911 - FIREFIGHTERS

CREDIBLE SOURCES SUCH AS NEW YORK FIREFIGHTERS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS     

Firefighters, law enforcement officers, and other extremely credible witnesses have also discredited the Administration's version of why the world trade center buildings collapsed on 9/11:

Reporter for USA Today stated that the FBI believed that bombs in the buildings brought the buildings down

NY Fire Department Chief of Safety stated there were "bombs" and "secondary devices", which caused the explosions in the buildings (video); or high-quality audio here

NYC firefighters who witnessed attacks stated that it looked like there were bombs in the buildings
NYC firefighter stated "On the last trip up a bomb went off. We think there was bombs set in the building"

NYC firefighter stated there was a "bomb in the building ... start clearing out"

Dying heroes, the first responders who worked tirelessly to save lives on and after 9/11, say that controlled demolition brought down the Twin Towers

MSNBC reporter stated that police had found a suspicious device "and they fear it could be something that might lead to another explosion" and the police officials believe "that one of the explosions at the world trade center . . . may have been caused by a van that was parked in the building that may have had some kind of explosive device in it, so their fear is that there may have been explosive devices planted either in the building or in the adjacent area"

NYC firefighter stated "the south tower . . . exploded . . . At that point a debate began to rage because the perception was that the building looked like it had been taken out with charges . . . many people had felt that possibly explosives had taken out 2 World Trade" (pages 6 & 7)

Assistant Fire Commissioner stated “I thought . . . before . . . No. 2 came down, that I saw low-level flashes. . . . I . . . saw a flash flash flash . . . [at] the lower level of the building [not up where the fire was]. You know like when they . . . blow up a building ... ?" -- and a lieutenant firefighter the Commissioner spoke with independently verified the flashes (see possible explanation below)(when, as here, there are no page numbers in the original firefighter transcript, you can locate the text using the "find" function in your web browser)

A firefighter said “[T]here was just an explosion. It seemed like on television [when] they blow up these buildings.  It seemed like it was going all the way around like a belt, all these explosions.” 

Another firefighter stated "it almost sounded like bombs going off, like boom, boom, boom, like seven or eight"  (page 4; original is .pdf; Google's webpage version is here)

Paramedic said "at first I thought it was -- do you ever see professional demolition where they set the charges on certain floors and then you hear pop pop pop pop pop -- thats exactly what because thought it was" (page 9)

Police officer noted "People were saying, 'There’s another one and another one.' I heard reports of secondary bomb explosions . . ." (page 61, which is page 3 of a hand-written memorandum)

Firefighter stated "there was an explosion in the south tower, which . . . just blew out in flames . . . One floor under another after another and when it hit about the fifth floor, I figured it was a bomb, because it looked like a synchronized deliberate kind of thing. I was there in '93" (referring to 1993 bombing of world trade center; pages 3 & 4)
A firefighter stated "it looked like sparkling around one specific layer of the building . . . 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." 

Officer in the New Jersey Fire Police Department who was previously a sergeant in the U.S. Army, said about the south tower: “[I]t sounded like bombs going off. That's when the explosions happened. . . . I knew something was going to happen. . . . It started to get dark, then all of a sudden there was this massive explosion.”  Then, discussing her experiences during the collapse of the north tower, she said: “[There was] another explosion. That sent me and the two firefighters down the stairs. . . . I can't tell you how many times I got banged around. Each one of those explosions picked me up and threw me. . . . There was another explosion, and I got thrown with two firefighters out onto the street.”  (pages 65-66, 68)

Dan Rather said that collapse was "reminiscent of those pictures we've all seen [when]a building was deliberately destroyed by well-placed dynamite to knock it down" (CNN's Aaron Brown and a Fox News reporter also made similar comments)

British newspaper stated "some eyewitnesses reported hearing another explosion just before the structure crumbled. Police said that it looked almost like a 'planned implosion' "

Peter Jennings stated "anyone who has ever watched a building being demolished on purpose knows that if you're going to do this you have to get at the under-infrastructure of the building to bring it down"

