Whatever Happened: Belief in WTC Explosives Widespread on 9/11 -- Until Authorities Denied it; Evidence of Huge Explosions, Rapid Flashes, and Liquefied Steel; NIST Report Based on Pure Fraud

"Ba-boom! ... like an earthquake... a giant, giant explosion. ... massive explosion ... huge explosion... huge, gigantic explosions... loud blast... secondary explosions... secondary device... flashes... bombs... shockwave... detonators... controlled demolition... pools of molten steel [...] at the bottom of the elevator shafts... vaporized [steel] ... lava ... [underground] fires of hell... more than 2,800 degrees F [1,540°C]..."

As the reader will see, typical terms used by witnesses, mainly firefighters and other rescue personnel, to describe their experiences during the WTC collapses and the clean up of the site. (example video clips ONE and TWO)

"I spent the rest of the afternoon at the mayor's command center. The reporters were trying to figure out what happened. We were thinking that bombs had brought the buildings down. The mayor [Giuliani] talked to us and said he had no evidence of bombs."

2002, Cathy Trost and Alicia C. Shepard, foreword by Tom Brokaw, 'Running Toward Danger - Stories Behind the Breaking News of 9/11', p. 203.

"We heard a rumbling noise, and it appeared that that first tower, the South Tower, had exploded, the top of it. That's what I saw, what a lot of us saw. ... I remember asking Ray Downey was it the jet fuel that blew up. He said at that point he thought there were bombs up there because it was too even. As we've since learned, it was the jet fuel that was dropping down that caused all this. But he said it was too even. So his original thought was that he thought it was a bomb up there as well. ... I'm not sure where Ray Downey went. I understand Pete Ganci found a stairwell [and went] back to the command post. ..."

Father John Delendick, NY Times interview archive, file no. 9110230, December 6, 2001. Chief Ganci was the FDNY chief in charge on 9/11. He died during the second collapse. FDNY rescue operations chief Ray Downey, who also died, was a nationally-renowned building collapse expert.

Note: Thermate is a variation of classical thermite to which sulfur and potentially other components have been added. The exact differences are discussed in this article.

The event that led to the creation of ISGP.

The subject of 9/11 has always been of special interest to me. Besides the fact that the event was incredibly dramatic and the beginning of a new era in world politics, I had originally planned to fly to New York the day before the attack. Not that I would have been up so early in the morning, but the 107th floor World Trade Center observation deck, or the Windows on the World restaurant, was definitely near the top of my to-visit list. I sometimes wonder what I would have seen and heard for myself if I hadn't decided last minute to save the money. And also, if it were possible to go back in time, what locations in the World Trade Center I would love to check in the days and hours before the attack.

Actually separate from that, it's safe to say that without 9/11 having taken place this site would have never been created. Membership lists of the Pilgrims Society, the 1001 Club and Le Cercle would still be unavailable. The Dutroux X-Dossiers would have never been exposed to the extent that they have. The ATLAS Dossier would have never been translated and made public. And no in-depth studies would have been done on the American Security Council, the AFIO, the OSS Society, or various other groups.

Having followed the event live on CNN from just after the first impact, the thing that struck me the most was speculation of bombs having caused the collapses. After the first tower went down, I assumed that the other would soon follow suit - but not because the first collapse made any sense to me. I distinctly remember pushing aside the idea that bombs had to be located at various floors inside the building, simply because terrorists would have never been able to carry out such an operation. My thoughts were exactly like one of the witnesses cited below, who, upon witnessing the first tower going down, yelled in disbelief: "That was a fucking bomb that did that. There's no goddamn way that could have happened." I wasn't thinking along conspiracy lines at all in those days, but was clearly censoring myself in order for things to keep making sense.

WTC impact floors and flight trajectories of planes.

Like everyone else, I just waited for the media to come up with the answers. I remember looking at different television stations the rest of the day, waiting for confirmation or a retraction that explosives were used to bring down the towers. But interestingly enough the topic was never brought up again, at least not as far as I noticed. Going through the (Dutch) newspapers the next morning it was the same story: not one mention of even the potential use of explosives. Not having the slightest clue about world affairs, I dropped the issue and went on with my business.

Things changed two-and-a-half years later, after becoming aware that sometimes prevailing ideas in society may not be all that accurate. This awareness led me to do a few simple Google searches on topics that I had always been interested in, but really thought no evidence existed for. One of the subjects I picked were reports of explosives at the World Trade Center - and there it was: my rabbit hole. Things have never been the same since.

The amazing thing is that I had absolutely no clue whatsoever that anybody anywhere was asking similar questions about that event. I studied all aspects of 9/11 for 1,500 hours over the next 1.5 years, almost immediately beginning with organizing all the information in timelines and various summaries. The information quite literally shook my life to the very core. Each night I went to bed convinced that there had been a conspiracy; and each day I woke up again thinking it was all crazy - that there had to be a normal explanation for everything I had come across the previous day. It took months of daily studying to somewhat shake this feeling. Although, to a degree I still have those feelings, even after years and years of seeing all the facts come together and pointing towards a conspiracy.

Any psychologist can tell you why: it is of prime importance to have people around you that study the same facts and come to the same conclusions as you. The more controversial a subject is, the more confirmation is needed. Already in the early 1950s psychologist Solomon Asch established that 75 percent of people will switch their own correct observations to irrational and incorrect ones if these happen to conform with the group. Now imagine doing this experiment with a psychologically hard to accept observation, a mass-instilled idea that only insane persons have your opinion, constant ridicule, enormous amounts of disinformation around every corner, an impossibility to get your view out to the masses, and a real danger of a loss of income. How many will be left to disagree with the group or would even be willing to look at alternative arguments? Very few. And that means eternal doubt for the handful willing to stick their neck out.

I actually had the idea of one day working with others to do interviews and get to the bottom of the event. Well, it didn't pan out that way. Little did I know that the entire conspiracy community appears to be one giant counter-intelligence operation. It wasn't until really becoming an expert on the subject that I began to notice the manipulation. Flight 77, the plane that plunged into the Pentagon, is the most obvious example of this. Trusting the work of other researchers, I pushed aside my own intuition and copied information that indeed something fishy may have happened at the Pentagon. But when finally getting around to checking the facts in detail, maybe half a year after first starting out, it became clear that pictures and witness testimonies had been taken out of context in quite an extreme manner.

As a result I wrote an article that put the facts straight once and for all. It was distributed by various sites: thousands got to read it, and replies were overwhelmingly very positive. However, do you think it was possible to change the minds of "gurus" like Dr. James Fetzer and Eric Hufschmid, whom I briefly conversed with in private? No, of course not. For years Fetzer has been messing up research into the Kennedy assassination, pointing his readers in all directions except the correct ones. He's hardly alone in that effort. Reading years later that the extremely antisemitic Hufschmid is a relative of neocon media mogul Rupert Murdoch - a friend of Frank Lowy, the co-owner of the World Trade Center with deep ties to Israel's national security state - hardly comes as a surprise either. In fact, immediately after my article was distributed I became quite irritated with a new wave of no-757-at-Pentagon theories being spread by virtually every "respectable" author and major conspiracy website. Being used to it these days, back then this realization was quite a shock.

Realizing that nothing more was to be gained from studying 9/11, I distanced myself from it. Instead, I began to map out networks of "non-government" groups which appeared to have great influence on governments internationally. After a while it was possible to pick out some of the more important and unknown ones, including the Pilgrims Society, the 1001 Club and Le Cercle, bringing out a lot of new informaton about these groups. But the ultimate goal of this site has always been to figure out who was behind 9/11.

Back in the day some of the seemingly legitimate researchers I interacted with actually could not understand why I was always so skeptical about explosives and thermite having been used to bring down the World Trade Center buildings. The reason is simple: extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. I don't think this was available in the 2004-2005 period when Youtube wasn't around yet and videos were relatively scarce and of low quality. It's quite amazing really just the amount of high quality material, some of it new, that has been uploaded to Youtube since 2010. If one knows how to steer through all the nonsense, it makes it infinitely easier to confirm a lot of information that was previously just impossible to find.

As the reader will find out in this article, evidence for explosives and thermate at the World Trade Center really seems to be overwhelming, a case additionally strengthened by a lack of willingness from the media and NIST researchers to answer very important and very rational questions. The purpose of this article is to provide readers with so much testimony and evidence pointing towards controlled demolition, that it becomes irrational to believe otherwise. That's not to say I'm 100 percent convinced of controlled demolition; a rational person is never 100 percent convinced of anything unless given overwhelming evidence and is supported in his opinion by many other researchers around him. However, the evidence up to this point personally leads me to conclude that I should be at least 95 percent convinced that explosives and thermite were used that day. My mind may have trouble handling that conclusion, even after all these years, but it is the only rational conclusion that fits all the facts. Everything else is denial.

If someone is able to prove me wrong, I will be just as happy and immediately report it at the top of this page. Giving certainty to readers by providing reliable documentation has always been a key philosophy of ISGP. Giving (more or less) certainty on the topic of 9/11 has been a real challenge though. The only reason I have now actually decided to write about it again is because there's just too much manipulation for the average person to deal with. I have never been able to discuss events like Kennedy or 9/11, simply because it takes at least 1,000 hours for the average person just to get a sense of what is true and what is not. Hopefully this article will help change that.

Each World Trade Center tower consisted of 110 stories and was about 1,350 feet (400 meters) high, the sides measuring 208 feet (62 meters) in length. There were six basement levels: B1 to B6. B1 consisted of a maintenance floor, followed by several levels of parking lots, as well as a subway station and tenant spaces. One of the freight elevator pits was located in the bedrock at "B7". This elevator could stop from B6 to the 109th floor.

Each tower consisted of a core and separate perimeter structure of steel columns. The perimeter structure protected the core from wind stresses. The total amount of steel used per tower was an estimated 100,000 tons, roughly 1/5 of the total weight of each building.  1 Every floor of the inner and outer structure was ringed by steel girders to which the floors were attached. The floors themselves consisted of a relatively thin layer of concrete laying on top of relatively thin steel trusses. The core structure carried 60 percent of the weight of the building: half of the floor weight plus the elevator system, air conditioning (16,000 tons 2) and most of the wiring. That left 40 percent for the perimeter structure to be carried. 3 The towers were designed much stronger than they absolutely needed to be. As a 1964 article in the Engineering News-Record explained, "the exterior columns [have] tremendous reserve strength. Live loads on these columns can be increased more than 2,000% before failure occurs." 4 The towers were given "such a great factor of safety against overturning that one could cut away all the first-story columns on one side of the building, and part way from the corners of the perpendicular sides, and the building could still withstand design live loads and a 100-mph [160-kmh] wind force from any direction." 5 The interior columns were made of A36 steel,  which "only" had 36% the yield of the perimeter columns (36,000 PSI instead of 100,000 PSI). Theoretically, 36% of 2,000 is still a very high 720%. Another source claims that the perimeter columns could handle five times the load above them and the core columns three times, with the NIST estimate, based on worst case loads that may not be all that accurate, being 2 to 1 for the core. 6 Considering NIST has a history of overestimating World Trade Center floor loads by a margin of 2 (to be discussed), it appears that 3 to 1 is a pretty decent minimum for core column strength with the floor loads on 9/11.

In March 2007 detailed floor plans of the North Tower, which was almost similar in design as the South Tower, were leaked to the internet. Looking at them, on all levels of the towers 47 core columns could be found. The first six floors of the towers contained 20 very thick columns that carried the majority of the weight of the core. These columns weighted up to 56 tons each. At floor 7, four of these heavy columns in the center of the core were reduced in thickness, leaving 16 in place until floors in the 50. Above that, some of these heavy core columns also progressively became thinner. At floor 67 this process accelerated and at floor 82, just above the second sky lobby, all but 13 box columns in the core were replaced by H-columns. At this point the elevator system  had also drastically reduced in weight and space. Floor 84 to 86 seem to have had only 4 box columns in the core and at floor 87 these were gone also.

The integrity of these core columns was guarded by dozens of horizontal H-beams at every level, as well as steel girders to which the floors were connected. For some reason it is quite a challenge to get decent pictures or models of this horizontal structure, at least as far as the core goes. It doesn't show up in the leaked floor plans and was only sporadically visualized in the FEMA and NIST reports - although granted, I didn't go through all of the NIST report's 10,000 pages. One would think pictures could be found anywhere on the internet, but that's certainly not the case at this point. That's strange, because these beams, or its connections to the columns, played a very important role in the collapses. Somehow, they failed to keep the columns together.  Above and below a few rare pictures of this structure can be seen. None of these show the connections to the thickest columns, although one of the pictures above gives a fairly good impression of the strength of these connections in the lower two-thirds of the building.

The perimeter structure, carrying 40 percent of the weight of the World Trade Center towers, followed a similar process as the core columns: the higher they were located, the thinner they were. At the base of the towers, 19 very thick box columns could be found on each side, divided in three-column panels. The heaviest of these panels weighed 22 tons. 7 At the height of the impact floors, the columns had increased to 60 (240 in total) considerably thinner ones. In contrast to what is often reported or thought, looking at floor plan drawings, the core columns do not appear to have been heavier than the perimeter ones; they just consisted of smaller pieces. And as already discussed, the steel of the outer structure was stronger, because it was designed to be able to absorb the pressure of hurricanes up to roughly 140 mph (224 kmh). 8

Above the basement level, the buildings consisted of three zones. Roughly taken, zone 1 ran from the lobby to the first sky lobby at the 44th floor, zone 2 ran from the 45th to the 78th, where the second sky lobby was located; and zone 3 could be found between floors 79 to 110. These sky lobbies are easy to identify on the outside of the towers as horizontal bands running all around the buildings. The Windows on the World restaurant occupied floors 106 and 107 of the North Tower, the same tower with the antenna at the top. The observation deck was also located on the 107th floor. Luckily it wasn't open yet when the first plane hit, otherwise, it has been estimated, another 1,000 or 2,000 people would  have died.

In between the core columns up to 50 elevator shafts can be found in the leaked floor plans. These were not all accessible at every  floor at the same time. In 1969, Engineering News-Record spoke about "104 elevator cabs running in 36 shafts." 9 Sources after 9/11 talk about 99 elevators per building 10, divided over three zones. Most of the elevators were local ones that carried people up to a certain level within a zone. In the lobby also a handful of shuttle elevators could be found that took people up to the first or second sky lobby, as well as all the way to 107th floor. One freight elevator in each tower ran from the 109th floor all the way down to the B6 basement level, with the elevator pit in the bedrock. The shuttle elevators going up to the 78th to 109th floor were the ones that crashed down to their pits at the B2 level. The violence involved in these crashes blasted elevator doors at the B1 and lobby levels off their hinges, with dozens of people burning alive here as a kerosene fireball flew out of the shafts. Windows in the lobby were blown out, cracks appeared in the ceiling and floors, and marble panels came off the walls. Numerous surviving firefighters of the North Tower described the destruction in the lobby, the smell of kerosene and horribly burned victims laying around, some of them still alive but unable to communicate. Firefighters also found people burned beyond recognition in stalled elevators after burning kerosene had made its way into them. Many of these accounts are listed in this article.

At least one elevator of about 10  freefalling from over 900 feet (300 meters) was spared total destruction when the emergency break on the only remaining cable (of 9) kicked in, stalling it just above the lobby level. A heavily wounded Alan Mann,  an executive vice president of Aon Corp., was able to crawl out. He described how burning jet fuel made its way into the elevator, burning his neck. He appears to be the only one who made it out. 11

Most likely we can all agree on the fact that two Boeings 767-200 each struck a tower on 9/11. We can also agree that the impacts resulted in burning kerosene and various elevators to crash down to the lobby, causing about a dozen additional "explosions", as well as extensive burn victims.

The degree of initial damage caused by the airplanes doesn't seem to be that controversial either, not when talking about the amount of columns taken out. Based on the damage a 757-223 did to the Pentagon I made my own estimate of the damage to the World Trade Center towers. Only then did I look up the official estimate of NIST. As it turns out, NIST agrees with my most optimistic scenario, which can be seen below:

NIST estimated that:

• 6 columns of the North Tower core were severed (13%).
• 9 columns of the North Tower core were severed or sustained heavy damage (19%).
• 20 columns of the North Tower core sustained some type of damage (43%).
• 45 columns of the North Tower perimeter sustained significant damage (15%).
• 65 columns in the North Tower overall sustained some type of damage (23%).


• 10 columns of the South Tower core were severed (21%).
• 11 columns of the South Tower core were severed or sustained heavy damage (23%).
• 22 columns of the South Tower core sustained some type of damage (47%).
• 37 columns of the South Tower perimeter sustained significant damage (15%).
• 59 columns in the South Tower overall sustained some type of damage (21%).

It's quite incredible really that, relatively speaking, a 170 ton airliner with a 170 foot wingspan hitting the towers at 500 mph did so little damage. Clearly aluminum and fiberglass are not the most ideal way to penetrate steel. Simply based on impact damage, the North Tower (right) should have been safe and sound. The core probably lost about 1/3 of its strength and in case of the perimeter structure it's about 1/5. Considering these structures could respectively carry 300% to 500% of their actual load (if not more), that still gives plenty of breathing room for load redistribution.

The South Tower might be more tricky when it comes to the core because of the asymmetric damage, but looking at the load capacity and extensive network of horizontal beams keeping everything together, I don't see why it shouldn't stay upright - which, of course, it did. No controversy here.

Obviously we haven't considered the fire yet. This is also where the largest amount of unknowns and controversy comes in. A first important question to ask is: how can you do a proper investigation when all the evidence has been destroyed? The towers consisted of 200,000 steel components 13, but by the time NIST began its investigation "approximately 236 pieces of steel" 14 were left, which, as we shall see, was wholly inadequate to do even a half decent investigation. What happened to all the rest of the steel? It was shipped off to Far East for smelting purposes, a process that began just days after 9/11. As Bill Manning wrote for Firehouse Magazine in January 2002:

"For more than three months, structural steel from the World Trade Center has been and continues to be cut up and sold for scrap. Crucial evidence that could answer many questions about high-rise building design practices and performance under fire conditions is on the slow boat to China, perhaps never to be seen again in America until you buy your next car. ... Comprehensive disaster investigations mean increased safety. They mean positive change. NASA knows it. The NTSB knows it. Does FEMA know it? No. ...

"Fire Engineering has good reason to believe that the "official investigation" blessed by FEMA and run by the American Society of Civil Engineers is a half-baked farce that may already have been commandeered by political forces whose primary interests, to put it mildly, lie far afield of full disclosure. Except for the marginal benefit obtained from a three-day, visual walk-through of evidence sites conducted by ASCE investigation committee members - described by one close source as a "tourist trip" - no one's checking the evidence for anything. ...

"However, respected members of the fire protection engineering community are beginning to raise red flags, and a resonating theory has emerged: The structural damage from the planes and the explosive ignition of jet fuel in themselves were not enough to bring down the towers. Rather, theory has it, the subsequent contents fires attacking the questionably fireproofed lightweight trusses and load-bearing columns directly caused the collapses in an alarmingly short time.

"Of course, in light of there being no real evidence thus far produced, this could remain just unexplored theory. ... Some citizens are taking to the streets to protest the investigation sellout. Sally Regenhard, for one, wants to know why and how the building fell as it did upon her unfortunate son Christian, an FDNY probationary firefighter. And so do we. Clearly, there are burning questions that need answers. ... The destruction and removal of evidence must stop immediately." 15

An outright accusation of a cover up, that's some very strong language coming from the firefighter community. Manning explained that for every major disaster complete reconstructions are done in order to find out what exactly happened and how we can learn from the situation. He specifically named the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, the Happyland Social Club Fire and the Meridian Plaza Fire as examples. We also know the exact same thing is done in airplane crashes. The Journal of Engineering Mechanics of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) itself explained how crucial this type of reconstruction and investigation would have been:

"The destruction of the World Trade Center (WTC) on September 11, 2001 was not only the largest mass murder in U.S. history but also a big surprise for the structural engineering profession, perhaps the biggest since the collapse of the Tacoma Bridge in 1940. No experienced structural engineer watching the attack expected the WTC towers to collapse. No skyscraper has ever before collapsed due to fire. The fact that the WTC towers did, beckons deep examination." 16

The more one thinks about it, the more incredible it becomes that relatively few and light weight floors, especially in case of the North Tower, were able to crash straight through the buildings without breaking apart or sliding off, taking the massive core and perimeter columns, both much stronger than the floor trusses, with them. At the bottom of the WTC, columns were reported to weigh 56 ton. Going higher, columns weighed 20 ton and closer to the top around 8 ton. Talk about taking the path of maximum resistance. Incredibly, NIST weaseled its way out of trying to explain this aspect.

In fact, so many firefighters died on 9/11, because the fire chiefs had been assured by the WTC's engineers that the towers could never come down from an airplane crash.  Based on that information, they sent their firefighters up into the towers. 17

So, what possible reason could there have been to immediately ship all the steel out of the country? Why was there no outcry in the mainstream media beyond maybe a few hours after the event about the seeming impossibility of the collapses? Why did no major media outlet immediately protest that evidence was being destroyed? As Manning already explained, the ACSE was a volunteer team which had only very limited access to the site. To illustrate that even more, the "vaporized steel" reported by Dr. Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl of the ASCE was only found after he himself decided to get out of his hotel room late at night to inspect the contents of dump trucks parked outside his hotel. These trucks came from the sealed ground zero site and would soon be on their way to the docks where all the steel was loaded onto barges.  He found this steel on September 27, with the New York Times reporting on it on October 2. 18 What if Dr. Astaneh-Asl  had not "intercepted" these beams? Quite possibly FEMA wouldn't even have bothered to mention its find of two "sulfidated" steel pieces in the WTC rubble, one from the towers and one from Building 7. 19 Then again, maybe I'm too optimistic in thinking that Astaneh-Asl's evidence was saved. In any case, to this day we are completely in the dark as to how much molten, "vaporized" and "sulfidated" steel was present in the World Trade Center debris, with NIST and media outlets as Popular Mechanics simply pretending there is no evidence for it. 20

What we are left with, besides very limited physical testing, are computer models of the impact and the intensity of the fire that may or may not be accurate. The initial idea right after after 9/11 was that certain columns were heated up to 800°C (1,470°F). However, NIST established that no heating beyond 600°C (1,100°F) occurred and this is generally seen as the upper limit of the steel's temperature these days. However, one problem with the tests of NIST is that they were never able to distinguish between a temperature of 250°C (480°F) and 600°C (1,100°F). NIST tested all the impact floor steel that FEMA left behind for the amount of heat they had been exposed to. Two different tests were carried out to determine the temperatures. One involved looking at cracks in the steel's primer paint. If cracks were observed, it meant the steel had been exposed to temperatures between 250°C (480°F) and roughly 600-650°C (1,100-1,200°F). Above this temperature a black scale would form between the paint and the steel and at 800°C the paint would come off rapidly, leaving a blue hue on the steel. NIST:

"An analysis was conducted on the condition of the primer paint of the World Trade Center structural elements. As shown in Appendix D, it was found that mud cracking of the paint occurred on samples that were exposed to temperatures in excess of 250°C. The following table lists the individual locations that were evaluated during the study..." 21

What we see next in the NIST report is 191 separate tests on perimeter columns from all four sides of the North Tower, including all impact floors, with all but three results coming back as "negative" or "inconclusive". Blue discoloration of steel was never observed. As for the "positives", the only solid one was on a column on the 98th floor on the east face of the tower, which apparently had endured a more than 250°C (480°F) temperature for about 31 minutes on a discontinuous basis. The other two positives were on the 99th floor, north face (18 minutes, discontinuous), and 93rd floor, east face (18 minutes, discontinuous). NIST also looked at the primer paint of a "whopping" four core columns, two from the South Tower and two from the North Tower. Those on the South Tower didn't have enough paint on them to perform the test, with the core columns from the North Tower coming back as "negative".

Bob McIlvaine and mechanical engineer Tony Szamboti on Fox News, November 13, 2010. McIlvaine lost his son on 9/11. Szamboti is cited quite a bit in this article. These two would be wise to force the resignation of the leadership of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, which consists of a number of virulent no-planers, as well as several questionable witnesses. Down the road these prominent no-planers will be used to drag the image of everyone involved in A & E through the mud.

While NIST never criticizes FEMA for having left behind so little steel, obviously this test suffered from a severe lack of available material. Tests on perimeter columns of the South Tower couldn't even be carried out, because "none of the nine recovered panels from within the fire floors of WTC 2 were directly exposed to fire." 22 As for the North Tower, maybe a third of the perimeter column tests involved impact floor sections that had been exposed to fire. Everything else was gone, including apparently 90 of 94 core columns in the two towers at the level of the impact floors.  As a result, NIST didn't "generalize" these paint cracking results, "since the examined columns represented only 3 percent of the perimeter columns and 1 percent of the core columns from the fire floors." 23 How unfortunate is this? If at the very least all the steel of the impact floors was retained, the primer paint test alone could have revealed a lot about the temperatures in the entire building, from the core to the perimeter, all around. While writing these paragraphs I came across a 30 minute interview by Architects & Engineers of 9/11 Truth with mechanical engineer Tony Szamboti. This person largely reflects my own thoughts, so let's cite for some additional perspective:

"NIST's own testing of steel temperatures on the pieces they did get from the Twin Towers had experienced temperatures over 250°C, where steel has not lost any strength yet. And none had experienced temperatures beyond 600°C where steel loses about half of its strength [note: more like 73% it seems]. So bear in mind, less than 1.5% of the steel that NIST actually got, showed that it experienced any temperatures where steel would actually lose strength. 98.5% of the steel they got, showed it actually would not lose any strength at all. The areas the steel came from that NIST did their testing on came from, according to them, the fire-affected areas...    

"The fact that NIST did not include any discussion whatsoever about this piece that exhibited intergranular melting, rapid oxidation, sulfidation, in their report after it had been recommended that it be looked at [by FEMA], that it was quite a mystery, is essentially fraudulent, and it's probably criminal. ... Aside from this one small piece [two, actually] that was found to have intergranular melting, incredibly none of the other steel for World Trade Center 7 was saved for analysis. Dr. John Gross, one of the project leaders, has admitted being in the yards, picking pieces to save for analysis. But the report doesn't explain why so little was saved.

"Interestingly, the steel that was saved from the towers, did not show that it had experienced high temperatures. The report was dismissive. They were saying that the sample size was not sufficient to be representative. Well, it seems that Dr. Gross was involved in determining what to save and what not to. Why wouldn't a sufficient sample size be saved? And why wasn't at least all the steel from the fire impacted areas salvaged for analysis? Nobody does a forensic analysis in this matter. You always save for physical evidence. ... Dr. John Gross is on video denying there is any evidence of this and he hasn't heard of anybody having seen it. There are firemen on video saying they observed molten iron and steel running like lava..." 24

In addition to the primer paint, NIST also tried to look at "microstructural changes in steel",  as tests revealed that "625 °C for as little as 0.25 h [15 minutes] produced noticeable changes in the microstructure" of the steel truss system and its connections to the core and perimeter columns. 25 These tests were, once again, limited due to the lack of available steel and in any case did not reveal a temperature above 625 °C (1,150°F):

"Using metallographic analysis, NIST determined that there was no evidence that any of the samples had reached temperatures above 600°C. These results [however] were for a very small fraction of the steel in the impact and fire zones. Nonetheless, these analyses indicated some zones within WTC 1 where the computer simulations should not, and did not, predict highly elevated steel temperatures.  None of the recovered steel samples showed evidence of exposure to temperatures above 600°C for as long as 15 min." 26

Despite this inability to distinguish between 250°C (480°F) and 600°C (1,100°F), the consensus has become that many columns throughout the impact floors were heated up to nearly 600°C, resulting in a reported 80-85% loss in strength (outside graphs indicate 73%), which then led to the collapse of the towers. 27   These temperatures are based on the initial heat of the jet fuel, office supplies providing another 15-20 minutes of fuel for high temperature fires in each location, and the theory that most of the fireproofing was stripped off.

One of the few things we can say for certain is that despite the fact that the evidence has been destroyed, we know that various spots in the towers heated to well above 250°C (480°F). For example, persons trapped inside the towers just above the impact floors reported that the floors were buckling. 28 According to NIST, "The web diagonals [on the trusses] begin to buckle at 340°C [650°F]." 29 Allegedly, also according to NIST, floors would have collapsed when steel trusses heated up to 650°C (1,200°F). 30 I've seen no evidence of that happening in the World Trade Center towers (or in NIST's fire tests), apart from an interpretative account of the New York Times reporting that "ceilings were caving in." 31 Of course, that sentence can be interpreted in different ways and most likely referred to the buckling process the victim-in-question described over the phone before dying in the collapse. A WTC collapse researcher at the University of Maryland wrote: "Collapses of the floors were seen in both of the towers well up to 20 minutes before the buildings collapsed. ... It is commonly known that floor sections were collapsing up to 20 minutes before the full collapse of each of the buildings. NIST has not addressed those early failures." 32 It would be nice to know what the evidence is for this statement. Maybe it's his interpretation of some of the early smoke puffs that blew out of the north tower at the fire floors. Other than that it's anybody's guess what he is talking about.

Apart from these rather vague accounts, a police helicopter reported that steel columns were "glowing red" around the 95th floor of the North Tower 20 minutes before its collapse. 33 This points to a temperature beginning around 600°C (1,100°F) in full daylight. 34 If smoke obscured daylight, this glowing would be seen at somewhat lower temperatures also. While undoubtedly well known to experts, I personally became aware if this when heating up a steel cooking pan to an estimated 850°C (1,550°F). When cooling down to below 600°C (1,100°F), the red glow disappeared. But after turning off the lights, the entire cooking pan lit up like a Christmas tree. Additional observations of this miniature experiment, which permanently ruined the cooking pan, included that red hot steel of around 850°C (1,470°F) can be bent rather easily. After it cools down from these temperatures, permanent blue and chrome-colored tints are left in the steel. This type of discoloration was not reported in the remaining World Trade Center steel, apart from unacknowledged observations of molten steel. 

Because NIST had so little access to the steel itself, its researchers largely relied on computer modeling to find an explanation for the collapses. Their conclusion was that the sagging floors pulled the perimeter columns inward. In their own words:

"In each tower, a different combination of impact damage and heat-weakened structural components contributed to the abrupt structural collapse.

"In WTC 1 [the North Tower, hit at the center from the north], the fires weakened the core columns and caused the floors [concrete on top of thin steel trusses] on the south side of the building to sag. The floors pulled the heated south perimeter columns inward, reducing their capacity to support the building above. Their neighboring columns quickly became overloaded as the south wall buckled. The top section of the building tilted to the south and began its descent. The time from aircraft impact to collapse initiation was largely determined by how long it took for the fires to weaken the building core and to reach the south side of the building and weaken the perimeter columns and floors.

"In WTC 2 [the South Tower], the core was damaged severely at the southeast corner [by the plane impact] and was restrained by the east and south walls via the hat truss and the floors. The steady burning fires on the east side of the building caused the floors there to sag. The floors pulled the heated east perimeter columns inward, reducing their capacity to support the building above. Their neighboring columns quickly became overloaded as the east wall buckled. The top section of the building tilted to the east and to the south and began its descent. The time from aircraft impact to collapse initiation was largely determined by the time for the fires to weaken the perimeter columns and floor assemblies on the east and south sides of the building. ...

"[A computer] analysis suggested that global instability of the tower occurred when five floors were removed from the model. Assuming that all columns at the region of the removed floors reached a temperature of 600°C (reduced modulus of elasticity), the analysis indicates that removal of four floors [because they collapsed due to heat] would induce global instability." 35

As already discussed, quite possibly a decent amount of steel was heated up to 600-650°C (1,100-1,200°F). According to NIST, "the exterior columns bow inward at 560°C [1,030°F] causing the truss to act as a catenary." 36 This means that quite a few sections of the building had to be heated up to roughly 600°C, otherwise perimeter columns simply would not have been pulled inward. Is there evidence for this phenomenon? Maybe. Looking at the South Tower in the minutes before collapse, light seems to be refracted differently than from the rest of the building. This can be seen from multiple angles. Heated air and light reflections have been mentioned as alternatives to this phenomenon and I'm not really sure what to think of it. The following photographic sequence of the South Tower collapse has been used as an indication that indeed a degree of buckling of the perimeter structure was going on. I tend to agree with it, although the phenomenon, which is only visible on one side of the building doesn't look like it would have caused instant global collapse. The effect also seems to have worsened as a result of the building collapsing and the top structure weighing down on these perimeter columns. Looking at the time stamp and the visible crumbling effect (the separate debris particles) of the collapse floor, the second picture here appears to have been shot within about a second of collapse initiation. That's not an honest representation of the buckling effect, of course, and it's not surprising I took this sequence from a 9/11 debunking website.

As for the North Tower, it appears that personnel of the police helicopter that reported 20 minutes before the second collapse that the North Tower was "glowing red" and "leaning", in reality observed this inward buckling process of the perimeter columns. This was on the south side of the North Tower, the location where this building officially first failed. According to NIST, the North Tower collapsed from the largely undamaged south face because somehow all the fireproofing had been stripped off from the core and floor truss system. The evidence for these crucial assumptions is non-existent. To be honest, I don't understand all the discussion about fires migrating to the south wall of the North Tower and initiating a collapse here. Although fires later may have intensified, it was at the south face from the beginning. On top of that, it's very obvious that the building went straight down, the central column 0.53 seconds before the perimeter (check the Sauret video frame by frame, paying attention to pixel changes in the antenna and roof), with floor 98 blowing out all around. All preceded by a huge explosion, of course.

Of course, just because some inward buckling may have been going on, doesn't automatically mean that columns known to be able to carry over 20 times their weight would have actually given way in the manner they did. On top of that, we know that the towers were designed to withstand a 100 mph (160 kmh) hurricane with more than an entire perimeter side at ground level missing. NIST may simply have been looking for a theory that they could sell to the public, noticed the inward buckling, and designed a collapse theory around that. As we shall see in a moment, NIST was only able to ''confirm'' this inward-bowing effect by resorting to outright fraud.

North Tower, south side burning intensely. Some columns most certainly could have started to glow "red hot". But was it really enough to collapse the building? And in the manner it did? The fires seem to have been getting less intense near the end (smaller pictures), but still a lot of fire was pushed out of the building as the floors collapsed (smallest picture).

In August 2004, at Underwriter Laboratories, NIST carried out four fire tests on reconstructed floor trusses of the World Trade Center. They torched these trusses really good. In the first ten minutes the gas/air/furnace temperature was brought up to 1,400°F (760°C). After two hours furnace temperatures leveled off at a somewhat extreme 2,000°F (1,090°C). Considering the longest WTC trusses were 35 feet long, largely restrained, with an average fireproofing thickness of 72 millimeters 37,  the first test was the most accurate. In just over an hour the steel reached temperatures up to 600-700°C  (1,100-1,300°F), which is relatively average for all tests. By the time the test was shut down after 1 hour and 56 minutes - the shortest test of them all - parts of the steel structure reached 850°C (1,550°F). The result? Well, it took NIST hundreds of pages and dozens of different graphs to explain that nothing really happened. NIST spends much of its time reporting that test B is in accordance with standard C and test D is in accordance with standard E. Readers of the report actually themselves need to come to the conclusion that, strangely, the floors never collapsed. Apparently there were signs of partial or full collapse at this point with tests 1 and 3, but that's with fire times that were unrealistically long and unrealistically intense. In some areas steel in tests 1 and 2 reached 1,580°F (850°C). Test 3 even shows steel surface temperatures of 1,950°F (1,060°C) after 3 hours. In addition, floor loads were double of what could have been expected in the World Trade Center. 38 And still, the floors didn't collapse.

Eventually NIST largely ignored the results of their own real world tests and switched to computer models instead. While the floors in the somewhat extreme Underwriter Laboratories fire tests buckled no more than 4 inches in the first 60 minutes and 6 inches in 100 minutes, the time it respectively took for the South Tower and North Tower to collapse, NIST's computer model somehow shows that these same floors would have sagged by 42 inches. 39 Considering it's these additional 36 to 38 inches that caused the catastrophic inward pulling of the perimeter columns, with the collapse of the WTC towers as a result, one would think that NIST carried out additional real world testing along these lines. Well, they didn't. They didn't even carry out a fire test without fireproofing. Instead, NIST created a number of limited and highly manipulated computer models to simulate what they theorized caused the towers to collapse. The last two of these models, which they labeled case 8 and case 9, respectively and separately simulate the pull-in and push-down forces on the perimeter columns. In case 8 NIST:

How bizarre is this approach? One would think NIST created an exact digital replica of the tower, certainly of everything above roughly the 90th floor, then inserted the data for a 767 impact, and simply pushed the play button so see how different scenarios corresponded with the real-life event. But instead we get these isolated models in which NIST is simply making up all the rules. It would literally have been the same thing if NIST rebuild the WTC towers with Lego and before pushing the (Lego) perimeter columns in by hand, remove some of the (Lego) obstacles that might be in the way of getting the desired result. Clearly this is not science. Unsurprisingly, NIST isn't willing to share input data on many of their simulations with the public, although they themselves have already made it plenty clear that much of their work is completely useless. 41

There appear to be two main reasons the floors in NIST's computer model sagged much more than the real life tests: missing fireproofing and overload. Both assumptions are equally questionable. Why not let Tony Szamboti of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth explain and summarize some of the main problems with this computer model? He doesn't seem to have indulged himself in some of the stranger theories surrounding 9/11, appears realistic, moderate with his opinions, and what I really love, in an half hour interview with him, he has organized all the points he wants to make on a piece of paper:

"There's a bit of concern there, because when you do your own analyses on these floor trusses, you find that they don't sag nearly as much as NIST reports them to at the temperature of 700°C. I've done an analysis on that and they only sag a couple of inches. And they're saying they sag 40+ inches. NIST did a testing with Underwriter Laboratories. They contracted with them as part of their report and, lo and behold, the trusses didn't sag that much, and just sort of walked around that and claim that the reason that these trusses didn't sag in their tests is that they didn't have fireproofing on them and that the reasons that the ones in the towers would have sagged is because all the fireproofing would have been knocked off. You need to bear in mind that the south wall was completely on the opposite side of where the aircraft impact occurred. So that would lead one to be sort of concerned about that. It's very difficult to knock all that fireproofing off all the way on the other side of these over 70 yards wide buildings. 

"[Also,] you need about the weight that's on 12 trusses to cause them to sag that much. So what they do in their analysis is say that several of them disconnected, like 10 of them, 10 or 11 disconnected, and put the load on one. The problem there is: then why wouldn't the bolts that connect them to the outside wall columns fail if they have the load of those 12 on one? Why did the earlier 11 fail, but this one didn't fail? ... One is left to wonder how the claim can be made that a few sagging trusses could pull in the entire perimeter wall or any large section of it as the connection of these few remaining trusses on the perimeter wall would not have withstood this load. So they're making the claim that all these other trusses disconnected, so they can overload this one, but they're saying this one wouldn't disconnect. There's a dichotomy there in my mind. ...   

"In addition to that, the NIST model could not get the wall to fail with natural inputs. They had to add a horizontal force on the columns to get them to buckle. So even in their model it shows that the sagging floor trusses could not cause it [the floor trusses would disconnect from the columns before that]. They couldn't get it to happen with natural inputs. I think that's a very serious issue and it shows a lack of engineering rigor. ...

"[NIST] had also removed the bridging trusses between the core and the perimeter. They didn't account for the effect in their global model, even though they claimed they would earlier in the report. ...

"What they do is something that I think is disingenuous. When you design for a worst case scenario you're putting the maximum amount of load on it. And that's not always what exists. [But] that's what they determined their factor of safety [was], the absolute worst case loads that the towers could have ever experienced. But that's not what actually was in those buildings. [It] was probably about two-thirds or less than the worst case design load. The factor of safety in the core is, in fact, 3 to 1, with the actual in service loads on them, and the perimeter columns 5 to 1, yet NIST shows a factor of safety in the core somewhere around 1.92 to 2 to 1. And that is erroneous. It's actually higher than that. What they were actually trying to show, I believe, is that the buildings would be more susceptible to failure than they actually were. ...

"It needs to be mentioned that NIST has also repeatedly refused to release computer input data that was requested through the Freedom of Information Act from them in the past concerning World Trade Center 1, 2 and 7." 42

To summarize, we have confirmation of 4 to 6 inches of floor truss sagging under semi-realistic conditions with no evidence that the perimeter columns could have been pulled inward, causing "global instability" which led to the collapses. But at the same time we are supposed to take NIST on its word that the floors really would have sagged 42 inches - and as a result pulled the perimeter columns inward. Yet, they provide no evidence anywhere in their 10,000 page report, apart from a few isolated and highly manipulated computer models. It's hard to imagine that the public would think this an acceptable way of conducting an investigation.

Criticism on the NIST report hasn't just come from the 9/11 Truth community, loaded from top to bottom with questionable individuals, but also from "rival" investigators at the Fire Protection Engineering Department of the University of Maryland. Situated right next to CIA headquarters, the Pentagon and the White House, maybe we shouldn't expect too great a degree of deviation from the official narrative, but nevertheless the department's Professor James Quintiere exposed serious shortcomings in some of the core ideas of NIST. For example, NIST has stated very clearly that the towers would have stood if the fireproofing had not been stripped off in many different places by high velocity airplane debris. NIST:

"The towers withstood the impacts and would have remained standing were it not for the dislodged insulation and the subsequent multifloor fires. The robustness of the perimeter frame-tube system and the large size of the buildings helped the towers withstand the impact." 43

The problem, of course, is that NIST has not been able to demonstrate physical evidence that this fireproofing was dislodged in all kinds of crucial areas, especially the south face of the North Tower opposite the impact. Professor Quintiere has explained this problem in quite some detail:

"The October surprise in the NIST investigation was the assertion that all of the core column insulation was knocked off by the airplane impacts.  ... NIST has not presented clear and sufficient evidence that the aircraft impacts caused the elimination of insulation, especially from the core columns. According to NIST [Sunder, July 12, 2005 NFPA committee meeting], the planes disintegrated on impacting the exterior columns. This debris and its momentum is alleged to have removed the insulation. Heavy items, such as an engine or landing gear, could cause structural damage to a column in the core: "If the engine missed the floor slab, the majority of the engine core remained intact and had enough residual momentum to sever a core column upon direct impact." [p 105] This suggest that hitting a floor slab, which is very likely due to the diameter of the engine, then less damage would be done. ...

"Specifically on the insulation loss, NIST says it could be shook off due to vibrations, or eroded off due to pulverized debris impact. On the former NIST concludes: "The analyses were not sufficient to establish justifiable, general criteria for a coherent pattern of vibration- induced dislodging." [p 117] On the erosion, NIST did static tests on the insulation adhesive strength, but never coupled these results to a computational model. Instead, "NIST assumed that the debris impact dislodged insulation if the debris force was strong enough to break a gypsum board partition immediately in front of the structural component. Experiments at NIST confirmed that an array of 0.3 in. diameter pellets traveling at 350 mph [560 kmh] stripped the insulation from steel bars like those used in the WTC trusses." [p 117] These pellet tests need more amplification, as they are the only test simulation of the erosion effect. Moreover, the test speed of 350 mph is not consistent with the average speed of debris traversing the buildings. The debris took about 0.7 s [Sunder, July 12, 2005] to exit, giving an average speed of 205 ft/0.7s or 200 mph [320 kmh]. As momentum depends on the square of the velocity, NIST has overestimated the momentum in these pellet tests by a factor of 3.

"It is crucial to the NIST collapse hypothesis that the insulation is removed on impact. It begs more support." 44

Clearly the absolutely crucial theory of NIST that fireproofing was stripped off screams for more evidence. Some graphs reproduced by the University of Maryland demonstrate that fireproofing thickness is of incredible importance in slowing down the heating process of steel. Depending on the size of the steel column or beam, just 50 millimeters of fireproofing can delay the heating process by 10 to 40 times. 

To summarize, do we know what the temperatures were inside the World Trade Center towers when they collapsed? No, we don't. We went from initial estimates of 800°C (1,470°F) to 600°C (1,100°F). However, NIST can't prove temperatures beyond 250°C (480°F). Then they carry out various tests heating up steel trusses to 700°C (1,300°F) and even as high as 1,060°C (1,950°F), but even with double the realistic floor loads fail to collapse these trusses or even buckle them to a large degree. In the end, NIST speculates that after 20 minutes of fire in any location, air temperatures would permanently have come down from roughly 1,000°C (1,850°F) to "near 500°C [925°F] or below." 45 Estimates of NIST and a scale model fire test of the University of Maryland both point to air temperatures in the core at the time of North Tower collapse of just 400°C (750°F), with core columns at most still having a temperature of 450°C (840°F) at that point. At this last temperature the core columns would still have at least 70% of its strength and clearly we're talking about only a portion of the columns - not all of them. In others words, what reason is there to assume that the core was catastrophically weakened, at least in case of the North Tower? The evidence for this seems rather weak.

Looking at the above estimates of NIST and the fire test of the University of Maryland, give or take a few minutes, the North Tower collapsed at the last possible moment, with temperatures in most locations already on the decline for quite some time. But was the fire really responsible for the collapses? At this point there are too many unanswered questions pointing in the direction of explosives and thermate to reach that conclusion.

We aren't entirely done yet with the flaws in the official investigation. One of the most obvious questions is how the top of the towers, especially the North Tower, could have gained so much momentum that they were able to crash straight through the rest of the buildings with hardly any observable resistance. While already hard to imagine if all the floors were the same weight, the towers became progressively heavier and stronger closer to the base. The details of this have been discussed earlier in this article: 8 ton H-columns at the top, 20 ton box columns until roughly the second sky lobby, and eventually up to 56 ton columns in the lowest sections of the towers. Stunningly, NIST never tried to explain the full collapse. It only tried to explain the "collapse initiation sequence". Once they did this to their satisfaction, NIST pointed to a "simplified analysis relying solely on energy considerations" of Professor Zdenek Bazant - and called it a day. Here is how Bazant explained things in the March 2007 edition of the Journal of Engineering Mechanics of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE):

"The combination of seven effects [caused the collapses of the WTC towers:]:

1. Overstress of some columns due to initial load redistribution;
2. overheating due to loss of steel insulation;
3. drastic lowering of yield limit and creep threshold by heat;
4. lateral deflections of many columns due to thermal strains and sagging floor trusses;
5. weakened lateral support due to reduced in-plane stiffness of sagging floors;
6. multistory bowing of some columns ...;
7. local plastic buckling of heated column webs—finally led to buckling of columns.

"As a result, the upper part of the tower fell, with little resistance, through at least one floor height, impacting the lower part of the tower. This triggered progressive collapse because the kinetic energy of the falling upper part exceeded by an order of magnitude the energy that could be absorbed by limited plastic deformations and fracturing in the lower part of the tower.

"In broad terms, this scenario was proposed by Bazant (2001), and Bazant and Zhou  (2002a,b) on the basis of simplified analysis relying solely on energy considerations. Up to the moment of collapse trigger, the foregoing scenario was identified by meticulous, exhaustive, and very realistic computer simulations of unprecedented detail, conducted by S. Shyam Sunder's team at NIST. The subsequent progressive collapse was not simulated at NIST because its inevitability, once triggered by impact after column buckling, had already been proven by Bazant and Zhou's (2002a) comparison of kinetic energy to energy absorption capability. The elastically calculated stresses caused by impact of the upper part of tower onto the lower part were found to be 31 times greater than the design stresses...

"The kinetic energy of the top part of the tower impacting the floor below was found to be about 8.4 larger than the plastic energy absorption capability of the underlying story, and considerably higher than that if fracturing were taken into account ... Purely on energy grounds, [Bazant and Zhou concluded] that the tower was doomed once the top part of the tower dropped through the height of one story (or even 0.5 m). It was also observed that this conclusion [of Bazant and Zhou] made any calculations of the dynamics of progressive collapse after the first single-story drop of upper part superfluous." 46

With the amount of praise Bazant bestows upon the NIST computer simulations, one gets the impression that NIST and Bazant are scratching each other's backs. The ASCE included in the article the following wonderful schematic that they believe should clarify the collapse a little better for the non-structural engineers among us:

Whether or not the above sequence eventually turns out to be accurate, it looks more like a Loony Tunes animation than a real life event. If someone were to make a scale model of the WTC towers, cut off their tops, and drop these from a one or two floor height (already an anomaly) on the remaining part of the scale model, would we really end up with a pile of disconnected steel beams and dust each and every time? Impossible to say for sure, but hard to imagine. It certainly makes me wonder: this means that one cruise missile, one heavy airplane bomb, or a couple of tank shells could probably have triggered the collapse of the WTC towers, even when only hitting the top 10-15% of the floors. A few columns are severed and the resulting fire takes care of the rest. If high rise steel buildings behave like this, there would hardly be a need anymore for controlled demolition. Just blow away the columns of floor 98 in a 110 story steel building and watch it come straight down into its own footprint. 

All North Tower impact floors crushed before the lower structure fails and stops resisting. Eventually the debris between floors 94 and by then 103 crushed everything down to floor 5.
Equally important is a statement in NIST NCSTAR1, section 6.14.4, p. 196: "NIST estimates that elapsed times for the first exterior panels to strike the ground after the collapse initiated in each of the towers to be approximately 11 seconds for WTC 1 and approximately 9 seconds for WTC2. ... Since the stories below the level of collapse initiation provided little resistance to the tremendous energy released by the falling building mass [which NIST fails to properly explain], the building section above came down essentially in free fall, as seen in videos." The importance of free fall is primarily discussed in ISGP's WTC 7 article, but it means that structural support all of a sudden vanished, something which even NIST's lead scientist Shyam Sunder at one point claimed is impossible except in cases demolition.

Strangely, Bazant or the ASCE's Journal of Engineering Mechanics couldn't even draw an accurate scale model of the towers here, something which has been done on numerous occasions by the mainstream media in the past. The WTC towers were 1,350 ft (406 m) high. Divide this by 208 ft (63 m), the length of each WTC side, and the outcome is 6.49. The model above is 200 pixels high, so divided by 6.49 we would expect a width of 31 pixels (30.8 to be exact). However, the above model is drawn 38 pixels wide, falsely indicating that the WTC towers would have been no less than 257 ft (77 m) wide. While it hardly makes the schematic look any less questionable, it's still a very convenient mistake to make. In contrast, the model does accurately portray the height of the impacted floors, so somebody was paying attention while drawing it.

This is not all. In the paper Bazant claims that progressive collapse has been "previously experienced in many tall buildings as a result of earthquake or explosions (including terrorist attack)." The examples he cites are curious, however. One is the Alfred P. Murray Building that was destroyed in the Oklahoma Bombing. According to Bazant, "the air blast pressure sufficed to take out only a few lower floors, whereas the upper floors failed by progressive collapse..." I believe the scientific term "duh!" is appropriate here. Anybody can understand that when the lower floors of a building are blown away, that the floors above them will crash down "progressively". The description "many buildings in Armenia, Turkey, Mexico City, and other earthquakes, etc." is unusually vague for a scientific paper. We need specifics. In most, if not all earthquakes here, the buildings involved were simple third world brick and concrete houses without any steel in them. And how can we compare earthquake failures, in which whole buildings from top to bottom are weakened, to the World Trade Center collapses? This makes no sense at all. And how about an old cathedral in Germany? Or St Mark's Campanile, a building that collapsed in Venice back in 1902? Or even worse, the Civic Tower of Pavia, with its foundations laid in 1060? Other examples cited involve partial or full collapses of concrete buildings due to simple design flaws or a lack of quality control--most of them decades ago. This includes the opening example of Bazant, the 1968 Ronan Point collapse in Great Britain, "where a kitchen gas explosion on the 18th floor sent a 25-story stack of rooms to the ground." That sounds impressive, but notice "stack of rooms" - not the whole building. The collapse involved just one corner of a poorly-constructed concrete building. Literally none of the examples cited can be compared to the World Trade Center. It's exactly like NIST lead investigator Shyam Sunder explained in relation to World Trade Center 7: "We really have a new kind of progressive collapse that we have discovered here, which is a fire-induced progressive collapse. In fact, we have shown for the first time that fire can induce a progressive collapse." I guess it depends on what one calls "progressive" - maybe a 7-13 second demolition can be interpreted as "progressive".

In the same paper, by the way, Bazant acknowledges that "although the structural damage inflicted [to the WTC towers] by aircraft was severe, it was only local." So much for the theory that the impacts destabilized the towers from top to bottom, as internet skeptics love to speculate these days.

Although it's strange all by itself that NIST has refused to explain the complete collapse and instead relies on a purely theoretical and simplified energetic model, I remember being particularly mystified about this section of the paper: "[The heating] led to buckling of columns. As a result, the upper part of the tower fell, with little resistance, through at least one floor height, impacting the lower part of the tower. This triggered progressive collapse..." Only at that point do Bazant's calculations begin. Isn't he forgetting a step here? How did the buckling of columns lead to the top suddenly becoming airborne? What's the "energetic model" for that? Apart from explosives, what other explanation is there? Maybe Bazant should do some calculations on that. Turns out that I wasn't the only one who noticed an anomaly here. Szamboti:

"This report does not provide a technical analysis of the structural behavior of the building during the collapse itself. They stop their analysis where they say: "The south wall [of the North Tower] buckled." And then they depend on a civil engineering professor from Northwestern University, a doctor Zdenek Bazant, who did an analysis where he claims that progressive collapse could have collapsed the building. But he starts his analysis after a one-story fall. So here we have a gap [after] this alleged south wall buckling. ... What isn't explained is the propagation across the rest of the building before it falls one story. Nobody explains that. That's completely left open in the NIST report. They have not explained it. And it's important to know that. ...

"That [relatively light] load above [the impact floors] had no chance to collapse the lower portion of the building. Unless, and this is a big if, if there was an impact with a deceleration. ... What has to happen though, the impacting object has to decelerate, and when it decelerates it looses velocity. The drop of the upper section of the North Tower, or World Trade Center 1, has been measured by a large number of people now. There is no deceleration. Doctor Bazant never measured that. He just assumed there was a deceleration and what he considers a very large jolt. "A very powerful jolt," is the way he termed it. ...

"Demolitions done in France, which we choose to call the Vernaut's technique, where they take out a couple floors worth of columns with hydraulics. They take the columns out and they let the building deprecate, drop two full floors, somewhere around 25 feet. It's a significant drop of a large mass. And you can measure it. And when it impacts the lower section, there's a very definitive, observable, jolt, deceleration, and velocity loss. And you can see it in the graph. And it is not there in case of the North Tower." 47

If there's one thing easy to see with the collapses of both towers is that there simply is no resistance whatsoever as the top portion sinks through the rest of the building. There's no need to even try to measure for any deceleration. It simply isn't there. In case of the South Tower one can see the building tilt over by a degree or two when there is still some resistance, but immediately after that all resistance disappears and the top portion sinks through the lower floors while being tilted roughly 8 degrees at that point. It's the same with the North Tower. At least 7 floors are crushed before the remaining 9 begin crushing the entire lower part of the building. That's something that really needs to be explained. For NIST to have simply skipped that aspect of the investigation is highly suspicious, even more so because the model is incomplete with the type of "progressive collapse" described not having a true historical equivalent apart from the World Trade Center collapses. And we're not even talking yet about the manipulative arguments of Bazant to justify his model.

