City to Release Thousands of Firefighter Oral Histories of 9/11 Today

[philb]

City to Release Thousands of Firefighter Oral Histories of 9/11 Today

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, will be made public today.
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, New York's highest court, ordered the city to release most, but not all, of the records.

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.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/12/nyregion/12records.html

Here are the unedited 9/11 tapes from the New York Fire Department, released today. ***

• Tape 1 - 22 (21 Missing)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8926416

[philb]

1. Does anyone plan to go through and compile the info from the tapes?

We already know there were a lot of statements about how the fires weren't very hot and regarding witnessing explosions in the towers.

most appear to be audio tapes; and my computer has problems loading them.

would it be because of a slow modum?
or RAM space?
my computer continually has to reload so I can't here any continuous message.
Anyone know how to get around this problem?

Would it be possible to download the full tape to my computer and then play? How to do it and would it make a difference?

[philb]

2. More of the documentation

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/met_WTC_histories_full_01.html

some have good info

[philb]

5. Some of the information is blacked out. What was blacked out and

for what reason and by whom?

[philb]

15. Most of statements I've seen were taken by FDNY "commanders' who seem to

have coached the firemen a bit to "clear up their confusion"
but they also ask questions to document interactions with other firemen units that day.

why would top level FDNY members be the ones taking the statements.
Seems this would intimidate the firemen.

[philb]

16. Dr. G. Asaeda, lots of info blacked out, why would that be?

seems it may have had to do with the collapse of WTC2


P. Ashby also had a big block blacked out.

He seemed to be describing thinking a missile from across the way was shot at one of the towers.
He has a remark following it about a missile.

[philb]

62. No debris from first plane; and some firefighters survived WTC1 collapse

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.


FIREFIGHTER TIERNACH CASSIDY
In the rubble of WTC1: some firemen in the building survived the collapse

SO I TIE OFF AND GO DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THE HOLE AND I STARTED COMING UP HE SAID HE FOUND HIM IT WAS THE GUYS FROM 36 THAT PORT AUTHORITY COP THREE CIVILIANS AND FRIEND OF MINE MICKEY CROSS.
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.

[philb]

63. How could people in the tower survive in a pancake collapse? (n/t)

[petgoat]

65. Were they in the stairwell in the core w/ massive columns around? n/t

[philb]

102. It appears that was where they were (n/t)

see my other post

[pox americana]

66. Impossible. It would be like surviving in the cockpit

in an airline crash. If pancaking occurred like the FEMA/NIST reports claim it did, the bottom floors would have gotten squashed the flattest.

[vincent_vega_lives]

88. Not True

"If pancaking occurred like the FEMA/NIST reports claim it did, the bottom floors would have gotten squashed the flattest."

Where did you get your education from?

1. The structure got progressively stronger near ground level.

2. The collapse disipated energy (less mass vs greater area) by the time the bulilding reached ground level.

[pox americana]

98. Ahem, you're arguing against yourself.

You're giving reasons why a progressive collapse, even it were possible to "initiate" such a thing, would have stopped long before getting to the ground.

This one went all the way to the bedrock.

[philb]

95. This might be their story, per Stone Phillips interview; sounds similar

The Miracle of Ladder Company 6
http://www.acfd.com/miracle_of_ladder_company_6.htm

John Jonas FDNY: “And we were hearing explosions

[philb]

119. WTC2 wasn't total collapse; some in lobby survived; and not in core

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.

This was covered by major media; apparently this guy was the angel
that was reference in the story

[philb]

120. What does parts of lobby of WTC2 surviving imply? Why did it not get

crushed? What was the construction that saved it from the "pancake"?

[philb]

139. Several more survivors of WTC2 collapse - in the lobby

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 REAL QUICK FORWARD DIDN’T LIKE THAT OPTION BECAUSE IT WAS BIG HIGH LOBBY LOT OF GLASS. I FIGURED IT WAS NOT THAT WELL SUPPORTED REMEMBER SEEING THOSE COLUMNS. I REMEMBER TAKINGA FEW STEPS AND TRYING TO RUN AND YOURE EITHER THROWN OR BLOWN OFF YOUR FEET. I REMEMBER IENDED UP MY FACE. I WAS RIGHT UP AGAINST THE WALL. A COLUMN WAS RIGHT NEAR MY LEFT SHOULDER. A BIG COLUMN.

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 HAND UP BEHIND MY HEAD AND NECK AND JUST SAID LET IT BE MERCIFUL BECAUSE YOU THINK ITS ALL OVER THERES STUFF HITTING YOU BUT NOTHING THE STUFF IS DEBRIS FLYING AROUND. ALL OF SUDDEN THE NOISE STOPS. THEN I HEAR SOMEBODY COUGH BEHIND. ITS MYERS. He helps me up to my knees. IT WAS FLOOR TO CEILING DEBRIS IT WAS JUST SOLID FROM AS HIGH UP AS CAN LOOK WHICH IS PRETTY HIGH AT THIS POINT. Then I THINK LARRY ANSWERED. WE START TO MOVE TOWARDS HIM. I COULD HEAR SOME GUY YELLING MAYDAY ON THE RADIO HANDY TALKY. THERES BEEN A COLLAPSE. WERE TRAPPED I LOOKED IT WAS EDDIE HENRY FROM THE 40 BATTALION. I RECOGNIZED HIM. I TURNED ANOTHER WAY AND THERE WAS LIEUTENANT THERE. BACK. THERES A CIVILIAN AND I DONT KNOW IF ITS THE SAME GUY MET THE FIRST TIME OR NOT AGAIN CIVILIAN CLOTHES. I SAID YOU STAY BY THIS FIRST DOOR. YOU KEEP THE DOOR OPEN IM GOING THROUGH THE SECOND DOOR. THERES ANOTHER DOOR IF START YELLING YOU JUST YELL. I DIDNT KNOW IF I WAS GOING THROUGH MAZE OR NOT. AS SOON AS I OPENED THE THIRD DOOR THERES HOLE IN THE WALL COULD SEE OUT ONTO WEST STREET.

[philb]

131. Another report of the survivors of WTC1 collapse by firefighter

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.

[philb]

133. Firefighter reports civilian on 7th floor of WTC1 survived the collapse

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.


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 AND DECIDED TO EXIT WE SAID OKAY LETS GET OUT OF HERE. WHEN WE TURNED
AROUND TO EXIT THE BUILDING CAME DOWN. I BELIEVE I WAS BETWEEN THE SECOND AND THIRD FLOOR ON THE HALF LANDING AND IT STARTED TO SHAKE AND VIBRATE THEN HEARD THE SOUND OF FLOORS IMPLODING ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER YOU HEARD IT COMING AND YOU HEARD IT GETTING LOUDER
AND LOUDER AND LOUDER AND LOUDER AND THINGS ARE COMING DOWN ON TOP OF YOU. I HIT THE FLOOR AND ROLLED TO THE WALL AND JUST KIND OF COVERED UP INTO FETAL POSITION AND I STARTED SAYING MY PRAYERS FINALLY THAT STOPPED AND THE DEBRIS STARTED COMING WHEN THE LOUD BANGING STOPPED I SAID OKAY AT LEAST IM NOT GOING TO GET CRUSHED OR IM NOT
GOING TO GET CRUSHED ON IMPACT. THEN THE DEBRIS KEPT COMING AND IT STARTED COVERING ME UP AND THOUGHT OH GOD IM GOING TO DIE AND JUST GET BURIED ALIVE SAID WOULD JUST RATHER DIE QUICKLY THAN GET BURIED ALIVE THEN THAT STOPPED. IT WAS KIND OF LIKE TWILIGHT THERE WAS SOME VERY LITTLE LIGHT THEN ALL THAT THE SMOKE AND THE DUST AND EVERYTHING
LIFTED AND YOU COULD SEE. AT SOME POINT PROBABLY MAYBE AN HOUR OR SO AFTER THAT
DONT KNOW IF IT WAS CAPTAIN NOW CHIEF JONAS MADE CONTACT WITH SOME OUTSIDE UNITS OR MAYBE IT WAS CHIEF PICCIOTTO IM NOT 100 PERCENT SURE WHO MADE CONTACT.

WHEN WE CAME OUT RIGHT HERE THERE WAS THIS GULLY IT WENT SOMETHING LIKE THIS
REMEMBER WHEN WE FINALLY CAME OUT WE HAD TO WALK DOWN INTO THIS CRATER.
Conclusion blanked out.

[philb]

3. Fireman Sean Brown- appearance of explosion in lobby/basement area

prior to collapse of WTC1

Firemen evacuating WTC1 after WTC2 collapsed
Sean Brown

“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 and
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???)

[mirandapriestly]

11. Yes, I have seen several references to that

they refered to an "initial collapse" which apparently killed some firemen, when one guy mentioned it , he said "uh-oh, am I opening a can of worms?" I didn't copy it because I thought the "initial collapse" was already public knowledge and I just hadn't heard of it.

[philb]

123. NY Policemen reported explosions at ground level

Floor level or Lower level Explosions reported by N.Y. Police
(pa-police-reports01.pdf pages 17, 24) Alan T. DeVona Page 2, Chronological Report of the WTC Radio Transmissions on 9/11/01
“0853 4-1 radios WTC Police Desk reporting an explosion on the lower level.
(pa-police-reports02.pdf page 88) Sergeant Michael McGarry Chronicle of Response and Rescue Efforts – September 11, 2001 Page 1
“Within a short period of time (approximately ¾ of an hour) one of the buildings to the World Trade Center collapsed. During this time period there were numerous explosions, causing us to leave and re-enter the incident area.”

FIREFIGHTER PATRICK MARTIN FDNY
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.

[philb]

4. Fireman Tim Brown- WTC2- generated wind about 75 mph when collapsed

and huge dust so unable to see or stand.

FIREFIGHTER TIMOTHY BROWN

I ran into the doors of the Two World Trade on the Liberty Street side.

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 EMS and bring them back into the lobby, which is something that saved my life. I went out to the Liberty Street side. He got two paramedics, himself and me. I said, "Okay. Follow me." We ran to the south side of the hotel to stay close to the building, trying not to get hit. We ran along the edge of the hotel.

As we ran towards the rear, which is the three side of the hotel, and rounded the corner to go into Two World Trade Center, in the doors, we heard the roar above us. I know I never looked up. So we just turned and ran for our lives. The roar was just getting louder. The
dust started blowing in our faces. I'm guessing around 30, 35 miles an hour the wind was. Everything started blowing toward us that wasn't
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.

[philb]

116. Heavy debris from towers was hurled over 2 blocks in some cases; how?

Such as the alley along WTC7 almost 2 blocks away

and this guy was a block away. Lots more like him and cars and firetrucks demolished a full block away. See other statements.
Devastation on West HW and other streets to the north.
What was the huge force that propeled the projectiles???

EMT RUSSELL HARRIS
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.

FIREFIGHTER MICHAEL HAZEL
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.

[philb]

6. James Drury FDNY - sounded like bombs going off in WTC1

James Drury (Assistant Commissioner FDNY)

"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

[philb]

57. What caused the boom,boom,boom,boom at WTC1?

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.

[petgoat]

64. boom boom boom boom

Hmmmm. I'd always thought that was of course the floors pancaking.
But if the building came down in ten seconds, we've got ten floors a
second. If it came down in sixteen seconds that's still seven floors a
second. When I say "boom boom boom" the way I heard one of the FDNY
guys say one of those videos, I say it about one time a second.

[petgoat]

86. boom boom boom

On second thought, my floors-per-second calculation was of course an
average--obviously when the weight of the debris exceeded the structural
capacity of the floors, they just popped in milliseconds, so the rate of
floor destruction in the earlier floors must have been much slower.

