The experience and training of these officers, relative to past large high rise fires within the city or elsewhere in the world, did not lead the officers to expect a total collapse of either structure. [Needless to say, none of those past buildings had been hit by airliners.] Based on the above understanding, the Chief Officers in this category saw the operations at the World Trade Center during the first hours as strictly an attempt to evacuate occupants from below the fire floors, rescue trapped occupants from below the fire floors, and provide medical assistance to the injured. This strategy is supported by the following statement drawn from the FDNY first-person interviews:
▪ The Chief at the Incident Command Post said that they were not going to be able to put the fire out and that they were just going to be saving people. NIST NCSTAR 1-8 p. 75
In Section 5.2 of this report, it was estimated that it would take a water flow rate of approximately 4,700 l/min (1,250 gal/min) to extinguish one-half of a floor that would be burning inside one of the WTC towers. This amounted to approximately five 63.5 mm (2.5 in) diameter hoselines using nozzles with a 28.5 mm (1.125 in) tip diameter. For a full size floor on fire in one of the WTC towers, it would take approximately twice this flow rate, 9,400 l/min (2,500 gal/min), with a total of approximately 10 hoselines to extinguish the fire. This type of operation would likely involve a minimum of 15 to 20 Engine companies that would typically be able to work for periods of between 15 to 20 minutes before they would have to be relieved. This estimate for the extinguishment of a full floor fire at the WTC is based on operations under ideal conditions where the building’s fire pumps would be supplying adequate water supplies for firefighting. If a building’s fire pumps are not functioning, the fire department must rely upon its own resources. Special high-rise pumper apparatus would have to be coupled with the building’s standpipe system to provide water supply for the upper floors. NIST NCSTAR 1-8 p. 77
"We were looking at two large bodies of fires that neither of us in our 33-year careers had ever seen anything that enormous." –FDNY Chief of Safety Albert Turi –Source
"It was the most unbelievable sight I ever saw, up until that point. I had been in some very busy units during my time in the fire department. I broke in, in Engine 46 and Ladder 27 in the South Bronx when the South Bronx was burning down. I was in Rescue 3, which was extremely busy; they covered the Bronx and Harlem. And then as a lieutenant, I was in the Lower East Side when that was burning down. As a captain, I was in Chinatown. I saw some unbelievable fires in Chinatown.
What I saw pales in comparison (sic) to anything else I had seen previously." –FDNY Captain Jay Jonas
–Source
Robert Jones, ACE Elevator mechanic: You could see A Tower, the outside,
the columns were glowing red by that time, because that had been on fire for at least a good 25 minutes by that time. B Tower, I could see tremendous structural damage to the outside of the building. We stood on the corner across the street from the towers.
Source
FDNY Assistant Chief Joseph Callan:
"Approximately 40 minutes after I arrived in the lobby, I made a decision that the building was no longer safe. And that was based on the conditions in the lobby, large pieces of plaster falling, all the 20 foot high glass panels on the exterior of the lobby were breaking.
There was obvious movement of the building, and that was the reason on the handy talky I gave the order for all Fire Department units to leave the north tower."
Source
Callan: "For me to make the decision to take our firefighters out of the building with civilians still in it, that was very tough for me, but
I did that because I did not think the building was safe any longer, and that was just prior to 9:30."–Source
EMS Division Chief John Peruggia: "I was in a discussion with Mr. Rotanz and I believe it was a representative from the Department of Buildings, but I'm not sure. Some engineer type person, and several of us were huddled talking in the lobby and it was brought to my attention, it was believed that the structural damage that was suffered to the towers was quite significant and they were very confident that the building's stability was compromised and they felt that the north tower was in danger of a near imminent collapse.
I grabbed EMT Zarrillo, I advised him of that information. I told him he was to proceed immediately to the command post where Chief Ganci was located. Told him where it was across the street from number 1 World Trade Center. I told him "You see Chief Ganci and Chief Ganci only. Provide him with the information that the building integrity is severely compromised and they believe the building is in danger of imminent collapse." So, he left off in that direction."
On the 56th floor, an architect believes the building was failing structurally:
[FONT=arial,sans-serif]
Architect Bob Shelton had his foot in a cast; he'd broken it falling off a curb two weeks ago. He heard the explosion of the first plane hitting the north tower from his 56th-floor office in the south tower. As he made his way down the stairwell, his building came under attack as well. "You could hear the building cracking. It sounded like when you have a bunch of spaghetti, and you break it in half to boil it." Shelton knew that what he was hearing was bad. "It was structural failure," Shelton says. "Once a building like that is off center, that's it."[/FONT][FONT=arial,sans-serif]
Source [/FONT][FONT=arial,sans-serif]
[FONT=arial,sans-serif]Structural Engineer Al Masetti: At some point, perhaps when I was down around the 20th floor (north tower), there was a very clear and distinct radio message:
"...structural instability...." It seemed obvious to me that some lightly dressed and unencumbered fireman had reached the scene of the impact, was able to evaluate what was there, and was able to report what he saw.