This section has been turned into a separate article. A summary of NIST's failures is included in the next section.

Because of the molten steel, the original version of this article simply took it for granted that there were unexplained questions surrounding the collapses of the World Trade Center towers. Therefore it was solely focused on organizing the evidence for explosives and thermate inside the buildings. However, with this update it is nice to have much more insight in the flaws of the NIST report.

Primarily for WTC 1 and 2, NIST:

As for WTC 7, NIST:

More questions can be asked. Why did NIST, as well as the 9/11 Commission, ignore:

In the following sections of this article we'll dig deeper into these questions. We'll wrap this section up with a few words of wisdom of the earlier-quoted University of Maryland professor James Quintiere, who carried out the "rival" World Trade Center collapse investigation and only considers the official collapse-by-fire story. Quintiere:

"I do not believe that NIST has presented a convincing argument for their collapse hypothesis for WTC 1 and 2. NIST had repeatedly stated that they would list all likely collapse scenarios in terms of their probabilities... That seems to have been abandoned in the final report. ... I have not seen sufficient evidence to indicate that the [fire] insulation was removed...

"As the steel was expeditiously sold to Asia, before the fire floor steel could be identified from its markings and saved, was a significant blunder in the investigation. ... The rationale for the speedy elimination of the steel in this incident, NIST fails to document. Spoliation of fire scene evidence can border on a crime. ...

"The [NIST] report represents more of a scientific analysis rather than an investigation to find all of the relevant facts. NIST held no hearings to ascertain testimony, used no subpoenas, and enlisted no investigative team to gather information. ...   Reports from the PA or others involved were taken as fact without corroboration. ... NIST has operated in near secrecy, has had a low public profile, and has gathered facts as in a library search. Although they have held public forums, these have been very controlled, under publicized, and dominated by NIST. They have not appeared to aggressively, or with corroboration in mind, pursued evidence. The [Department of] Commerce lawyers could have helped here. With the amount of funding that they received they could have conducted a full-scale test of a floor. They could have given more support to their purely mathematically modeling results. ...

"The NIST report is difficult to read due to its length and tedious style. It does not clearly show cause and effect. ... This 10,000-page report will only serve as a smoke screen unless it is fully documented for easy reference. NIST has never acknowledged or answered comments in the past, so it is doubtful that these comments will have any impact. I urge them to be more responsive." 48

Can there be any doubt at this point that a new investigation needs to be started?

One of the best videos on the collapse sound (use headphones): a brief rumble, followed by a thunderous boom, and only then the tower begins to collapse. Even the reporter himself calls it a "huge explosion". From a distant past I do have my fair share of experience with high explosives, including shaped charges and thermite. When a couple years later the buildings collapsed in the way they did, I had a hard time believing there weren't any explosives inside. Then again, I also couldn't believe that terrorists would have had the ability to carry out such a demolition. Puzzled, for years I left it at that.

Time to get back to what this article was originally about: evidence of explosives and thermite/thermate having been used at the World Trade Center. Back in 2005, after reading so many live statements that huge explosions could be heard initiating the collapses of the towers, one of things I set out to do was to get some audio/video confirmation of these sounds. It took a long time to find a proper video, but after watching and listening to it I almost fell off my chair. There actually appear to have been a very loud explosions right when the towers began to come down. The reader can find a screenshot of such a video on the right, together with a brief audio clip. A more detailed discussion and several additional videos will be discussed later on in this article.

Unfortunately, after so much digging it has become obvious that microphones used by the media are primarily geared towards doing interviews, thereby often muffling the sound of background explosions to a considerable degree. These explosions can still be heard, but witnesses statements remain a very important aspect of the evidence here. Luckily, there are many such witnesses. On top of that, dozens of surviving firefighters were absolutely convinced that numerous bombs were going off at the World Trade Center site that morning. In a later stage these same firemen clearly expressed bewilderment about the extreme heat below the World Trade Center rubble, with below-surface temperatures of 1,500 to 2,000°F (800 to 1,100°C) not being controversial at all. One fire chief at Ground Zero even told a reporter: "At one point I think they were about 2,800 degrees" (1,540°C), temperatures that have actually been measured by employees of Bechtel. 49 These temperatures are just above the melting point of steel. Seeing the evidence of steel beams literally having been fused together by the heat in some locations, there's absolutely no doubt that temperatures were this high immediately post-collapse. Temperatures like these also mean that the numerous accounts of "molten steel" were accurate and not accidentally being confused with aluminum or some other metal..

Upper left: fused steel and concrete block. Upper right and lower left: typical pictures showing the extreme heat underneath the WTC pile of rubble. Lower right: a September 16 overflight of a NASA plane showing hot spots up to 800 degrees Fahrenheit (426 degrees Celsius) at the WTC towers and - not visible here - also at WTC 7. However, these were simply surface temperatures, or close to it, as another overflight on September 23 showed the pile had cooled down, in complete contrast to the accounts of firemen working there, who were still pulling out red hot steel beams over a month after the attack.

Looking at the faces of some of the firemen when they are talking about explosions or the intense heat, one has to wonder what they are thinking in private. Many seem to have stopped just short of saying that something very fishy happened that day. But who can really blame them for not speaking out in more detail? I've been studying 9/11 for years and I still have to fight my own programming that these conspiracy theories are nonsense and a waste of time. In fact, look at the Zapruder film of the Kennedy case: here we have very conclusive evidence that not just the magic bullet theory is complete and utter nonsense, but also all other prominent scenarios put forward. We can see Kennedy and Connally getting hit 0.3 seconds from each other. On top of the fact that these shots appear to come from opposite directions, the time span in between proves that two shooters had to be present. It's right there: indisputable proof. Yet, nothing changes and still part of me keeps telling myself: this is nonsense, there must be an ordinary explanation for it, leave it alone, be normal. I could probably have found undetonated demolition charges in the 9/11 rubble and still doubt my own observations. So if I'm thinking like that all these years, continually having to override the seemingly primitive aspects of my mind (certainly not the evolved, rational part), how can I blame firefighters and others present at 9/11 of not wanting to indulge in conspiracy theories? And there are so  many other reasons:  it's not considered good manners or a career enhancer to oppose the opinions of immediate superiors, the authorities or the media. And in the early stages of a tragic event like 9/11 the focus is not on figuring out what happened, but on helping the victims. By the time anyone gets around to making specific claims, the media is not paying attention anymore. And, of course, by then everyone has also begun to doubt his or her own observations.

Apart from Apart from disinformation, this process of people beginning to doubt themselves is also the reason why I am primarily interested in live testimony or that which has been given briefly after the event. Hopefully there will come a day that the witnesses simply put up a few Youtube clips with their own unfiltered opinions of what they observed or think they observed that day. However, even without that we already have a lot. Even the New York Times captured many highly interesting statements, which were never put in articles, but are nonetheless available in PDF form on their website through Google.

The numbers below are completely based on the testimonies and visual descriptions that have been posted in full further down in this article. I have been very careful not to select quotes from people referring to the plane impacts. There are quite a few Youtube clips around in which witnesses talk about hearing explosions. But then, upon careful analysis, it turns out to be a reference to one of the plane impacts. So, not to worry about that - these have been filtered out. I also went back to the original source in almost every case and tried to provide as much context as possible, limiting the possibility that things have been invented or taken out of context. If the source has the affix "(Youtube)" it simply means that I personally have seen this video clip. In time I'll try to relocate a lot of these clips again and upload them to the Youtube channel created for this page.

Personally I hope that someone will locate all the Youtube clips mentioned here, as well as all the fully-sourced quotes, and put them together in one long video. Right now everything is still very much scattered around and mixed in with nonsense and trivial stuff. So, without further ado, here is the summary of witness statements contained in this article:

"Silverstone" and "Giuliano": Danny Jowenko, owner of Jowenko Explosive Demolition, demonstrating his lack of 9/11 "Truth" background. Jowenko made no bones about it that he was "absolutely sure" that WTC 7 was demolished with explosives - which is basically the only thing that makes sense. Going over the floor plan he said it would be quite easy to do the same day if necessary and that it may have been the preferred choice by building owner Larry Silverstein (as well as the Blackstone Group) as the costs to replace the steel beams would be enormous (mandatory when the steel has been exposed to any kind of fire). I conversed with Jowenko back in 2004 on Silverstein's "pull it" comment, before anyone had heard of him, but apparently he had not made the link to WTC 7. Early in 2011 I asked him to take a look at these witness testimonies and videos in regard to WTC 1 and 2. He didn't reply this time, which is not too strange considering the circus that grew around him. I was planning on visiting him in person after putting out this article - after all, he lives close-by. Unfortunately he died in a single-car no-witness traffic accident in July 2011. Can't be sure, of course, but if I were a demolition expert or witness to events at WTC 7, I would become very careful about speaking out in public. It definitely would not be comfortable.

As one can see, the evidence for controlled demolition of the Twin Towers based on witness testimony alone is not at all meager. In contrast, it is quite strong. WTC 7 requires a different approach. What is really bizarre is that almost no witness reports have come out about this event, but the few that have definitely indicate controlled demolition. Demolition expert Danny Jowenko, who had no clue about WTC 7 having come down the same day as the Twin Towers, explained that there's absolutely no question that the building was brought down with explosives. He even indicated that it was quite easy to do once given a floor plan of the building. But more than his usual "there's not much I can say about that" we wouldn't have had from him anyway.

Organizing the witness testimonies in a table like the above one is not an exact science. Sometimes it's possible to interpret statements in various ways. In some cases I've counted bystanders who were nodding along with the person speaking, or only made very brief statements in support of the primary witness. In other cases I found a statement important enough to list below, but didn't put it in the table. An example: Christopher Bollyn of American Free Press may have added a fourth witness to the flashes, but without a name of this witness I do not think the account is reliable enough to be counted. Actually, if I'm very strict (which most of the time I have been) there are only two witnesses to the flashes, but one of them also spoke about his colleague's similar observations. Personally I assumed the man, a firefighter, was speaking the truth and counted his colleague as a separate witness. You may not agree, so therefore, again: it's not an exact science - but nevertheless a good reflection of witness reports from that day.

***

1. September 11, 2001, NBC News Transcripts, 'Attack on America, 11:00 AM' (also on Youtube): "Chief Albert Turi told me that he was here just literally 10 or 15 minutes after the events that took place this morning. That is, the first crash. ... The chief of safe--the Chief of Safety of the Fire Department of New York City told me that at--shortly after 9:00 he had roughly 10 alarms, roughly 200 men, in the building trying to effect rescues of some of those civilians who were in there. And that, basically, he received word of a possibility of a secondary device--that is another bomb going off. He tried to get his men out as quickly as he could, but he said that there was another explosion which took place. And then, an hour after the first hit here, the first crash that took place, he said there was another explosion that took place in one of the towers here. So, obviously he--according to his theory, he thinks that there were actually devices that were planted in the building. One of the secondary devices, he thinks, that took place after the initial impact, was, he thinks, may have been on the plane that crashed into one of the towers. The second device, he thinks, he speculates, was probably planted in the building. So, that's what we have been told by Albert Turi who is the chief of safety for the New York City Fire Department. He told me that just moments ago. Now we are continuing to hear explosions. We are continuing to hear explosions here downtown. And what we've been told by some of the fire officials is that there are some gas lines that occasionally are exploding down there..." (Turi retired in 2002, along with many other supervisors and ordinary firemen in a "mass exodus".) August 7, 2002, New York Times, 'City's Fire Dept. Facing an Exodus of its Supervisors': "Scores of New York City's Fire Department supervisors, including some of its most senior surviving commanders, have retired since Sept. 11, and hundreds more have notified their union that they expect to leave in the next year. At the same time, the department's front-line firefighters are retiring at more than double the usual rate, according to fire officials. ... Also retiring is Albert Turi Jr., who was the department's chief of safety... And of late, the rate of departure has accelerated even more, with some 40 firefighters retiring every week on average. A year ago, 40 firefighters might have retired in a typical month.
   October 23, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110142 (pdf on the site), interview with FDNY deputy assistant chief Albert Turi: "The next thing I heard was Pete say what the fuck is this? And as my eyes traveled up the building, and I was looking at the South Tower, somewhere about halfway up, my initial reaction was there was a secondary explosion, and the entire floor area, a ring right around the building blew out. I later realized that the building had started to collapse already and this was the air being compressed and that is the floor that let go." This example is illustrative of how people present that day later on rationalized their original opinions away. Even I, after many years of study, keep reverting back to ''This can't be. It's impossible and nobody is that crazy.'' Then I look at the evidence again and there's really no other conclusion left besides that something was in one or more buildings that didn't belong there, apart from the airplanes that is. Now imagine being pressured by the media, politicians, bosses, and colleagues to stop being a ''conspiracy theorist'', with only a corrupt 9/11 Truth movement at your side. 90 percent or more of people are going to give in to the official story sooner or later, at least publicly. In any case, in this article we focus on people's original statements and opinions. And the fact is, even on that very day I thought it was crazy to speculate about explosives, knowing that it's totally impossible for terrorists to bring those in the building above the basement level.
2. Tyrone Johnson, one of three firemen catching a brake on 9/11, interviewed by a film crew and bystanders (Youtube) (FOIA release in December 2010, after a lawsuit): "[Fireman 1, a black man:] Yes it was. Definitely a secondary explosion. We were inside waiting to go upstairs and on our way upstairs the whole fuckin' place blew. It just collapsed on everybody inside the lobby. I don't know about the first one [tower coming down from a secondary explosion]. But the second one, it was terrible. And there was a third one after that one too. ... It was like three explosions after that [after the plane crash]. We came in after the fire was going on already. We were in the staging area inside the building, waiting to go upstairs. ... It can't be more worse than this. You're in the building, trying to help people, and it's exploding on you inside the building."
3. Jimmy Grillo, one of three firemen catching a brake on 9/11, interviewed by a film crew and bystanders (Youtube) (FOIA release in December 2010, after a lawsuit): "People don't understand. There may be more [bombs]. Anyone of these fucking buildings can blow up. This ain't done yet. ... We were in the lobby gathering to go up to start doing a search on the upper floors. As we were getting our gear on and making our way to the stairway, there was a heavy duty explosion and everybody just started running for the door. Everybody was trapped. Eventually when the dust lifted, I saw some light and started screaming for everybody to go out towards the light managed to get Tyrone out and a couple other guys..."
4. Firefighter talking to Jimmy Grillo, who wants to start helping his trapped buddies again (Youtube) (FOIA release in December 2010): "Jimmy, don't go too close, Jimmy. They're still blowing up, Jimmy."
5. Father John Delendick, New York Times interview archive, file no. 9110230, December 6, 2001: "I spoke to [Chief] Ganci briefly, told him I was there. I saw Bill Feehan, said hello to him. ... We heard a rumbling noise, and it appeared that that first tower, the South Tower, had exploded, the top of it. That's what I saw, what a lot of us saw. ... I remember asking Ray Downey [no. 1 building collapse expert of the NYFD] was it the jet fuel that blew up. He said at that point he thought there were bombs up there because it was too even. As we've since learned, it was the jet fuel that was dropping down that caused all this. But he said it was too even. So his original thought was that he thought it was a bomb up there as well. ... I'm not sure where Ray Downey went. I understand Pete Ganci found a stairwell, went up a stairwell and went back to the lobby, back to the command post where we were. ... We didn't know the building came down. We just knew the top of the building exploded and didn't know what happened to the rest of the building. ... When we got to the corner of West and Vesey, we heard that kind of same rumbling noise. ... [Later] I ran into a bunch of guys from the Secret Service, about 25 or 30 of them, all in their suits. I don't know the name of the street that's behind the World Financial Center. It must be North Avenue. They were walking along North, crossing Vesey, and they were going down further. ... [One of the agents] said one of our members is in the building and we have to go find him. ... [Chief] Nigro came a little while later. Apparently he had walked around I think he said South Street. He was down the other way, walked around somehow and found his way back to Chambers Street. Things began to clear. We were looking, and we realized both buildings were no longer there. ... I learned Father Judge was dead, and I began to learn that so many guys were gone."
6. Fireman filmed in the WTC complex (Youtube): "There's a bomb in the building. Start clearing out."
7. New York Fire Department official on the radio (Youtube): "I got an eyewitness who said there was an explosion on floors 7 and 8, 7, 8."
8. New York Fire Department Official on the radio (Youtube): "And we've got another explosion on the tower, 10-13, 10-13."
9. Fireman on the radio (Youtube): "Tower 2, I've just had a major explosion and what appears to be a complete collapse surrounding the entire area."
10. Dusty fireman interviewed on 9/11 (Youtube): "We never even really got that close to the building. An explosion blew and knocked everybody over."
11. September 12, 2001, People.com, 'United in Courage': "Louie Cacchioli, 51, is a firefighter assigned to Engine 47 in Harlem: We were the first ones in the second tower after the plane struck. [Note: He means the first tower: WTC 1 / North Tower.] I was taking firefighters up in the elevator to the 24th floor to get in position to evacuate workers. On the last trip up a bomb went off. [Note: His account deviates from all others, which has been exploited by 9/11 ''Truth''.] We think there was bombs set in the building. I had just asked another firefighter to stay with me, which was a good thing because we were trapped inside the elevator and he had the tools to get out."
12. September 11, 2002, The Province Journal, 'The miracle of Ladder 6 and Josephine', quote of Sal D'Agostino, one of a handful of firefighters who survived the North Tower collapse between floors 2 and 4 inside stairwell B: "It's pancaking from the top down, and there were these huge explosions — I mean huge, gigantic explosions."
13. September 11, 2002, The Province Journal, 'The miracle of Ladder 6 and Josephine', quote of Bill Butler, one of a handful of firefighters who survived the North Tower collapse between floors 2 and 4 inside stairwell B: "It was like a train going two inches away from your head: bang-bang, bang-bang, bang-bang."
14. 2002, Susan Hagen and Mary Carouba, 'Women at Ground Zero: Stories of Courage and Compassion', pp. 65-66, 68 (account of army veteran and police officer Sue Keane): "[It] 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. ... [There was] another explosion [around the time the North Tower came down]. 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.""
15. December 10, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110308 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter George Kozlowski: "We heard like a lot of trembling and everything, so we better get out of here. This doesn't look good. There is no more people coming [out of the north tower], so we started walking the same way the chief went and he was at the other end. He said the same thing. He said we better get our asses out of here. This doesn't look good at all. As we were walking we heard [what] we thought was another plane coming. It was like a big shhhhh! A thousand times louder than that. It sounded like a missile coming and we just started booking. We took off like bats out of hell. We made it around the corner and that's when the shit hit the fan, right then and there. We heard that loud [sound] and then ba-boom! Just, it was like an earthquake or whatever. A giant, giant explosion."
16. A group of Engine 7 firemen in the documentary '911 – the filmmakers': Fireman one: "We made it at least two blocks and we started running. Floor by floor it started popping out." Fireman two, Captain Dennis Tardio: (makes sound and hand gestures to show how the floors popped out) "It is if they had detonators..." Fireman one: "Yeah! detonators..." Fireman two: "It is if they had planned to take down the building: boom, boom, boom, boom!" Fireman one: "Yeah, detonators, all the way down. I was watching it and running."
17. Man in a New York Fire Department uniform states (Youtube): "... [We got?] so many people out, but then there were secondary explosions, and then the subsequent collapses." (talks very fast and the first part is somewhat hard to hear)
18. 2002, Dennis Smith (Firehouse Magazine founding editor ), 'Report from Ground Zero: The Story of the Rescue Efforts at the World Trade Center', p. 18 (report of firefighter Dennis Tardio): "I hear an explosion and I look up. It is as if the building is being imploded, from the top floor down, one after another, boom, boom, boom."
19. 2002, Cathy Trost and Alicia C. Shepard, foreword by Tom Brokaw, 'Running Toward Danger - Stories Behind the Breaking News of 9/11', p. 87: "John Bussey | Foreign Editor, The Wall Street Journal: ... I heard this metallic roar, looked up and saw what I thought was a very peculiar sight 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. In fact, the building was imploding down. I saw the explosions, and I thought, "This is not a good place to be, because we're too close to the building, and it's too easy for the building to topple over." So I went under the desk in the office where I sought shelter." (Bussey gives no indication at a later point that he has came to a different conclusion)
20. 2002, Chris Bull and Sam Erman, 'At Ground Zero: 25 Stories From Young Reporters Who Were There', p. 184: Beth Fertig, WNYC radio reporter and contributor to NPR: "The Building came down so orderly, floor by floor, that I presumed it was a controlled demolition. I hoped that it was. Maybe they all got the people out and now they're bringing the building down to prevent mass casualties."
21. 2002, Cathy Trost and Alicia C. Shepard, foreword by Tom Brokaw, 'Running Toward Danger - Stories Behind the Breaking News of 9/11', p. 203: "Beth Fertig | Reporter, WNYC Radio: I found out where the mayor was. He had gone to a secret location in midtown. ... I spent the rest of the afternoon at the mayor's command center. The reporters were trying to figure out what happened. We were thinking that bombs had brought the buildings down. The mayor talked to us and said he had no evidence of bombs."
22. 2002, Dean E. Murphy, 'September 11: An Oral History', pp. 9-15 (Teresa Veliz): "Teresa Veliz was a manager for a software development firm. She was on the 47th floor of the North Tower when American 11 struck. Veliz was able to reach the ground level at about the same time that the South Tower collapsed. Flung to the ground in total darkness, Veliz and a colleague followed another person who happened to have a flashlight. As she narrated later: "The flashlight led us into Borders bookstore, up an escalator, and out to Church Street. The explosions were going off everywhere. I was convinced that there were bombs planted all over the place and someone was sitting at a control panel pushing detonator buttons. I was afraid to go down Church Street towards Broadway, but I had to do it. I ended up on Vesey Street. There was another explosion. And another. I didn't know which way to run."
23. Engine 7 fireman in the documentary '911 – the filmmakers': "I went around by the freight elevator and I could see it was just blown. 30th floor. We hear another [...] explosion. And at that time we heard a huge explosion." Reading back this statement, this person might be describing the South Tower collapse. But in any case, he's talking about an explosion sound.
24. May 26, 2002, New York Times, 'Accounts From the South Tower': "Edmund McNally, victim. Fiduciary Trust. ... He spoke with his wife Liz after the plane struck the north tower. He then called back twice after his own building had been struck. ... [His wife:] At that point, I said, ''Ed, you're getting out of there.'' I said the firemen are coming up to get you. I said you are a problem solver. You're going to get out of there. That's when he said to me, ''Liz, this was a terrorist attack. I can hear explosions below me.'' [possibly describing falling elevators] He said stuff about the data center. That's why I think he was on the 97th floor, because the data center was on the 97th floor. Then he said the floor was buckled. And he said it was getting really hot and hard to breath."
25. May 26, 2002, New York Times, '102 Minutes: Last Words at the Trade Center': "Sean Rooney called Beverly Eckert. They had met at a high school dance in Buffalo, when they were both 16. They had just turned 50 together. He had tried to go down but was stymied, then had climbed 30 floors or so to the locked roof [a rescue helicopter with a 250 feet / 75 meter hoist rope was hovering above the building]. Now he wanted to plot a way out, so he had his wife describe the fire's location from the TV pictures. He could not fathom why the roof was locked, she said. She urged him to try again while she dialed 911 on another line. He put the phone down, then returned minutes later, saying the roof door would not budge. He had pounded on it. ''He was worried about the flames,'' Ms. Eckert recalled. ''I kept telling him they weren't anywhere near him. He said, but the windows were hot. His breathing was becoming more labored.'' Ceilings were caving in. Floors were buckling. Phone calls were being cut off. He was alone in a room filling with smoke. They said goodbye. ''He was telling me he loved me. ''Then you could hear the loud explosion.''"
26. Fox Channel 5 News, live on 9/11. Smoke is emerging from the base of the South Tower (which has collapsed, unknown to the reporters): "[Narrator 1:] We just heard that there was another explosion in the basement on one of the lower levels of the World Trade Center. [Narrator 2:] It would seem from that picture there that you are right, Dave. ... It certainly looks like an awful lot of smoke. ... Now there seems to be coming a lot of smoke from the lower portion of the World Trade Center. And we had a report indicating that there was an explosion on the lower floors now."
27. Female witness, live on 9/11, on an unidentified channel (Youtube): "[Anchor:] Tell me what you saw. [Witness:] We were on the corner of Duane and West Broadway, walking down towards the Twin Towers, when it just collapsed. It looks sort of like the building was demolished. Smoke, clouds of smoke, everywhere."
28. September 11, 2001, CNN, 'America under attack', live transcript (and Youtube): "Our reporters in the area say they heard loud noises when that happened. It is unclear to them and to us whether those were explosions going on in the building or if that was simply the sound of the collapse..."
29. Mat Meagher, reporter live on 9/11 (Youtube): "A big explosion has just occurred. Everyone is running from the financial district now. Smoke is filling the entire area. Let's go! Stop shooting! Go!"
30. NBC Live coverage when the South Tower collapses - which the reporter can't see (Youtube): "We are not exactly sure what happened, but there was an explosion on the far side of one of the buildings from where we are standing. The reverberation! And another explosion on the right hand side!"
31. Fox News, WCBS, Live during the first collapse (Youtube): "Suddenly, while talking to an officer, who was questioning me about my press credentials, we heard a very loud blast-explosion. We looked up and the building literally began to collapse before us. ... People in the entire perimeter, including myself, literally began to run for our lives. ... Not clear now is why this explosion took place. Was it because of the planes' dual attack this morning, or was there some other attack of which there has been talk of on the street."
32. CBS 2, Live broadcast on 9/11 (Youtube): "CNN is now reporting that there was a third explosion at the World Trade Center. Probably an explosion from the ground that caused World Trade Center 1 [she meant 2] to collapse on top of itself. Again, there was a third explosion. It is unclear what caused it. Whether it was a bomb, or whether the first [she means second] plane that crashed into the tower had been booby-trapped with a bomb that was timed to explode later after the crash had occurred."
33. Narrator on CNBC live on 9/11 (Youtube): "This was clearly... The way the structure was collapsing... This was the result of something that was planned. It's not accidental that the first tower just happened to collapse and that the second tower just happened to collapse in just the same way. How they accomplished this, we don't know."
34. September 11, 2001, ABC News live coverage (Youtube): "[Reporter Don Dahler:] The second building that was hit by the plane has just completely collapsed. The entire building has just collapsed, as if a demolition team set it off, when you see the old demolitions of these old buildings, it folded down on itself, and it is not there any more. ... [Anchor Peter Jennings:] The southern tower ... just collapsing on itself. ... We have no idea what caused this. Anybody who has ever watched a building being demolished on purpose knows that if you are going to do it on purpose you have to get at the under-infrastructure of a building and bring it down." ... "[Don Dahler:] Peter, eh, what appeared to happen from my vantage point, the top part of the building was totally involved in fire. There appeared to be no effort possible to put that fire out. It looked like the top part of that building was so weakened by the fire that the weight of it collapsed the rest of the building. That's what appeared to happen. I did not see anything happening at the base of the building. It all appeared to start at the top and then just collapsed the building by the sheer weight of the top. There was no explosion at the base part of it. But I did see that the top part of it started to collapse. The walls started to bulge out."
35. CNN anchor about the collapses that took place some time earlier: "It almost looks like one of those planned implosions, but of course there was nothing planned and it was not an implosion as you see."
36. September 11, 2001, Press Association, 'Other blasts may have toppled towers': "Simon Reeve, author of The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef: Osama Bin Laden and The Future of Terrorism, said: "It is the worst terrorist attack in living history with an astonishing level of planning involved and co-ordination. "It will have involved months and probably years of planning. The terrorists could have been living in America for some time. "I cannot see how the World Trade Centre could have collapsed just on impact from the aircraft. "I suspect that there must have been ground level explosions in the buildings possibly involving enormous amounts of explosives or another type of device." Mr Reeve speculated that the terrorist attacks were the work of Osama Bin Laden and his supporters. He said: "There is no doubt that America will look for the culprits and use force against them. If it is the work of Osama Bin Laden it is very likely that America will use overwhelming force against Afghanistan and Laden's supporters.""
37. September 11, 2001, Albuquerque Journal, 'Explosives Planted In Towers, N.M. Tech Expert Says': "Televised images of the attacks on the World Trade Center suggest that explosives devices caused the collapse of both towers, a New Mexico Tech explosion expert said Tuesday. The collapse of the buildings appears "too methodical" to be a chance result of airplanes colliding with the structures, said Van Romero, vice president for research at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. "My opinion is, based on the videotapes, that after the airplanes hit the World Trade Center there were some explosive devices inside the buildings that caused the towers to collapse," Romero said. Romero is a former director of the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center at Tech, which studies explosive materials and the effects of explosions on buildings, aircraft and other structures."
38. Immediately after the South Tower collapse, person videotaping the WTC from several miles away or a person standing next to him (Youtube): "I'm not going any closer. They had it wired for explosives obviously. Obviously there was a truck in there with explosives."
39. Ron Saladino, a WTC7 employee who moved out of the building soon after the first impact, interviewed live on CNN on 9/11 (Youtube): "I turned and looked around and the southern World Trade Center began to just buckle. About 50 consecutive bangs and it fell down like a waterfall." (The reporter ignored this statement)
40. Woman interviewed by the Reuters (aired by the BBC) live on 9/11 (Youtube): "Not much is being said about the people on the ground, but that was one hell of an explosion when the building collapsed. It appeared to collapse..."
41. Witness live on the MSNBC News on 9/11 (Youtube): "I heard an explosion. At that point I got knocked out. I don't remember anything. Then I got up. And I remember walking out. And it was just total darkness in the corridors. I was in a dentist's office, because there were dentist's chairs and tools. I looked out the windows 'cause the windows had exploded and the street below caved in. The whole street caved in. You could see below the street. And at that point there were like fireballs coming up. And I said, "alright, I'm not gonna make it." I went back into the room I was in, shut the doors, put towels on the bottom of each door."
42. 2002, Cathy Trost and Alicia C. Shepard, foreword by Tom Brokaw, 'Running Toward Danger - Stories Behind the Breaking News of 9/11', p. 239: "Carol Marin | Contributor, CBS news editor: ... I remember seeing this giant ball of fire come out of the earth as I heard this roar..." (She was very close to the North Tower when it collapsed. Hearing her full testimony it is not clear if the "fireball" was the dust cloud hitting the ground and growing from there or if it was a true fireball coming up from the ground. In various statements she did say that she heard the tower "blow" or "explode".)
43. Anne Thompson for NBC, live on 9/11 (Youtube): "As soon as I got outside I heard a second explosion and another rumble. ... The chandeliers shook. Again black smoke filled the air. Within five minutes we were covered again with more soot and more dust. And then a fire marshal came and said we had to leave, because if there was a third explosion this building might not last."
44. Unknown witness who was going down the stairwell of WTC 1 when WTC 2 collapsed (video not available anymore): "...and all of a sudden this huge cloud of dark gray smoke comes shooting up the stairway ... and it was hot - very, very hot."
45. Brad Waite, cameraman interviewed on 9/11, FOIA (Youtube): "First we heard the explosions. Started shooting in the Twin Towers. We could see tons of debris coming down. And then it sounded like another explosion to the right of that which I believe was the front, which was once the Marriott, just totally gone.
46. A black woman, covered in soot, interviewed by ABC (Youtube): "We saw a shadow which looked like a plane. Next thing we know it's boom, boom and the floors started shaking. And then we saw debris fall down. And the next thing we know we had to get out of the building. We stuck on the stairs for a while. We finally got down to the lobby [from 82th floor of WTC1]. And then there was this big explosion. I don't know what it was. Just a cloud like what you just saw. ... That's what we went through before we came out of the building. Then when we get out of the building then another smoke cloud came."
47. Witness 1 from a Youtube video (a considerable time after 9/11, so maybe not the most reliable): "The thing that got me suspicious was when I saw the replay of everything the next week and the weeks after, they took the explosions out. That's when I knew something was up. And the detonations that took both buildings down were exactly identical. First it started off with about - I'm just guessing - six or seven seconds of this very low frequency rumble. Then the detonations started. And they went boom! Boom! Boom! A little less than a second apart. ... It was the exact, exact same series of detonations [with the second collapse] ... I could tell you that the air pressure changed. It was like being in a submarine 300 feet below the surface." Not counted.
48. Witness 2 from a Youtube video (a considerable time after 9/11): "As the first tower came down there were a series of explosions. It was like boom! Boom! You could hear the echos of the explosions echoing off the different buildings."
49. Witness interviewed live on 9/11 (Youtube): "Then somebody said that they saw an airliner go into one of the towers. Then, I don't know, an hour later than that, we had that big explosion from much, much lower [appears mystified]. I still don't know what on earth caused that."
50. Reporter for CNN live on 9/11: "We've heard reports of secondary explosions after the aircraft impacted, whether or not there was something else at the base of the towers, that in fact were the coup de grace to bring them to the ground."
51. Witness to CNN live on 9/11 (Youtube): "It just went baboom, just like a bomb went off. ... We were finally getting to the bottom, we were coming out ... and another explosion. It sent everyone flying."
52. Witness on a hospital bed in a clip that reads 'America Responds', filmed on 9/11 (Youtube): "And all of a sudden it sounded like gunfire -- you know, bang bang bang bang bang -- then all of a sudden three big explosions."
53. Witness on an unknown TV show (Youtube): "I was about five blocks away when I heard explosions -- three thuds -- and turned around to see the building we just got out of tend to tip over and fold in on itself."
54. 9/11 cop on ABC (Youtube): "There were numerous secondary explosions taking place in that building [Twin Towers]. There were continuous explosions."
55. September 11, 2001, New York Times, 'Thousands Feared Dead as World Trade Center Is Toppled', p. 3 of 4: "Closer to the World Trade Center, Ross Milanytch described seeing "small explosions on each floor."" Also see next article.
56. September 12, 2001, New York Times, ''U.S. Attacked': "Police officers warned people in the vicinity to move north, that the buildings could fall, but most people found that unthinkable. They stayed put or gravitated closer. Abruptly, there was an ear-splitting noise. The South Tower shook, seemed to list in one direction and them began to come down, imploding upon itself. It looked like a demolition," said Andy Pollock. It started exploding," said Ross Milanytch, 57, who works at nearby Chase Manhattan Bank. "It was about the 70th floor. And each second another floor exploded out for about eight floors, before the cloud obscured it all." ... People started walking briskly north until the premonition became real — another horrifying eruption, as one floor after another seemed to detonate. ... Ross Milanytch: 'The dust was about an inch and a half thick on the ground.'" (http://www.asne.org/index.cfm?ID=3423)
57. September 11, 2001, BBC, 'Eyewitnesses tell of horror': "There was smoke everywhere. I heard the bomb and saw both buildings crumble like biscuits," Ms Keller said."
58. November 17, 2005, Christopher Bollyn of American Free Press (granted, not the most reliable source; then again, flashes have been reported by a few other witnesses and undoubtedly is a very sensitive subject), 'Scientist Supports 9-11 Demolition Theory': "This is consistent with an eyewitness account given to me shortly after 9-11. The eyewitness was standing on Church Street looking at the South Tower when he observed "a number of brief light sources being emitted from inside the building between floors 10 and 15." The emissions of light were accompanied by "a crackling sound," and occurred immediately before the tower collapsed, the witness said."
59. 9/11 rescue worker Frank Silecchia, who discovered the WTC cross, eventually permanently installed at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum on July 23, 2011, during which point Silecchia was photographed standing next to former mayor Rudolph Giuliani (to We Are Truth members, as captured in a November 10, 2009 Youtube clip entitled 'WTC Cross Finder Calls for 9_11 Truth): "Ten months [I worked at Ground Zero]. ... To this you see, at the beginning of their shift, a fireman or a cop passing this cross, stop, say a prayer, and then go on their business. .. See the shirt he wears? See the shirt he wears? [Investigate 9/11] I believe it [was a conspiracy]. ... There's no reason why they cannot explain so many flashes alongside the building when it was coming down. [Building] 7 took too long to come down. That was full of technology that could be seen by human eyes [?!], so that had to be destroyed. Otherwise they couldn't get all the insurance on it. So, they took it down. They think we're idiots." Not counted, because Silecchia's statements are somewhat incoherent (also about Flight 93) and this video was shot many years after 9/11.
60. Highly-esteemed scientist and professional James Randi-allied skeptic Neil deGrasse Tyson on the website of the Planetary Society, of which he was vice-president (put up an email dated September 12, 2001): "I hear a second explosion in WTC2, then a loud, low-frequency rumble that precipitates the unthinkable -- a collapse of all the floors above the point of explosion. ... I hear another explosion followed by a now all-too familiar rumble that signaled the collapse of WTC1. ... I saw the iconic antenna on this building descend straight down in an implosion twinning the first." (used to be located at: www.planetary.org/html/society/advisors/sept11account.html)
61. An account of an anonymous (and very religious) person that appeared on the internet: "So they escorted us thru the exit of World Trade 2 and I had just reached the revolving door of the building that I heard a loud explosion and the whole building collapsed."
62. December 6, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110253 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter Richard Banaciski: "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."
63. January 17, 2002, New York Times, file no. 9110501 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter Thomas Turilli: "[The collapse] almost actually that day sounded like bombs going off, like boom, boom, boom, like seven or eight, and then just a huge wind gust... I looked to my left and actually I noticed the tower was down. I didn't even know that it was when we were in there. It just seemed like a huge explosion. "
64. October 10, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110035 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter Daniel Rivera: "It was a frigging noise. 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"? That's exactly what -- because I thought it was that. When I heard that frigging noise, that's when I saw the building coming down."
65. Firefighter Angel Rivera (Youtube audio): "When we hit the 19th floor something horrendous happened. It was like a bomb went off. We thought we were dead. The whole building shook. The door to the hallway into the hotel blew off like somebody threw it all over the place. We were thrown on the floor. The building was still shaking and we're still hearing explosions going on everywhere. So we decided, "let's get out of here"."
66. December 10, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110290 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter Kenneth Rogers: "Meanwhile we were standing there with about five companies and we were just waiting for our assignment and then there was an explosion in the South Tower, which, according to this map, this exposure just blew out the flames. A lot of guys left at that point. I kept watching. Floor after floor after floor. 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."
67. January 10, 2002, New York Times, file no. 9110439 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter Stephen Viola: "... that's when the South Tower collapsed, and it sounded like a bunch of explosions. You heard like loud booms, but I guess it was all just stuff coming down, and then we got covered with rubble and dust, and I thought we'd actually fallen through the floor..."
68. November 7, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110192 (pdf on the site), interview with EMS captain Karin Deshore: "Whatever this explosion [the collapse] was simply sucked all the oxygen out of the air. ... 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. I went inside and I told everybody that the other building or there was an explosion occurring up there and I said I think we have another major explosion."
69. December 10, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110285 (pdf on the site), interview with Engine 47 lieutenant William Wall: "At that time, we heard an explosion. We looked up and the building was coming down right on top of us, so we ran up West Street. ... Oh, when we came out of the building and we were walking across West Street when we first got out of the building, we're walking across the street and all you heard was like bombs going off above your head. You couldn't see it. It was just cloudy. And we found out later it was the military jets. That was an eerie sound. You couldn't see it and all you heard was like a "boom" and it just kept going. We couldn't see 50 feet above our head because of the dust. So we didn't know if it was bombs going off or whatever, but we didn't want to stay there. "
70. October 3, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110008 (pdf on the site), interview with NYFD assistant commissioner Stephen Gregory: "I know I was with an officer from Ladder 146, a Lieutenant Evangelista, who ultimately called me up a couple of days later just to find out how I was. We both for whatever reason -- again, I don't know how valid this is with everything that was going on at that particular point in time, but for some reason I thought that when I looked in the direction of the Trade Center before it came down, before No. 2 came down, that I saw low-level flashes. In my conversation with Lieutenant Evangelista, never mentioning this to him, he questioned me and asked me if I saw low-level flashes in front of the building, and I agreed with him because I thought... I saw a flash flash flash and then it looked like the building came down. ... No [the flashes were not near the fire], the lower level of the building. You know like when they demolish a building, how when they blow up a building, when it falls down? That's what I thought I saw. And I didn't broach the topic to him, but he asked me. He said I don't know if I'm crazy, but I just wanted to ask you because you were standing right next to me. He said did you see anything by the building? And I said what do you mean by see anything? He said did you see any flashes? I said, yes, well, I thought it was just me. He said no, I saw them, too... it's just strange that two people sort of say the same thing and neither one of us talked to each other about it. ... I know about the explosion on the upper floors. This was like eye level. I didn't have to go like this. Because I was looking this way. I'm not going to say it was on the first floor or the second floor, but somewhere in that area I saw to me what appeared to be flashes. I don't know how far down this was already. I mean, we had heard the noise but, you know, I don't know."
71. January 22, 2002, New York Times, file no. 9110505 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter Craig Carlsen: "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]. ... The second one coming down, you knew the explosions. Now you're very familiar with it."
72. November 9, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110205 (pdf on the site), interview with FDNY captain Michael Donovan: "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 had blown up there. The Vista International Hotel was my first impression, that they had blown it up. I never got to see the World Trade Center coming down."
73. October 9, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110017 (pdf on the site), interview with FDNY lieutenant Gregg Hansson: "Then a large explosion took place. In my estimation that was the tower coming down, but at that time I did not know what that was. I thought some type of bomb had gone off. I was, I believe, ahead of the rest of the firefighters and officers there. I made it to the corner, and I took about four running steps this way when you could feel the rush of the wind coming at you."
74. December 26, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110386 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter Timothy Julian: "We came out from 90 West, made a left, headed east, and right when we got to the corner of Washington and Albany, that's when I heard the building collapse. First I thought it was an explosion. I thought maybe there was bomb on the plane, but delayed type of thing, you know secondary device. ... You know, and I just heard like an explosion and then cracking type of noise, and then it sounded like a freight train, rumbling and picking up speed, and I remember I looked up, and I saw it coming down."
75. December 3, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110216 (pdf on the site), interview with FDNY safety command chief Art Lakiotes: "Tower one now comes down. Same thing but this time some of us take off straight down West Street, because we realized later on, subconsciously we wanted to be near buildings. We all thought it was secondary explosives or more planes or whatever."
76. December 12, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110319 (pdf on the site), interview with Ladder 22 firefighter John Malley: "We were walking into darkness. As we walked through those revolving doors [of the South Tower], that's when we felt the rumble. I felt the rumbling, and then I felt the force coming at me. I was like, what the hell is that? In my mind it was a bomb going off. The pressure got so great, I stepped back behind the columns separating the revolving doors. Then the force just blew past me. It blew past me it seemed for a long time. In my mind I was saying what the hell is this and when is it going to stop? Then it finally stopped, that pressure which I thought was a concussion of an explosion. It turns out it was the down pressure wind of the floors collapsing on top of each other. At that point everything went black, and then the collapse came. It just rained on top of us. Everything came. It rained debris forever."
77. October 16 , 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110098 (pdf on the site), interview with FDNY assistant commissioner James Drury: "We were in the process of getting some rigs moved when I turned, as I heard a tremendous roar, explosion, and saw that the first of the two towers was starting to come down. ... When the dust started to settle, I headed back down towards the World Trade Center and I guess I came close to arriving at the corner of Vesey and West again where we started to hear the second roar. That was the North Tower now coming down. I should say that people in the street and myself included thought that the roar was so loud that the explosive - bombs were going off inside the building. Obviously we were later proved wrong. ... The sight of the jumpers was horrible and the turning around and seeing that first tower come down was unbelievable. The sound it made. As I said I thought the terrorists planted explosives somewhere in the building. That's how loud it was, crackling explosive, a wall."
78. October 1, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110001 (pdf on the site), interview with FDNY deputy commissioner for administration Thomas Fitzpatrick: "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."
79. January 9, 2002, New York Times, file no. 9110434 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter Kevin Gorman: "As he was standing there, [the police officer] said, "Aviation just reported that the North Tower is leaning." I said, "Which way is it leaning?" He said,"This way." So we started to turn around walking. John Malley, who was right behind me, I turned around for him, because he was doing something, either putting his coat on or something, and as I was looking at him I heard the explosion, looked up, and saw like three floors explode, saw the antenna coming down, and turned around and ran north. ... Within 30 seconds [of hearing that the tower was leaning did I hear the explosions]."
80. October 12, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110065 (pdf on the site), interview with FDNY lieutenant Thomas Fitzpatrick: "I looked up, and the building exploded, the building that we were very close to, which was one tower. The whole top came off like a volcano. ... So now both towers have been hit by a plane. The North Tower was burning. So the explosion, what I realized later, had to be the start of the collapse. It was the way the building appeared to blowout from both sides. I'm looking at the face of it, and all we see is the two sides of the building just blowing out and coming apart like this, as I said, like the top of a volcano."
81. October 25, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110166 (pdf on the site), interview with battalion chief Brian Dixon: "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."
82. December 5, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110238 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter Keith Murphy: "We came through what was a revolving door and it brings you into the North Tower. ... We are standing there and the first thing that happened, which I still think is strange to me, the lights went out. Completely pitch black. Since we are in that core little area of the building, there is no natural light. No nothing, I didn't see a thing. Right before the lights went out, I had heard a distant boom, boom, boom, sounded like three explosions. I don't know what it was at the time. I would have said they sounded like bombs, but it was boom, boom, boom and then the lights all go out. I would say about 3, 4 seconds, all of a sudden this tremendous roar. It sounded like being in a tunnel with the train coming at you. All of a sudden I could feel the floor started to shake and sway. We were being thrown like literally off our feet, side to side, getting banged around and then a tremendous wind started to happen. It probably lasted maybe 15 seconds - 10 to 15 seconds. It seemed like hurricane force wind. It would blow you off your feet."
83. December 11, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110288 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter William Reynolds: "I said, 'Chief, they're evacuating the other building [WTC 1], right?' He said, 'No.' ... I said, 'Why not? They blew up the other one.' I thought they blew it up with a bomb. I said, 'If they blew up the one, you know they're gonna blow up the other one.'"
84. October 9, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110020 (pdf on the site), interview with Ladder 18 firefighter Kevin Murray: "When the tower started -- there was a big explosion that I heard and someone screamed that it was coming down and I looked away and I saw all the windows domino -- you know, dominoeing up and then come down. We were right in front of 6, so we started running..."
85. October 10, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110030 (pdf on the site), interview with EMS lieutenant Patrick Scaringello: "I started to treat patients on my own when I heard the explosion from up above. I looked up, I saw smoke and flame and then I saw the top tower tilt, start to twist and lean. ... I was assisting in pulling more people out from debris, when I heard the second tower explode."
86. October 3, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110003 (pdf on the site), interview with EMS division chief Mark Steffens: "[When driving on West Street and one of the towers was collapsing] That's when we heard this massive explosion and I saw this thing rolling towards us. It looked like a fireball and then thick, thick black smoke."
87. November 7, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110193 (pdf on the site), interview with EMS operations captain Janice Olszewski: "I didn't know if it was an explosion. I didn't know it was a collapse at that point. I thought it was an explosion or a secondary device, a bomb, the jet -- plane exploding, whatever."
88. October 17, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110101 (pdf on the site), interview with EMS paramedic Neil Sweeting: "You heard a big boom, it was quiet for about ten seconds. Then you could hear another one. Now I realize it was the floors starting to stack on top of each other as they were falling. It was spaced apart in the beginning, but then it got to just a tremendous roar and a rumble that I will never forget."
89. October 30, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110172 (pdf on the site), interview with EMS captain Jay Swithers: "I took a quick glance at the building and while I didn't see it falling, I saw a large section of it blasting out, which led me to believe it was just an explosion. I thought it was a secondary device, but I knew that we had to go."
90. October 25, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110156 (pdf on the site), interview with EMT David Timothy: "The next thing I knew, you started hearing more explosions. I guess this is when the second tower started coming down."
91. November 7, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110198 (pdf on the site), interview with battalion chief John Sudnik: "The best I can remember, we were just operating there, trying to help out and do the best we could. Then we heard a loud explosion or what sounded like a loud explosion and looked up and I saw tower two start coming down. Crazy."
92. North Tower collapse witness Paul Lemos interviewed live on 9/11 (Youtube): "All of a sudden I looked up and twenty stories below ... the fire I saw, from the corner, boom! Boom! Boom! Booboobooboom! [uses his hands to show how the floors were popping out] Just like 20 straight hits. It just went down. And then I saw the whole building just [go] down. And as the bombs were going people just started running. I sat there and just watched. A few of them exploded and at that point I just started running for my life. [interviewer: "Because the top tipped over..."] No no no! It went straight down. Now, they told me afterwards it wasn't explosions. I was talking to one of the architects that they pulled in, because he was talking to me about it. He said, "What did you see?" I said I saw the fire and when I looked up ... and I could see the corner and it just started going pop! Boom! Boom!"
93. (Skeptic) Gravy on forums.randi.org. about the statements of Paul Isaac Jr., FDNY Auxiliary Fire Lieutenant (NY911truth.org for a long time floated false quotations attributed to him): "So the true statement was that I heard explosions - not bombs - as I couldn't tell what the sounds were, as I was blocks away and can not confirm what the noise was. As I was approaching City Hall, the North Tower began the collapse. I heard what sounded like thunder just prior to the collapse, then the popping as the tower fell. I had my radio scanner and there were reports of explosions within the complex over the PD and PAPD frequencies. As I made my way closer, I could pick up on the FD Handie Talkie frequencies and it sounded like hell. No one knew what was going to happen next, but when the second tower began its fall there were what sounded like loud popping coming from the tower as well as a sucking sound like reverse air pressure."
94. September 11, BBC, 'Eyewitnesses tell of horror': "AP reporter Dunstan Prial said he heard a sucking sound just before the first building collapsed."
95. September 12, 2001, Los Angeles Times, 'America Attacked': "There were reports of an explosion right before the tower fell, then a strange sucking sound, and finally the sound of floors collapsing. Then came a huge surge of air, followed by a vast cloud of dirt, smoke, dust, paper and debris. Windows shattered. People screamed and dived for cover...Not long afterward, at 10:30 a.m., the second tower of the World Trade Center collapsed. The top of the building exploded with smoke and dust. There were no flames, just an explosion of debris, and then more vast clouds swept down to the streets. People were knocked to the ground on their faces as they ran from the building."
96. January 23, 2002, New York Times, file no. 9110486 (pdf on the site), interview with EMT James McKinley: "So we get back over to 222 Broadway [about 200 yards from the WTC complex] and we get inside and I'm telling everybody: 'Listen, ... we're going to get out of here because tower 1 is going to come down [too]. ... As we're walking to the back of the building ... We start walking back there and then I heard a ground level explosion and I'm like holy shit, and then you heard that twisting metal wreckage again."
97. December 12, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110354 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter John Moribito (not counted, but interesting; why would anybody suspect explosives in cars?): "We ran back to the [collapsed towers] and then it seemed like all day long we were running back and forth into the building and out the building, as other structures were possibly going to collapse... [We were] trying to help out as best we can, looking for members, putting out fires ... still not knowing whether or not there were explosives in the cars surrounding the area, didn't really know whether or not there were more airplanes incoming..."
98. November 1, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110184 (pdf on the site), interview with EMT Gregg Brady: "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. ... At that time, when I heard the 3 loud explosions, I started running west on Vesey Street towards the water."
99. October 25, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110162 (pdf on the site), interview with paramedic Kevin Darnowski: "At that time I started walking back up towards Vesey Street. I heard three explosions, and then we heard like groaning and grinding, and tower two [the South Tower] started to come down."
100. November 1, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110183 (pdf on the site), interview with EMT Orlando Martinez: "There was an explosion and after we started running..."
101. November 28, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110213 (pdf on the site), interview with EMT Linda McCarthy: "I thought the plane was exploding, or another plane hit. I had no idea it was coming down..."
102. October 21, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110072 (pdf on the site), interview with EMT James McKinley: "After that I heard this huge explosion, I thought it was a boiler exploding or something. Next thing you know this huge cloud of smoke is coming at us, so we're running. ... They said that the Air Force shot one down in Pennsylvania. But they later found out that they had a struggle [crash happened at 10:06]. At this point, something happened. I think we heard some explosions or something [North Tower collapse was on 10:28], so the dispatcher starts telling us to go up to 23rd street and Chelsea Piers. My partner's like maybe it's gas or something, not just explosive gas. Not like Con Edison gas but like sarin gas or something like that."
103. November 9, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110202 (pdf on the site), interview with EMT Julio Marrero: "I was screaming from the top of my lungs, and I must have been about ten feet away from her and she couldn't even hear me, because the building was so loud, the explosion, that she couldn't even hear me."
104. October 10, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110037 (pdf on the site), interview with EMT Juan Rios: "I didn't know if it was an explosion. I didn't know it was a collapse at that point. I thought it was an explosion or a secondary device, a bomb, the jet -- plane exploding, whatever."
105. October 16, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110093 (pdf on the site), interview with EMT Michael Ober: "Then we heard a rumble, some twisting metal, we looked up in the air, and to be totally honest, at first, I don't know exactly -- but it looked to me just like an explosion. It didn't look like the building was coming down, it looked like just one floor had blown completely outside of it. I was sitting there looking at it. I just never thought they would ever come down, so I didn't think they were coming down."
106. January 23, 2002, New York Times, file no. 9110486 (pdf on the site), interview with EMT Jason Charles: "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 ... then I turned around and looked up and that's when I saw the tower coming down. ... [With the North Tower:] We start walking back there and then I heard a ground level explosion and I'm like holy shit, and then you heard that twisting metal wreckage again."
107. December 30, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110412 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter James Curran: "A guy started screaming 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. "
108. January 2, 2002, New York Times, file no. 9110488 (pdf on the site), interview with Engine 202 firefighter Timothy Burke: "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."
109. October 12, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110064 (pdf on the site), interview with Battalion chief Dominick DeRubbio: "This one here [the South Tower]. 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."
110. December 6, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110251 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter Edward Cachia: "As my officer and I were looking at the South Tower, it just gave. 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."
111. December 4, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110224 (pdf on the site), interview with Ladder 11 firefighter Frank Campagna: "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."
112. October 31, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110179 (pdf on the site), interview with New York Fire Department chief Frank Cruthers: "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."
113. October 9, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110019 (pdf on the site), interview with Engine 28 firefighter Brian Becker: "[When] we were in the stairway heading up, the other plane probably hit the other tower. I would say -- but we weren't aware of that. We had very poor handy-talkie communications. We didn't hear much of anything. There must have been Maydays galore out in the street. We didn't hear any of them. I didn't. The chief didn't apparently either. ... I 'd say we were in the 30th or 31st, 32nd floor, or something like that ... when there was a very loud roaring sound and a very loud explosion, and the -- it felt like there was an explosion above us, and I had a momentary concern that our building was collapsing . ... We didn't know, but apparently that was the other building falling. ... [after this event, no one was going up anymore and a total evacuation of firefighter personnel began] ... 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."
114. Witness live on CNN just after the second collapse: "The entire top of the building just blew up..."
115. Photographer Bolivar Arellano, interviewed live (Youtube) (translated from Spanish): "I was actually trying to get some cover and saw both buildings in flames, when I heard a "run, run, run!" ... and a big explosion ... then [with the second collapse] there was a second explosion... Sort of inside the building ... the force of the explosion threw me out about 20 feet ... I ended up against a wall and that's how I hurt my knee pretty bad." Also: 2002, Cathy Trost and Alicia C. Shepard, foreword by Tom Brokaw, Running Toward Danger - Stories Behind the Breaking News of 9/11, p. 128: "We heard the same sound as before, and everybody ran into the Financial Center. The explosion came down quickly and elevated us. I was elevated four feet into the air. I said to myself, "Bolivar, you screwed up. You survived the first one, but the second one is going to kill you." I crashed into the wall and then to the ground. I passed out for a few minutes."
116. Photographer Bolivar Arellano, interviewed live (Youtube) (translated from Spanish): "I was actually trying to get some cover and saw both buildings in flames, when I heard a "run, run, run!" ... and a big explosion ... then [with the second collapse] there was a second explosion... Sort of inside the building ... the force of the explosion threw me out about 20 feet ... I ended up against a wall and that's how I hurt my knee pretty bad."
117. Live report on CBS-2 from a reporter on a chopper (Youtube): "We just witnessed some kind of secondary, follow-up explosion on the World Trade Center number 2, the one that is on the south that is difficult to make out through the debris and the smoke. But it does appear that a portion, the top portion of the building, has collapsed down to the streets below."
118. Live report on CBS-2 from Marcia Kramer (Youtube): "Right now police will have to determine whether that explosion was caused from the initial impact of the plane or whether it was something exploded on the ground. Generally speaking for a building to collapse in on itself like that it would seem to indicate - obviously this is early speculation - but it seemed to indicate that there could have been an explosion, a bomb planted on the ground that would make the building collapse within itself."
119. CNN live report at around 10:15 (CNN transcript on website): "Though, we have a report now of a fourth explosion at the Trade Center."
120. Reporter Aaron Brown, live on CNN, as the first tower collapses (transcript on CNN website): "There has just been a huge explosion. We can see a cascade of sparks and fire and now it looks almost like a mushroom cloud explosion and I'll tell you that I can't see that second tower."
121. September 11, 2001, TCM Breaking News, 'Third explosion at World Trade Centre': "A huge explosion has occurred at the second of the two twin towers hit by planes in New York. The tower is now covered in smoke [it has collapsed]."
122. FOX 5 News anchor live at 10 AM as the first tower collapses: "There is an explosion at the base of the building ... white smoke from the bottom ... something has happened at the base of the building."
123. An emotional witness on FOX television (video that is possibly not available anymore): "We just heard a very loud blast... explosion."
124. Live report of a reporter named Patty on CNN (Youtube): "When the first tower collapsed there was a massive explosion. ... That's when I heard an explosion. That's when the second tower came down. "
125. Emotional reporter or witness on FOX television (video that is possibly not available anymore): "It's not clear now is why this explosion took place..."
126. ABC-7 news reporter live underneath the World Trade Center at the time of the collapse (Youtube): "This is as close as we can get to the base of the World Trade Center. You can see the firemen assembled here, the police officers, FBI agents. You can see the two towers... [a rumble comes up, immediately followed by a huge boom] ... a huge explosion now, raining debris on all of us! We'd better get out of the way!!!"
127. ABC-7 interview with an unknown firefighter (Youtube): "Then when we came outside the tower just blew, the tower blew, and I found a mask on the floor as I was crawling."
128. Aid worker giving his account live on Fox News to Bill O'Reilly (Youtube): "We were there trying to assist the medical personnel getting in. ... While we are standing there we are underneath the overpass, thinking we were safe, thinking if anything came off the building [we'd be protected]. At that point we heard a large boom. I looked up and just saw the building coming at us."
129. Fox reporter Rick Leventhal interviews a policeman who clearly had to run for his life (Youtube): "[Reporter:] Do...do you know if it was an explosion or a building collapse? [Policeman:] To me it sounded like, to me it sounded like an explosion, but it was a huge explosion."
130. Fox reporter Rick Leventhal interviews a hispanic witness who just survived the WTC2 collapse (Youtube): "I think it was a bomb- two of them. ... When I tried to save people, that moment we heard a big explosion coming down. Everything went black."
131. Live witness report on CBS (Youtube): "It was an explosion. It was way up where the fire was. And the whole building at that point bellied out in flames and everybody ran."
132. Anonymous eyewitness to the collapse of the North Tower, but who was too far away to hear the actual sound (Youtube): "That was a fucking bomb that did that. There's no goddamn way that could have happened."
133. Japanese store worker in Youtube video 'My 9/11 : Video from the streets of Manhattan': "How can just believe the two buildings now is gone. Yeah! No, I didn't see [collapse]. ... Just one second. Just smoking. Exactly! [it looks like a controlled demolition] ... How they hit... this, the bomb is strong, huh? The bomb, huh? Very, very strong. How can destroy this big building, huh? This bomb very strong."
134. Person who shot the above home video (Youtube): "Yeah, it looked like when you see in the movies when they demolish a building. That's how it went down. [still doesn't seem to accept the idea that this is what he witnessed]"
135. Witness Jeremy Fox on WB11 live, apparent FOIA release (Youtube): "What happened, I saw the second building blow and just crumble down and I saw the core of the building just slowly crushed to the ground - fall to the ground. ... When it went off, the second building, you saw an explosion and then a humongous cloud of smoke go up and you saw the building start to fall down and then you saw the core of the building just start to disintegrate into itself. [reporter asks: "Did it look like an implosion? ... Obviously we're speculating here, possibly a bomb?] ... I can't [tell for sure (?)] ... It just looked like an explosion below to where it was burning and then it just came down."
136. Fox reporter Rick Leventhal walks on the street, just after one of the collapses (Youtube): "Pandemonium here a short time ago, when the building did collapse, or whatever it was that happened, there was a huge explosion. ... The FBI is here as you can see, they have roped the area off, they were taking photographs, securing this area, just prior to that huge explosion that we all heard... and felt."
137. September 2, 2004, Alex Jones is interviewing a witness of 9/11, Andrea Ptsores during the huge demonstrations as the republican convention in New York City: "Actually, I was working in the World Trade Center complex the day of September 11th. I was in the building the night before, I am a member of a professional association on the 44th floor of 1 World Trade. Some of the key points are that there were explosives up through 6 World Trade that I heard before either tower came down." Unreliable. Not a live report and not used. No reports of explosions coming from 6 World Trade.
138. Mr. Beller's Neighborhood (mrbellersneighborhood.com), a survivor from the 81th floor of WTC 2 reported: "I was almost out. I got down to the lobby, right near the Border's book store. And then there was this explosion. I don't know, I just got thrown to the ground and all this stuff fell on top of me."
139. September 12, 2001, Guardian, ''Everyone was screaming, crying, running. It's like a war zone'': "In New York, police and fire officials were carrying out the first wave of evacuations when the first of the World Trade Centre towers collapsed. Some eyewitnesses reported hearing another explosion just before the structure crumbled. Police said that it looked almost like a "planned implosion" designed to catch bystanders watching from the street."
140. September 11, 2001, AFX Asia, 'World Trade Centre in flames after 2 planes crash into twin towers': "Two planes deliberately crashed into the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center, causing multiple explosions that left at least six people dead and 1,000 injured, media reported."
141. September 11, 2001, Pakistan Newswire, 'US rocked by a series of attacks': "Two hijacked passenger planes plunge into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the subsequent explosions and fires causing the buildings to collapse."
142. September 11, 2001, ABC News, 'America Under Attack, 6:00 PM': "Unidentified Woman #1: Mr. Mayor, based on the fact that the bombs--where the buildings collapsed on each other, do you have any reason to believe that there were bombs either on the planes or bombs that were in the buildings, on the ground that would cause them to collapse the way they did? Mayor GIULIANI: Commissioner, you want to? Unidentified Commissioner: No, there's nothing to indicate that at this time."
143. September 11, 2001, Tuesday, Jerry Schwartz (AP), BC cycle, 'World Trade Center collapses in terrorist attack': "Within the hour, an aircraft crashed on a helicopter landing pad near the Pentagon, a car bomb exploded outside the State Department, and the West Wing of the White House was evacuated amid threats of terrorism. And another explosion rocked New York about an hour after the crash."
144. September 11, 2001, CBS Marketwatch, 'On the scene: 'It's the end of the world'': "Reached by cell phone near the scene of the attacks, David Eng, an auditor at FleetBoston Financial (FBF), said he was buying a cup of coffee at the corner of the world famous landmark when he heard a loud explosion and looked up to see a fireball engulf the top floors of one of the towers. "The plane had taken out the top fifth of the first tower, but people were standing around looking at it. It wasn't until the second attack on the other tower that people started to run towards the water." While details were still sketchy on what brought down the towers, Eng said he heard a third explosion. "There could have been a car bomb at the base of the towers," he said."
145. 1010 WINS Radio presenter, live on 9/11 (Google Video): "... and then just a while ago a third explosion which actually brought down the South Tower. 1010 WINS reporter Juliet Papa is down around City Hall."
146. September 11, 2001, CBS News Transcripts, 'Investigations continue into alleged bombings at New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, DC': "We understand now there has been a secondary explosion on tower two. With that, we will leave you and turn it over to Dan Rather. [Dan Rather, anchor:] Now here's what we know. Just before 9 Eastern time this morning, a plane crashed into one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center along the Hudson River here in New York. A few minutes later, a second plane crashed into the other tower. Both skyscrapers are on fire."
147. September 11, 2001, CNN, 'America Under Attack: Terrorists Attacks in Both Washington D.C. and New York': "And what this second explosion was, it took place about -- part of the south -- that would be the South Tower has apparently collapsed."
148. September 11, 2001, Agence France Presse, 'An timeline of series of attacks on US soil (as of 1600 GMT)': "One of the World Trade Center's two towers collapses following an explosion in a huge cloud of smoke and dust."
149. September 11, 2001, Agence France Presse, 'Panic grips New York as World Trade Center collapses': "Less than an hour after the plane crashed, the tower collapsed into a heap of dust and rubble. Minutes later, its twin, struck first by what federal authorities believe was a hijacked American Airlines flight out of Boston, also exploded, with tonnes of concrete and glass crashing to the ground."
150. September 11, 2001, Japan Economic Newswire, '6TH LD: 2 planes slammed WTC in N.Y., Pentagon also hit': "One tower later collapsed following an explosion. ... The South Tower collapsed at around 10 a.m. following an explosion, the third to hit the landmark building."
151. Radio interview with Scott Forbes, senior database administrator at Fiduciary Trust, with his office on the 97th floor of the South Tower (Youtube): "I was in my apartment that overlooked the Trade Center. ... And as soon as I saw the South Tower go down, I was highly suspicious. It just didn't look correct. It looked like a controlled demolition."
152. September 12, 2001, Opie & Anthony Show about famous 9/11 eyewitness ''Psycho'' Mark Walsh (Youtube): "[Opie/Anthony:] Everyone was interviewing him. ... Psycho Mark, who was an eyewitness to this whole damn thing. Because he lives right there. ... As a matter of fact, Fox News used his apartment as their camera vantage point. They had a camera in his apartment, out his window. ... So I'm watching him on TV last night, or yesterday, and it just didn't look like him. I couldn't believe it: is that Psycho Mark? Holy ass, Psycho Mark, as serious as could be... Ben, who knows Psycho Mark really well, you should tell some of those stories... Ben said, when we were having coffee today. Whatever, you should tell some of this stuff... [Ben:] Mark [Walsh], he's a professional. He woke up yesterday. He has a perfect view of the Trade Center and he looks up and he heard the crash [of the first plane] and he watched the entire thing from his windows. Watched people just jumping like crazy. He said, "easily 150 people." He saw a couple just holding each other that were jumping out the windows. He said another guy was at the top and he had like a flag or a white towel or something and he was trying to get out and then all of a sudden you see this, eh, big [Opie/Anthony interrupts:] explosion? [Ben:] explosion and he said the dude just went flying out. ... [''Psycho'' Mark Walsh himself a little later on the show]: You just look at it. It's starting to melt. You know, molten metal is just pouring out. Pouring out of the corner of the building! And I'm going, "This is it, this thing is going down." And I mean, I can't explain. How do you explain the World Trade Center falling down? Dude, I'm sitting there - no effing way! ... I've been on my feet since the accident happened. I have not had one hour of sleep." Background story: There's a huge disinformation show about the Mark Walsh clip and what has been referred to as the "Harley Shirt Guy", because live on 9/11 Walsh stated to Rick Leventhal of Fox News: "[Leventhal:] We wanna bring in Mark Walsh who is a freelancer for Fox. You live just a few blocks away. ... [Walsh:] Dude, I live on the 43rd floor of a building which is five blocks from the World Trade Center itself. I was watching with my roommate. I witnessed the entire thing from beginning to end. [now the key quote:] ... And then I witnessed both towers collapse, one first and then the second, mostly due to structural failure because the fire was just too intense." Obviously Walsh had no foreknowledge whatsoever. His statements are actually not incompatible with possible use of explosions and thermate. Remains a little incredible though that Walsh later helped produce Fox News shows as Alan Colmes and such, not to mention that at least one major Opie & Anthony friend/guest is spreading disinformation on 9/11 (not mentioned here).
153. 2008, 'The 9/11 Chronicles', 1:05:10, Michael Moore when confronted by a 9/11 Truth activist, as shown in Alex Jones': "Well, I've had a number of firefighters tell me over the years since Fahrenheit 9/11 that they heard these explosions, that they believe that there is much more to the story than we've been told. I don't think that the official investigations have told us the complete truth. They haven't even told us half the truth. And so I support - I hope - if there's a new administration, or somebody, can open up a new investigation into this before we get too far away from it, to find out the whole truth."

