ARS on Twitter
RSS
The first body hit and then we knew what it was
Posted by Raven on August 13th, 2005
NEW YORK — The Fire Department of New York (search) on Friday made public thousands of pages of oral histories recorded by firefighters on Sept. 11, 2001, and hours of radio transmissions, as family members spoke out on reopening the investigation after reports of omissions to the Sept. 11 commission’s report.
Quotes from the Oral Histories:
“Somebody yelled something was falling. We didn’t know if it was desks coming out. It turned out it was people coming out, and they started coming out one after the other. … We saw the jumpers coming. We didn’t know what it was at first, but then the first body hit and then we knew what it was. And they were just like constant. … 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.”
— Firefighter Maureen McArdle-Schulman
“We didn’t realize Two World Trade was hit by an airplane, so we kept going up. It was single file, civilians going down and firemen going up. The civilians were orderly and blessing us and helping the injured down.
“We made it up to the — I believe the 35th story. We were taking a breather. I was on my knees, catching my breath, and we were discussing — we were going to hook up with another engine company to make it up there — easier to get up there. We were going to have some guys just take cylinders and the other guys take hoses, but we felt this rumble and this noise, like a train was going through your living room. Felt like an earthquake.
A few minutes later, a chief — someone told me he believed it was 11 Battalion — said to drop everything and get out, get out. He didn’t say why. He just said, `Drop everything and get out.’ Probably said it a couple of times. So basically, that’s what guys did.”
— Firefighter Marcel Claes, who was in the north tower
“We were watching it. We could see it from here. We have an unobstructed view. The other guys came up too. All six of us were on the roof. We were sitting around looking at it, and I remember one guy saying, “You’re going to earn your pay today, guys. I just remember that.”
— Firefighter Murphy, who began the day watching the crisis unfold from the roof of his firehouse.
“It was evident that we weren’t going to be able to get to people above the fire. Based on the number of jumpers, we could only assume that hundreds of people were trapped. … Then the building started to come down. My initial reaction was that this was exactly the way it looks when they show you those implosions on TV. I would have to say for three or four seconds anyway, maybe longer, I was just watching. It was interesting to watch, but the thing that woke everybody up was the cloud of black material. It reminded me of ‘The Ten Commandments’ when the green clouds come down on the street.”
— Deputy Commissioner Thomas Fitzpatrick, who was in the lobby of the north tower
August 13th, 2005 at 7:20 pm
Such strong imagery. The show that left New York on a nation-wide tour came to Kansas City this week (& which I will see tomorrow).
Did you hear about the Documentary appearing on (I think) the Nat’l Geographic channel Aug 22 and 23rd?
August 13th, 2005 at 8:53 pm
No, what documentary??
August 14th, 2005 at 10:44 am
Those firefighters were major heroes. Stuff I read awhile back about some of the plans for the new construction on Ground Zero got me really worked up:
A large amount of space devoted to commemmorate the chronological history of “evil deeds perpetrated by America” or some such shmutz and minimal space to remember all the people who were murdered on 9/11 and the heroes who risked their own lives or lost their lives mounting rescue attempts.
August 14th, 2005 at 11:09 am
How is it that many Americans have forgotten what happened on 9/11? Though I don’t live in NYC, I can’t get the images of that day out of my mind.
Raven,
Please stop by my blog and read “The Origins of CAIR.” CAIR is, in effect, the ACLU of Muslims–but worse.
August 15th, 2005 at 4:35 am
The program is indeed on the Nat’l Geog. Channel. here is the link
The travelling Smithsonian exhibit was really something by the way. Saw it today in Kansas City, MO. I waited in line for an hour and a half (it just stretched and stretched). There was a sense of awe in the crowd and a some solidarity, too…
August 16th, 2005 at 9:45 am
Jailhouse Rock
The warden threw a party in the county jail The Debutantes were there and they began to wail The band was jumpin and the joint began to swing You shoulda heard them knocked out Cotillion girls sing… Twenty-eight years ago…
August 16th, 2005 at 5:51 pm
AOW, I reading it now…Also sent you an email. :mrgreen: