...I questioned as to what the nature of the evacuation was. I was told that it was not because of what was occurring across the street. No one feared that the building was in danger as a result of two airplane attacks and subsequent fires, but that there were reports of a third plane that had been hijacked. It was unidentified, the location, and they thought it may be coming in for an additional strike. Therefore, the were evacuating the building.
We proceeded down to the lobby where the various agency representatives were present. We collectively started to set up in the lobby and try to think of strategies to where we could move the inter-agency cooperative effort...
…a gentleman from the building identified himself as a security person or security director. He asked me if there is anything we needed or he could provide me with regard to the EMS. We questioned him as to the ability to open up the loading bays which are associated with 7 World Trade Center. The entrances are located directly under the pedestrian foot bridge. I figured it was protected there, so debris wouldn’t fall down. He said he would do that. I directed Captain Nahmod to move the patients into that area. Again, the lobby of number 7 is all glass façade. I was concerned that if something should come off the building, go through the glass or hit the glass, we would have an extraordinary amount of patients in addition to what was already being seen.
Further we took everyone from the OEM and moved them to what would be the most southeasterly corner inside that first floor entrance of 7 World Trade. There is a big granite or marble security desk and we started to establish around that as we were trying to figure out what we were going to do…
…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…
…Q. They felt that just the one building or both of them?
A. The information we got at that time was that they felt both buildings were significantly damaged but they felt that the north tower, which was the first one to be struck, was going to be in imminent danger of collapse. Looking up at it, you could see that, you could see through the smoke or whatever, that there was significant structural damage to the exterior of the building. Very noticeable. Now you know, again, this is not a scene where the thought of both buildings collapsing ever entered into my mind.
I was there in 1993, 14 minutes after the bomb went off. I operated some 16 hours at the building and with all the post-incident critiques and debriefings with various agencies. We were always told by everyone, the experts, that these buildings could withstand direct hits from airplanes. That’s the way they were designed. They went through all of this architectural stuff, way beyond the scope of my knowledge.
It was hit by an airplane. That’s okay. It’s made to be hit by an airplane. I mean I think everyone may have believed that. We were all told years ago it was made to be hit by an airplane…
…They were setting up outside of 7 World Trade Center, just east of the pedestrian bridge. I told them it would probably be better off to be set up under the bridge. At least it was protected. I was just about to enter a dialogue with her when I heard a sound I had never heard before. I looked up and saw this huge cloud. I told him run. I grabbed the female, I threw her through the revolving doors of number 7. We were proceeding inside. She fell to the ground. I helped her out, I pushed her towards the direction of where we were all in the south corner and there was a little doorway behind that desk which led into the loading bays.
Everyone started to run through that. Never made it to that door. The next thing I remember was that I was covered in some glass and some debris. Everything came crashing through the front of number 7. It was totally pitch black…
…I thought that part of the building or the façade of the building had collapsed. You know, it was too dusty to see outside, so we didn’t know what happened, but I knew something real bad happened. I knew that everyone we had in the lobby, or we thought everyone was accounted for. Again, there was a lot of rubble in the lobby, probably a few feet. The façade was all broken…