1. Radio interview with Scott Forbes, senior database administrator at Fiduciary Trust, with his office on the 97th floor of the South Tower (Youtube): "About three weeks prior to 9/11 our company, along with many others in the towers, were given notice that there was going to be a power down in the top 50 per cent of the floors in the southern tower. This was unprecedented. As you can imagine, with all of the financial institutions in the building, to have a complete loss of power meant a complete loss of systems. And for an organization like my company it was truly extraordinary. ... The power down was on the Saturday and Sunday prior to 9/11. ... We were given three weeks notice. It was a relatively short time notice period to make all the preparations needed. And unprecedented. We had never experienced a power down in the towers, as far as I'm aware. I have worked in the towers from 1998. My colleagues who had been in the building well beyond that could not remember an occasion such as this, apart from the bomb incident in the early nineties. ... One of the main reasons why became suspicious was that I got in touch with the Port Authority and I got in touch with the 9/11 Commission to register this piece of information, so that it would be acknowledged, if only to be thrown away - and I had no acknowledgement. They did not come back to me. I repeatedly called and wrote letters to them. It is as if this information is of no interest to anyone, but to me it seems to be part of the puzzle and should be registered. ... I was not in the office on 9/11, because of working that weekend. I had the day off on Tuesday. So I was in my apartment that overlooked the Trade Center. ... And as soon as I saw the South Tower go down, I was highly suspicious. It just didn't look correct. It looked like a controlled demolition."
   December 24, 2005, Killtown, interview with Scott Forbes: "You have to understand how unprecedented the power down was. To shutdown all of our financial systems, all inter-related and with connections and feeds to may outside vendors and suppliers was a major piece of work. Additionally, the power outage meant that many of the 'ordinary' building features were not operating, such as security locks on doors, cameras, lighting, etc. ... I can't give you the absolute numbers, but I know it was the 'top half ' of WTC 2, so I'd say from floor 50 or so. ... Not to my knowledge [was there a simultaneous power outage in the North Tower]. ... As far as I recall it was for re-cabling, though I don't remember the wording on official documents or the detail, as I wasn't in the Management Loop. ... The building was retro, some of the features were so old, like the central heating and a/c systems, which were really really bad and inefficient. ... Off on Saturday afternoon - around 12 noon I think - and back on at about 2 pm on the Sunday (my timings on this are hazy). ... Well there were several guys in overalls, carrying building gear, toolboxes, etc inside the building. Remember there were no security locks on doors or security cameras, so access was free unless a door was locked by a manual key. Seeing so many 'strangers' who didn't work at the WTC was unusual. ... Not directly that I spoke to [people who reported hearing explosions in the WTC], but I am aware of one member of staff who was lost whose wife reported that he told her on the phone that explosions were going off. ... No, apart from broken glass from the plane impacts and crashing elevators. Several elevators cables were broken/slashed so they crashed to the ground. ... Sure, some did and have [agreed with my conspiracy point-of-view], but many remain skeptical and frankly many do not want to revisit that time, as it was very painful."
2. September 15, 2010, Freedom.tv (alternative media), interview with former Fiduciary Trust employee Gary Corbett near the 9/11 memorial site in Manhattan: "Hi, my name is Gary Corbett. I worked for Fiduciary Trust... This is my ID card of Fidiciary Trust. Wasn't even changed over to Franklin Templeton. And sick as humor may be, the men's room's key for the 97th floor. So call 'em good luck charms. ... I came for the memorial services. I have for the past few years, once I got over the bitterness. ... On 9/11 I was on a break [down the street]. I was theoretically to work the 7 o'clock-7:30 a.m. shift, but because of the power down I was about to meet my boss at 9 o'clock, but 9 o'clock never came. ...
   "I was a computer operator on the night shift, Monday night into Tuesday. The previous weekend there had been a power down. When the power was turned [back] on, there were a lot of problems for all companies within the complex who had computer systems, simply because the mainframes weren't talking to the servers, the front end servers and vice versa. And what made the day really tragic is that you had a lot of the technical people, data processing types, coming in early who [normally] wouldn't have been there until 9 or 10 o'clock. They were brought in early. And then you had the admin types, because of the trial balances and the books weren't complete. The reason I stopped is, I saw the sign: "9/11 was an inside job". Again, because of the power down there was a complete breakdown of security that weekend. I was working on the 97th and supposedly Fiduciary had a vault, some type of agreement with J.P. Morgan or something that someone at my level wouldn't understand. We had guided tours coming into secured areas by mistake and nobody picking it up because there are no intrusion alarms or anything else. Besides a loss of co-workers on that day that I will never forget is the CEO or whatever she was, Ann Tatlock, just happened to be out of town and within moments after the collapse made the statement to the stockholders and the other people that: "We lost a lot of people, but don't worry about them, they were only clerks." And that's the thing that will stick with me. [Appears very upset.] ...
   "The power down started like Friday night at the close of business, gradually into Saturday morning. ... Fiduciary Trust was completely down. We're just there on guard duty. We're doing nothing, because the power was off. The power came on probably some time, I'm guessing, about 4 o'clock Sunday afternoon. A day [before the attack]. Yeah, [two days]. But it was off for a good 24 to 36 hours. ... That's hard to say [who exactly came in], because you don't see people from local 3. You see the maintenance people that you know for your floor, the assigned floors. You don't know who is from local 3. Could be a guy with blue eyes. Could be your stereotype Middle Eastern type. You know, it's New York."
3. September 12, 2001, People.com, words of Ben Fountain: "Ben Fountain, 42, a financial analyst with Fireman's Fund, was coming out of the Chambers Street Station, headed for his office on the 47th floor of the south tower. How could they let this happen? They knew this building was a target. Over the past few weeks we'd been evacuated a number of times, which is unusual. I think they had an inkling something was going on."

1. October 4, 2001, BBC website, 'The survivors' stories' (account of S. Alexander): "I reached WTC [through the underground subway] around 8:57 am and as soon as the doors opened we were engulfed by some chemical that smelled like kerosene and smoke. Not realizing what had happened I walked up the escalator to the ground floor of the WTC where Police officers were directing all commuters to leave the building as soon as possible. Emerging outside of WTC, it looked like a bomb had exploded because there was debris everywhere, paper, fibre-glass insulation and numerous other office stationary material. In my mind I recalled the bombing from 1993 and thought this was something very similar."
2. September 12, 2001, Wall Street Journal, 'Nation Stands In Disbelief And Horror': "James Cutler, a 31-year-old insurance broker, was in the Akbar restaurant on the ground floor of the World Trade Center when he heard "boom, boom, boom," he recalls. In seconds, the kitchen doors blew open, smoke and ash poured into the restaurant and the ceiling collapsed. Mr. Cutler didn't know what had happened yet, but he found himself standing among bodies strewn across the floor. "It was mayhem," he says. "
3. September 2002 issue, Chief Engineer Magazine, 'We Will Not Forget': [Stationary engineer] Mike Pecoraro had gotten up from bed at 4 a.m. ... Mike's assignment that day [in WTC1, the North Tower] would be to continue constructing a gantry that would be used to pull the heads from the 2,500 ton chillers, located in the 6th sub- basement level of the tower. ... Deep below the tower, Mike Pecoraro was suddenly interrupted in his grinding task by a shake on his shoulder from his co-worker. "Did you see that?" he was asked. Mike told him that he had seen nothing. "You didn't see the lights flicker?", his co-worker asked again. "No," Mike responded, but he knew immediately that if the lights had flickered, it could spell trouble. A power surge or interruption could play havoc with the building's equipment. ... Mike told his co-worker to call upstairs to their Assistant Chief Engineer and find out if everything was all right. His co-worker made the call and reported back to Mike that he was told that the Assistant Chief did not know what happened but that the whole building seemed to shake and there was a loud explosion. They had been told to stay where they were and "sit tight" until the Assistant Chief got back to them. By this time, however, the room they were working in began to fill with a white smoke. "We smelled kerosene," Mike recalled, "I was thinking maybe a car fire was upstairs", referring to the parking garage located below grade in the tower but above the deep space where they were working. The two decided to ascend the stairs to the C level, to a small machine shop where Vito Deleo and David Williams were supposed to be working. When the two arrived at the C level, they found the machine shop gone. "There was nothing there but rubble, "Mike said. "We're talking about a 50 ton hydraulic press ? gone!" The two began yelling for their co-workers, but there was no answer. They saw a perfect line of smoke streaming through the air. "You could stand here," he said, "and two inches over you couldn't breathe. We couldn't see through the smoke so we started screaming." But there was still no answer. The two made their way to the parking garage, but found that it, too, was gone. "There were no walls, there was rubble on the floor, and you can't see anything" he said. They decided to ascend two more levels to the building's lobby. As they ascended to the B Level, one floor above, they were astonished to see a steel and concrete fire door that weighed about 300 pounds, wrinkled up "like a piece of aluminum foil" and lying on the floor. "They got us again," Mike told his co-worker, referring to the terrorist attack at the center in 1993. Having been through that bombing, Mike recalled seeing similar things happen to the building's structure. He was convinced a bomb had gone off in the building. Mike walked through the open doorway and found two people lying on the floor. One was a female Carpenter and the other an Elevator Operator. They were both badly burned and injured. Realizing he had to get help, Mike ascended to the Lobby Level where he met Arti DelBianco, a member of his work crew. People were now coming down the same stairway from above the lobby and Arti and Mike had to stay where they were to direct people out of the stairway door and into the building's lobby. If they didn't, people descending could walk past the lobby door and unwittingly keep descending into the sublevels of the building."
4. 2002, NY1 News, 'Honoring The Survivors', Construction worker Phillip Morelli video interview: "I go downstairs [underneath WTC, the North Tower], the foreman tells me to go remove the containers. As I am walking by the main freight corridor building, in the corridor, that's when I got blown. I mean, the impact of the explosion of whatever happened threw me to the floor and that's when everything started happening. It knocked me right to the floor, you didn't know what it was of course. You're assuming something just fell over in the loading dock, something very heavy, something very big. You don't know what happened and all of a sudden you just felt the floor moving and get up and the walls... and then ... now I'm hearing that the main freight car, the elevator fell down. I was right near the main freight car, so I'm assuming what that was. Then ... you know ... you heard that coming towards you. I was racing, I was going towards the bathroom ... all of a sudden ... I opened up the door ... I didn't know it was the bathroom and all of sudden a big impact happening again and all of the ceiling tiles were falling down, the light fixtures were falling down, swinging out of the ceiling. And I come running out the door and everything ... the walls were down and now I start running towards the parking lots ... I just assumed a car or something exploded on B1 or something big or heavy thing fell over ... when the floor is moving underneath you ... there was a lot of smoke down there, a lot of people screaming ... and were running up the ramps ... you gotta go clear across the whole from one to two world trade center ... and then, all of a sudden, it happened all over again; building 2 gets hit. And again, I don't know that, I just know that something else hit us to the floor. Right in the basement you felt it, walls were caving in, everything that was going on. I mean, I know people that got killed in the basement, I know people who got broken legs in there in the basement, people got surgery, because the walls hit them in the face."
5. September 11, 2001, CNN interviews WTC janitor William Rodriguez: "I was in the basement, which is the support floor for the maintenance company, and we hear like a big rumble. Not like an impact, like a rumble, like moving furniture in a massive way. And all of sudden we hear another rumble, and a guy comes running, running into our office, and all of skin was off his body. All of the skin." This is all Rodriguez said on 9/11. In later years he became a very prominent skeptic of the 9/11 Commission and was regularly interviewed by the mainstream and alternative media, to which he claimed to have felt a low-level basement explosion immediately prior to the impact. Something is clearly wrong here. His association with James Randi, a reported pedophile who sat on the board of the CIA-linked False Memory Syndrome Foundation, is just too suspect to ignore. Rodriguez's testimony should be ignored completely. September 11, 2002, New York Sun, 'A janitor's heroism 'opens a lot of doors'': "Mr. Randi, a debunker of psychics and faith healers, took Mr. Rodriguez on as an assistant in his campaign against charlatans. Mr. Rodriguez, with his cleaner's uniform and unlimited self-assurance, went back stage to gather intelligence on faith healers like W.V. Grant. "He has always managed to do the impossible," Mr. Randi wrote of his pupil. Mr. Rodriguez says he learned so much that "I could start my own church and perform my own miracles." ... The books had little to do with his day job: arriving at 8 a.m. and changing into his blue uniform in a basement locker-room, Mr. Rodriguez would ride the elevator to Windows on the World, on the 107th floor. His friends who worked there - most of them are now dead - gave him a free breakfast, and by 8:30, he would be on the stairs with a broom, a dustpan, and a rag. Sweeping one of the building's three stairwells took three hours. But Mr. Rodriguez got to work late the morning of September 11. He was still in the basement when the plane hit the tower." Interview with Anthony Saltalamacchia, located at the B1 maintenance level (Youtube): "On the mornig of September 11th, I was in my office. I was just getting the work handed out to all the employees when I received a phone call from William Rodriguez saying that he wasn't going to make it into work that day. I then kind of pleaded with him to come into to work, because, how you say, his job is very difficult, to where he had to clean 110 floors of stairs. ...He then came in. We then were talking about the day's work, and what needed to be done, when we heard a massive explosion that was in the World Trade Center at about 8:46 in the morning. [video edited] Um, the explosion came from, I believe, we believe that it first came from the mechanical room. Then we heard a series of other, uh, explosions that sounded up on the above levels of the building, to where we then realized that there was something wrong, and there was a major problem. And, I'd say, about 14 or 15 people came running and screaming into our office. We then, uh, got together as a group, and William kind of, basically got everybody settled down. You know, try to help everybody relax. Then right after that... [video edited] The floor started shaking. The tile from above, which was above us, started coming down, falling on us, and we knew that there was something seriously wrong happening. [video edited] A man came into the office. He was a black man. Very shaky, very, like, in shock. He had multiple wounds. His arms were bleeding. His skin was peeling off. You could just see, basically, his flesh. Um, it was a very tough thing to see. Then William grabbed a cloth and wrapped it around him. And at the time nobody really wanted to go near him because he was covered in blood. But, you know, uh, William did what he had to do, and get him to safety. As we're standing there, more explosions were happening. A lot of screaming, confusion. And then William said that it's time, like, we have to get out of the building. In that manner, all of us departed out. It was very smoky, very cloudy. It just looked like [video edited] very serious, that we knew we had to get out of the building. Um, we then ran towards the truck dock area, which was pretty much our only way out, because in the beginning, William led us to the fire escape, which led us to the lobby. But that was just completely under smoke, and it was just a bad situation. So we went the opposite way towards the truck dock, carrying this man with us. We then got to the truck dock, ran up the truck dock, and got outside, finally. ... I remember Willie wanted to go back into the building. I told him, 'No, stay out here with me. Let's get things more, let's get everybody together, get everybody calmed down.' He just refused and was screaming, you know 'We have to go back in the building, we have to go back.' I'm sure he, you know, he had a lot of ties to a lot of people in there, and he wanted to make sure that they were alright. ...The amount of explosions I've heard, uh, from 8:46 to the time we got out, was so many, at least 10. It was just like multiple explosions to where I felt like there was different grenades. That's what it sounded like, it was just different grenades being set off, like, in the building. It was, like, there was one major explosion, and then there was different explosions throughout that time period, until we got out." The explosions can be explained by the impact, followed by elevators crashing down to basements and sky lobby floors. In fact, crashing elevators to the B2 to bedrock level would cause the basement explosions described by Rodriguez.
6. September 8, 2002, Times Herald-Record, 'The Elevator Man's Tale', Robert Jones, ACE Elevator engineer at the WTC:"I work for Ace Elevator. I originally started down at the trade center in 1973 with Otis Elevator when the towers were just about completed, and I was transferred out of the trade center in '75. After that I worked for Otis Elevator. I came back to the trade center in '98, and up 'til September 11 was working as a mechanic on the elevators. ....
   "On the morning of September 11 at about a quarter to nine, a partner and I came out of a motor room and walked over to the windows overlooking the Hudson River. That was on the 43rd floor [of the South Tower]. And as we turned to walk away, that's when the first plane hit [the North Tower] and we heard the explosion. ... A lot of people were coming down out of those local cars, some of them were trying to get into the shuttle cars. I shut them down. ... I started to tell people to evacuate, to get down out of the building. Some people thought I was crazy, others started to realize as they looked down at the bottom they saw people starting to run up, come up that escalator very quickly. So a lot of people did, in fact, evacuate that 43rd floor. As we got into the sky lobby area, there were shuttle cars that had come up from the first floor from the lobby. I started to shut those down at that 44th floor. People in the local elevators coming down from the floors above in the second zone, now there were more people in fact coming down out of those elevators than there were going up because usually it's a very busy time of the morning when people are coming up into the building. ...
   "The shuttle cars were those cars that would run from a lobby up to a zone. They had three zones in the building. They had the first zone which ran from one to 42, then the second zone started from 44 up to 76, and the third zone started from 78 up to 110. They could hold, theoretically – I remember reading this years ago when I first got there – they could hold up to 60 people, but there was no way they could put that many people in. They were talking about, I think, load capacity. They could, those cars themselves, could hold up to 12,000 pounds of weight. The local cars were smaller cars. Now the shuttles were designed to run at a high speed to get the people from the first floor up to the sky lobbies, the designated sky lobbies. And then once they disembarked the shuttle car, they can go to their local bank of elevators. In other words, they would be on a particular floor, they would take a group of six cars, and they were smaller cars, naturally, but then they could go up to their appropriate floors. At the time when I started to try to get people to get out from the elevators down the staircase, I also started to shut down some of the local cars that were taking people down and take them out of service so there was no chance of people getting stuck in a car. We were in B Tower at the time A Tower was hit. B Tower had suffered no real damage that it shut the building power down. A lot of people wanted to take elevators down, and I stopped them. ...
   "As I turned around to go back toward the core of the building in the lobby, the second plane hit, and that shook the building. We heard the explosion and within a matter of seconds after that impact, I heard – and as well as everybody else heard – this noise, this increasing sound of wind. And it was getting louder and louder. It was like a bomb, not quite the sound of a bomb coming down from a bomber. It was a sound of wind increasing, a whistling sound, increasing in sound. ...
   "But I found out later, when the plane came through the building, it cut the hoist ropes, the governor ropes, of (the) 6 and 7 cars, which was the observation cars. Every night they would park those two cars up on the 107th floor. At the time the plane impacted B Tower, the observation deck wasn't open yet, which was another life-saving factor. At the time it impacted the building, they hadn't opened the observation deck. Had they, there would've been many, maybe another 1,000, 2,000 people on the rooftop, because it was a clear day. It was a beautiful day. What we heard was 6 and 7 car free-falling from the 107th floor and they impacted the basement at B-2 Level. And that's the explosion that filled the lobby within a matter of two or three seconds, engulfed the lobby in dust, smoke. And apparently from what I talked to with other mechanics, they saw the doors, the hatch doors blow off in the lobby level of 6 and 7 car. ... And some of the operators then, people in 50 car – 50 car was the car that ran the entire length of the building when the planes came through. In B [South] Tower, they cut the hoist ropes on 50 car A and B – there were two cars in each tower. Basically the buildings were very similar in design, and as far as their elevator structure, it was very similar. So you had matching elevators in each tower. And 50 car, in each tower, ran all floors from B6 up to 109. So that was, again, one of the cars, like 6 and 7 car in A Tower, they ran up to the Windows of the World. I can't imagine what it must've been like when the planes came through. And the noise, the wind noise we heard was, you have to picture that there are two cars or cabs in a hoist length. And a hoist weighs only so big, and it's encapsulated by walls, so as these two cars came, fell together, the air pressure underneath would cause that sound that we heard."
7. December 5, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110238 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter Keith Murphy: "We came through what was a revolving door and it brings you into the North Tower. ... To my immediate left is a bank. If I had to guess I would say it was maybe 75-80 feet [23-24 meters] long. It was a pretty long elevator bank and it was big sky lobby elevators. They were like floor to ceiling, the ones that hold, I don't know, 60-70 people. There was tremendous damage in the lobby. There was already things that were fallen or cracked, a lot of structural wall damage and ceiling damage that you could see. There was also about four or five inches of water on the floor. ... At the end of this elevator lobby there was, it looked to me like something had exploded. I don't remember how I heard it or who said it, but someone said I think an elevator - when the plane hit it severed the elevator cable and it came down and crashed. I don't know hundred percent if that's what happened, but it looked to me like that could have been true. It looked like something had fallen down, hit and exploded out. I mean the whole area around it was maybe 25, 30 feet of really severe damage. ..."
8. October 1, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110017 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter Gregg Hansson: "Upon entering the [North Tower of the] Trade Center, we went through the revolving doors but noticed that all the glass was out. So we could have gone right through the building . ... We went past the elevator banks. You could see that they were all blown out."
9. October 9, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110020 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter Kevin Murray: "The elevators of the [north tower] looked like they were on fire in the lobby. There wasn't smoke coming out of them, but it looked like they all bubbled up and everything and there was a fire in there. ... A portion of the [north tower] lobby had gotten knocked out when that [south] tower came down, so we couldn't evacuate people down that stairwell anymore."
10. December 10, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110308 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter George Kozlowski: "We went inside on the West Street side of the North Tower... Into the lobby we did see bodies that got pulled out of the elevators because all the elevators fell. ... Then Kenny and I just thought, well, let's just walk in the main lobby there and maybe try and pry open and see if anybody is left in the elevator itself. We did a quick walk around in that section, but there were only a couple that were closed. We could wedge it open a little and take a look. There were no other bodies there..."
11. December 13, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110343 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter Terence Rivera: "I was standing outside the quarters [very near the WTC] about to go home when the first plane hit. I heard a loud noise and then all of a sudden an explosion, looked up. ... As I got off the back [of the firetruck] -- the back step, there were a few individuals that were civilians that were outside [the North Tower] that were burnt. ... I took the can, fire extinguisher off the truck and then sprayed down the pants on the person that was still conscious. At that time, I had asked [a bystander initially helping him] where did this individual come from. He told me when the plane had hit, a fireball had shot down the elevator shaft and had blown people out of the lobby. ... [After I went back in] I saw the chauffeur from Ladder 10 [who] was telling me to go back outside and don't come back in unless you have a mask. ... [A while later, after hooking up a stand pipe] I grabbed my two cylinders, went back inside the building and was trying to find anybody from 10 or anybody that I could hook up with, anyone who might have an extra mask. As I went back inside, that's when they were telling us evacuate, the fire command was saying get out of here, so on and so forth. As I was coming outside, I see a lot of people running towards the Marriott Hotel, I see people running -- everybody just running. And I hear shh. It sounded like someone was turning on a hydrant and I look up and the first tower was coming down. ... [Some time after surviving the collapse] I saw two members from Engine 10 that were by the railing about to jump in the water. ... We started walking towards the water, towards the launches where one of our members from Ladder 10 was having chest pain and bring him over -- make sure he goes on the ferry. They were ferrying people to Jersey."
12. October 1, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110001 (pdf on the site), interview with WTC deputy commissioner for administration Thomas Fitzpatrick: "Still in the north tower. A lot of the marble in the lobby was falling off the walls, big slabs of marble were falling down. From the impact, I guess. The lobby didn't look too good. The integrity of the elevators - I started to think about the elevators. They had either blown out, cut off or could possibly have the cars coming down. The lobby was becoming an untenable place, especially if we wanted to continue operations."
13. December 12, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110354 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter John Moribito: "The rest of the company ran into the building [North Tower]... We put [one burn victim outside] on the stretcher and we actually put him in the back of the ambulance... Then I proceeded into the lobby of the building. When I walked through the lobby there was broken glass everywhere. There were also two people in the lobby, a gentleman who was already burned and was dead, and a female. She was nude. Her clothes had burnt away. She was still alive. She was trying to communicate. Her eyes were sealed shut. Her throat apparently was sealed. She couldn't really communicate. Within the next two minutes she perished right there. ... I noticed in the courtyard that there were valises, suitcases strewn about the courtyard. There were wallets everywhere, broken glass. Then I noticed that there were airplane tickets. I also started to notice that there were what I thought was insulation... It was gray and pink and it was all over the place, and it turned out that this was human flesh, people that had been blown apart from the impact or from the plane exploding itself... I saw the chiefs. Chief Pfeifer from Battalion 1 come in. Along with him was the Battalion aide and the French filmmaker... I went back to my post to help continue evacuate people. After I would guess it was about an hour, but seemed like just a few minutes, people had stopped coming down. They stopped coming down off the escalators. People weren't using the elevators and I had walked into the World Trade lobby from the plaza area to look to see if anybody else was coming down. I noticed that some of the elevators had been blown out of their shafts. They came down and crashed out of the shaft. They were buckled and I had noticed that there were people still in the elevators. I believe that they were at that point deceased. Then I saw the lights in both buildings went out and heard the rumble at that point. I didn't know what was happening, but 2 World Trade Center was collapsing. ... I saw debris fall on top of [civilians and policemen]... They weren't able to get through the doorway where I was on the other side, which was somewhat of a safe haven. The building came down. The rush of wind lifted me up off the ground and threw me about 30 feet [10 meters] back into the lobby of 1 World Trade Center. ... I walked straight ahead [through the dust]. I ran into the elevators. The elevators were completely out of the shafts at this point. All the elevators -- I could see members were crushed in between them. I could see civilians crushed in between the elevators. ... When I got out there I saw engine 10, which was parked right in front of the building. It had been hit by a beam what I found later to be 67 tons in weight.... "
14. December 14, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110355 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter John Ottrando: "I went into the lobby of the north tower and I saw the command post being set up there. I noticed some people on the floor that were badly burned. One man was deceased, and there was a woman there that was very badly burned."
15. Engine 7 fireman in the documentary '911 – the filmmakers': "The lobby was about six stories high and the lobby looked as though a bomb had exploded there. It's a ... all the glass was taken out, there were 10 foot by 10 foot marble panels that were once walls that were loose from the wall of the Trade Center."
16. January 24, 2002, New York Times, file no. 9110493 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter Thomas Piambino: "When I got down to the lobby -- the lobby was in bad shape when I went up. It was worse when I came back down. All the elevator shaftway doors were blown out, and there was stuff coming down the -- just falling down the shafts, and the civilians had bogged down at the bottom of the stairs, because they were afraid to pass the elevator shafts, and there were piles of rubble all over the place. ... I don't think we were out of the building a minute, a minute and a half. We exited the building, and the north tower started to fall."
17. Evalle Sweezer, office worker (Youtube): "The lobby was totally gone. ... A woman with her face blown off [lay here] ... As we were coming out, past the lobby, there was no lobby. So I believe the bomb hit the lobby first. And a couple of seconds later the first plane hit." Wrong conclusion, of course. The lobby was damaged by falling elevators. Looking at the description of the women, Sweezer came out of the North Tower.
18. Email that spread online: "On that awful day, Debbie [Merrick] made the decision to visit the Credit Union which was in [the South Tower of the] Trade Center. According to the accounts I have heard, Debbie was in the lobby waiting for an elevator when AA Flight 11 hit on 93. The jet fuel from the plane poured down the elevator shafts. Owing to the way the elevators are laid out, I don't understand how the fuel got into the elevator that she was waiting for. There are / (were) "Sky Lobbies" on 44 and on 78. So to go above those floors, you took an express elevator to the appropriate sky lobby and then transferred to a local elevator. The elevator machinery was located on the floors above the sky lobbies; only a very few shafts continued all the way up. Anyway, apparently she was in the lobby, the elevator shaftway doors opened and a fireball hit her with full force. She survived and was taken to a hospital with 90% burns. After lingering for about 50 days she died. "
19. December 20, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110375 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter David Sandvik: "We got our assignment. We're going up to the 21st floor. We got a report of people trapped. So we pick up everything, put the roof rope back on, extra cylinders, and I happened to see a lobby guy, like a guy that works in the lobby, and I asked him which elevators does he have running, and he said all the elevators are out except for the low-rise, which will take us to 16. ... We just finished searching the [21st] floor and I was with -- it was me, the boss and Artie, and the south tower came down and our building rocked. I remember windows blowing out and the air pressure in the hallway felt like we were almost in like a wind tunnel, and I remember the boss just saying get to the staircase. So we ran to the staircase. ... We thought -- well, I personally thought it was a collapse of the upper floors and that's what caused the building to rock... Not in my wildest dream did I think those towers were coming down. ... It was I'd say 95 percent -- I mean, it was almost all firemen [coming down at the end]. We had a civilian here, a civilian there, but it was mostly firemen. We got down to the lobby, and when we got out of the stairwell, the lobby was deserted. Nobody was down there except the people coming out of our stairwell. We were walking through and the elevator doors were blowing off. The lobby was just like a complete mess. I remember grabbing the proby that day and we were looking down the elevator bank and I said, man, this would make a hell of a picture. Then, you know, we just kind of walked out."
20. January 11, 2002, New York Times, file no. 9110442 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter William Walsh: "Now the front door is a revolving door. There is a vestibule of about ten feet, let's say, and there's another revolving door. There I noticed two civilians that had more than third degree burns. They were in pugilistic position. They were black, burnt. Their skin and their clothes were burnt off. They were smoldering and they were trying to get up. They were just moving around. I had estimated they had less than half a minute left in their lives, so we just passed them by. What I observed as I was going through these doors and got into the lobby of the World Trade Center was that the lobby of the Trade Center didn't appear as though it has 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. The wall panels on the wall are made of marble. Its 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 [to Zone I floors up until the 44th]. That would be the elevators that's facing north. Then, on the right-hand side there's also elevators that are express elevators [to the top], and that would be facing south. They were blown off the hinges. That's where the service elevator [to the top] was also. ... No, no, I'd say that they went through floors 30 and below. They were blown off the hinges and you could see the shafts. The elevators on the extreme north side [to floors below the 44th] and the express elevator on the extreme south side [to the 44th floor, the first skylobby], they looked intact to me from what I could see, the doors anyway. So we reported to the lobby command post. Engine 10 was there. Ladder 10 was there. The lobby seemed to fill up with firemen very quickly."
21. December 26, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110388 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter Peter Fallucca: "We got into the lobby of the Tower 1 [after having seen the second impact], the first building that got hit. That's where we were called up. ... Before we got in, all the elevators were crashed down in the lobby, and we were going to the stairwell. See all the elevators were crashed down, big slabs of marble on the floor, all the ceiling tiles of the dropped ceiling was falling down, wires hanging. You see wires and stuff hanging inside the elevator shafts, because the doors were blown right off the elevators. There was one body inside the lobby. Looked like his legs were chopped off. I don't know where he came from, but he had already had a triage tag on him. It was a civilian. I don't know where he came from, how he died. Looked like his clothes were a little burnt up on him, but his legs were chopped off. ... We got up to about the 23rd Floor. We were inside the hallway taking a break, and the whole building shakes [9:59 a.m.]. I mean violently, like earthquake shake. Two seconds later the lights go out, and I hear guys going, oh, shit. I see guys taking off -- firemen, cops. Guys are saying, this building is not supposed to shake like this, and I see guys running down the stairs, running out of the building, and I told my boss. ... There were guys in suits up there on the 23rd Floor. Guys were telling me there were -- the CIA's got offices on the 23rd Floor. I don't know who, but it could have been building super. They had a lot of information, these guys were giving us. They had told us that the Pentagon was hit [at 9:37 a.m.]. This was while we were sitting on the 23rd Floor. The Pentagon is hit. They hit another place in Washington. They shot a plane down, and as we were on the 23rd Floor taking a break, they telling us, fellows, we just got a report of a third plane headed this way, so when the building shook, like that, I figured we got hit with another plane, but we found out later that was the first building, Tower 2. ... I heard on the radio Mayday, to get out. Everybody out of the building."
22. December 26, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110392 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter William Green: "We entered in through the front doors of the lobby. The lobby was screwed. All the windows were already broken. Marble walls that surrounded the elevator shaft, they were cracked and broken. ... We headed for the B staircase. It was pretty much in the center of the core. We had to go through these turnstiles. Remember, there was a lot of rubble on the floor there. There was elevator doors ajar. There were elevator doors missing. I could see an elevator car twisted in the shaft. I remember I looked up at the ceiling, because I thought maybe the ceiling got charred because there was a bunch of rubble on the floor. It was about three feet high in the middle. The ceiling, it wasn't charred, so I had thought the floor blew up. I was telling guys afterwards the floor must have blown up. Maybe there was a bomb downstairs or something. But I came to learn that that was bodies. We had to climb over and around this pile. ... I didn't recognize it as bodies. I don't know if my mind didn't see it. Burned. It looked like rubble to me. Right outside the elevators in the core we had to climb up and around it. It was like three feet high in the middle to enter the staircase. ... The staircase was narrow. It was only two people wide. We were telling them to stay right. Stay to the right. We started heading up. I remember water flowing down the stairs like a rapid river, maybe the first ten stories. Then the water seemed to stop. ... I'm thinking now the standpipe must have been compromised. That first ten stories the water was falling down like rapids, ankle deep. ... The higher we would get up, there were some severely burnt people. People were helping people down. ... I entered the staircase [again]. ... When we were on 31 we started going up [again]. We tried to make the 44th floor. There was a report of an elevator on the 44th [sky lobby] floor that went into the 60s. ... [I] got up to approximately the 37th floor [but was extremely tired at this point]. ... [Then] the building violently shook, like an earthquake tossing us around. ... The someone opened the door from the 36th floor and said two World Trade Center just fell down. ... It might have been about 30 seconds later [that the order to evacuate was given]... Yeah, walk, stop [with firemen going down]. It was like people gridlock again. Everybody was calling everybody on the radio: This unit to this position, this unit to this position. ... At one point there was an opening on the inside of the stairway. I realized, let me move over there, because this lane is slow. I think that's what saved my life... Guys that I had seen coming down filing in on the floors didn't make it. ... The lobby was really screwed now. There was dust and debris everywhere. I saw the front doors. There was debris all over the front doors that we entered. ... There was no personnel at the fire command station [in the lobby] and I said: "Oh, this is bad.""
23. April 2002, Firehouse Magazine, 'WTC: This Is Their Story', report of firefighter Peter Blaich: "As we got to the third floor of the B stairway, we forced open an elevator door which was burnt on all three sides. The only thing that was remaining was the hoistway door. And inside the elevator were about - I didn't recognize them initially - but a guy from 1 Truck said, "Oh, my God, those are people." They were pretty incinerated. And I remember the overpowering smell of kerosene. That's when Lieutenant Foti said oh, that's the jet fuel. I remember it smelled like if you're camping and you drop a kerosene lamp. The same thing happened to the elevators in the main lobby. They were basically blown out. I don't recall if I actually saw people in there. What got me initially in the lobby was that as soon as we went in, all the windows were blown out, and there were one or two burning cars outside. And there were burn victims on the street there, walking around. We walked through this giant blown-out window into the lobby. There was a lady there screaming that she didn't know how she got burnt. She was just in the lobby and then next thing she knew she was on fire. She was burnt bad. And somebody came over with a fire extinguisher and was putting water on her. That's the first thing that got me. That and in front of one of the big elevator banks in the lobby was a desk and I definitely made out one of the corpses to be a security guard because he had a security label on his jacket. I'm assuming that maybe he was at a table still in a chair and almost completely incinerated, charred all over his body, definitely dead. And you could make out like a security tag on his jacket. And I remember seeing the table was melted, but he was still fused in the chair and that elevator bank was melted..."
24. November 2, 2001, New York Times 9/11 interviews archive, interview with assistant fire chief Joseph Callan: "Shortly [after the first plane hit], we arrived at the World Trade Center, Chief Ganci assigned me to take command of the north tower and he assigned Chief Donald Burns to take command of the south tower. Getting out of my car, putting my gear on, I then went and did a reconnaissance of the exterior of the north tower. I saw we had numerous floors on the upper levels on fire, approximately eight floors with fire showing. As I was going around the far side of the north tower, I then saw the second plane hit the south tower. I immediately went into the lobby of the north tower to take command of operations. In the lobby of the north tower, in command was Chief Peter Hayden, and Chief Joe Pfeifer. I took command and we started assigning additional units to the upper floors. I gave them instructions that we are not going to be extinguishing fire. What we were going to do is assist in evacuating the building. Numerous units arrived. They were sent up and put to work. Joined at the time - I was in the lobby. We had very little communication via handy talky during the time I was in the lobby with the units on the upper floors, because of the building construction. The elevators were not working, nor were any of the building communication systems. So we had very little control or contact, communication wise, with the units that were on the upper floors. Approximately 40 minutes after I arrived in the lobby, I made a decision that the building was no longer safe. And that was based on the conditions in the lobby, large pieces of plaster falling, all the 20 foot high glass panels on the exterior of the lobby were breaking. There was obvious movement of the building, and that was the reason on the handy talky I gave the order for all Fire Department units to leave the north tower. Approximately ten minutes after that, we had a collapse of the south tower, and we were sort of blown up against the wall in the lobby of the north tower, and we gathered together those of us who were still able to. Chief Pfeifer gave the order for everybody, Mayday for everybody, to leave the north tower and we then proceeded to try to find our way out of the lobby of the north tower. ... Shortly after we got on to Vesey Street, the north tower collapsed. That was the end of the story."
25. September 11, 2002, CNN, 'Better Communications Might Have Helped FDNY': "DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When firefighters arrived at the north tower, commanders knew right away the fire was too big to fight. The plane had wiped out the tower's water pipes and sprinklers, also destroying loudspeakers and radio repeaters which amplify and rebroadcast messages. CHIEF JOSEPH CALLAN, FDNY: Without the repeater system and without the hard wire system, we were going to rely completely on our handy-talky capability, and we knew that that was going to be a severe problem. FEYERICK: Chief Joseph Callan was among those in charge of operations in the north tower. Forty-five minutes after the plane hit, with hundreds of people still trapped inside, Chief Callan ordered all firefighters to evacuate. CALLAN: For me to make the decision to take our firefighters out of the building with civilians still in it, that was very tough for me, but I did that because I did not think the building was safe any longer, and that was just prior to 9:30. FEYERICK: Yet, even with the evacuation order, almost a full hour before tower one fell, more than 100 firefighters didn't make it out. Callan blames it on hand-held radios not strong enough to reliably penetrate concrete and steel. CALLAN; The reason they didn't come down is because they didn't get the message. The only other acceptable reason why they didn't come down immediately is because, in my mind, they were helping civilians get to the stairway and down the stairway. Other than that, I am very sure, that if they heard the command to evacuate, they would have evacuated. FEYERICK: New York city's former fire commissioner, Tom Von Essen, says it's wrong to blame the radios. THOMAS VON ESSEN, FORMER FDNY COMMISSIONER: It's so unfair to imply that it was the equipment. It was more the terrorism and the act of war and the confusion and the magnitude of the tragedy. FEYERICK: Even so, Von Essen acknowledges there were problems. VON ESSEN: You have buildings falling down and repeaters that are working or not working, recorders that are working or not working, people that are on repeater channels, and not on repeater channels. Of course you have problems with communications. If it happened today, again, you'd have the same problems with communications. FEYERICK: It was virtually impossible to evacuate the south tower. Even though it was hit second, it fell first, without warning. But, a city report, based on eyewitness interviews, finds in the north tower, firefighters and officers on upper floors never heard the evacuation order. Says the current fire commissioner: NICHOLAS SCOPPETTA, FDNY COMMISSIONER: I don't think it is one got the warning and the other didn't. It's not useful to speculate on things that we don't know for sure would have happened, or would not have happened. FEYERICK: And, even though police knew the north tower was leaning, fire chiefs didn't get that information because the two departments use different radio systems, and according to the city report, didn't share critical information. New York City is now implementing plans for better fire radios and improved communication between the police and fire departments. BERNARD KERIK, FORMER NYPD COMMISSIONER: We did the best we could, and I think the practice and preparation over the years resulted in the saving of 20 to 25,000 people. We lost 3,000, but had we not responded the way we did, I think the casualties would have been much, much higher."
26. September 11, 2001, NBC News Transcripts, 'Attack on America, 11:00 AM': "Chief Albert Turi told me that he was here just literally 10 or 15 minutes after the events that took place this morning. That is, the first crash. ... The chief of safe--the Chief of Safety of the Fire Department of New York City told me that at--shortly after 9:00 he had roughly 10 alarms, roughly 200 men, in the building trying to effect rescues of some of those civilians who were in there. And that, basically, he received word of a possibility of a secondary device--that is another bomb going off. He tried to get his men out as quickly as he could, but he said that there was another explosion which took place. And then, an hour after the first hit here, the first crash that took place, he said there was another explosion that took place in one of the towers here. So, obviously he--according to his theory, he thinks that there were actually devices that were planted in the building. One of the secondary devices, he thinks, that took place after the initial impact, was, he thinks, may have been on the plane that crashed into one of the towers. The second device, he thinks, he speculates, was probably planted in the building. So, that's what we have been told by Albert Turi who is the chief of safety for the New York City Fire Department. He told me that just moments ago. Now we are continuing to hear explosions. We are continuing to hear explosions here downtown. And what we've been told by some of the fire officials is that there are some gas lines that occasionally are exploding down there..."
27. 2012, John Norman, 'Fire Officer's Handbook of Tactics', p. 447: "In the lobby of Tower 1, a strategy planning session was held between Assistant Chief Joseph Callan, Chief of Safety Albert Turi, and Deputy Chief Peter Hayden that was caught on videotape. The chiefs discussed the nature of the event as a terrorist attack and the possibility of collapse. They all agreed on their primary objective: to get as many people out of the building as possible, and to let it burn up..."
28. July 12, 2007, New York Times, 'Firefighters' Union Takes Ax to Giuliani's 9/11 Acclaim': "The 13-minute film, entitled "Rudy Giuliani: Urban Legend," features interviews with firefighters and their families who fault Giuliani for problems with communications equipment that they say resulted in many firefighters being trapped in the collapsing towers, and for instituting a cleanup process at "Ground Zero" they deemed disrespectful to the victims. The film was intended for distribution to the union's 280,000 members and is being made available to the public. The film's narrator and interview subjects claim that radio communication problems prevented firefighters in the North Tower from receiving evacuation commands, which they say were received and followed by the police officers in the building. "While all police officers left the building," the film's narrator states, regarding the North Tower, "121 firefighters never made it out." The union also takes issue with what they feel is Giuliani's use of the firefighters' deaths for personal and political gain. ... "

1. May 26, 2002, New York Times, 'Accounts From the South Tower': "Edmund McNally, victim. Fiduciary Trust. ... He spoke with his wife Liz after the plane struck the north tower. He then called back twice after his own building had been struck. ... He said stuff about the data center. That's why I think he was on the 97th floor, because the data center was on the 97th floor. Then he said the floor was buckled. And he said it was getting really hot and hard to breath."
2. May 26, 2002, New York Times, '102 Minutes: Last Words at the Trade Center': "Sean Rooney [who worked in the South Tower] called Beverly Eckert. They had met at a high school dance in Buffalo, when they were both 16. ... Ceilings were caving in. Floors were buckling. Phone calls were being cut off. He was alone in a room filling with smoke. They said goodbye. ''He was telling me he loved me. ''Then you could hear the loud explosion.''"
3. October 25, 2001, New York Times 9/11 interviews archive, interview with EMS division chief John Peruggia: "At that point [roughly 10 minutes before the first collapse] I went back into the building [WTC 7]. 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. I grabbed EMT Zarrillo. I advised him of that information. I told him he was to proceed immediately to the command post where Chief Ganci was located. Told him where it was across the street from number I World Trade Center. I told him, "You see Chief Ganci and Chief Ganci only. Provide him with the information that the building integrity is severely compromised and they believe the building is in danger of imminent collapse." So, he left off in that direction. 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."
4. December 3, 2001, World Trade Center Task Force interview with Lieutenant Joseph Chiafari, Safety Command: "There was talk about not knowing the stability of the building. I heard that being mentioned and not knowing where that report came from. It's like somebody was questioning the stability of the building. In fact, that was coming from Steve Mosiello, the executive assistant for Ganci. I think somebody asked him and he mentioned to Ganci. Somebody mentioned about the stability of the building [Zarrillo]. That happened to be shortly before the building did come down. Like I said, we must have been at the command post a good half an hour at that west side of West Street, just standing at that one location doing all that. "
5. November 2, 2001, New York Times 9/11 interviews archive, interview with assistant fire chief Joseph Callan: "Shortly [after the first plane hit], we arrived at the [1] World Trade Center, Chief Ganci assigned me to take command of the north tower and he assigned Chief Donald Burns to take command of the south tower. ... Approximately 40 minutes after I arrived in the lobby, I made a decision that the building was no longer safe. And that was based on the conditions in the lobby, large pieces of plaster falling, all the 20 foot high glass panels on the exterior of the lobby were breaking. There was obvious movement of the building, and that was the reason on the handy talky I gave the order for all Fire Department units to leave the north tower. Approximately ten minutes after that, we had a collapse of the south tower... FEYERICK: And, even though police knew the north tower was leaning, fire chiefs didn't get that information because the two departments use different radio systems, and according to the city report, didn't share critical information."
6. September 11, 2001, NBC News Transcripts, 'Attack on America, 11:00 AM': "Chief Albert Turi told me that he was here just literally 10 or 15 minutes after the events that took place this morning. That is, the first crash. ... The chief of safe--the Chief of Safety of the Fire Department of New York City told me that at--shortly after 9:00 he had roughly 10 alarms, roughly 200 men, in the building trying to effect rescues of some of those civilians who were in there. And that, basically, he received word of a possibility of a secondary device--that is another bomb going off. He tried to get his men out as quickly as he could, but he said that there was another explosion which took place. And then, an hour after the first [plane] hit here [at 8:46], the first crash that took place, he said there was another explosion that took place in one of the towers here [which would have been 10-15 minutes before collapse]. So, obviously he--according to his theory, he thinks that there were actually devices that were planted in the building. One of the secondary devices, he thinks, that took place after the initial impact, was, he thinks, may have been on the plane that crashed into one of the towers. The second device, he thinks, he speculates, was probably planted in the building."
7. 2012, John Norman, 'Fire Officer's Handbook of Tactics', p. 447 (important for the Turi-Callan tie: on 9/11 Turi stated he order an evacuation due to suspected bombs; Callan stated he orderded an evacuation around the same time for suspected general instability): "In the lobby of Tower 1, a strategy planning session was held between Assistant Chief Joseph Callan, Chief of Safety Albert Turi, and Deputy Chief Peter Hayden that was caught on videotape. The chiefs discussed the nature of the event as a terrorist attack and the possibility of collapse. They all agreed on their primary objective: to get as many people out of the building as possible, and to let it burn up..."
8. September 11, 2002, CNN, 'Better Communications Might Have Helped FDNY': "FEYERICK: Chief Joseph Callan was among those in charge of operations in the north tower. Forty-five minutes after the plane hit, with hundreds of people still trapped inside, Chief Callan ordered all firefighters to evacuate. CALLAN: For me to make the decision to take our firefighters out of the building with civilians still in it, that was very tough for me, but I did that because I did not think the building was safe any longer, and that was just prior to 9:30. FEYERICK: Yet, even with the evacuation order, almost a full hour before tower one fell, more than 100 firefighters didn't make it out. Callan blames it on hand-held radios not strong enough to reliably penetrate concrete and steel.
9. P.E. Albert Masetti, email to ENR, 'Some thoughts from having been in Tower One during the attack': "I don't know how uniforms are assigned. But, the reason for mentioning this is that it is obvious that some fire fighters RAN UP to the impact point in One World Trade. At some point, perhaps when I was down around the 20th floor, there was a very clear and distinct radio message: "..... structural instability....." It seemed obvious to me that some lightly dressed and unencumbered fireman had reached the scene of the impact, was able to evaluate what was there, and was able to report what he saw. "
10. September 12, 2001, Time magazine, 'Special Report: The Day of the Attack': "On the 56th floor, an architect believes the building was failing structurally. Architect Bob Shelton had his foot in a cast; he'd broken it falling off a curb two weeks ago. He heard the explosion of the first plane hitting the north tower from his 56th-floor office in the south tower. As he made his way down the stairwell, his building came under attack as well. "You could hear the building cracking. It sounded like when you have a bunch of spaghetti, and you break it in half to boil it." Shelton knew that what he was hearing was bad. "It was structural failure," Shelton says. "Once a building like that is off center, that's it.""

Note: More videos exist than the one transcribed here of firemen and EMS workers evacuating the North Tower area. The order to evacuate was issued by the Fire Department after the South Tower collapse, soon followed by a similar order after observations made by a police helicopter hovering around the North Tower.

1. July 12, 2007, New York Times, 'Firefighters' Union Takes Ax to Giuliani's 9/11 Acclaim': "The film's narrator and interview subjects claim that radio communication problems prevented firefighters in the North Tower from receiving evacuation commands, which they say were received and followed by the police officers in the building. "While all police officers left the building," the film's narrator states, regarding the North Tower, "121 firefighters never made it out.""
2. July 7, 2002, New York Times, '9/11 Exposed Deadly Flaws in Rescue Plan': "Minutes after the south tower collapsed at the World Trade Center, police helicopters hovered near the remaining tower to check its condition. "About 15 floors down from the top, it looks like it's glowing red," the pilot of one helicopter, Aviation 14, radioed at 10:07 a.m. "It's inevitable." Seconds later, another pilot reported: "I don't think this has too much longer to go. I would evacuate all people within the area of that second building." Those clear warnings, captured on police radio tapes, were transmitted 21 minutes before the building fell, and officials say they were relayed to police officers, most of whom managed to escape. Yet most firefighters never heard those warnings, or earlier orders to get out. Their radio system failed frequently that morning. Even if the radio network had been reliable, it was not linked to the police system. And the police and fire commanders guiding the rescue efforts did not talk to one another during the crisis. Cut off from critical information, at least 121 firefighters, most in striking distance of safety, died when the north tower fell, an analysis by The New York Times has found."
3. January 9, 2002, New York Times, file no. 9110434 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter Kevin Gorman: "As he was standing there, [the police officer] said, "Aviation just reported that the North Tower is leaning." I said, "Which way is it leaning?" He said,"This way." So we started to turn around walking. John Malley, who was right behind me, I turned around for him, because he was doing something, either putting his coat on or something, and as I was looking at him I heard the explosion, looked up, and saw like three floors explode, saw the antenna coming down, and turned around and ran north. ... Within 30 seconds [of hearing that the tower was leaning did I hear the explosions]."
4. ABC-7 news reporter who survived the collapse of the South Tower and was now located about 500 yards from the North Tower (Youtube): "[Reporter:] Why are they pulling us out of here? [Police officer:] Because the North Tower is leaning. ... [5 seconds later:] Oh my God! There is goes!"
5. 2004, Big Medicine, 'Views: Erik Ronningen's 9/11': "The walk down 142 flights of smoke-filled stairwell from the 71st floor [of the North Tower] resembled rush hour on the subway system. Through the muted comments and speculation, you could hear pipes snapping and the walls cracking [before WTC2 came down]. By the time we arrived at the teen floors, we were all wading in ankle deep water pouring through the walls and cascading down the stairs. The descent, for me took a little over an hour and aside from a few people falling on the slippery steps, the climb down, though challenging to my aging body was basically uneventful. ... I remember how calm and orderly the descent in the stairwells was… and how smoky… accompanied occasionally with the snapping sounds of tortured pipes and walls stressed beyond endurance. ... After walking [outside], the earthquake began, and the thousands upon thousands of people panicking as Tower Two began to collapse. ... The events of those short twelve seconds of my life have permanently engraved themselves into my memory, where similar sounds and vibrations immediately reawaken the vivid experience of Tower Two collapsing."
6. 2002, Dennis Smith, 'Report from Ground Zero: The Story of the Rescue Efforts at the World Trade Center', (FDNY Chief Joseph Dunne): "Another ten or 15 minutes or so later, one of my guys said to me, "Listen, the north tower is making noise, we're not safe here, that building is going to come down too.""
7. September 16, 2001, LA Times: "Adam Mayblum enjoyed the storms that rumbled off the Atlantic.... 87th floor [of the North Tower] ...During the worst storms, the cords on his window shades would appear to sway a few inches, but it was an illusion. They actually hung straight, held steady by gravity. It was the tower that swayed, to absorb the weather. ... After bolting two flights down, he realized that his partner and close friend, 46-year-old Hong Zhu, had been left behind. ... Hong was alive. He had been behind Adam in the stairwell the whole time, but in the noise and the smoke and the sparks, Adam didn't know. They had apparently passed each other on stairwell A, Hong running down, Adam running up to rescue him. ... Hong took the elevator down to the 44th floor, the next transfer lobby. So far, so good. He pressed "52," went back up and collected Harry and the heavyset man. On 44--halfway down--Hong, Harry and the heavyset man got off the elevator and stumbled across the lobby toward the last bank of elevators that would take them all the way down. Hong pressed the "down" button again. Nothing. They would have to take the stairs. ... They had been trying to get out for an hour and five minutes. They were on the 39th floor when they felt the south tower collapse. "We really have to move," Hong said. The rumbles of the collapsing tower next door seemed to sap the heavyset man of his last gasps of energy. He sat down again. ... As time passed, the stairs became increasingly crowded. Heat began to build, dust poured into the stairwells and the water was around their ankles [this was at the lowest 10 floors or so]. All the while, the building was coming apart. Walls creaked and then cracked. "It seemed we were walking down very calm, very orderly . . and all of a sudden you felt like the ground was falling out from under you," said Claiborne Johnston [might be referencing to the WTC 2 collapse], who escaped from the 64th floor of the south tower. "You knew the structure had been altered severely, and the rest of the way down you could feel that.""
8. January 9, 2002, FDNY Lieutenant Robert Bohack, New York Times 9/11 interview list, file no. 9110427: "So we stopped on the 19th floor [of the North Tower]. [My fireman with chest pains] said he felt better after about 15 minutes. We got our gear up again, started to proceed up the stairs stairway A, I believe, until the 33rd floor. Then he was really sweating and said the chest pains were shooting down his arm. So that's when I made decision that's it. We put our gear down. I called for oxygen. Within two minutes two Port Authority ESU cops came with an oxygen resuscitator. ... All the fat guys were taking a break on the lower floors, me included, you know. ... The building started shaking like an earthquake. I thought our building was coming down. My mind was saying there's some kind of wind compensator up there in the upper floors, a big, huge vat of cement. Did you ever hear of that? I know the building moved. There's some kind of huge ton of weight up there. It's a huge vat filled with cement and it shifts. When the wind is blowing one way, it shifts to the other way with the wind to compensate. I thought if that thing shakes and comes loose from its supports we're fucking dead. So that's what I thought it was. I thought our building was starting to collapse. I said, "Let's get the fuck out of here, now. We're out of here." We start going down. We went down the C stairs. ... I walked to the fourth floor, go across. All the lights are out. I find the A stair that we went up. I stayed in the stairway. I yelled to my guys, "Let's go. I've got another stairway. I've got another stairway." They come. Only three guys come. ... There was debris from the other building coming down and pushing in. Because we were [now] in the stairway facing the south tower. So that must have pushed in the outside wall, that's what caused a breach. ... With that as soon as I said that the building [North Tower] made a groan like steel twisting. I didn't have to tell those guys twice. We just started making line for West Street or the western side, the entrance we came in. With that we ran out the front. There was, I think, a Chief's aide sort of as a lookout saying "come on come on come on." We stopped at the entrance as soon as he waved us on we go. We get to him. He was maybe 50 yards ahead of us, in front of us. On West Street I get to him and he says, "look at the building, Lou. The other one collapsed and this one is collapsing." He showed me, about 20 stories up you see crack in the building. I look, "holy shit, the other buildings gone." ... So we get to I think either Warren Street or Chambers Street. I think it was Warren. We made a right on Warren, got out. We've got all the dust and crap all over us from the other collapse. ... We walked maybe [another] half a block, and that's when the [second] building pancakes down." "
9. December 10, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110308 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter George Kozlowski: "We heard like a lot of trembling and everything, so we better get out of here. This doesn't look good. There is no more people coming [out of the north tower], so we started walking the same way the chief went and he was at the other end. He said the same thing. He said we better get our asses out of here. This doesn't look good at all. As we were walking we heard [what] we thought was another plane coming. It was like a big shhhhh! A thousand times louder than that. It sounded like a missile coming and we just started booking. We took off like bats out of hell. We made it around the corner and that's when the shit hit the fan, right then and there. We heard that loud [sound] and then ba-boom! Just, it was like an earthquake or whatever. A giant, giant explosion."

1. September 11, 2001, CBS News Transcripts, 'Planes crash into World Trade Center and Pentagon': "[Dan] Rather: ... And then at 10:28 AM Eastern time, the second tower of the World Trade Center collapsed. Then there was a fourth explosion; a fourth counted big explosion rocked the collapsed remains of the World Trade Center. That was at about 10:38 AM Eastern time. ... Now dateline London: Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden warned three weeks ago that he and his followers would carry out "an unprecedented attack"--that was his quote--on US interests for its support of Israel."
2. September 11, 2001, Associated Press Worldstream, ''New York is crying' With US-Terrorist Attacks': "Mike Smith, a fire marshal from Queens, [was] recovering at the fountain outside a state courthouse, shortly after the second tower collapsed. Workers from the Trade Center offices wandered lower Manhattan in a daze. Looking down West Broadway, brown and black smoke billowed. Ash, two inches (five centimeters) deep, covered the streets. Police and firefighters gasped for air as they emerged from the sealed-off area. At least three explosions were heard, perhaps from gas lines." September 11, 2001, AP Press State and Local Wire, 'Pandemonium, horror outside Trade Center as people jump, towers collapse': "At least three explosions, perhaps from gas lines, could be heard after the buildings collapsed."
3. CBS footage live on 9/11 after the collapse of the Twin Towers (Youtube):
   "[Huge boom in background] [A bystander says:] "There's another one." [The narrator:] Hours after the attack many smaller explosions rumbled through downtown."
4. Journalist Lucia Davis on 9/11 around 10:50 a.m. (looking at the sun) 150 meters north of WTC 7 at the corner of West Broadway and Murray Street amidst firemen (used in '9/11 Stories From The City', but seemingly suppressed almost everywhere): "[Police officer on phone:] Yeah, here's one of the guys. He can tell I'm okay, alright? Hold on." "[Fireman takes over phone:] Hey, you wanna call your mother, or something?" [Huge deafening explosion nearby. Everyone gets startled.] "[Someone:] What the hell are...? [Lots of people speaking at the same time]. [Firefighter comes walking towards the group:] We gotta get back. Seven's exploding."
5. Video of Richard Peskin, filming WTC 7 from his apartment about 650 meters (700 yards) to the north (misses all three collapses): "[Start video; Peskin zoomed in to east corner of WTC 7:] A blast, explosion, or something, because now there is a lot of police activity and sirens and more smoke rising from the ground. [Smoke is rising from the side of WTC 7's east corner, but not exactly clear which smoke cloud Peskin means.] New smoke. So there was some kind of additional explosion, but I don't know what it was. Definitely. Smoke is rising from the ground. Maybe it was a federal building or something like that. Okay. Okay, sweety, I'll call you later. [New take:] It's now 11 o'clock. We're still continuing to hear explosions. [Another crack or explosion can be heard.] I don't know what it is. A lot of smoke. ... [Another crack or explosion can be heard.] ... There's a fire [away from of WTC 7]. Maybe a car on fire. [Another crack or explosion can be heard.] ... [New take:] [Very loud crack/explosion and echo] It's another explosion. [Seems to be not much after 11:05, judging by the shadows.] ... [New take:] It's now a little bit after twelve. ... [Better known section at the time of collapse:] Looks like World Trade Center 7 just collapsed. Unbelievable."

1. CNN live, around 4:14 p.m., Aaron Brown, standing in front of the New York skyline with WTC 7 still erect until 5:21 p.m., over an hour later (Youtube): "We are getting information now that one of the buildings, Building 7, in the World Trade Center complex is on fire and has either collapsed, or is collapsing." Building 7 only collapsed at 5:21 p.m. CNN captures: 4:11-about 5:00: "Building 7 at the World Trade Ctr. on fire, may collapse." 5:06: "World Trade Center Building 7 ablaze, poised to collapse." 5:19: "Building 7 at World Trade Ctr. on fire, on verge of collapse."
2. BBC World live report, with reporter Jane Standley, reporting live at 4:57 p.m. (collapse at 5:20 p.m.) from New York with Building 7 behind her (Youtube): "[News anchor:] Now more on the latest building collapse in New York. You might have heard a few moments ago us talking about the Salomon Brothers building [WTC 7] collapsing, and indeed it has. Apparently that's only a few hundred yards away from where the World Trade Center towers were. And it seems this was not the result of a new attack; it was because the building had been weakened during this morning's attack. We'll probably find more about that from our correspondent Jane Standley. Jane, what more can you tell us about the Salomon building and its collapse? [Jane Standley:] Well, only really what you already know. Details are very very sketchy. ... As you can see behind me, the trade center appears to be still burning [everybody can see that WTC 7 is still standing erect as she moves her head]. ... [screen starts to distort] ... [News anchor:] Well, unfortunately, I think we've lost the line with Jane Standley in Manhattan. Perhaps we can rejoin her and follow that up later." BBC World live report, with reporter Jane Standley standing front of screening showing live video of the World Trade Center (it is, however, evening already): "[Host Bill Turnbull:] After the collapse of the Solomon building, Jane, are the other buildings in that area stable? [before she can answer the sound cuts out]" Richard Porter, head of BBC World News, to Dylan Avery of 'Loose Change' (Youtube): "I think you will have to put it into context of what was an incredibly chaotic day for everybody involved in trying to cover the story. The investigations we have carried out suggest very strongly that, er, we were working on the basis of an incorrect news agency report. We have this statement from Reuters, it came some time after our original enquiries, but what it says is: "On September the 11th, 2001, Reuters incorrectly reported that one of the buildings of the New York World Trade Center, 7 WTC, had collapsed before it actually did. The report was picked up from a local news story and was withdrawn as soon as it emerged that the building had not fallen." Jane Standley interviewed by the BBC (Youtube): "I was thrown not a question, but a statement of fact. I don't know where that came from. I mean, it is very very difficult being in that position: no communication, no access to information and that just comes out of left field. It was very upsetting about a year ago, because of the level of persecution and the virulence in which I was spoken about. And its just very unfortunate that this whole conspiracy, kind of I think a rather ridiculous situation, has grown out of what is really a small and honest mistake." So it seems the origin is Reuters, but CNN was also already reporting about an immenent collapse of WTC 7.
3. Reporter Ashleigh Banfield live for MSNBC, near WTC 7, just before the collapse (Youtube): "That building right there, the brown building, the tall one, is number 7 World Trade Center. I've heard several reports from several different officers that that is the building that is gonna go down next. In fact, one officer told me, they are just waiting for that to come down at this point, that there is no way that it is going to be recovered and they can stabilize it."
4. Youtube clip of unknown documentary (featured in '911: The Explosive Reality'): "[Official in suit on the scene talking to rescue workers:] Stand back. Stay as close as you can where you are not in the way. [Narrator:] But for hours they stood cut off from the rubble, feeling both fierce and helpless as they were not allowed into the rescue area. In the midst of a frustrating afternoon, evidence of why they had not been sent in. Number 7 World Trade Center collapsed. [shows frustrated rescue workers]"
5. MSNBC, 'Attack on America', live (featured in '911: The Explosive Reality'): "Not to put those rescue workers in danger themselves. … We were told by a couple of people who were in there, before rescue workers [were pulled back], that there are bodies, a number of bodies lying around in the debris and on the street there. Obviously part of the job is to bring them out. We are also told by Port Authority officials that the building over there, which is building Number 7, which you can see, that there is some concern on the part of Port Authority officials about the stability of that building at this point."
6. CNN on 9/11 (featured in '911: The Explosive Reality'): "The fire fighters thought it might collapse [Building 7]. ... rescue workers pushed people away from the scene."
7. Latin American-sounding soldier briefly interviewed on ABC (featured in '911: The Explosive Reality'): "Building is going to collapse. Nothing informations. [pushes away camera] "
8. Bill Blakemore to Peter Jennings at ABC live after collapse of WTC 7 (featured in '911: The Explosive Reality'): "Peter, it was an astonishing thing [the collapse of WTC 7] ... Things have become so bizarre down here that the hundreds of firemen standing around looked at it, felt a bit shocked, but then just said: "Well, we're gonna have even more work to do." Associate producer Lucy Carrigen has been over near that building just a little bit earlier and a policeman had told her that they feared the building was going to come down, that they were evacuating people from around it." [Jennings then starts hinting at controlled demolition].
9. NYFD Lieutenant David Rastuccio on the telephone live to Brian Williams on MSNBC, one minute after WTC 7 came down (Youtube): "We had heard reports that the building was unstable and that eventually it needed to come down on its own, or it would be taken down. I would imagine it came down on its own. "
10. CBS-2 live, immediately after observing the collapse of WTC 7 (Youtube): "This is something they've been watching all day. In fact, Paul [?] just told us many hours ago that that building looked to be in danger of falling, as did the Twin Towers."
11. September 13, 2001, Arlington Cemetery, 'Getting the photo of a lifetime' (About Tom Franklin, a photographer who was wandering around WTC 7 when it came down): "Firemen evacuated the area as they prepared for the collapse of Building Seven."
12. September 23, 2007, Chief of Department NYFD Daniel Nigro: "Regarding WTC 7: The long-awaited US Government NIST ... report on the collapse of WTC 7 is due to be published at the end of this year (although it has been delayed already a few times [adding fuel to the conspiracy theorists fires!]). That report should explain the cause and mechanics of the collapse in great detail. ... I feared a collapse of Building 7 (as did many on my staff). The collapse of WTC 1 damaged portions of the lower floors of 7. Building 7 was built on a small number of large columns providing an open Atrium on the lower levels. Fires on many floors of WTC 7 burned without sufficient water supply to attack them. For these reasons I made the decision (without consulting the owner, the mayor or anyone else—as ranking fire officer, that decision was my responsibility) to clear a collapse zone surrounding the building and to stop all activity within that zone. Approximately three hours after … WTC 7 collapsed.  Conspiracy theories abound and I believe firmly that all of them are without merit."
13. September 9, 2005, press statement of Mr. Dara McQuillan, a spokesman for Silverstein Properties: "In the afternoon of September 11, Mr. Silverstein spoke to the Fire Department Commander on site at Seven World Trade Center. The Commander told Mr. Silverstein that there were several firefighters in the building working to contain the fires. Mr. Silverstein expressed his view that the most important thing was to protect the safety of those firefighters, including, if necessary, to have them withdraw from the building. Later in the day, the Fire Commander ordered his firefighters out of the building and at 5:20 p.m. the building collapsed."
14. April 22, 2010, Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, FoxNews.com, 'Shame On Jesse Ventura!' (if true it appears to mean that primarily thermate was used, which could be true, because extreme heat and steel sulfidation was also found at the site of WTC 7. However, medical student Daryl said he heard one initial explosion (followed by a major shockwave) and one initial explosion has also been recorded on video): "Although I arrived at Ground Zero shortly after the Twin Towers fell, I was in the danger zone created by Building 7 from the moment it collapsed in the afternoon, an event that is one of the key cornerstones of the 9/11 conspiracy theory. Governor Ventura and many 9/11 "Truthers" allege that government explosives caused the afternoon collapse of Building 7. This is false. I know this because I remember watching all 47 stories of Building 7 suddenly and silently crumble before my eyes. Shortly before the building collapsed, several NYPD officers and Con-Edison workers told me that Larry Silverstein, the property developer of One World Financial Center was on the phone with his insurance carrier to see if they would authorize the controlled demolition of the building – since its foundation was already unstable and expected to fall. A controlled demolition would have minimized the damage caused by the building's imminent collapse and potentially save lives. Many law enforcement personnel, firefighters and other journalists were aware of this possible option. There was no secret. There was no conspiracy. While I was talking with a fellow reporter and several NYPD officers, Building 7 suddenly collapsed, and before it hit the ground, not a single sound emanated from the tower area. There were no explosives; I would have heard them. In fact, I remember that in those few seconds, as the building sank to the ground that I was stunned by how quiet it was."
15. April 27, 2005, KPFA, Guns &  Butter, first responder Indira Singh: "[Question: They actually used the word "brought down" and who was it who was telling you this?] The Fire Department, and they did use the word: "We are going to have to bring it down." And for us there, observing the nature of the devastation, it made total sense to us that this was indeed a possibility."

Don't forget to look at the above section, which indicates that the NYFD kept everyone away from the building since three hours before the collapse. While Larry Silverstein was trying to get permission to demolish the building, it coincidentally collapsed in demolition style.

1. The penthouse on top of the roof, in the center of the building to be exact, is the first part to collapse after a loud boom. Seconds later, the outside of the building collapses over the inside, creating a perfect demolition.
2. November 29, 2001, New York Times, 'A Nation Challenged': "Experts said no building like it [WTC 7], a modern, steel-reinforced high-rise, had ever collapsed because of an uncontrolled fire, and engineers have been trying to figure out exactly what happened and whether they should be worried about other buildings like it around the country."
3. CNN footage: cameraman on 9/11 in the neighborhood of WTC 7 amidst firefighters (Youtube): [A giant explosion is heard] [Person 1:] You hear that? [Person 2:] Keep your eye on that building. It will be coming down soon." ... [new shot, but at same street and at almost the exact same location] [Person 3:] That building is about to blow up. Moving back. ... [again skips a few seconds of footage] ... We are walking back, because that building is about to blow up. [roaring sound is already heard in the background]. Flame. Debris coming down."
4. Reporter Ashleigh Banfield live for MSNBC, near WTC 7, some time before collapse (Youtube): "We just heard one more explosion. That's about the fourth once we've heard."
5. Reporter Ashleigh Banfield live for MSNBC, near WTC 7, just before and during the collapse (Youtube): "[Host:] Monica, I have to go to Ashleigh Banfield, we might have had something [happening] on the ground. Ashley? [Banfield:]... Ah, well, at first Brian, we thought we'd heard another explosion, but I think its just a truck heading down to the south. But I just wanted to let you know that we are starting to see people moving north. In fact, you were just told by police that you should move out of your apartment, Fabiana ... [individual cracks can be heard in background half-way through this sentence since, say 0:00, followed by a more consecutive rumble around 0:06 when the reporter takes notice. Smoke is already increasing at 0:02/0:03, indicating the building is on its way down.] Look behind us, please pan this way. Be careful of your baby. This is it. [background at 0:11/0:12: "That's the building coming down"] Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! No, listen , we'll be alright. We're gonna have to move. We're gonna have to move. That cloud is coming this way."
6. 1010 WINS NYC News Radio on 9/11 (Youtube): "[Reporter:] I'm here with an NYU medical student. He was down there [at the collapse of WTC 7]. He was trying to help people. His name is Daryl. [Daryl:] "Yeah, so I was standing there. You know, we were watching the building as it was on fire - the bottom floors of the building were on fire. And we heard this sound that sounded like a clap of thunder. We turned around and we were shocked to see that the building was, what looked like a shockwave ripping through the building and the windows all busting out. It was horrifying. And then, you know, about a second later the bottom floor caved out and the building followed after that."
7. 2002, Chris Bull and Sam Erman, Editors, 'At Ground Zero: Young Reporters Who Were There Tell Their Stories', p. 97 (words of New York Daily News reporter Peter DeMarco, later of the Boston Globe): "[T]here was a rumble [coming from WTC7]. The building's top row of windows [40th floor] popped out. Then all the windows on the thirty-ninth floor popped out. Then the thirty-eighth floor. Pop! Pop! Pop! was all you heard until the building sunk into a rising cloud of gray." The initial rumble caused part of the penthouse at the top to crash straight through the central section of the building. This resulted in all the windows on the top floors popping out on that side of the building from the top down. It also caused the entire building on this side to sag. Seconds later WTC 7 came down. Only the initial rumble has been caught on tape, however, at least as far as we know.
8. Craig Bartmer, first responder, former New York Police Department (Youtube) (report not made live on 9/11 or to the mainstream media, thus tricky. Then again, Bartmer has become very sick due to his work at Ground Zero): "Walked around [WTC7]. Saw a hole. Not a hole big enough to knock a building down though. Yeah, there was definitely fire in the building. ... I didn't hear any indication that it was gonna come down. And all of a sudden the radios exploded and everybody started screaming: "Get away! Get away! Get away from it!" And I was like a deer in the headlights and I look up. I think I remember pretty clearly two guys that I knew who were on the transit radio. I don't know if those tapes are out there. I can try and look for 'em and show you. Then you know exactly what I'm talking about. It was that moment and I looked up. It was nothing that I would have ever imagined seeing in my life. The thing started peeling in on itself. There was an umbrella of crap 7 feet over my head that I just stared at. Somebody grabbed my shoulder and I started running and the shit is hitting the ground behind me. And the whole time you're hearing: Thum! Thum! Thum! Thum! And I think I know an explosion when I hear it. [laughs] I was real close to WTC 7 ... And I don't know, that didn't sound like a building just falling down when I was running away from it. There's a lot of eyewitness testimony down there hearing explosions. I didn't see any reason for that building to fall down the way it did and a lot of guys should be saying the same thing."
9. Kevin McPadden, first responder (Youtube) (years after 9/11, like Bartmer; NOT trusted and NOT counted): "There was a whole lot of commotion. The firefighters starting picking up and rolling out and go follow these busses that went down town. And the Red Cross rep, he was like, he came over and he says, "Well, you've got to stay behind this line, because they're thinking of bringing the building down. They didn't say what building. ... So, we're like, "Okay, we'll take their word for it. We'll stay behind the line." And he went over and talked to one of the, through all the commotion, he goes over and asks one of the firefighters what was going on. And, I guess, I don't know if he got an answer or not. He came back over with his hand over the radio, and what sounded like a count down. And at the last few seconds he took his hand off and you heard: three, two, one and he was just saying: "Just run for you lives! Just run for your life." And then it was another 3-2 seconds you heard explosions, like baboom! There was like distinct sound... like floors that were like dropping and collapsing. This was like baboom! And you felt, like, a rumble in the ground. Like almost like you wanted to grab onto something. To me, I knew that was an explosion. There was no doubt in my mind. And by that time we're running out into the street.  Half the people have taken off, running up the street, and then everybody is running into the center of the street, while anybody who was south of that intersection was running up the street, getting chased by this cloud of smoke, which was monstrous. People were getting knocked over, trampled on."
10. Larry Silverstein, leaseholder building 7, in the September 2002 PBS documentary America Rebuilds (Youtube): "I remember getting a call from the fire department commander, told me they weren't sure if they were able to contain the fire. I said, "You know, we've had such terrible loss of life. Maybe the smartest thing to do is to pull it." And they made that decision to pull and then we watched the building collapse." Years later, Silverstein indicated the term meant "pull out" (of firefighters) instead of "pull down" (of the building). It's hard to decide what makes less sense: Silverstein's explanation or him having made the initial comment at all.
11. Sunday, September 10, 2006, Zembla (VARA, Dutch television), Danny Jowenko interview about 9/11 (Youtube) (died in a car crash in 2011): "[Is shown a video of the WTC 7 collapse] Do you see the top go first? No, it goes from the bottom. Right? They just blew the columns; it has been demolished with explosives. ... This is controlled demolition. I'm absolutely sure, it has been demolished with explosives. This was done at someone's direction. A team of experts has done this. ... The same day [as WTC 1 and 2?] The same day? Are you sure? Are you sure it was the 11th? That can't be true. Really? Then they worked really fast. ... This a professional job, no doubt. These boys know what they are doing. ... They did have the advantage that there was already so much destruction in the environment that they didn't need to be that precise. ... I am talking about the placement of packet charges instead of all that blowtorch work and linear shaped charges. Just rigorously because it was already a mess. Just charges against the beams and just really fast. ... Oh, those aren't even that many columns. That explains a lot. You can demolish this quickly. You could even do this with blowtorches and cutter charges. ... A cutter charge against it with a piece of duct tape is no-time, a minute per charge, not even - half a minute. ... That's not much work [connecting everything]. Everybody knows his job. ... You must have experienced men, but if you would have maybe 30 or 40 persons [it's possible within 7 hours]. ... Several with a blowtorch, the rest attaches [the explosives], other people attach the det cords with the boosters. ... and another persons puts on the electrical systems. ... They didn't put out the fire [before putting in the explosives]? Yeah, that's weird, I agree, I have no explanation for that. ... If they have become heated [during a fire] you will have to replace those columns. Do you know what it will cost to replace those columns at the bottom and to rebuild everything else? Then you'll say: be gone with it. Right? ... That could have been a reason for that Mr. Silverstone or Silverstein, or whatever he is called, the owner of the building, to have said: "Look, this is just gonna cost a lot of money and what do I get back? Still the same old building." And at that moment I think Giuliano [sic] would have given off a permit to demolish: "If you can get rid of it, as soon as possible." ... This has been done by people. No, no [there's no discussion]. It's also done on orders. Mr. [Silverstein] has said so himself. You can hear him say it: "Pull it down. Be gone with it." [The smoke puffs at WTC 7:] Yeah, it could be. You don't know if those are charges. ... it could be materials breaking.... So, no I don't believe those are charges. That's also not necessary. ... If this is a consequence of the coming down of the WTC towers, that would highly surprise me. I just cannot imagine that. ... Take that building of Timothy McVeigh. That was half gone. And it still had to be demolished with explosives [that's how unlikely a collapse through fire is]. ... There will be more deaths in the coming years [due to asbestos]. " Is of the opinion that the smoke puffs at WTC 1 and 2 were the results of downward pressure. Not much time spent on that.
    
    

1. January 2002, Fire Engineering Magazine, Bill Manning in Editor's Opinion, '$elling Out the Investigation': "Did they throw away the locked doors from the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire? Did they throw away the gas can used at the Happyland Social Club Fire? Did they cast aside the pressure-regulating valves at the Meridian Plaza Fire? Of course not. But essentially, that's what they're doing at the World Trade Center. For more than three months, structural steel from the World Trade Center has been and continues to be cut up and sold for scrap. Crucial evidence that could answer many questions about high-rise building design practices and performance under fire conditions is on the slow boat to China, perhaps never to be seen again in America until you buy your next car. Such destruction of evidence shows the astounding ignorance of government officials to the value of a thorough, scientific investigation of the largest fire-induced collapse in world history. I have combed through our national standard for fire investigation, NFPA 921, but nowhere in it does one find an exemption allowing the destruction of evidence for buildings over 10 stories tall. Hoping beyond hope, I have called experts to ask if the towers were the only high-rise buildings in America of lightweight, center-core construction. No such luck. I made other calls asking if these were the only buildings in America with light-density, sprayed-on fireproofing. Again, no luck-they were two of thousands that fit the description. Comprehensive disaster investigations mean increased safety. They mean positive change. NASA knows it. The NTSB knows it. Does FEMA know it? No. Fire Engineering has good reason to believe that the "official investigation" blessed by FEMA and run by the American Society of Civil Engineers is a half-baked farce that may already have been commandeered by political forces whose primary interests, to put it mildly, lie far afield of full disclosure. Except for the marginal benefit obtained from a three-day, visual walk-through of evidence sites conducted by ASCE investigation committee members- described by one close source as a "tourist trip"-no one's checking the evidence for anything. ... However, respected members of the fire protection engineering community are beginning to raise red flags, and a resonating theory has emerged: The structural damage from the planes and the explosive ignition of jet fuel in themselves were not enough to bring down the towers. Rather, theory has it, the subsequent contents fires attacking the questionably fireproofed lightweight trusses and load-bearing columns directly caused the collapses in an alarmingly short time. Of course, in light of there being no real evidence thus far produced, this could remain just unexplored theory. ... Some citizens are taking to the streets to protest the investigation sellout. Sally Regenhard, for one, wants to know why and how the building fell as it did upon her unfortunate son Christian, an FDNY probationary firefighter. And so do we. Clearly, there are burning questions that need answers. ... The destruction and removal of evidence must stop immediately."
2. 2002, FEMA, 'Building Performance Study', Jonathan Barnett, Ronald R. Biederman and R. D. Sisson, Jr., 'Appendix C: Limited Metallurgical Examination': "Two structural steel members with unusual erosion patterns were observed in the WTC debris field. The first appeared to be from WTC 7 and the second from either WTC 1 or WTC 2. Samples were taken from these beams and labeled Sample 1 and Sample 2, respectively. A metallurgic examination was conducted ... Summary for Sample 1: 1) The thinning of the steel occurred by a high-temperature corrosion due to a combination of oxidation and sulfidation. 2) Heating of the steel into a hot corrosive environment approaching 1,000°C (1,800°F) results in the formation of a eutectic mixture of iron, oxygen, and sulfur that liquefied the steel. 3) The sulfidation attack of steel grain boundaries accelerated the corrosion and erosion of the steel. ... Summary for Sample 2: 1) The thinning of the steel occurred by high temperature corrosion due to a combination of oxidation and sulfidation. 2) The sulfidation attack of steel grain boundaries accelerated the corrosion and erosion of the steel. 3) The high concentration of sulfides in the grain boundaries of the corroded regions of the steel occurred due to copper diffusing from the HSLA steel combining with iron and sulfur, making both discrete and continuous sulfides in the steel grain boundaries. ... The severe corrosion and subsequent erosion of Samples 1 and 2 are a very unusual event. No clear explanation for the source of the sulfur has been identified. The rate of corrosion is also unknown. It is possible that this is the result of long-term heating in the ground following the collapse of the buildings. It is also possible that the phenomenon started prior to collapse and accelerated the weakening of the steel structure. A detailed study into the mechanisms of this phenomenon is needed to determine what risk, if any, is presented to existing steel structures exposed to severe and long-burning fires."
3. November 13, 2010, Geraldo at Large (live) on Fox News, '9/11 Group Asks NYC City Council to Investigate WTC Building 7 Collapse' (This interview was a response to a New York City ad campaign, shown on TV about 350 times, 'Buildingwhat.org'. As is quite usual for mainstream media, Geraldo talks a lot himself and keeps interrupting and steering away from key issues in the few minutes that the interview lasts) (Youtube) (This is related to Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, so be careful): "[Tony Szamboti, Mechanical Engineer:] Scientifically, it's impossible for fire to have done what we see." "[Geraldo:] And these 1,300 architects and engineers and some of the other relatives and families who agree with you [that the collapse of WTC 7 was by controlled demolition] ...". "[Bob McIlvaine:] I believe it was an inside job, okay. Please, but the thing is we don't have enough time to get into the reasons of that. ... I've talked to so many firemen, so many EMS workers, policemen, who talk about the explosions. And I know you don't wanna go into my son's death, but I feel that my son died from an explosion. I went to all the 9/11 Commission hearings. I've been researching this for nine years. I want truth. I've been lied to. It's beyond reasonable doubt that the 9/11 Commission did not tell the story. "[Geraldo:] "I am certainly much more open minded about it then I was."
4. Kevin Ryan in the documentary '9/11 Birth of Treason' (Youtube) (note: Ryan played a role in the original and official WTC investigation, but did become a key truther with a few irrational beliefs): "I was previously a division manager for Environmental Health Laboratories, a division of Underwriter Laboratories [UL]. ... I have a degree in Chemistry from Indiana University. I have a certification for Quality Engineering, which is very closely related to standards in the National Institute for Standards and Technologies. I was Laboratory Manager at UL for years, so I know about testing samples for national standards. ... I first sent a formal question to our Chief Executive Officer at Underwriter Laboratories in late 2003. And laid out these concerns to him. I said, "You told us that we had tested the steel and certified the steel. This steel has been destroyed now. There are alternative explanations as to what has happened." He responded a month later. He did confirm that UL had tested the steel used in the World Trade Center buildings. I have quite a number of statements in writing. Clearly this Chief Executive Officer, who was a Harvard-trained lawyer, by the way, not an engineer, had fully accepted the official story and been given information himself about testing done 40 years ago by our company to certify the steel of the World Trade Center. ... He asked me to be patient and wait for the official report of the NIST, because UL was working closely together with them to try and figure out what happened and eventually there would be an explanation. I did wait for another year. The report came out and it contained a great deal of contradictory information. They had done physical tests, both at UL and NIST, which showed that the steel could not have softened and that the floors could not have collapsed. And yet the report was coming out suggesting that these things actually did happen. ... The final story has been summarized kind of in seven steps. And if you walk through those and clearly summarize them and look at known facts about the buildings, look at the report itself to see if it is self-consistent, just look at the story to see if it is realistic, and in all three cases you can see that it is not. It is actually false in everyone of those seven steps. And this is just the collapse initiation sequence. They don't actually describe the actual dynamics of the buildings falling. They just say, "global collapse ensued". In that way they can ignore a whole lot of evidence that points to an alternative hypothesis, like explosions, from witnesses hearing explosions, or demolition squibs coming off of the buildings. The speed of the collapse is a very important piece of evidence. They can ignore all of that by just saying "global collapse ensued". Period. The biggest problems with that story are the fire proofing being lost ... Tests that were done by NIST, very weak, numble tests, prove that actually the fire proofing could not have been lost in the buildings. There was no energy for it - no mechanism for it to occur. And probably the biggest problem is the idea that the external columns would bow inward, which is primary to the official story. There's actually no physical testing to support that. There's no intuitive reasoning behind it. The only support is from a highly manipulated computer model, in which the temperatures were exaggerated, the fire times were exaggerated, all the fire proofing was stripped off. And the floors were disconnected. ... The floors are disconnected. There's no force to pull the columns in. How did it happen? We are talking about a phantom force now in a highly manipulated computer model. And that's what we are basing our future on. ... There were also still comments being made about jet fuel melting steel, by experts supporting the official story. So I wrote to the NIST and I asked them to please clarify the ideas that were being stated in the media and in the report. And I was fired for writing the letter. I was fired for nothing else, but writing this letter. I hadn't violated any policies and I had been promoted just earlier that year to a top-management position in my division."
5. Possibly a new pet theory of the future: September 21, 2011, Agence Presse France, 'Were Twin Towers felled by chemical blasts?' (quite possibly an amazing piece of disinformation that will one day be brought forward when the evidence for explosions becomes too widely known): "A mix of sprinkling system water and melted aluminium from aircraft hulls likely triggered the explosions that felled New York's Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, a materials expert has told a technology conference. "If my theory is correct, tonnes of aluminium ran down through the towers, where the smelt came into contact with a few hundred litres of water," Christian Simensen, a scientist at SINTEF, an independent technology research institute based in Norway, said in a statement released Wednesday. "From other disasters and experiments carried out by the aluminium industry, we know that reactions of this sort lead to violent explosions." The official report blames the collapse on the over-heating and failure of the structural steel beams at the core of the buildings, an explanation Simensen rejects. Given the quantities of the molten metal involved, the blasts would have been powerful enough to blow out an entire section of each building, he said. This, in turn, would lead to the top section of each tower to fall down on the sections below. The sheer weight of the top floors would be enough to crush the lower part of the building like a house of card, he said. The aluminium-water scenario would also account for explosions from within the buildings just prior to their collapse that have fueled conspiracy theories suggesting that the structures had been booby-trapped. Simensen presented his theory at an international materials technology conference in San Diego, California, and has detailed his calculations in an article published in the trade journal Aluminium International Today. ... A meltdown period of 30 to 45 minutes would be consistent with the timing of the explosions and subsequent collapse of both buildings in relation to the moment of impact."
6. Interesting contrast to the following section: 2007, Dr. John L. Gross, "responsible for the Structural Fire Response and Collapse aspects of the NIST World Trade Center Investigation." (www.nist.gov) during a Q&A at the University of Texas at Austin (Youtube): "First of all, let's go back to your basic premise that there was a pool of molten steel. I know of absolutely no eyewitnesses who said so, nobody has produced it. I was on the site. I was on the steel yards. So I don't know that that's so. Steel melts around 2,600 degrees fahrenheit. I think it's probably pretty difficult to get those kind of temperatures in a fire."
7. Another interesting contrast to the following section: February 7, 2004, Firehouse magazine, 'A Look Inside a Radical New Theory of the WTC Collapse': "Dr. Frank Gayle, Metals Expert: "Your gut reaction would be the jet fuel is what made the fire so very intense, a lot of people figured that's what melted the steel. Indeed it didn't, the steel did not melt. ... The investigators have found that the windows between the columns blew out, fueling the fire and bringing so much oxygen in that it weakened the structure underneath, which then collapsed. ... And while the planes' wings and engines weakened some areas, scientists don't think that was enough to make the towers fall. They're now focusing on the floor truss supports where white foam fireproofing may not have been as strong as builders believed. The reality is that more than two years later, investigators are still uncertain why the towers fell."