[philb]

96. The cutter charges shown in videos were about every 4 floors (n/t)

[philb]

109. I heard the explosion, looked up, and saw 3 floors explode

WORLD TRADE CENTER TASK FORCE INTERVIEW
FIREFIGHTER KEVIN GORMAN

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.

[philb]

124. NY Police & another Fireman- WTC2 exploded at the top

(pa-police-reports04.pdf pages 4&5) P.O. Middleton #1207 Memorandum Page 1
“I was approximately one block away from Tower One when Tower Two appeared to explode at the roof top and several floors below. Then fire balls and debris shot out of the windows and rocketed into the skies and fall below.”
(pa-police-reports04.pdf page 6) Det. Thomas M. Inman
Memorandum Page 1
“As a roll call was being taken of the responding Detectives, Tower #2 began to collapse. This occurred after a secondary explosion on the west side of the tower that appeared to take place in the high 60’s. The area above the secondary explosion actually leaned to the west and then the collapse took place.”


FIREFIGHTER MICHAEL MACKO
WCT2
WE GOT JUST ABOUT SOUTH OF THE NORTH OVERPASS ABOUT 50 FEET PAST THAT WHEN THE FIRST
COLLAPSE OCCURRED. I LOOKED UP WAS AWED. I THOUGHT IT EXPLODED AT THE TOP


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.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

7. There isn't a statement there by Lou Cacchioli or Tommy Hedsal.

My own personal note. I believe I read somewhere that the 23rd-25th floors of the North Tower contained the FBI offices.

http://prisonplanet.com/articles/july2005/200705twistedwords.htm

CACCHIOLI AND CREW ENTER NORTH TOWER AND GO UP TO 24TH FLOOR

Although the Marriot was a bad scene, the north tower looked like a war zone. When he entered the lobby, Cacchioli recalls elevator doors completely blown out and another scene of mass chaos with people running, screaming and being hit with debris.

“I remember thinking to myself, my God, how could this be happening so quickly if a plane hit way above. It didn’t make sense,” said Cacchioli.

At that point, Cacchioli found one of the only functioning elevators, one only going as high as the 24th floor, a twist of fate that probably saved his life.

“Looking back if it was one of the elevators that went higher, I wouldn’t be here talking today,” added Cacchioli.

As he made his way up along with men from Engine Co. 21, 22 and Ladder Co. 13, the doors opened on the 24th floor, a scene again that hardly made sense to the seasoned fireman, claiming the heavy dust and haze of smoke he encountered was unusual considering the location of the strike.

“Tommy Hedsal was with me and everybody else also gets out of the elevator when it stops on the 24th floor,” said Cacchioli, “There was a huge amount of smoke. Tommy and I had to go back down the elevator for tools and no sooner did the elevators close behind us, we heard this huge explosion that sounded like a bomb. It was such a loud noise, it knocked off the lights and stalled the elevator.

“Luckily, we weren’t caught between floors and were able to pry open the doors. People were going crazy, yelling and screaming. And all the time, I am crawling low and making my way in the dark with a flashlight to the staircase and thinking Tommy is right behind me.

“I somehow got into the stairwell and there were more people there. When I began to try and direct down, another huge explosion like the first one hits. This one hits about two minutes later, although it’s hard to tell, but I’m thinking, ‘Oh. My God, these bastards put bombs in here like they did in 1993!’

“But still it never crossed my mind the building was going to collapse. I really only had two things on my mind and that was getting people out and saving lives. That’s what I was trained for and that’s what I was going to do.

“I remember at that point in the stairwell between the 23rd and 24th floor, I threw myself down on the steps because of the smoke. It was pitch black, I had my mask on and I was crawling down the steps until I found the door on the 23rd floor.”

When Cacchioli entered the 23rd floor, he found a “little man” holding a handkerchief in front of his face and hiding under the standpipes on the wall, used for pumping water on the floor in case of fire.

Leading the man by the arm, he then ran into a group down the hall of about 35 to 40 people, finding his way down the 23rd floor stairwell and beginning their descent to safety.

“Then as soon as we get in the stairwell, I hear another huge explosion like the other two. Then I heard bang, bang, bang - huge bangs – and surmised later it was the floors pan caking on top of one another.

“I knew we had to get out of there fast and on the 12th floor a man even jumped on my back because he thought he couldn’t make it any farther. Everybody was shocked and dazed and it was a miracle all of us got this far.”

When the group led by Cacchioli finally made it to the lobby level, he was unable to open the door at first, the concussion of the explosions or perhaps the south tower falling, jamming the lobby door.

Finally jarring it loose, the group entered the lobby finding total devastation with windows blown out and marble falling form the walls, but strangely no people. At that point, it was either left or right to an exit, Cacchioli, the man he originally found by the standpipes and another lady going right while the others went left, a move which by the grace of God saved his life.

“It seemed like every move I made that morning was the right move,” said Cacchioli. “I should have been killed at least five times. The people that went left didn’t make it out, but we came out alive on West Street.”

[philb]

8. I've only had time to read 4 or 5 statements so far

[philb]

9. Lt. Neil Brosan, FDNY - his company hit by explosion in WTC1

Lt. NEIL BROSNAN FDNY


SO I WENT BACK OUT TOWARDS THE WEST STREET SIDE OF WORLD AT THIS TIME ENCOUNTERED
238 AT AN LIVAT BANK AND THEY ASKING The SECURITY GUARD WAS IT FIRE DEPARTMENT MANNED
ELEVATOR AND HAD JUST TOLD THEM THAT WE ARE NOT ASSIGNED TO WTC1. FOLLOW ME AND WE WILL PROCEED DEEPER IN THE BUILDING AND WELL PICK UP THE HALLWAYS. THAT WILL GET US ACROSS BACK TO WTC2.
AT THIS TIME CAUGHT THE EXPLOSION COMING COMING OUT FROM MY LEFT SIDE SEEN THE CEILING COMING DOWN AND WE ALL GOT LOW AND BACKED DOWN DEAD END HALLWAY. ME AND THE OFFICER FROM 238 AND THE SECURITY GUARDS AND BELIEVE TWO OF HIS MEMBERS GOT LOW AND BACK DOWN AND ALL RECALL IS FOR ME IT WAS THE RIGHT WALL THAT WOULD BE MY WALL BACK OUT TO WEST STREET.


WHEN CRAWLED OUT WE BECAME ENTANGLED WITH CIVILIANS OUR MASKS GOT ENTANGLED BELIEVE ON TURNSTILES COMING OUT OF THEIR SECURITY POSTS AND WITH CIVILIANS PUSHING US Out. LOST MY MASK AT THIS POINT AT THIS POINT TRIED TO GO BACK TOWARDS MY MEMBERS BUT WE HAD 20, PROBABLY COULD HAVE BEEN UPWARDS OF 30 CIVILIANS PUSHING US OUT THIS WAY AND IT BECAME THE BEST OPTION FOR ME ME AND 238 CRAWLED BACK OUT TO WEST STREET.

BATTALION CHIEF MALKIN IM GOING TO HOLD THE TAPE FOR ONE SECOND. (recess taken)

WE WERE BLOWN DOWN THE HALLWAY MY LEFT EYE WAS BLINDED BY DEBRIS OUR MOUTHS WERE STUFFED WITH GUESS THE CONCRETE DEBRIS FROM THE EXPLOSION AND AT THIS TIME WHEN WAS GETTING BLOWN DOWN THOUGHT THIS WAS THE THIRD PLANE ESU WAS TALKING ABOUT.

ACTUALLY THE EXPLOSION CAME IN THROUGH THOSE DOORS AND CAME UP BEHIND THE WAY HAD COME
IN AND THAT THAT THE EXPLOSION CAME FROM THE WAY HAD JUST LEFT.
DID YOU KNOW WHAT THE EXPLOSION WAS?
NO. WE NEVER HEARD THROUGH THIS WHOLE EVENT THROUGH THE COLLAPSE OF OTHER THAN, WELL
WORLD TRADE CENTER 1 HAPPENED TO BE THERE. 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”.

[mirandapriestly]

12. WHOA! you're finding all the good ones. NT

[philb]

67. WTC1 Ground level explosion before it fell

EMT Jason Charles
WTC1 Ground level explosion before it fell

"WE GET TO THE BACK WE DONT EVEN GET TO THE BACK OF THE BUILDING WE START WALKING BACK THERE AND THEN HEARD GROUND LEVEL EXPLOSION AND IM LIKE HOLY SHIT AND THEN YOU HEARD THAT TWISTING METAL WRECKAGE AGAIN THEN SAID SHIT AND EVERYBODY STARTED RUNNING AND
STARTED RUNNING BEHIND THEM AND WE GET TO THE DOOR"

[philb]

122. More reports of ground level explosions

(pa-police-reports01.pdf pages 10-11)
Lieutenant Michael Murphy
Handwritten report.
Pages 3&4


“…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.”


(pa-police-reports01.pdf pages 17, 24)
Alan T. DeVona
Page 2, Chronological Report of the WTC Radio Transmissions on 9/11/01

“0853 4-1 radios WTC Police Desk reporting an explosion on the lower level.

FIREFIGHTER PATRICK MARTIN FDNY
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.


there were also the reports of basement explosions by the janitors, building engineers, and survivors who were injured by them.

[philb]

134. A whole bank of elevators was working in WTC1- transporting firemen

LIEUTENANT WAYNE MERA FDNY
WCT1
We were walking up Vesey and we saw parts of the plane on the ground still burning. So we turn down onto West Street and get to the north tower. We entered the north tower and reported to Chief Picciotto. He said we've got a report of people trapped on the 21st floor. So that's where we ended up going. We took the low-rise bank of elevators up to the 16th floor. It was a flying shaft from 1 to 8, so we stopped at 9 just to make sure it worked. Thank God it did. We went up to the 16th floor. We got off.

[philb]

147. Brosnan event in WTC1 lobby was likely due to WTC2 "collapse"

It appears that this damage was likely due to WTC1 "collapse",

though there were major explosions in basement of WTC1 reported by the building engineer and janitor

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

28. John O'Neill checking out the FBI Offices before he was killed?

This was one of the first articles (although uncorraborated) that made me start to think about bombs...now Lou Cacchioli, not listed amongst the oral histories, seems to back this up. Why wasn't Lou interviewed?

http://www.hiddenmysteries.org/news/america/usa/102701a.html

At noon I received a phone call from New England from Steve. He was reviewing recorded footage of coverage of the destruction of the WTC on NBC's program "48 Hours." Steve has reviewed the footage many times and taken detailed notes.

I took notes at my computer as he spoke. After the south tower collapsed, men went up to the 22nd floor of the WTC and "dug" someone out of the "rubble" he found there.

It is known that these floors contained the New York FBI offices. Peter Jennings actually did a two-day network news story on the effects of the destroyed evidence and files on American financial crime investigations around the world.

The 48 Hours anchor was interviewing the Head of Security of the WTC about the evacuation. He had received a call, after the South Tower was down from the Port Authority's Command Center on the 22nd floor asking for rescue.

The Head of Security himself travelled to that floor in the company of a NY Fireman where they found the offices devastated to the point that they had to "tunnel through debris" to "dig out" the two or three Port Authority workers who were trapped there.

All of this happened 73 floors below crashbombing impact.

[philb]

136. I've seen several of the fireman statements talking about this damage

they did say they had to crawl.

some of them are on my firemen statement web site
http://www.flcv.com/firemen.html

[philb]

138. I believe this is one of the ones about devastation on that floor

FIREFIGHTER KIRK LONG

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


(seems unlikely the plane could have done this?)

[philb]

146. Here is another;

FIREFIGHTER MICHAEL YAREMBINSKY Port Authority Area
WTC1
WHEN WE GOT TO 22 WE HEARD THERE WAS PORT AUTHORITY COMMAND POST ON 22
SO WE WERE STOPPED THERE MY OFFICER WANTED TO FIND OUT SOME INFORMATION MY OFFICER LIEUTENANT ANDY DESPERITO HE WENT OVER TO THE COMMAND POST. WE NOTICED IN THE HALLWAY THAT THE ELEVATOR SHAFT HAD BEEN BLOWN OUT THERE WAS NOTHING THERE NO DOORS NO FRAMING NOTHING.
WHEN YOU LOOKED DOWN ALL YOU SAW WAS THE CABLES FOR THE ELEVATOR AND THE BRICK WORK THAT WAS SURROUNDING.
Q. WAS IT BURNING? A. NO BURNING NO SMOKE COMING OUT OF IT


What was the brick work? What purpose did it serve?

[philb]

148. The elevators in WTC1 that were blasted were lower level elevators

LIEUTENANT JAMES WALSH
WTC1 elevators
WHAT ELSE I OBSERVED IN THE LOBBY WAS THAT THERES BASICALLY TWO AREAS OF ELEVATORS. THERES ELEVATORS OFF TO THE LEFT HAND SIDE WHICH ARE REALLY THE EXPRESS ELEVATORS THAT WOULD BE THE ELEVATORS THATS FACING NORTH. THEN ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE THERES ALSO ELEVATORS THAT ARE EXPRESS ELEVATORS AND THAT WOULD BE FACING SOUTH. AND YOU COULD SEE THE SHAFTS of THE ELEVATORS ON THE EXTREME NORTH SIDE AND THE OTHER EXPRESS ELEVATOR ON THE EXTREME SOUTH SIDE. THEY LOOKED INTACT TO ME FROM WHAT COULD SEE THE DOORS ANYWAY.

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 SIDE LOBBY ELEVATORS.
NO ID SAY THAT THEY WENT THROUGH FLOORS 30 AND BELOW, AND THEY WERE BLOWN OFF THE HINGES.


there were reports of blasted elevators on floor 22
and evidence of explosion on 22 & 23

[philb]

150. Were both Port Authority and FBI on this floor?

Were both Port Authority and FBI on this floor?

Where was O'neill supposed to have been when the tower came down?

Where was his office?

What kind of explosives would have caused this?
This was a lower level elevator going up as high as floor 24.


Is there some way that the plane or jet fuel could be involved in the damage to these floors that appear isolated from the area the plane hit?

Why these floors and not others?

[philb]

10. another report of wind blast & rubble on 4th floor of WTC1

Derek Brogan FDNY
(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 showed up, and there was no windows in the lobby when we were leaving.
I started running up West Street. I still had my mask on and looking back at the cloud that was coming behind us. A clear burst of air came right before the dust cloud came and blew my mask off my shoulders. I just kept on running.


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 Vesey Street. I would estimate we were out of the building maybe two minutes before it fell down.

[seatnineb]

13. Great work Philb! n/t

[philb]

135. What caused the damage on 5th and 6th floor of WTC1?

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 .
later:
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.

[philb]

14. Seems like at WTC, a lot of the plane debris was outside the building

Anyone know what was outside and what was inside? One of the firemen notes the engine on Church Street. And there was airplane debris on top of one of the other buildings, WTC5 I think. How did this debris get where it landed?


S. Altini FDNY
As we exited the Battery Tunnel to lower Manhattan, we proceeded to make a right turn onto West Street where we were confronted
with a lot of debris in the street, airplane debris, human remains and such.
We pulled our pickup truck just north of the Marriott at Carlisle Street on the east side of West Street, facing north. As we exited
the vehicle, two other firefighters donned their protective gear and headed north towards tower two or one.

[philb]

17. P. Ashby -EMT thought he saw something like a missile shot at WTC

from across the way.

(blanked out paragraph followed by)
SO THOUGHT SOMEBODY LAUNCHED MISSILE FROM THE EAST RIVER OR OVER THE HUDSON TO KNOCK IT DOWN MEAN THATS WHAT IM THINKING IF THEY ARE IF THEY ARE STILL OUT THERE TO LAUNCH ANOTHER MISSILE GOT TO GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE BECAUSE WE WERE IN WAR ZONE RIGHT EXACTLY.

IM TRYING TO WALK TOWARDS NOT THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE BECAUSE FIGURED THAT WOULD BE ANOTHER HISTORIC LOCATION FOR THEM TO ATTACK OR LAUNCH
MISSILE WAS TRYING TO HEAD TOWARDS THE MANHATTAN BRIDGE AND TAKE MY CHANCES THERE

(note that someone called police saying missiles were being fired from the Woolworth Building at the WTC buildings. Also their are videos showing the "missiles" going from Woolworth Building to WTC building. I think the Danish guy Melvang has that video in his video, but others do also I think. Its been posted here)

[philb]

18. articles, pictures, videos of the Woolworth Building missiles; and backgro

Woolworth Building missile
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: 911.wtc.2.woolworth.rocket.naudet.avi
http://www.terrorize.dk/911/naudet/woolworth.php

there were lots more articles, etc. but many of the sites are gone now

[philb]

46. This is a copy of one of the sites above that is hard to read at URL

Bo Dietl’s Covert Ops w/ Beau Dietl & Assoc. & Witkoff’s Woolworth Bldg:
9/11, Missiles, Anthrax? http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/09/297359.shtml

1. Background: The Woolworth Building, Broadway, Architect: Cass Gilbert; Height 792 feet 1913; World’s tallest Bldg- 1913-1930; Woolworth’s went out of business in 1998; Building sold to Witkoff Group, $155 million.
2. Background: Bo Dietl’s Beau Dietl & Assoc. (BDA) , Private Global Covert Operations and Covert Surveillane w/ connections to large military contractor corporations; NYC Global HQ; BDA Exec. Personnel histories in (pre-BDA & BDA), 92(Bush Sr) RNC and ’96 RNC Security; 00, 01 involved in organizing N. Carolina for Bush campaign; several with past of current top secret clearances; some left U.S. Delta Force & UN Special Forces covert op admin; others left narcotics squads in NYPD, others left corp security for 1 of 3 corps in U.S. allowed to import opium for manufacturing morphine/ codine; others left LAPD, CMO. Bo Dietl: an ex-detective of NYPD, BDA still called in for high-level investigations(coverups?) dealing w/(1)NYC murder/mutilation of Catholic nun, (2)other NYC(ritualized?) mass murders of 8 children (ages 3 to 12) & 2 adults- all shot once in head; (3) 86 Republican & Conservative Parties on NY nominated Bo Dietl for NY 6h District(Congress)-fails; endorced by: Pres. Reagan, V.P. Bush, Sen. D’Amato
NY Times, NY Post © Dietl was 92 Dir. Of Security, RNC(Houston, Tx); 1995-present Dietl made Chairman on NY State Security Guard Advisory Council, appointed directly by Gov. Pataki, another close Bush family ally; ’96 consultant to Dir. Of Security, RNC(San Diego, Ca); still groomed for the public eye in his books, films, guest lectures, etc. (d) Dietl directly advised Royal Faily of Saudi Arabia on issues of personal/physical site security; (e) he supervised security serv. For high officials of Peoples Republic of China, BDA “emplys cross-section of male/female operatives that can blend into any situation. These individual have training & expertise to execute whatever op is necessaru to accomplish the client’s objectives—form reg. surveillance to undercover assignments. BDA’s “operatives” capable of managing the most complex situations either domestically or abroad; specializes in installing surveillance devices/equip., including covert video/audio soulutions; devloper behind computer spy software, One Tough Computer Cop, w/ Computer Concepts, Inc. of Bohemia, N.y. to spy on another’s Internet/network activities; investiagive/security services typically w/ huge corporate clients; services from corporate/due diligence investig, corp. litigation support against class action suits, civil/criminal proceedings, & armed personnel.
3. Two Known Business Partnerships between CEOs of BDA & The Witkoff Group: (a) Dietl started own film production company, How Good Is This Production Company, w/ partner Steven Witkoff image developer, CEO- The Witkoff Group, (b) Dietl involved in real estate himself, in partnership w/Steven Witkoff, w/owner interest in major buildings in big cities in U.S.
4. Pre-9-11: from 1945, whole Woolworth’s observation deck on top (58th floor) is closed; Witkoff buys it in 1998.
5. NYC police know what is going on downtown: (a) World Trade Center police channel
07: Male: “The first one (WTC1) they think was a guy shooting missiles off the Woolworth Building , & the 2nd one (WTC2) they think is an airplane that was circling to watch it, and hit the WTC” {Philadelphia Inquirer, 9/29/03; (b) “The Woolworth Building: The Woolworth Building: They’re shooting at the Trade Center from the Woolworth Building” a police officer screams on the police channel; “There’s fuc*ing explosions going off on Vessey Street” another officer yells, {NY Post, 8/29/03}; (c) a called-in police complaint: “Someone has fired missiles at the World Trade Center’s north tower(WTC1) from atop nearby Woolworth Building. Said terrorists in plane watching attack then plowed into south tower(WTC2) (witnesses (a) & (c) : 2 different reports of the same observation) “Can you send somebody over to the Woolworth Building to check the roof?” a Port Authority police officer asked. “There’s a possible.. they said it was..we just had a second explosion, possibly a missile from the roof of the Woolworth Building.” “The Woolworth Building?” replied a police operator; ‘Yeah, on … on Broadway” officer said, {Transcripts, NY Port Authority emergency calls/radio transmissions; WWBC.com (?), 9/1/03; (d) WTC Ch. 07: Male: “Either, either a plane crashed into the Trade Center, or a rocket hit the Trade Center, & Uh, people are all over the the place, dead” ; (e) there are several claims of “sonic boom” – like sound occurring either directly w/ or directly before/after WTC1 hit.
6. Post 9-11, Post Oct. anthrax: Beau Dietl & Assoc. launched wholly owned subsidiary, BDA Mail Screening Services to profit based on fear from mailed anthrax attacks, even though they have questionable technology, ………
7. Top Floors of Woolworth Bldg have ideal trajectory to area of explosion @ Vessey, Fulton, & Church St; observation deck closed pre 9-11 useful of (BDA specialty) in film equipment & later hit evaluation, and /or missiles. Witkoff management cover: 2 CEO to CEO personal business links between Witkoff & Dietl already; assets used in private covert op w/ deniability” though built w/those w/military covert op & past top secret clearances; & BDA w/mil. Contractor connections;
8. Similar to Dyncorp by the way, Did Bush watch Beau Dietl covert camera feed since he keeps claiming he (unlike rest of whole world) watched WTC1 hit live? Was Woolworth both missiles as well as controlled demolition HQ, or was it WTC7? Did BDA send the anthrax to later benefit? One of………them has Newark, NJ connection.

[mirandapriestly]

23. also one of the police reports

said there were "firebombs"

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

32. P. Falluca, firefighter.... talks about rockets from the Woolworth Bldg.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110388.PDF

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
Woolworth Building and hit the tower.
Now I see the two towers are hit. He says,
"I just saw a rocket hit that building. I'm getting
the F out of here. I'm getting out of here."
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.

[philb]

80. Has anyone looked at the Danish Video? See my post re: Woolworth

They say they have a video showing the missiles from the Woolworth to
WTC. But I couldn't get the video to work. My computer is problematic.
Did anyone get it to work? What does it look like?


Another fireman said he saw missiles.

[philb]

127. What does a missile or rocket sound like?? Similar to a jet engine?

I've heard big rocket propelled missiles take off but haven't heard
any incoming missiles? Anyone know what they sound like.

