And what time was that? Was it before noon?
From the NIST report.....
Between 11:00 a.in. and 12:00 noon, approximately 40 FDNY members arrived at WTC 7 with orders to put the fires out inside WTC 7. Inside they surveyed conditions and reported seeing small fires in debris in the core area and on the west side of the same floor of the building. They did not identify the floor where they observed this. A Chief Officer inside the building ran into other firefighters who had searched the upper floors, and they reported that no one was inside the building. When the Chief Officer reached approximately the 9& or 10* floor19, he had been inside the building about 20 min to 25 min. He received a radio call from another Chief Officer outside the building ordering him out of WTC 7..........................Multiple FDNY personnel reported seeing fires in WTC 7 from the exterior, some as early as about 11:00 a.m..........................
At approximately 11:30 am, FDNY assigned a different Chief Officer to take charge of operations at WTC 7. He was initially given orders to put the fires out in WTC 7....................................This Chief proceeded down the street to WTC 7 to gather information on conditions............Fire was observed on the south face, on a single floor around Floor 10 to Floor 14, and appeared to be traveling from west to east.20 At the comer of Vesey and West Broadway, a Chief reported that a FDNY Engine was connected to a hydrant at the corner of WTC 7. Hose lines were stretched, and the engine's pump was still running even though the engine was on fire and was almost burned out. There was no water coming out of the hydrant system.12 One FDNY Chief, who had been inside WTC 7, reported to him that he had opened a standpipe on the 4th floor of one stairway and found no water in the standpipe system.As they were leaving the building through a service door in the southeast corner, glass was breaking from overhead. After it stopped, they exited and saw that the fires on the south face had moved to the east face and were moving north. They reported that flames were coming out of the windows, and that the windows were breaking out sequentially in groups of two or three every 15 min to 20 min. The rooms appeared to have reached a flashover condition,........................
At approximately 1:00 p.m., an OEM staff member, a FDNY Deputy Chief, and a FDNY Battalion Chief entered WTC 7 to further evaluate conditions. The OEM staff member reported that they entered WTC 7 through the door near the southeast corner on West Broadway and proceeded up the B stairway on the east side. They stopped at the 3rd floor level. The atrium was filled with dust but had no significant debris. As they observed the area, they heard the building creaking.............
At the 5* floor, they moved to the A stairway and proceeded up. On the 8* or 9* floor, one of the group said he saw two elevator cars ejected from their shafts and in the hallway. Looking past the elevators, they could see a gaping hole in the south face from around the 6th to the 9th floors. They could see one floor below and two to three floors above that location. A lot of the core walls were destroyed, and one individual reported that he saw columns hanging from the floor above. They did not observe any fires at this time on the 8* floor or 9th floor, but the interviewee reported that they could hear fires burning well above where they were standing. Also, they continued to hear creaking noises in the building. As the FDNY Officers continued their inspection of WTC 7, they heard a loud noise, and a Chief decided that they should evacuate the building.....................
When a Chief Officer got to Barclay Street and West Broadway, numerous firefighters and officers were exiting WTC 7. These firefighters indicated that several blocks needed to be cleared around WTC 7 because they thought that the building was going to collapse.
In my opinion, considering what happened earlier in the day, and what happened later, the NYFD not only made the correct choice, they made the
ONLY choice.
