NY Times & Victims Family FOIA Request making Suppressed Firemen
Statements public:
A rich vein of city records from Sept. 11, including
more than 12,000 pages of oral histories rendered in the voices
of
503 firefighters, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians, was made
public
The city has announced that it will also release today a written log of
calls to the 911 system, many from trapped
office
workers, as well as tapes of fire dispatchers. Other records, including tapes
of 911 operators, are being assembled
and
are not yet ready for release, city officials said.
The New York Times sought the records under the freedom of information
law in February 2002, but the Bloomberg
administration
refused to make them public and the newspaper sued the city. Earlier this year,
the Court of Appeals,
Over the last three and half years, The Times has obtained some of
these records through unofficial channels, and they
can
be found on the Web at www.nytimes.com/sept11
These include the dispatch tapes, nearly 100 of the
Fire Department oral histories, and a log of calls to Emergency Medical
Service dispatchers
that were channeled through the 911 system.
lhttp://www.nytimes.com/pages/nyregion/nyregionspecial3/
N.Y. Police Statements released under FOIA
http://www.flcv.com/nypolice.html
Audio Dispatches: NYFD and
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/2005081
2_WTC_GRAPHIC/met_WTC_histories_full_05.html
FIREFIGHTER PATRICK MARTIN
WTC2
My lieutenant said he looked down at the
first floor, and he could see the first
floor of the south tower
like exploding out. I looked up. I looked up, and the sky was
filled with that debris cloud.
Stephen Gregory
, Assistant Commissioner (F.D.N.Y.)
flashes, explosions p 14
I know I was with an officer from Ladder 146,
a Lieutenant Evangelista, who ultimately called me up a couple of days later
just to find out how I was. We both for whatever reason -- again, I don't know
how valid this is with everything that was going on at that particular point in
time, but for some reason I thought that when I looked in the direction of the
Trade Center before it came down, before No. 2 came down, that I saw low-level flashes. In my conversation
with Lieutenant Evangelista, never mentioning this to him, he questioned me and
asked me if I saw low-level flashes in
front of the building, and I agreed with him because I thought -- at that time
I didn't know what it was. I mean, it could have been as a result of the
building collapsing, things exploding, but I saw a flash flash flash
and then it looked like the building came down.
Q. Was that on the lower level of the building or up where the fire was?
A. No, the lower level of the building. You know like when they demolish a
building, how when they blow up a building,
when it falls down? That's what I thought I saw. And I didn't broach the topic
to him, but he asked me. He said I don't know if I'm crazy,
(Strangely, he talks about
page 20 Q. Clearly not building
material?
A. No. The building material was sort of gray and you could see it, you know,
how it differed from the plane. I was listening to the tape this morning of the
people calling up and they were describing the plane that hit the building.
Actually, so many people saw it. They actually described the plane as it came in.
They said it was a military-type plane
and it was green and it was this. I mean, I never saw the color of the
plane.
FATHER JOHN DELENDICK FDNY
bombs & explosions before WTC2 fell
The top of the building kind of started to
rumble, and we all looked up. So his
original thought was that he thought it was a bomb up there as well.
I remember asking Ray Downey was it the jet
fuel that blew up. He said at that point he thought there were bombs up there because it was too
even. We didn't know the building came
down. We just knew the top of the
building exploded and didn't know what happened to the rest of the
building.
CHIEF STEVE GRABHER-FDNY WTC2 poof,poof,
windows pop out, explosion
Just as I go out of the building, one of my
men says hey Captain, the building is coming down. I looked over my shoulder
and you could see the whole top of south
tower leaning towards us. It looked like coming over. You could see the
windows pop out just like in the picture, looked like a movie. I saw one floor of windows pop out, like
poof, poof. I saw one and a half floors pop out. It looked almost like an
explosion. The whole top was teetering, and I really thought just the top
of the building was falling off. I didn't think there was any way we were going
to make it out because just being this close, it looked
like it's leaning right on top of us. So we ran.
It wasn't that far. I guess You could see over the top
of the building from where we were standing, the whole building was coming on
top of us this other building. At this time I thought just the top of the
building fell down. I really wasn't sure that the whole tower was going to come
down. It turns out I was looking at the
FIREFIGHTER ROBERT NORRIS
WTC2
I HEARD WHAT SOUNDED LIKE A THIRD
PLANE COMING IN. I HEARD THE PROPULSION OF AN ENGINE
SUPERVISING
WTC2
As I'm looking up at the building, I hear a loud noise and I see the south side of
the building collapse. I see the south upper
third of the tower start to pitch in my direction. At that point I yelled
to Mike Kane, Mike, it's coming down. I turned around
and I ran south on
WTC2 falls
WHEN THAT
LIEUTENANT
All of a sudden you
heard the rumble and people yelling and screaming. You look and I didn't see
the top of the building. I didn't see
the top of tower two. The collapse started. You felt like the ground -- it was like a deep sound, rumble; like you're
laying on the platform and the D train is coming. You look and you see what -- I best describe it as a wave coming.
RONALD COYNE
At that point I just heard a THUNDEROUS SOUND
I was already covered with soot and
all sorts of particles that were coming out of the building. I dived into the
truck, and that’s when pieces of the BUILDING LIFTED THE TRUCK
Several blanked out paragraphs
WTC2
I think it was the lobby of the building behind us blew out. Everybody started running, I didn't see him again that day. He got thrown one way, I got thrown the other way. There was smoke, there was debris, there was everything flying around. The cops that were in there were telling everybody get out, get out, get out. Stuffs blowing up.
FIREFIGHTER MICHAEL MACKO
WCT2
WE
LIEUTENANT PATRICK SCARINGELLO
WTC2
I heard the explosion
from up above. I looked up, I saw smoke and flame and then I saw the top
tower tilt, start to twist and lean.
We did go past -- we went
up Church, we went up Vesey, past 7 Trade, which at
the time didn't look like it was involved
We
started to look up and we could see what looked like the top of this tower coming down at us, and then like a roller
coaster, like a wooden roller coaster sound
FIREFIGHTER RICHARD BOERI WTC2
explosion before collapse
We had our backs to the tower and under that
pedestrian bridge walking south, myself, Eddie Kennedy and the officer, when
you heard the crackling. You looked
up and you saw the one floor explode on
itself and the top start to slide.
FIREFIGHTER DEAN COUTSOUROS
WTC2, crackling
sound, like a million firecrackers
I
was directly in the middle
of the street on
FIREFIGHTER WILLIAM REYNOLDS
WTC2- large explosion below plane impact area before the collapse
After a while, I was distracted by a large explosion from the south tower
and it seemed like fire was shooting out a couple of hundred feet in each
direction, then all of a sudden the top of the tower started coming down in a
pancake. I remember my jaw dropping and just staring at it and Richard Banaciski, one of the firemen that was
there, yelled "Run" and I turned and I started running into the
parking garage of the
Q. Bill, just one question. The fire that you
saw, where was the fire? Like up at the upper levels where it started
collapsing?
A. It appeared somewhere below that. Maybe twenty floors below the impact area of the plane. I
saw it as fire and when I looked at it on television afterwards, it doesn't
appear to show the fire. It shows a rush of smoke coming out below the area of
the plane impact.
The reason why I think the cameras didn't get
that image is because they were a far distance away and maybe I saw the bottom
side where the plane was and the smoke was up above it.
FIREFIGHTER TIMOTHY BURKE WTC2
WTC2 Explosion before collapse
Then the building popped lower than the fire level which I guess was the aviation
fuel fell into the pit and whatever floor it fell on heated up really bad and
that’s why it popped at that floor.
That’s the rumor I heard, but it seemed like Oh My God There is secondary device that the way the building popped I
thought it was an explosion.
When that
happened they all started fading into the garage- masses of people. I’m thinking this building is coming down. So
with the amount of people rushing me, we ran through the garage. We kept
running through. All of a sudden the noises stopped ,
the sound of the building falling stopped. We all turned around and it was dark
now. We really couldn’t see.
FIREFIGHTER KEVIN DUGGAN WTC2
we just heard this real loud roar. We looked up and we could see the south tower. Looked like the middle of it was just exploding out, and at that point, one
of the officers just said, "Run," and we were just turned and started
running into the garage.
FIREFIGHTER CHRISTOPHER FENYO FDNY
WTC2
explosions before collapse
Port Authority transcripts:
About a couple minutes after George came back
to me is when the south tower from our perspective exploded from about midway up the building. We all turned and ran
into the garage. At that point a debate
began to rage because the perception was that the building looked like it had
been taken out with charges.
FIREFIGHTER HOWIE SCOTT
WTC2
We just made our turn to go in towards the
lobby of tower two.
For whatever reason, I just happened to look
up and saw the whole thing coming down, pancaking
down, and the explosion, blowing out
about halfway up. I remember looking
back and noticing that big mushroom cloud just roaring at us like a freight
train.
