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Captain Dennis Tardio
Patrick Zoda
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Captain Dennis Tardio – WTC survivor. Engine 7 FDNY
Firefighter Patrick Zoda – WTC survivor. Engine 7 FDNY
- Documentary film, 9/11 by Jules and Gedeon Naudet recorded 9/11/01:
Tardio: What do we do? We made it outside. We made it about a block.
Zoda: We made it at least two blocks.
Tardio: Two blocks.
Zoda: And we started running
Tardio: Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.
Zoda: Floor by floor, it started poppin’ out.
Tardio: It was like, it was if, it was as if they had detonators.
Zoda: Yeah, detonators.
Tardio: You know, as if they were plannin' to take down a building. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
Zoda: All the way down. I was watchin’ it and
running. And then you just saw this cloud of s**t chasing, chasing you
down." video segment at 47:35 of the 89 minute version of Loose Change 2nd Edition.
- Editor's note: Despite
hundreds of eyewitness reports of explosions throughout the Twin Towers
by doomed victims, survivors, emergency service personnel, reporters,
and bystanders, the 9/11 Commission Report contains virtually no mention
of them and entirely ignores them in its conclusions. Graeme MacQueen's
analysis of oral histories of 9/11 taken from 503 FDNY survivors
reveals more than 100 FDNY personnel reported explosions in the Twin
Towers.
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Capt. William Walsh
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Capt. William Walsh – WTC survivor. Currently, Captain, FDNY. On 9/11, was Lieutenant with Ladder Company 1.
- Documentary film, 9/11 by Jules and Gedeon Naudet. Segment reproduced on September 11 Revisited at 6:40:
His impressions on entering the lobby of WTC 1 (North Tower)
approximately 3 minutes after the first plane had hit it and before the
second plane hit WTC 2 (South Tower). "The lobby is about six stories
high and the lobby looked as though a bomb had exploded there. All the
glass was taken out. There were 10 foot by 10 foot marble panels, that
were once walls, loose from the walls of the Trade Center. Lights were
hanging down. The lights were, I believe, off. Unfortunately there
were dozens of people in the lobby. They were in a contorted position.
They were black in color; moaning; just writhing around. [Editor's note:
At this point, Lt. Walsh was in the lobby of the North Tower,
approximately 1,100 feet below the airplane's impact point at floors 93
to 98.] http://www.911revisited.com
- Statement recorded by FDNY. Interviewed by Battalion Chief Frank Congiusta 1/11/02:
Lt. William Walsh: We were just watching this
airplane on target for the World Trade Center. All of sudden, boom,
he disappears into the Trade Center. ...
So immediately everybody got into the rig. We
automatically responded down to the World Trade Center. ... I imagine
we got down there in less than two minutes. ...
So we had parked the apparatus right in front of
the glass overhang on West Street which is the main entrance to World
Trade Center Number One [North Tower]. We all gathered our tools, and
we headed to through the front door. ...
What I observed as I was going through these doors and
I got into the lobby of the World Trade Center was that the lobby of
the Trade Center didn't appear as though it had any lights.
All of the glass on the first floor that abuts West
Street was blown out. The glass in the revolving doors was blown out.
All of the glass in the lobby was blown out. [Editor's note:
At this point, Lt. Walsh was in the lobby of the North Tower,
approximately 1,100 feet below the airplane's impact point at floors 93
to 98.]
The wall panels on the wall are made of marble.
It’s about two or three inches thick. They’re about ten feet high by
ten feet wide. A lot of those were hanging off the wall. ...
What else I observed in the lobby was that --
there’s basically two areas of elevators. There’s elevators off to the
left hand side which are really the express elevators. That would be
the elevators that’s facing north. Then on the right-hand side
there’s also elevators that are express elevators, and that would be
facing south. In the center of these two elevator shafts would be
elevators that go to the lower floors. They were blown off the hinges.
That’s where the service elevator was also.
Chief Frank Congiusta: Were these elevators that went to the upper floors? They weren't side lobby elevators?
Lt. William Walsh: No, no, I’d say that they went through floors 30 and below.
Chief Frank Congiusta: And they were blown off?
Lt. William Walsh: They were
blown off the hinges, and you could see the shafts. The elevators on
the extreme north side and the other express elevator on the extreme
south side, they looked intact to me from what could see, the doors
anyway. http://graphics8.nytimes.com
- Editor's note: Despite
hundreds of eyewitness reports of explosions throughout the Twin Towers
by doomed victims, survivors, emergency service personnel, reporters,
and bystanders, the 9/11 Commission Report contains virtually no mention
of them and entirely ignores them in its conclusions. Graeme MacQueen's
analysis of oral histories of 9/11 taken from 503 FDNY survivors
reveals more than 100 FDNY personnel reported explosions in the Twin
Towers.