A reporter for WNYC radio said "The reporters were trying to figure out what had happened. We were thinking bombs had brought the buildings down"(page 203 of Running Toward Danger: Stories Behind The Breaking News of 9/11)

A Wall Street Journal reporter said "I heard this metallic roar, looked up and saw what I thought was just a peculiar site of individual floors, one after the other exploding outward. I thought to myself, "My God, they’re going to bring the building down." And they, whoever they are, HAD SET CHARGES . . . . I saw the explosions" (page 87)
A facilities manager in the north tower "was convinced that there were bombs planted all over the place and someone was sitting at a control panel pushing detonator buttons"

Indeed, Larry Silverstein, the leaseholder of the World Trade Center, said in a PBS documentary that Building 7 was "pulled" on September 11th. "Pulling" is a construction industry term for "intentionally demolishing", as shown in this PBS interview discussing the demolition of world trade center building 6 many weeks after 9/11.
Moreover, there is evidence that substantial explosions occurred well BELOW the area impacted by the planes, and -- according to some witnesses -- they occurred BEFORE the plane had hit:

Prior to Plane Hit

9/11 hero, who was the last person out of the north tower, said that there was a massive explosion in the North Tower BEFORE the plane hit (see also this interview)

Assistant Chief Engineer at the World Trade Center arrived on the 38th floor of the North Tower before the plane hit, got out of the elevator, and about 50 feet down the hallway, he heard a loud explosion and was lifted into the air. "I can't even tell you how far I traveled," he recalled. When he landed, people were already coming out of their offices into the hallway . . .Upon reaching the 43rd floor, "there were patches of ceiling that was just down on the floor, water pipes were broken, water was gushing like a brook or river that was just running down the corridor of the machine room."

Maintenance worker who worked in the basement of north tower witnessed an explosion in the basement at around the same time the plane hit far above

Two other eyewitnesses working in the Twin Towers witnesssed explosions in the basement at about the same time the plane hit

(See also this article arguing that seismic evidence corrorborates the eyewitness testimony).
Other Testimony of Explosions Below the Impact Zone

Stationary engineer who worked in world trade center one described tremendous damage in the basement of the building more consistent in nature and timing with a bomb than with damage from jet fuel: "'There was nothing there but rubble . . . We're talking about a 50 ton hydraulic press—gone!'. . . They then went to the parking garage, but found that it was also gone. Then on the B level, they found that a steel-and-concrete fire door, which weighed about 300 pounds, was wrinkled up 'like a piece of aluminum foil.' Having seen similar things after the terrorist attack in 1993, [he] was convinced that a bomb had gone off."

NYC firefighter stated “It actually gave at a lower floor, not the floor where the plane hit. . . [W]e 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.”

Firefighter said "this, huge incredible force of wind and debris actually came UP the stairs, knocked my helmet off, knocked me to the ground"

Firefighter stated "my lieutenant said he looked down at the first floor, and he could see the first floor of the south tower like exploding out"

Firefighter said "I was distracted by a large explosion from the south tower and it seemed like fire was shooting out a couple of hundred feet in each direction, then all of a sudden the top of the tower started coming down in a pancake . . . It appeared somewhere below [the area where the plane had hit]. Maybe twenty floors below the impact area of the plane" (pages 3 & 4)

Similarly, employee of an insurance company in south tower heard an explosion from BELOW the impact of the airplane, an "exploding sound" shook the building, a tornado of hot air, smoke and ceiling tiles and bits of drywall came flying UP the stairwell, and the wall split from the bottom UP

A fire department batallion chief stated "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 (redacted) I could see two sides of it and the other side, it just looked like that floor blew out" (what was in the redacted portion?)

CBS News reporter stated "All of a sudden I heard a roar and I saw one of the towers blow ... I saw from street level as though it exploded up, a giant rolling ball of flame...". (same reporter stated "I hear simultaneously this roar and see what appears to be a gigantic fireball rising up at ground level . . . I remember seeing this giant ball of fire come out of the earth as I heard this roar" (pages 119 & 239))
An eyewitness reported a large explosion at ground level right before the collapse of the North Tower
Police Officer described events which occurred inside Tower One after the second plane hit and well before that tower collapsed: "We went back up to the sixth floor . . . . Then there was an eerie silence and it was like you knew something was going to happen. There just seemed to be one explosion after another. I was separated from the guys from the bridge . . . by another explosion, massive again, sucking the air out of your lungs and then just a wind more intense this time with larger pieces of debris flying." (pages 94 & 95, which is page 2 & 3 of a hand-written memorandum)
BBC reporter stated "Then, an hour later, we had that big explosion, from much much lower [well below the plane impact]. I don't know what on earth caused that".
Firefighter describes elevators "blown off the hinges" which only went to lower floors (page 7)(Note: this statement about the elevators still needs to be verified)
A janitor witnessed explosions in the sub-basement A carpenter witnessed explosions in the sub-basement A Port Authority Police Department officer, who was intimately familiar with the World Trade Center from his years of police duties patrolling there, described how the hallway began to shudder as a "terrible deafening roar" swept over him, then a giant fireball exploded in the street seconds before the south tower collapsed

Firefighters discovered that the lobby of one of the twin towers suffered explosive damage with blown-out windows

Firefighter stated "the Maydays started coming in to vacate the north tower . . . we started going down. At that point, we proceeded down . . . Made it down to the lobby. There were about maybe 30 firefighters that were with us. Made it to the lobby, and the lobby was like a war zone. All the windows were blown out, and the command post wasn't there. We made it to the corner of West and Vesey when the building came down." (pages 5 & 6) A WTC survivor said "We get to the 8th floor. Big Explosion. Blew us back into the eighth floor." Another survivor experienced an explosion in the mezzanine of the tower Another survivor experienced an explosion in the lobby World trade center employee stated "the bottom of our building was blown out"

Paramedic "heard ground level explosions" (page 29)

Detective for the Port Authority reported, long before the collapse of the tower, "When we reached the 15th floor, the building began to vibrate and shake. I heard loud explosions and rumblings in the background. The stairwell shifted and gave out a large metal on metal groan. The stairwell then twisted back into place with another loud groan. The lights went out. At that point the stairwell became filled with smoke and dust." (pages 58 & 59, which is page 2 & 3 of a memo from the Office of Inspector General)

A police report states World Trade Center "Police Desk reporting an explosion on the lower level" 8 minutes after plane crash (page 17, which is page 2 of the Chronological Report of the WTC Radio Transmissions on 9/11/01)

Construction worker discusses explosions in the sub-basement of tower 1; same worker talks about explosions in the basements of tower 2

See also witness statements here

How could the fire damage from airplanes or their jet fuel have caused such extensive explosions over so many floors over such a long timeframe below the airplane impacts? Do you remember that most of the fuel spilled outside of the towers in those dramatic fireballs, and the rest supposedly lit the paper, rugs and other office contents of the twin towers on fire?

Given these facts, how could fires or jet fuel have caused the events described above by credible eyewitnesses?

In addition, there are many eyewitness accounts of phenomena consistent with the use of explosives in the world trade center buildings:

Paramedic captain stated "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 red flash came out of the building and then it would just go all around the building on both sides as far as could see these popping sounds and the explosions were getting bigger going both up and down and then all around the building" (pdf file; Google's web version is here).    Compare this authenticated tape of a controlled demolition by a leading demolition company -- can you see the orange and red flashes on the near side of the building?  How about at the base of this building, the Kingdome?  Both of these tapes are posted at the "World Records" section of Controlled Demolition, Inc.'s website)

Police officer stated "you would hear a loud boom go off at the top of tower one. As the building continued to burn and emergency equipment kept on responding stirring up the dust and debris in the streets. After approximately 15 minutes suddenly there was another loud boom at the upper floors, then there was a series of smaller explosions which appeared to go completely around the building at the upper floors. And another loud earth-shattering blast with a large fire ball which blew out more debris and at that point everyone began to run north on West Broad Street."  (page 5, which is page 2 of a hand-written memorandum)(what caused loud explosions many minutes apart, a series of smaller explosions going "completely around the building", and a "large fire ball"?)