Edward Cachia FDNY
WTC2 explosions before collapse
As
my officer and I were looking at the south tower, it just gave. It actually
gave at a
lower floor, not the floor where the plane hit, because we originally had
thought there was like an internal detonation explosives because it went in
succession, boom, boom, boom, boom, and then the tower came down.
FIREFIGHTER KENNETH ROGERS
WTC2
Meanwhile we were standing there with about
five companies and we were just waiting for our assignment and then there was
an explosion in the south tower,
this exposure just blew out in flames. A lot of guys left at that point. I kept watching. Floor
after floor after floor. One floor under another after another and when
it hit about the fifth floor, I figured it was a bomb, because it looked like a
synchronized deliberate kind of thing. I was there in '93.
Then we heard a rumble, some twisting metal, we looked up in the air, and to be
totally honest, at first, I don’t know exactly…but it looked to me just like an explosion. It
didn’t look like the building was coming down, it looked like just one floor had blown
completely outside of it. I was sitting there
looking at it. I just never thought they would around and saw the debris coming
down.
FIREFIGHTER RICHARD BANACISKI WTC2 explosions
On
We were there I don't know, maybe 10, 15
minutes and then I just remember there
was just an explosion. It seemed like on television they blow up these
buildings. It seemed like it was going all the way around like a belt, all these explosions. Everybody just
said run and we all turned around and we ran into the parking garage because
that's basically where we were. Running forward would be running towards it.
Not thinking that this building is coming down. We just thought there was going
to be a big explosion and stuff was going to come down.
There was just a tremendous cloud that came
into the parking garage. Somebody actually laid out a search rope.
FIREFIGHTER
CRAIG MONAHAN
WCT2
Then
all of a sudden you heard something, and it sounded like a harrier jet was landing right over top of us. Sure
enough that second tower was just coming straight down. When it sounded like the explosion
stopped, the steel hitting, when it all seemed to stop, this just like a fire
storm of wind and material, a sandstorm kind of, just came and wailed by,
really flew past us quick.
FIREFIGHTER KEVIN MCCABE
WTC2
WE WERE READY TO GO STRAIGHT AHEAD
YOU HEARD A ROAR SOME
MY FIRST THOUGHT TO MYSELF, O
LIVE DOWN IN ROCKAWAY SO HAVE HEARD PLANES COMING OVERHEAD FOR
YEARS, IT SOUNDED LIKE A PLANE GETTING CLOSER
SHORTLY AFTER AS IM WALKING YOU
PARAMEDIC JOEL PIERCE
WTC2
THATS WHEN WE HEARD THAT SOUND AGAIN
WTC2
At that time we were looking at the top of
the towers and all the rubble and people coming off, and all of a sudden you
heard – it sounded like another
airplane, or a missile. It was like a slow shake. The whole ground just
vibrated and shook. We just told everybody to run, run into a building, let's
go, run, run, run.
PARAMEDIC ROBERT RUIZ
WTC2
The next thing you know, you
hear a loud thundering noise. It sounded like a jet, a big rumble. I start
looking around and I'm like, what is that? The next thing I know, I see the cop
just take off. I'm like, where's he going?
Then I see the things on the floor, like
I look up and I was saying,
oh, no, the building's going to fall down.
So I turn around. Right where I'm standing I turn around. I'm
in
the center of the building. I
turn around, and I try to go inside the building, but that door happens to be
locked. So I run towards the
corner where the cop was, and I
keep trying all the doors.
CHARLES WELLS Division Chief
WTC2
We felt a loud -- a very
strong vibration, shaking, and a loud noise like a subway train coming through
a station at speed, like a jet engine
at full throttle. It was a roaring sound, and he wanted to continue down
WTC2
I
made it about halfway across
and I saw the
WCT2
Then
as I looked up, I saw this helicopter hovering from in front of one of the buildings, it was the first one that was hit. Then all of a
sudden I heard this huge explosion,
I didn’t know what it was because nobody was telling me anything. I didn’t know
until we were called back to Chambers and something, Chambers and
firemen, PD, everyone is running away from the
This
is North End, we was running around Vessey and around
North end to get away
from the first smoke. After the first building, I guess, I
didn’t know at the time that the
building fell. After the smoke cleared, I went back, I was
helping some people that were
covered in dust and stuff like that.
FIREFIGHTER JOSEPH MEOLA
WCT2
As we are looking up at the building, what I
saw was, it looked like the building was
blowing out on all four sides. We actually heard the pops. Didn't realize it was the falling -- you know, you heard the pops
of the building. You thought it was just blowing out.
FIREFIGHTER KEITH MURPHY FDNY
WCT2
I HAD HEARD A DISTANT
FIREFIGHTER THOMAS TURILLI
WTC2
All of a sudden you just heard like it almost
actually that day sounded like bombs
going off, like boom, boom, boom, like seven or eight, and then just a huge
wind gust just came. My officer knew
how to actually get out and and we just walked out of
there.
At that point we were kind of standing on the
street and I looked to my left and actually I noticed the tower was down. I
didn't even know what it was when we were in there. It just seemed like a huge
explosion.
WTC2
In that process of him trying to explain to
me to pull my ambulance over, I heard a loud
bang. We looked up, and we just saw the building starting to collapse. I was screaming from the top of my lungs, and
I must have been about ten feet away from her and she couldn't even hear me,
because the building was so loud, the explosion,
that she couldn't even hear me.
WCT2
I HEARD LIKE A BIG EXPLOSION, TREMENDOUS EXPLOSION, LET
ME PUT IT THAT WAY,
His conclusions were blanked out
LT. THOMAS PIAMBINO FDNY
WTC2
The south tower had fallen, but at that time I didn't know
what it was. All I heard was a tremendous
explosion.
LIEUTENANT JOSEPH PATRICIELLO FDNY
WTC2
As my men went to obtain some extinguishers,
I happened to be looking up and saw the explosion
or the building fail with the ensuing fireball and cloud. It didn't appear to
me at that moment the building was coming down.
But when the noise level began to pick up, it
was obvious that something wrong was going on. We all proceeded to run
southwesterly towards
FIREFIGHTER CRAIG CARLSEN -explosions (or
pancakes) when buildings fell
File No. 9110505 WTC2
I guess about three minutes later you just heard explosions coming from building two,
the south tower. It seemed like it took forever, but there were about ten explosions. At the time I
didn't realize what it was. We realized later after talking and finding out
that it was the
floors collapsing to where the plane had hit.
We
then realized the building started to come down. At that point everybody at the
command post took off into -- there were two garages across. I guess it was by
I made it in about 20 feet inside the door,
and I tripped over an
started to come down , and you could see the force
of air coming towards you. I was just trying to drag the
We made it to approximately Vesey and West, which is just north of the bridge. Then the
second building started to come down. At
that point everybody just took off in all different directions. As far as I
know, we just went north up
FIREFIGHTER FERNANDO CAMACHO WTC2 Explosions
We went across the lobby of the hotel, going
north, and we exited and made a right going towards the second tower, the south tower. We must have walked about
100-200 feet to revolving doors, which led into a hallway to where the mall
was. I could see maybe 20, civilians and I believe
Ladder 25, which was about another 100 to 150 feet ahead of us. As we came in
through the revolving doors, the lights went out. A second or two later
everything started to shake. You could hear explosions. We
didn't know what it was. We thought it was just a small collapse.
As I looked straight ahead of me, I saw total
darkness. Everything was coming our way like a wave. The
firefighters that were ahead of us and the civilians that were ahead of us
totally disappeared.
We turned around. We were all pretty much
within ten feet of each other: lieutenant,chauffeur,
roof, OV, can. As we turned around, I ran probably maybe ten feet and that's
when the body of the building or body of the collapse hit, and we were flying
through the air basically. I must have flown 30, 40 feet through the air. Then
total quiet. You couldn't breathe. You couldn't see anything.
****************************************
CAPTAIN
KARIN DESHORE
WTC2
I had no clue what was going on. I never turned around because a sound came
from somewhere that I never heard before.
Some people compared it to an airplane.
It was the worst sound of a rolling sound, not a thunder. All I know is
–and a force started to come hit me in my back.
You had to be there. All I know is that I had to run because I thought
there was an explosion. I thought it
was a major explosion.
I THOUGHT IT WAS EXPLODING ACTUALLY THATS WHAT I
THOUGHT FOR HOURS AFTERWARDS THAT IT HAD EXPLODED OR THE PLANE OR THERE HAD BEEN
SOME DEVICE ON THE PLANE THAT HAD EXPLODED BECAUSE THE DEBRIS FROM THE TOWER
HAD SHOT OUT FAR OVER OUR HEADS IT WAS RAINING DOWN
(blanked out paragraph)
FINALLY
WTC2
THERES AN EXPLOSION.