There were a lot of reports by police and firemen related to missiles or sounds similar to missile.

What would this sound like?

[philb]

106. sounded like incoming missile before collapse- WTC2 firefighter

FIREFIGHTER KENNETH ESCOFFRY FDNY WTC2

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.

[philb]

19. Frank Campagna, FDNY experienced explosions in WTC1

Frank Campagna, FDNY Ladder 11 in Manhattan

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.

So we just kept going up the stairwell. We got up to about the 17th floor, and we felt another pretty big explosion.

We got up to about the 28th, 30th floor, and we were taking another break. There was an office or we had a whole floor full of people. A chief came down from a floor above with another company and said everybody evacuate, everybody out now. We had to switch staircases.
I believe the staircase we were in, there was no way down it anymore on the lower level. There was word that it had been taken out; we don't know what from.

So I believe we headed out along the wall of the Trade, and I believe 18 followed us out. That was it. It came down on top of us.

[philb]

72. LIEUTENANT JOHN CITARELLA FDNY WTC1 explosion before collapse

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.

[philb]

110. When firemen first arrived, some elevators worked, little damage, what ha

happened in WTC1 to cause the damage?

(later before WTC2 collapsed, most said none of the elevators worked and most of the windows were broken and the lobby was blasted.)

When did this occur and what caused it?

Michael Beehler, FDNY WTC1 lobby devastated

We made it down to Vesey and on to West Street, walking into the northwest corner of the north tower. They had a mini command post set up. Lieutenant Mera came over. He said come on, we are going up to the 21 floor. There are reports of people trapped there. There was a bank of elevators there that were still in service, so we took that up to, I believe the 15 or 16th floor.

Brian Becker, FDNY
When we got t o t h e lobby, t h e r e 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.

Lt. NEIL BROSNAN FDNY WTC1 Explosion


SO I WENT BACK OUT TOWARDS THE WEST STREET SIDE OF WORLD AT THIS TIME ENCOUNTERED 238 AT AN LIVAT BANK AND THEY ASKING The SECURITY GUARD WAS IT FIRE DEPARTMENT MANNED ELEVATOR AND HAD JUST TOLD THEM THAT WE ARE NOT ASSIGNED TO WTC1. FOLLOW ME AND WE WILL PROCEED DEEPER IN THE BUILDING AND WELL PICK UP THE HALLWAYS. THAT WILL GET US ACROSS BACK TO WTC2.
AT THIS TIME CAUGHT THE EXPLOSION COMING COMING OUT FROM MY LEFT SIDE SEEN THE CEILING COMING DOWN AND WE ALL GOT LOW AND BACKED DOWN DEAD END HALLWAY. ME AND THE OFFICER FROM 238 AND THE SECURITY GUARDS AND BELIEVE TWO OF HIS MEMBERS GOT LOW AND BACK DOWN AND ALL RECALL IS FOR ME IT WAS THE RIGHT WALL THAT WOULD BE MY WALL BACK OUT TO WEST STREET.

WHEN CRAWLED OUT WE BECAME ENTANGLED WITH CIVILIANS OUR MASKS GOT ENTANGLED BELIEVE ON TURNSTILES COMING OUT OF THEIR SECURITY POSTS AND WITH CIVILIANS PUSHING US Out. LOST MY MASK AT THIS POINT AT THIS POINT TRIED TO GO BACK TOWARDS MY MEMBERS BUT WE HAD 20, PROBABLY COULD HAVE BEEN UPWARDS OF 30 CIVILIANS PUSHING US OUT THIS WAY AND IT BECAME THE BEST OPTION FOR ME ME AND 238 CRAWLED BACK OUT TO WEST STREET.

WE WERE BLOWN DOWN THE HALLWAY MY LEFT EYE WAS BLINDED BY DEBRIS OUR MOUTHS WERE STUFFED WITH GUESS THE CONCRETE DEBRIS FROM THE EXPLOSION AND AT THIS TIME WHEN WAS GETTING BLOWN DOWN THOUGHT THIS WAS THE THIRD PLANE ESU WAS TALKING ABOUT.

ACTUALLY THE EXPLOSION CAME IN THROUGH THOSE DOORS AND CAME UP BEHIND THE WAY WE HAD COME IN AND THAT THAT THE EXPLOSION CAME FROM THE WAY HAD JUST LEFT.
DID YOU KNOW WHAT THE EXPLOSION WAS?
NO. WE NEVER HEARD THROUGH THIS WHOLE EVENT THROUGH THE COLLAPSE OF OTHER THAN, WELL WORLD TRADE CENTER 1 HAPPENED TO BE THERE. 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”.

[philb]

118. More reports: WTC1 lobby ok when FD arrived; devastated later

So what caused the damage? (we know that dust came in the broken windows when WTC2 collapsed; but there was damage before that and after than)


FIREFIGHTER PAUL HYLAND

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.

[philb]

117. What would have caused the WTC1 tower to shoot up, then down?

BARRETT HIRSCH EMS

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

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.

[philb]

126. NY Police reported explosions in upper level/top of WTC1

(pa-police-reports04.pdf pages 4&5) P.O. Middleton #1207 Memorandum Page 2
“As I continued to wave them back periodically you would hear a loud boom go off at the top of tower one. As the building continued to burn and emergency equipment kept on responding stirring up the dust and debris in the streets. After approximately 15 minutes suddenly there was another loud boom at the upper floors, then there was a series of smaller explosions which appeared to go completely around the building at the upper floors. And another loud earth- shattering blast with a large fire ball which blew out more debris and at that point everyone began to run north on West Broad Street.”
(pa-police-reports04.pdf page 88) Detective Salvatore Piro
Port Authority of NY & NJ Memorandum Page 1
“At that point, I heard a low sounding boom and the smoke intensified. There was more debris falling and as I heard a big roar, I saw Tower One coming down.”
(pa-transcript044.pdf page 18) WTC Ch 22 – SHO PD DESK – 2131 Page 18
MALE A: There’s been … been numerous explosions on the … like 89th, 92nd floor."


(pa-police-reports01.pdf pages 17, 24) Alan T. DeVona Page 2, Chronological Report of the WTC Radio Transmissions on 9/11/01
0853 WTC Desk replies there was an explosion on the upper floors.” Page 9, Chronological Report
“0933 PO Keane reporting from Stairway-C on the 66th floor, 1 WTC states that she heard another explosion

[philb]

137. Firefighter reports WTC1 top mushroomed out. What caused it?

CAPTAIN WILLIAM MCLAUGHLIN FDNY WCT1

I LOOKED UP AND COULD SEE THE TOP OF THE NORTH TOWER MUSHROOM OUT IN CLOUD OF DUST AND SMOKE AND YOU COULD SEE THE TIP OF THE ANTENNA SORT OF WOBBLE, THEN REALIZED WE HAVE TO RUN. FROM THAT POINT ON IT WAS FALL BACK RETREAT GET AWAY

http://911research.wtc7.net/talks/towers/mushrooming.html

[philb]

20. I've looked at the As on the page with list, and some Bs & Cs that

I had heard something about.

[philb]

21. FIREFIGHTER RICHARD BANACISKI WTC2- explosions before collapse

FIREFIGHTER RICHARD BANACISKI WTC2

On West Street. We reported in to there and I remember they had the command post set up.

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, 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.

[philb]

70. EMT-P ANDRE CHERRINGTON WTC2 Big boom before it fell

EMT-P ANDRE CHERRINGTON WTC2 Big boom before it fell

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.

[janedoe]

71. The big boom was about 1-2 minutes before it fell.

I just finished reviewing my live recording of news footage on 9/11. Someone called in to the news station to report a big explosion in WTC2, as they thought this was worth reporting. When they were on the phone, on air, saying that, WTC2 was still standing. So, it seems more likely that the explosion was the cause of the collapse rather than the result of the collapse.

[philb]

73. A lot of the firemen statements say something happened

including an explosion a couple of minutes before the "collapse"
they describe having run a couple of blocks before the main collapse occurred.

[philb]

140. More firemen thought there were explosions & huge chunk fell off WTC2

EMT MICHAEL OBER WTC2

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 ROBERT NORRIS
WTC2
I HEARD WHAT SOUNDED LIKE THIRD PLANE COMING IN HEARD THE PROPULSION OF AN ENGINE AND THEN AN EXPLOSION. WE LOOKED UP AND SAW THESE HUGE CHUNKS THERES ONE PARTICULAR PIECE OF THIS BUILDING THAT FELL IN ITS ENTIRETY THAT ILL NEVER FORGET IT WAS AS IF IT WAS A SCHWARTZENAGER MOVIE TAKING PLACE

WTC1
WE WALKED BACK TOWARDS WHAT SAYS 4 WORLD FINANCIAL CENTER MERRILL LYNCH BUILDING REMEMBER BEING OVER THERE AND DID HEAR YET ANOTHER WHAT THOUGHT WAS PROPULSION OF PLANE AND THEN AN EXPLOSION AND THEN WE ALL DOVE TO THE FLOOR
Couple of paragraphs blanked out

[pox americana]

141. And people say there's no smoking gun?

How much more do they need, a televised confession from the oval office??

[philb]

107. WTC2 exploded from about midway up the building & controlled dem.

FIREFIGHTER CHRISTOPHER FENYO FDNY

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.

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. 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. My initial reaction was that this was exactly the way it looks when they show you those implosions on TV.

EMS LIEUTENANT CHARLES FRASER

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.

[philb]

114. squib explosions all around one floor as in controlled dem. movie

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 Vista, what was left of the Vista, and, of course, the tower on the street.

[philb]

121. More firefighter reports of explosions before WTC2 fell

FIREFIGHTER MICHAEL MACKO
WCT2
WE GOT JUST ABOUT SOUTH OF THE NORTH OVERPASS ABOUT 50 FEET PAST THAT WHEN THE FIRST COLLAPSE OCCURRED. I LOOKED UP WAS AWED. I THOUGHT IT EXPLODED AT THE TOP

EMT JULIO MARRERO
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, AND A RUMBLING SOUND. SO ATTEMPTED TO RUN SOME DISTANCE WHICH COULDNT RUN BECAUSE IT OVERTOOK ME LIKE I SAID IT HAPPENED LIKE REALLY QUICK ALSO I FELT MYSELF AIRBORNE. I FELT A FORCE BEHIND ME AND IT SLAMMED ME DOWN ON THE GROUND. I GOT SLAPPED DOWN ON THE GROUND. EVERYTHING STARTED HITTING ME. WHATEVER WAS FALLING AT THE TIME. I DIDNT KNOW WHAT IT WAS. I THOUGHT MAYBE THAT THE BUILDING THAT WAS ON FIRE EXPLODED. I WAS GETTING HIT HARD AND WHEN I FELL ON MY STOMACH FACE DOWN WITH MY HANDS EXTENDED SOMETHING HEAVY FELL ON MY HAND AND BOUNCED OFF AT THAT TIME MY ARM WAS BROKEN .
His conclusions were blanked out

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.


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.