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Firefighter Lou Cacchioli
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Firefighter Lou Cacchioli – Witness before the 9/11
Commission. WTC survivor. Retired 20-year veteran of FDNY, Company 47,
Harlem. Injuries on 9/11 and toxic dust inhalation forced retirement.
- Article Arctic Beacon 7/19/05: "When he finally entered the North Tower lobby, Cacchioli recalls elevator doors completely blown out and another
scene of mass chaos with people running, screaming and being hit with
debris.
"I remember thinking to myself, my God, how
could this be happening so quickly if a plane hit way above. It didn't
make sense," said Cacchioli. ... [Editor's note: At this point, Mr. Cacchioli was in the lobby of the North Tower, approximately 1,100 feet below the airplane's point of impact at floors 93 to 98.]
As he made his way up along with men from
Engine Co. 21, 22 and Ladder Co. 13, the doors opened on the 24th
floor, a scene again that hardly made sense to the seasoned fireman,
claiming the heavy dust and haze of smoke
he encountered was unusual considering the location of the
strike.
"Tommy Hetzel was with me and everybody
else also gets out of the elevator when it stops on the 24th floor,"
said Cacchioli, "There was a huge amount of smoke. Tommy and I had to
go back down the elevator for tools and no sooner did the elevators
close behind us, we heard this huge explosion that sounded like a bomb.
It was such a loud noise, it knocked off the lights and stalled the
elevator. ...
"I somehow got into the stairwell and
there were more people there. When I began to try and direct down,
another huge explosion like the first one hits.
This one hits about two minutes later, although it's hard to
tell, but I'm thinking, 'Oh. My God, these bastards put bombs in here
like they did in 1993!'
When Cacchioli entered the 23rd floor,
he found a "little man" holding a handkerchief in front of his face
and hiding under the standpipes on the wall, used for pumping water on
the floor in case of fire.
Leading the man by the arm, he then ran into a group down the hall of about
35 to 40 people, finding his way down the 23rd floor stairwell and beginning their descent to safety.
"Then as soon as we get in the
stairwell, I hear another huge explosion like the other two. Then I
heard bang, bang, bang - huge bangs - and surmised later it was the
floors pan caking on top of one another. ... [Editor's note: At this point, Mr. Cacchioli was in the stairwell of the 23rd floor
of the North Tower, approximately 850 feet below the airplane's point
of impact at floors 93 to 98 and approximately 300 feet above ground
level. The entire collapse of the North Tower occurred in only
11 seconds. It's unlikely the sounds referred to here by Mr. Cacchioli
were floors pancaking since it took him several additional minutes to
exit the building.]
When the group led by Cacchioli
finally made it to the lobby level, he was unable to open the door at
first, the concussion of the explosions or perhaps the south tower
falling, jamming the lobby door.
Finally jarring it loose, the group entered the lobby finding total devastation
with windows blown out and marble falling from the walls, but strangely no people. ...
Cacchioli was called to testify
privately [before the 9/11 Commission] ... "My story was never
mentioned in the final [9/11 Commission] report and I
felt like I was being put on trial in a court room," said
Cacchioli. "I finally
walked out. They were trying to twist my words and make the
story fit only
what they wanted to hear. All I wanted to do was tell the
truth and when they wouldn't let me do that, I walked out.
It was a disgrace to everyone, the victims
and the family members who lost loved ones. I don't agree with the 9/11
Commission. The whole experience was terrible." http://www.arcticbeacon.com
- Editor's note: Despite
hundreds of eyewitness reports of explosions throughout the Twin Towers
by doomed victims, survivors, emergency service personnel, reporters,
and bystanders, the 9/11 Commission Report contains virtually no mention
of them and entirely ignores them in its conclusions. Graeme MacQueen's
analysis of oral histories of 9/11 taken from 503 FDNY survivors
reveals more than 100 FDNY personnel reported explosions in the Twin
Towers.
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Firefighter John Schroeder
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Firefighter John Schroeder – WTC survivor. Engine 10, FDNY. 12-year veteran on 9/11.
- Video interview by the Loose Change crew and Luke Rudkowski and Manny Badillo of We Are Change 8/7/07: [Elapsed time into the 47-minute video is indicated in brackets.]
John Schroeder: I became a firefighter in 1990, March, 1990. My whole family was firefighters, goes back a long way. ...
... the Engine 10 house, which is directly across the street
from World Trade 2; that firehouse was actually put into play just for
the Towers. ... So, about '98, I transferred over to the 10 house. OK,
it was all good. Great guys. We must have been in the Trade Center a
thousand times, at least. ...
September 11, I went to work about 8:00. ...
[at 3:50] Beautiful day, I'm looking up. All of a sudden we
hear [makes roaring sound] What the hell is ...? In seconds we see the
wing of the plane crash through the building. ...
[at 5:40] We got into the lobby, went to the Command Post.