WTC2
I was
hooking up the regulator to the O-2, when I hear people screaming and a loud explosion,
and I heard like “sssssssss…” the dust like “sssssssss…” So I come out of the bus, and I look and I see
a big cloud of dust and debris coming from the glass… through the condominium,
the other building, and like, glass falling. So I just started to run,
everybody ran, so I just ran. Our bus, it got totaled.
FIREFIGHTER ANGEL RIVERA
WTC2
the chief told us go to the Marriott Hotel, go
from the 14th floor up, search and evacuate all the floors. So we walk all the
way up, no problem. Then we hear the explosion and debris falling. We were
looking out of the windows and see body parts all over the place.
PARAMEDIC DANIEL RIVERA
WTC2
Q. WHAT DID YOU
When
I saw the first building collapse I noticed that the first three or four floors , they were pretty good, that was on my mind. Wow,
they were pretty good. THEN THEY SAID THERE WAS A
CHIEF ALBERT TURI
FDNY
WTC2 plane
I turned around to
assess the situation, and the fireball had pretty much dissipated, and what I
actually thought at that time, and mistakenly so, was it's not as bad as it
looks; most of the fuel was expended on
the exterior of the building. So we
ran back to the car and laying right in back of my car
was a large object which I thought was probably part of one of the aircraft
turbines.
FIREFIGHTER EDWARD SHEEHEY
(My comments in parentheses: Sheehey heard an explosion
before the
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_...
"Q. Where exactly were you when the south tower collapsed?
A. We were proceeding across
Q. South of the command post?
A. Straight across from it, going in towards the south tower. We were probably
just at
We dropped all our tools and gear, and we turned around. There was a parking
garage to the right of the command post, so we ran down into the parking
garage."
(Mayday distress calls just before the collapses---why? Could this be due to
more complications from unexpected explosions going off? That could be a
possibility but not conclusive.)
"Q. Did you hear any emergency transmissions on the handy talky? Did you
have a handy talky?
A. No, I didn¹t have a handy talky.
Q. Did you hear anything being next to
anybody?
A. I heard maydays. As we were at the command post, we heard maydays. I
couldn¹t make out what they were for.
Q. Was this before the collapse or after?
A. Before the collapse. Then after the collapse I heard -‹ we looked for
someone with a radio, and we found a captain from another engine company. I
couldn¹t tell you what company he was from. He was looking for the rest of his
men, and he had a handy talky. He said if he heard them calling for us he would
let us know. I heard a couple of maydays on his handy talky but couldn¹t make
out who was giving them or where they were."
So I said, let me take him
to the hospital. So as I was pulling off, I’d say about half a block away,
we heard a big boom, and we seen a whole bunch of ashes, everything just
started coming towards us.
BATTALION CHIEF BRIAN DIXON WTC2
I got just a little ways back and it was just
like -- you hear the noise, a boom,
and then a blast of air. It just
kind of threw me against the wall. That's where I decided to stay. Since it blew me there.
PARAMEDIC NEIL SWEETING
WTC2
We
were probably about half a block away from t h e complex at this point . You heard a big boom, it was quiet for about t e
n seconds. Then you could hear another
one.
CAPTAIN JAY SWITHERS
WTC2
At that point I looked back and most of the
people who were triaged in that area with the triage tags on them got up and
ran. I took a quick glance at the building and while I didn't see it falling, I
saw a large section of it blasting out,
which led me to believe it was just an explosion.
I thought it was a secondary device,
but I knew that we had to go.
BATTALION CHIEF THOMAS VALLEBUONA
WTC2
I HEARD
I REALIZED THAT WE WERENT FAR ENOUGH AWAY FROM THIS BUILDING
FIREFIGHTER JOSEPH RAE
WTC2
We started walking north to
just about the second footbridge, which would be 6 World Trade, and all of a
sudden we heard the explosion and
the building started to come down and I ran
I HEARD SIX
FIREFIGHTER KENNETH ESCOFFRY FDNY
WTC2
incoming missile before collapse
“On the way out between tower one and six, we
heard something like an incoming missile,
and we started to run. That's when the second tower came down. I was knocked
down.”
WTC2
The next thing I heard was a loud like an
engine roar. I looked up, and the next thing I knew I just saw -- I don't know
if it was the tail end of the plane
or what, but I saw something. When I looked up, I heard "boom." Now, when the explosion hit I don't know if -- it actually took me off my feet,
because I fell. I actually got cuts and stuff
like that all over my hands and whatnot
FIREFIGHTER THOMAS ORLANDO FDNY
I would say on the 18th
floor when we took a little break. At the time the building was shaking. It was
hit with something. At that time we thought it was another missile attack, so
we all just ran into the stairway and just helped cover us and other civilians
and firemen until it stopped shaking. We didn't know what it was at the time.
We were told that there's been a collapse -- they didn't say what collapsed –
and to start working your way out.
Jody Bell
WTC2
I had her sit in the chair and I put some
oxygen on her, because she wasn't breathing right, she was hyperventilating. I
was just trying to calm her down.
I was strapping her onto the stair chair, and
that's when the building comes down. So I strapped her on. As I this tidal wave, it's like a tidal wave of soot and ash coming in my
direction, my life flashed before my eyes. I made a U turn, and I started to run -- I took about ten steps, and the
lady started screaming, "Don't
leave me! Don't leave me!" That's when I gathered myself. I got a hold
of myself, wait, what the hell am I doing?
I turned back around. I got her out of the chair. I said,
"Ma'am, can you run?" She said, "Yes." She took off. I
immediately made a U turn, and I've
never moved so fast in my life.
Then shortly
after that -- the building came down. It's like snow fall. The cars are
covered. The streets are covered. I'm covered and breathing in mouthfuls. You
couldn't see. The scene was totally
blacked out. You're just running in the direction that you think is away. I knew I was running -- this would be westbound.
I was running westbound down Vesey. I ran
about a block to
FIREFIGHTER JOHN MALLEY
WCT2
I felt the rumbling, and then I felt the
force coming at me. I was like, what the hell is that? In my mind it was a bomb going off.
The pressure got so great,
I stepped back behind the columns separating the revolving doors. Then the
force just blew past me. It blew past me it seemed for a long time. In my mind
I was saying what the hell is this and when is it going to stop? Then it finally stopped, that pressure which
I thought was a concussion of an explosion. It turns out it was the down pressure wind of
the floors collapsing on top of each other. At that point everything went
black, and then the collapse came. It just rained on top of us. Everything
came. It rained debris forever. I was semiburied.
There were secondary explosions, I don't know, aerosol cans or whatever. But
we're in the darkness. We see basically the glow of a flashlight and still
things coming down. The noise, the explosions, whatever it was.
WTC2
Like I said, we were standing there watching
the north tower and not even paying attention to the south tower. Then you look up and it's like holy shit, the
building didn't come down, it shot
straight out over our heads, like straight across
FIREFIGHTER JOSEPH SULLIVAN
WTC2
Now, when it did collapse, I saw a chunk come
down. I thought it was a partial collapse, like maybe part of the fascia coming
down. It came down, and we were looking, and all of a sudden the cloud rushed.
It was like whoa, but then a couple of seconds it overtook us.
FIREFIGHTER LIEUTENANT ANTHONY MANCUSO
WTC
From what we could see, we couldn't see the
whole tower that was coming down. We could just see the facade coming off, and we backed up.
FIREFIGHTER MICHAEL HAZEL
WTC2
the tower started to come down. At first it
looked to me like just the top of the
tower, like maybe the top 15 floors, like the skin of the building was just
peeling off and coming down.
FIREFIGHTER FRANK SWEENEY
WTC2
I hear what sounded like firecrackers and a low rumble. I look up, and the south tower – I
could see the top part of the siding
overlapping the bottom side of the siding. The siding actually was like this.
Then I saw the dirt above that. I ran.
I was right behind Scott. Scott ran into the Winter Garden and got against a
concrete pillar
Peter
Constantine
WTC2
And
then all of a sudden, when you looked up, you froze for a couple of seconds, you saw these little
pieces falling off. Then all of a sudden, everyone started to run. Then,
you started to run,
FIREFIGHTER TIMOTHY JULIAN
WCT2
We came out from 90 West ,
made Left, headed East, and right when we got to the corner of
FIREFIGHTER EDWARD KENNEDY
WCT2
We took two steps, there was a tremendous boom, explosion, we both
turned around, and the top of the building was coming down at us. With this I
just turned to Richie and said run.
WTC2
Then all of a sudden there was like a loud --
almost like a rushing sound, a roar, and we looked up and we could see it looked like an implosion and the
building kind of went in and out and kind of like shook.
BATTALION CHIEF JOHN SUDNIK
WTC2
THEN WE HEARD A
CAPTAIN JOHN LUONGO
His conclusions were blanked out
SUPERVISING
It seems as if suddenly there was a -- our
attention was drawn to the south tower. There was some kind of explosion, you might say, up in the
area where the fire was. Actually, in hindsight, that was the start of the
collapse. Now, we were very close at that time.
