Hindsight = 20/20 Vision...

Physics arXiv

"The simplest models can determine the number of people that can pass down a stairway in a certain time, like an incompressible liquid flowing through a pipe. In theory, at least.

"But in real emergencies, all kinds of other factors come into play. In particular, people behave in strange ways that are nothing like liquids. When panic occurs, the flow can drop to zero as people block doorways or become so compressed that they stick fast. The result is a kind of phase change when the flow changes dramatically from one regime to another.

"One way to avoid this is to ensure that the density of individuals never increases to the point that triggers any kind of phase change in the flow behaviour."

So...the authors of this paper suggests that evacuation floor-by-floor in an orderly fashion would be faster than wholesale panic.

Such behaviors would have to be practiced, similar to the "duck-and-cover" drills we did in my elementary school (for "the bomb" - God, I just dated myself), better: current lock down and fire drills now at high schools would have to be incorporated by businesses, especially those with multiple floors.

Physics arXiv: The Best Way to Evacuate a Skyscraper