Chief of NY Fire Department (Citywide Tour Commander) said "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" (page 4) (why was material shooting out from all four side before the collapse?)

Police officer stated "we kept hearing explosions that would shake the whole room"

Police sergeant said "Within a short period of time (approximately ¾ of an hour) one of the buildings to the World Trade Center collapsed. During this time period there were numerous explosions, causing us to leave and re-enter the incident area" (page 88, which is page 1 of a memorandum)

Fire department batallion chief said "You could see the windows pop out just like in the picture, looked like a movie. I saw one floor of windows pop out, like poof, poof. I saw one and a half floors popout. It looked almost like an explosion" (pages 7 & 8)

Firefighter stated "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" (page 17)(what caused the "smoke explosion on a tremendous scale" before the collapse?)

Fire chief from a nearby town heard a "high-pitched noise and a popping noise" right before the collapse of the South Tower

MSNBC reporter stated "I heard a second explosion ... And then a fire marshal came in and said we had to leave, because if there was a third explosion this building might not last". The same reporter stated that the force of the explosion overturned cars and set them on fire

Paramedic said “Shortly before the first tower came down, I remember feeling the ground shaking. I heard a terrible noise, and then debris just started flying everywhere. People started running" (pages 5 & 6) (why was there ground shaking before the collapse?)
Same paramedic stated "by the time the debris settled from the first collapse we started to walk back east towards west street and few minutes later – really don’t remember the time frames because we were so busy in trying to account for who was in the staging area and who wasn’t we basically had the same thing the ground shook again and we heard another terrible noise and the next think we knew the second tower was coming down and again we were running for our lives . . . . ." (pages 6 & 7)(why did the ground shake before the start of the "terrible noise" of the collapse?)
Reporter mentioned explosion and the fact that "the whole building bellied out" (why did the building "belly out", as opposed to falling over?)
CNN producer stated "every few minutes you'll hear like a small sort of a rumbling sound, almost like an explosion sound and another chunk of it will come flying down into the street"; same producer stated "there was just a huge ... [explosion? word apparently erased from original CNN video] and enormous pieces of debris just falling - one right after the other" (what caused the "rumbling sounds" and the chunks flying down every couple of minutes)

Highly-reputable astrophysicist wrote in an email that, immediately before the collapse of each of the twin towers, he heard explosions and low-frequency rumbles (he also uses the phrase "demolition-style implosion")

A witness said that, right before the collapse of one of the towers, "It sounded as if you had a hundred . . . firecrackers and you lit them all off at once . . . it sounded like the finale of the 4th of July over the East River" (15:21 into the video)(what caused this sound like a hundred firecrackers?)

Unknown witness interviewed on television stating "it sounded like gunfire . . . . bang bang bang bang bang . . . and then three big explosions"

Further testimony from firefighters can be found here and from other witnesses here.

Cynical about this topic because it would have been impossible to plant explosives in the World Trade Center? Good, read this.

See also this short comparison of the collapse of WTC7 with a verified demolition; this overview of  trade center building 7;  this short essay on Building 7; these tape recordings of firefighters showing that they thought fires in the south tower were small and easily containable, even immediately before the collapse; this short video discussion on collapses;  and compare this footage of a controlled demolition and also this footage of controlled demolition with this footage of the start of the collapse of tower 1 (it is also interesting how the world trade centers are pulverized in mid-air into massive dust clouds, similar to controlled demolitions);  this short essay citing numerous eyewitness reports of molten metal under the World Trade Center buildings long after their collapse;  this contest offering a million dollars to anyone who can prove that the trade centers were brought down without explosives; and this video containing additional evidence (made by a 21-year old, so you'll have to ignore the music; also contains some speculative opinions by the filmmaker).