LIEUTENANT ROBERT LAROCCO
survivor of WCT2 collapse who was in Lobby when it fell
p20
Just as I put my foot on the first stair on
the escalator, the building started like shaking. It was like a wave in the
floor and a real loud noise. What we did was, me and
the police officer started running from the east northeast end of the building
toward the west. Anyway, just to describe to you the collapse of the south
tower coming down, I really wasn't aware there was a full collapse. I thought
it might have been just a localized collapse. It was the loudest noise I've
ever heard in my life. It was in both ears. Kind of like those rockets that
they launch the space shuttles with, it was like I had one going off in
each ear. When I thought it was the loudest noise
I ever heard, every second it was just increasing getting louder and louder and
louder.
I was running as fast as I could. With this
noise getting louder and louder, also what's happening simultaneously was light
– whatever light we had was becoming darkness, like obscuring and getting dark
fast, like someone pulling down the shades real fast. Anyway, it kind of sounded to me as if the
collapse was aimed right at me, right at my back. I was running as fast as I
could, and when I felt that I was getting overtaken by the collapse, where
there was no hope, I threw myself on my knees at the next concrete column that
I came up against I kept that on my right side. With that the collapse came and
I started getting buried. Stuff was falling
down. It was loud and just kept coming and coming.
BATTALION CHIEF BRIAN OFLAHERTY
Several survivors of WTC2 collapse:
I KNEW WHAT WAS COMING
DOWN. THE BUILDING I WAS IN WAS COMING DOWN.
I LOOKED
IT WAS TERRIBLE NOISE
BESIDES THE BUILDING SHUDDERING THE SOUND WAS HORRENDOUS TO ME IT SOUNDED LIKE
STEEL CUTTING THROUGH STEEL. THATS HOW I
EXPLAIN IT YOURE LAYING THERE THERES STUFF
HITTING YOU HAD MY RIGHT
CAPTAIN HOWARD SICKLES FDNY
WTC2
WE HEARD RUMBLING WE THOUGHT IT WAS ANOTHER PLANE WE
LOOKED UP
SAW THE TOWERS
I STARTED CALLING PEOPLE ON THE RADIO I
RADIO
WCT2
I looked up and saw this big gaping hole
where the south tower used to be. That's the first point that I realized that
the south tower had collapsed. Maybe ten
or 15 stories high left of it. Probably most of it being
a pile of rubble.
WTC2
When the first building collapsed, we both started --
my partner and I both started walking back to the vehicle and we opened up one
of the compartment doors where we put all our equipment in and as it was coming
down, we started seeing a mob of people start running towards us. So we opened
up our back doors and we put in as many people as we could and then my partner
was kind of motioning to the civilians and the ESU workers,
that whoever wanted to get a ride, they just hop in and we would take
them. And this whole time the building
was still coming down. It was only halfway down. I proceeded to get into the
driver's seat and there were like several people running up to the bus saying,
"get out of here." And we actually ended up driving with several
people on the hood and people were hanging off the sides of the mirrors, off
the back step of the ambulance, and I'd say we probably got about like 30 --
maybe 30 people out of there before it actually came completely down and
the smoke came.
CAPTAIN JANICE OLSZEWSKI
SO AS WE HEARD IT START TO COLLAPSE
I THOUGHT IT WAS AN EXPLOSION OR SECONDARY DEVICE BOMB, THE
WTC2
I was on the side of
the church. I looked and all this debris just started exploding everywhere, and I turned around to run. When I got maybe halfway the block, I got
knocked to the ground. My helmet got cracked. A piece of debris had hit my
helmet.
EMT SEAN CUNNIFFE WTC2 falls in stages
American Express building. That was our next staging point, in the
lobby there. The rumbling started and a
big cloud of smoke came by the windows and started breaking the windows.
Q. Now we're talking about the south tower
collapsing?
A. Yeah, it collapsed. I'm sure it was some
significant time in between. It seemed like ten minutes, the whole job.
WTC2 falls in 2 stages
I SAW IT LOOKED LIKE THE TOP MAYBE 70 60
FLOORS COMING OFF THE BUILDING
Then after running 2 blocks:
AT
OF FREIGHT TRAIN OR WHATEVER ITS THE WORST SOUND IN THE WORLD STOPPED
BUT THEN IT STARTED AGAIN THEN I STARTED HAULING ASS AGAIN
Eric Berntsen FDNY
WTC2
takes a few minutes to collapse??
We heard the explosions from the kitchen. We
went up on the roof and got there just in time to see the second plane hit the
towers. So we ran downstairs. It was
about five after
The officer went off, got orders from a
Chief, and we were told to go to the 74th floor of the south tower. He came
back, told us what we were doing. We gathered the company together, started
heading north through the Marriott. Then we made a right and went down the ramp
to get to the concourse level. We headed
eastbound in the concourse level to where it first turns up to the left, where
the mall turns up to the left. That's
when we heard the building start shaking.
I looked up into the Marriott, because you could see up into it from where we
were standing, and just saw black, like dust. The lights went out. I jumped
into a corner under an archway.
After the building stopped shaking and there
was no rumbling noise any more. We all got back together. We all turned on our
lights.
When we got out on to Vesey,
there was a Port Authority cop with us and he said that they were given reports
that the second building was going to come down. So we made a decision we'd
better leave. We were
exhausted from carrying this gentleman who was pretty
heavy, we estimated about 300 pounds, 275. It took six guys to carry him. We
were all exhausted. We were changing. We
made it a couple of steps and then we heard
the rumble and we knew the second tower was coming down. Everybody let go
of the guy and ran. Vinnie
and the cop jumped under a car. There
was no room for me there and I thought I could make it a little bit further
than that. So once I hit the sidewalk on the
Then I looked up and I saw a dark cloud and I
grabbed my helmet. The force knocked me down, blew me. I don't
know how far I went, but I went forward pretty far. It knocked the wind out of me. I got covered with debris and just kept my hands on my helmet. Something
pretty big hit me and knocked my helmet off. I felt weight piling up on my
back. I said I can't just lay here. I
said let me get out of here. Let me see how deep I am, see what I can do. I was
up against the wall of the
The chauffeur
got blown down I don't know what street. he was
with the rig. The rig survived. It got beat up, the windows blown out, a little
fire damage, not that much
WHAT DID YOU DO AFTER THE FIRST
BUILDING COLLAPSED I RAN LIKE HELL I LEFT EVERYTHING THERE
FIREFIGHTER TIMOTHY BROWN- WTC2 Blast,
70 mph wind
I ran into the doors of the Two World Trade
on the
We finally set up -- prior to this I believe
it was the west side of the core of the building there were elevators.
I told Chief Burns that I was going to go
find
As we ran towards the rear, which is the
three side of the hotel, and rounded the corner to go into
nailed down. You could not any longer run into the
wind because you were getting pummeled by stuff. You couldn't see anybody to communicate.You couldn't hear anything. It was becoming our
grave.
I wound up crawling on the floor as the wind
got stronger and the roar got louder. I
found what I'm guessing was a 12 by 12 boxed out steel column, which I tried to
become one with. I got as close as I could to it. I had a helmet on. The helmet
got blown off by the wind.
I'm no meteorologist, but I'm guessing that
the wind at its height was around 70, 75
miles an hour. I had to hold onto that steel column with all my might so I
wouldn't get blown out into the street, I thought it lasted four minutes,
Somebody told me it lasted a much shorter time than that. You still couldn't see anything.
PARAMEDIC KEVIN DARNOWSKI
3 Explosions before WTC2 fell
At that time I started walking back up
towards
tower two started to come down.
BATTALION
CHIEF DOMINICK DeRUBBIO - WTC2 appeared like a timed explosion
I was
looking over t h e Winter Garden a t t h e second
tower, and then I saw that starting to
come down. It was weird how it started to come down. It looked like it was a timed explosion, but I guess it was
just the floors starting to pancake one on top of the other.
EMT MOUSSA DIAZ WTC2, big boom then collapse
When we heard the big boom, I looked up and I just saw the building collapsing.
WTC2
falls it appeared
there were explosives planted
“The sound it made. As I said I thought the terrorists planted explosives somewhere in
the building. That's how loud it was, crackling
explosive, a wall.”
LIEUTENANT ROBERT DORRITIE FDNY WTC2
I got my guys and started walking across
LIEUTENANT GEORGE J. DeSIMONE
WTC2
I thought it was an explosion initially. We got hit with the powder. We tried to run.
We
proceeded to 3 World Financial Center, the American Express building They set up a triage area in that lobby. ...
At that time, when I heard the 3 loud explosions, I started running
west on
building and at that time I started treating
patients.
CAPTAIN WILLIAM MCLAUGHLIN FDNY
WCT1
I LOOKED UP
FIREFIGHTER JOHN
PICARELLO FDNY
WTC1
I started to hear that
rumbling sound again. I looked up, and the first thing I saw was the aerial on the top of the tower just rocking
one way and rocking the other way, and all of a sudden there it goes.