[philb]

132. WCT2 firemen report jet sounds, tipling,explosions. What caused that sound

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 cause nobody was telling me anything. I didn’t know until we were called back to Chambers and something, Chambers and West Street, that it might have been a terrorist attack. I was this close to it, and I didn’t know what was going on. After that I heard this huge explosion, I thought it was a boiler exploding or something. Next thing you know this huge cloud of smoke is coming at us, so we’re running. Everyone is, firemen, PD, everyone is running away from the World Trade Center, up Vessey Street.
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 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 KEITH MURPHY FDNY
WCT2
I HAD HEARD A DISTANT BOOM BOOM BOOM SOUNDED LIKE THREE EXPLOSIONS RIGHT BEFORE THE LIGHTS WENT OUT. I DONT KNOW WHAT IT WAS. AT THE TIME WOULD HAVE SAID THEY SOUNDED LIKE BOMBS. THEN I WOULD SAY ABOUT 4 SECONDS ALL OFA SUDDEN THIS TREMENDOUS ROAR IT SOUNDED LIKE BEING IN TUNNEL WITH THE TRAIN COMING AT YOU. IT PROBABLY LASTED MAYBE 10 TO 15 SECONDS


FIRE MARSHAL JOHN MURRAY
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 West Street. there is no way we are going to out run this thing. Everybody, asses and elbows, we ran south on West Street, turned the corner on Albany Street

[philb]

142. What was the jet sound heard by many at WTC before towers "collapsed"

some of these also witnessed the 2nd plane hitting WTC2

PARAMEDIC JOEL PIERCE
WTC2
THATS WHEN WE HEARD THAT SOUND AGAIN AND SWEAR IT SOUNDED LIKE ANOTHER PLANE COMING IN. JUST THAT RUMBLING NOISE THAT STEADILY THAT CONTINUOUS RUMBLING THAT WAS GETTING LOUDER AND LOUDER AND THINK THE LAST WORDS HAD WERE OH GOD NOT ANOTHER ONE

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 SORT OF VIBRATION LIKE VRR VRR VRR GETTING LOUDER AND LOUDER
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 AND LOUDER AND LOUDER AND NEXT THING YOU KNOW YOU FELT THE BUILDING SHOOK AT THAT MOMENT IT WAS THINK EVERY MAN FOR THEMSELVES THINK MIGHT HAVE HEARD SOMEBODY SAY ITS COMING DOWN OR SOMETHING.

SHORTLY AFTER AS IM WALKING YOU HEAR ANOTHER LOUD BOOM. REMEMBER TURNING LOOKING AND LOOKING UP AND SEEING THE DUST CLOUD OPENING UP OVERHEAD I REMEMBER WHEN CAME UP LIBERTY TO WEST STREET NOW COULD SEE THIS DEVASTATION THAT DEFINITELY DIDNT SEE TO THAT MAGNITUDE AFTER THE FIRST BUILDING CAME DOWN BUT NOW THERE WAS JUST MOUNTAINS OF STEEL

WTC1

EMT MARK MAZUR
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.

ASSISTANT CHIEF FIRE MARSHAL RICHARD MCCAHEY

I HEARD THAT ROAR AGAIN. It SOUNDED LIKE A BIG JET PLANE AND MY BACK WAS FACING WAS TALKING TO THE COMMISSIONER AND COULD SEE THE LOOK ON HIS FACE I TURNED AROUND AND ALL I SAW WAS THAT MUSHROOM COMING DOWN.

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 AND WE JUST STARTED BOOKING WE TOOK OFF LIKE BATS OUT OF HELL. WE MADE IT AROUND THE CORNER AND THATS WHEN THE SHIT HIT THE FAN RIGHT THERE AND THEN. THAT LOUD BA BOOM JUST IT WAS LIKE AN EARTHQUAKE OR WHATEVER GIANT EXPLOSION. THEN IT WAS JUST THAT IMPACT ANDI WAS IN FETAL POSITION JUST HOLDING MY HELMET SHAKING THEN THIS BIG GUST CAME AND I JUST WENT FLYING MAYBE 30 40 FEET. TUMBLING.

[philb]

143. WTC2- large explosion below plane impact area before the collapse

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 Financial Center.
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 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

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

FIRE MARSHAL SALVATORE RIGNOLA
WTC2
THERES AN EXPLOSION. ALL OF SUDDEN YOU COULD HEAR SOME WEIRD SOUND LIKE CRUMBLING ALL OF A SUDDEN EVERYBODY STARTS RUNNING. I WENT AGAINST THE ESU TRUCK AND ALL OF SUDDEN
EVERYTHING GOT BLACK THE WIND BLEW BY. MATERIAL FLEW BY.

EMT JUAN RIOS
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.
WTC1
when the second one…we heard it, and more dust came. Not debris, just smoke. All we heard was “Ssssssss…”

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.

PARAMEDIC DANIEL RIVERA
WTC2
Q. WHAT DID YOU HEAR? WHAT DID YOU SEE? A. It was a frigging noise at first. At first I thought it was a professional demolition, where they set the charges on certain floors and then you hear Pop Pop Pop Pop. That’s exactly what I thought it was when I heard that frigging noise. That’s when I saw the building coming down

[philb]

108. What caused the facade of WTC2 to separate, or the big tilt

CHIEF FIRE MARSHAL LOUIS GARCIA
WTC2
I heard something, and I thought the facade and just the façade of the south tower was coming down, and one of the firefighters near me was saying holy shit, and I think he felt the building was going to collapse. I wasn't convinced of that at first. I thought maybe it was
just some facade falling. All of a sudden there was a rumble and you see the building starting to collapse.At that point I ran north on West Street as fast as I could possibly run.

LIEUTENANT GARY GATES
WTC2
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.



RONALD COYNE EMT WTC2

At that point I just heard a THUNDEROUS SOUND AND LOOKED up AND SAW THE BUILDING START TO TOPPLE START TO SWAY, AND IT WAS SWAYING OUR WAY AND WE JUST YELLED RUN AND TRIED TO RUN AS FAST AS COULD AND SAW


and how could a tilted top section cause a uniform pancake?

and what caused the mushroom clouds out the top of the buildings?
http://911research.wtc7.net/talks/towers/mushrooming.html

[philb]

22. summary compilation of firefighter statements begun at:

http://www.flcv.com/firemen.html

[mirandapriestly]

24. It is so damned obvious there were bombs

no wonder someone didn't want these released

[Klimmer]

25. FIREFIGHTER BERTRAM SPRINGSTEAD . . .

(My personal comments in parantheses)


WORLD TRADE CENTER TASK FORCE INTERVIEW
FIREFIGHTER BERTRAM SPRINGSTEAD

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/Springstead_Bert.rtf



We were driving down, sirens the whole way down. We get there. We stepped off the rig, and I

look up and I noticed that both towers were on fire now. We didn’t realize at the time that another

plane had hit. We didn’t see it and couldn’t hear it while responding. I just figured the other tower

was on fire from stuff flying from the other building. So we really didn’t know there was a second plane

<snip>

We stepped off the rig, and there were plane engine parts and people yelling and screaming.We stepped off and noticed the two towers on fire.

We started walking down Vesey towards West Street. Our assignment was tower one,


<snip>


Now we’re looking up as we’re going in, and we go into the lobby and there’s everybody. Von

Essen’s there. The Mayor’s there. Everybody’s at this command post, everyone in white hats. We

were standing there at the command post, waiting for our assignment.


<snip>


that’s when tower two must have started coming down. The building started shaking, a tremendous rumbling. Light bulbs were falling out. File cabinets were tipping over.

We were in that corner of tower one that’s kind of close to tower two where they kind
of like point at each other there. That’s the corner we were in. I don’t know what the hell was going on, but whatever it was, it was right outside the window that we were standing like five feet from.

Some guys were diving on the floor. Some guys were -- I just took off for the other side. I said whatever was going on was on that side. I said I’m getting to the other side of the building. I started running.

We got to that side of the building. I didn’t see Casey, but he told me he dove on the floor first. Then when he saw me run by, he said, “That looks like a good idea. Maybe I’ll go with Bert and get to the other side.” Casey got him to the stairwell. He said, “Let’s get the hell out of here.” I said, “Hold on, hold on, Case. I don’t even know what that was. Let’s regroup here. First we’ve got to go back and get our stuff.”

We had taken our coats off. We don’t have any tools. We don’t have our masks. I said, “Let’s go back, get our stuff.” I said, “First of all, Brogan is still back there. We’re responsible for him now.” I said, “Let’s go see if we can find Derek.

We get back there. It was dark. Most of the light bulbs had fallen off, so you really couldn’t see much. I guess it was from the dust cloud outside there was no light coming in. We didn’t know at the time. We just thought it was another plane or something, another explosion or whatever. We really didn’t know what it was.

<snip>

So we started going down. We made our way to the stair. Then it was just a slow walk down, as slow a 20 floors as you can walk. You took a step, you took another step, took a step. You got to each landing, you opened the door, “Anybody else here? Let’s go. Everybody out.” You let a couple people in front of you, another step.



(What the Hell is the the FBI doing there, office space? And how come he knows so much???)


We just happened to be on the staircase with an FBI guy. He had an FBI jacket on. He turns around to me and goes, “We’ve got to get out of here.” I said, “What are you talking about? We’re getting out. Let’s go. Everybody’s walking out.” He said, “No, you don’t understand. There’s more planes coming.” I said, “What the hell are you talking about, more planes?” He said, “There’s two more planes on the way for these buildings.” “What do you mean, two more planes?” I didn’t even know there was more than one plane at this point. We didn’t know there was a second plane.

(Seems like this agent had a lot of inside information, even though the other aircraft were not headed toward the WTC towers . . . and just how would he know that 2 more aircraft are involved ???)

We came to the lobby, and the lobby was a disaster. It never registered that the other

building had collapsed. We came outside, and we walked the same way we came in. We went back to the -- you didn’t go through the doors. All the glass was broken on the ground floor when we came in the first time, I guess from the elevators collapsing or I don’t know. All the glass was gone.

So we were walking through the plate glass along the wall. We slowly walked our way out towards the sidewalk, making sure that no jumpers were landing on us.

<snip>

So I started my way back in underneath that foot bridge right on the corner of Vesey and Church, the same way we walked in. There were a couple rigs there. There was a guy with a bullhorn, a chief. I thought he was a chief. He had a white shirt on. I don’t remember if he had a
helmet on. But he had a bullhorn, a guy with a bullhorn.

(Now how would the “guy with a bullhorn” know that everyone had to get out of there? Sure Tower 2 had just collapsed, but how does that foretell that Tower 1 is going to collapse?)

He was yelling, “Clear the area. Clear the area.” I really wasn’t listening to him. I was kind of walking by. He stopped me. He grabbed me. He said, “You’ve got to get out of here.” I said, “Chief, I’m missing three guys.” He said, “Everybody coming out I’m sending this way. They’re probably out already. Go up this way. Everybody is going up this way.” I said, “Look, Chief, they might be right here.” He said, “Get the -- out of here now.” He had me by my shoulder and he kind of shoed me away.
All right. So now I’m doing the same thing. I’m looking around. There’s firemen all over the place now. I’m looking at each guy and I’m going over to guys. It’s not really registering. The street is a disaster. There’s stuff all over the street.

I was just by the other side of that foot bridge, I guess. You heard somebody, turned around and looked up, and I saw a big section of the facade coming down, straight down. I said,

“Holy shit,” and I took off up West Street, north on West Street, just ran as far as I could, which wasn’t too far before the dust cloud took you out and stuff was hitting you and banging off your mask and your helmet and, geez, what the fuck’s going on, you know?

<snip>

Q. I just want to ask you a couple questions that I jotted down while you were talking.
What position did you have? Do you remember?

A. OV.

Q.You were the OV. Okay. Did you get any sense that the elevators were running at any time when you got there or at any time was there any talk about --

(The following seems like it can be evidence of explosions . . .)

A. The elevator doors were blown off.

Q. Blown off?

A. Yeah. You could see they were a disaster.

Q. Was there evidence of fire or smoke in that area? Did you get the sense that fire had been in that shaft or was in that shaft, the elevator shaft?

A. No, no, I never thought —- I just assumed that they must have plummeted from being cut --

Q. I see.

(More evidence of explosions . . . the aircraft hitting above wouldn’t knock-out the lobby windows, but explosives would.)