1. 2006, 'Collateral Damages' DVD (Youtube): "[Firefighter Philip Ruvolo:] You'd get down below and you would see molten steel. Molten steel! Running down the channel rails. Like you're in a foundry. [two firefighters in background: "Like lava. Like a volcano."] Like lava!"
2. September 5, 2006, Spike TV special 'Metal of Honor', a firefighter explains (Youtube): "You saw some of the thickest steel I have ever seen bent like a pretzel. And you just couldn't imagine the force that that took. When the grabbers were pulling stuff out, big sections of iron that looked literally on fire on the other hand. They would hit the air and burst into flames, which was pretty spooky to see."
3. September 5, 2006, Spike TV special 'Metal of Honor', another firefighter explains (Youtube): "You would create an air pocket by moving steel, fueling the fires underground. ... These underground fires were just like the fires of hell." Extra note: "The last fire was extinguished December 19, 2001".
4. Fire chief at the WTC site (Youtube): "You see how this debris is still smoking? That's from the fires that are still burning. Eight weeks later we still got fires burning. Every now and then one of the pieces of equipment will dig in, they'll open up a small area, the oxygen will rush in and you'll get this plume of brown and black smoke coming up. That's because that fire just got more oxygen. That means these things are burning. At one point I think they were about 2,800 degrees [1,538 degrees celsius]."
5. May 17, 2002, EHStoday.com, 'Safety Professionals Recount Time Spent at Ground Zero': "However, within hours of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Safety, Health and Environmental (SH&E) professionals for the Bechtel Group found themselves at Ground Zero, working side-by-side with city, state and federal agencies as part of the massive emergency recovery effort. ... On the morning of Sept. 11, [Norman] Black was at a project office in midtown Manhattan, and [Jeffrey] Vincoli had just landed at Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia when the second plane hit the World Trade Center (WTC). Within hours of the attack, Black was attending a chaotic meeting of state and city officials near Ground Zero that led to the formation of a Ground Zero SH&E team. At the request of officials, more Bechtel SH&E professionals led by Burkhammer headed to New York City to join the team. ... Thermal measurements taken by helicopter each day showed underground temperatures ranging from 400 degrees °F [200 degrees °C] to more than 2,800 degrees °F [1540 degrees °C] due to the ongoing underground fires. The heat melted the soles of workers' shoes and it became a safety concern for the search-and-rescue dogs. Many were not outfitted with protective booties. More than one dog suffered serious injuries and at least three died while working at Ground Zero. The underground fire was "extinguished" on Dec. 19."
6. Fire chief from 27th Battalion, FDNY, filmed while working at the WTC site (Youtube): "Oh, it's unbelievable. And this is six weeks later. Almost six weeks later. And as we get closer to the center of this it gets hotter and hotter. It's probably 1,500 degrees [815 degrees celsius]. We've had some small windows into what we thought was the [inaudible] some point and it looks like an oven. It's just roaring inside. Just a bright, bright reddish-orange color. See that stuff he's pulling. We're gonna hold off on the water. It's red hot."
7. 2002, Stanford University, Les Robertson, one of the chief structural engineers of the World Trade Center, giving a presentation (Youtube): "The project was on fire for months. Once we were down at the B1 level and one of the firefighters said: "I think you will be interested in this." And they pulled out a big block of concrete and there was like a little river of steel flowing."
8. July 2008, BBC, 'The Third Tower', narrator: "When a NASA airplane flew over Ground Zero the temperatures recorded were remarkably high, the highest within Tower 7's footprint with 727 degrees Centigrade, yet this was five days after 9/11 and firemen had been spraying huge amounts of water on the site. And there are reports of red hot metal in the debris [shows video of a bright yellow/white glow in WTC 7 debris]." Compare to final NIST WTC 7 report of November 2008: "Due to the effectiveness of the SFRM [fireproofing], the highest column temperatures in WTC 7 only reached an estimated 300°C (570°F), and only on the east side of the building did the floor beams reach or exceed about 600°C (1100°F)." In other words, the temperature of the WTC 7 rubble, at least close to the surface, after five days of continuous water spraying was considerably higher than the steel could have been heated in the first place.
9. Good-looking female police officer talking to a reporter (Youtube): "Steel-toed boots is one of the biggest things. Steel-toed boots. Out on the rubble it is still, I believe, 1,100 degrees [593 degrees Celsius]. The guys' boots just melt within a few hours."
10. Voice of a construction worker on the History Channel (Youtube): "It was literally steaming. Your boots would melt in certain areas. That's how hot it was. Steel was coming out red in certain areas in the first couple of weeks at least."
11. Reporter talking to a person at construction site (Youtube): "[Person 1:] This fused element of molten steel and concrete and all of these things all fused by the heat into one single element. [Other person:] And almost like a chunk of lava from Kallawaya or Iceland where there are very sharp, but breakable shards on the end here."
12. 2002, Matt Siegel, 'Three Nights at Ground Zero' (Youtube): "They've begun using heavy equipment to haul away the wreckage of Building Number 7, regardless of the fact that it is still burning. At the canteen we hear some of the truck drivers complaining that some of these girders are so hot they cause the beds of the dump trucks to crack and split open."
13. Clip about a bent steel beam of the WTC (Youtube): "[Narrator:] This eight-ton steel I-beam is six inches thick. It was selected to be preserved for future generations for the near perfect horseshoe-like bent, formed during the collapse. [Construction worker:] I found it hard to believe that it had actually bent because of the size of it and there are no cracks in the iron. It bent without almost a single crack in it. It takes thousands of degrees to bend steel like this. [Person 3 agrees:] Typically you have buckling and tearing on the tension side. There is no buckling at all."
14. April 1, 2003, C-Span 2, Ken Holden, director New York Department of Design and Construction who is active at the World Trade Center site, tells the 9/11 Commission (Youtube): "... numerous fires were still burning and smoldering. Underground it was still so hot that molten metal dripped down the sides of a wall from building six."
15. May 19, 2004, Rudolph Giuliani to the 9/11 Commission (Youtube): "There were fires of 2,000 degrees fahrenheit [1,093 degrees celsius] below the ground. "
16. Major George Polarek, incident commander at Ground Zero, in the 2002 CBS TV special 'Hymns of Hope and Healing' (Youtube): "And all of a sudden he comes out of this tunnel, screaming: "Wait 'til you see what I found!" And he pulls in ministers and officials and there, this cross is fully extended, melted together with the intense heat. The two beams were never initially part of the same structure. Heat literally melted them together. And the piece of metal that was draped over was molten metal that had literally fallen over one of the arms."
17. Sarah Atlas, of New Jersey's Task Force on Urban Search and Rescue, to Penn Arts & Science, summer 2002 issue: "Fires burned and molten metal flowed in the pile of ruins still settling beneath my feet."
18. October 2001, volume VI, issue II, Structural Engineers Association of Utah, 'WTC a Structural Success', p. 3: "[Leslie Robertson, the structural engineer responsible for the design of the World Trade Center Towers, is quoted as saying:] As of 21 days after the attack, the fires were still burning and molten steel was still running." Interestingly, Robertson had "no recollection" of having made this statement, which he also made during a presentation, when asked about it by debunkers site 911myths.com.
19. May 1 and 8, 2006, issue #18 and 19, American Free Press, 'Professor Says ‘Cutter Charges' Brought Down WTC Buildings': "The unexplained presence of molten metal at the World Trade Center (WTC) puzzled Jones and he contacted this writer to confirm the reports first published in American Free Press in 2002. These reports came from two men involved in the removal of the rubble: Peter Tully of Tully Construction of Flushing, N.Y., and Mark Loizeaux of Controlled Demolition, Inc. of Phoenix, Md. Tully told AFP that he had seen pools of "literally molten steel" in the rubble. Loizeaux confirmed this: "Yes, hot spots of molten steel in the basements," he said, "at the bottom of the elevator shafts of the main towers, down seven levels." The molten steel was found "three, four, and five weeks later, when the rubble was being removed," he said. He confirmed that molten steel was also found at WTC 7, which mysteriously collapsed in the late afternoon."
20. December 13, 2003, Libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=30926, post of an email of CDI's Mark Loizeaux to a certain "honway": "Molten steel was encountered primarily during excavation of debris around the South Tower when large hydraulic excavators were digging trenches 2 to 4 meters deep into the compacted/burning debris pile. There are both video tape and still photos of the molten steel being 'dipped' out by the buckets of the excavators. I'm not sure where you can get a copy. Sorry I cannot provide personal confirmation. Regards, Mark Loizeaux, President, Controlled Demolition, Inc."
21. 2002, History Channel, 'World Trade Center: Rise and Fall of an American Icon', "debris removal specialist" Richard Riggs (general manager Aman Environmental Construction, "a full service demolition, environmental remediation and construction contracting firm" one of the firms hired to clean up the WTC site (little info on it; also, Riggs looks like he doesn't believe much of his own explanation of office fires melting steel): "The fire is burning from the bottom because you have so many million squares of office space that are in those towers. What kind of combustibles are in a million square feet of office space? The paper, the furniture, the carpets. The fires got very intense down there and actually melted beams where it was molten steel being dug out."
22. 2002, Times Herald-Record, 'The Chaplain's Tale Featuring the unabridged transcript and audio [of the words of Chaplain Herb Trimpe]: "I realized it was actually warmer on site. The fires burned, up to 2,000 degrees [1,093 degrees celsius], underground for quite a while before they actually got down to those areas and they cooled off. I talked to many contractors and they said they actually saw molten metal trapped, beams had just totally had been melted because of the heat. So this was the kind of heat that was going on when those airplanes hit the upper floors. It was just demolishing heat."
23. Late fall 2001 magazine, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 'Mobilizing Public Health: Turning Terror's Tide with Science': ""Fires are still actively burning and the smoke is very intense," reports Alison Geyh, PhD. "In some pockets now being uncovered, they are finding molten steel." Geyh, an assistant scientist with the School's Department of Environmental Health Sciences (EHS), heads the team of scientists sent by the School in response to a request by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for a coordinated study of the disaster's potential health effects to those in the immediate environment. "
24. September 2003, National Environmental Health Association, 'Messages in the Dust', p. 40: "Ron Burger, a public health advisor at the National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ... arrived in New York to help September 11, but didn't arrive at the Ground Zero site until the night of September 12... A veteran of disasters from the Mississippi floods to Mt. St. Helens, Burger said it reminded him most of the volcano, if he forgot he was in downtown Manhattan. "Feeling the heat, seeing the molten steel, the layers upon layers of ash, like lava, it reminded me of Mt. St. Helens and the thousands who fled that disaster," he said."
25. September 3, 2002, Structural Engineer, p. 6: ""They showed us many fascinating slides," he [Dr. Keith Eaton] continued, "ranging from molten metal which was still red hot weeks after the event.""
26. May 29, 2002, Knight-Ridder Newspapers, 'Recovery worker reflects on months spent at Ground Zero': "Joe "Toolie" O'Toole, a Bronx firefighter ... Underground fires raged for months. O'Toole remembers in February seeing a crane lift a steel beam vertically from deep within the catacombs of Ground Zero. "It was dripping from the molten steel," he said."
27. December 2011, Guy Lounsbury of the New York Air National Guard's 109th Air Wing, writes for the National Guard Magazine: "One fireman told us that there was still molten steel at the heart of the towers' remains. Firemen sprayed water to cool the debris down but the heat remained intense enough at the surface to melt their boots."
28. March 3, 2004, New York Post, 'Unflinching look among the ruins': "These candidly shaken macho guys recall scenes still haunting their nightmares two years after 9/11 - a 4-foot-high pile of bodies hurled from the towers, finding faces that were ripped from heads by the violence of the collapse, and heat so intense they encountered rivers of molten steel."
29. April 1, 2002, Waste Age magazine, 'D-Day: NY Sanitation Workers' Challenge of a Lifetime' (information seemingly given by Kathy Dawkins, spokeswoman for the New York City Department of Sanitation: "But for about two and a half months after the attacks, in addition to its regular duties, NYDS played a major role in debris removal — everything from molten steel beams to human remains — running trucks back and forth between Ground Zero and Fresh Kills landfill, which was reopened to accommodate the debris."
30. 2002, William Langewiesche, 'American Ground', back cover and p. 32: "Within days after September 11, 2001, William Langewiesche had secured unique, unrestricted, round-the-clock access to the World Trade Center site. ... In the early days, the streams of molten metal ... leaked from the hot cores and flowed down broken walls inside the foundation hole."
31. 2007, U.S. News and World Report, 'Memories: They came to help at Ground Zero. What they experienced they can't forget' (seen on original site, but no more specific date is given than "2007"): "Lee Turner, a bewhiskered paramedic... Turner himself crawled through an opening and down crumpled stairwells to the subway, five levels below ground. He remembers seeing in the darkness a distant, pinkish glow–molten metal dripping from a beam–but found no signs of life."
32. September 9, 2002, Government Computer News, 'Handheld app eased recovery tasks': "The working conditions were hellish, said Greg Fuchek, vice president of sales for LinksPoint Inc. of Norwalk, Conn. For six months after Sept. 11, the ground temperature varied between 600 degrees Fahrenheit [315 degrees Celsius] and 1,500 degrees [815 degrees Celsius], sometimes higher. 'In the first few weeks, sometimes when a worker would pull a steel beam from the wreckage, the end of the beam would be dripping molten steel,' Fuchek said."
33. October 20, 2003 Volume 81, Number 42, Chemical and Engineering News magazine, 'Chemical analysis of a disaster': "The fires, which began at over 1,000°C, gradually cooled, at least on the surface, during September and October 2001. USGS's AVIRIS also measured temperatures when it flew over ground zero on Sept. 16 and 23. On Sept. 16, it picked up more than three dozen hot spots of varying size and temperature, roughly between 500 and 700°C. By Sept. 23, only two or three of the hot spots remained, and those were sharply reduced in intensity, Clark said. However, Clark doesn't know how deep into the pile AVIRIS could see. The infrared data certainly revealed surface temperatures, yet the smoldering piles below the surface may have remained at much higher temperatures. "In mid-October [a month after the attack], in the evening," said Thomas A. Cahill, a retired professor of physics and atmospheric science at the University of California, Davis, "when they would pull out a steel beam, the lower part would be glowing dull red, which indicates a temperature on the order of 500 to 600°C. And we know that people were turning over pieces of concrete in December that would flash into fire--which requires about 300°C. So the surface of the pile cooled rather rapidly, but the bulk of the pile stayed hot all the way to December.""
34. October 2, 2001, New York Times, 'Scarred Steel Holds Clues, And Remedies': "Two Wednesdays ago, on his first night in the city to collect scientific data on the collapsed World Trade Center buildings, Dr. Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl looked out the window of his room at the Tribeca Grand Hotel and saw a flatbed truck parked outside. By chance, trucks hauling steel from the trade center site paused there for an hour or two before proceeding to the docks, where the steel was loaded onto barges. Dr. Astaneh-Asl, a professor of structural engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, changed out of his nightclothes and went downstairs for a closer look. Over the next few nights, he cataloged 30 to 40 of the mighty beams and columns as trucks stopped in front of the hotel. ''I've found quite a number of interesting items,'' he said. ... Dr. Astaneh-Asl's project is one of eight financed by the National Science Foundation to study the World Trade Center disaster. He is also a member of a team assembled by the American Society of Civil Engineers to investigate the trade center site, and the society is dispatching a team to examine damage to the Pentagon. One piece Dr. Astaneh-Asl saw was a charred horizontal I-beam from 7 World Trade Center, a 47-story skyscraper that collapsed from fire eight hours after the attacks. The beam, so named because its cross-section looks like a capital I, had clearly endured searing temperatures. Parts of the flat top of the I, once five-eighths of an inch thick, had vaporized."
35. November 29, 2001, New York Times, 'Engineers Suspect Diesel Fuel in Collapse of 7 World Trade Center': "Dr. [Jonathan] Barnett and Mr. Baker are part of an assessment team organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA] to examine the performance of several buildings during the attacks. If further studies of the debris confirm the findings of extremely high temperature, Dr. Barnett said, "the smoking gun would be the fuel." ... A combination of an uncontrolled fire and the structural damage might have been able to bring the building down, some engineers said. But that would not explain steel members in the debris pile that appear to have been partly evaporated in extraordinarily high temperatures, Dr. Barnett said."

1. 2004, 9/11 Commission Report, p. 278: "The WTC actually consisted of seven buildings, including one hotel, spread across 16 acres of land. The buildings were connected by an underground mall (the concourse).The Twin Towers (1 WTC, or the North Tower, and 2 WTC, or the South Tower) were the signature structures, containing 10.4 million square feet of office space. Both towers had 110 stories, were about 1,350 feet [405 meters] high, and were square; each wall measured 208 feet [63 meters] in length. On any given workday, up to 50,000 office workers occupied the towers, and 40,000 people passed through the complex. [1] Each tower contained three central stairwells, which ran essentially from top to bottom, and 99 elevators. Generally, elevators originating in the lobby ran to "sky lobbies" on higher floors, where additional elevators carried passengers to the tops of the buildings. [2] Stairwells A and C ran from the 110th floor to the raised mezzanine level of the lobby. Stairwell B ran from the 107th floor to level B6, six floors below ground, and was accessible from the West Street lobby level..."
2. February 27, 1993, Seattle Times, 'Twin Towers Engineered To Withstand Jet Collision': "Engineers had to consider every peril they could imagine when they designed the World Trade Center three decades ago because, at the time, the twin towers were of unprecedented size for structures made of steel and glass. "We looked at every possible thing we could think of that could happen to the buildings, even to the extent of an airplane hitting the side," said John Skilling, head structural engineer. "However, back in those days people didn't think about terrorists very much." Skilling, based in Seattle, is among the world's top structural engineers. He is responsible for much of Seattle's downtown skyline and for several of the world's tallest structures, including the Trade Center. Concerned because of a case where an airplane hit the Empire State Building, Skilling's people did an analysis that showed the towers would withstand the impact of a Boeing 707. "Our analysis indicated the biggest problem would be the fact that all the fuel (from the airplane) would dump into the building. There would be a horrendous fire. A lot of people would be killed," he said. "The building structure would still be there." Skilling - a recognized expert in tall buildings - doesn't think a single 200-pound car bomb would topple or do major structural damage to a Trade Center tower. The supporting columns are closely spaced and even if several were disabled, the others would carry the load. "However," he added, "I'm not saying that properly applied explosives - shaped explosives - of that magnitude could not do a tremendous amount of damage." He took note of the fact that smoke and fire spread throughout the building yesterday. He said that is possibly because the pressurizing system that stops the spread of smoke didn't work when the electric power went off. Skilling, 72, was not involved in the design of the building mechanics. Although Skilling is not an explosives expert, he says there are people who do know enough about building demolition to bring a structure like the Trade Center down. "I would imagine that if you took the top expert in that type of work and gave him the assignment of bringing these buildings down with explosives, I would bet that he could do it.""
3. January 2001 interview, WTC construction manager (after the 1993 bombing) Frank De Martini, who died on 9/11 while climbing to the 89th floor of the North Tower to rescue people (Youtube): "The [WTC] building was designed to have a fully loaded 707 crash into it [a 767 is about 20% heavier, has a slightly wider fuselage, but two engines less]. That was the largest plane at the time. I believe that the building probably could sustain multiple impacts of jetliners, because this structure is like the mosquito netting on your screen door. This intense grid. And the jetplane is just a pencil puncturing that screen netting. It really does nothing to the screen netting."
4. December 12, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110354 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter John Moribito: "I felt the impact of the second plane. I felt the building shake. I saw the lights flicker at that point. I started to get nervous and wonder whether or not the buildings would come down. I approached the [fire] chiefs. The chiefs were assured by the engineers of the building that there was no way that the buildings would come down. They actually said that the buildings could withstand ten airplanes hitting it and there was no way that the buildings could come down. Also, I saw Mike Hurley and James Corrigan, who were the fire safety directors at the World Trade Center, who I had met a couple of times before, and they were running around. They were trying ... to give as much information to the chiefs as possible as to the structure of the building."
5. William Brinnier to Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth (Youtube): "I was best friends with Frank De Martini, the construction manager of the World Trade Center. ... Frank and I knew each other for over 30 years. We were the best of friends. We met in college. We were business partners. ... He participated in the repairs and the recuperation of the towers after that attack in 1993. ... I got down at one point, a little after 10. I said: "So, what's going on, guys?" And they said: "Oh, the South Tower collapsed." And I said: "What are you talking about? That doesn't make sense! There's no way! The building was designed to take the impact of one, if not multiple airplanes. It couldn't have possibly. They said: "Look for yourself!" Then I saw the instant replay and down it came. ... It wasn't until several years later, when I saw a clip of the collapse of Building 7. That was clearly caused by an explosion. There's no way that that could have ever been part of something to do with the planes. It wasn't hit by a plane. There were no major fires. There was no major debris from the collapse of the North Tower, which was the closest to it, several hundred yards away. There was just no logical explanation for that building to come down, straight down in the path of greatest resistence in a little less than 10 seconds. It did not make sense. I feel that those of us who do question the attacks are being labeled as nuts and people that are off the grid and to be ignored."
6. Sunday, September 10, 2006, Zembla (VARA, Dutch television), Danny Jowenko interview about 9/11 (Youtube) (died in a car crash in 2011): "[Is shown a video of the WTC 7 collapse] Do you see the top go first? No, it goes from the bottom. Right? They just blew the columns; it has been demolished with explosives. ... This is controlled demolition. I'm absolutely sure, it has been demolished with explosives. This was done at someone's direction. A team of experts has done this. ... The same day [as WTC 1 and 2?] The same day? Are you sure? Are you sure it was the 11th? That can't be true. Really? Then they worked really fast. ... This a professional job, no doubt. These boys know what they are doing. ... They did have the advantage that there was already so much destruction in the environment that they didn't need to be that precise. ... I am talking about the placement of packet charges instead of all that blowtorch work and linear shaped charges. Just rigorously because it was already a mess. Just charges against the beams and just really fast. ... Oh, those aren't even that many columns. That explains a lot. You can demolish this quickly. You could even do this with blowtorches and cutting charges. ... A cutting charge against it with a piece of duct tape is no-time, a minute per charge, not even - half a minute. ... That's not much work [connecting everything]. Everybody knows his job. ... You must have experienced men, but if you would have maybe 30 or 40 persons [it's possible within 7 hours]. ... Several with a blowtorch, the rest attaches [the explosives], other people attach the det cords with the boosters. ... and another persons puts on the electrical systems. ... They didn't put out the fire [before putting in the explosives]? Yeah, that's weird, I agree, I have no explanation for that. ... If it has become heated [during a fire] you will have to replace those columns. Do you know what it will cost to replace those columns at the bottom and to rebuild everything else? Then you'll say: be gone with it. Right? ... That could have been a reason for that Mr. Silverstone or Silverstein, or whatever he is called, the owner of the building, to have said: "Look, this is just gonna cost a lot of money and what do I get back? Still the same old building." And at that moment I think Giuliano [sic] would have given off a permit to demolish: "If you can get rid of it, as soon as possible." ... This has been done by people. No, no [there's no discussion]. It's also done on orders. Mr. [Silverstein] has said so himself. You can hear him say it: "Pull it down. Be gone with it." [The smoke puffs at WTC 7:] Yeah, it could be. You don't know if those are charges. ... it could be materials breaking.... So, no I don't believe those are charges. That's also not necessary. ... If this is a consequence of the coming down of the WTC towers, that would highly surprise me. I just cannot imagine that. ... Take that building of Timothy McVeigh. That was half gone. And it still had to be demolished with explosives [that's how unlikely a collapse through fire is]. ... There will be more deaths in the coming years [due to asbestos]. " Is of the opinion that the smoke puffs at WTC 1 and 2 were the results of downward pressure. Not much time is spent on this and it is clear Jowenko is not exactly itching to take the conspiracy point-of-view.
7. July 16, 2012, Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, 'WTC Chief Electrical Design Engineer Calls for New 9/11 Investigation: An Exclusive Interview with Richard Humenn, P.E.E.': "I worked for Joseph R. Loring & Associates from 1957 to 1996 – some 40 years. We were selected as the electrical engineers [for the WTC] in the early ‘60s, and Joe Loring assigned me as the responsible engineer to supervise a team of other engineers, designers and draftsman to produce the contract construction drawings. I personally wrote the specifications for the project. During the course of the design period, I attended meetings with the Port Authority, the architect, and other consultants. We learned from the other consultants exactly what they were doing, particularly regarding the mechanical, structural and elevator systems. All of us became very closely aware of what was going on with all the other trades. I designed the network power distribution system, including the network transformers for the substations, the emergency generator system, elevator evacuation system, under-floor wiring system through a network of cells in the floor that met trenches surrounding the core, and ultimately fed into the electric closet and the panels. I designed the lighting system, fixtures, and central lighting control system for the entire project throughout all the buildings. I also designed the fire alarm, intercom and public address system – used for the first time in a high-rise building. During the course of the design, we visited manufacturers in the production of the equipment, witnessed tests, and particularly the network transformer prototype was subjected to severe testing. I must emphasize that they were ventilated dry-type transformers – no fluids, nothing that could burn. For the first time, we designed a temporary light and power system to be used during construction, but we utilized permanent components to be built up during construction to also serve temporary power for the machines, elevators, etc. ... [After the 1993 WTC bombing] I immediately faxed my office and said that was no transformer blowing up; that was a terrorist attack – it was a controlled explosion. A few months later, they called me back to the States and I was part of the team to develop ideas on how to further protect the towers from any other terrorist attacks, but the main concentration was vehicle attacks – no one ever thought for a moment that a plane could be used as an attack mechanism.
   
   "Yes, there was a simulated test done of the accident that happened to the Empire State Building where a 707 hit the Empire State Building and did severe damage at that point. They simulated a plane hitting the towers, and the result of the test was that the plane would break up before it even got to the interior columns. The only solid part of the plane would have been the engine – that could have skidded in and hit an interior column. The real fact of the matter was when they were showing some shots after the attack on Tower 1, the lights were on in the lobby, so the power was not interrupted throughout the building as the power was distributed on two of the interior columns. If the interior columns were hit by the plane, we would have lost power immediately. It was a simulated test. [Structural Engineer] Les Robertson admitted that the test did not include the impact of the fuel exploding [but Chief WTC Structural Engineer John Skilling stated in a 1993 interview that jet fuel was taken into account]. In the actual impact on the Empire State Building, as I understand it, the fuel did not catch on fire. ...
   
   "Just before Tower 2 went down, I saw a replay of the plane hitting Tower 2, and at that point I said that was no accident – it had to be a terrorist attack. I noticed that there were puffs of smoke and glass being blown out at the lower floors of the towers, and my immediate thought was this was a coordinated terrorist attack. Not only did the planes hit the tower, but there were explosives set off within the building to do additional damage – that was my impression. The other thing I noticed just before Tower 1 started to collapse, the antenna started to fall, and that led me to believe right away that the interior columns, which were the mainstay of the support of the antenna, were compromised. I totally discounted the original pancake theory, because if the connections to the columns from the floor trusses to the columns were broken, those columns would have been left standing all the way up to the top – only the floors would have collapsed. I knew something was awry then, and not too long after that [I was invited] to be interviewed and was shown some presentations by AE911Truth, which more or less confirmed [what I had previously thought]. My statement was that the planes alone did not bring down the towers.
   
   "[During the Korean War] our best explosive was C-4. We learned to build bridges and then blow them up – how to place charges where they would be most effective. [If this was a deceptive controlled demolition] I don't think they did a very good job of hiding it. All of the interior columns had to be compromised at multiple points. [There were] 50 or so interior columns that surrounded the elevator shafts. I would expect that if I were to attempt to bring the columns down, I would place some kind of thermite explosive inside the columns at maybe 30-foot intervals. My only theory is that the only people who had 24/7 access to the elevator shafts was the elevator maintenance company. They did a lot of their work after hours. They inspected rails and all the interiors of the shaft for safety reasons. A team of men working from an elevator that they control could have access from the top to all the interior columns from the inside. There's no way there could have been access from the outside, because people would have noticed. But inside, at least two or three sides of each column were exposed and could be penetrated by a drill or something to insert some form of explosive [with a remote-controlled blasting cap]. When I was dealing with them, the elevator company was ACE. They were very good people – they helped me with some of my studies. There was always constant maintenance of the rails which guided the elevators on each side. ...
   
   "The NIST report says that it was the fires that did it. There's no way – fire is not going to bring down a steel building. Some other external heat source such as thermite could have compromised the connections between the girders and trusses. [To give an analogy:] if you cut the feet, the whole body falls. Both the interior and exterior columns were ringed at every floor with deep girders. They were effectively cages, with both vertical and horizontal supports. If the columns were cut, the girders would come down with them. As far as the exterior columns are concerned, they were much smaller than the interior columns. With the theory that the connections to the floor did not fail, then the floors, as they were coming down, pulled the exterior columns with them. The interior columns were so massive they could not have been pulled down by the connections to the floors. ... I go back to my original statement that knowing the structure and the strength of the interior columns, the planes alone could not have brought down the towers. I leave it open as to what else brought them down, but I don't go with any theory that the planes alone were the reason. I can't get out of my mind seeing evidence of some kind of explosions happening on the lower floors before the towers collapsed. I remember seeing it in real-time on TV. Something was happening on the lower floors, just before collapse. I later [noted] that the transformers were so heavy they would have gone down before the floors collapsed – they would have ended up at the bottom, making gigantic holes going down.
   
   "Basically, yes [the fireproofing is simply to prevent local damage in a fire and not absolutely essential to keep the building up]. The main floor supports were trusses. It would have been virtually impossible to encase them in concrete, which is the normal fire-proofing method, so they use the spray-on fire-proofing. Some of it could have been knocked off when the planes hit, but only locally. I'm sure there were fires from the furniture, carpets, paper, etc. that continued to burn after the jet fuel was burned up, but they would not reach a temperature [sufficient] to severely damage any structural members. ... I would think it was the cutter charges [when it comes to the molten metal flowing outside minutes before the collapse], because if the whole plane penetrated the building, it would have broken up into many small pieces, and not necessarily consumed by fire."
8. Richard F. Humenn, WTC chief electrical design engineer who helped design the building, to Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth (Youtube): "I am a retired professional electrical engineer. I went through Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and received the Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree in 1954. I worked for Joseph Loring [chief electrical engineer of the WTC] for 41 years and was principal chief electrical engineer for the World Trade Center complex. I was trained in Fort Belvoir School to use demolition practises on bridges and other structures as well as roadways. On September 11th I was watching live TV from my kitchen and saw the whole thing. I saw the repetition of the actual incidents and thereafter I was in a state of shock because it was unbelievable to me, knowing the strength of the structures, that a single incident of a plane impacting and fuel burning would be the reason for the towers to collapse. I just did not believe it. It was like a dream. A nightmare. ...
   
   "Well, I would be more comfortable if I said something first...that the pancake theory that was initially proposed did not work. It was not feasible because if the floors pancaked, the columns would still be standing. That would have meant all the connections to the girders on both sides, interior and exterior columns, would have been disconnected for the pancake theory to work. So, it's an invalid theory. The only way that I can see that the towers could have collapsed is that the interior columns were compromised, and by being compromised the center of the towers would become virtual black holes sucking everything in to the center of the towers. I was very familiar with the twin towers' elevator systems because we took over conceptual maintenance and improvements of the elevator systems after the project was completed. I actually rode up and down elevator shafts on the top of a car going 1200 feet a minute, you can imagine the experience! I'm very familiar with the interior structure that surrounded the elevator shafts and the accessibility which the elevator companies had 24/7, and could visualize that the columns could have been set up with explosive devices during the off-hour operations of the building by elevator company personnel. The elevator companies generally did work at night, when the building was closed down. I believe elevator personnel could have been involved because they had 24/7 access to the shafts which is the normal time in the evening and early morning hours when they perform their maintenance. And, of course, their access to the elevator shafts gave them total access to the surrounding core columns... the interior of the core columns.
   
   "I even expounded a theory that this collapse may have started at the top, where the floor gave way under the weight of the substation transformers, which weighed like over 30,000 pounds apiece, and there were four on one side, four on the other, and once they had gone through they would have cascaded down and down. But, again, if that happened, the interior columns and the exterior columns would still be standing. They were independent structures, as I explained before, that the interior column Faraday cage, belted around each floor with deep girders, stood alone from the exterior columns, also belted with deep girders, and the purpose of the floor trusses was simply to support a concrete floor. Now, the connections made, I believe the connections made, did not fail between the girders and the trusses, because, as I mentioned before, the black hole effect, everything was sucked inward and the pin connections that held the exterior columns to the trusses were pulled inwards towards the middle, and I visualize only the interior columns being compromised by falling within each other like a telescope. And that could only have been done by explosive charges.
   
   "There were four on each side of the towers. There were two substations on the 108th floor, the 75th floor and the 41st floor and the 7th floor. At those eight locations there were four transformers in each substation that weighed over 30,000 pounds I believe (but in that area). And they were certainly very...the heaviest part of the mechanical floor were those transformers and anything else that was up there was inconsequential as far as weight goes. The transformers would not explode on their own – they were air cooled, dry tight transformers. For them to be totally pulverized at the bottom...it was a shame that after the collapse that a forensic engineering unit didn't go into the debris and try to find, at that time, why the towers had collapsed. I'm sure there was other evidence that could have given a better indication at the time that there was something else wrong. Well, they didn't take them out! I recall seeing a public television show, PBS show, where the firemen were in the lobby of, I forget whether it was tower 1 or tower 2, but the plane had already hit, and what I noticed was the lights were still on in the lobby. Now, that led me to believe that the plane never got to the core columns because the feeds for all these transformers, feeding all the light and power in the towers, were adjacent to the core columns, 15kV feeders that fed these transformers, and they were attached...they were wire-armour cabled in conduit attached to the side of two of the core columns going up each tower. And if the lights were still on, the substations were still operational...right after the planes impacted. There were 32 30,000 pound plus, maybe, transformers...powered transformers, in the substations on the mechanical floors in each tower. And yet after the collapse there was, from what was reported, there was no evidence of them being found at the bottom of the towers. I wonder why."
9. September 8, 2002, Times Herald-Record, 'The Elevator Man's Tale', Robert Jones, elevator engineer:"There was a story that came out in USA Today that said we all ran out like cowards. The reporter, Dennis Couchin, has been advised as to what had happened and he's going to rewrite his story. I'm just putting this in right now because I feel it's necessary, because the men that were there in '93, most of them, a lot of them were still there. I regret that we had to leave the building. This is something I still feel a lot of heartache over. And there's not much we could've done. And there is nothing you could do. I know a lot of the other trades had contingency plans as well, and they were trying to get their personnel together. And there was mass chaos, mass confusion all around. I exited with one of my bosses, with another mechanic, on Church Street. We went underneath on the concourse level where all the shops were. And we came up on Church Street which was on the east side of the complex. That was, Church Street was the avenue that runs north and south, parallels Broadway. And we came up outside, and both A Tower and B Tower are on fire. You could see A Tower, the outside, the columns were glowing red by that time, because that had been on fire for at least a good 25 minutes by that time. B Tower, I could see tremendous structural damage to the outside of the building. We stood on the corner across the street from the towers. There were about two or three bosses, I believe, trying to count heads again, trying to get as many people together, calling on the radio, trying to consolidate all the manpower as much as they could, which was really almost an impossible job because of the thousands of people that were coming out of the trade center on the street. There was mass confusion. And we were right on the perimeter of St. Paul's Church, and we started up not Cortlandt Street, Fulton Street. We were ordered to go from Church Street up to Broadway. We stood there for about 20 minutes or so, and as we started to go up another block, we were about a block and a half away when B Tower finally came down. By the time we got that block and a half up, thousands of people started running toward us. I saw a little bit of B Tower coming down. We started to go with the flow, go with the crowd, because it was overwhelming, the number of people running back toward you. We ended up down on the South Street Seaport Museum. As much as we tried, there were quite a few people, must've been about 20 or 30 people from our group, Ace Elevator, in the museum area. There wasn't much we could do at that moment other than watch the crowds and people covered with dust and whatever, so we ended up going into PS 17 and sitting down. Everybody had soda and some drinks, and a lot of the men decided to leave, try to get out. The interesting thing was we were on the end of Pier 17 overlooking the East River. There was at least maybe 20, 30 tugboats sitting near Pier 17, and it was incredible because it was almost like Dunkirk when they came in and tried to get all the British soldiers off France, the continent. This is what the tugboats were coming in, because people were trying to get off Manhattan Island, and you could see thousands of people crossing the bridges, the Brooklyn Bridge. People literally, quite literally, jumping over to get on to these tugboats to get off Manhattan Island. Some of the other workers that I had worked with, the mechanic that was up on the 43rd floor, ended up going to Staten Island. He lives in Jersey. He was telling me horror stories, people leaping off the ferry. The end of the dock where the ferry boat was pulling out, they would just run off trying to grab the ferry boat, it was unbelievable. They actually stopped a few times in the bay to pick people up in the bay, throw life preservers. People were serious about getting off Manhattan. So it ended up, the one boss, my boss, and another mechanic and I stayed. We were the last of the group. My boss decided he was going to go back to find the head of the elevator division for the Port Authority, Joe Amatucio. This was at maybe 11, 11:30, maybe 12, we decided to go back toward the trade center. From what my boss was telling me, he remembers Joe Amatucio coming out of the building, but I'm not sure if he had talked to them or overheard them on the radio, but he was going back into the complex to try to find some of his own people, but he never made it out. He was one of the few that I know of. There were a couple of people I knew that worked for the building. You did a story on Carmen Griffen, one of the elevator operators, I know her. So this was, she was lucky to get out, very lucky. ... We went back, my boss and I walked back toward the trade center. We got as far as Broadway. The fire department now had set up a perimeter around the trade center, a block away. He tried to cross at certain streets, Fulton Street and Cortlandt Street. And he came back and we went up to the other corner of St. Paul's Church which is Vesey Street, which is on the north side and it borders the north side of the trade center complex. The firemen told us, "Go ahead, if you want to kill yourselves, go ahead." And so the two of us went down and we got to Church Street. I got as far as Church Street and Vesey Street. I'm looking at the northeast plaza, which was No. 5, which was totally engulfed in flames, and it was only two trucks. One truck kept running out of water pressure, the other truck was trying to fight a fierce fire with one hose. You know, it was just incredible, and the heat was intense and the smoke. I had to put a handkerchief over my face just to block the smoke from inhaling that. And my boss disappeared into the smoke. He went south to try and find his friend. It was, if you could envision that picture of right after they fell, the big, you know the sides of B Tower laying in the middle of Church Street, piercing the structure, then the street, it was incredible. So I stayed around there for at least another two hours hoping that my boss would come back up that way, but he never did. He ended up going south and I went north. ... It's just, I, when I looked up at the towers, it was, what I tell my friends was, I saw them go up and I saw them come down. Because quite literally, I worked in the city in '68, '69, '70. I worked in Wall Street. And I saw them going up in '73. I took pictures from when the building was still under construction. They still had a kangaroo crane, that was when I first got there. They were just finishing off A Tower and they were finishing off B Tower. So I was still there during the construction phase. And I came back, it was kind of ironic coming back and then being there the day they fell."
10. Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, Tom Sullivan, explosives loader for Controlled Demolition, Inc. in the years surrounding 9/11 (an interesting coincidence, considering all the possibilities out there: CDI was contracted to clean up the WTC rubble), video interview (Youtube): "My name is Tom Sullivan. I worked for Controlled Demolition Incorporated, CDI, the top-rated explosives demolition firm in the world, owned by the Loizeaux family, during the years surrounding 911. And I worked for them as an explosives loader for two and a half years. As an explosives loader, my job was to place explosives in the buildings to prepare them for demolition. I was licensed while in New York by the New York Fire Department to handle explosives. And I worked on major projects, such as Seattle Kingdome, the Three Rivers Stadium, Philadelphia Naval Hospital, and Keyspan Gasholders in New York, among others. ... . The story that just a few columns, can cause a synchronized global collapse, an implosion, is just nonsense. ... We were told by the NIST report that fire, caused one column [in WTC7] to fail, and from that point, we had a global collapse of the building in a classic implosion. I don't see how this could actually happen in real life. When we load a building, we have to have all of the support columns on a given load floor, fail at the same time. Within milliseconds of one another. And therefore, the entire building comes down in a synchronized implosion. So I think this notion of a one-column failure causing an entire building to implode in a synchronized fashion is just nonsense. Looking at the building, it wouldn't be a problem, once you gained access to the elevator shafts. Then a team of loading experts would have access to all the core columns and beams. The rest could be accomplished at that point by just the right kind of explosives for the job at hand. The choices are many out there. I've worked on buildings, steel frame buildings, where essentially you load only the bottom third of the building and that causes the building to implode. ... You wouldn't need miles and miles of det cord. You could have used wireless remote detonators. And they've been available for years. You need only look at an action movie to see them in use, and of course, the military has them as well. Contractors don't use them, on the other hand, because they're just too expensive. You wouldn't have found steel casings to be left in the rubble. They haven't been used for years. What we use now is RDX copper-jacketed shape charges. And when they're initiated there is nothing left of those charges. And in the case of thermite, thermite self-consuming cutting charges have been around since they've been first patented in 1984. So there would be nothing left in the debris pile, except some residue of molten iron. The key word here is "controlled" demolition, and I emphasize the word "controlled." ... I knew from Day One that this was a controlled event. And why I did that is because simply looking at Building 7 You have a sudden collapse of the building. It's fairly symmetrical as it comes down. There's the classic kink, which means that the center core fails first and you can see that on the video. And the building falls near freefall. So I really, honestly didn't believe this from Day One. Because this is the way buildings classically come down with a controlled demolition. I want to emphasize that I in no way represent CDI. And what I have to say is based solely on my own working experience and training while working for them. This NIST report is very suspect. ... What I saw was a classic implosion, the center of the core, the penthouse area, starts to move first, and then the building follows along with it. So this idea that it started on one corner, from one column off on the side, therefore the core was involved, starting from that corner, just doesn't make sense. It's not how it works! Well, again, if you listen to the testimony of people on the ground, they're reporting exactly what I would have expected."
11. September 11, 2001, Donald Trump interview by anchorman Rolland Smith on WWOR/Channel 9 (Youtube): "[Rollins Smith:] There's a great deal of question whether or not the damage and the ultimate destruction of the buildings was caused by the airplanes, architectural defects, or possibly by bombs or aftershocks. Do you have any thoughts on that?
    [Donald Trump:] It wasn't architectural defect. The World Trade Center was always known as a very, very strong building. Don't forget, that took a big bomb in the basement [in 1993]. Now, the basement is the most vulnerable place because that's your foundation and it withstood that. And I got to see that area about three or four days after it took place, because one of my structural engineers actually took me for a tour because he did the building. And I said, "I can't believe it". The the building was standing solid and half of the columns were blown out. This was an unbelievably powerful building. If you don't know anything about structure, it was one of the first buildings that was built from the outside. The steel, the reason the World Trade Center had such narrow windows is that in between all the windows you had the steel on the outside. You see the steel on the outside of the building?
    That's why when I first looked – and you had these big heavy I-beams. When I first looked at it, I couldn't believe it, because there was a hole in the steel. And this is steel that was -- you remember the width of the windows of the World Trade Center folks. I think you know if you were ever up there, they were quite narrow and in between was this heavy steel. I said, "How could a plane, even a plane, even a 767 or 747 or whatever it might have been, how could it possibly go through this steel?" I happen to think that they had not only a plane but they had bombs that exploded almost simultaneously, because I just can't imagine anything being able to go through that wall. Most buildings are built with the steel on the inside around the elevator shaft. This one was built from the outside which is the strongest structure you can have and it was almost just like a can of soup.
    [Rolland Smith:] You know, Donald we were looking at pictures all morning long of that plane coming into building number two and when you see that approach the far side and all of a sudden within a matter of milliseconds the explosion pops out the other side.
    [Donald Trump:] Right. I just think that there was a plane with more than just fuel. I think, obviously, they were very big planes; they were going very rapidly. Because, I was also watching where the plane seemed to be not only going fast, it seems to be coming down into the building, so it's getting the speed from going down hill so to speak. It just seemed to me that to do that kind of destruction is even more than a big plane, because you're talking about taking out steel, the heaviest caliber steel that was used on the building. And these buildings were rock-solid and you know it's just an amazing, amazing thing. This country is different today and it's going to be different than it ever was for many years to come."
12. Apparently a later September 11, 2001 interview of Donald Trump, this time by German TV reporter Stephan Bachenheimer (Youtube): "Tremendous amounts of fuel that were dumped on the building and 1,600 degrees temperatures, I guess that's more than anything can take, no matter what."

Summarized in Part 2.

• October 23, 2001, World Trade Center Task Force interview with Battalion 1 chief Joseph Pfeifer: "Correct [that I initially was the highest ranking officer present]. Shortly after I was there, the division came in. They started out the same time we were rolling. So they were there very quickly, and I briefed Chief Hayden on what I knew at the time... Also, I saw my brother, who was a Lieutenant in 33, and we spoke a little bit and then he went up also. By this time all the Chiefs in the world and the Commissioner and everybody else was there and I was just in a support role of the operation of the lobby command post in the first tower. Then the plane hit the second tower, the south tower. At that point Chief Donald Burns and Battalion Chief Orio Palmer went into the second tower and I took command of that. ... Communications from the onset was difficult and both Orio and myself tried to get that to work. We tried it numerous times and we couldn't get the repeaters to operate properly, so we had to rely just on handie-talkie communication, which is at best hit or miss in any high- rise. ... We weren't getting good reports from the police at all. There was one point there was a possibility of a second plane coming in and somebody said something and I turned around to try to confirm that and we couldnít confirm that. There was also later on the possibility of a third plane. Again, we just heard somebody say it and we tried to confirm it. We could not confirm it with any law enforcement people. We all ran out at that point. So that was the difficulty we had. At one point after the second plane hit, I think, I'm not positive of the time line, I know Chief Callen asked over the radio to come down to the lobby. But with difficulty with communications, that didn't happen. It didn't fully happen. I'm not too sure who heard that or how many people came down. There was no way of really telling at that point. But right before the south tower collapsed, I noticed a lot of people just left the lobby, and I heard we had a crew of all different people, high-level people in government, everybody was gone, almost like they had information that we didn't have. Some of them were moved across the street to the command post. You name them, they were there. Yes, in the lobby. They were moving the command post. So, I guess, after that companies were coming in and we were listing them on the command board so we had an account of everybody. Unfortunately, the command board is not around any longer. At one point the Fire Safety Director, Mike Hurley, asked us if we wanted the building evacuated. I'm not too sure if he meant both buildings or he was just talking about this. In either case, I believe he was talking about both buildings. I turned to Chief Hayden and said do you want to evacuate the buildings? He said yes. I turned to Mike and I told him evacuate the buildings. So there were definite communications back and forth that we wanted the buildings evacuated. I forget what stage that was at that time. Again, I can't put that on a time line. But it was before the second building collapsed for sure because Mike wasn't in the lobby with us. So it was sometime before that. Then in the lobby we heard the south tower is collapsing. ... I noticed in the lobby area where you go around the corner to an escalator that leads up into the Customs Building, and as things were collapsing into the lobby of the north tower, I pushed everybody around the corner. I knew where I was so I pushed people around the corner. There was my aide, Chief Hayden, Chief Callan, an EMS Lieutenant, Father Judge, I think Chief Villani, and there might have been a couple other people, a Lieutenant, I don't know his name, a Fire Lieutenant, and maybe a couple other people. At that time I went around to Chief Hayden and said I'm going to evacuate the building. ... And that was just in the blackness where at that point we didn't even know our way out. Then Father Judge was there and he was lying on the ground and I went over to him, took off his collar, I opened up his shirt, checked for a pulse, and I knew at that point that he didnít have any. ... He was with us in the lobby all the time. ... Right. He was saying some prayers and he was very anxious in the lobby. I could watch him. He was very concerned, very different, Father Judge, as I know him. Apparently, what it was, it was a heart attack. We didn't know at the time it was a heart attack. We thought he was hit with debris. ... [Commissioner Feehan] was there in the lobby earlier along with Commissioner Von Essen and OEM. I didn't see Chief Ganci myself. But everybody had to come there first. ... But standing out there [in front of WTC 1], at one point, we just heard a loud, thunderous, rumble sound, and thatís when people really were saying run, run. I must have had my back to the building or was talking to one of the Chiefs because I never saw it. I just heard the sound and ran about 50 yards west up Vesey Street towards the river and got about half a block at most and dove behind a car or between cars in the street."
• October 23, 2001, World Trade Center Task Force interview with fire chief Peter Hayden: "I heard the transmission file to respond. It was a third alarm transmitted by Battalion 1 Chief Pfeifer. He also established a staging area at West and Vesey, which is standard procedure. He transmitted a 10-60, which is for a major mishap, such as an airplane crash. We brought collapse units and additional units over for a mobile third alarm assignment. We asked for additional rescue also. ... I responded from quarters with my aide. We responded down Broadway to Canal Street. We went west on Canal Street to West Street and stopped on West Street at number One World Trade Center, which is the north tower. Visible in the sky you could see at that time a heavy amount of smoke obscuring other portions of the building. I really could not see any indication at that time that a plane had hit it, but certainly it appeared some catastrophic event had occurred. When we responded in, I entered the lobby. There were a number of people outside of the building who were burned and in need of assistance. There were people jumping from windows. It was very chaotic. When we entered the lobby, there was a lot of damage in the lobby, broken glass, tiles dislodged and laying on the floor, you know, the decorative panels all around the walls. But it was rather calm in the lobby. Chief Pfeifer was in control. We responded in. We tried to gain control of the building systems, meaning the communications systems, the elevators. None of the building systems were working. The elevators were all out of service. The communication lines were not working. The initial orders were to try and get the elevators in operation. We met up with the fire safety director from number One World Trade Center, Jim Corrigan, who is now deceased, and we told him of our problems, what we needed to do, what we needed from them to gain control of the building systems. He put his engineers to work on that. We set up the command board and the command post. As the companies were coming in, we were giving them assignments based on at that time, mostly the distress calls. ... It was Chief Pfeifer and his aide [in the North Tower lobby], a number of -- Chief McGovern coming in. He was in the 2nd battalion. I can't necessarily recall the order of these arrivals and response. Chief Ryan also came in. Chief Palmer came in from 7th battalion. And Chief Ryan was in the 4th battalion. ... Shortly thereafter a number of the uniformed and civilian staff of the department arrived in the lobby, Commissioner Von Essen, Commissioner Fitzpatrick, Commissioner Feehan. The tour commander, who was Joseph Callan arrived on the scene. I spoke with him very briefly. He came in, and I kept him apprised of what happened thus far. He asked me at some point in time if we were thinking of collapse. I said yeah, we have to, a plane just struck the building. ... When the civilian staff arrived, then Commissioners Feehan, Fitzpatrick and Commissioner Von Essen, we discussed strategy and tactics. I specifically remember telling Commissioner Von Essen that we were not attempting to extinguish this fire. It's just strictly a search and rescue operation. We were not trying to put this fire out. We had thousands of people coming down the stairs... At one point in time, there were numerous bodies coming down, and I really lost track of time there. There was a discussion that we had to get out of the lobby. It was not a good place to be. We talked about setting up the command post across the street outside the building at West and Vesey. I remember saying we can't go out into the street because of the numerous bodies that were coming down. It was actually dangerous to try to enter or exit the building onto the street. We said let's go up and cross the escalator through six and cross the overpass at West and Vesey and come down and set up a command post on West and Vesey. They left the building to establish a command post over there. I heard Chief Ganci on the air at that time. At that time the Chief and -- that was in the lobby. It was Chief Callan. He was running that. Chief Ganci was over there, and I imagine Commissioner Feehan and at one time Commissioner Von Essen. When they left the building, that was the last I ever saw of them, although we did have radio communications with their car 3 about what was going on. There were numerous discussions in the lobby. The chief of safety came in. He discussed his concern about the collapse. His advice to us was to let the building just burn, you know, get the people down and get out. We said that's exactly what we're planning to do. ... Early on we realized that a number of the companies were coming in and were not reporting to any staging area we established. So we were losing some control of the companies coming in. There was also some communication problems later on with companies coming in, units responding to the second alarm after the other plane hit. They weren't sure which was World Trade Center One and World Trade Center Two. So that became confusing. ... We discussed with Chief Downey the operations, and that continued for a while. We were making a concerted effort to get the elevators down and answering all the distress calls. We were working with the engineers. We were working the intercom in the lobby between the elevators, trying to get an idea what floors they were on. The engineers told us we have people on this floor, that floor, 66th floor, 71st floor, stuck in the elevators. We answered as many of the distress calls as we could. We concentrated on trying to get some type of hand line hardware communications. We attempted the repeater system. The repeater system was not in service. The repeater system wasn't working. So we were at a distinct disadvantage because we had none of the building systems to work with. Throughout, of course, there were communication problems. All we had to rely on was handy talky communications. Once you go up several floors in the towers there, you have poor handy talky communications, and that's all we had. ... Then at some point in time we were told there was another event. We were in the lobby of the north tower. We weren't sure exactly what it was. We were told another plane hit the south tower. Shortly thereafter we met in a little conference, myself, Chief Callan and Chief Pfeifer. Shortly after that discussion, we started to evacuate the north tower. We started telling everybody come on down. That was repeated a number of times. However, we didn't get a lot of acknowledgment off of the handy talky communications. The latest report -- the last report we had from anybody at all was that there were people that were heading up around the 48th floor. That was several minutes prior to this collapse. So we had people as high as the 50th floor while we had communications. I think that's about as far up as anybody got. We were calling people down on a number of occasions, but we weren't getting -- except for the lower floors, companies coming down, they weren't coming down. They were being directed north. ... Chief Burns was in the lobby also. I remember after the first strike we were talking. After the second plane hit, we conferred. It was Chief Callan, myself, Chief Pfeifer, Chief Burns and Chief Palmer. Over what handy talky frequencies we were to use so that we didn't interfere with each other's communications because he was going over to handle the south tower. They went over to the south tower, Chief Burns and Chief Palmer. ... It was because Chief Burns brought up the issue that the last time we had the terrorist attack there, they had trouble with communications. I remember that discussion. And they took off for the south tower. That was the last time I saw them. ... I never saw Chief Ganci there, in the lobby. I heard him on the radio. Commissioner Feehan was there. In fact, I discussed a number of the issues that were going on at the time with Chief Feehan, Commissioner Von Essen and Commissioner Fitzpatrick. Commissioner Feehan, Fitzpatrick, Deputy Commissioner Tierney were there. Ray Goldbach, their exec, he was in the lobby. OEM representatives Kevin Cully was there. He was alive. Richie Scheirer was in the lobby. Who else? There were a lot of people. ... Yes, Chief Downey was there, sure. In fact he was there relatively late into the operation in the lobby. I don't know where -- he was there earlier on and then left and came back. So he was in the lobby there. I assume at one point from conversation that he was going to the command post. Once we talked about establishing the command post on West and Vesey with Commissioner Von Essen, Commissioner Fitzpatrick, Commissioner Feehan and Chief Downey. I was under the impression they all left and went over there. Obviously Commissioner Von Essen did go there when he was with Chief Feehan. I was told that on the way over there Commissioner Von Essen was there and was interrupted by the Mayor. They went off in another direction, very fortuitously getting out of harm's way there."
• November 2, 2001, World Trade Center Task Force interview assistant chief Joseph Callan, citywide tour commander: "On the radio I heard a report of a plane crash into the World Trade Center. I immediately proceeded to leave the office and respond, and responding at the same time with me was Chief of the Department Ganci, Chief Nigro, which was the Chief of Operations at the time. Chief Cassano, Chief Burns and a few other Chiefs. Shortly thereafter, we arrived at the World Trade Center. Chief Ganci assigned me to take command of the north tower and he assigned Chief Donald Burns to take command of the south tower. Getting out of my car, putting my gear on, I then went and did a reconnaissance of the exterior of the north tower. I saw we had numerous floors on the upper levels on fire, approximately eight floors with fire showing. As I was going around the far side of the north tower, I then saw the second plane hit the south tower. I immediately went into the lobby of the north tower to take command of operations. In the lobby of the north tower, in command was Chief Peter Hayden, and Chief Joe Pfeifer. ... When I got there it was the two Chiefs there. That I can remember was Chief Pete Hayden from the first division, Chief Joe Pfeifer from the first Battalion and also I think Chief Steve King, the safety Battalion Chief was there. I know the [Fire] Commissioner [Van Essen] was there with me for a few minutes. Pretty much the only ones I remember. ... I took command and we started assigning additional units to the upper floors. I gave them instructions that we are not going to be extinguishing fire. What we were going to do is assist in evacuating the building. Numerous units arrived. They were sent up and put to work. ... The elevators were not working, nor were any of the building communication systems. So we had very little control or contact, communication wise, with the units that were on the upper floors. Approximately 40 minutes after I arrived in the lobby, I made a decision that the building was no longer safe. And that was based on the conditions in the lobby, large pieces of plaster falling, all the 20 foot high glass panels on the exterior of the lobby were breaking. There was obvious movement of the building, and that was the reason on the handy talky I gave the order for all Fire Department units to leave the north tower. Approximately ten minutes after that, we had a collapse of the south tower, and we were sort of blown up against the wall in the lobby of the north tower, and we gathered together those of us who were still able to. Chief Pfeifer gave the order for everybody, Mayday for everybody, to leave the north tower and we then proceeded to try to find our way out of the lobby of the north tower. ... Minimal transmissions on the handy talky and I think that was because of the building construction. The handy talkys generally don't work great in those type of buildings and we relied many times on alternate types of communications and the building communication system. In this particular operation the building system was out of service almost immediately. So that was not available to us. So like I say, because of the lack of communication, we had very little control of units on the upper floors and that to me was a very large problem. Since the fire was burning for close to an hour, I thought it was time to get our units out of the building. ... "
• November 2, 2001, World Trade Center Task Force interview with fire chief Albert Turi, chief of safety: "At approximately maybe about twenty of 9:00, quarter to 9:00, we're sitting in the Command Center, Chiefs Barbara, Callan and Cassano, and heard a large thud [first plane impact]... Chief Callan immediately got up. He was the citywide on duty and he left the office immediately. I continued listening to the radio for a few more seconds and it was pretty obvious that something catastrophic had happened. So I left the Command Center with the intent of responding and I saw Donald Burns coming down the hallway and he stated that a plane had just hit the Trade Center. My aide was on vacation, so I grabbed Lieutenant Chiafari, who was assigned to Safety Command, and we went down to the garage and we were responding. ... We entered the lobby and I saw Commissioner Von Essen, Commissioner Fitzpatrick was in there, Bill Feehan, Joe Callan and Pete Hayden. Those are the people I immediately recognized. I went over to the Commissioner and informed him that the second plane had hit the south tower. He already knew that. ... Then there was a brief discussion about, since we had two towers going, that the lobby of Tower 1 would not be a good place for a main incident command post . I didn't know at that time that Chief Ganci and Cassano were already setting up something on the median of West Street . So I told them that I would go across on West Street and find a suitable place. As I left the building , I heard a body hit about 15 feet from me, but I never turned around and looked. ... They had just set it up on I believe the building is 2 World Financial Center. ... When I got there, the people that I remember being there were Chief Ganci and Chief Cassano, and there were other personnel who I just don't remember who they were. And I said to them that even this place was not a safe position for it. So I looked about 20 feet to my north and there was a ramp going to an underground garage and I told them to move it to that ramp for fear that flying glass would scale hundreds of feet and we would at least have a place to duck in and get away from it if it should happen, and that was done immediately. We did that immediately. And then I had a brief discussion with Chief Ganci and I told him that, Pete, we're going to lose some people here. It's inevitable. It's too tremendous. We're probably going to lose some people. ... Then Steve Mosiello, Chief Ganci's executive assistant, came over to the command post and he said we're getting reports from OEM that the buildings are not structurally sound, and of course that got our attention really quick, and Pete said, well, who are we getting these reports from? And then Steve brought an EMT person over to the command post who was I think sent as a runner to tell us this and Chief Ganci questioned him, where are we getting these reports? And his answer was something, you know, we're not sure, OEM is just reporting this. And within ten seconds of that conversation, I was writing on my clipboard -- can I use foul language on this? That is correct; right at the ramp. The ramp was still on the exterior. We were not in the garage. Maybe 20 feet from the opening of the garage. The next thing I heard was Pete say what the fuck is this? And as my eyes traveled up the building, and I was looking at the south tower, somewhere about halfway up, my initial reaction was there was a secondary explosion, and the entire floor area, a ring right around the building blew out. I later realized that the building had started to collapse already and this was the air being compressed and that is the floor that let go. And as my eyes traveled further up the building, I realized that this building was collapsing and I turned around and most everybody was ahead of me running for the garage, and I remember thinking I looked at this thing a little bit too long and I might not make this garage. But I did. ... I kept screaming over the bullhorn. I believe it was somewhat effective. There were people now listening to it and starting to move, and I saw a battalion chief coming up who was evacuating the area that I just was trying to get evacuated. I gave him the bullhorn and said continue this. Get everybody out of here. They've got to get three blocks north. And I started walking south on West Street to find out where Chief Ganci went when I heard this enormous roar. ... I did not see Chief Nigro at all. I don't even remember seeing Chief Nigro when I first got there. ... Chief Nigro, who does not live too far from me, he lives about a half a mile from me or a mile, I got ahold of him on the telephone. He told me he was home also and I said I'm going to go back but I don't have a car, you know, don't worry about it, I'm going back as soon as I just clean up, he picked me up and we went back to the site."
• December 3, 2001, World Trade Center Task Force interview with Lieutenant Joseph Chiafari, Safety Command and Chief Turi assistant on 9/11: "I heard Chief of Department Ganci from his office yell out oh, shit, a plane just hit the Trade Center. From there a group of us left headquarters in passenger cars. I was driving Chief Turi that day when we left the building and we headed over the Brooklyn Bridge. ... We waited maybe about a minute or two [after the second impact] and then we headed back toward Church Street, again toward the building. ... There in the lobby command post there was Chief Hayden, who was in the Division that day and later we had Chief Cruthers there, along with the Fire Commissioner Von Essen, Tom Fitzpatrick, Donald Burns was there. ... Commissioner Feehan, I saw him in the lobby of tower one when we first had gotten there. ... When Chief Turi and I went into the building, he advised them of [the second plane hitting the South Tower] and they were very well aware of it. Richie Sheirer, the Commissioner for OEM, he was there. He was making recommendations that maybe they move the command post into where his building was operating out of. I think it's number 7. He was telling us his place is up and running and he says move it over there because there was a discussion taking place that we have two buildings on our hands. We have to put ourselves in a place where we could monitor this whole thing, for what was going on. The decision had been made to move the command post to the west side of West Street, which we later took up space over there... While we were in there, a pretty big concern was the condition of the elevator cars, whether they were operating or not and that the the cables would fail, if they come crashing down into the lobby area and then blow out into the lobby where most people were congregating. They wanted to get everybody out of the lobby areas themselves. ... We were most likely in the lobby no more than ten minutes. At most. No more than ten minutes. I should really state my arrival times. From the time we left the building here, we left shortly after the plane hit, which was just about a little after quarter of 9. ... We left the [North Tower] lobby, must have been around 20 after nine, so couple of minutes to get across the roadway, so I would say definitely by 9:30 we are up and running. ... So we went across West Street across the roadway. Directly across from tower number one, which was a parking garage ramp. I believe it was part of the Winter Garden parking area. On the ramp where the command post was set up, field comm. had their van there. The board was already set up with the field comm. officer. Chief Ganci was there, along with Chief Downey. ... Again, it was a lot of fielding there of Chiefs at the command post. Again, it was -- at the command post was Chief Ganci, Chief Turi. It was Ray Downey, Chief Pauls, he was acting Deputy that day from the 11th Division... Stackpole, yes. Stackpole was in that day. He was at the command post as well. ... Visibly from where we were standing, I estimate that I probably saw about a hundred people jumping to their death. ... Stackpole, Cross and Downey, they were at the command post. I want to say that shortly before tower two collapsed, is when they left the command post. I believe when Chief Ganci sent them, they were talking about going in to the -- I don't know if they were going into tower one or tower two, but they definitely left the command post. They went up to West Street. I don't know where they actually went. That was shortly before. That was almost to -- they were at our presence almost five minutes before, maybe ten. ... [After the first collapse] you could start to see behind you an envelope of dust start to come down the ramp itself [at the command post]. Not having with us any SCDA. We just had our bunker gear on and running down the ramp, I'm thinking, okay, here we are, we are going to a lower area and we are going to suffocate in here. ... I happened to go down to the lower area, down to the lower part of the ramp and it was very clear and visible there. I mean it started to get dusty. I wound up going into an office area, which was right at the bottom of the ramp. Must have been the office for the garage. I don't know. At the moment I happened to see a telephone there. I picked up the telephone and I felt the need to make contact with my wife and just happened to call up and let her know my whereabouts. I think I was on the phone not even 30 seconds and just said hello and kind of like sent a little love and hang up the phone and get back to to what we were doing. We were lucky that the whole area where we were, it was pretty visible. ... Initially I was met by Chief Bob Ingram, and Steve Mosiello, those being two people that were at the command post when we first started this whole thing. ... A decision had been made at that point to evacuate anybody out of West Street, head them north. I had met up with Chief Turi and he said this is what we are going to do. ... Chief Turi having to commandeer a bull horn. I don't know if he had gotten it from one of the cops or who he had gotten it from, but he was making a very large announcement over the bull horn in the street, you know, having all people in the street head north of Murray, I think we were trying to get, because that was a couple of blocks north of where we were. We were trying to set up another command post now at Murray and West. He wanted everybody north of Murray Street. ... . I want to say we got to West and Murray. We parked ourselves right by a police car. I think this was where we were going to set up this command post. I felt comfortable at that location, so what I did was I took the mask off my back. It was -- I said let me take this thing off. I'm not going to need this right now. I don't think I put the mask down for all of 30 seconds when you start to see the tower two peeling away just like -- tower one peeling away, just like tower two did. ... A bunch of us, not all together, of course, started running north and you ran until the visibility started to reduce itself. ... We were all huddled and hugged together underneath -- behind this parked car. We were as low as we could be. Here comes the dust cloud. And, you know, it was almost like being in like a dust chamber. Your visibility was down to nothing. You are sucking this stuff in. You are choking... Nobody had heard at that point from Chief of Department Ganci. We didn't hear from Chief Nigro or Chief Cassano. ... I remember seeing Steve Mosiello there, who was with Chief Ganci right before the second collapse. ... We decided we are going to go back out onto West Street, back to where we were, back to Vesey and West and try to get into where Chief Ganci might have been from that point on. "
• October 23, 2001, World Trade Center Task Force interview with fire marshall Steve Mosiello (best friend and aide to chief of department Pete Ganci): "I heard Chief Ganci, whose offices are three offices down the hall, call out to Dan Nigro that a plane just hit the World Trade Center. ... It was myself, Chief Ganci and Chief Nigro in the car, and we responded over to the World Trade Center. ... We parked on the corner of West and Vesey on the sidewalk. I gave Chief Ganci his gear. I took my gear. And we were setting up a command post. I believe it was in the street at that point, and somebody said -- I don't know who it was -- go over here by those two garages, where we eventually wound up setting a command post in front of Two World Financial. Somebody mentioned -- I don't recall who -- that this is our area of refuge should something happen, meaning the two garages, which during the course of the day did wind up being our first area of refuge when tower number two collapsed. ... Looking at the buildings, both garage doors were up. ... At this point there was only one plane. ... At that point the Mayor shows up. I was standing away from the command post, and the Mayor showed up. And one of his aides asked where the Fire Commissioner was. I remember the Mayor being with Commissioner Kerik and himself and a lot of his aides and escorts or whatever. Somebody said the Commissioner was in One World Trade Center, north tower, that was hit already. I said [I will] go up and get him. What was I thinking with all the jumpers and everything else. I believe at that point when I went over to get the Commissioner, that's when the firemen of 216 was killed by a jumper when a jumper landed on him. I went to the building, looked for the Commissioner, and they said he had just left. So now we've crossed each other's paths. I came back to the command post across the street at Two World Financial, and the Commissioner was there talking to the Mayor. ... At that point I don't know exactly when the Commissioner and the Mayor had left. It was pretty soon after they had left that Richie Zarillo, who works with EMS -- I believe he's an OEM liaison -- came running up to me. I was not on the ramp at this time. I was like almost at the sidewalk location. He said Steve, where's the Chief? I have to tell him, you know -- I said tell him what, Richie? These buildings are in imminent danger of collapse. I said how do you know that, you know? So he ran with me. I ran over and grabbed Chief Ganci and said Chief, these buildings are in imminent danger of collapse. He looked up at me. ... Then at that point within a few minutes [of the second impact [note: more like 55 minutes]], Richie Zarrillo came up to me. I'll go back to that. He said that these buildings are in imminent danger of collapse. I went right up to the Chief because I was few steps away. ... I said Richie, come over here and tell the Chief what you just told me. He got the words out of his mouth. I think it was maybe 25, 30 seconds later, maybe, the building came down. I believe the Chief said where did he get this from. He said from OEM. We were trying to determine how exactly he got it. In retrospect, how did he get it? ... I think he told me he got it from Peruggia. ... Yes, yes. I recall seeing Chief Downey before the second plane hit. He was talking to Chief Ganci."
• October 24, 2001, World Trade Center Task Force interview with deputy chief of department Daniel Nigro (who became chief on 9/11): "We [Ganci, Mosiello and I] continued west and we parked our car somewhere on approximately West and Vesey. I believe field com was in the process of setting up a command post in the middle of West Street, where there was an island that runs up the street, which we felt to be too close to the building because of debris that was already falling and had fallen in the street and we moved the exterior command post across West Street to the garage entrance in front of, I believe the address would be 2 World Financial Center. At that point, also, on the scene, to my knowledge, were Assistant Chief Burns, Assistant Chief Barbara, Assistant Chief Cassano and Assistant Chief Callan. Chief Callan was placed in command of the lobby command post of the north tower where the plane had hit, and he left the exterior command post to go into the lobby to join the first division that was already there. At some point after our arrival and after we had moved to the west side of West Street, I heard a loud roar of a jet, looked up and saw the second plane impact the south tower. At that point it was clear to me it was a terrorist attack. Earlier I didn't know what it was. I assumed it was an accident. I turned around and saw the Mayor, with his large group, including the Commissioner and I went back to speak with him for a moment, regarding the fact that I believe this to be a terrorist attack. When I got back to business at the command post, I noticed the Mayor had left that area and that was the last I saw of him until that night I suppose. Chief Ganci and myself directed Chief Burns and Chief Barbara to the south tower, along with Chief Ray Downey. Ray took, I think all of the companies that were assembled behind us at the command post to the south tower to assist in the evacuation of that building. At that point, I told Chief Ganci I was going to quickly walk around the perimeter of the Trade Center to assess the degree of damage to the two towers, because our vantage point on West Street only allowed us a view of the west side of the building. I took my aide with me. We walked east on Vesey Street, stopped in front of 7 World Trade Center to speak to EMS Chief Peruggia, who gave me a quick update about victims on that side of the building. He told me how many jumpers he felt had hit the plaza, which we knew we couldn't help and that the people that were already injured were being removed to where the ambulances were staging, which was north of the Trade Center on West Street. I don't recall him giving me any number of people injured. We stepped over small airplane aviation parts, on Vesey, continued west, continued looking at the building. I looked up at the south tower and could see that it was more heavily damaged than we could tell from our west vantage point. That the second plane had - although it hit from the south, it also did a great deal of damage to the north part of the building. As I got on to Church Street, I walked south on Church towards Liberty, where I was going to turn right. I looked up at the east side of the south tower and found that to be also very heavily damaged, which we couldn't see. I was going to report that information back to Chief Ganci. I was stopped briefly by a person who used to work here in headquarters... After I spoke to him we proceeded south, heard a loud noise, knew it to be the building coming down, looked up, saw the building coming down on us. I grabbed my aide as he was going to go south and I took him east on Dey Street, and we got as far as we could until materials started crashing down and took refuge in a doorway of a building just east of the Millennium Hotel and survived in the doorway. ... I was told that the command center was now at Barclay and Broadway... We walked up to that location. ... [We] got there and found out that -- the first semi-good news, that another command post was indeed operating at West and Chambers and that Assistant Chief Carruthers was in charge up there. ... I went up to the other command center, found Chief Carruthers, Deputy Assistant Chief Michael Butler, and started to find out who was missing and who had survived. So Chief Callan was there and alive. I was told Chief Cassano was taken to the hospital. Chief Burns and Barbara were missing, as was Chief Ganci, Commissioner Feehan and numerous other people. At some point after I was briefed, I took command of the operation from the Chambers Street post and was told that Chief Fellini was at the forward operations post at West and Vesey, from which the search, rescue and extinguishment was being directed of what was left of the complex. Steve Mosiello and Chief Turi told me they had been looking for Chief Ganci. ... The most important operational decision to be made that afternoon was the collapse had damaged 7 World Trade Center, which is about a 50 story building, at Vesey between West Broadway and Washington Street. It had very heavy fire on many floors and I ordered the evacuation of an area sufficient around to protect our members, so we had to give up some rescue operations that were going on at the time and back the people away far enough so that if 7 World Trade did collapse, we wouldn't lose any more people. We continued to operate on what we could from that distance and approximately an hour and a half after that order was given, at 5:30 in the afternoon, 7 World Trade Center collapsed completely. ... No [I was never inside any of the staging areas of the two towers]."
• October 24, 2001, World Trade Center Task Force interview with Tom McDonald, assistant commissioner of fleet and tech services: "I responded with Pete Guidetti, who was the driver. Commissioner Feehan, Commissioner Fitzpatrick, Captain Ray Goldbach and myself, all in Commissioner Feehan's car. We crossed over the Brooklyn Bridge, came off the bridge, went our way on to Broadway, pulled over on Broadway, approximately between Liberty and I believe Cortlandt Street. As we were getting out of the car, the second plane hit. ... At some point Commissioner Feehan, Commissioner Fitzpatrick and myself crossed over West Street, went over to, I guess in front of the Merrill Lynch building where the ramp was, where the two garages were, to a staging area. I remember seeing Bill Feehan, who was with us, Commissioner Fitzpatrick, Commissioner Von Essen, Peter Ganci, Chief of the Department, Chief Nigro, Al Fuentes, Ray Downey. ... I remember seeing a good friend, Timmy Stackpole. He was with Dennis Cross and Bob Ingram, Chief Ingram. At one point Commissioner Von Essen turned to me and asked me to clear West Street, to move apparatus out of the middle of West Street so that we could have an open lane to move emergency vehicles in and out. Commissioner Drury was with me, along with firefighter Ken Wagner. ... Most people were running into the garage area of the Merrill Lynch building. Standing next to me was a Fire Department mechanic, Pat Murphy. I pushed Pat forwards and we ran towards, I believe the Winter Garden or it may have been the Merrill Lynch building, but we wound up in the Winter Garden. There was a canopy overhead. There was debris coming down before we entered the building. We got into the building, maybe 50 feet, got behind a pillar and then got on the floor. A cloud of dust ensued around us. We couldn't see anything. All the normal stuff, we were choking and filled with debris. ... I hobbled up to Vesey and West. I met Father John Delendick. We exchanged some hearty greetings and some prayers, then I don't know where Father John went after that."
• October 24, 2001, World Trade Center Task Force interview with Ray Goldbach, executive assistant to the Fire Commissioner: "[Roughly 5 to 10 minutes after the second plane impact we] worked our way down around to the front of 1 World Trade Center and went into the lobby, where at that point the command post was established. The Fire Commissioner was there when we got there. It was chaos. A lot of units reporting in and trying to organize units and give them different assignments and send them up there, but there was hundreds of people running around inside of the lobby. The Port Authority was completely overwhelmed, I believe, in their ability to cope with this at that time. ... At that point, Commissioner Feehan and Tom [McDonald] were talking to Chief Hayden, and Chief Callan, about what we were doing, where we were setting up our units. I don't recall seeing Chief Ganci in 1 World Trade Center, nor Chief Nigro for that matter. ... I didn't see Chief Burns, I didn't see Chief Downey. I saw Chief McGovern, who was the Battalion Chief down there, who is dead. I saw Chief Joe Pfeifer, who was the first of the Chiefs to arrive at the lobby because I remember looking at him and he looked terrible already. He lost his brother. ... We crossed all the way across West Street. We are now where Ganci and Nigro had set up the command post on West Street in front of the Winter Garden. I believe we were probably over there for at least 20 minutes at some point. ... Then Manny Pepea from the Mayor's office came over to us again and told us that the Mayor was looking for the Commissioner and they were on Barclay Street. I walked with him and I believe it was a fire marshall, I think it was Mike O'Neill. We walked over towards Barclay Street. I didn't even know where Barclay Street was. We were walking towards that direction. We went over there, we couldn't find the Mayor or his group. I said to the Commissioner let's go back to the command post on West Street, I will find out exactly where we have to go, then we will make our way there. Before we got back to the command post, somebody told us that the Mayor's group had now gone to 7 World Trade Center to the OEM command post. We went from where we were at that point, it was somewhere around Vesey or Vesey or something. Like that. We got into 7 World Trade Center, we took the escalator up to the second floor, then we were going to take the elevator. I think it was John Peruggia from operations, but I'm not sure, at that point told us we had to get out of that building. Everybody was evacuated in that building. I remember saying to myself, this is ridiculous, at some point are we going to stop to try to get control of this or are we going to keep running away. We walked out of 7 World Trade Center, now following the whole group of people from City Hall who were somewhere ahead of us. I think we were on Washington Street near Greenwich Street, when the north tower started to collapse. I remember running and I think it was down Greenwich Street with John McLaughlin. We lost the Commissioner and the guy that he was with, the marshall."