WTC1
FIREFIGHTER KEVIN GORMAN WTC1 explosions, then falls
John Malley, who
was right behind me, I turned around for him, because he was doing something,
either putting his coat on or something, and as I was looking at him I heard the explosion, looked up, and saw
like three floors explode, saw the
antenna coming down, and turned around and ran north.
Q. About how long would you say it was from when
the police officer told you it was leaning?
A. Within 30 seconds
LIEUTENANT GARY GATES
WTC1
I looked up, and the building exploded, the building that we were very close to, which
was one tower. The whole top came off like
a volcano. I'm looking at the face
of it, and all we see is the two sides of the building just blowing out and coming apart like this,
as I said, like the top of a volcano.
FIREFIGHTER WILLIAM GREEN
He POINTED UP. HE SAID ITS
FALLING I LOOKED
BARRETT HIRSCH
they were trying to get things reorganized after
the first blast they -- I know they
started some of the crews and somebody over in the other tower
Then I noticed, like, the top of the tower seemed to shoot up a little bit and
start to fall down a little bit. that's when Bill Simon and I just bolted in towards one of
the other overpasses just to get some cover
FIREFIGHTER KEVIN HOWE
WTC1
I'm hearing like a rumble and I'm looking up
and I'm seeing the antenna start to do this type of nonsense, swaying a little
bit it seemed, and sure enough the building was coming down. That was tower
number 1, the north tower. As it started coming down, we saw this ferocious
amount of black cloud, a brown cloud that was chasing everybody.
Jody Bell
WTC1 collapses
When I came back this time, not only was it
snowing but I could see the other tower, and the tower was starting to break
off. It was kind of looking like it was going to tip, and there was a piece of
the building coming down right on top of me and Mike. We sat there like for a split second and we
just watched it in amazement that this building was coming down, the second
building was coming down. The building
was hitting other buildings. This
time it was worse. We were just
running. This time we ran all the way back as far as we could to the railing. I
was damn near ready to jump in the river. I swear to God, I was holding the
railing, looking back, as this thing's coming towards us.
There
was debris almost to
LIEUTENANT JAMES WALSH
WTC1
THE NORTH TOWER LOOKED LIKE WHEN IT
STARTED TO FALL IT LOOKED LIKE THE TOP FELL MORE TOWARDS THE NORTH
Q. THATS THE WAY IT
LOOKED ON THE TAPE
Captain Karin Deshore
"... SOMEWHERE
AROUND THE MIDDLE OF THE
IF WE
We took the two elderly ladies from the
building with us, now 12 or so, going out of the building and to get down
toward the water. So here these
explosions are getting bigger and louder and I told everybody if this building
totally explodes, I’m going in the water. Just then, a small
DEPUTY COMMISSIONER THOMAS FlTZPATRlCK FDNY
We looked up at the building straight up, we were
that close. All we saw was a puff of
smoke coming from about 2 thirds of the way up. Some people thought it was an explosion. My initial
reaction was that this was exactly the way it looks when they show you those
implosions on TV. I don't think I remember that. I remember seeing,
it looked like sparkling around one specific layer of the building. I assume
now that that was either windows starting to collapse like tinsel or something. Then
the building started to come down. II would have to say for three or four
seconds anyway, maybe longer. I was just watching. It was interesting to watch,
but the thing that woke everybody up was the cloud of black material. The black
cloud was coming down faster than the building, so whatever was coming down was
going to
hit the street and it was pretty far out. You knew it
wasn't coming right down. Judging from where people were jumping before that,
this cloud was out much further.
James Ippolito FDNY
WCT1
It looked like some kind of maybe a command
post or something was there. I Started to walk towards
it, and that's when the building came down. I heard an explosion and turned around and the building was coming
down. At that point, we dropped
everything we had. We started to run north on
WTC1
Ground level explosion before it fell
WE
Police Lieutenant Michael Murphy Handwritten report. Pages 3&4
(pa-police-reports01.pdf pages 10-11)
http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=38371
“…We came upon the NYPD Chief
of Detectives with a couple of his men. They appeared to be appraising the
situation. We proceeded past them and were within a block of WTC when a
couple of loud explosions occurred in front of us.”
FIREFIGHTER KEVIN
MURRAY
WTC1
We got up to the fifth floor and there was severe damage. The ceilings had come down, some walls had caved in . Major sprinkler damage. Then we went to the sixth floor and did the same t h i n g . Same sort of damage up there .
The south tower had collapsed. Now, it shook us and knocked a couple
of guys down. Everybody ran to the
stairwell.
We basically did an
evacuation at that point and we started trying to get the people to keep going
down the stairs.
When the tower started
-- there was a big
explosion that I heard and someone screamed that it was coming down and I
looked away and I saw all the windows domino -- you know, dominoeing up
and then come down.
FIREFIGHTER DANIEL
WHEN WE MADE IT INTO THE LOBBY THERE
WAS DEBRIS FALLING FROM THE BUILDING GUYS WERE TRYING TO
FIREFIGHTER ROY CHELSEN -firefighters leaving
WTC1 find lobby blasted
we proceeded in Tower 1. I think the revolving
doors were kind of busted up, so I think we went through a window.
We made our way up to 29 or 30. We were again
resting again. All of a sudden just -- I don't know if the sequence is right,
but everything went black, and all the power went out. There was just this
rumbling. I felt like it went on forever.
Someone came down and tell us to evacuate. From there it was just asses
and elbows. We all just started running. I didn't even have my mask on anymore.
We just dropped everything. Actually between 20 and 30.
We got down to the lobby. The lobby is like gone.
LT. THOMAS PIAMBINO FDNY
WTC1
the north tower started to fall, and my
perception was that when I looked back at the tower as it was starting to come
down -- I was booking -- was that there was -- I thought it exploded, It looked to me like an explosion, and you
could feel the -- you could feel it coming, and they were still running away
from it.
LIEUTENANT GREGG
HANSSON
WTC1
we took another rest at the 27th f loor. I questioned t h e guy from t h e 90th
floor , who said it was a plane. That
' s when I first realized that we had a plane up t h e r e . He said
there was a fireball on the 90th f loor and a lot of smoke
on the 90th floor.
He stated to me that
he believed everyone from the 90th floor had gotten out.
The conditions in the
stairway were absolutely clear. There was no smoke whatsoever. Then we
continued our way up again, eventually reaching the 35th floor
.
Then I heard a mayday
given over the command channel to evacuate the building. A couple
people, civilians , indicated to me that there was an elevator that was working
at this time.
We were outside the
building. Then a large explosion
took place. In my estimation now that was the tower coming down, but at that
time I did not know what that was. I thought
some type of bomb had gone off. We were all hit with debris. At that point
it was a total blackout. You couldn't see anything.
FIREFIGHTER WILLIAM GREEN After WTC1 fell thought it was explosion
At that point in time I called
explosion at the
LIEUTENANT JOHN CITARELLA FDNY
WTC1 explosion before collapse
I turned, took a couple of steps, and then I
heard another explosion, it sounded
like. I looked up, and the north tower was starting to come down. So me and Steve started running.
Frank Campagna, FDNY Ladder 11 in
WTC1
We just kept walking up. As far as we knew,
there were no planes or anything coming in. We just knew there was a fire up
there. Any other explosions that we
felt from inside were maybe extra machinery or something like that. Those were
the words that we were getting
Lt. NEIL BROSNAN
FDNY WTC1 Explosion in lower level
Q. Did you know what the explosion
was? A. No. We never heard through this
whole event. I happened to have been there when WTC1 collapsed. I seen that collapse.
A. I went in a good 200 yards, right short of the
Path station. Retreated back when I seen 238 coming in the hallway I had just
come in. I had just hooked up with 238
at the elevator bank.
They observed the explosion and the hallway disappeared.
They thought the hallway blew up where I had come from. They thought they seen debris coming down and
said, “The Lieutenant’s dead.” My senior
guy regroups the company. He yells out,
“Regroup”. They’re under light debris
also.
But actually
on their third search in they encountered a heavy
rubble and heavy fire field in that concourse level, which they didn’t know
what it was. They just knew that—they
actually stretched the house line and there was no water. They said, “Okay, time to leave”. (this may
have been from collapse of WTC2)
John Jonas FDNY:
WTC1 collapse survivor “we
were hearing explosions
http://www.acfd.com/miracle_of_ladder_company_6.htm
LIEUTENANT GLEN ROHAN
WTC1
We got approximately to Vesey, a little further past Vesey, I would say about 200
feet from the tower, when we heard a noise. I wouldn't even call it an
explosion, but it was enough to make you look up.
When we looked up, you could
see things coming off the sides of the building of what was then number One
World Trade Center. We looked at
it for probably about five
seconds before I realized that this building is coming down.