A. The airplane just -- that’s probably why the plate glass was blown off too. We didn’t walk through the doors; we walked through -- all the glass in the lobby was out.

Q. Even when you got there?

A. Yeah. So we walked through the glass to get into the building.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

26. Still reading, but the FBI had offices in the North Tower.Read my post #7.

[mirandapriestly]

27. Man, that is a loaded one

interesting that they are asking about evidence of fire in the elevators. I wonder if that is because the reason that was given for all the lower windows being blown out was that a "fireball" had come out of the elevators, but that doesn't seem to be true from what I have read. So now what IS the reason for the windows being blown out?

Another FBI encounter, this is from Derek Brogan:

There was an FBI guy I
think on that floor or one of the floors just
below it as we were walking up. He told us the
Pentagon got hit and the other tower got hit. He
misinformed us by telling us that NYU Hospital
got hit. I remember him saying that to me. And
he said, "We still have four planes in the air,
and we don't know where they are."

(I have also seen a lot of references to FBI guys)

[Klimmer]

30. More thought about the elevators . . .

The following discussion about the elevator and lobby windows seems to me to be very clear indications of set explosions/demolition.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but modern elevators can not free-fall if the cables get cut or snap. They have emergency back-up braking systems that immediately go into place if the cable fails. I believe the system works on fail-safe mechanical physics principals with no electronics involved. In the early days when elevators were first invented, this could happen, but they now use some kind of ratcheting system that immediately kicks in to catch an elevator with broken cables. In fact, the elevator can't fall far at all, since this emergency braking system extends over the entire length of the elevator shafts.

So the elevator didn't blow-up due to free-falling to the floor. Besides there are secondary elevator doors at every floor including the lobby.

Obvious exploded-out elevator doors would indicate to me that an explosion occurred that not only took-out the primary elevator doors that you see when you are in the elevator, but then also the secondary elevator floors that were at the lobby level. I would say that is clear evidence of a large explosion(s) taking place at the lobby level with the elevator already sitting there at the lobby level waiting (it didn't fall). And then obviously, also all the lobby windows being blown out. How could a jet slamming into the WTC tower far above the lobby, directly effect the lobby? It couldn't. Sure you might hear an explosion far away, and a feel a little vibration, but then that is about it.

The jet fuel didn't come rushing down the elevator shaft. He says he didn't sense any indication of fire or smoke in the elevator shaft.

. . . . . .

"Q.You were the OV. Okay. Did you get any sense that the elevators were running at any time when you got there or at any time was there any talk about --

(My comment: The following seems like it can be evidence of explosions . . .)

A. The elevator doors were blown off.

Q. Blown off?

A. Yeah. You could see they were a disaster.

Q. Was there evidence of fire or smoke in that area? Did you get the sense that fire had been in that shaft or was in that shaft, the elevator shaft?

A. No, no, I never thought

[Klimmer]

33. Website on what happens when all the cables on an elevator break . . .

Found a website . . .
What if you were on an elevator and the cable broke?
http://science.howstuffworks.com/question730.htm

Well, that pretty much debunks the likely hood of free-falling elevators in modern times. Can't happen. Didn't happen in the WTC towers either.

[philb]

145. Some elevators were working at WTC1

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.

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 West Street and get to the north tower. We entered the north tower and reported to Chief Picciotto. He said we've got a report of people trapped on the 21st floor. So that's where we ended up going. We took the low-rise bank of elevators up to the 16th floor. It was a flying shaft from 1 to 8, so we stopped at 9 just to make sure it worked. Thank God it did. We went up to the 16th floor. We got off.

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

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.

[philb]

82. WTC1 lobby and elevators were ok early

Michael Beehler, FDNY WTC1 lobby devastated

We made it down to Vesey and on to West Street, walking into the northwest corner of the north tower. They had a mini command post set up. Lieutenant Mera came over. He said come on, we are going up to the 21 floor. There are reports of people trapped there. There was a bank of elevators there that were still in service, so we took that up to, I believe the 15 or 16th floor.


Others took elevator also. Some elevators may have been out. But not all.

[janedoe]

83. Request

philb, and others going through these Oral History files, you're doing a great job posting this stuff. Many thanks to you!

I have an additional request:
When you post more, could you include the transcript date? It would be interesting to see if those questioned soon after 911 tend to have a different memory than those questioned months later.

Thanks, again, for your great work!

[philb]

149. I didn't do that when I collected snips. Someone could look at the main

file list, copy my file and add the dates, then do such a study.
I don't have time right now.
http://www.flcv.com/firemen.html

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

29. philb, you are doing great work! Thank you! I have a question about

blacked out text. So far I haven't come across any. What is the link that you are using for the accounts? Thanks!

[philb]

31. This one; is it the only one blacked out? Which are you using

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/met_WTC_histories_full_01.html


I noted some of the statements that had blacked out info.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

34. OK, I just didn't read some of those interviews. Thanks! n/t

[Klimmer]

35. WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW FIREFIGHTER EDWARD SHEEHEY

(My comments in parentheses: Sheehey heard an explosion before the South Tower started to collapse . . .)

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/Sheehey_Edward.txt

"Q. Where exactly were you when the south tower collapsed?

A. We were proceeding across West Street. We were probably maybe 25 yards from the command post.

Q. South of the command post?

A. Straight across from it, going in towards the south tower. We were probably just at West Street, just at the street. Then the south tower -- we heard an explosion, looked up, and the building started to collapse.

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."

[philb]

36. Brian Becker, FDNY blast in lobby of WTC1- away from WTC2

Brian Becker, FDNY Engine 28, Group 22.

I had relieved the lieutenant from the night tour at the station. He had left -- I was in the kitchen with the o t h e r firemen. I was standing up w i t h a cup of c o f f e e , and I heard a l o u d e x p l o s i o n . I put down my c o f f e e , and I s a i d t o t h e guys, "I think we're going t o work. That was an explosion." we heard t h e voice alarm came over and s a i d t h e r e was an explosion i n t h e World Trade Center. The engine was dispatched on t h e box. The time was 8:48.


We saw a l o t of d e b r i s i n t h e s t r e e t as we came up, and I was concerned. I could see what seemed t o be remains of bodies i n t h e s t r e e t . 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 h a t northern p e d e s t r i a n overpass, from underneath t h a t , so we took t h e s h o r t e s t r o u t e , and I think we j u s t went i n a window. I think t h e g l a s s was blown out t h e r e . I have an impression of smoke around t h e e l e v a t o r s , and bent doors, and it was p r e t t y -- t h e lobby was p r e t t y d e v a s t a t e d .

I ' d say we were i n t h e 30th or 31st, 32nd Floor, or something l i k e t h a t , and a few of t h e guys were l y i n g wiped out on t h e f l o o r , you know, t a k i n g a break with t h e i r masks off and l y i n g i n t h e hallway when t h e r e was a v e r y l o u d roaring sound and a v e r y l o u d explosion, and t h e -- it f e l t l i k e t h e r e was an explosion above us, and I had a momentary concern t h a t our b u i l d i n g was c o l l a p s i n g .


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
s t a r t e d t o descend down? A. I would say it was l i k e one minute a f t e r t h e f i r s t b u i l d i n g collapsed, t h e f i r s t c o l l a p s e of t h e o t h e r b u i l d i n g . Q. So f i v e a f t e r t e n then? A. Yes.

When we got t o t h e lobby, t h e r e was t o t a l d e v a s t a t i o n t h e n . When we went i n , it was b l a s t e d a p a r t , and t h e r e was broken g l a s s everywhere. A l l t h e 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 World Trade Center type maintenance type person. It was my impression. It didn't seem important to me. It seemed
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 c o l l a p s e , we were about 50 t o a hundred yards north of t h e p e d e s t r i a n 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 West Street, so we would have had to go all the way around by the river to get around to the other side,

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.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

37. Arresting an Arab-looking guy????

We saw an arrest being made of some Arab-looking type guy. I think he had a blue uniform type World Trade Center type maintenance type person. It was my impression. It didn't seem important to me. It seemed
like he was being arrested by a Port Authority type policeman. That's my impression. I remember them putting cuffs on him.

[philb]

38. I remember articles about there being a question after 9/11 of

why some Arabs were hired as janitors, etc. just before 9/11. Where they might have had oportunity to plant bombs in the basement, etc.
But I had not heard about them arresting anyone on 9/11. That seems strange as they couldn't have known at the time that any Arabs had anything to do with 9/11. It would be interesting to find out what he had done or what they thought he had done. It seems that day there was only concern about the planes. But maybe not?

But there were also 5 Israelis arrested at WTC on 9/11. They were seen photographing the planes hitting and cheering, apparently and reported to police. Who arrested them and held them for some time. They apparently had some bomb materials and box cutters, etc.
There's an article at 911research.org

It seems there may have been concern about bombs other than planes on 9/11. Some of the firefighter reports support an investigation into bombs at WTC.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

39. I hadn't heard of this arrest either, and did hear of the Israelis.

I believe they were eventually released and sent back to Israel.

[petgoat]

40. The "Dancing Israelis" were observed across the Hudson at Liberty Park;

the story is recorded in the "Bergen Record" newspaper; they were held something like 40 days and then deported.

[philb]

128. I saw fireman report of FBI arresting an arab wearing a suit walking

across the WTC area after the 2 towers collapsed.

I never heard that covered by Media. Who was he and what was he arrested for?

[philb]

69. firefighters leaving WTC1 find lobby blasted

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. At that point we were still not sure that it was a plane that had hit the tower. There was some talk from the civilians coming down that a plane hit. The consensus was that it was a small plane;

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.

[philb]

41. How many minutes did it take for WTC2 to collapse??? Jody Bell, EMT

How long did it take him to strap the lady down after the tidal wave of soot; then run away; then turn around; run back and unstrap the lady; then run away again about a block; then the building came down???
Did something happen well before the building "collapsed"?


Jody Bell EMT
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 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 North End Avenue. That's when the building -- you could hear the sound. The building came down. The building finished collapsing.

[jbnow]

43. By chance the 1st I opened was EDWARD CACHIA

on page 5 it says
Cachia
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.

Surprised I came here to share it. I skimmed through earlier posts to see if I saw his name, sorry if it's a dupe. I will read thread closer now.

[philb]

45. thanks for post. I can't do them all. But we need a system. So many. n/t

[Christophera]

53. Good One, Careful Reading Finds The Gems Of Truth

That is an excellent account. Firefighters know what high explosives sound like.

Does anyone have a link to the firehouse video where 3 describe the floors, "boom, boom, boom, all the way down".

[philb]

44. Another fireman says WTC2 took several minutes to collapse

Or something major before the building collapsed later.

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 9:00.

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 Federal
Building, on Vesey, I turned right, which had me east on Vesey Street, and I started running.

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 Federal Building, and then I realized it was still pitch black.
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.

