system, and fire safety management will be considered for providing better building safety.