(firefighter helped get survivors of WTC1 collapse out)
FIREFIGHTER HOWIE SCOTT
WTC1
The second one just seemed like it just
opened up all over the place.
BATTALION CHIEF THOMAS VALLEBUONA
WTC1
BA
LIEUTENANT WILLIAM WALL FDNY
WTC1
AT THAT TIME WE HEARD AN EXPLOSION WE LOOKED UP
FIREFIGHTER KEVIN QUINN
WTC2
Looking up at the towers and it looked like
it just basically imploded. Then I
guess the cloud came right at us and we got zero visibility, we couldn't
breathe.
FIREFIGHTER WILLIAM GREEN
WTC1
LIEUTENANT Ohagan REPORTED IN TO THE
FIREFIGHTER GERARD GORMAN
in WTC1 when WTC2 fell
It was like an earthquake. It was like worse
and worse. It got real dark. I remember diving
into the core of the building by the elevators. I fucking forgot my mask,
dove in, just diving. It was shaking and then the lights went out and it got
shitty in there. We all made it back in
the stairway, all got out -- I mean, our
officer, Lieutenant Bohack, said that's it, we're
going out. That's it, we're out of here.
WTC1
WE ACTUALLY THOUGHT IT WAS ANOTHER PLANE THATS RIGHT THATS WHENTHE OTHER
BUILDING CAME DOWN BECAUSE
WE HEARD THE RUMBLE.
Firemen evacuating WTC1, after WTC2 collapsed
Sean Brown damage, then collapse
“The Maydays started coming in to vacate the
north tower.
So as we started going
down. At that point, we
proceeded down. Most of the civilians -- we didn't see any civilians at that point.
It was mainly firefighters. Made it down to
the lobby. There were about maybe 30
firefighters that
were with us. Made it to the lobby, and the lobby was like a war zone. All the windows were blown out, and the
command post wasn't there. we made it to the corner of West and Vesey
when the building came down. That was myself,
and Firefighter Tim Marmion
FIREFIGHTER ANTHONY
WTC1
We ended up putting out as
many fires as we could from West Broadway and Warren all the way down to West
Broadway and Vesey.
Putting out all those fires,
in that interim, the second building had come down. I remember hearing a lot of explosions, the street turning
completely gray, gray clouds of smoke all over the place. Everybody had stopped
what they were doing and ran back up the block.
Firefighter Pete Felluca.
At that point, attention was called upon me
to go back
and get -- there was a chief that they pulled
out,
so I ran over to grab that chief, and proceeded
to move to pull him towards the ambulance. We got him the help he needed.
I have medical training, so I figured I would
do my best to help him out, and put him in the
ambulance. Then
the building totally collapsed, and I
would say I was on West and Barclay. The guys from
the
company were on West and Vesey.”
(Did
WTC1 partially collapse and then later totally collapse as he seems to
describe???)
P. Ashby -
(blanked out paragraph followed by)
SO THOUGHT SOMEBODY LAUNCHED MISSILE FROM THE
IM TRYING TO
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/09/297359.shtml
http://letsroll911.org/ipw-web/bulletin/bb/viewtopic.php?t=4035
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/113055p-102094c.html
Video:
http://www.terrorize.dk/911/naudet/woolworth.php
Robert Bohack, Lieutenant FDNY
lots blanked out & missile attack reported
After a blanked out paragraph:
19th floor WTC1 -
after plane hit WTC2 and before WTC2 fell
AS SOON AS WE
FLOOR THERES
Another 2 blanked paragraphs
WE GO UP TO ABOUT
Q. Was that 7?
No. Seven was here. That wasn’t on fire.
Another blank paragraph
WE ENDED UP PUMPING FOR TWO
DAYS. I HEARD THAT THE WATER DEPARTMENT
SHUT OFF
FIREFIGHTER PETER FALLUCCA File No. 9110388
Missiles from
You heard the explosion and everything, but I saw the big
fire ball. The stuff was coming down across the street. It looked like a meteor came flying across the
street. They said it was the engine. I don't know what it was. It was a big
fireball or something from the plane I guess, came from across the street in
front of our rig, and as we get out of the
rig, there's a cop, city police officer, in the street. He's telling us,
"I'm getting out of here. I just
saw a rocket." He said he saw it come
off the
And we were like, holy -- I'm saying to myself, I didn't even go in yet. They're shooting
rockets. I don't know what we're doing over here, but after I watched it on
the news a couple of times, I could see it was a piece of the plane or
something flew off the building and made like a -- it looked -- if you didn't
see it actually come off the plane, you saw like the stream of smoke coming
from one building to the other, but actually came from the tower, and they
didn't go the other way, so he swore he saw a rocket, but at the time we
thought it was a rocket. We thought -- I thought we were under attack, and we
were under attack, naturally, but I thought we were under
attack in the city. You know, I thought
guys were in these buildings with rockets shooting at the building, and we made
our way in. (it
does not appear that the plane engine trajectory would have been confused with
something from
Sal D’Agostino FDNY
“And somebody was saying that they were hitting us with
rockets from the
Anthony Bartolomey
One person actually said that it was like a military style plane that actually shot
missiles into the building.
Derek Brogan
FDNY WTC1 after WTC2 fell
rubble in 4th floor stairwell &
lobby damage & blast
(After WTC2 had collapsed)
As we got back in the stairwell, we didn't
know whether we were going up or going down. But the rumbling was so intense
that we didn't really know what had happened. We just assumed that our building
had been hit by another plane. The
officer just looked at all of us and said, "That's it. We're getting out
of here. We're done. So we started going down the stairs.
We got to the fourth floor, and the stairwell was filled with rubble. We couldn't go down that stairway anymore.
So we went out into the hallway through the fourth floor, and the officer again
yelled that we have to look for windows. Maybe we could blow out a window and
just get fresh air from a window, whatever it was that was in his mind.
There was no windows in the lobby when we were leaving.
I
started running up
Do you remember your exact positioning, where exactly it
was when you started to run at that point?
A. We were just beyond the Verizon building, which I think the Verizon
building is the north side of
James Drury (Assistant
Commissioner FDNY) WTC1 explosions and bombs?
"I
came close to arriving at the corner of Vesey and
West again where we started to hear the second roar. That was the north tower
now coming down. I should say that people in the street and myself
included thought that the roar was so loud that the explosive - bombs were going off inside the building.
As I
said I thought the terrorists planted explosives somewhere in the building.
That's how loud it was, crackling
explosive, a wall.”
LIEUTENANT MICHAEL
CAHILL FDNY WTC1, boom,boom,boom,boom
That's when the second
collapse started to come down. All kinds of noise. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, very
loud. Nobody knew what it was. Everybody stopped when we heard it. Everybody
took it very seriously when the firefighters started running.
FIREFIGHTER
WTC1
The north tower came down, and I got hit with
some debris. I remember getting banged up to the divider by the rig which was
in the street. I made my way underneath the scaffolding again and just tried to
outlast the collapse, which I thought was just another bomb going off.
CHIEF ALBERT TURI
FDNY
WTC1
In the construction of
the
high-rise construction.
And as my eyes
traveled up the building, and I was looking at the south tower, somewhere about
halfway up, my initial reaction was there was a secondary explosion, and the entire floor area, a ring right around
the building blew out. And as my eyes
traveled further up the building, I realized that this building was collapsing
and I turned around and most everybody was ahead of me running for the garage,
WTC1 debris pile & survivors
Q. Describe the debris
you saw when you finally got down to
A. I guess the debris
was steel and dust. Steel and dust, in some spots two stories
high, in most spots ten feet high covering the entire
F o r
t u n a t e l y f o r f i v e or s i x of our people, I was wrong and people were rescued out
of a s t a i r w e l l
sometime l a t e r ., Ladder 6 and t h e 11th B a t t a l i o n , Richie
P i c c i
o t t o , Jay Jonas.
Albert Barry FDNY
damage to lobby area of WTC1 before collapse
We proceeded to the north tower and entered the lobby area through a broken
window. From there we made it to
about the 20th floor when we heard a radio signal for a mayday to
remove ourselves from there, the building was in eminent collapse. Our lieutenant said there's no need
for us to be in here, let's make our way out the
way we came in, and that's what we did. Once we came out the window, there was debris all over the place. We took a
few steps out, turned around, and the north tower was coming down.
CAPTAIN JOHN KEVIN CULLEY lobby of WTC1 before 2nd
plane hit
In the lobby of tower 1, all the usual
people, the 1st Division, 1st Battalion, reporting in units, I can't
remember specifically, the Fire Safety Director, who I recognized, FBI agents,
people on the staff, building staff, particularly people that were involved
with helping us read the elevator panels. Our first thought, normal high-rise
operation is you want to get people up to the floors, the fire floors. That's
normally done on elevators and we had a problem. There were no elevators in
operation. What made it more of a problem is that all those elevators were shut
down and there were people in them. So we were actually -- once I had staff
that could operate the panel, they could speak to each individual elevator, ask
how many people are in the elevator, what floor they were on.
