Explosions do not equal explosives. Things explode in fires and many people used similes to describe what they saw.
These people are NOT using similes, they are talking about explosions.
9/11 Firefighters: Bombs and
Explosions in the WTC
[Firefighter Louie] Cacchioli was called to testify privately [before the 9/11 Commission], but walked out on several members of the committee before they finished, feeling like he was being interrogated and cross-examined rather than simply allowed to tell the truth about what occurred in the north tower on 9/11. "My story was never mentioned in the final report [
PDF download] and I felt like I was being put on trial in a court room," said Cacchioli. "I finally walked out. They were trying to twist my words and make the story fit only what they wanted to hear. All I wanted to do was tell the truth and when they wouldn't let me do that, I walked out. ... It was a disgrace to everyone, the victims and the family members who lost loved ones. I don't agree with the 9/11 Commission. The whole experience was terrible." [
Arctic Beacon]
Edmund McNally phoned his wife Liz twice following the [WTC 2] aircraft impact. Mr McNally said in his second phone call "Liz, this was a terrorist attack. I can hear explosions below me.'' [
NY Times]
Tom Elliott, WTC 2 survivor: They saw only two firemen going up. They told them there had been an explosion near the 60th floor. [
csmonitor]
Kim White, WTC 1 survivor: "We got down as far as the 74th floor ... Then there was another explosion, so we left again by the stairwell." [
People]
Explosions occurred below the aircraft impact levels in both towers prior to the collapses. The following gives a reason for the explosions:
9/11 NBC News broadcast
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wma download]
"Shortly after 9 o'clock ... [Albert Turi the Chief of Safety for the New York Fire Department] received word of the possibility of a secondary device, that is another bomb going off. He tried to get his men out as quickly as he could, but he said there was another explosion which took place, and then an hour after the first hit - the first crash that took place - he said there was another explosion that took place in one of the towers here, so obviously according to his theory he thinks that there were actually devices that were planted in the building.
Two WTC impacts. Three explosions reported.
One of the secondary devices he thinks that took place after the initial impact he thinks may have been on the plane that crashed into one of the towers. The second device - he thinks, he speculates - was probably planted in the building. ... But the bottom line is that he, Albert Turi, said that he probably lost a great many men in those secondary explosions, and he said that there were literally hundreds, if not thousands, of people in those towers when the explosions took place."
"...then somebody said that they saw an airliner go into one of those towers. Then, an hour later than that we had that big explosion from much, much lower down and I don't know what caused that."
WMV video download (268kB)
Lou Cacchioli, Firefighter in WTC 1: At that point, Cacchioli found one of the only functioning elevators, one only going as high as the 24th floor ... "Tommy Hetzel 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!' [
Arctic Beacon]
"There's a bomb in the building - start clearing out"..."We got a secondary device in the building"
WMV video download (698kB)
"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." [
Craig Carlsen -- Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.)]
WMV video download detailing explosions (2.8 MB)
A point to note about the above video is the sounds of the explosions consist of low frequencies only.
The absence of high frequencies indicates the sounds were not transmitted through the air to the camera's microphone but through the ground - they reached the microphone via the tripod.
This in turn indicates that the explosions occurred at or below ground level (note where the smoke originates in the video).
How could an aircraft impact at floors 78+ of WTC 2 cause numerous large explosions at the base of the building?
Smoke at the base of WTC 2
Firefighters shocked by a loud explosion.
WMV video download (306kB)
"At 10:30 I tried to leave the building, but as I got outside I heard a second explosion ... And then a fire marshal came in and said we had to leave, because if there was a third explosion this building might not last."
WMV video download (231kB)
"We were trying to get some of the people out, but then there was secondary explosions and then subsequent collapses."
MOV video download (321kB)
"As we were getting our gear on and making our way to the stairway, there was a heavy duty explosion."
WMV video download (181kB)
"We really never even got that close to the building. The explosion blew and it knocked everybody over"
WMV video download (110kB)
"At that point, a debate began to rage because. . . many people had felt that possibly explosives had taken out 2 World Trade, and officers were gathering companies together and the officers were debating whether or not to go immediately back in or to see what was going to happen with 1 World Trade at that point. The debate ended pretty quickly because 1 World Trade came down." [
Christopher Fenyo - Firefighter]
"I said, ‘Chief, they're evacuating the other building; right?’ He said, ‘No.’ . . . I said, ‘Why not? They blew up the other one.’ I thought they blew it up with a bomb. I said, ‘If they blew up the one, you know they're gonna blow up the other one.’ He said, ‘No, they're not.’ I said, ‘Well, you gotta tell them to evacuate it, because it's gonna fall down and you gotta get the guys out.’ He said, ‘I'm just the Battalion Chief. I can't order that.’ . . . I said, ‘You got a ****ing radio and you got a ****ing mouth. Use the ****ing things. Empty this ****ing building.’ Again he said, ‘I'm just a Battalion Chief. I can't do that.’ . . . Eventually this other chief came back and said, ‘They are evacuating this tower.’ . . . And sometime after that . . . I watched the north tower fall." [
William Reynolds - Firefighter]
[Lieutenant Fireman and former Auxiliary Police Officer, Paul Isaac Jr.] explained to me that, “many other firemen know there were bombs in the buildings, but they’re afraid for their jobs to admit it because the ‘higher-ups’ forbid discussion of this fact.” Paul further elaborated that former CIA director Robert Woolsey, as the Fire Department’s Anti-terrorism Consultant, is sending a gag order down the ranks. “There were definitely bombs in those buildings,” he told me. [
Prison Planet]
"Tower two has had major explosion and what appears to be a complete collapse" ... "...those involved in the secondary explosion at tower 1, 'kay, I've got five patients..." ... "We have got numerous people covered in dust from the secondary explosion..." ... "We've got another explosion at the tower..."
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