Source [/FONT]
[FONT=arial,sans-serif]An engineer from the Department of Buildings reported that the
structural damage appeared to be immense. The stability of both buildings was compromised. In particular, the engineer was worried about how long the north tower would stand. [/FONT][/FONT][FONT=arial,sans-serif]
Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn. "102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers" New York: Times Books, 2004[/FONT]
[FONT=arial,sans-serif]
Roy Bell: "They said they had stretchers and wheelchairs down there, but I just wanted to get the hell out of the building," he said. "I ran into a building engineer, who told me there was only one safe exit out and that the building wasn't stable." [/FONT][FONT=arial,sans-serif]
Source
[/FONT]
William Rodriguez, who led firefighters partway up the stairwells (from an account of a speech of his): The firemen made it up to the 27th floor but were exhausted from the burden of their equipment. As William had ascended the stairwell he, as well as the firemen, had heard explosions from the 20th through the 30th floor. Chunks of the building were falling down all around them and
they could literally hear the creaking in the building.Source
William Rodriguez:The stairs were cracking. The sheet rock, when I went up opening the doors, was falling on top of me and on top of the firemen constantly. And the swaying of the building made it easier for that to come off. Source
B.J.B.: Water was pouring down the stairwell, and all the while the building was creaking and cracking, and it felt like it was coming apart.Source
Erik O. Ronningen : I remember how calm and orderly the descent in the stairwells was… and how smoky… accompanied occasionally with the snapping sounds of tortured pipes and walls stressed beyond endurance. Source
Sandra Gonzales: "All the way down it felt like the ground was falling out from under you. I knew the building had been severely damaged, and all the way down you could feel that it was about to collapse." Source
PAPD Sergeant Quentin DeMarco: While forming teams and assembling equipment to make entries into the WTC, Captain Whitaker informed the undersigned that no one is to enter the buildings,
they were structurally compromised and could collapse. A short time later I observed tower 2 collapse into West St.
FDNY Firefighter Richard Banaciski: So I was kind of looking around over there, up and down West Street and looking on Vesey and I just remember there was a police officer standing there and he just started saying,
it's starting to lean, it's starting to lean. I remember looking up, looking at the second building and just seeing it starting to move. I just started running back down Vesey towards the water again to where I had come from. That's -- the second building came down there.
FDNY Lieutenant Robert Bohack: With that as soon as I said that
the building [north tower] made a groan like steel twisting. I didn’t have to tell those guys twice. We just started making line for West Street or the western side, the entrance we came in.
With that we ran out the front. There was, I think, a Chief’s aide sort of as a lookout saying “come on come on come on.” we stopped at the entrance as soon as he waved us on we go. We get to him. He was maybe 50 yards ahead of us, in front of us. On West Street I get to him and he says, “look at the building, Lou. The other one collapsed and this one is collapsing.” He showed me,
about 20 stories up you see crack in the building. I look, “holy ****, the other buildings gone.”
PAPD Detective Edward Rapp: While I was on the phone with Stacy at the Police Desk we all of a sudden
heard metal creaking. I looked up and saw the North Tower buckling from the top. It looked like the north and west sides of the building were twisting and then separating like a banana peel.
FDNY Firefighter Fernando Camacho: What happened was that as I was standing there and getting bandaged,
somebody said the tower is leaning. So me and Gorman -- he had the irons. We turned around and looked, and
we could see the tower leaning. As it started to lean, it just came straight down. Now we're running again.
FDNY Chief Joseph Dunne: Another ten or 15 minutes or so later, one of my guys said to me,
"listen, the north tower is making noise, we're not safe here, that building is going to come down too.”
Dennis Smith. Report From Ground Zero. New York: Viking Penguin, 2002
Claiborne Johnston: "It seemed we were walking down very calm, very orderly . . . and all of a sudden you felt like the ground was falling out from under you," said Claiborne Johnston, who escaped from the 64th floor of the south tower. "You knew the structure had been altered severely, and the rest of the way down you could feel that."Source
Jaede Barg: The lights in the staircase went out. There were cracks in the stairwell walls with exposed pipes breaking through the plaster. The building was forcefully swaying, enough to require significant balancing. I recall the incredible sound of twisting metal with each sway of the building.–Source
When the tower started to cave, it began with a low rumble. Slowly, amid a dark cloud of smoke, the debris rained down. “My God, it’s falling,” someone shouted. Mesmerized, no one moved. Source
"From the lobby, they were directed by police through an entrance to the mall under the Trade Center. After following their convoy inside, Finegold and Borst heard the screeching, cracking sound of Two World Trade Center collapsing. The force of it hurled them to the ground. Finegold fell to his knees. Borst lost his radio and the pinky ring off his finger. Source
FDNY Firefighter Brendan Lowrey: "We started walking south to the command center when a Police Officer stopped us and said, "hold up, guys. I have helicopters --" he was on the cell phone "--on the cell phone here." And he says, "when this one comes down, it's coming right for us." Meaning coming up West Street.
NYPD Aviation Units: Minutes after the south tower collapsed at the World Trade Center, police helicopters hovered near the remaining tower to check its condition. "About 15 floors down from the top, it looks like it's glowing red," the pilot of one helicopter, Aviation 14, radioed at 10:07 a.m. "It's inevitable."
Seconds later, another pilot reported: "I don't think this has too much longer to go. I would evacuate all people within the area of that second building." Source
10:20 NYPD – Aviation 14 states the WTC 1 is leaning.
(NYPD, McKinsey & Company) NIST NCSTAR 1-8, p. 227
Federal engineering investigators studying the destruction of the World Trade Center's twin towers on Sept. 11 said New York Police Department aviation units reported an
inward bowing of the buildings' columns in the minutes before they collapsed, a signal they were about to fall.