These can be explained by half a dozen elevators crashing down to the lobby and upper basement levels of both buildings, burning many people here alive. See the next section for more detailed testimonies.

The favorite witnesses of 9/11 "Truth" persons such as Alex Jones and other no-planers for the World Trade Center collapses are Willy Rodriguez, John Schroeder, Barry Jennings and Louie Cacchioli. The reason seems obvious: All these men provide accounts that don't match any of the others. In case of the first three, I'm pretty sure it's done completely on purpose. With Cachioli I'm less certain, because he already provided his somewhat anomalous account on September 12 to People.com, at least to an extent. In any case, these testimonies have been used to claim that bombs were going off in the basement (elevators), the lobby (elevators) and the lower levels of the building before the building fully collapsed.

1. July 20, 2005, Greg Szymanski interview with firefighter Louie Cacchioli (Szymanski is an unreliable conspiracy source and unsurprisingly, despite Cacchioli's words to People.com right after 9/11, his account doesn't fit any of the others): "As he made his way up [the North Tower] 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 Hedsal 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. [Note: Personnel in the Security Command Center at floor 22 of the North Tower are trapped immediately after the first impact when debris falls in front of the door. This appears to have been caused by a fireball in the elevator shaft that blows out one of the walls around floors 22 to 25. The men are rescued by colleagues and firemen around 10:00 AM. Various witnesses report seeing the partial collapse on these floors as they go down. No one on these floors has reported explosions indicating a bomb, however.] 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 [Note: This happened when the South Tower collapsed, with many firefighters thinking it was their own building] and stalled the elevator. "Luckily, we weren't caught between floors and were able to pry open the doors. People were going crazy, yelling and screaming. And all the time, I am crawling low and making my way in the dark with a flashlight to the staircase and thinking Tommy is right behind me. "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. [Note: I have no idea what this one could be. I have seen no other reports about it] 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!' "But still it never crossed my mind the building was going to collapse. I really only had two things on my mind and that was getting people out and saving lives. That's what I was trained for and that's what I was going to do. "I remember at that point in the stairwell between the 23rd and 24th floor, I threw myself down on the steps because of the smoke. It was pitch black, I had my mask on and I was crawling down the steps until I found the door on the 23rd floor." 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. "I knew we had to get out of there fast and on the 12th floor a man even jumped on my back because he thought he couldn't make it any farther. [Note: Again, this doesn't fit any other account. It also makes no sense he was on or above the 12th floor when the collapse began, because he would be dead in 10 seconds.] Everybody was shocked and dazed and it was a miracle all of us got this far." 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. At that point, it was either left or right to an exit, Cacchioli, the man he originally found by the standpipes and another lady going right while the others went left, a move which by the grace of God saved his life. "It seemed like every move I made that morning was the right move," said Cacchioli. "I should have been killed at least five times. The people that went left didn't make it out, but we came out alive on West Street." After making sure the two civilians were attended to, Cacchioli went to his fire truck finding Lance, the driver, who was attending to the truck and waiting for the crew to return. Looking up at the North Tower directly above, Cacchioli recalls not having the slightest idea when he exited that the South Tower had already collapsed. He also remembers wondering about the fate of his crew members, the driver telling him two were missing and two others injured and already taken to the hospital. "Next thing, we look up and see the tower collapsing. We saw it starting to come down fast, Lance running towards the water to safety and I headed down West Side Highway." [Note: What?! His North Tower was standing all this time? Again, this makes no sense and fits none of the other accounts.] ... Cacchioli was called to testify privately, but walked out on several members of the committee before they finished, feeling like he was being interrogated and cross-examined rather than simply allowed to tell the truth about what occurred in the North Tower on 9/11. [Note: Very curious that Cacchioli with his completely false account is about the only one, along with the equally curious account of Barry Jennings, to talk about being questioned by the 9/11 Commission and accusing it of a cover up on this matter - even though the 9/11 Commission appears not to have bothered with the WTC collapse. That was NIST's area of research.] "My story was never mentioned in the final 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." ... Asked if he ever was pressured to keep quiet about his 9/11 experience, he added: "Nobody has bothered me. I don't think I should be bothered. I know what happened that day and I know the whole truth hasn't come out yet. I have my own conscience, my own mind and no one, I mean no one, is going to force Lou Cacchioli to say something that didn't happen and wasn't the truth.""
2. 2008, Alex Jones' 9/11 Chronicles, Firefighter John Schroder / John Schroeder segment, 53:50: "My buddy, Terry Rivera, standing right here. Beautiful day. I'm looking up. All of a sudden we like hear Pgggh! What the hell is - in seconds we see the wing of the plane come in and explode bodies out of the building on Liberty Street. I run in screaming: "A plane just hit the trade center." ... We ran into Mike Curley, who is the fire safety director of the towers and he said, "Why don't you go hook up on the West Side highway." And now there was a lady on fire right beside the door. My buddy Terry Rivera had a can and put her out. That might have saved his life. I said to Shawn Talon [phonetic] and Jeff Olsen [phonetic], "See you up top." ... never to see them again. ... So we're standing there in the lobby, we're getting it all together. [Cut at this point, when Schroeder says "All of a sudden we hear: Pgggh-boom!"] I look down to my right and the elevators exploded something out of a Bruce Willis Die Hard movie. People just come running out of the elevators - on fire, fireballed. We were in there for maybe five minutes. Five minutes and the elevators exploded on us. Yeah, we said, "Something is wrong here." I mean, the plane hit up at the 80th floor. Five minutes and now all of a sudden the elevators are exploding on the first level of the lobby? [ISGP: See above: This is BS. All other early firefighters described how the lobby was already blown, smelling like kerosene, with people on fire or burned up * - as Shroeder also indicated earlier with the woman on fire.] We said, "We've got to go up. We have spent enough time here. [ISGP note: With bombs going off in the building? More Mayday/second plane BS follows.] ... We got down to the third floor and that's where the stairwell collapsed on us. And we had to dig our way out. Now the building is coming down - we can't see nothing. Once again, saying our prayers. And we're dead and all of a sudden, we're looking for another stairwell and me and the lieutenant open a door and we find a body in this loset. And we were like, What the heck is that? Where did this come from? Holy shit, what - something is going on here. Something crazy is going on. We got out of the third floor and that's where the maintenance fella with a little flashlight saved our lives [Willy Rodriguez]. He was pointed over and if itw asn't for him, we never would have found another stairwell. Willy Rodriguez, thank you, Willy [makes a prayer gesture and points up the sky]. He saved out lives. He saved about 12 guys' lives that day. We got down to the lobby and everything was blown out, exploded. [ISGP note: yeah, due to the collapse of WTC 2]... We took off like cockroaches. Twelve of us, we all went our own ways. I ran across North End Avenue and outran the building, throwing my gear off. I was standing on the ledge, watching the building come down. I was diving in the river to Jersey."
3. January 4, 2009, New York Post, '9/11'S FIRED HEROES': "John Schroeder lost everything on 9/11 – and now it's cost him his job as well. As a hose man for Engine Co. 10, Schroeder was one of the first firefighters to respond to both the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, reaching the 23rd floor of the north tower during the latter catastrophe. "I saw more people die that day than anyone can imagine," he told The Post. Afterward, he struggled to cope with the staggering loss of 55 friends and colleagues. "I turned to the drink, the whole department did," he said. Now Schroeder, 49, is one of several scarred firefighters fighting to keep their pensions because of failed drug tests, caught between the sympathy of their colleagues and the zero-tolerance policy of the Fire Department. Schroeder tested positive for cocaine during a random FDNY drug sweep on Oct. 24, 2004. He denies using cocaine and claims he's been sober for more than a year. ... In November, the court upheld Scoppetta's firing of Kelly. Three weeks later, Schroeder, who had remained on modified duty while fighting his case, was also fired. "They all just walked by me like I was a display in a zoo," he said, referring to his last years at the FDNY."

WTC 1-2-7: Erroneous exploding van reports

1. September 11, Rick Sanchez live for CNN (Youtube): "I spoke with some police officials moments ago, Chris, and they told me that they have reason to believe that one of the explosions at the World Trade Center may have been caused by a van that was parked inside the building that may have had some type of explosive device in it."
2. Reporter Rick Sanchez on the phone with MSNBC, live on 9/11 (Youtube): "I'm in that area ... where West Broadway and Hudson come together, right at Chambers. That would put us a block and a half away from the site of where the explosion was. That area has just been evacuated because police have found what they describe as a suspicious device and they fear that it might be something that could lead to another explosion. Obviously there's a real sense of caution here on the part of police. I spoke with some police officials moments ago, Chris, and they told me they have reason to believe [seemingly because of all the lobby damage due to falling elevators] that one of the explosions at the World Trade Center aside from the ones that may have been caused by the impact of the plane with the building, may have been caused by a van that was parked in the building that may have had some type 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, and that's why they are being so cautious."
3. September 11, 2001, reporter Jack Kelley live to USA Today (Youtube):"Apparently what appears to have happened was that at the same time the planes hit that the FBI most likely thinks that there was a car or truck packed with explosives underneath the building which also exploded at the same time and brought both of them down. ... That is the working theory at this point. That is still unconfirmed. That is what the FBI is going on at this point."
4. Jeffrey Beatty, president of Total Security International live on CNN on 9/11 (taken from CNN website transcript): "They don't have the ability to check all those vehicles to make sure that they don't pose a threat. So we're yet to determine -- we've heard reports of secondary explosions after the aircraft impacted -- whether in fact there wasn't something else at the base of the tower in fact were the coup de gras to bring them to the ground."
5. September 12, 2001, The Record (Bergen County, NJ), 'Five men detained as suspected conspirators; maps connect them to attack; similar van was in Liberty Park' (from Lexis Nexis, this report was not copied by other newspapers): "About eight hours after terrorists struck Manhattan's tallest skyscrapers, police in Bergen County detained five men who they said were found carrying maps linking them to the blasts. The five men, who were in a van stopped on Route 3 in East Rutherford around 4:30 p.m., were being questioned by police but had not been charged with any crime late Tuesday. The Bergen County Police bomb squad X-rayed packages found inside the van but did not find any explosives, authorities said. However, sources close to the investigation said they found other evidence linking the men to the bombing plot. "There are maps of the city in the car with certain places highlighted," the source said. "It looked like they're hooked in with this. It looked like they knew what was going to happen when they were at Liberty State Park." Sources also said that bomb-sniffing dogs reacted as if they had detected explosives, although officers were unable to find anything. The FBI seized the van for further testing, authorities said. Sources said the van was stopped as it headed east on Route 3, between the Hackensack River bridge and the Sheraton hotel. As a precaution, police shut down Route 3 traffic in both directions after the stop and evacuated a small roadside motel near the Sheraton. Sources close to the investigation said the men said they were Israeli tourists, but police had not been able to confirm their identities. Authorities would not release their names. East Rutherford officers stopped the van after the FBI's Newark Field Office broadcast an alert asking surrounding police departments to look for a white Chevrolet van, police said. "We got an alert to be on the lookout for a white Chevrolet van with New Jersey registration and writing on the side," said Bergen County Police Chief John Schmidig. "Three individuals were seen celebrating in Liberty State Park after the impact. They said three people were jumping up and down." The East Rutherford officers summoned the county police bomb squad, New Jersey state troopers, and FBI agents, who waited alongside the van as prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office tried to obtain a warrant to search the van late Tuesday, Schmidig said. By 10 p.m., members of the bomb squad were picking through the van and X-raying packages found inside, Schmidig said. Sources said the FBI alert, known as a BOLO or "Be On Lookout," was sent out at 3:31 p.m. It read: "Vehicle possibly related to New York terrorist attack. White, 2000 Chevrolet van with New Jersey registration with 'Urban Moving Systems¬ sign on back seen at Liberty State Park, Jersey City, NJ, at the time of first impact of jetliner into World Trade Center. "Three individuals with van were seen celebrating after initial impact and subsequent explosion. FBI Newark Field Office requests that, if the van is located, hold for prints and detain individuals." FBI spokeswoman Sandra Carroll declined to comment on the incident late Tuesday. State police Lt. Col. Barry W. Roberson confirmed the traffic stop at a late night news briefing at state police headquarters in Trenton. He would not elaborate, however. Business records show an Urban Moving Systems with offices on West 50th Street in Manhattan and on West 18th Street in Weehawken. Telephone messages left at the businesses Tuesday evening were not immediately returned. Business records show the owner as Dominik Suter of Fair Lawn. A woman answering the telephone at Suter's home acknowledged he owned the company but refused to comment further. She also declined to identify herself. It was not clear Tuesday whether the van stopped by police is related to Suter's company. A business traveler staying at the Homestead Studio Suites Hotel said she watched state troopers drive the suspects away in a procession of state police cars about 5 p.m. The woman, who asked not to be identified, said the people detained appeared to be white men, but she could not give more details."
   September 12 reports that a van "packed with explosives" had been stopped close to the George Washington Bridge were probably referring to the above story. More on the story:
   September 15, 2001, The Record (Bergen County, NJ), 'Five hijack suspects had links to J.J.': "East Rutherford police stopped an Urban Moving Systems van on Route 3 Tuesday and detained five men inside, at least some of them company employees. The occupants said they were all Israelis. They were being detained because they are in violation of immigration regulations, and all have expressed a desire to leave the country on their own, according to an Immigration and Naturalization Service spokesman. An employee of Urban Moving Systems, who would not give his name, said the majority of his co-workers are Israelis and were joking on the day of the attacks. "I was in tears," the man said. "These guys were joking and that bothered me. These guys were like, 'Now America knows what we go through.¬""
   December 13, 2001, New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety, Division of Consumer Affairs, 'State Granted Access to Moving Company's Storage Facility': "The State, at the same time, filed a lawsuit in Hudson County Superior Court against Urban Moving Systems and its owner Dominick Suter... According to the complaint, on or about September 14, 2001, Suter departed from the United States [to Israel] and left no one acting as an agent for Urban."

WTC 7: Evidence for explosives planted around floor 6 before 9/11

The testimonies of Michael Hess and Barry Jennings on 9/11 were confusing. However, in 2007 Jennings was blatantly lying to Alex Jones and the Loose Change crew about entering WTC 7 around 9:00 a.m. and the "explosion" in the stairwell taking place before either Twin Tower collapsed. He changed his initial testimony, he lied, and he did it on purpose, just like another superstar of the 9/11 "truth" community, William Rodriguez. Hess and Jennings arrived at WTC 7 immediately after the OEM bunker was evacuated, which occurred around 9:37 a.m. There are still a few questions, but there's every indication that the two experienced the collapse of the Twin Towers as they were trying to get out of the building.

1. Michael D. Hess phone interview by Frank Ucciardo for UPN 9 News on September 11, around 12:30 p.m. (Youtube): "[Ucciardo:] I'm sitting here right now just off Broadway by City Hall with Michael Hess [which is less than a 400 meter / 440 yard / 7 minute walk]. ... Mr. Hess, I believe you were trapped inside, I believe, 7 World Trade Center. Go ahead, Sir. [Hess:] Yes, I was. I was up in the Emergency Management Center on the 23th floor and when all the power went out in the building another gentleman [Barry Jennings] and I walked down to the 8th floor and there was an explosion and we've been trapped on the 8th floor with thick smoke all around us for about an hour-and-a-half. But the New York Fire Department, as terrific as they are, came in and got us out. ... I don't know myself [where the mayor is located now]. As I said, I was trapped inside 7 World Trade Center for the past hour-and-a-half." Hess has been filmed on 9/11 as he is screaming for help from the position he and Jennings were trapped in. Businessweek biography of Michael D. Hess: "Yale... Harvard... Mr. Hess served as the Corporation Counsel of City of New York under Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani [until December 2001]. As the chief lawyer for the City, he supervised a Law Department of over 1,500 staff, including 700 attorneys. The Law Department is among the largest public law offices in the nation. ... Mr. Michael D. Hess is a Partner and Senior Managing Director at Giuliani Partners LLC. Mr. Hess is also the founder of Giuliani Partners LLC [in January 2002]." Mid 2008, Michael D. Hess to the BBC (Youtube): "When we got [down] exactly to [floor] 6, all of a sudden, at the same instant, five different things happened. The first was: the lights went out; the emergency lights went out. So we were in total darkness. Second, the stairwell filled up with a tremendous amount of smoke and dirt and soot, much more than it had been before. Previously, you could breathe for about three flights down, but at that point you couldn't breath at all. So the second thing was the soot. The third thing was the sprinklers went on. So all of a sudden we were in the dark, no emergency lights, and the water was pouring down on top of us. At the same instant, and the last two things were the scariest, the building began to shake and it was as if you were in an earthquake. I've never really been in an earthquake, but it's what it felt like. The whole building was shaking. And then the last thing was that the stairway ran into a wall. All of a sudden, as you were going down on the sixth floor, you hit a wall. ... While it was shaking we just stood there and after, I don't know, five seconds or 10 seconds the building stopped shaking. And in my mind I had assumed that there had been an explosion in the basement. I don't know why it hit me that way, but we couldn't go anywhere. The wall was blocking it. It was pitch dark. I was nervous, but once the building stopped shaking, then I calmed down. Yes, I figured, there was an explosion in the basement, maybe, but it stopped. No, nothing [else we heard regarding explosions]. You heard two things: a tremendous wind and you heard a tremendous number of sirens. And I look out the window and no. 1) this ash is flying around. Papers, computer papers, are flying around. And again, I was looking north and west, and the World Trade Center towers were south, so I couldn't see in that direction. And in my mind they were just still on fire. ... I position, and I'm quite firm on it, there were no explosions. Did I feel the building shake? Absolutely."
2. September 11, 2001, BC Cycle (Helen O'Neill, AP correspondent), ''I just saw the top of Trade Two come down.'' (Barry Jennings story): "After the initial blast [impact], Housing Authority worker Barry Jennings, 46, reported to a command center on the 23rd floor of 7 World Trade Center. He was with Michael Hess, the city's corporation counsel, when they felt and heard another explosion. First calling for help, they scrambled downstairs to the lobby, or what was left of it. "I looked around, the lobby was gone. It looked like hell," Jennings said." September 11, 2001, AP Press State and Local Wire, 'Pandemonium, horror outside Trade Center as people jump, towers collapse': "At least three explosions, perhaps from gas lines, could be heard after the buildings collapsed. After the initial blast, Housing Authority worker Barry Jennings, 46, reported to a command center on the 23rd floor of 7 World Trade Center. He was with Michael Hess, the city's corporation counsel. They were the only ones there. They felt and heard another explosion, probably the collapse of one building. He broke a window and screamed for help. Then they went down a stairwell. "I told Hess, 'We've got to try to get out of here."' They got to the lobby, or what was left of it. "I thought I was dead. The whole building shook. ... I looked around, the lobby was gone. It looked like hell. It was like a bad movie." Though covered in soot, Jennings was not physically injured. He said Hess escaped safely as well." Barry Jennings original story when he was interviewed live on 9/11 by an ABC reporter, around 12:30 p.m. (Youtube): "[Reporter:] For the past couple of minutes it has been clear from this space back on Chambers [West Broadway, less than 300 meters / 330 yards / 5 minutes from WTC 7] and that area. So now they [a large group of firemen who seem to have rescued Jennings and Hess] are walking back toward the World Trade Center as we keep letting you hear the personal stories, the survivor stories, of exactly what happened inside the World Trade Center when that first plane went in and, of course, the collapses since then. We're gonna bring more of those to you now. Barry Jennings, you were on the 8th floor. You work for the City Housing Department. Explain to me the moment of impact. [Jennings:] We made it to the eight floor [of WTC 7; reporter thinks he's talking about WTC 1 or 2]. Big explosion. Blew us back into the eight floor. And I turned to Hess and said: "This is it. We're dead. We're not gonna make it out of here." I took a fire extinguisher and busted a window out. This gentleman here heard my cry for help. ... This gentleman right here. He kept saying, ''Stand bye, somebody is going to get you.'' They couldn't get to us for an hour, because they couldn't find us. I thought we were dead. I thought that was it. I started praying to Allah. That's it, we're gone." [Firefighter who saved Jennings and Hess:] "It was pandemonium. I mean, it was something out of a Bruce Willis Die Hard movie. He was there and he was crying, and there was another gentleman that was crying, for help. We couldn't get to them. We went through the building. We were lost. Both staircases, the backside was blown away. There was no way to access. We couldn't get to them. And finally, one of the Fire Department teams found them, but we didn't think they were going to make it." June 2007, Loose Change interview, Barry Jennings (Deputy Director of Emergency Services Department, NY City Housing Authority) (Youtube): "My name is Barry Jennings. I'm 52 years old. I worked for 33 years at one location. ... I received a call shortly after the first plane had hit. I got there - I had to be inside on the 23rd floor when the second plane hit. ... As I told you guys before, it was very funny. I was on my way to work and traffic was excellent. I received a call that a small Cessna had hit the World Trade Center. I was asked to go and man the Office of Emergency Management at World Trade Center 7 at the 23rd floor. As I arrived there, there was police all in the lobby. They showed me the way to the elevator. I got up to the 23rd floor. Me and Mr. Hess [Senior Managing Director of Giuliani Partners], whom I didn't know was Mr. Hess at the time, we got to the 23rd floor. We couldn't get in. We had to get back down. Then security and police took us to the freight elevators. They took us back up and we did get back in. Upon arriving into the OEM/EOC, we noticed that everybody was gone. I saw coffee that was on a desk. The smoke was still coming off the coffee. I saw half eaten sandwiches. And only me and Mr. Hess were up there. After I called several individuals, one individual told me to leave and leave right away. Mr. Hess came running back in. He said, "We are the only ones up here. We need to get out of here." He found a stairwell. So we subsequently went to the stairwell, and we are going down the stairs. When we reached the 6th - 8th floor, the landing we were standing on gave way. There was an explosion and the landing gave way. I was left there hanging. I had to walk back up to the 8th floor. After getting up to the eight floor, everything was dark. It was dark and very, very hot. I asked Mr. Hess to test the phones. I took a fire extinguisher and broke out the windows. The firefighters came to the window, because I was gonna come out on the fire hose. I didn't wanna stay there any longer. I mean, it was too hot. ... They came to the window. They started yelling: "Do not do that. It won't hold you." And then they ran away. See, I didn't know what was going on. That's when the first tower fell. ... Then I saw them come back. Now I saw them come back with more concern on their faces. Then they ran away again. The second tower fell. As they turned and ran the second time, the guys turned and said, "don't worry, we'll be back for you." And they did come back. This time they came back with ten firefighters. And they kept asking me, "Where are you? We don't know where you are." I said, " I'm on the north side of the building." ... All this time I'm hearing all kinds of explosions. All this time I'm hearing explosions. When they finally got to us, and they took us down, to what what they called the lobby ... He said, "This was the lobby". And I said, "You've got to be kidding me." It was total ruins. Now, keep in mind, when I came in there, the lobby had nice escalators, it was a huge lobby. And for me to see what I saw was unbelievable. And the firefighter that took us down kept saying, "do not look down." And I kept saying, "Why?" "Do not look down." We were stepping over people. And you know you can feel when you are stepping over people. They took us out through a hole. I don't who made this hole in this wall. ... Well, I'm just confused about one thing and one thing only. Why World Trade Center 7 went down in the first place. I'm very confused about that. I know what I heard. I heard explosions. The explanation I got was, "It was the fuel oil tank". I'm an old boiler guy. If it was a fuel oil tank, it would have been one side of the building. When I got to that lobby, the lobby was totally destroyed. It looked like King Kong had come though it and stepped on it. And it was so destroyed I didn't know where I was. And it was so destroyed they had to take me out through a hole in the wall. A make-shift hole that I think the Fire Department made to get me out. Me and Mr. Hess out. ... I got into the building a little before nine - a little after nine. I didn't get out of there until, like, one. ... The explanations that were given to me were totally unacceptable. Totally unacceptable. ... And it wasn't until some years later that I testified in front of them [apparently to NIST in 2004]. And to tell you, it was very scary. They look like very important people. They were questioning me about certain things. I don't know if they liked the answers I gave. ... They asked me the same questions that you guys are asking me. And at that point they said, "Okay, thank you." They sent me on my way [and never heard of them again]. I couldn't stop watching it [on TV]. And that's when I found out building 7 had come down. And I was so surprised. And I'm saying to myself, why did that building come down? And I knew why it came down. Because of the explosions. And it was not no fuel oil tanks. ... Yes, you can use this footage." September 16, 2008, Infowars, 'Key Witness to WTC 7 Explosions Dead at 53': "Updated Sept. 17 4:05 PM CST: NYC Housing Authority spokesman Howard Marder has now officially confirmed that Barry Jennings indeed passed away approximately a month ago after several days in the hospital, matching confirmations from several other employees at the Housing Authority. Marder commented that Jennings was a great man, well liked by everyone at the Housing Authority, and that he would be missed. No other details were available. ... It is very unusual that a prominent — and controversial– 9/11 witness would die only days before the release of NIST's report on WTC7 and shortly after a firestorm erupted over his testimony that he heard explosions inside the building prior to collapse of either tower and that there were dead bodies in the building's blown-out lobby. The BBC aired The Third Tower in July in attempt to debunk Barry Jennings' account– which is both contradictory and damaging to the official 9/11 story– by making issue over whether or not he said he "saw" dead bodies in the lobby."

WTC 7: Evidence that the lobby remained intact until the South Tower collapse

1. October 25, 2001, New York Times 9/11 interviews archive, interview with EMS division chief John Peruggia: "[I'm] EMS Division Chief, in charge of planning for the Chief of Department's office. ... At approximately 8:50 in the morning I was on my way in to work in my assigned Department vehicle. At that point in time I was on the Staten Island Expressway, just before the Verrazano Bridge. I received a telephone call from one of my staff people, ENT Richard Zarrillo, on the Department cell phone. He indicated to me that a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Center. The Chief was leaving the building. Chief Nigro, my immediate boss, was leaving the building, along with Chief Ganci... As I was passing through the Battery Tunnel, probably around midway through the Battery Tunnel, I heard the report come over the radio that a second plane had struck the second tower. .... I came out of the Battery Tunnel and as soon as I came out, I parked my car immediately on the western side of northbound West Street between Rector and West. I'm going to mark that on the map with a number one. I put my boots on. I put my EMS safety coat on, my helmet, grabbed the radio and a pad and began to walk my way up West Street. ... I was being passed by police and firefighters heading in both directions, some towards the site and some away from the site. I passed over some pieces of what appeared to be aircraft wreckage, fuselage, whatever, some body parts and bodies in various states, either people from the building or the airplanes. ... As I made it to in front of what would be 1 World Trade Center, I'm going to mark that number 2 on the map, maybe just south of the north bridge, there was the inter-agency command post or at least the Fire Department command post. ... I saw Chief Ganci, I saw Chief Nigro. There were a number of other people. ...
   "[Around 9:37 a.m.] I reached 7 World Trade Center. We walked into the lobby and we were going up the escalators to the main level. I checked in at the security desk. As we reached the top of the escalators, there were lots of people running down the escalator on the promenade. I spoke to one of the Deputy Directors and as I was speaking with him, I believe it was Deputy Director [Richard] Rotanz, who is a Fire Department Captain on detail over there, Captain Nahmod and EMT Zarrillo approached as well. They had indicated that the building was being evacuated. 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 any 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, they 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 cooperation effort. At that point, I also had a face to face discussion with Battalion Chief Mike Maggio from the First Battalion. He was the person who was sent up to be the rep at OEM. Mike is someone who assists us on lots of our event planning. He was detailed there. ... As we were having discussions in the lobby as to what to do with OEM, a number of people came in the lobby as patients. Captain Nahmod and EMT Zarrillo started to look at them, put them off to the side and talk to them. At that point I stepped outside. I was going to request some EMS resources and I had face to face contact with Captain Mark Stone of the EMS S Battalion.
   "Directly across the street there are some escalators that come down from the promenade. There is also an overhead pedestrian walkway that connects the World Trade Center plaza to the lobby of number 7. There was people coming down both exits. So it was a good position for us to find people who may require medical attention and get them into a secured area of the lobby. A few moments after Dr. Asaeda arrived and started talking to Captain Nahmod about the patients, a gentleman from the building identified himself as a security person or a security director. He asked me if there is anything that 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 to number 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 facade. 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 OEM and moved them to what would be the most southeasterly corner inside that first floor entrance of the 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. ...
   "At that point I went back into the building [WTC 7]. 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. I grabbed EMT Zarrillo. I advised him of that information. I told him he was to proceed immediately to the command post where Chief Ganci was located. Told him where it was across the street from number I World Trade Center. I told him, "You see Chief Ganci and Chief Ganci only. Provide him with the information that the building integrity is severely compromised and they believe the building is in danger of imminent collapse." So, he left off in that direction. 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. ...
   "Things were hectic. We didn't have the tools that we normally have to communicate with our agency, you know, cellular phones were not working properly, radio was very difficult to get through. I work for the Chief of the Department, I don't have a fire ground radio, so I had no direct communications with my boss at that time, which is one of the reasons I needed to send EMT Zarrillo with that message, which I felt was very significant, to the command post. ... Some amount of time passed by, probably not long, again, I wasn't checking my watch. ... when I heard a sound I never heard before. I looked up and saw this huge cloud. ... I pushed [a person] towards the direction of where we were all in the south corner [of WTC 7] and there was a little doorway behind that desk which led into the loading bays. Everybody started to run through that. Never made it to that door. The next thing that 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. Yes, I saw some stuff had fallen on me. I didn't believe that I was injured at that time. I discovered later on I was injured. I had some shards of glass impaled in my head, but once I was able to get all this debris and rubble off of me and cover my face with my jacket so that I could breathe, it was very thick dust, you couldn't see. We heard some sounds. We reached out and felt our way around. I managed to find some other people in this lower lobby. We crawled over towards the direction where we thought the door was and as we approached it the door cracked open a little, so we had the lights from the loading bay. We made our way over there. The loading bay doors were 3 fourths of the way shut when this happened, so they took a lot of dust in there, but everyone in those bays was safe and secure. We had face to face contact with Chief Maggio and Captain Nahmod. They told me -- I said do whatever you need to do, get these people out of here. Go, go towards the water. They proceeded to evacuate that group along with some secret service people. ... I knew that everyone that 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 facade was all broken. Me and Phil grabbed some hand lights and the people who were still there at ground level, we directed them to the door where there were guys who were going to lead them out. Some Port Authority and some secret service, you know, they were housed at number 7. Captain Nahmod and Battalion Chief Maggio, they were going to lead that group of people. Probably in excess of 30 or 40 people out of the building. Me and Phil then proceeded up the escalators You know the level where the foot bridge connects, whatever? We found maybe a half dozen or so people out there. ...
   "There were pockets of fire everywhere [outside]. At that point I noticed it was unusually lit in the plaza, considering the event that happened. I looked up and saw this big gaping hole where the south tower used to be. That's the first point that I realized that the south tower had collapsed. Maybe ten or 15 stories high left of it. Probably most of it being a pile of rubble."
2. October 11, 2001, New York Times 9/11 interviews archive, file no. 9110061, interview with NYFD captain Abdo Nahmod: "We went to the window. We looked and sure enough we saw visible flames coming from the top of the World Trade Center. Many people began to respond in different vehicles, and at one point, I responded with EMT Richard Zarillo, the special events coordinator, with Mr. Drury from BITS in his vehicle to get down to the World Trade Center. At this point, I communicated with Chief Peruggia via the land line, and we were directed to report to 7 World Trade to set up OEM [Office of Emergency Management]. Both myself and EMT Zarrillo went to the 23rd floor of 7 World Trade and began to log onto the terminals, as well as inform the citywide dispatch supervisor that we were activating OEM at this time, and operations were to begin. Moments thereafter, we were advised by the staff at OEM that we were to vacate the building, that they believed there was another possible plane on its way, and proceeded down the stairwell of 7 World Trade all the way down to the ground floor. Upon getting outside to 7 World Trade, I saw Chief Peruggia and Captain Stone... At this point, we were trying to establish a command center, as well as treatment and transport sector. I believe Chief Peruggia was trying to establish communication, and I was directed to move down to the garage area of the 7 World Trade where there were four bays, one having a truck in it and three that were open... I'd say within 20 minutes to a half an hour of being down there or trying to set everything up, all of a sudden a loud noise, rubble, and sand, and dust -- everything just started toppling down. ... Also, when this started happening, everybody started going to the main lobby. ... We started going back towards the collapse site [after the second collapse]. ... There I believe I say, once again, Chief Peruggia and Chief Butler, and a number of other people started to gather."
3. October 25, 2001, New York Times 9/11 interviews archive, file no. 9110161, interview with EMT Richard Zarrillo: "I'm an EMT working in fire operations as the special event coordinator. ... While sitting at my desk, probably just after the first plane had hit the tower, Chief Ganci had come running across the hall yelling something about a plane hitting the twin towers. Most of us thought he was joking until we looked out the window... I placed a call to Chief Peruggia to ask him his location. ... He thought I was joking. He cursed at me and hung up. Captain Nahmod was sitting next to me and he said we need to get some equipment... I spoke with Chief Peruggia. He called me back and said maybe you and Abdo, Captain Nahmod, need to head into the city to be part of command, runners or administratively, whatever we can do to help out. ... Captain Nahmod and I started heading down Vesey Street towards where we thought the command post would be. At that time we had received a page per Chief Peruggia to go into OEM [Office of Emergency Management] at No. 7 World Trade and activate our post in OEM. ... Abdo and I went into No. 7, activated OEM, placed calls to EMS Citywide, RCC, to tell them we were there and we were activated. Maybe five, ten minutes, not even ten minutes later, a rep from OEM came into the main room and said we need to evacuate the building; there's a third plane inbound. That was the only thing I really heard because I said, Abdo, we've got to go, and we made it down to the lobby of the building, street level, met up with Chief Peruggia in the lobby of the building. He said that there was no third plane but we needed to re-establish OEM right there so we can coordinate what was going on. ... [Peruggia] was there with Captain Yakimovich. In OEM with Captain Nahmod and I was Chief Maggio, who is now retired, and another firefighter from the 1st Division. We were really trying to establish OEM and a treatment sector in the lobby of the [WTC 7] building because there were people coming around us. Again, times are a little fuzzy initially for me. A few minutes later, John came to me and said you need to go find Chief Ganci and relay the following message: that the buildings have been compromised, we need to evacuate, they're going to collapse. I said okay. I went down Vesey Street towards West. ... I found some EMS vehicles. I think I saw Chief Gombo there. I'm not really sure. I mentioned to the EMS people there, again, not knowing who they were, I said you need to get away from here, the building might collapse, we need to leave this spot. As I was walking towards the Fire command post, I found Steve Mosiello. I said, Steve, where's the boss? I have to give him a message. He said, well, what's the message? I said the buildings are going to collapse; we need to evac everybody out. With a very confused look he said who told you that? I said I was just with John [Peruggia] at OEM. OEM says the buildings are going to collapse; we need to get out. He escorted me over to Chief Ganci. He said, hey, Pete, we got a message that the buildings are going to collapse. His reply was who the fuck told you that? Then Steve brought me in and with Chief Ganci, Comissioner Feehan, Steve, I believe Chief Turi was initially there, I said, listen, I was just at OEM. The message I was given was that the buildings are going to collapse; we need to get out people out. At that moment, this thunderous, rolling roar came down and that's when the building came down, the first tower came down. The command post was situated right in front of 3 World Financial, the American Express Building. The garage was open and as that rumble started and we saw it was coming down, the firemen that were in the command area, I believe most of the chiefs, we all into the garage of that building. ... Again, it's sketchy with time, but it may have been anywhere from ten to 20 minutes by the time we found an emergency exit to get out of the building."
4. October 12, 2001, New York Times 9/11 interviews archive, file no. 9110076, interview with NYFD EMS captain Mark Stone: "We had the crews [at the North Tower lobby] and then in speaking to Chief Gombo, I don't know how he came up with it, but he said go scout out 7 World Trade Center for me over by OEM. They want to set up a triage over there. ... We made it into the lobby [of WTC 7]. There was no problem at that point. We found out that 7 World Trade Center houses OEM and Secret Service and a bunch of other agencies, but they were all evacuated at that point. They shut down the command center and they were evacuating OEM. Everybody felt it was pretty safe to be in the lobby of the building. At that time I met Chief Peruggia, Captain Abdo Nahmod, and Richard Zarrillo, who is the special events coordinator for Chief Peruggia. I spoke with Chief Peruggia real quick and I left the crews with him and he told me to go report back to Chief Gombo. The interesting thing to that is when I talked to John [Peruggia] later on, a couple days later, if I would have stayed one second later and talked to him another second, I would have been in the lobby when the building collapsed. Or if I would have left him a second earlier, I would have been standing next to Chief Ganci when the building collapsed. There is a whole bunch of fate going on here. ...  I made sure there was nobody from EMS still in the [North Tower] lobby because we were moving our entire operation. I was the last one out of 1 World Trade Center. I made it about halfway across West Street ... when I heard what is going to be instilled in my memory forever: a sound that combines a railroad car, an airplane, a fighter jet and thunder. I looked up and I saw the World Trade Center was coming down." Barely survived the collapse of the South Tower.
5. October 24, 2001, World Trade Center Task Force interview with Ray Goldbach, executive assistant to the fire commissioner: "Manny Pepea from the Mayor's office came over to us again and told us that the Mayor was looking for the Commissioner and they were on Barclay Street. I walked with him and I believe it was a fire marshall, I think it was Mike O'Neill. We walked over towards Barclay Street. I didn't even know where Barclay Street was. We were walking towards that direction. We went over there, we couldn't find the Mayor or his group. I said to the Commissioner let's go back to the command post on West Street, I will find out exactly where we have to go, then we will make our way there. Before we got back to the command post, somebody told us that the Mayor's group had now gone to 7 World Trade Center to the OEM command post. We went from where we were at that point, it was somewhere around Vesey or Vesey or something. Like that. We got into 7 World Trade Center, we took the escalator up to the second floor, then we were going to take the elevator. I think it was John Peruggia from operations, but I'm not sure, at that point told us we had to get out of that building. Everybody was evacuated in that building. I remember saying to myself, this is ridiculous, at some point are we going to stop to try to get control of this or are we going to keep running away. We walked out of 7 World Trade Center, now following the whole group of people from City Hall who were somewhere ahead of us. I think we were on Washington Street near Greenwich Street, when the [south] tower started to collapse. I remember running and I think it was down Greenwich Street with John McLaughlin. We lost the Commissioner and the guy that he was with, the marshall."

