reply to post by gavron
N.Y. FireFighters' 9/11 Depositions
Rich Banaciski -- Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) [Ladder 22]
We were there I don't know, maybe 10, 15 minutes and then I just remember there was just an explosion. It seemed like on television they blow up
these buildings. It seemed like it was going all the way around like a belt, all these explosions.
Brian Becker -- Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) [Engine 28]
So I think that the building was really kind of starting to melt. We were -- like, the melt down was beginning. The collapse hadn't begun, but it was
not a fire any more up there. It was like -- it was like that -- like smoke explosion on a tremendous scale going on up there.
Greg Brady -- E.M.T. (E.M.S.) [Battalion 6]
We were standing underneath and Captain Stone was speaking again. We heard -- I heard 3 loud explosions. I look up and the north tower is coming down
now, 1 World Trade Center.
...
We were standing in a circle in the middle of West Street. They were talking about what was going on. At that time, when I heard the 3 loud
explosions, I started running west on Vesey Street towards the water. At that time, I couldn't run fast enough. The debris caught up with me, knocked
my helmet off.
Timothy Burke -- Firefigter (F.D.N.Y.) [Engine 202]
Then the building popped, lower than the fire, which I learned was I guess, the aviation fuel fell into the pit, and whatever floor it fell on heated
up really bad and that's why it popped at that floor. That's the rumor I heard. But it seemed like I was going oh, my god, there is a secondary
device because the way the building popped. I thought it was an explosion.
Ed Cachia -- Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) [Engine 53]
It actually gave at a lower floor, not the floor where the plane hit, because we originally had thought there was like an internal detonation
explosives because it went in succession, boom, boom, boom, boom, and then the tower came down. With that everybody was just stunned for a second or
two, looking at the tower coming down.
Frank Campagna -- Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) [Ladder 11]
There was nobody in the intersection, nobody in the streets in general, everyone just saying come on, keeping coming, keep coming. That's when [the
North Tower] went. I looked back. You see three explosions and then the whole thing coming down. I turned my head and everybody was scattering. From
there I don't know who was who. I don't even know where my guys went. None of us knew where each other were at at that point in time.
Craig Carlsen -- Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) [Ladder 8]
I guess about three minutes later you just heard explosions coming from building two, the south tower. It seemed like it took forever, but there were
about ten explosions. At the time I didn't realize what it was. We realized later after talking and finding out that it was the floors collapsing to
where the plane had hit.
...
You did hear the explosions [when the North Tower came down]. Of course after the first one -- the first one was pretty much looking at in like in
awe. You didn't realize that this was really happening because you kind of just stood there and you didn't react as fast as you thought you were
going to. The second one coming down, you knew the explosions. Now you're very familiar with it.
Jason Charles -- E.M.T. (E.M.S.)
I grabbed her and the Lieutenant picked her up by the legs and we start walking over slowly to the curb, and then I heard an explosion from up, from
up above, and I froze and I was like, oh, s___, I'm dead because I thought the debris was going to hit me in the head and that was it.
Then everybody stops and looks at the building and they they take off. The Lieutenant dropped her legs and ran. The triage center, everybody who was
sitting there hurt and, oh, you know, help me, they got up and and everybody together got up and ran. I looked at them like why are they running? I
look over my shoulder and I says, oh, s___, and then I turned around and looked up and that's when I saw the tower coming down.
...
North Tower:
We start walking back there and then I heard a ground level explosion and I'm like holy s___, and then you heard that twisting metal wreckage again.
Then I said s___ and everybody started running and I started running behind them, and we get to the door.
Frank Cruthers -- Chief (F.D.N.Y.) [Citywide Tour Commander]
And while I was still in that immediate area, the south tower, 2 World Trade Center, there was what appeared to be at first an explosion. It appeared
at the very top, simultaneously from all four sides, materials shot out horizontally. And then there seemed to be a momentary delay before you could
see the beginning of the collapse.
James Curran -- Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.)
A guy started scremaing to run. When I got underneath the north bridge I looked back and you heard it, I heard like every floor went chu-chu-chu.
Looked back and from the pressure everything was getting blown out of the floors before it actually collapsed.
Kevin Darnowski -- Paramedic (E.M.S.)
I started walking back up towards Vesey Street. I heard three explosions, and then we heard like groaning and grinding, and tower two started to come
down.
Dominick Derubbio -- Battalion Chief (F.D.N.Y.) [Division 8]
After a while we were looking up at the tower, and all of a sudden someone said it's starting to come down.
...
This would be the first one.
...
This one here. It was weird how it started to come down. It looked like it was a timed explosion, but I guess it was just the floors starting to
pancake one on top of the other.
Karin Deshore -- Captain (E.M.S.)
Somewhere around the middle of the World Trade Center, there was this orange and red flash coming out. Initially it was just one flash. Then this
flash just kept popping all the way around the building and that building had started to explode. The popping sound, and with each popping sound it
was initially an orange and then a red flash came out of the building and then it would just go all around the building on both sides as far as I
could see. These popping sounds and the explosions were getting bigger, going both up and down and then all around the building.
Brian Dixon -- Battalion Chief (F.D.N.Y.)
I was watching the fire, watching the people jump and hearing a noise and looking up and seeing -- it actually looked -- the lowest floor of fire in
the south tower actually looked like someone had planted explosives around it because the whole bottom I could see -- I could see two sides of it and
the other side -- it just looked like that floor blew out. I looked up and you could actually see everything blew out on the one floor. I thought,
geez, this looks like an explosion up there, it blew out. Then I guess in some sense of time we looked at it and realized, no, actually it just
collapsed. That's what blew out the windows, not that there was an explosion there but that windows blew out. The realization hit that it's going to
fall down, the top's coming off. I was still thinking -- there was never a thought that this whole thing is coming down. I thought that that blew out
and stuff is starting to fly down. The top is going to topple off there.
www.investigate911.com...
Michael Donovan -- Captain (F.D.N.Y.)
Anyway, with that I was listening, and there was an incredibly loud rumbling. I never got to look up. People started running for the entrances to the
parking garages. They started running for the entrances. I started running without ever looking up. The roar became tremendous. I fell on the way to
the parking garages. Debris was starting to fall all around me. I got up, I got into the parking garages, was knocked down by the percussion. I
thought there had been an explosion or a bomb that they ha
[edit on 8/19/2008 by cashlink]