... We got our orders from the Command Post to team up with Engine 5 and
start our way up. So we're standing there in the lobby. We're getting
all together. All of sudden we hear [makes explosion sound]. I look
down to my right and the elevators exploded something out of like a
Bruce Willis Die Hard movie. People just come running out of
the elevators on fire. Fireball. I mean it was like "What is going on
here? Something's up here." I mean, the plane's up there and now
there's fire down here? People running around all on fire. This is
crazy. ... [Editor's note: At this point, Mr. Schroeder was in the lobby of the North Tower, approximately 1,100 feet below the airplane's point of impact at floors 93 to 98.]
So we were going up the stairs. ...
[at
8:30] We were heading up to the 24th floor, the stairwell. And
all of a sudden we heard, "Mayday, Mayday, Second plane. Second
plane." We're looking at each other like, "Come on, second plane?
There's no way there's a second plane." Within seconds our building got
rocked. We got bounced around in the stairwell like pinballs, man.
And we just said, "You know what, time to go."
We got out as much people as we could. Most of the people were
out. We were the last guys going up the stairs. We got down -- We
started taking off -- About 12 of us -- We got down to the 3rd floor and
that's where the stairwell collapsed on us. And we had to dig our way
out. Now the building's coming down. We can't see nothing. ...
[at 9:30] We got our way out of the 3rd stairwell and that's
where the maintenance fellow with a little flashlight saved our lives.
He was pointing over. If it wasn't for him we never would have found
another stairwell. The building would have collapsed. ... Willie Rodriguez. Thank you, Willie. He saved our lives. Saved about 12 guys lives that day. ...
We got down to the lobby. And everything was blown out,
exploded. We were the only ones in the lobby, now. We're going, "Wait a
second here. Where is everybody?" ...
[at 17:00]
Question: How confusing was it for you to know that a plane just hit so many stories up, but yet you saw all this devastation going up?
John Schroeder: We couldn't believe it. We were scratching our head; thinking, "What's going on? Bodies dropping? Elevators exploding?"
[at 18:28]
Question: When you were in that building, how long after that first plane hit did those elevators blow out, would you say?
John Schroeder: We were in there for maybe five
minutes. Five minutes and the elevators exploded on us. Yeah. We
said, "Something's wrong here." I mean, the plane hit up on the 80th
floor. I mean, in five minutes all of a sudden now the elevators are
exploding on the first level, the lobby? Come on here.
Question:
A lot of people try to brush that off. "Well, you know, when
the plane hit, you know, nine thousand gallons of jet fuel rushed down
the elevator shafts." But you're saying that there was a distinct time
delay between the plane striking and --
John Schroeder: Oh, absolutely was. There was a distinct time delay between the planes hitting and the elevators exploding. So, it wasn't --
Question: And what was your feeling about the lobby being so destroyed, as you said?
John Schroeder: We were saying that how is this
happening when it was 80 stories up there. You know like -- We were
just -- You know, you think about it. You say, "Something else had to
go on here. Something else was going on here!" This just don't happen
like this; if when a plane hits the 80th floor of a building and the
lobby gets blown out. Sorry! I don't care who you are. I don't care
what you say.
[at 23:25] I'm here to say my piece. It's been six years.
Six years, since holding this back. And you know what; it's time. You
know what; let them do whatever they want to do. Go ahead. Somebody
should really know what went on that day. We gotta bring this out; tell
the world. All these people are in the dark. They gotta really open
their eyes here. Their eyes have been shut too long. ...
[at 24:50] It was funny 'cause Tower 1 was coming down from
the interior on us. You know, so, a lot of people don't know that. A
lot of people -- you know it just didn't like -- it just didn't [ makes
sound like puuff]. It was coming down. It was coming from the
interior. It trapped us on the 3rd floor. And we were like, "This
thing is definitely coming down, man." Because the inside structure
was just disintegrated. We're like, "How is this happening when the
plane was up 50 more stories and the stairwell's collapsing on us?"
Something wasn't right, man. Something wasn't right in Denmark that
day.
[at 30:00] For every window in the lobby to be exploded. I mean
them windows were like as thick as spaghetti. There were two, three
inch glass. You know, come on. They exploded out of the lobby. It
wasn't from the jet fuel. No way! The elevators exploded. They were
down from the lobby. The lobby was over here. That should never have
happened, something what happened there. We came down -- It looked
liked a bomb went off in the lobby. There was no fire. It just looked
like a bomb went off. http://loosechange911.blogspot.com
- Editor's note: Despite
hundreds of eyewitness reports of explosions throughout the Twin Towers
by doomed victims, survivors, emergency service personnel, reporters,
and bystanders, the 9/11 Commission Report contains virtually no mention
of them and entirely ignores them in its conclusions. Graeme MacQueen's
analysis of oral histories of 9/11 taken from 503 FDNY survivors
reveals more than 100 FDNY personnel reported explosions in the Twin
Towers.
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