NYC Officials Reveal New Glimpse of 9/11

[Abbey Normal]

I am glad that this is being released, so we never forget.


NEW YORK - In thousands of pages of oral histories released Friday, firefighters describe in vivid, intimate detail how they rushed to save fleeing civilians from churning smoke and fire before the World Trade Center collapsed in a monstrous cloud of debris and choking dust.

The histories, recorded in the weeks after the Sept. 11 attack, offer some of the most detailed descriptions of the day's horror as seen through the eyes of firefighters who lost 343 of their brethren.

Firefighter Maureen McArdle-Schulman recalled hearing someone yell before the collapses that something was falling from the towers.

"It turned out it was people coming out, and they started coming out one after the other," she said. "We didn't know what it was at first, but then the first body hit and then we knew what it was. ... I was getting sick. I felt like I was intruding on a sacrament. They were choosing to die and I was watching them and shouldn't have been. So me and another guy turned away and looked at a wall and we could still hear them hit."

Emergency medical technician John Felidi recalled that when the south tower fell, "We heard a rumble. I heard the rumble and looked — in the back of me all I seen was a monstrous — I can't even describe it. A cloud. Looked like debris, dust."

The 12,000 pages of oral histories were made public along with hours of Fire Department radio transmissions, their release brought on by a lawsuit filed three years ago by The New York Times and long contested by the city.

Some of the material had been released before, and the records released Friday were unlikely to fundamentally change the understanding of the Sept. 11 attack.

Still, the histories offer a poignant catalog of firefighters' still-fresh memories of the towers' horrifying collapse. And the radio transmissions added new texture to the historical record of the day, beginning at 8:46 a.m. with an urgent but calm description of a plane crashing into the World Trade Center.

"The World Trade Center tower Number One is on fire!" one firefighter radioed.

As the depth of the crisis became clear, the voices on the radios thickened with panic.

"Send every available ambulance, everything you got to the World Trade Center," a firefighter calls from Engine 1. "Now!"

Rest of article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050812...MNNdtKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-

 

[GotZoom]

And I'm sure the conspiracy theorists will be dissecting every page in order to prove the U.S. Government brought the towers down.

 

[William Joyce]

I was one building away on 9/11. When I went in to the office, that morning, Plane #1 had already hit, and I saw the damage. It looked very insignificant, like a small black tear in the side of the building, with smoke coming out. It is still hard for me to believe that the entire building came down as a result of that. There must have been either explosives on the plane, or some other rigging beyond just a plane crashing in. Maybe the fuel on the plane was enough, but it just doesn't seem likely.

I'm not saying it was an inside job, I'm just saying something about it was funny.

 

[Gem]

I believe it was the magazine Popular Mechanics that devoted an entire month's magazine to explaining in easy yet provable ways why the towers fell due to the planes' impact and the explosion of fuel. They did small tests, consulted experts, etc. etc. I only read a bit of it, but their conclusions was that the planes and the fuel in them would have been more than enough to bring the towers down all on their own.

You might be able to find the magazine online or at your local library?