Shelter in place in large buildings: how long can you go without ventilation?

[Katy Wolf]

On the topic of "should I stay or go" this topic is relevant to people that work downtown. There won't be enough space anywhere downtown to shelter all the people outside, so I imagine lots of people will shelter inside. I work in a large new office building, and one of our floors has two doors to a balcony on the 15th floor. I am wondering how many days people could shelter in that area with the doors open for air, and how long you could shelter in an area with no windows/doors to open. I am imagining that oxygen deprivation becomes a concern after enough people are in an area with no ventilation. You could in theory move from floor to floor using up the oxygen on each one. Then hopefully by the time you use up all the air in a building, one of the bridges would open up to walk to the east side. I did some Google searching and asked Tristan Ross at Red Cross but I got nothing. Maybe this hasn't been studied or written about, but we could still hypothesize and use what we know to come up with a rule of thumb?

[Suzy Murphy]

During Katrina, staff at Memorial Hospital broke windows for fresh air. "Five days at Memorial" by Sheri Fink...tells a scarey story that makes you want to have a backup plan. I hear some of the PFD guys keep inflatable kayaks in their trunks.