If Larry thought more of the firefighters then to refer them as an "operation", I'd suspect he would have said:
"I remember getting a call from the, uh, fire department commander, telling me that they were not sure they were gonna be able to contain the fire, and I said, 'You know we've had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is, is pull [them].' Uh, and they made that decision to pull and then we watched the building collapse."
See now if he said that, then I wouldn't have thought anything really suspicious about it other than why would a fire commander be talking options over with a lease holder? Can a leaseholder override a fire commander's call? Or was the fire commander inexperience and/or at a loss of what to do and needed some good ol' advice?
Let's see if this scenario makes sense:
FC: were not sure they were gonna be able to contain the fire
LS: You know we've had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is, is pull [them]?
FC: oh gee, now why didn't I think of that? Thanks Mr. Silverstein. You so smart.