

Barely half an hour before the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed at 9:59 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, none of the fire chiefs briefing the mayor and police commissioner at a meeting on a nearby street expressed concern that either building was in danger of falling, the staff of the 9/11 commission said in a report issued today.



"None of the chiefs present believed a total collapse of either tower was possible," the report said in recounting the impromptu meeting that occurred at 9:20 a.m.



Only after Mayor Rudolph Giuliani had moved on did one senior chief present articulate his concern that upper floors on the 110-story tower could begin to collapse in a few hours, the report added. "And so he said that firefighters should not ascend above floors in the 60's," the report said.



The findings were made public as the independent, bipartisan commission created by Congress began two days of hearings in Manhattan in advance of its final report on 9/11, due in July.





The report, one of more than dozen already made public by the commission, was read aloud at the televised hearing along with accompanying videotaped interviews of witnesses and officials quoted in it and graphic scenes from the disaster. Many 9/11 families were in the audience at the New School University.



The commission staff said the purpose of this report was only to offer a "reliable summary of what happened" on Sept. 11 without "much commentary." A follow-up report tomorrow will "offer more analysis and suggest some lessons that emerge for the future."



Among the information made public today, much of which has been previously reported, the commission staff said:



Rescue operations were hampered by flawed radio communications systems or an inability to operate them properly. In one case, a radio relay device, called a repeater, that was intended to boost radio signals in the high-rise trade center complex, was thought to be inoperative; in fact the fire chief who had tested it in the North Tower failed to push one of two needed buttons. "When he could not communicate," the report said, "he concluded that the system was down. The system was working, however, and was used subsequently by firefighters in the South Tower."



Partly because they lacked comprehensive radio communications with firefighters deep inside the building, the commission said, "the chiefs in the North Tower were forced to make decisions based on little or no information."



Although firefighters, police officers and other "first responders" performed heroically, often at the cost of their own lives, interdepartment rivalries, especially between the police and fire departments, added to the confusion over what has happening and how to deal with it.



The report said that some witnesses said that such tensions "hampered the ability of the city to respond well in emergency situations."