Q. Can you describe what you visually were
seeing around, like outside or on the concourse? A. On the concourse? I don't remember on the
concourse. In the lobby? As I said,
the usual people that would show up.
Q. Was there a lot of debris falling at the time?
Once the plane hit, there was no debris, or it fell. What we did have coming out of the
building were people. Also, I'd note that, once I arrived at the fire command
station, I was told by someone who had actually witnessed the plane hitting it
that it was indeed a plane
LIEUTENANT JAMES WALSH FDNY
WTC1 elevators
WHAT
IN THE CENTER OF THESE TWO ELEVATOR
SHAFTS WOULD BE ELEVATORS THAT GO TO THE
LOWER FLOORS. THEY WERE BLOWN OFF THE
HINGES. THAT’S WHERE THE SERVICE
ELEVATOR WAS ALSO. Q. WERE THESE
ELEVATORS THAT WENT TO THE UPPER FLOORS? THEY WERENT
NO ID SAY THAT THEY
WENT THROUGH FLOORS 30
WTC1 Condition before
collapse
YEAH,
WAS THERE ANY INDICATION BEFORE IT WAS COMING DOWN? DID
YOU
ANYTHING? A.
NO I
DIDN’T. THERE WAS NO INDICATION
THAT IT WAS GOING TO COLLAPSE BEFORE IT ACTUALLY
STARTED COLLAPSING. NO I BELIEVE
THE HOLE THAT HAD SEEN IN
THE WORLD TRADE CENTER DONT KNOW IF SAID THIS INITIALLY BUT THE HOLE SEEMED ABOUT THREE
STORIES HIGH THAT THIS PLANE HAD MADE A THREE
STORY HOLE IN THE WORLD TRADE CENTER.
THE
TELL WHAT WAS ON THE SOUTH
THERE WAS NEVER ANY SMOKE IN THE BUILDING NEVER
INCURRED ANY SMOKE IN TOWER
LIEUTENANT JAMES WALSH
WTC1
THE NORTH TOWER LOOKED LIKE WHEN IT
STARTED TO FALL IT LOOKED LIKE THE TOP FELL MORE TOWARDS THE NORTH
Q. THATS THE WAY IT
LOOKED ON THE TAPE
FIREFIGHTER THOMAS TURILLI
WTC1
The elevator came back down, 13 got on and
said, listen, if you guys want the elevator,
we're not coming back with it. You've got to send
somebody up. The officer actually said for me to give my radio to a senior guy
there, Louie Cacchioli, and he took the radio off of
me and he went up
FIREFIGHTER WILLIAM GREEN
WTC1
WE TRIED TO MAKE THE 44TH FLOOR. THERE WAS REPORT OF AN ELEVATOR ON THE 44TH
FLOOR THAT WENT INTO THE 60S
Captain James Fody WTC1
Was there any fire in the elevator
shafts? Did you notice the elevator to
any extent?
A. I heard reports that there was one elevator working that some guys
used. There were no elevators by the time we got there.
I didn't see fire in the elevator shafts.
There was a good deal of soot, like a white soot all
through the lobby. A couple of the doors of the elevators were buckled, so
there was some kind of explosion or fire in there. (perhaps not, some
were trapped & force used to get them out)
Anthony Bartolomey
Then
as we were starting to
treat some more patients , we heard rumbling. We thought maybe
it was debris falling from the tower. You look up and you see the flame of the
plane hitting the second building. When you see t h e footage on TV, you see it
fly in one side and the fire ball shot out through the other side
. We actually saw the fire ball
shot out from the north side of that building .
That's when we
heard the rumbling of the tower starting to collapse and we started to get
people inside the church because you saw the cloud of the smoke and the soot
that was kicked up when the tower fell.
WTC1
WE WALKED BACK TOWARDS WHAT SAYS 4 WORLD FINANCIAL
WTC1
I started taking my equipment out and all of
a sudden I heard this sound. It sounded like a jet, a high, whistling sound. There was like a rumble behind it. I heard
people screaming. All of a sudden, the firemen that were behind me were
throwing their hose packs down. When I came out of the back of the truck, I
looked up and I saw
the second tower coming down.
When the building came down, it had to be
like a ten-story dust cloud or storm that came after us,
and you didn't know what the hell was in there. All you saw was papers and you
could see like the light in the papers. You didn't know if it was glass or
whatever.
We pulled the equipment out of the LSU truck,
because it had like two inches of dust inside, the multi-laters
were covered with dust.
ASSISTANT CHIEF
WTC1
I HEARD THAT ROAR AGAIN. It SOUNDED LIKE A BIG
WTC1
I started to make my way to the command post
when I heard that horrible sound again, you know, that whining screeching jet engine.
FIREFIGHTER GEORGE KOZLOWSKI
WTC1
AS WE WERE WALKING, WE HEARD WE
THOUGHT IT WAS ANOTHER PLANE COMING. IT WAS LIKE BIG SHHHHH A THOUSAND TIMES LOUDER THAN
THAT. IT SOUNDED LIKE A MISSILE COMING
FIREFIGHTER MICHAEL HAZEL
WTC1
When I looked up and I saw the antenna on the second tower coming
straight, just like falling straight
into the building,
That whole side of the West Side Highway was
just pretty much just demolished. That's where the walkways were.
We went down there and there were numerous
rigs burning, cars burning. It looked like something out of a war movie.
Brian Becker, FDNY Engine 28, Group
22.
WTC1 lobby explosion
We saw a lot of debris in the street as we came up,
and I was concerned. I could see what seemed t o be remains of bodies in the street . Our chauffer ended up hooking up on Barclay and West
Broadway. That's just north of 7 World Trade
Center, which it all interconnected, we think.
So we moved into 1
World Trade Center from that northern
pedestrian overpass, from underneath that , so we took
t h e shortest route , and I think we just went in a window. I think the glass was blown out there .
I ' d say we were i n t h e
30th or 31st, 32nd Floor, or something like that , and a few of the guys were lying wiped
out on t h e floor , you know, taking a break with their masks off and lying in
the hallway when t h e r e was a very loud roaring sound and a very loud explosion, and I had a
momentary concern t h a t our building was collapsing.
The Chief said
"Everybody, we are -- all
Fire Department personnel are out of the building. We are getting out. Q. Did
you have an idea what time you guys started to descend down? A. I would say it was like one minute after
the first building collapsed, the first collapse of the other building . Q. So
When we got to the lobby, there was total devastation
then . When we went in , it was blasted apart , and there was broken glass everywhere. All the
windows were out,
we
were in the northwest corner of the
building, so we were diagonally separated a hundred percent from the first
collapsed building. We were on the opposite corner -- we were the most sheltered part.
We saw an arrest being made of some Arab-looking type
guy. I think he had a blue uniform type
like he was being arrested
by a Port Authority type policeman. That's my impression. I remember them putting cuffs on him.
The collapse hadn't begun, but it
was not a fire any more up there. It
was like -- it was like that -- like smoke
explosion on a tremendous scale going on up there. A f t e r t h e -- a f t e r t h e collapse
, we were about 50 t o a hundred yards north of the pedestrian walkway,
and t h e c o l l a p s e was occurring, and then t h
e black cloud j u s t came roaring a t us.
All the rubble was on
We were in World Trade
Center 1. It was a tremendous explosion and tremendous shaking of our building. We thought it was our building
maybe collapsed, there was a collapse above us
occurring. That was our
experience when the other
building collapsed.
FIREFIGHTER PAUL HYLAND elevators working in WTC1
WTC1
We went in, busted through one of the
windows, opened up, made like a door.
The maintenance guy said I think the elevators are working, or it was
the Chief said it. The Chief went around and says take a look at some of the elevators. I think we had a
maintenance guy with us at the time. He said these
low-rise are working, it will get you up to 16. So we
went up to 16, which was great because, walking 16 flights, we wouldn't be able
to operate.
Now I'm about 20 to 25 feet from the windows
and the building starts to shake, and I look out and I'm just seeing all the
steel from the south tower coming down right in
front of my face, just all the steel, I mean, everything.
Then someone gave a Mayday to get out of the
building. So it took us quite a bit of
time to hit the lobby and it was just destroyed. I mean, it looked like -- it
wasn't the same lobby 15 minutes ago. It was just completely gone, every window
was shattered, all the ceiling tile, the elevator
banks had let go it seemed, the floor was all crushed down.