WTC 7: Anomalies

1. October 12, 2001, New York Times 9/11 interviews archive, file no. 9110076, interview with NYFD EMS captain Mark Stone: "We had the crews [at the North Tower lobby] and then in speaking to Chief Gombo, I don't know how he came up with it, but he said go scout out 7 World Trade Center for me over by OEM. They want to set up a triage over there. ... We made it into the lobby [of WTC 7]. There was no problem at that point. We found out that 7 World Trade Center houses OEM and Secret Service and a bunch of other agencies, but they were all evacuated at that point. They shut down the command center and they were evacuating OEM. Everybody felt it was pretty safe to be in the lobby of the building. At that time I met Chief Peruggia, Captain Abdo Nahmod, and Ricgard Zarrillo, who is the special events coordinator for Chief Peruggia. I spoke with Chief Peruggia real quick and I left the crews with him and he told me to go report back to Chief Gombo. The interesting thing to that is when I talked to John [Peruggia] later on, a couple days later, if I would have stayed one second later and talked to him another second, I would have been in the lobby when the building collapsed. Or if I would have left him a second earlier, I would have been standing next to Chief Ganci when the building collapsed. There is a whole bunch of fate going on here. ...  I made sure there was nobody from EMS still in the [North Tower] lobby because we were moving our entire operation. I was the last one out of 1 World Trade Center. I made it about halfway across West Street ... when I heard what is going to be instilled in my memory forever: a sound that combines a railroad car, an airplane, a fighter jet and thunder. I looked up and I saw the World Trade Center was coming down." Barely survived the collapse of the South Tower.
2. July 2008, BBC, 'The Third Tower', Barry Jennings interview excerpts: "To my amazement, nobody is there. I saw coffee that was still hot, still smoldering. It had screens all over the place. The screens were blank. So I didn't know what was going on. At that time I received a phone call from one of my higher ups. And he said: "Where are you?" Well, at the emergency command center. A long pause, and he came back and said: "Get outta there. Get outta there, now." [BBC showing footage of the South Tower collapse] I wanted to get out of that building in a hurry. ... When I reached down the 6th floor, there was this eary sound, the whole building went dark, and the staircase that I was standing on gave way. ... The first explosion I heard was on the stairwell landing when we made it down to the 6th floor. When we made it back to the 8th floor we heard some more explosions. ... When we got to the 8th floor, we started walking to one side of the building and that side of the building was gone. ... I could smell the fire. You know, I could smell the smoke. And I felt the heat. It was intense. ... When we got outside, a police officer comes to me and says: "You have to run. We have more information of bombs, so you have to run." ... All this time, I didn't know it, somebody had called my wife, told her I had died in the building. Who comes over the TV set? Whose voice comes over the TV set? It's mine. ... I didn't like the way I was portrayed. They portrayed me as seeing dead bodies. I never saw dead bodies. [Dylan Avery plays a tape of his Barry Jennings interview: "And the firefighter that took us down, kept saying, "Do not look down." ... And, we were stepping over people. And you know you can feel when you are stepping over people."] ... I said it felt like I was stepping over them. I never saw it. And that's the way they portrayed me, you know, and I didn't appreciate that, so I told them to pull my interview. Do I think that our government would so something like that, to its people? No, I honestly don't believe that. All I know is that I was in there, heard what I heard, saw what I saw."
3. July 2008, BBC, 'The Third Tower', interview with Richard Rotanz, Office of Emergency Management deputy director on 9/11: "The police department, and intel, and the FBI, they would tell us that we had a plane hit us at the Pentagon and we now realized, it had taken too long, we now realized we were under attack. ... [WTC 7] could have been a target. I felt at the time that because of where we were that we could have been a serious target and plus the other federal agencies in that building. [Narrator: "So the decision is made to evacuate the very office designed to respond to a terrorist attack."] ... Well, looking at the upper floors of Tower 7, [you see] columns gone, floors collapsed, heavy smoke coming out, and fire. The upper floors were an inferno. [Narrator: "And then he has to go into that building to assess it."] You could hear the building creak above us. You could hear things fall. You could hear the fire burning. You could see columns just hanging from the floors, gaping holes in the floors up above us. There was an elevator cart that was blown out of its shaft and it was down the hall. That was the mass of impact from the fall of Tower 1 onto Tower 7."
4. October 12, 2001, New York Times 9/11 interviews archive, file no. 9110076, interview with NYFD EMS captain Mark Stone: "We had the crews

Skeptics desperately trying to prove structural instability

These are a few examples of quotes manipulatively used by skeptics to claim that the World Trade Center towers collapsed due to structural instability and that the result was gradual, natural collapses. It appears these skeptics are grasping at straws, much in the same manner as the no-757-at-Pentagon promoters. Yes, a group of engineers and Fire Department officials did conclude 10 minutes before the first collapse that the buildings had become unstable and attempted to order an evacuation. However, we don't really know the precise details that led to their conclusion. According to fire chief Albert Turi they received reports of secondary devices going off, while his colleague, fire chief Joseph Callan, also located in the lobby of the North Tower, stated that breaking windows and marble continuing to fall off the walls in the lobby indicated to him that the building was still moving somehow. However, ignoring that potential thermate was spotted dripping down from the WTC from about this moment, firefighters and other witnesses going up and down in the towers hardly spoke about having observed structural instability. Those in the North Tower did panic as their building heavily shook as a result of the South Tower collapsing. Many thought it was their own building that was coming down. In contrast to massive evidence for a huge explosion when the towers collapsed, claims of observing serious, lower level structural instability are far and few in between.

• September 9, 2002, USA Today, 'Survivor: 'The world has changed for us indeed'': "We did not get too far down the stairwell when we all heard a roaring noise. Somehow, we all got to the landing between what I think was the 82nd and 83rd floors without words and seemed to share the close space in fear preparing for whatever was happening. What I now know was 9:03 a.m., the fated plane struck us at full throttle. Although I did not know the blow was a plane, I have never felt or experienced a violent blow like that ever, nor wish to ever again. The five of us were launched off our feet by the strike, into the wall, and back on our feet in an instant – remarkably, no one hurt. ... The lights in the staircase went out. There were cracks in the stairwell walls with exposed pipes breaking through the plaster. The building was forcefully swaying, enough to require significant balancing. I recall the incredible sound of twisting metal with each sway of the building. Smoke almost immediately starting rising up from the lower floors, yet we all moved down the stairwell knowing this was the only way out." Explanation: This witness was located directly at the impact floors of Flight 175 into the South Tower and extremely lucky that he survived. It's quite obvious that twisting metal could be heard at this point.
• October 17, 2001, Newsday, Take-Charge Guys Calmly Saved Lives: "After following their convoy inside, Finegold and Borst heard the screeching, cracking sound of Two World Trade Center collapsing. The force of it hurled them to the ground. " Explanation: Hardly needed. It's a reference to the collapse itself.
• September 18, 2006, Marc H. Morial, President and CEO, National Urban League for the Louisiana Weekly, '9/11 continues to serve as a lesson for all Americans 5 Years Later': "An hour after it was hit, the World Trade Center's South Tower defied belief and collapsed in a cloud of dust and debris like a scene out of a Hollywood horror movie. Who cannot (sic) forget that eerie creaking sound that emanated throughout the city right before the North Tower fell?" Explanation: A metallic roaring sound was heard immediately before the collapses, at least from certain angles. You're talking 2 seconds before collapse, not several minutes or more. Also, the skeptical source excluded the sentence before the one in question here.
• January 10, 2002, New York Times 9/11 interview archive, file no. 9110441, firefighter Hugh Mettham: "We discover that three staircases [in the North Tower] are in use evacuating people. Suddenly the north tower starts to rumble and shake violently. We all head to stairwell B and huddle near the door while the floor we are on shakes and rumbles for 30 seconds for more. Lights go out, and we are thrown into total darkness. Stairways and hallways fill with smoke and dust as the rumble and roar subsides. All of us start to speculate on the cause of the rumble. It could be another plane crash or localized collapse. Someone in the darkness mentions a bomb. There is little time now to ponder what just happened. What could shake the north tower so violently? ... Only a few mayday and urgent messages are heard and then abruptly end. ... Stairwells A and C are heavily charged with smoke and dust and appeared to be unusable at this time. We are concerned that we are unable to contact Charlie. But with growing anxiety among civilians on the fifth floor who want to evacuate, we guided them down to the lobby. At this time with no other civilians coming down any of the stairwells, Lieutenant Borega tells us to leave the fifth floor and says, "Let's get out of here." I questioned Harry Coyle about Charlie's whereabouts. ... The scene in the lobby now is complete chaos. Small fires and smoke rise from one area. Marble sections that line the walls have smashed. Cable, glass and elevator parts litter the area. We maneuver around the debris looking for Charlie and are met by a rescue firefighter saying that there are Fire Department members trapped on the 11th floor. Ralph and I exchanged glances. We turned around and start to ascend the B staircase again to assist in the rescue effort. Ralph says to me, "Boy, we're tempting fate now." We reached the sixth or seventh floor and are met by many firefighters coming down the stairs, informing us that the upper floors are collapsing and that there's a heavy odor of gas and fuel. Fearing for our safety through the rapidly deteriorating conditions, Lieutenant Borega tells us to head back to the lobby. Hoping that Charlie has left the building, we meet Engine 28 in the lobby. ... We hear a terrible roar behind and above us. The upper section of the north tower begins to collapse and push out a wave of smoke, ash and debris. We run in fear of our lives. " Explanation: As expected, this happened after the South Tower collapse with many firefighters not knowing why their own building shook so heavily. The firefighters in question were fleeing the North Tower, thinking it had partially collapsed. Other firefighters explained that the shaking of the North Tower resulted in additional fuel falling down the elevator shafts. None of the context here has been described by skeptics.
• October 17, 2001, World Trade Center Task Force interview archive, file no. 9110101, paramedic Neil Sweeting: "I remember when we heard abandon the site, I said, wow, this would be really good to keep with us. So I started pushing this cart, and I got stuck in the doorway with it, when we started hearing this rumble [coming from the North Tower]. I can remember -- I specifically remember this like twisting sound of metal. We were probably about half a block away from the complex at this point. You heard a big boom, it was quiet for about ten seconds. Then you could hear another one. Now I realize it was the floors starting to stack on top of each other as they were falling . It was spaced apart in the beginning, but then it got to just a tremendous roar and a rumble that I will never forget." Explanation: Although it occurred less than 10 seconds before the "big boom", this is obviously another reference to the roaring metallic sound preceding the collapse.
• April 2002, Firehouse Magazine, 'WTC: This Is Their Story', 16-year veteran firefighter Mike Cancel: "Firefighters were down and trapped. After 10 minutes, the lights in the north tower, which had gone out, had come back on. From the lobby we heard Mayday, Mayday, evacuate. We could feel the building starting to twist above us. I called Ladder 10 three times, Ladder 10 roof to Ladder 10. There was no answer. I said we have to evacuate, the building's coming down." Explanation: Reference to the South Tower collapsing, the result of which was heavy shaking in the North Tower with debris and additional fuel falling down the elevator shafts.

Calculating the moment of the initial loud boom

Now that everyone has read all the witness testimonies (you did, right?), it's time to take a look at the audio/video evidence for a controlled demolition. As already said, in 2005 I spent a considerable amount of time to find a single video that somewhat clearly captured the collapse sound from the very first second, preferably also while the camera is pointed at the building. I found one video at the time and the sound actually blew me away. Today it's quite a well known clip.* It is the one in which a blond ABC-7 reporter says:

"This is as close as we can get to the base of the World Trade Center. You can see the firemen assembled here, the police officers, FBI agents. You can see the two towers... [a rumble comes up, immediately followed by a huge boom] ... a huge explosion now, raining debris on all of us! We'd better get out of the way!!!"

* At least one HD version I've seen online of this clip seems to have the sound of the explosion muffled. Check more than one version of the video when in doubt.

The reporter just barely survives the rainstorm of debris. But what is important here is to calculate as precisely as possible the moment that this loud boom took place. Unfortunately, the cameraman has not yet pointed his camera up to where the impact zone is when the initial ruble comes up, but the relevant floors are in sight by the time the boom is heard. At the moment the floors come in sight, not a whole lot appears to be happening yet. They are only slightly crumbling. The building has begun to tilt (not visible from this angle and only then in a frame by frame analysis), but none of the floors have been crushed yet at this point.

This observation is more than a little important, because sound moves quite a bit slower than light - there is always time delay. The tower is 415 meters high. A good estimate of the distance between the camera and the floors would be about 300 meters. On average sounds moves at 343 meters per second, so a quick calculation gives us a delay of approximately 0,87 seconds at this distance. What does that tell us? It tells us that the boom took place AT LEAST half a second BEFORE the floors blew out and began to pancake. Even a person who tries to be as conservative as possible cannot argue that the loud boom - which is very distinct from the continuous rumble - happened as the result of pancaking floors. Something else must have caused it.

As for the rumble that precedes the loud boom, that aspect will be discussed a bit later.

The loud boom is actually heard reverberating around the World Trade Center complex on another video, in which it sounds more like a clap of thunder. The picture below actually shows the process of how certain conclusions were reached.

Because of a prominent flash on the South Tower when a beam apparently snaps in two, it was possible to synchronize the video with another one in which the observer has a good view of what is happening at the relevant floors. Estimated distance from the relevant floors is about 400 meters, resulting in a sound delay of 1.17 seconds. Both videos were captured at 30 frames per second, so we need to go back 35 frames from when the boom is first heard in order to figure out the moment it originally took place. The images above again show that the building was still standing erect when this boom happened; there's was only some slight crumbling. So again, collapsing floors are not the cause of this loud boom.

You have just read well over a hundred accounts saying that the collapse began with a loud explosion - and here is the auditory evidence for it.

There's another relevant video. It appears to be part of a documentary and was uploaded in 2007 to Youtube under the name "South Tower collapse from East".

I cannot tell if the audio has been tampered with or if it even belongs to the camera in question. It is a real recording though, with people screaming as the tower comes down. The amazing thing of the sound is that it starts with a loud boom, followed by what appears to be a pretty clear sound of the first floor popping out. In any case, if the video and audio belong together and has not been tampered with in any way, it's possible to - yet again - draw the conclusion that the boom begins a split second before the top of the building gives way.

There's a fourth collapse video of the South Tower that reveals the loud boom. It's unfortunate that the video begins a fraction of a second too late and that a white fade in effect has been added; otherwise it would probably have been the best video to prove that the collapse was initiated by a loud explosion. Anyone can pause the video right at the moment when it cuts to the collapse segment. The boom sound is present immediately with frame one. At that point the floors are at the beginning stages of popping out. With a sound delay of about 0,80 seconds, its easy to conclude that the explosion sound is heard before the floors begin to blow out and pancake.

There also exists video of the North Tower collapse which appears to have recorded a similar explosion as with the South Tower. It is the exact same story: an explosion is heard about half a second before the floors suddenly give way.

There's also the Mark Heath video of the North Tower collapse. It's absolutely incredible footage for the flashes and rapid smoke puffs that can be seen as the building comes down. Also a huge explosion is audible, although it is somewhat hard to hear because Heath hasn't focused his camera on the tower at the exact moment, with quite a bit of background also being heard. Still, the explosion is definitely there, startling Heath and everyone around him. If we calculate when the explosion happened, once again we have to conclude that it occurred right at the very beginning of the building's collapse.

Finally there is the Sorensen video, with the camera aimed at the South Tower again. It's possible to hear and see the tower up to half an hour before the collapse. Nothing out of the ordinary is heard until seconds before the collapse. A brief "klunk" is heard (not in video segment here), followed by a louder "ka-klunk" that happens about one second before a very loud metallic-sounding "rooooom!" "Rooom!" sound comes up. Floors 77 and 78 begin to crumble immediately upon the start of this loud metallic sound. A distinct loud boom is not heard from this angle, but it appears this is actually how the explosion plus echo sounds from this angle, which is the opposite of the first video here in which the loud explosion is heard.

From this angle I'd say the "explosion" actually sounds like numerous smaller charges going off in micro-delay intervals, severing dozens of columns in one or two seconds. Then again, who am I?

Confirmation: Rumble and loud boom when WTC 2 still standing tall

While having seen it before, for some reason I had forgotten about the NIST FOIA 09-42 R27 video. This involves a home video camera aimed at the South Tower at the moment of collapse. Despite the fact that the video is shot from inside at a distance of roughly 290 meters diagonally from the collapsing floors, the sound is quite decent. It is shot from high up and actually captures the same "rooom!"-like sound of the Sorensen video. Let's first take a look at the exact location from which the video was shot. A water tank and satellite dish luckily made it relatively easy to pinpoint:

In this case there is a theoretical delay in the sound of 290 m : 343 m/s = 0.85 seconds. In the clip that I have been using, the rumble suddenly comes up at 2.25 seconds, at which point it can also clearly be distinguished in a typical Adobe Audition waveform display. It's followed by a rumble which might be the echo. People are beginning to yell at this point, however, so it's not clearly audible. In any case, 2.25 s - 0.85 s = 1.4 seconds, which provides us with the following screenshot:

While the tower is essentially still intact and not collapsing for another two seconds, the beginning stages of two horizontal blow out lines can already be spotted. However, the rumble seems to come up softly roughly a second earlier. I can close my eyes and consistently hit pause before the loud thunder is audible based on this soft rumble that seems to emerge. I'm not sure though. The same soft rumble might also be audible on the ABC-7 video from the base of the buildings, which was effectively shot from the same distance. This camera had a directional microphone, however, which picks up sound quite differently--usually softer. It can't be heard on the Sorenson video, but that one has been cut short. So the judges are still out on this aspect. I have a feeling it can be picked up from roughly 0.9 seconds into the video. Initially this appeared to be a little early, but looking at the sequence, it is clear that the first signs of collapse can be picked up right at this moment. The collapse actually starts slowly, with the impact floors just crumbling all over without visible signs of pancaking floors. The following screenshot is from 0.1 second into the video, and 0.05 seconds after the soft rumbling might be audible. The bright spot, which quickly expands, is already visible here.

Whether or not there was this initial soft rumbling, it cannot be denied that there was a huge spike in noise, quite possibly from numerous micro-delayed charges, during which the building showed no signs of visible collapse. Even 1.4 seconds after the initiation of this anomalous noise/explosion we can see that the tower is still not collapsing:

It isn't until a full two seconds after the noise/explosion comes up, followed by a temporary decrease in noise, that floors begin to fail and the the South Tower visibly collapses. What is exactly happening here is hard to say. Maybe NIST would like to address the issue. My own wild guess is that the top of the tower was simply allowed to collapse like a separate building by blowing several floors of core columns, immediately followed by charges that destabilized the perimeter structure. Subsequently columns on every 4 floors or so were severed to keep the collapse going. Maybe, just maybe, instead of charges being placed the building was weakened beforehand with blow torches, a sort of reverse case of the secret retrofit of the Citibank Tower in the summer of 1978. Whether or not thermate was used to weaken the core beforehand, impossible to say for sure, but the heat indicates it was used.

Smoke puffs, rapid gas expansions, and sequential <0.1 second flashes

While it didn't have an answer for smoke puffs appearing at the impact floors of the North Tower pre-collapse, it speaks for itself that NIST explained the smoke puffs appearing during the collapses away as air pressure from collapsing floors. 50 Below are examples of these famous smoke puffs, which NIST labeled "pressure pulses":

Of course, despite the fact that NIST didn't explain them, anybody can come up with alternative theories. The primary one would be that these blow-outs, also the ones appearing 30-40 floors lower, were the result of collapsing floors violently pushing air out of the elevator shafts and stairwells. And who says this theory isn't the correct one? It could well be true. Surviving firemen at the bottom of stairwell B of the North Tower reported being blown all over the place and so do survivors in the immediate vicinity of the collapsing towers. It is very much the question if this was due to explosives. Maybe they contributed, who knows, but almost certainly a lot of air was pushed down and out of the core structure, which was sealed off to a very large extent with walls and doors. The floors would add even more air that needed to escape.

That having been said, looking at the South Tower, I find it interesting that clearly the central core explodes or gets violently crushed a full second before the perimeter structure experiences a similar fate. In the image above it can also be observed that some of these smoke puffs appear very prematurely in a corner of the first sky lobby, seemingly at the level of the floor and the ceiling. While less clearly visible, another such smoke puff appears in another corner of the sky lobby. It's hard to imagine that this was the result of air pressure. Also, most likely these corners are an ideal location to decouple the four perimeter walls from each other. A floor plan of the North Tower reveals that the corner of this floor is reserved for AC wiring and contains horizontal beams connecting two sides of the building. Unfortunately, the floor plan drawings of virtually any other WTC floor do not include details on the corner sections. Once again, of course, it's very easy to invent alternative theories. Maybe, just maybe, the smoke puffs at the first sky lobby were the result of friction from the collapsing towers. They may have been or have become weak spots. Who am I to say otherwise?

Looking at smoke puffs of the North Tower collapse reveals more questions. We have very close-up footage available of this collapse. To me personally the collapse of the top section looks like a controlled demolition. First, not just all of floor 98 blows out in about a second, but looking at the close up footage frame by frame it seems hurricane-strength winds appear out of nowhere, dislodging a whole row of perimeter columns of floor 98 before, within 0.04 seconds (1/25 frame), this whole section is obscured in black smoke. Within 0.1 seconds this black cloud, largely emanating from Flight 11's impact hole, has traveled two floors down. If one has to make an estimate as to how fast these winds travel, a fair minimum would be 1 meter per 0.04 seconds. This amounts to 90 kmh/56mph. This is pretty minimum, however. A top speed of 5 meters per 0.04 seconds inside the building is probably not an overestimate. This would result in wind speeds of 450 kmh/280mph, roughly on par with the strongest tornados. Looking at this section during the collapse of the building in another copy of the video, in which one of these frames can't even be found, making the gas expansion look even more violent, actually leads me to suspect wind speeds were twice this just inside the building. Keep in mind: you can see a row of columns move over by a few pixels in a split second, with them being visibly separated from the floors above and below. As an explosion of black smoke pushes out of the building, the columns get hammered even more. A split second before everything is obscured in black smoke, it's actually possible to see how the corner flies right out of the building. In my opinion, it all looks a little violent and out of the blue compared to a gradual collapse.

Other anomalies can be spotted. 0.4 seconds (not 0.04 in this case) after the first perimeter columns can be observed falling around floors 96-98, simultaneous smoke puffs appear on floors 100 and 104 (estimated). This is 0.08 seconds before the columns on floor 98 - those located some distance away from the ones already sliding down - are visibly dislodged by what appears to be a blow from behind. How does that happen? There was no fire here. Nothing. In fact, the majority of the fire was around floors 94-95. From other angles we can see even more smoke puffs appearing on the higher floors, all at the same time and right at the very beginning when the building starts to collapse. No progression can be seen. Everything happens at virtually the same time.

Of course, also here it's easy to come up with alternative "explanations" that are almost impossible to disprove: the core could have collapsed, pulling down the floors above them, violently snapping the corners of some of these floors above them, a split seconds before the effects reach the perimeter columns on floor 98, which still has its floor intact. See? Not very hard. That took about 5 seconds to make up and it's nearly impossible to disprove.

Not discussed yet is the 2.5 seconds of shaking that is observed right before the North Tower comes down. It's hard to say if this really happened. The Etienne Sauret video above is well-known for this observation, but the problem is that the camera is located a mile away, with no known other videos revealing similar shaking (except a manipulative one at ground level in which someone seems to be touching the camera). Then again, it really looks as if someone or something is shook loose with some force from the North Tower and falls down right when the shaking starts. At this point also the amount of smoke begins to increase, indicating that something is changing in the tower. Could it be that this shaking was only noticeable near the top of very high buildings? Impossible to say. Also, if there was any shaking, no loud noises were heard, so maybe it would be wise to say that whatever we see on the Sauret video is just a coincidental wind gust.

Only after finishing up this article I ran across the Dr. Mark Heath video in 720p. He's filming the collapse of the North Tower from about 150 meters (500 feet) away. Unfortunately, Heath has turned the camera away from the building as it comes down, with a lot of noise in the background at this point, but still a huge explosion can be heard preceding the collapse. Even more important - and I'm not really sure why I never saw it before - even without slowing down the video, rapid flashes and violent smoke puffs are visible at very low level floors as the tower comes down. All of them are visible less than 0.1 second and to a large extent seem to be synchronized. Also, the flashes and violent puffs appear to be centered roughly 5 meters from both sides of the corner, and also right in the corner. It would be interesting to find out if any crucial connections could be found in these areas of the building. In any case, the video is absolutely incredible. Everyone will have to judge for themselves, but in light of all the other evidence the Mark Heath video appears to be very serious evidence of explosives. Some of the smoke puffs in other videos could well have been the result of downward air pressure, but these? So many flashes and violent smoke puffs? I doubt it.

Update: While analyzing the video of the previous section in which the South Tower can be seen collapsing, complete with good sound and good visuals of the collapse section, once again I noticed what seem to be demolition squibs. They appear so violently from all four corners at different floors that it is hard to imagine these are not explosives. These suspicions only increase upon realizing that these squibs appear roughly 0.4 seconds before the building starts to tilt over, at which point it is still not descending. I simply can't come up with a decent alternative explanation to explosives, but who knows.

Thermite: theory and history

Thermite is a mixture of a metal powder and metal oxide. The oxide is normally red iron rust, but copper oxide and likely other forms have also been experimented with. The metal powder can be iron, aluminum, magnesium, copper, or even lead. It's very easy to make, but depending on the mixture, one needs gunpowder or magnesium to ignite it. Once ignited, thermite burns at temperatures of about 2,500°C/4,500°F. What the iron rust molecule actually does is provide the metal powder with enough oxygen to make the combustion as intense as it is. There's not enough oxygen in the surrounding air to initiate or sustain these type of intense chemical reactions. In similar sense, potassium nitrate is the oxidizer in gunpowder while ammonium nitrate did the job for McVeigh in Oklahoma. There are many other oxidizers.

Thermite was discovered in the late 19th century and used extensively in railroad welding. Experimentation with different mixtures began almost immediately. In many cases sulfur was added to the mix, officially rebranding the substance to "thermate". At least three different compositions, listed below, have been used by the military.

Therm-8 (TH1)   Iron oxide 61.0% Aluminum 22.8% Barium nitrate 15.0% Sulfur 0.90% Castor oil 0.30%

Therm 8-2 (TH2)   Iron oxide 55.2% Aluminum 25.0% Barium nitrate 19.5% Sulfur 0.30%

Therm 64-c (TH3)   Iron oxide 43.8% Aluminum 24.9% Barium nitrate 29.0% Sulfur 2.0% Binding agent 0.3%

Combined with a magnesium casing, TH3 and possibly the other variations were used in over 40 million AN-M50 incendiary bombs dropped during World War II over Japan and Germany. 51 Compared to the original thermite formula, this TH3 version of thermate was said to "increase [the] thermal effect ... and significantly reduce the ignition temperature". 52 Looking at the added substances, barium nitrate makes the mixture easier to ignite (using aluminum instead of iron powder also makes this process easier) while sulfur quickly degrades steel. It's actually responsible for lowering the melting point of the steel it attacks.

Even though little is known about it, research into thermite has not been sitting entirely still since World War II. In 2007 the U.S. Navy announced that it had become interested in developing "nanostructured super-thermites" 53. Right in this period Dr. Steven Jones was the first to come to the conclusion that it is this version of thermite that was used in the World Trade Center, indicating some form of this material already existed. 54 As I stated at the beginning of this article, I'm not touching nanothermite. What is certain is that terrorists couldn't have gotten any version of thermite into those buildings. Also, it was Kevin Ryan who years ago pointed to U.S. patent number 5,532,449, issued in 1996, regarding a thermite demolition device. The purpose of this device would be to "demolish a concrete structure at a high efficiency, while preventing a secondary problem due to noise, flying dust and chips, and the like." In this device the thermite is mixed with a gas to generate a "plasma torch". It is this torch that cuts through the steel. 55 However, there's no evidence that this device was ever produced, let alone used in the demolition of the World Trade Center. The patent was issued to Komatsu Ltd., a reasonably interesting Japanese firm that will be given some attention in part 2 of this article.

Thermite on 9/11: evidence and denial

There are various videos of the South Tower showing what appears to be molten metal falling from the corner that Flight 175 was moving towards upon impact. There has been speculation that this was either thermite or molten steel due to the presence of thermite. I never paid much attention to it, not knowing at the time that there were so many accounts of extreme heat and molten steel at the World Trade Center clean-up site. While synchronizing the two collapse videos discussed earlier, I was reminded once again of this phenomenon. In the minutes before the collapse this continuing stream of "something" is clearly visible. Now with the virtual certainty that thermite was used, I decided to do my own analysis of the stream.

Let's first be a little bit specific about the "minutes" comment. The first time a little bit of apparently molten metal is falling is three minutes and 34 seconds before collapse. Almost exactly a minute later another blob of glowing metal comes down. Little is seen again (from far away at least) until exactly 1,5 minute before the collapse. At this point the glowing material breaks through, causing regular showers of white and yellow hot metal. Looking at the streams up close, the following observations can be made:

1. No flames are visible anywhere: not at the top and not when the liquid comes down.
2. White smoke can often be seen coming from this liquid, while flames in other parts of the building generate thick black smoke - the kind of smoke burning jet fuel creates.
3. Especially when the liquid comes down, the stream appears to be of a rather thick, lava-like consistency. It doesn't seem to behave like a watery substance as gasoline.
4. The stream is rather sparkly when disturbed in any way.
5. At the very center the liquid is quite white, indicating a temperature of about 1,200°C/2,200°F, whether it is aluminum or steel. The temperature drops off quickly. Most parts of the stream are bright yellow to orange, indicating average temperatures in the neighborhood of 1,000°C/1,850°F.

All these observations indicate we are dealing with molten metal. One would expect that it is possible that this is aluminum from the jetliner, which crashed towards the corner in question after impact. Unsurprisingly, this is actually what NIST concluded after being questioned about it by Dr. Steven Jones, the earlier-mentioned engineer who is skeptical about the collapses. NIST uploaded a similar conclusion to their online FAQ. The reply to Jones read:

"NIST concluded that the source of the molten material was aluminum alloys from the aircraft, since these are known to melt between 475 degrees Celsius (900 degrees Fahrenheit) and 640 degrees Celsius (1,200 degrees Fahrenheit)—depending on the particular alloy—well below the expected temperatures (about 1,000 degrees Celsius or 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit) in the vicinity of the fires." 56

It's nice to see that everybody is on the same page whether or not we're looking at a liquid metal here: it's metal. About the temperature inside the building it's possible to have endless debates. NIST claims sustained temperatures of 1,000°C are an acceptable estimate. Looking at all the smoke and the very limited amount of fire at the exact location where the material comes down from, a lot of people are skeptical about that. Then there's the fact, known to every fireman and every thinking person, that the temperature of the actual fire seldom matches the temperature of the surrounding material. Certainly in the case of metal, heat is transported away from the flame in record time (just think about the purpose of CPU coolers). Unless a material is fully immersed in a fire for some time and therefore doesn't have the ability to transport its heat, it will reach similar temperatures as the flames.

Jones also pointed out the same thing that I myself had noticed: aluminum has a tendency towards turning quickly back into its gray metallic form. Certainly if aluminum is only heated to about 1,800°F/980°C, as would have been the absolute theoretical limit at the World Trade Center, I would expect to see a dull, unsparkly yellow color already turning grayish by the time it falls from the building. This is not what we see, however. We see bright white, yellow and orange colors, many sparks, and no indication that the material is turning grayish. Instead, it turns bright and then dull orange. In my unprofessional opinion it is almost certainly steel, likely mixed in with a little bit of remaining thermate.

What is interesting is that NIST actually tried to prove to Jones that the aluminum was glowing because it was "probably" mixed in with office materials (indicating that they know the aluminum would not have been heated even close to 1,800°F/980°C for it to start glowing a little bit). Jones and his team experimented with this. It turned out to be total bunk. Mixing office materials in with molten aluminum had absolutely zero effect. Half of the time the materials wouldn't even mix. 57

The basic problem with NIST is that they are covering things up. They don't even acknowledge the dozens of witness testimonies, combined with visual evidence, that there was heat intense enough to (partially) melt and fuse steel beams weighing many tons. This position was perfectly captured when Dr. John L. Gross, "responsible for the Structural Fire Response and Collapse aspects of the NIST World Trade Center Investigation", gave the following reply when questioned about the reports and evidence for molten steel at the World Trade Center site:

"First of all, let's go back to your basic premise that there was a pool of molten steel. I know of absolute no eyewitnesses who said so, nobody has produced it. I was on the site. I was on the steel yards. So I don't know that that's so. Steel melts around 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit. I think it's probably pretty difficult to get those kind of temperatures in a fire."

Gross invited the person who asked the question to send him any information regarding the extreme heat and molten steel at the clean up site. However, after the speech Gross refused to provide his contact information to the person in question. What does this mean? It means that Gross is lying - and he knows it. As for NIST's official position, to be found in its online FAQ:

"[NIST] found no evidence that would support the melting of steel in a jet-fuel ignited fire in the towers prior to collapse."

This appears to carefully crafted lawyer-talk. It doesn't say: "We found no evidence of molten steel." Instead they argue that they found no evidence that burning jet fuel could have melted steel - implying they never had to look into reports of molten steel. NIST's FAQ goes on to explain that this has indeed been their policy:

"The condition of the steel in the wreckage of the WTC towers (i.e., whether it was in a molten state or not) was irrelevant to the investigation of the collapse since it does not provide any conclusive information on the condition of the steel when the WTC towers were standing. "Under certain circumstances it is conceivable for some of the steel in the wreckage to have melted after the buildings collapsed. Any molten steel in the wreckage was more likely due to the high temperature resulting from long exposure to combustion within the pile than to short exposure to fires or explosions while the buildings were standing."

So not only didn't NIST investigate the claims and evidence for molten steel, they think it is irrelevant whether or not steel melted or came close to melting - because, apparently, "under certain circumstances", ordinary fires can melt steel. According to them, it is possible that fires which were not able to melt steel high up in the buildings, when the floors were saturated with jet fuel, would have been able to do so after the floors were disintegrated and mixed in with hundreds and hundreds of tons of (cold) steel of more than 200 additional floors. Does that sound logical? Not to me.

There is something else NIST refused to do, which may have proved the existence of thermate inside the building. FAQ:

"NIST did not test for the residue of these [thermite] compounds in the steel. ... [because] NIST [had already] concluded that there were no explosives or controlled demolition involved in the collapses of the WTC towers."

You're looking at what used to be a WTC 1 or 2 I-beam. Some mysterious sulfur-containing compound burning at high temperatures managed to quickly "liquefy" much of the steel. Was thermate placed against this beam? What other possibilities are there?

There is very good reason why NIST should have tested for these residues, because the initial 2002 World Trade Center Building Performance Study of FEMA actually provided a high degree of scientific evidence that the buildings had indeed been weakened by the thermate variant of thermite, despite the fact that investigators, for obvious reasons, didn't ponder this explanation. In fact, as the reader may have already come across, even before the report came out, it was reported in the press that Dr. Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl of the American Society of Civil Engineers, which cooperated with FEMA, had inspected steel beams of WTC 7 that he found in the back of a dump truck. Among his findings was an I beam, which "had clearly endured searing temperatures. Parts of the flat top of the I, once five-eighths of an inch thick, had vaporized." Question: how do office fires, or even jetfuel, "vaporize" steel? As for the later FEMA report, Appendix C describes the discovery of two pieces of structural steel in the rubble that had "unusual erosion patterns". The first piece "appeared" to belong to WTC 7 and the other to one of the two towers. The report describes that the steel had been thinned "due to a combination of oxidation and sulfidation", resulting "in the formation of a eutectic mixture of iron, oxygen, and sulfur that liquefied the steel." The report goes on to describe that the "sulfidation attack of steel grain boundaries accelerated the corrosion and erosion of the steel" and concludes that this is "a very unusual event" where "no clear explanation for the source of the sulfur has been identified." What is so very interesting about this is that: A) experts found no explanation for what they observed; and B) the thermate variant of thermite includes sulfur in order to increase its ability to burn through steel. Sulfur causes the iron to become brittle. Together with oxygen, which is also released during the burning of thermite/thermate, it is a substance that is carefully removed from steel during the processing stages.

Despite the fact that NIST refused to look for molten steel or test for thermate compounds, they did find time to theorize on how much of an ineffective substance thermite would have been for achieving a controlled demolition. From the NIST FAQ:

"Analysis of the WTC steel for the elements in thermite/thermate would not necessarily have been conclusive. The metal compounds also would have been present in the construction materials making up the WTC towers, and sulfur is present in the gypsum wallboard that was prevalent in the interior partitions."

So according to NIST, gypsum wallboard is the most likely reason that steel beams may have been liquefied. If that is a serious suspicion of them, maybe they should be ringing the alarm bells, because gypsum wallboard is extremely common in office buildings.

Jonathan H. Cole, convincingly disproving here that gypsum wall board could have been responsible for any erosion of the WTC beams, even under the most extreme conditions.

Here we actually enter the territory again of Dr. Steven Jones, the physicist who examined the World Trade Center dust. He claimed that there were unusual amounts of sulfur, tiny iron microspheres and the oxidizer potassium permanganate in them - all of them indicating thermate reactions. The iron microspheres have actually been documented and photographed by the U.S. Geological Survey, so there seems little doubt about this. It also sounds very reasonable that these spheres must have been liquid when formed, so here we have more evidence of molten steel, which in this case may well have been "sulfidated" from larger bodies of steel, i.e. WTC columns. Except for a few badly produced Youtube clips, it appears that virtually no one is willing to challenge these claims, including the ones of Jones that the additional components of these iron microspheres point to the use of thermate. In the Youtube clips in question the NIST claim is repeated that gypsum wallboard is the most likely source for the sulfur found in the world trade center dust, that paint and electronic devices have been responsible for the iron spheres and that potassium permanganate can be found in structural steel, paint, batteries and ceramics. Most of these arguments appear to be quite shaky and certainly always isolated from the bigger picture.

One person who actually went out and disproved the claim of NIST that gypsum wallboard could have been responsible for the extreme degradation in the controversial FEMA debris pieces, is Jonathan H. Cole, a civil engineer by profession. In a December 2010 Youtube clip entitled 9/11 Experiments: The Mysterious Eutectic Steel, he wrapped gypsum wallboard all around a large I-beam, added diesel fuel, tied everything together with a steel net and left it out on a fire for 24 hours. After two days, when the pile had cooled down, he inspected the I-beam: no intergranular melting had taken place whatsoever and certainly no holes could be detected.

Cole convincingly debunked another claim that can be found in the FAQ on the NIST website:

"While a thermite reaction can cut through large steel columns, many thousands of pounds of thermite would need to have been placed inconspicuously ahead of time, remotely ignited, and somehow held in direct contact with the surface of hundreds of massive structural components to weaken the building. This makes it an unlikely substance for achieving a controlled demolition."

Jonathan H. Cole, proving here that thermate can easily be used as demolition compound. If the burning process is focused, it will cut through steel like butter. Cole also made his thermate deflagrate, causing typical "pressure pulses" and "dust puffs" as seen on various occasions on 9/11. They don't explain any rapid flashes though. These would have to be conventional explosives.

Information on thermate is so lacking that even today, anno 2012, it is still impossible to find much detail on its use in demolition work or even exactly how good it is in cutting steel. Unsurprisingly, there have been at least two attempts by the mainstream media to help NIST in supporting the theory that thermite could not have been used to bring down the World Trade Center towers. National Geographic proudly demonstrated how 175 pounds of thermite stashed around a steel column in the open air was unable to melt it. Mythbusters then failed to melt a car in two pieces with half a ton of thermite. All of sudden it didn't matter anymore that the structural strength of the steel would have been severely compromised during these experiments. Weakening, not melting, had always been the major premise of the World Trade Center collapses. But that was put aside for a moment.

There's zero structure in the experiments done and the claims made by all these mainstream sources. For starters, they may want to look for similarities in chemical changes. Or they might want to try an experiment in an enclosed space, put the material inside of a box column, and confirm they use a thermate version. This lack of structure stands in stark contrast to other experiments done by Jonathan Cole. In his November 2010 Youtube clip 9/11 Experiments: The Great Thermate Debate, he set out to answer three basic questions: 1) Can thermate melt steel? 2) Can thermate cut steel horizontally or vertically? 3) Does it take massive quantities to do any real damage? He welded two large steel I-beams together in his backyard and began experimenting with a home-made thermate compound consisting of iron oxide, aluminum, barium nitrate and sulfur. His first experiment, in which he pressed five pounds of thermate to each side of a beam, failed; it didn't affect the construction at all. Then he began using a modified steel box tube with a slot milled along one edge, forcing the thermate out in one direction (similar to the idea behind a shaped charge). All of a sudden 1.5 pounds of thermate turned out to be enough to cut through the steel. In later set-ups he demolished large vertical beams, bolts and box columns, all of which were present at the World Trade Center.

Massive heat, massive amounts of thermate?

Looking at the information gathered at this point, it seems that heat played a major role in many of these WTC columns failing. Below the reader can find two pictures of columns that were bent during the collapse.

In the 2002 Relics from the Rubble documentary on the History Channel the beam on the right was shown to two metal workers. This is what they had to say about it:

"[Narrator:] This eight-ton steel I-beam is six inches thick. It was selected to be preserved for future generations for the near perfect horseshoe-like bent, formed during the collapse. [Metalworker:] I found it hard to believe that it had actually bent because of the size of it and there are no cracks in the iron. It bent without almost a single crack in it. It takes thousands of degrees to bend steel like this. [A colleague of the metalworker:] Typically you have buckling and tearing on the tension side. There is no buckling at all."

In the World Trade Center the temperature only rose to a maximum of 600°C (1100°F), so it appears we have a discrepancy here. Having so much evidence for the use of thermate and assuming that this wasn't the only beam (apparently) deformed by extreme heat, all of a sudden many other deformed columns look suspect. There were many beams in the World Trade Center rubble that were crumpled in very smooth ways, quite possibly indicating great heat. Then again, considering the forces involved in the collapses anything is possible.

If we contemplate the use of thermite, even the above one 8 ton beam presents us with a bit of a problem. It is actually NIST that has explained why:

"[Thermite] burns slowly relative to explosive materials and would require several minutes in contact with a massive steel section to heat it to a temperature that would result in substantial weakening. Separate from the WTC towers investigation, NIST researchers estimated that at least 0.13 pounds of thermite would be required to heat each pound of a steel section to approximately 700 degrees Celsius (the temperature at which steel weakens substantially)."

Having some limited experience with thermite, this seems to be quite a fair estimate. But that would mean that over 1,000 pounds of thermite had to be lighted inside the building to reach temperatures necessary for this one beam to bend in the way it did - and even that is on the assumption that burning jet fuel and office furniture would have extensively preheated the beam. Considering that this beam was at floor 98 and that there were 47 core columns in total, we are looking at a minimum of about 47,000 pounds of thermite that would have been necessary to heat all the steel to the point that the building would almost certainly collapse. If we assume that thermate was used, a few thousand pounds less may have done the job - it burns hotter and quicker through steel.

Possibly these estimates are overstated. Thermate placed against or inside a column would locally result in temperatures of 1,800°F/1,000°C or higher (as the FEMA study demonstrated). Still, evidence from ground zero shows that entire beams were heated to the point of glowing red hot, orange, yellow and even white colors - so 48,000 pounds, or 20 tons per building may not at all be an unrealistic estimate. Thermite is the only way to have made the collapses look natural and limit the amount of (noisy) explosive needed. Whoever decided to put the material in there is unlikely to have been conservative with the amount used. An estimated amount of 20 tons or more also immediately explains the extreme heat underneath the World Trade Center clean up site, which lasted for many weeks. It wasn't until December 19 that the last underground fires were put out and that is with large amounts of water having been sprayed on top of the rubble for three months. How likely is it that 5 or even 10 tons of thermate for both towers and WTC 7 - largely burned up by the time the towers collapsed - could produce the verified temperatures of "more than 2,800 degrees F [1,540°C]" in such a giant pile of heat-conducting steel and other rubble? Each tower contained an estimated 100,000 tons of steel and 50,000 tons of concrete. I can't be sure, of course, but my personal guess is that probably a lot more than 5 or 10 tons of thermate was used in those buildings. Even if it strategically placed throughout the buildings, with the amount of space that has to be rigged and the weight of the material, you probably end up pretty quickly with these numbers.

Because the depth of the pools of molten steel in the elevator shafts are unknown, it's next to impossible to come up with a good estimate of how much thermate was used. But, for the sake of argument, let's say 50,000 pounds (22.5 tons) of thermate and explosives were brought into each building. Depending on the crew needed, it would take anywhere between 10 and 25 small moving vans to transport the materials into the WTC's underground parking lot. From there everything would have been taken up the elevators, quite possibly placed through the elevator shafts, as well as in the perimeter box columns. However the job was done, security appears to not have paid too much attention. Unfortunately, we need unedited 24-hour-a-day security footage of the WTC to ever verify if suspicious activity was going on in the days and weeks before 9/11. Not that it would have ever been released, but my guess is that it has all been pulverized. Then again, there are many employees of the building that survived and they really should have seen something unusual, especially janitors, security guards and the over 80 ACE Elevator employees active in the building, who often worked at night. The ACE Elevator employees were carrying out a full-scale elevator modernization program and all but two survived. All of them should have been interviewed a long time ago. We should also know who exactly upgraded the network cables in the top of the South Tower the weekend before 9/11.

Likely locations of the explosives and thermate

The evidence for explosives and thermate is rather strong. One more important question to ask is where these could have been placed inside the building. When it comes to thermate, the primary idea of Kevin Ryan, who investigated some of the steel of the World Trade Center, seems to be that there was thermate in or behind the fireproofing on some floors. It is indeed a fact that the floors from which the collapses were initiated, received additional fireproofing in the years before 9/11. According to NIST:

"In the years between 1995 and 2001, thermal protection was upgraded in a number of the floors affected by the fires on September 11, 2001. Specifically, in WTC 1, floors 92 through 100 and 102 were upgraded; and in WTC 2, floors 77, 78, 88, 89, 92, 96 and 97 were upgraded." 58

The WTC 1 impact floors were 94 to 98 and for WTC 2 they were 78 to 84. The primary floor to fail in the collapse of WTC 1 was clearly 98 (also according to NIST). In case of WTC 2 this appears to have been floors 77 and 78. And as the reader can see, these floors all had their fireproofing upgraded in the years before 9/11. One major problem, however, is the lack of details when these floors were actually upgraded. A list of modifications made to various World Trade Center floors, appearing in a different segment of the NIST report, fails to mention some of the floors where reportedly the fireproofing was upgraded. 59 There are also very few details as to what type of modifications were actually made, precisely when they were made and who carried them out. Basically, the theory that thermate was placed inside the buildings via fireproofing upgrades comes down to pure speculation, especially when these upgrades were done several years prior to 9/11. I personally don't buy it. It means the perpetrators would have known the exact floors where the planes would hit many years in advance and apparently that they had nerves of steel. I mean, who could place explosives inside the World Trade Center towers years in advance and actually sleep soundly, absolutely convinced they wouldn't be discovered by accident? It's unlikely that anybody would take that risk, or plan so many years in advance.

Next in line is our beloved Jonathan Cole, who primarily focuses on the idea that small thermite charges were brought into the building and attached to I-beams and perimeter box columns. Unfortunately he doesn't focus on the core columns, which were (massive) box columns used up to floor 85 of both buildings, with lighter I-beams being used above that. These I-beams appear to have been wrapped in concrete and located in the offices for the most part. The only way to go here appears to be in the ceiling and floors.

To me, Cole's idea that bolts of the perimeter box columns were attacked seems absolutely possible. The rather symmetrical flashes and smoke puffs along the corners of the building, especially in the Mark Heath video, may even provide visual evidence for that. Then again, what may have been attacked instead were horizontal beams connecting different sides of the building and the girders keeping everything together. It's hard to say for sure without detailed knowledge of the building's intricacies. What we can say with relative certainty is that anybody interested in taking the buildings down, would probably not take any chances and just sever the perimeter box columns from each other in various places and quite possibly decouple the different sides of the building.

Then there is Richard Humenn, a "principal chief electrical engineer" of the WTC, who claims he designed the building's entire power supply and elevator system under the guidance of his boss, Joseph Loring, for whom he worked from 1957 to 1996. His credentials are well-established 60, as are those of Loring. 61 On top of that, Humenn has some experience as a demolition expert during his service in the Korean War. Blowing up small bridges is not exactly the same as taking down huge skyscrapers in controlled fashion, but the expertise is most definitely welcome. Here are Humenn's words to Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth:

"[During the Korean War] our best explosive was C-4. We learned to build bridges and then blow them up – how to place charges where they would be most effective. [If this was a deceptive controlled demolition] I don't think they did a very good job of hiding it. All of the interior columns had to be compromised at multiple points. [There were] 50 or so interior columns that surrounded the elevator shafts. I would expect that if I were to attempt to bring the columns down, I would place some kind of thermite explosive inside the columns at maybe 30-foot intervals. My only theory is that the only people who had 24/7 access to the elevator shafts was the elevator maintenance company. They did a lot of their work after hours. They inspected rails and all the interiors of the shaft for safety reasons. A team of men working from an elevator that they control could have access from the top to all the interior columns from the inside. There's no way there could have been access from the outside, because people would have noticed. But inside, at least two or three sides of each column were exposed and could be penetrated by a drill or something to insert some form of explosive [with a remote-controlled detonator]. When I was dealing with them, the elevator company was ACE. They were very good people – they helped me with some of my studies. There was always constant maintenance of the rails which guided the elevators on each side."

Unfortunately, Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth is just as any other 9/11 "truth" group: it is dominated by no-planers and attracts and promote a steady stream of very curious witnesses and supporters. It has been very passive with the statements of Humenn, not going over the floor plans in detail and giving him a chance to correct some of his incredibly inaccurate claims. Without questioning him about it, Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth simply wrote down his belief that none of the elevators could have crashed down to the lobby. This claim alone instantly makes anything that Humenn says very suspicious, because anyone with even rudimentary knowledge of the towers should be fully aware that several elevators ran from the lobby all the way to the 78th floor and even the 107th and 109th floors. It's these elevators that came down and caused tremendous damage to the lobby. Several dozen people were burned alive as a result of these crashes, combined with kerosene falling down. And here we have a WTC engineer claiming this wasn't possible. That doesn't make any sense. I see it as a possibility that Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth has been steering Humenn with the express purpose of discrediting him.

For example, Humenn also talks about having observed how the antenna on top of the North Tower came down earlier than the perimeter structure, indicating that the core was compromised first. This is actually accurate: 0.5 seconds after the antenna begins its descent, one corner of the outer perimeter structure is pulled slightly inward, followed 0.03 seconds later with a downward movement of the entire perimeter structure. Problem is, to me this was absolutely impossible to see without going over the Etienne Sauret video frame by frame for quite some time. How did Humenn become aware of this, but doesn't remember how many core columns the WTC had and that various elevators ran all the way from the top of the building to the basements?

What Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth should have done is present Humenn with the floor plans of the WTC, so that he could have refreshed his memory. Together they could have established from where to where the elevators ran, the amount of core columns present, what type of columns could be found on which floors, how many of these could be accessed from the elevator shafts, and if this access would be enough to take down the buildings. This would have been similar to the approach Dutch television took with demolition expert Danny Jowenko. They presented him with the floor plans of World Trade Center 7 and based that, gained valuable additional insights from Jowenko. Then again, Jowenko didn't make any ridiculously inaccurate claims, as Humenn did. Humenn seems like an interesting witness, and we should contemplate his words, but we cannot rely on his credentials alone.

Now, looking at the floor plans of the North Tower, as leaked in March 2007, we can see that Humenn is only right to a degree: in the bottom two-thirds of the towers, all or the vast majority of the 47 core columns were theoretically accessible through the elevator shafts. The first six floors of the towers contained 20 very thick core columns. From floor 7 to floors in the 50, the majority of the weight in the core was carried by 16 of the thickest core columns, reportedly about 20 tons each.

However, after that, some of the columns slowly became thinner, in addition to elevator shafts disappearing in certain corners. At floor 67 the thinning process accelerated. One very important observation to make at this point is that the thickest core columns moved back a little from the wall surrounding the elevator shafts. While it would have been questionable in the first place if these (very important) columns could have been reached through the elevator shafts, at this point this becomes very unlikely. At floor 82 all but 13 box columns in the core were replaced by H-columns, reportedly about 8 tons each. We also see that the box columns, which were pretty thin at this point, moved even farther away from the elevator shafts. At floor 84-86 it seems only 4 box columns in the core were left and by floor 87 these were gone also. Obviously at this point other methods would have needed to be employed to place explosives.

It seems that at the points of impact and collapse in both towers, the only two remaining methods to hide explosives or thermate would have been the various vertical shafts running through the building and the area between the floors, at the level of the steel floor trusses. Certainly at floor 98, the point of collapse in the North Tower, both methods would have to be employed. Too many of the columns were located out in the open, with only about half of them placed against a shaft. On top that, those at the center could only be reached through the elevator shafts. It's hard to say if these columns needed to be severed, or if it would be enough to take out these columns at lower floors, where access may have been easier. At this point we may want to take a look at the words of Scott Forbes, senior database administrator of Fiduciary Trust, a company located between floors floors 90 and 94 to 97 of the South Tower:

"About three weeks prior to 9/11 our company, along with many others in the towers, were given notice that there was going to be a power down in the top 50 per cent of the floors in the southern tower. This was unprecedented. As you can imagine, with all of the financial institutions in the building, to have a complete loss of power meant a complete loss of systems. And for an organization like my company it was truly extraordinary. ... The power down was on the Saturday and Sunday prior to 9/11. ... We were given three weeks notice. It was a relatively short time notice period to make all the preparations needed. And unprecedented. We had never experienced a power down in the towers, as far as I'm aware. I have worked in the towers from 1998. My colleagues who had been in the building well beyond that could not remember an occasion such as this, apart from the bomb incident in the early nineties. ... "One of the main reasons why became suspicious was that I got in touch with the Port Authority and I got in touch with the 9/11 Commission to register this piece of information, so that it would be acknowledged, if only to be thrown away - and I had no acknowledgement. They did not come back to me. I repeatedly called and wrote letters to them. It is as if this information is of no interest to anyone, but to me it seems to be part of the puzzle and should be registered. ... I was not in the office on 9/11, because of working that weekend. I had the day off on Tuesday. So I was in my apartment that overlooked the Trade Center. ... And as soon as I saw the South Tower go down, I was highly suspicious. It just didn't look correct. It looked like a controlled demolition."

In 2010 Gary Corbett, another former Fiduciary Trust employee, and seemingly very genuine, completely backed up Scott Forbes on the power down, so it really appears to have happened. As can be seen in the floor plans included above, numerous shafts, as well as telephone and electrical closets, were situated right along all the strongest core columns. It's impossible to say where the network cables ran, but most likely would have moved from the core (possibly also from shafts in the corners of the buildings) to the various tenant spaces. Maybe the telephone closets were used, maybe the pipe shafts, maybe even the air conditioning system. Who knows. These type of cables were not yet available when the towers were built, but were absolutely crucial by the 1990s. In 1999-2000 broadband internet really began to make its introduction, so an upgrade of these cables would not have been that unusual, certainly not with the towers just having switched owners. Of course, all this doesn't mean that this is the way how some of the explosives were planted in the building, but it is a possibility and should be investigated. The obvious questions are:

1. Who was the company hired to do the upgrading?
2. Who were the exact employees entering the building?
3. What exactly were they carrying?
4. Which areas did they access?
5. Were there similar plans for the North Tower?
6. Has the Port Authority refused to accept the information and even denied it?