[philb]

68. EMT: WTC2 explosions & falls in 2 stages

EMT JASON CHARLES
FILE No. 9110486

I HEARD SIX LOUD EXPLOSIONS AND THOSE SIX LOUD EXPLOSIONS CHANGED MY MIND REAL QUICK AND WENT BACK OVER TO THE TRIAGE CENTER AND IT WAS LIKE YOU KNOW WHAT LET ME WAIT HERE HAD NO HELMET

WTC2 falls in 2 stages
I SAW IT LOOKED LIKE THE TOP MAYBE 70 60 FLOORS COMING OFF THE BUILDING AND HAD STOOD
THERE THINKING MAYBE THE TOWERS WERE NOT GOING TO HIT ME THEN LOOKED CLOSER AND TWO PIECES OF DEBRIS FLY OVER MY HEAD ABOUT 40 50 STORIES UP FLYING OVER MY HEAD AND WAS LIKE SHIT IM OUT OF HERE
Then after running 2 blocks:

AT ONE POINT AT SOME POINT IM NOT SURE BUT THE BUILDING THAT HORRIBLE TWISTING METAL SOUND
OF FREIGHT TRAIN OR WHATEVER ITS THE WORST SOUND IN THE WORLD STOPPED BUT THEN IT STARTED AGAIN THEN I STARTED HAULING ASS AGAIN AND AT ONE POINT STOPPED LIKE MAYBE 20 FEET BEFORE GOT TO BROADWAY . I LOOKED TO MY RIGHT DOWN TOWARDS DEY AND SEE AT LEAST 40 50 STORY BALL OF DUST RUSHING AT US

[meganmonkey]

42. Wow - thanks for this thread, philb and everyone else

posting these interviews.

This is very fascinating and disturbing.

[philb]

47. unlike news and 9/11 report statements, a lot of the firemen radios worked

in WTC1 on 9/11; there are reports in many of the firemen statements by those in WTC1 that the radios were working; such as:

Paul Bessler FDNY
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,

[rumpel]

48. "I saw low-level flashes" and then it looked like the building came down

Gregory Stephen, Assistant Commissioner (F.D.N.Y.)
p 14

A. No. 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,

on edit this is a must read!

Strangely, he talks about West Street, where he saw airplane parts, but nobody, and was wondering, no firefighters or civillians, that they probably must be on the Promenade side
then he says:

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.

[rumpel]

49. BTW I can not find Lieutenant Evangelista's testimony..

[spooked911]

75. Wow-- this is an amazing one-- controlled demo for sure.

and a greenish military plane?

[philb]

50. Richard Boeri FDNY WTC2 - crackling & explosion before collapse

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.

[philb]

61. red flashes and explosions before WTC1 "collapsed"

CAPTAIN KARIN DESHORE
WTC1

"... SOMEWHERE AROUND THE MIDDLE OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER THERE WAS THIS ORANGE AND RED FLASH COMING OUT INITIALLY IT WAS JUST ONE FLASH THEN
THIS FLASH JUST KEPT POPPING ALL THE WAY AROUND THE BUILDING AND THAT BUILDING HAD STARTED TO EXPLODE THE POPPING SOUND AND WITH EACH POPPING SOUND IT WAS INITIALLY AN ORANGE AND THEN RED FLASH CAME OUT OF THE BUILDING AND THEN IT WOULD JUST GO ALL AROUND THE BUILDING ON BOTH SIDES AS FAR AS COULD SEE THESE POPPING SOUNDS AND THE EXPLOSIONS WERE GETTING BIGGER GOING BOTH UP AND DOWN AND THEN ALL AROUND THE BUILDING WENT INSIDE AND TOLD EVERYBODY THAT THE OTHER BUILDING OR THERE WAS AN EXPLOSION OCCURRING UP THERE AND SAID THINK WE HAVE ANOTHER MAJOR EXPLOSION DONT KNOW IF WE ARE ALL GOING TO BE SAFE HERE TOLD THEM CANT FORCE YOU BUT DONT KNOW
IF WE ARE GOING TO BE SAFE HERE IM GOING TO TRY TO GET AS FAR AWAY FROM THIS BUILDING AS POSSIBLE UNBEKNOWN TO ME HALF BLOCK DOWN WAS THE WATER..."
I went inside and told everybody that there was an explosion occurring up there in the other building and I said I think we have another major explosion. I don’t know if we are all going to be safe here. 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 Jersey boat, entered the Marina.
We went down, carried everybody down.
The poor guy behind the steering wheel is saying I can’t go anyplace, we are tied on. That is what saved over lives, because then this force came at us and hit us with everything. The boat was attempting to overturn and it kept hitting in the back against the pier. I was resigned to die. I have no clue how long this lasted.

[philb]

79. WTC2- Krakling; IT SOUNDED LIKE A MILLION FIRECRACKERS

FIREFIGHTER DEAN COUTSOUROS FILE No. 9110049

I WAS DIRECTLY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET ON WASHINGTON STREET AND THERE WERE TWO GUYS THREE GUYS BEHIND ME AND I WAS RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET AND THATS WHEN THE
TOWER STARTED TO COME

I HAPPENED TO BE LOOKING UP AT IT AND FROM THE FIRE FLOOR DOWN IT WAS JUST LIKE REALLY LOUD CRACKLING NOISE . IT SOUNDED LIKE A MILLION FIRECRACKERS AND JUST WAVE RIGHT FROM THE FIRE FLOOR DOWN JUST WAVE THAT STARTED TO COME DOWN

[philb]

51. Fireman, lots of info blanked out & missile attack had been reported

Rober 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
ONE GUY TOLD ME COUPLE WEEKS AGO THAT IT GOT HIT WHILE WE WERE IN THE LOBBY

AS SOON AS WE GOT INTO THE STAIRWAY THE BUILDING STARTED SHAKING LIKE AN EARTHQUAKE THOUGHT OUR BUILDING WAS COMING DOWN . Im THINKING THIS GUY IS HAVING CHEST PAINS HAVE REPORT OF MISSILE ATTACK OR OTHER TERRORIST ATTACK 30TH FLOOR THERES FIRE HERE 10TH
FLOOR THERES FIRE HERE MISSILES COMING, HEART ATTACKS THIS IS RIDICULOUS WERE OUT HERE. WE STARTED GOING DOWN THE BUILDING SHOOK SAID THIS ONE IS COMING DOWN LETS GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE THEN WE GET TO THE THIRD FLOOR AND THE STAIRWAY IS PARTIALLY BLOCKED THEY COULDN’T PASS I TOLD MY GUYS I’ll GO FIND ANOTHER STAIRWAY STAY HERE I FIND THE STAIR THAT WE WENT UP STAYED IN THE STAIRWAY. I YELLED TO MY GUYS LETS GO IVE GOT ANOTHER STAIRWAY . THERE WAS DEBRIS FROM THE OTHER BUILDING COMING DOWN AND PUSHING IN BECAUSE WE WERE IN THE STAIRWAY FACING THE SOUTH TOWER
Another 2 blanked paragraphs


WE GO UP TO ABOUT THAMES STREET AND WE FIND HYDRANT THAT WORKED WE HOOKED UP
SAID YOU KNOW WHAT WERE GOING TO HAVE TO RELAY WATER TO SOMEBODY. FIVE WORLD TRADE THIS BUILDING HERE WAS FULLY INVOLVED YOU DONT REALIZE EVEN THEN WHERE THINGS STOOD SAID LETS GO AND MAYBE PUT OUT THE FIRE THATS WHAT WE DID WE GOT WATER WE HOOKED UP TO THE GRAVITY TANK OF ONE OF THESE BUILDINGS HERE.

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 LOT OF
THE MAINS BECAUSE THEY WERE FLOODING THE SUBWAYS.

[philb]

52. EMT reports 3 loud explosions before WTC1 collapsed

EMT GREGG BRADY File No. 9110184

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. We proceeded through a broken window that the Fire Department broke to lead access into the south tower. At that time plans changed and we transferred the triage area over to 7 World Trade
Center, in the lobby.

At that time, as they were speaking we heard a loud rumble and
we look up and we saw that the south tower was coming down. we ran underneath 2 World Financial Center and we came out in front. When
we came out in front it was just as dark as it was inside.

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 Vesey Street towards the water. At that time, I couldn't run fast enough. The debris caught up with me, knocked my helmet off. I tumbled and then eventually I started running again. I made it behind a building on North End Avenue. I set up a triage area in that corner
building and at that time I started treating patients.

[philb]

54. did the firemen hear explosions (or pancaking ) when the buildings fell?

What kind of sound would pancaking make? How would it be different from explosions from controlled demolition? Lots of them heard the sounds that many described as explosions. But what caused them?

Also, how long did the south tower collapse sequence last. This one and several more make it sound like as much as a couple of minutes? In phases, not all at once. And several floors standing at ground level for awhile according to some.


FIREFIGHTER CRAIG CARLSEN -explosions (or pancaking) 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 Two World Financial Center next to the Winter Garden, just a little bit south of the north bridge.

I made it in about 20 feet inside the door, and I tripped over an EMT who I guess broke his leg and was disabled. I pretty much just
stayed there and tried to comfort him. Before I had gone into the garage, I grabbed a mask. At that point, that's when the building
started to come down , and you could see the force of air coming
towards you. I was just trying to drag the EMT down the ramp. That's when the blast came. (how long did this collapse sequence last?)


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 West Street. I would guess
we made it up to Barclay, maybe, and whatever it was knocked us down, the force of the wind. The second one coming down, you knew the explosions. Now you're very familiar with it. Of course when I looked up, all I could see was the antenna coming down.

[philb]

55. Its obvious watching media and other influences affected the

firemen's opinions and statements in many cases. As it did that of most who watch the news. But they likely had more peer and authority influence than most because so many of them saw and heard things they didn't understand, and seemed contrary to what some were saying.

How does one know what is a straight story under such circumstances?

[mirandapriestly]

59. I've noticed that

The firefighter (or witness) will say, "I thought it was a missile, but now I realize that..." I've seen that a lot.

[philb]

56. FIREFIGHTER FERNANDO CAMACHO WTC2 Explosions

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

[philb]

84. Explosions at WTC2 John Coyle, Fire Marshall

FIRE MARSHAL JOHN COYLE
WTC2
THE TOWER WAS IT LOOKED TO ME 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 GOT THROUGH ON MY PHONE TO MY FATHER AND SAID Im ALIVE JUST WANTED TO TELL YOU GO TO CHURCH Im ALIVE JUST SO NARROWLY ESCAPED THIS THING HE SAID WHERE WERE YOU YOU WERE THERE I SAID YEAH WAS RIGHT THERE WHEN IT BLEW Up HE SAID YOU WERE THERE WHEN THE PLANES HIT SAID NO WAS THERE WHEN IT EXPLODED, THE BUILDING EXPLODED HE SAID YOU MEAN WHEN IT FELL DOWN SAID NO WHEN IT EXPLODED

[philb]

85. WTC2 thunderous sound, then sway, then collapse; and debris set him

on fire

RONALD COYNE EMT WTC2 thunderous sound, then sway, then collapse; and debris set him on fire

At that point I just heard a THUNDEROUS SOUND AND LOOKED up AND SAW THE BUILDING START TO
TOPPLE START TO SWAY, AND IT WAS SWAYING OUR WAY AND WE JUST YELLED RUN AND TRIED TO RUN AS FAST AS COULD AND SAW AN SUV PARKED AND FIGURED THAT THAT WOULD TAKE SOME YOU KNOW SOME OF THE HIT BECAUSE I KNEW COULDNT OUT RUN THE BUILDING AND BY THE TIME
IT TOOK ME TO BREAK THE BACK WINDOW OF THE SUV
MY SAFETY COAT WAS ALREADY ON FIRE MY SOCKS WERE ON FIRE
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 AND CAME THROUGH THE FRONT
WINDOW AND FLIPPED THE TRUCK OVER AND I WAS TRAPPED IN THERE FOR APPROXIMATELY 25 MINUTES TO HALF HOUR. I was just covered with burns and bruises and I could hardly breathe.
Several blanked out paragraphs

[philb]

91. PARAMEDIC KEVIN DARNOWSKI 3 Explosions heard before WTC2 fell

PARAMEDIC KEVIN DARNOWSKI

3 Explosions before WTC2 fell
At that time I started walking back up towards Vesey Street. I heard three explosions, and then we heard like groaning and grinding, and
tower two started to come down.