LIEUTENANT WAYNE MERA FDNY
elevators working at WTC1
WCT1
We were walking up Vesey
and we saw parts of the plane on the ground still burning. So we turn down onto
FIREFIGHTER HUGH METTHAM
WTC1
THE SCENE IN THE LOBBY
FIREFIGHTER KEITH MURPHY FDNY
WTC1
WE CAME INTO THE LOBBY
SOMEONE SAID AN ELEVATOR WHEN THE
PLANE
SO WE PROCEEDED
WE DIDNT GO BACK INTO THE MARRIOTT
WHERE WE HAD COME OUT WE KIND OF WE BASICALLY MADE LIKE TURN AROUND THAT
ELEVATOR BANK THAT I DESCRIBED WE
STARTED TO
Michael Beehler,
FDNY WTC1 lobby
devastated
We made it down to Vesey
and on to
A
Chief come over the radio. Anybody in the north tower get out now.
When we got down to the lobby I just remember
seeing all the windows in the north
tower on the lobby floor blown out and there was like dust and debris everywhere
FIREFIGHTER PETER FALLUCCA File No. 9110388
Every window in the place on the bottom floor
was broken. When we first got there,
just the windows where we went in there were broken, but now the windows in
the back of the lobby were -- there wasn't a window in the bottom of the lobby,
FIREFIGHTER TIERNACH CASSIDY
In the rubble of WTC1: some firemen in the building survived the collapse
SO I
Q. There guys were down in the big hole? Where were these guys? A. The fourth
Floor of the north tower when it came down. HOW
THEY SURVIVED I HAVE NO IDEA. I COULDNT BELIEVE
IT.
FIREFIGHTER TIMOTHY MARMION
WTC1 after WTC2 fell(another survivor of the
collapse):
I met a couple of the other firemen that were at the bottom of the stairs
waiting there for me. As far as I know, there was no smoke condition in the
lobby at that time. There were people over there (at the lobby command center).
Eventually our officer who had lagged behind somewhat, he told us that he
climbed out of the building(after the collapse). He
was in that area with 6 Truck and that woman.
LIEUTENANT JAMES MCGLYNN survivor of WTC1 collapse
WE YELLED ON THE FOURTH FLOOR I SAID OKAY HE
MUST HAVE KEPT GOING. AT THAT POINT WE TURNED AROUND
WHEN WE CAME OUT RIGHT HERE THERE WAS THIS GULLY IT WENT SOMETHING LIKE THIS REMEMBER
WHEN WE FINALLY CAME OUT WE HAD TO
Conclusion blanked out.
Captain John Jonas FDNY
The Miracle of Ladder Company 6
http://www.acfd.com/miracle_of_ladder_company_6.htm
John Jonas FDNY: “And we were hearing explosions
FIREFIGHTER
MICHAEL Morabito
Saving civilian on 7th floor of WTC1 after it fell:
We hooked up with a guy from Rescue 5 and a guy from Rescue 2 and we helped
rescue one civilian who was trapped on the 6th floor and pulled him down there
from – So we had to climb up and this guy is trapped at probably about the 7th
or 8th floor and he was just sitting on a piece of concrete when the whole
building came down. I had shimmied out like a piece of conduit and he lowered
him to me and I pulled him over, because we were over a big hole, I think it
was the north tower.
FIREFIGHTER KIRK LONG major damage to Port Authority area- 22
floor
WTC1
We walked through the main
doors. We made it up to the 22nd floor.
We did locate somebody at
the end of the hall, but everything was blown
out. The ceiling had fallen.
The drop ceiling had blown to the floor. Some of the walls were blown out. So
Andy and I had crawled down the
hallway to get to the Port
Authority command post. After that we went back to the members, and when the
building started to shake. I don't
remember anybody telling us to get
out, but there was a Port Authority person with us and I believe he had orders
to leave.
I get outside, still helping
people out, still not knowing the south tower had gone down. We get outside,
help some old man out. We
FIREFIGHTER MICHAEL YAREMBINSKY Port Authority Area
WTC1
WHEN WE
WHEN YOU LOOKED DOWN
Fireman Louie Cacchioli - FDNY
”I was taking firefighters up in
the elevator to the 24th floor to get in position to evacuate workers. On the
last trip up a bomb went off. We think there was bombs set in the
building.” http://www.prisonplanet.com/louie_cacchioli.html
FIREFIGHTER ARTHUR RICCIO
WTC1
Battalion 11, I don't know
who it was, he came around and said,
"You know what, this elevator here goes to 16. So we took it, went to 16. We walked up and got to 21. 21 was locked. We went
back down to 21, forced the door, we go in. Nobody was in there. It was a little hazy. The bathrooms were
charred.
When we got down to the
lobby, it was like a bomb hit it. I looked around and said, oh, my God, every
window is busted.
FIRE PATROLMAN PAUL CURRAN
(car fires after WTC1 fell)
At that time I went back to the north tower
again, and they were stretching a line. A lot of car fires erupted. All of a
sudden cars were blowing up everywhere. I went back and I helped a guy stretch
a line. The guy was all by himself. I helped
him stretch a line and started putting water on the car fires. I remember
distinctly walking
past -- I saw 118 Truck. 118 Truck was parked
right on
Paul Bessler FDNY some radios were working in
WTC1
22nd floor of WTC1 after 2nd tower
collapsed. Unlike reported, the radios
were working in WTC1. Several of the firemen said so in their statements. Perhaps some radios weren’t working.
Just
at that point, my radio came clear as day, "Imminent collapse. This was a
terrorist attack. Evacuate." That's exactly what I heard. I think that was
Chief Picciotto that was giving the order. We relayed
that again, hoping that the brothers would hear it above us,
FIREFIGHTER JOHN DRUMM FDNY
In WTC1 on 31st floor after WTC2 collapse radio message to evacuate WTC1
After the noise had stopped, there was a
transmission on the radio that I had. I was in a position on 39 control that day, so I had a radio so I could hear it myself
on my radio. There was a transmission
that I'm guessing was repeated about five times: "Imminent collapse,
imminent collapse of the north tower. Immediate
evacuation." At least five times I heard that.
FIREFIGHTER CHARLES GAFFNEY
WTC1 after WTC2 collapsed
I remember hearing a radio transmission,
"Urgent!" I don't know who gave it, but I remember hearing an
"Urgent!" that all inside operations were off. Everybody out of the
building, and we all started running down the stairs.
FIREFIGHTER ROBERT BYRNE radio was working some
. WTC1 before
WTC2 collapsed
On
the 13th floor we took a break. I remember
hearing radio calls then, by other units, some maydays, members down with
chest pains.
Setting up in WTC1, then setting up triage area in
WTC7 lobby
At that time radios were working, cell phones
we were having a lot of trouble with.
FIREFIGHTER WILLIAM GREEN
WTC1
IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN ABOUT 30 SECONDS
LATER HAD HEARD HANDY TALKY TRANSMISSION BELIEVE IT WAS MAYDAY MAYDAY EVACUATE THE BUILDING EVACUATE THE BUILDING ON
CHANNEL 1
File No. 9110373
I went over to his office, which faces the
cash area was and I started the tape and as I
was getting my fire gear ready looking out the window again, when we saw the
second plane crash into the second tower. I left the tape running and I knew it
was not an accident, you know, that this happened. I got
back up towards
took a few pictures as I saw the building start
to collapse,
FIREFIGHTER GERARD CASEY WTC2
concourse restaurant & street gone, huge crater after
WTC2 fell
We put our gear on, started going moving
forward, and that's when we heard the rumbling. Somebody screamed, "The
building's coming down." I had one shoulder strap on, I dropped my mask
and I turned around and made it to -- I tried to run towards the restaurant to
get out.
I didn't get any more than one step and
everything just turned black, and I got pulled into a corner in there that was
still standing.
I came out. I came out of the crater. The street was gone, the restaurant and
everything was gone.
Fire Chief Salvatore Cassano FDNY
There was no debris on
that street at all from the first plane.
I didn't see jumpers from the south tower. I saw jumpers from the north
tower.
EMT
WTC1
WE
CHIEF JOSEPH PFEIFER FDNY
Vesey and West.
I pulled in front of the
building. I looked up and I saw no fire coming out, no smoke coming out, which
would have been the west side of the building.
We saw there was somewhat of
a hole, from our position, certainly, maybe three or four of the stories, three
stories I think I said. Again, there was no fire coming out. So, when we got
there, there was no fire and on the west side there was no smoke. But there was
an obvious hole in the building. I went into the lobby. Q. You were the first
highest ranking officer on the scene? A. Correct.
But right before the south
tower collapsed, I noticed a lot of people just left the lobby, and I heard we
had a crew of all different people,
high-level people in government,
everybody was gone, almost like they had information that we didn't have.
PARAMEDIC JOEL PIERCE
I WAS DEFINITELY THERE FOR A LONG TIME. I’M
STILL COUGHING
Firemen statements regarding WTC7
http://www.flcv.com/911fwtc7.html
Firemen statements by witnesses to planes and plane
debris
http://www.flcv.com/wtcplane.html
WTC2 Survivor Statements by those a plane level or
above:
http://www.flcv.com/wtc2surv.html
WTC1 Victim statements by those at plane level or
above
http://www.flcv.com/wtc1vict.html