The other possibility just mentioned, the area between the floors, quite possibly is the most important to contemplate. As mentioned at the beginning of this article, we have very little information on this very extensive and strong horizontal network of I-beams at every floor, guarding the integrity of the core columns. Remember the "vaporized" steel found by Dr. Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl of the American Society for Civil Engeers? This involved a horizontal I-beam from World Trade Center 7, with the damage described as: "Parts of the flat top of the I, once five-eighths of an inch thick, had vaporized." The partly "sulfidated" steel beam coming from either WTC 1 or 2, which was analyzed by FEMA, was another I-beam. Looking at a photograph of the damage, it appears to have been a horizontal beam with damage having been done by a liquid first dissolving its flat top and, after that, also part of the flat bottom. From the limited pictures that we have, it seems like something was placed on top of it.

Largely due to efforts of Tony Szamboti, today we are also aware that leading NIST scientist John Gross was present at the steel yards, selecting pieces that needed to be kept behind for analysis - an effort which, of course, was miserably botched up. Stunningly, a picture from November 2001, well before any steel could have rusted away, shows Gross inspecting a large piece of steel which also appears to have been partly "vaporized". At this point I can't readily identify this piece of steel. My guess is that it is a heavily eroded large I-beam and not some sort of column. If true, once again we are looking at the horizontal structure of the building and not the vertical part.

Because there is so little information on this horizontal network, it's impossible to say how easily these beams could be reached and to what extent it could be guaranteed that no one would find them beforehand. Quite possibly this network is the key to understanding how thermate or explosives were placed inside the core. Looking at the images above and below, they appear to be crucial in keeping the core together. Apparently the welded connections between the columns and beams were extremely strong 62 and quite possibly would have kept large sections of the building together if only the columns were severed with cutter charges. So, what if these beams were compromised with thermate? Maybe this would be enough to ensure a full "natural" collapse if the top were to suddenly pancake. Explosives would be needed for such a sudden collapse, which appear to have been very audible, but after that, maybe not too much with so many horizontal beams compromised.

We could label all of this as pure speculation, were it not for reports of molten steel. While numerous witnesses have been quoted talking about this, it was Mark Loizeaux, head of Controlled Demolition, Inc., who specified that this molten steel was found at the bottom of the North and South Tower elevator shafts: "Yes, hot spots of molten steel in the basements, at the bottom of the elevator shafts of the main towers, down seven levels. [It was found] three, four, and five weeks later, when the rubble was being removed." In the past when reading this citation, I always imaged these were superficial pools, spread out here and there among the rubble. But quite possibly the bottom of these elevator shafts were turned into deep pits of molten steel. When Loizeaux talks about seven levels down, he can only have referred to the elevator pit of one freight elevator which could stop anywhere from floor 107 down to the B6 basement level. As can be seen in the floor plan above, this elevator was located right at the center of the core (location not drawn accurately in the schematic below), immediately next to the two strongest columns at the core's center. With my limited knowledge of demolition, if I were to take down the buildings, I'd compromise these box columns in order to prevent a central portion of the building remaining erect. The I-columns surrounding them are less crucial.

There are other sources referring to the exact location of molten steel. As the reader should already be aware of, there are various accounts of extreme heat below the surface, close to center, and the boots of the firemen walking on top here melting within hours. Then there's following statement from a fire chief out on the WTC rubble, transcribed from one of the rather widely-spread videos on molten steel:

"Oh, it's unbelievable [the heat]. And this is six weeks later. Almost six weeks later [and after spraying a lot of water]. And as we get closer to the center of this it gets hotter and hotter. It's probably 1,500 degrees [815°C]. We've had some small windows into what we thought was the [inaudible] some point and it looks like an oven. It's just roaring inside. Just a bright, bright reddish-orange color. See that stuff he's pulling."

What the fire chief exactly means with "center" is hard to say, of course, with such a large debris field around the buildings, but it is anything but incompatible with the elevator pits. Lee Turner, a paramedic who descended into the stairwells of the WTC basement,  down to the subway at B4, remembered "seeing in the darkness a distant, pinkish glow–molten metal dripping from a beam–but found no signs of life." Les Robertson, one of the structural engineers of the World Trade Center, indicated that firefighters were finding the apparent source of that a higher up in the basement: "The project was on fire for months. Once we were down at the [basement's] B1 level and one of the firefighters said: "I think you will be interested in this." And they pulled out a big block of concrete and there was like a little river of steel flowing."

It appears to be impossible to take the information further than this. After having gone over dozens and dozens of survivor stories of the World Trade Center collapses, no one seems to have described molten steel in the elevator shafts. Debris and some fuel kept falling down the elevator shafts until the very last moment, but no one described molten steel or intense heat. One firefighter, Kevin Murray, observed "[no] smoke coming out of [the crashed lobby elevators], but it looked like they [were] all bubbled up and everything and there was a fire in there."  However, elevators have aluminum parts and  it is impossible to say what Murray exactly meant with these words. Quite possibly it was nothing out of the ordinary. Also, people in the basement of the towers at the time of the collapses haven't reported seeing molten steel or noticing extreme heat. That all came later it appears. Police officer Joseph Szczepanski, for example, survived the collapse of the South Tower by diving behind a safety wall of an escalator. He had more than a few horror stories to tell, from people getting crushed, cut in half and impaled to crawling through crushed intestines in the dark, but there's no indication he noticed any kind of extreme heat on his way out of the basement. A dozen surviving firefighters between floors 2 and 4 in stairwell B of the North Tower also didn't report extreme heat. They were trapped for a good number of hours and even contemplated to open the door of an elevator shaft and try to escape in this manner. Almost certainly this would have been an elevator next to or very close to the freight elevator which reportedly had molten steel in it. They decided against this and eventually made it out through a gap in the rubble. Apart from fires flaring up in many different parts of the rubble, they reported nothing out of the ordinary.

I guess this includes our analysis of the potential location of explosives and thermate in the towers. In recent years extremely detailed 3D models of the towers have been created, based on the leaked North Tower floor plans of March 2007, but these do not seem to be available for free at the moment. It's also hard to see how the vertical I-beam structure would be included considering there are no exact schematics on this in the public domain. Still, an accurate 3D plan could give us some additional insight.

Chronology of the impacts and potential demolition

Now that we have discussed all the evidence for explosives and thermate at the World Trade Center, it might be interesting to put together a brief timeline of events. The following timeline is completely based on the above eyewitnesses testimonies and some of the visual evidence. It's basically a summary of events for that day. If I were to guess and play it safe, I'd say little to nothing out of the ordinary happened until right before and during the collapses.

Brief timeline
September 8-9	According to Fiduciary Trust employees Gary Corbett and Scott Forbes, it was this weekend right before 9/11 that power in the upper half of the South Tower was shut down, from about floor 50. Maintenance workers are carrying out recabling work and have free access throughout the upper part of the building at this point. Three weeks' notice has been given, considered to be on relatively short notice by Forbes because crucial systems had to be shut down. Apparently this type of power down had never happened since the period of the first WTC bombing in 1993. Forbes said that the Port Authority and 9/11 Commission were not interested in recording this information. Looking at the above screen capture, taken from the Naudet brothers' film, and a quick Photoshop, you'd think more people would have remembered if the lights were shut off. Of course, one does have to actually find and interview them.
8:46 a.m. on 9/11	1) Flight 11 impact at the 94th to 98th floor of WTC 1, the North Tower, 33 minutes after the first signs of trouble with the airliner. All the floors are occupied by insurance firm Marsh and McLennan. 2) Reported explosion around the 43rd floor at the same time as the impact of Flight 11. It sends people flying on considerably lower floors. A water pipe breaks and patches of ceiling can be found on the floor. Explanation: quite clearly this is the impact of one or more elevators crashing down to the sky lobby at the 44th floor.at the 44th floor. 3) Personnel in the Security Command Center at floor 22 of the North Tower are trapped immediately after the first impact when debris falls in front of the door. This appears to have been caused by a fireball in the elevator shaft that blows out one of the walls around floors 22 to 25. The men are rescued by colleagues and firemen around 10:00 AM. Various witnesses report seeing the partial collapse on these floors as they go down. No one on these floors has reported explosions indicating a bomb, however. 3) Explosions in the lobby and basement are all explained by about half a dozen crashing down elevators from the upper parts of the building. Numerous people in the lobby, basement levels and various stuck elevators are horribly burnt as a result of the kerosine coming down. 4) An FBI recording on which a continuous noise and multiple explosions can be heard appears to have captured the sound of the impact and falling elevators.
8:58 a.m.	A FBI recording made that day records how "a loud rumbling fills the air ... 12 minutes after American Airlines Flight 11 hit the first building." No fighter jets are in the area at this moment and Flight 175 is still five minutes out, leading to the obvious question what was being recorded on tape at this very moment. Possibly it's a honest mistake, but the article about the recording clearly states that Flight 175 impacted at 9:03 a.m. and appears to talk about the period between this noise and the impact of Flight 175.  The account of Barry Jennings comes to mind, but this one is discredited. The recording has not been made public.
9:03 a.m.	1) Flight 175 impacts the 78th to 84th floor of WTC 2, the South Tower, 22 minutes after the first signs of trouble with the airplane. Baseline Financial Services and Fuji Bank are located here. 2) Many spots with smoke puffs, and one major flame, appear at the upper portion of the North Tower at the exact moment that Flight 175 impacts the South Tower - completely on the other side of the other building. This has been my own observation after theorizing that the impact of Flight 175 would be an ideal time to blow a few charges at the North Tower. If that has been the case, I can't say for sure, of course. Maybe the vibrations of the impact shook loose some debris or the shockwave of the impact made it through the building. It should be looked at, however. 3) People at the 67th floor think that an explosion below them has taken place when debris and smoke is coming up the staircase. The sky lobby is still 23 floors below them and firemen coming up the building report an explosion "near the the 60th floor". No major elevators terminate anywhere around the 60th floor, but I suspect it is one of close to 20 local zone II elevators crashing down from the second sky lobby at floor 78, which is hit by a wing of Flight 175 and kills about 200 people here. For what it's worth, Morgan Stanley's offices are located on the 59th to 74th floor.
9:37 a.m.	According to NIST: "The video shot from the WTC plaza captured an intriguing event at 9:37:04 a.m. A jet of air, dust, and a large piece of debris was ejected from a window, 77-355, on the 77th floor at an extremely high velocity. Longer distance videos show that puffs of smoke and or dust appeared simultaneously on the east face from several open windows near the center of the 78th floor and from open windows on the north side of the 79th floor." Actually, "pressure pulses" become visible at floor 80 about 1.7 seconds after the first "pressure pulse" appeared on floor 77. They force a man to climb out of the window, causing him to fall down. These floors belong to Baseline Financial Services and Fuji Bank. Who knows, maybe something is collapsing. No explosions are heard.
9:45 a.m. (approx.)	According to NYFD chief Albert Turi, an explosion is heard in one of the towers and he speculates that one bomb might have been on board the airplane and another planted inside the building. At this point, he claims, his men are already evacuating the towers because it appears to them that a "secondary device" has gone off. Turi was in the lobby with assistant fire chief Joseph Callan and chief Peter Hayden. Callan later stated in an interview: "Approximately 40 minutes after I arrived in the lobby, I made a decision that the building was no longer safe. And that was based on the conditions in the lobby, large pieces of plaster falling, all the 20 foot high glass panels on the exterior of the lobby were breaking. There was obvious movement of the building..." Callan doesn't mention explosives and Turi has back-tracked on his initial claims. Both issued their evacuation orders around the same time, however.
9:52 a.m.	According to NIST, "just before 9:52 a.m., a bright spot appeared at the top of a window on the 80th floor of WTC 2, four windows removed from the east edge on the north face, followed by the flow of a glowing liquid." The color and its sparkly nature all indicate molten steel due to the use of thermate (and not aluminum that remains sticky and gray or dull yellow in color). Certainly at 9:55 a.m. the metal becomes clearly visible and at 9:57 a.m. it really breaks through the outside wall of the building, causing regular showers that are visible to people on the streets below. There are no reports of survivors about molten steel making its way down the elevator shafts, where it is found during rescue efforts. Then again, it appears no one who looked into the elevator shafts of the south tower in the last minutes before collapse made it out alive.
9:59 a.m.	1) Sudden collapse of the South Tower, initiated by a loud rumble immediately followed by a huge boom. Virtually every witness on the ground talks about one or more explosions and how the collapse looks like a controlled demolition. 2) EMS worker Karin Deshore reports seeing flashes "around the middle" of the South Tower immediately prior to its collapse. She is clearly hinting at controlled demolition. The offices in this area are rented by Morgan Stanley (floor 56 and 59-74) and just below that, floors 47-55, by Guy Carpenter, owned for decades by Marsh and McLennan. Wedged in between the offices of Morgan Stanley, on floors 57 and 58, is Bridge Information Systems, at the time "the second-biggest dispenser of financial news and data in the world". The company is bought by Reuters a month after 9/11. 3) Two senior firefighters, Lieutenant Evangelista and assistant commissioner Stephen Gregory, see flashes around the first and second floor when the collapse begins. They are so flabbergasted by what they see that it takes a while before they dare to admit it to each other. 4) A less reliable reporter has quoted a witness saying he also saw flashes immediately prior to the collapse, around floors 10 to 15. 5) The North Tower shakes heavily when the South Tower comes down, resulting in remaining kerosine coming down the elevator shafts. This is smelled by some of the firemen.
10:27 a.m.	Vibrations are questionable. They only appear on the Sauret video a mile away.
10:28 a.m.	1) Collapse of the North Tower. The last people out of the building, including police officer Sue Keane and firefighter Louie Cacchioli, report being thrown around by explosions immediately prior to the collapse. However, I don't recognize Cacchioli's account of multiple explosions prior to the building's collapse in accounts of other firefighters. In fact, his account makes no sense at all. Explosions are reported on the lower floors 7 and 8 (possibly during the collapse of the other tower) and at at least two locations near the 24th floor (Cacchioli). 2) In stairwell B in the core of the building, a dozen surviving firefighters are trapped between floors 2 and 4. Floor 5 is completely crushed. During the collapse, the men are thrown around like ragdolls. It's not clear if some of the survivors were of the opinion that explosives were going off in addition to "cyclone-like" winds blowing through the core from pancaking floors. Sal D'Agostino explained: "It's pancaking from the top down, and there were these huge explosions — I mean huge, gigantic explosions." Bill Butler stated: "It was like a train going two inches away from your head: bang-bang, bang-bang, bang-bang."
+/-10:50-11:10 a.m.	Several loud/huge explosions are heard in the vicinity of WTC 7. Many are caught on tape. They might be gas lines or exploding gas tanks, as many cars, including busses, near WTC 7 are on fire.
5:21 a.m.	WTC 7 collapse, beginning with a huge, captured-on-video explosion sound. Virtually no witnesses about the collapse are cited in the media, but the few live reports that are available indicate controlled demolition, as does the visual evidence. It seems the second stage of the collapse also began with an explosion, with more possibly being heard during collapse. We need more video material, but what is available certainly raises questions.

Summary: why controlled demolition should not be dismissed

I still can't believe it myself, mainly because I can't believe anyone would be dumb enough to try it, but the evidence discussed up until this point is quite close to being conclusive: the World Trade Center towers were demolished by a combination of explosives and thermate. Maybe it will always be impossible to prove that this happened, but let's be realistic, it's irrational at this point to accept the official version of events with so much evidence pointing in an entirely different direction. Scientific thinking is about picking the theory that fits all of the facts best, and for now, I'm sorry to say, that is controlled demolition. More evidence is absolutely welcome though.

Primary arguments for controlled demolition made in this article include:

1. Just about every witness on the ground that day described that the collapses were initiated by loud explosions, with some even describing visible flashes throughout the building immediately before they went down. Virtually no one described a collapse in the traditional sense of the word: creaking and squeaking, visible signs of instability, partial collapse, full collapse.


2. Loud booms were indeed caught on video, just as the witnesses have described. As this article has demonstrated, these booms almost certainly were not the result of pancaking floors. They occurred when the floors were still intact.
   
   
3. Besides smoke puffs, the Mark Heath video actually provides serious visual evidence of rapid, sequential flashes along at least one side of the North Tower as it comes down.


4. Both towers collapse suddenly, with violent gas expansions, and close to free fall speed. Even NIST admits that their tops collapse at virtual free fall speed - which is beyond curious. The tops also went straight down through the path of maximum resistance. This is especially peculiar with the North Tower: the 9 upper-most floors fail and the entire building comes crashing down to the ground within seconds. Keep in mind that the columns on lower floors were much thicker and much stronger than at the top of the building, but somehow got pushed out of the way like they weren't even there. The more one thinks about this path of maximum resistance, the less sense it makes. These buildings were designed at five times the minimum needed strength with the load divided between two independent structures: the core and the perimeter columns. The floors hanging in between these two "cages" can be likened to toothpicks in comparison. How can five or so of these floors cause the entire steel structure to pulverize in 10 seconds, all the way to ground ground floor? It's hard to comprehend.


5. How did the underground elevator shafts get turned into huge pits of molten steel? Due to physical evidence, three dozen sources, the confirmed "more than 2,800 degrees F [1,540°C]" temperatures and underground fires that kept burning for a full three months, this is impossible to deny. Personnel working at ground zero in the aftermath of the attacks described seeing the molten steel (and concrete). Some of it was collected. Workers certainly all described the heat, including the fact that around the underground elevator shafts their boots melted, even weeks after the attack and after pouring large amounts of water over the debris. So, since when does jet fuel and office fire liquefy steel? Well, they don't. Never. Something else was responsible for this fact and it is clear that NIST has absolutely no explanation for it. In fact, they keep pretending the molten steel wasn't there. And because of all the evidence, it's clear that they are lying.


6. FEMA-affiliated scientists involved in the clean up of the site found clear evidence of partially liquefied a steel I-beam inside one of the World Trade Center towers. NIST refused to do any follow-up analysis, despite having received massive pressure over the issue from the public. Even before the final report came out an expert of the American Society of Civil Engineers, which worked with FEMA, spoke about observing WTC columns with part of their steel "vaporized":


7. The clean up of steel from ground zero began immediately, even though every structural engineer in the country wondered how the trade centers could have collapsed so suddenly and completely. No one tested the steel for traces of explosives, thermate or extreme heat either. The vast majority of the steel was soon shipped off to China where it was smelted.


8. The 9/11 Commission never looked into the question of controlled demolition. From the very beginning it had decided that Middle Eastern terrorists were solely to blame for 9/11 and primarily focused on the question why U.S. government agencies had been unable to prevent the attack.


9. The NIST investigations investigation left many questions, with outright manipulation of facts taking place. Not a single newspaper in the West, and really also not around the world, has addressed the manipulations and lies of NIST.


10. Controlled demolition is the only position that absolutely no one is allowed to take, certainly not in the media or in political circles.

 

Notes

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1. January 1, 1970, Engineering News Record, Volume 184, Part 1, 'World's tallest towers begin to show themselves on New York City skyline', pp. 26-27: "Into the towers rising from the excavation are going some 200,000 pieces of steel having a total weight of about 200,000 tons (about 1/5 of the total weight of the structures). Individual columns in the lower core section, measuring 52 x 22 in. in plan, are formed of 5 and 3-in, plate into almost solid steel shafts that weigh up to 56 tons. ... Raw steel is shipped to some 15 fabricators around the country and from several foreign countries. (Unofficial estimates of foreign steel being used in the trade center range from 30 to 60% of the total.) The fabricators ship completed units to the Greenville railroad yard in New Jersey, just across the Hudson River, where they are stored before being trucked to the site. As of now, with 71,000 tons of steel in place and another 60,000 tons in Greenville, every piece has reached Greenville on time and in proper sequence. ... The largest contract for fabrication of structural steel is held by Pacific Car and Foundry Co., of Seattle. It is $21.79 million for 55,000 tons of steel for the towers' bearing wall panels from the ninth floor up. In all there are 5,828 of these panels, each about 10 ft wide, 36 ft high, with the heaviest individual panel weighing about 22 tons. Each panel consists of three box columns, 14 in. square, made up of plate up to 3 in. thick and, connected by 54-in, deep spandrels. ... Each tower is 209 x 209 ft in plan and is column-free between the exterior walls and the 79 x 139-ft core, thus providing 35-ft clear spans on the east and west sides and 65-ft clear spans on north and south sides. In addition to the usual service and utility rooms, the core of each tower will contain 104 elevator cabs running in 36 shafts. This unusual arrangement is made possible by the use of 23 shuttle express elevators which will discharge passengers into so-called skylobbies where they transfer to local elevators. As a result, as many as three elevator cabs will use a single shaft. Before construction could begin, a 70-ft high, 3-ft thick concrete wall was built below ground around an eight-block area by the slurry-trench method. Then, 1.25 million cu yd of rock and earth within were excavated. In the hole, contractors are building what is undoubtedly the world's largest basement. It is 980 ft long, 510 ft wide and close to 70 ft deep. Its six levels provide a total of 48 acres of floor space and will house, among other things, a 2,000-car garage. And through the basement now are two ancient subway tubes through which run commuter trains between New Jersey and New York. New tubes and station. Before the center is finished, and after a new station is built in its basement, the presently exposed sections of the old tubes will be removed."
2. April 13, 1967, Volume 180, Issue 2 - Page 17, Engineering News Record, 'Record HVAC contract let for World Trade Center': "A contract for $38,670,000 went last week to a joint venture of H. Sand & Co. and Courter & Co., both of New York City, for provision and installation of HVAC equipment in the two 110story towers. The work will involve some 100,000 supply and return air-conditioning outlets to be integrated with interior lighting fixtures and 24,000 under-window induction units. The combined air-conditioning capacity of the two towers calls for 32,000 tons of refrigeration with continuous filtration and cooling of 8 million cu ft of air per minute for circulation."
3. November 11, 2001, New York Times, 'Engineers zero in on how trade towers fell': "Seen from above, the 110-story twin towers were approximately squares, 209 feet on a side, with 59 columns on each face. The core, containing the elevators, stairwells and mechanical equipment, consisted of a rectangular arrangement of 47 heavier columns. The core columns carried about 60 percent and the exterior columns 40 percent of the towers' weight, which totaled 276,000 tons each above the plaza level. But the exterior columns, 14 inches square in cross section, had another function that was crucial. The columns gave the towers enough stiffness to withstand hurricane-force winds of greater than 100 mph."
4. April 2, 1964, Engineering News Record, Volume 172, 'How Columns Will Be Designed for 110-Story Buildings', p. 48: "For record-height towers of New York's World Trade Center, engineers proportion columns to avoid floor warpage when high-strength steels are used for exterior columns and A36 steel for interior columns. A design procedure that will be used for structural framing of the 1,350-ft high twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City gives the exterior columns tremendous reserve strength. Live loads on these columns can be increased more than 2,000% before failure occurs. The procedure calls for proportioning of columns in each story for the same unit stress under gravity loads, regardless of the grade of steel in the columns. Thus, all columns will shorten the same amount, and differential shortening will be eliminated as a possible cause of floor warpage. The reserve strength of high strength steel members will then be available to resist wind stresses. The structural engineers adopted this particular design because of the great length of the columns, use of different grades of steel and their plan to take wind stresses in the exterior columns only. The concept was explained to the New York Architectural League by John Skilling, a partner in Worthington, Skilling, Helle and Jackson, of Seattle, consulting structural engineers on the World Trade Center (see p. 124)."
5. Ibid., p. 125: "Thus they will give the tower such a great factor of safety against overturning that one could cut away all the first- story columns on one side of the building, and part way from the corners of the perpendicular sides, and the building could still withstand design live loads and a 100-mph wind force from any direction."
6. Mechanical Engineer Tony Szamboti in his full 30 minute interview to Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, a movement he is very prominent in. Available on Youtube. Excerpts in the documentary '9/11 Explosive Evidence': "What [NIST does] is something that I think is disingenuous. When you design for a worst case scenario you're putting the maximum amount of load on it. And that's not always what exists. [But] that's what they determined their factor of safety [was], the absolute worst case loads that the towers could have ever experienced. But that's not what actually was in those buildings. [It] was probably about two-thirds or less than the worst case design load. The factor of safety in the core is, in fact, 3 to 1, with the actual in service loads on them, and the perimeter columns 5 to 1, yet NIST shows a factor of safety in the core somewhere around 1.92 to 2 to 1. And that is erroneous. It's actually higher than that. What they were actually trying to show, I believe, is that the buildings would be more susceptible to failure than they actually were."
7. See note 1.
8. 2005, Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn (two New York Times journalists), '102 Minutes: The Unforgettable Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers', p. 40: "The towers stood like huge sails at the foot of Manhattan Island, with each face built to absorb a hurricane of 140 miles per hour. The wind load on an ordinary day was thirty times greater than the force of the airplane that would hit it on September 11. The mass of the tower was 1,000 times greater than the jet's. Given the sheer bulk of the towers, it was not surprising that the building continued to stand after the plane it."
9. See note 1.
10. *) April 11, 2002, USA Today, 'Elevators were disaster within disaster': "The World Trade Center had one of the world's great elevator systems — 198 of the biggest, fastest elevators ever built."
    *) 2004, 9/11 Commission report, p. 278: "Each tower contained three central stairwells, which ran essentially from top to bottom, and 99 elevators. Generally, elevators originating in the lobby ran to "sky lobbies" on higher floors,where additional elevators carried passengers to the tops of the buildings."
11. November 4, 2002, USA Today, 'Plunge just the start of nightmare': "Passenger elevator No. 13. South tower, 78th floor. 9:02 a.m. Alan Mann, 35, an executive vice president at Aon Corp., an insurance company, squeezed into an express elevator packed with 25 people evacuating the south tower. He was the last person in. The doors closed. The elevator descended normally for the first seconds of a ride to the ground floor that should have lasted 60 seconds. Then United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the south tower, tearing through the elevator machine room on the 81st floor. That cut most cables to the express elevators. Elevator No. 13 began a free fall from 900 feet above ground. "Get on your knees!" somebody screamed. Everybody knelt. People prayed aloud. The elevator fell, banging against the sides of the shaft. As the plunging car neared the ground, the emergency brake grabbed onto the thinnest of nine elevator cables — the only one remaining — and the elevator jerked to a stop. Mann found himself trapped in a corner of the elevator, lying on top of someone. Debris and dust filled his mouth. Other passengers screamed and moaned. He heard other elevators crashing nearby. It was dark. A man unpacked his laptop computer and turned it on for light. Injured people begged others not to move because it caused them pain. He could see two Aon colleagues, Alan Friedlander and Donna Giordano. "Alan, I'm hurt," Giordano sobbed. "Donna, don't worry, we're going to get out of this thing," Mann said. Then, somebody yelled, "Oh my God, fire!" Burning jet fuel shot flames into the car, burning Mann's neck. He gasped for breath. I'm going to die the worst possible death, Mann thought. My wife is going to be a single mother. Someone was praying, repeating, "In God's name, in God's name." Mann told himself: Don't give up. He crawled over people — some dead, some alive — to the other side of the elevator. There, two men and a woman were trying to push aside a piece of metal outside the elevator where the doors once were; the metal was blocking the exit. Mann helped rip off a piece of metal but cut his left hand badly. He stuck his head through a small hole near the elevator floor and tried to push himself through. He couldn't fit. He was 10 feet above the lobby floor but couldn't get out. He pulled his head back inside the burning elevator and pushed a petite woman out the hole. The woman hit the floor hard but stood up. "Go get help! Go get help!" Mann yelled. She stood there, dazed. Mann put his feet into the hole and squeezed out feet first, crashing to the floor. He was barefoot and shirtless, his pants shredded. The lobby was deserted. He walked through revolving doors and found four firefighters in the underground shopping mall. He brought them back to the elevator. "You need to help these people," he said. He fled the building and ended up in an ambulance. Everybody else in the elevator died, including Friedlander and Giordano. Mann doesn't know what happened to the woman. Mann had numerous injuries: burns, nerve damage to his arms and legs, a deep cut that limits use of his left hand. He's back at work now, but his 12-hour days are in the past. Mann spends more time with his wife and daughters."
12. *) 2004 edition, NPFA 921: Guide for Fire and Explosives Investigation, 16.3* Preservation of the Fire Scene and Physical Evidence., 16.3.1.1, 21.3.2* High-Order Damage., 22.2.4* Exotic Accelerants. Of this version I have seen a full PDF version.
    *) The 2001 edition contains the exact same texts, but in chapters 14.3 (preservation), 18.3.2 (high order damage), 19.2.4 (exotic accelerants).
13. See note 1.
14. NIST NCSTAR 1-3C, p. 460. Included document: November 26, 2003, NIST, 'In Support of Task 2 Under Project 3 of the NIST WTCI Visual Observations of the Steel Recovered from the World Trade Center Site', NIST order no. SB1341-03-Q-0155, Executive Summary: "The objective of this work is to visually examine the steel pieces recovered from the WTC disaster and to document possible local failure mechanisms from a structural perspective. The recovered steel is presently located at the NIST campus in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Approximately 236 pieces of steel have been recovered, a substantial number of which are large built up components such as prefabricated  perimeter column-and-spandrel elements."
15. January 2002, Fire Engineering Magazine, Bill Manning in Editor's Opinion, '$elling Out the Investigation'.
16. March 2007, Journal of Engineering Mechanics, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Zdenfk P. Bazant and Mathieu Verdure,  'Mechanics of Progressive Collapse: Learning from World Trade Center and Building Demolitions'
17. December 12, 2001, New York Times, file no. 9110354 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter John Moribito: "I approached the [fire] chiefs. The chiefs were assured by the engineers of the [WTC] that there was no way that the buildings would come down. They actually said that the buildings could withstand ten airplanes hitting it and there was no way that the buildings could come down."
18. October 2, 2001, New York Times, 'Scarred Steel Holds Clues, And Remedies'.
19. 002, FEMA report on WTC collapse, Appendix C. Discussed later on in this article.
20. *) Dr. John L. Gross, "responsible for the Structural Fire Response and Collapse aspects of the NIST World Trade Center Investigation", gave the following reply when questioned about the reports and evidence for molten steel at the World Trade Center site (Youtube clip): "First of all, let's go back to your basic premise that there was a pool of molten steel. I know of absolute no eyewitnesses who said so, nobody has produced it. I was on the site. I was on the steel yards. So I don't know that that's so. Steel melts around 2,600 degrees fahrenheit. I think it's probably pretty difficult to get those kind of temperatures in a fire."
    *) NIST's  online FAQ, 'Questions and Answers about the NIST WTC Towers Investigation':  "[NIST] found no evidence that would support the melting of steel in a jet-fuel ignited fire in the towers prior to collapse."
    *)  March 2005, Popular Mechanics, 'Debunking 9/11 Lies: Conspiracy Theories Can't Stand up to the Hard Facts' (refuses to acknowledge the presence of molten steel; skips around it) 
21. 2005, NIST NCSTAR 1-3C, 'Appendix E: Paint Mapping Study of World Trade Center Structural Elements', p. 447.
22. July 27, 2005, Professor James Quintiere of the Fire Protection Engineering Department, University of Maryland, 'Comments on NIST NCSTAR 1 Draft', p. 3: "Had more steel been examined from the fire floors, NIST may have been able to establish proof for its hypothesis that key core columns were denuded of insulation and therefore significantly heated to cause their reduction in strength. NIST found no evidence to corroborate that finding. "None of the recovered steel samples showed evidence of exposure to temperatures above 600°C for as long as 15 min. This was based on NIST annealing studies that established the set of time and temperature conditions necessary to alter the steel microstructure. These results provide some confirmation of the thermal modeling of the structures, since none of the samples were from zones where such heating was predicted." [p. 176]"
23. Ibid, p. 19: "Observations of paint cracking due to thermal expansion. Of the more than 170 areas examined on 16 perimeter column panels, only three columns had evidence that the steel reached temperatures above 250 °C: east face, floor 98, inner web; east face, floor 92, inner web; and north face, floor 98, floor truss connector. Only two core column specimens had sufficient paint remaining to make such an analysis, and their temperatures did not reach 250 °C. NIST did not generalize these results, since the examined columns represented only 3 percent of the perimeter columns and 1 percent of the core columns from the fire floors."
24. Architects & Engineers For 9/11 Truth, full 30 minute Tony Szamboti interview. Available on Youtube.
25. 2005, NIST NCSTAR 1-3C, 'Appendix D: Forensic Thermometry Technique Development', p. 436.
26. July 27, 2005, Professor James Quintiere of the Fire Protection Engineering Department, University of Maryland, 'Comments on NIST NCSTAR 1 Draft', p. 20.
27. March 2007, Journal of Engineering Mechanics, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Zdenfk P. Bazant and Mathieu Verdure,  'Mechanics of Progressive Collapse: Learning from World Trade Center and Building Demolitions': "1. About 60% of the 60 columns of the impacted face of framed tube and about 13% of the total of 287 columns were severed, and many more were significantly deflected. This caused stress redistribution, which significantly increased the load of some columns, attaining or nearing the load capacity for some of them. 2. Because a significant amount of steel insulation was stripped, many structural steel members heated up to 600°C, as confirmed by annealing studies of steel debris (NIST 2005) [the structural steel used loses about 20% of its yield strength already at 300°C, and about 85% at 600°C (NIST 2005); and exhibits significant viscoplasticity, or creep, above 450°C (e.g., Cottrell 1964, p. 299), especially in the columns overstressed due to load redistribution; the press reports right after September 11, 2001 indicating temperature in excess of 800°C, turned out to be groundless, but Bazant and Zhou's analysis did not depend on that]."
28. *) May 26, 2002, New York Times, 'Accounts From the South Tower': "Edmund McNally, victim. Fiduciary Trust. ... He spoke with his wife Liz after the plane struck the north tower. He then called back twice after his own building had been struck. ... He said stuff about the data center. That's why I think he was on the 97th floor, because the data center was on the 97th floor. Then he said the floor was buckled. And he said it was getting really hot and hard to breath."
    *) May 26, 2002, New York Times, '102 Minutes: Last Words at the Trade Center': "Sean Rooney called Beverly Eckert. They had met at a high school dance in Buffalo, when they were both 16. They had just turned 50 together. He had tried to go down but was stymied, then had climbed 30 floors or so to the locked roof [a rescue helicopter with a 250 feet / 75 meter hoist rope was hovering above the building]. Now he wanted to plot a way out, so he had his wife describe the fire's location from the TV pictures. He could not fathom why the roof was locked, she said. She urged him to try again while she dialed 911 on another line. He put the phone down, then returned minutes later, saying the roof door would not budge. He had pounded on it. ''He was worried about the flames,'' Ms. Eckert recalled. ''I kept telling him they weren't anywhere near him. He said, but the windows were hot. His breathing was becoming more labored.'' Ceilings were caving in. Floors were buckling. Phone calls were being cut off. He was alone in a room filling with smoke. They said goodbye. ''He was telling me he loved me. ''Then you could hear the loud explosion.''"
29. *) June 2004, NIST, 'Progress Report on the Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster', p. 115: "Web diagonal buckling [of the trusses] starts around 350°C..."
    *) July 27, 2005, Professor James Quintiere of the Fire Protection Engineering Department, University of Maryland, 'Comments on NIST NCSTAR 1 Draft', p. 36: "NIST's model for a single WTC truss (which is more accurate than the impact computations), predicts a truss would fail at the column connections at these temperatures. The NIST model for a single truss and its connection shows that the truss fails at the interior column seat connection, and 'walks off' the seat. This occurs at 650°C. The web diagonals begin to buckle at 340°C, and the exterior columns bow inward at 560°C causing the truss to act as a catenary. Other independent work done by Usmani et al, and Burgess et al., show similar results. If one floor falls on the floor below while both are heated by fire, can the impacted floor carry the load? Is this a plausible global collapse mechanism? To me, this means that truss failure is likely, at least in the South tower; and in the North if the PA audit data are wrong. Collapses of the floors were seen in both of the towers well up to 20 minutes before the buildings collapsed. This indicates the presence of the floor collapse mechanism."
30. Ibid.
31. May 26, 2002, New York Times, '102 Minutes: Last Words at the Trade Center': "Sean Rooney called Beverly Eckert. They had met at a high school dance in Buffalo, when they were both 16. They had just turned 50 together. He had tried to go down but was stymied, then had climbed 30 floors or so to the locked roof [a rescue helicopter with a 250 feet / 75 meter hoist rope was hovering above the building]. Now he wanted to plot a way out, so he had his wife describe the fire's location from the TV pictures. He could not fathom why the roof was locked, she said. She urged him to try again while she dialed 911 on another line. He put the phone down, then returned minutes later, saying the roof door would not budge. He had pounded on it. ''He was worried about the flames,'' Ms. Eckert recalled. ''I kept telling him they weren't anywhere near him. He said, but the windows were hot. His breathing was becoming more labored.'' Ceilings were caving in. Floors were buckling. Phone calls were being cut off. He was alone in a room filling with smoke. They said goodbye. ''He was telling me he loved me. ''Then you could hear the loud explosion.''"
32. July 27, 2005, Professor James Quintiere of the Fire Protection Engineering Department, University of Maryland, 'Comments on NIST NCSTAR 1 Draft', pp. 7, 36: "Moreover, it is commonly known that floor sections were collapsing up to 20 minutes before the full collapse of each of the buildings. NIST has not addressed those early failures. ... Collapses of the floors were seen in both of the towers well up to 20 minutes before the buildings collapsed. This indicates the presence of the floor collapse mechanism."
33. July 7, 2002, New York Times, '9/11 Exposed Deadly Flaws in Rescue Plan': "Minutes after the south tower collapsed at the World Trade Center, police helicopters hovered near the remaining tower to check its condition. "About 15 floors down from the top, it looks like it's glowing red," the pilot of one helicopter, Aviation 14, radioed at 10:07 a.m. "It's inevitable." Seconds later, another pilot reported: "I don't think this has too much longer to go. I would evacuate all people within the area of that second building." Those clear warnings, captured on police radio tapes, were transmitted 21 minutes before the building fell, and officials say they were relayed to police officers, most of whom managed to escape. Yet most firefighters never heard those warnings, or earlier orders to get out. Their radio system failed frequently that morning. Even if the radio network had been reliable, it was not linked to the police system. And the police and fire commanders guiding the rescue efforts did not talk to one another during the crisis. Cut off from critical information, at least 121 firefighters, most in striking distance of safety, died when the north tower fell, an analysis by The New York Times has found."
34. See the temperature-steel color chart in this article. Following the color chart as the cooking pan cooled down, I switched off the lights after the red glow disappeared with the lights on. The cooking pan was perfectly visible in the dark, having a dark red glow for some time.
35. *) First three paragraphs: NIST.gov, 'About the NIST World Trade Center Investigation' at nist.gov/el/disasterstudies/wtc/wtc_about.cfm.
    *) Fourth paragraph: June 2004, NIST, 'Progress Report on the Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster', p. 82: "Linear stability analysis was used to examine the stability of the undamaged WTC 1 under service loads through increased unbraced column lengths (floor removal). The tower was stable when two floors were removed. Two core columns buckled when three floors were removed, but the tower maintained its overall stability. The tower also maintained its stability when four columns buckled with four floors removed. The analysis suggested that global instability of the tower occurred when five floors were removed from the model. Assuming that all columns at the region of the removed floors reached a temperature of 600 °C (reduced modulus of elasticity), the analysis indicates that removal of four floors would induce global instability."
36. See note 28.
37. 2005, NIST NCSTAR 1-6B, 'Fire Resistance Tests of Floor Truss Systems', p. xxx: "Measured thicknesses of the applied SFRM [fireproofing on the WTC trusses] were found to vary between 0.52 in. and 1.17 in. with an overall average of approximately 0.75 in. These two thicknesses, 1/2 in. representing specified thickness and 3/4 in. representing average applied thickness, were used in the standard fire resistance tests described here."
38. 2005, NCSTAR 1-6, chapter 10, p. 332, finding 17: "... four standard fire resistance tests (ASTM E119) of the floor truss assemblies with twice the floor load that was on the WTC floors."
39. July 27, 2005, Professor James Quintiere of the Fire Protection Engineering Department, University of Maryland, 'Comments on NIST NCSTAR 1 Draft', p. 20: "Figure 6-1 1 shows that the diagonals at the core (right) end of the truss buckled and caused an increase in the floor system deflection, ultimately reaching approximately 42 in. Two possible failure modes were identified for the floor-truss section: sagging of the floor and loss of truss seat support."
40. *) 2005, NCSTAR 1-6, Chapter 4, pp. 111-113, 115: "DBARE (representing the absence of [thermal] insulation) ... Thermal loading condition DBARE was selected as the most severe from this group... Table 4-14: ... [Thermal Loading Condition:] DBARE | WTC1 ... | [Insulation:] none | [Time Duration:] 5400 s [90 minutes] | [Maximum Temperature:] 598°C... Table 4-15 shows the nine cases that were analyzed for the exterior wall model that included the thermal load cases, creep effects, and floor support conditions. Several combinations of disconnected floors were analyzed for the effects of loss of lateral support if a floor sagged or failed and the consequent increase in un-braced length of columns. Two cases were analyzed to investigate the stability of the exterior wall section. In one case, forces were applied to simulate pull-in from sagging floors to the point of instability. When trusses sag extensively, they pull the columns inward. Results of truss component analyses indicated approximately 14 kips of pull per truss. The strap anchors helped distribute this pull to the columns that did not support trusses. A 15 kip inward pull force was applied at each column that was laterally-unsupported, and in the second [completely isolated] case, with three disconnected floors, a "push-down" analysis was conducted to simulate additional columns loads being distributed to the core. ... Table 4-15... Analysis Case: ... 8 | DBARE | [Bolt Temperatures:] Yes | [Creep Effects:] No | [Floor Supports:] All but 95, 96, and 97 [note: 5 of 9 models have all floor supports and another only misses them at 95 and 96]| [Pull-in Force] X [yes] ... Columns Not Laterally Supported and Pulled-In at Three Floors (Case 8): The analysis results for Case 8 indicated the following: - Column instability (buckling) was reached with a transverse load of 12.6 kips per column. ... Figure 4-51 shows the deflected shape of the exterior wall subsystem at the point of instability due to inward pull. ... Figure 4-51. Structural response (out-of-place deformation) for temperature time history DBARE and pulled-in at three disconnected floors for Case 8." Conclusion: NIST was only successful at causing inward bowing in a highly manipulated computer model: limited model of the tower, no insulation, disconnected floors and an artificial pull-in force. None of the other models had this force applied and in no case was this inward buckling observed.
    *) Rethink911.org, 'Implausibility of the Official Theory': "Step six says that sagging floors pulled exterior columns inward. To support this, NIST evaluated nine different scenarios within its computer model, with just one of those producing any inward bowing. To do this, NIST had to take a computer mock-up of a 9-story high by 9-column wide section of steel wall and perform manipulations that had no relevance to the events at the World Trade Center. NIST removed the virtual steel from its web of support by "disconnection" of most of the floor trusses, stripped off all the fireproofing, exposed it to twice the known fire time (i.e. 90 minutes), and then applied an artificial 5,000 to 6,000 lb. lateral load to the columns to get any  inward pull. It is difficult to understand how an inward pull force could be applied to columns that have been disconnected from the floors, as it is the floors that are supposed to have applied the inward force on the columns."
41. *) The following information primarily deals with the withholding of information regarding WTC 7, but the same problem appears to exist with WTC 1 and WTC 2:
    *) Structural engineer Steven Dusterwald, '9/11 Explosive Evidence: Experts Speak Out': "I think that the NIST computer model [on WTC 7] was flawed. Of course they won't release all of their parameters that they use to model the collapse. [also mentions the same problem occurred with WTC 1 and WTC 2]"
    *) Mechanical engineer Tony Zsamboti, '9/11 Explosive Evidence: Experts Speak Out': "The exterior of the NIST World Trade Center 7 computer simulation model, which they put together to try and explain their theory, shows large, very large, deformations which are not observed in the video of the actual event, yet they don't attempt to explain that in their report, on why their model doesn't represent or replicate reality. What has actually happened with the NIST computer model is that it is actually behaving like a natural collapse would. It would be deforming the exterior of the building if the whole interior was collapsing prior to the exterior. What we're seeing is what would happen in a natural collapse and what we see on the real video is not a natural collapse.  ... NIST has also repeatedly refused to release computer input data that was requested through the Freedom of Information Act from them in the past concerning World Trade Center 1, 2 and 7."
    *) January 6, 2010, NIST letter to a FOIA request pertaining to WTC 7: "This letter is the final response to your November 13, 2008, Freedom of information Act (FOIA) #09-11 request to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in which you requested "a complete ‘Certified' legitimate copy of the Computer Models used by NIST to come to the conclusions it reached in the investigation of events of September 11, 2001." On November 18, 2008 you clarified your request to include "only the model in question that was released on NIST's website in reference to World Trade Center (WTC) 7 demise." ... We are, however, withholding 74,777 files (approximately 80% of all responsive records). The NIST Director determined that the release of these data might jeopardize public safety. This withheld data include remaining input and all results files of the ANSYS 16-story collapse initiation model ... all input and results files of the LS-DYNA 47 story global collapse model, and all spreadsheets and other supporting calculations used to develop floor connection failure modes and capacities."
42. See note 23.
43. July 27, 2005, Professor James Quintiere of the Fire Protection Engineering Department, University of Maryland, 'Comments on NIST NCSTAR 1 Draft', p. 17.
44. Ibid., pp. 11-12, 34.
45. Ibid., p. 26: "At any given location, the duration of temperatures near 1,000 °C was about 15 min to 20 min. The rest of the time, the calculated temperatures were near 500 °C or below."
46. March 2007, Journal of Engineering Mechanics, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Zdenek P. Bazant and Mathieu Verdure,  'Mechanics of Progressive Collapse: Learning from World Trade Center and Building Demolitions': "1. About 60% of the 60 columns of the impacted face of framed tube and about 13% of the total of 287 columns were severed, and many more were significantly deflected. This caused stress redistribution, which significantly increased the load of some columns, attaining or nearing the load capacity for some of them. 2. Because a significant amount of steel insulation was stripped, many structural steel members heated up to 600°C, as confirmed by annealing studies of steel debris (NIST 2005) [the structural steel used loses about 20% of its yield strength already at 300°C, and about 85% at 600°C (NIST 2005); and exhibits significant viscoplasticity, or creep, above 450°C (e.g., Cottrell 1964, p. 299), especially in the columns overstressed due to load redistribution; the press reports right after September 11, 2001 indicating temperature in excess of 800°C, turned out to be groundless, but Bazant and Zhou's analysis did not depend on that]."
47. See note 23.
48. July 27, 2005, Professor James Quintiere of the Fire Protection Engineering Department, University of Maryland, 'Comments on NIST NCSTAR 1 Draft', pp. 1-4.
49. May 16, 2002, American Society of Safety Engineers, 'Members Recall Massive Devastation, Sorrow While Working at WTC': "Within hours of the 9/11 terrorist attacks the Safety, Health and Environmental (SH&E) professionals for the Bechtel Group found themselves at the door of hell, the World Trade Center (Ground Zero) ... Thermal measurements taken by helicopter each day showed underground temperatures ranging from 400 degrees F to more than 2,800 degrees F due to the ongoing underground fires."
50.  NIST's  online FAQ, 'Questions and Answers about the NIST WTC Towers Investigation':  "9. Weren't the puffs of smoke that were seen, as the collapse of each WTC tower starts, evidence of controlled demolition explosions? No. As stated in Section 6.14.4 of NIST NCSTAR 1, the falling mass of the building compressed the air ahead of it—much like the action of a piston—forcing smoke and debris out the windows as the stories below failed sequentially. These puffs were observed at many locations as the towers collapsed. In all cases, they had the appearance of jets of gas being pushed from the building through windows or between columns on the mechanical floors. Such jets are expected since the air inside the building is compressed as the tower falls and must flow somewhere as the pressure builds. It is significant that similar "puffs" were observed numerous times on the fire floors in both towers prior to their collapses, perhaps due to falling walls or portions of a floor. Puffs from WTC 1 were even observed when WTC 2 was struck by the aircraft. These observations confirm that even minor overpressures were transmitted through the towers and forced smoke and debris from the building."
51. June 22, 2010, CML Army Chemical Review, 'Dragons in flight: the common CBRN lineage of the Army and Air Force': "Another incendiary bomb procured by the CWS was the AN-M50 series, which was modified from a British incendiary bomb. This was a small, 4-pound, magnesium-cased bomblet with a thermite core and a fuse. The bomblet burned at extremely high temperatures for up to 7 minutes. The USAAF and U.S. allies dropped more than 30 million AN-M50s (which were normally dropped in 500-pound clusters) on Europe and more than 10 million on Japan."
52. Document on www.ammunitionpages.com, 'Incendiary bomb TH3 M50A3': "This small incendiary bomb was filled with thermate and it had a total weight of 1.6kg. Thermate is an incendiary pyrotechnic composition, a thermite-like compound used for military applications. Thermate, whose primary component is thermite, also contains sulfur and sometimes barium nitrate, both of which increase its thermal effect, create flame in burning, and significantly reduce the ignition temperature. Various mixtures of these compounds can be called thermate, but, to avoid confusion with Thermate-TH3, one can refer to them as thermite variants or analogs. The composition by weight of Thermate-TH3 (in military use) is: 68.7% thermite, 29.0% barium nitrate, 2.0% sulfur and 0.3% binder."
53. 'Low-Cost Production of Nanostructured Super-Thermites'. Navy SBIR 2008.1 - Topic N08-020 NAVAIR - Mrs. Janet McGovern - navair.sbir@navy.mil Opens: December 10, 2007 - Closes: January 9, 2008: "OBJECTIVE: Develop a safe, low-cost, high performance, high production rate method of preparing nanostructured super-thermite materials."
    www.navysbir.com/n08_1/n081-020.htm
54. The Open Chemical Physics Journal (Bentham Open), pp. 7-31, Steven E. Jones, Kevin R. Ryan, e.a., 'Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe'.
    www.benthamscience.com/open/tocpj/articles/V002/7TOCPJ.pdf
    Bentham Open is a very questionable journal. Anyone who transfers about $600-$700 to an account in the United Arab Emirates can get published. The owners of the journal don't even check if the contents are coherent.
55. patentbuddy.com/Patent/5532449: "US Patent No: 5,532,449: Using plasma ARC and thermite to demolish concrete ... Issued date: Jul 1, 1996. Fling date: Aug 28, 1994. ... Status: Expired. ... A plasma arc can be employed to demolish a concrete structure at a high efficiency, while preventing a secondary problem due to noise, flying dust and chips, and the like. The concrete structure can be demolished by melting a surface of the concrete structure by generating a plasma arc from a plasma torch (15) of a plasma arc generator, mixing thermite powder (T) with a supply gas (Gc) for the plasma torch (15), directing the plasma arc at the surface of the concrete structure, and controlling the rate of supply of the thermite powder (T) to the plasma torch (15) in response to the operation of the plasma arc, including initiating and stopping the supply of the thermite powder (T) to the plasma torch (15) in a manner coordinated with the initiation and stoppage of the plasma arc, thereby controlling the heat generated by the thermite reaction, and melting the surface of the concrete structure. The plasma generator (1) can be provided with a feeder (20) for mixing the thermite powder (T) with the supply gas (Gc), and controller (30) for controlling the rate of supply of the thermite powder (T) or for stopping the supply of the thermite powder (T). ... Patent owner: KOMATSU LTD. ... Inventor name: Murakami, Taku ... Address: Irvine, CA."
56. April 14-15, 2007, Steven Jones, speech to the Project for the New American Citizen, University of Austin Texas. Shows a slide with replies from NIST.
57. Ibid.
58. NIST report, NCSTAR1-6A, p. xxxvii.
59. NIST report, NCSTAR1-1H, pp. 56-57. [copies: WTC1 and WTC2 alterations]
60. One example of many that demonstrates Richard Humenn worked for Joseph Loring: 1987, Vol. II, Consulting-specifying Engineer, p. 774: "HVAC project engineer: Richard Humenn, vice president of quality control; Joseph Loring, president..."
61. June 5, 2013, Engineering News-Record, 'Joe Loring, World Trade Center Electrical Engineer, Dies at 86': "Joseph R. "Joe" Loring, founder and former CEO and chairman of the New York City electrical-mechanical design firm that handled electrical engineering for the 12-million-sq-ft World Trade Center six years after the company's launch, died on May 30 in Arlington, Va., at age 86. Loring founded the now 90-person Joseph R. Loring & Associates Inc. in 1956. The firm had key roles on large jobs, such as Manhattan's Citicorp Center in the 1970s and Australia's Parliament building in the 1980s (ENR 1/15/87 p. 20). The firm's work in replacing electrical and HVAC systems as part of a recent revamp of the 78-year-old U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., without disturbing proceedings, was among Loring's biggest career challenges, he said in 2012, when he was awarded a top Virginia Tech engineering-school alumnus honor, one of many college and industry accolades. In 1970, Loring opened a branch office in Washington, DC, where he worked for the past 14 years until retiring in 2012. Loring's career began when the U.S. Army assigned him to work on a top-secret voice-scrambling project during World War II, after he studied electrical engineering at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, for just a year. He earned a degree there in 1947. Loring later funded an annual scholarship and electrical-engineering professorship at the school. His career was "a testament to his personal drive and skill as an engineer and businessman," said Virginia Tech's engineering dean, Richard C. Benson, in 2012. "Early in my career, Joe Loring took me under his wing and became my mentor and advisor. He recognized that the training of young people to become great engineers and to be responsible citizens was one of his greatest responsibilities," says Barry Maltz, chairman and CEO of the firm since 2009, and a career employee. "Nothing gave him greater satisfaction than to see individuals who began as interns advance over time to a position of leadership within the firm.""
62. References to Building 7 (thicker core columns at the bottom than at the top of WTC 1 and 2, of course):
    *) Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, '9/11 Explosive Evidence' documentary (structural engineer Ronald Brookman): "Ideally, you want the member to fail before the connection. You don't want the connection to fail first."
    *) Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, '9/11 Explosive Evidence' documentary (structural engineer Steven Dusterwald): "What caught my attention was the rapid failure of the connections for the building to come down in the way it did. ... The connections failed first without any of the members exhibiting large deformations or deflections. Over 400 connections per second had to fail in order for the members to be released and for the structure to descent at almost freefall rate. ... The connections are designed with a safety factor of 1.5 to 3 times the failure load of the member. Thbis assures that the member will always fail first, first in elastic mode and then in plastic mode."
    *) Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, '9/11 Explosive Evidence' documentary (structural engineer Casey Pfeiffer): "If you were to look at a standard moment frame steel connection, which is a welded connection between the beam and the column, it would take on the order of 500,000 pounds to shear off one connection. And if you multiply that by 400, put maybe a safety factor in of 4, you would require 50 million pounds of force per second in order to collapse the building in the way it was shown... It's highly unlikely; don't know how that could happen without secondary explosions. It's not logical or reasonable."