[philb]

94. FATHER JOHN DELENDICK FDNY bombs & explosions before WTC2 fell

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.

[philb]

99. 4 more firemen thought there were explosions at WTC2 before it fell

BATTALION CHIEF DOMINICK DeRUBBIO - WTC2
I was looking over t h e Winter Garden a t t h e second tower, and then I saw t h a t s t a r t i n g 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,

When we heard the big boom, I looked up and I just saw the building collapsing.

LIEUTENANT GEORGE J. DeSIMONE WTC2
I thought it was an explosion initially. We got hit with the powder. We tried to run.

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.

[philb]

101. 2 more firemen thought there were explosions at WTC2

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER JAMES DRURY


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 West Street. I guess we got about three-quarters of the way across when we were deciding which way to go into the south tower. That's when I looked up, and the tower started coming down, which at the time I said I thought it was a secondary device.

[philb]

58. Where did the plane debris and bodies end up? How many of the

bodies reported next to the buildings and in streets were from the plane versus jumpers? Was it similar for both buildings?

FIREFIGHTER JOSEPH CASALIGGI saw the planes hit

On the morning of September 11th we were operating a box up on Church Street Near Canal. There was an odor of gas in the area. While we were out operating, we heard the first plane coming in. I turned around and I watched the plane crash into the north tower. ...


It was at that time when I saw the second plane hit the building. I called a mayday. I told them the second plane hit the south tower of the building. I wasn't sure which floors it was, but I knew it hit the upper floors of the south tower. Debris was falling, body parts were falling. We ducked for cover inside Engine 7, but the rig was getting bombarded with debris from the building, debris from the plane. We saw bodies crash landing right next to the rig. So we couldn't stay there.

Gerard Casey, FDNY
We couldn't go through the front of the north tower
because there were too many bodies on the ground.

we had to go underneath the overpass to avoid debris falling from the south tower and bodies. People were jumping.

were the bodies the firefighters described all jumpers or from the plane? or both?
Is it clear there were people on both planes?
and that they were the people who boarded Fl 11 and 175?

[rumpel]

60. I was trying to figure that out, too. From what I have read so far, FD

and EMT that came in from the tunnel side said on "West Street" there were many body parts and pieces of possiblly a plane. But I also noticed, that they all said there were hardly any people on West side. That they expected a huge commotion and were surprised to find it almost desolate. Simultaneously they notice people jumping.
So far only 2 have mentioned shoes, and luggage type debris.

[spooked911]

76. It would be really important if we could find out from these histories

if there was any evidence for people on the planes and bodies on the ground from the planes.

[philb]

78. landing gear from plane that hit WTC2 was in parking lot outside

FIREFIGHTER DEAN COUTSOUROS WTC2

WALKING DOWN LIBERTY AND WE GOT IN FRONT OF 90 WEST STREET. THE LANDING GEAR OF THE AIRCRAFT WAS IN THAT PARKING LOT THERE


You would think someone would have taken a picture, as many cameras and video cams that were there that day. Was there an appeal for people to turn in photos of such?
Of course there is someone who knows what it was from.


The firefighters had a lot of discussion of body parts at the scene, but most seemed to be from jumpers. But they likely know and its likely in the statements. Some got there very early.

[rumpel]

111. but it seems, the "jumpers" are co-mingled with the possible plane victims

all of the accounts so far, state these first responders already watching people jump from the building. So who is to say...what is what. There is only one I have seen so far, who says there was a body part close to the tunnel, and that it would be too far for anyone to have jumped. However any blast, plane or missile, into an office might propel someone to great distances, I imagine.

[spooked911]

74. Funny how LARED, M-ATC, Make7, Hack89 have nothing to say about this

[LARED]

77. Shoot, you know the routine by now.

These transcripts only enforce the facts that buildings having jets crash into them at 500 mph, catch fire, and then collapse make lots of noises people will describe as explosions, booms, etc, This is something I have maintained for a long time.

It's nice to see more evidence supporting reality.

:hi:

[seatnineb]

93. Is that the best you got?

So these 3 explosions are noises!

PARAMEDIC KEVIN DARNOWSKI

At that time I started walking back up towards Vesey Street. I heard three explosions, and then we heard like groaning and grinding, and tower two started to come down.
(Thanks to Philb for finding this)

[Christophera]

81. Very Good Observation. Is It Cognitive Failure, Denial, Or Subterfuge?

Yes , ......... nothing. Account after account of eyewitness survivors describing explosions and no accountability for the endless dissmisal of information, confusing devisive comments.

We have 3 basic ways to explin this.

1. Cognitive failure, where memory and logic fail incessantly coupled with compulsive expression.

2. Fear, denial and unconsciously directed cognitive distortions containde in expression intended to effect #1 above in the casual reader of threads.

3. Subterfuge or sabotage to the random efforts of Americans to assemble efficiently by electronic means by preventing the establishment of common knowlege appraisal of events amongst the people.

If #1, repeated education will cure the problem. If #2, an intervention and repeated education will alter the behavior. If #3, nothing will alter the behavior and the intention is consciously directed. Only our understanding, courage and commitment to our sacred purposes our instincts impose upon us will set us free to use our gifts in the protection of life.

[LARED]

87. It's funny how things work out sometimes

Cognitive Failure, Denial, Or Subterfuge?

Are the same thoughts that run through my mind every time the solid concrete core fantasy is posted.

[vincent_vega_lives]

89. LMAO

:rofl:

[Christophera]

92. Must Be Subterfuge Because MANY Saw Concrete Core And Wrote Of It. USENET!

Others have done some searching of the usenet and found comments from people who saw the concrete core being built or know of it for other reasons.

Here is a page of links to comments.

http://cosmicpenguin.com/911/chrisbrown/corerefs/index.html

[Make7]

103. Since there are eyewitnesses.....

....I guess we can all agree that a commercial airliner crashed into the Pentagon then. Thanks for clearing that up.

-Make7

[seatnineb]

104. Some pentagon eye-witnesses contradict themselves and eachother n/t

[philb]

105. There are witnesses here that the plane that hit WTC2 was big jet

nothing more clear by the firefighters,
and made a very loud explosion.
Do commercial crashes & jet fuel normally make a very loud explosion?


The firefighters I've seen who saw the first plane say nothing beyond that it was a jet. Though the impression on the building is pretty big. They don't seem to have gotten a very close look, and the people conducting the interview weren't interested in what type of plane or what caused the buildings to fall it appeared.

The interviewers were focused on which firefighters they saw and where. And whether radios worked. Discussions of issues regarding what happened with the planes and buildings were mostly as a side issue.

[rumpel]

112. Yes, where and when they saw Chief Ganci...

[Make7]

113. Are you fucking kidding me?

philb wrote:
Do commercial crashes & jet fuel normally make a very loud explosion?

[spooked911]

125. have you ever witnessed one yourself?

While I would imagine they do make a loud explosion, does anyone here have direct experience with the noise?

[philb]

129. I'm talking relative degrees of loudness.

some suggest bombs or missiles in addition to plane explosions at WTC. Likewise at Pentagon.

There were witnesses who experienced the explosions at each of the sites. But is there any evidence regarding how loud the explosions were and how much force at one site compared to the others, or to other crash sites?

Different types of explosions/explosives have different degrees of loudness and different sounds.

[philb]

90. Which plane did this fuselage come from and how the wheel get this far ?

FIRE PATROLMAN PAUL CURRAN fuselage of plane on Vessey St


I parked the rig on Church right at Fulton, directly in front of the World Trade north plaza. My officer told us we're going to go into the north tower lobby. We proceeded down to Vesey. Walking down Vesey, we noticed large pieces of what looked like possibly the fuselage from the plane. There was a caravan of motorcycle police coming up. We stopped them and we cleared the path of big O rings and pieces of fuselage of the plane. We threw it to the side, and we told the guys to go on. They went up towards Church

Where is Vessey and how far from WTC? Which plane would this be?

EMS CAPTAIN FRANK DAMATO
I parked my car on West Street, right around near, right about, right at the -- almost to the exit of where the Battery Tunnel empties out.
Then actually when I found my car, I found my car like later, later on in the day, but I left it there, because it was not able to be moved because it was covered. There was an airplane tire about 10 feet away from it.

Which tower would this be from? How would a wheel get this far away?
I didn't think the landing gear was down?

[philb]

100. 2nd plane hits & piece of a plane on Liberty St

BATTALION CHIEF BRIAN DIXON FDNY piece of a plane
I continued down Liberty, just west of 10 and 10. As I got down a little farther, there was what looked to be a piece of the cabin of the airplane, I guess. It looked like a piece of it about maybe six foot long. It looked like the windows.
which plane would this be?


CAPTAIN MICHAEL DONOVAN FDNY WTC2 2nd plane hits

We were actually still on Church Street. We heard the plane briefly, the earth shook, the buildings shook, a tremendous fireball overhead.
I thought there was a bomb or an explosion. A tremendous fireball, flaming debris, pieces of the airplane, fuselage, landing gear, pieces of the building.

[Woody Box]

97. Excellent, important work, philb!

:yourock:

[philb]

151. I've grouped the firemen statements about the planes into category types:

http://www.flcv.com/wtcplane.html

[philb]

115. People above both crashes survived/walked down stairs; why not more?

As has been posted, there were survivors on floors above both crashes who simply walked down the stairs- braving a little smoke in some cases. So why didn't more do so? Since there was time for most to get out, why did so many die?

Also why didn't the NY PD do a roof landing and open the locked exits to the roof? and why were the exits locked so they couldn't be opened by anyone without a key or major tool?

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.

[philb]

130. what was the high pitched, jet type sound before towers "collapsed"?

EMT MARK MAZUR
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.


WTC2
WE WERE READY TO GO STRAIGHT AHEAD YOU HEARD A ROAR SOME SORT OF VIBRATION LIKE VRR VRR VRR GETTING LOUDER AND LOUDER
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 AND LOUDER AND LOUDER AND NEXT THING YOU KNOW YOU FELT THE BUILDING SHOOK AT THAT MOMENT IT WAS THINK EVERY
MAN FOR THEMSELVES THINK MIGHT HAVE HEARD SOMEBODY SAY ITS COMING DOWN OR SOMETHING.

SHORTLY AFTER AS IM WALKING YOU HEAR ANOTHER LOUD BOOM. REMEMBER TURNING
LOOKING AND LOOKING UP AND SEEING THE DUST CLOUD OPENING UP OVERHEAD
I REMEMBER WHEN CAME UP LIBERTY TO WEST STREET NOW COULD SEE THIS DEVASTATION THAT
DEFINITELY DIDNT SEE TO THAT MAGNITUDE AFTER THE FIRST BUILDING CAME DOWN BUT NOW THERE WAS JUST MOUNTAINS OF STEEL.


ASSISTANT CHIEF FIRE MARSHAL RICHARD MCCAHEY

WTC1
I HEARD THAT ROAR AGAIN. It SOUNDED LIKE A BIG JET PLANE AND MY BACK WAS FACING WAS TALKING TO THE COMMISSIONER AND COULD SEE THE LOOK ON HIS FACE I TURNED AROUND AND ALL I SAW WAS THAT MUSHROOM COMING DOWN.


there were dozens more reports like these

[philb]

144. Another fireman thought he heard jet sound before WTC2 "collapsed"

EMT-P ERIC RODRIGUEZ
WTC2
I was in back of the vehicle and I heard, it sounded like I thought another plane had struck the building. This loud bang and then it sounded like a locomotive, or like when I used to live in Howard Beach, when the planes used to come in at night, flying right over the house. Everything started shaking and I heard like a thunderstorm. I could see the cloud coming. I thought the building was actually falling over.