9/11: The World Trade Center Collapses

Part 1: Scientific Evidence and 200+ Mainstream Testimonies Virtually Prove Buildings Brought Down With Thermate and Explosives



Joël v.d. Reijden | December 10, 2012 | ISGP Video Archive (will be expanded)

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.

"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

"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."

- As you will see, typical terms used by witnesses to describe their experiences during the attack and the clean up of the World Trade Center site. (example video clips one and two

Contents

"I don't get it. Why did it take two whole days to tell the world it was an exercise? Frankly, it is incomprehensible. ... Let's start with the fact that they told us it was sugar in the bags [instead of RDX]. Does this mean that neither the FSB specialists nor the interior ministry know what sugar looks like? ... Let's just imagine that real explosives were planted and it was a real attempt at provocation in order to increase tension in the Caucasus and so on and so forth. Do we have any guarantee that we would have been given an accurate reply that we, the public, would find convincing to what had happened? I suspect, unfortunately, that we wouldn't."

- Evgeni Savostianov, former Moscow FSB/KGB chief, on the March 2000 NTV program about the Moscow apartment bombings of September 1999. Putin and the FSB, who basically revived the Cold War, were completely implicated in the bombings. Present on the program were Ryazan building residents, various witnesses, experts and the FSB leadership to counter the claims of conspiracy.

"In the primitive simplicity of [the mind of the masses] they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. ... The grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it , even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying."

- 1926, Adolf Hitler, 'Mein Kampf', p. 472. Words of a dictator, who actually received initial support from much of the same establishment(s) that can be tied to 9/11. The underlined section can be interpreted in two different ways.

Introduction

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 was definitely near the top of my to-do list. I sometimes wonder what I would have seen and heard for myself if I hadn't been too cheap to spent the money. And also, if it were possible to go back into 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.

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.

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.

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

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

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, it soon 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 - 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 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 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.

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 poiting 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 others around him. That's just the way psychology works. However, the evidence up to this point personally leads me to conclude that I should at least be 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 500 to 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.

Basic information on the attacks

Jet fighters aren't there yet and still won't be on 9:03 AM when the second plane hits the South Tower. They're also not in time to protect the Pentagon, 84 minutes after the first signs of trouble. No serious investigation of these failures has been done.

F-15 and F-16 jets on Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) should be scrambled within 15 minutes from Otis Air National Guard base, Langley Air Force Base and Andrews Air Force Base. Based on this information, these planes should be over New York City well within 30 minutes. Andrews AFB is only 11 miles from Washington, D.C., suggesting fighters could be over the capital within 20 minutes.

Typical disinformation

Without spending too much time on it, the reader should always keep this section in the back of his mind when researching 9/11. 9/11 can be divided in three major investigations: 1) the potential use of explosives and thermate at the World Trade Center; 2) something else than Flight 77 hitting the Pentagon; and 3) who the Florida hijackers were (solely the domain of Daniel Hopsicker). For many years the primary arguments to legitimize the Pentagon investigation have been the following two:

Both arguments are nonsense and easy to dispel, as has been done by the author years ago. The damage to the Pentagon corresponds exactly to that of a Boeing 757 while all witness statements that are supposed to prove something else than a 757 hit the Pentagon have been taken out of context.

Maybe you now want to ask why the FBI did not release a better quality video of the event? Maybe, just maybe to keep fueling conspiracy theories. The minute a clear video of the Pentagon attack appears, all focus will shift to other, much more promising elements of the attack. Remember, I have come across my fair share of disinformation over the years, as has been discussed in various articles on this site. It's a real phenomenon.

As for the World Trade Center discussion, it's impossible for me to say how sincere a person as Dr. Steven Jones is. Jones claims to have evidence that nanothermate was used at the World Trade Center site. I do not have access to the World Trade Center dust, as Jones had, nor do I have the equipment to analyze it myself. On top of that, I can never guarantee that dust given to me by a third party wasn't tampered with. However, as the reader will see, even without an analysis of the World Trade Center dust, there is a ton of evidence available that this type of incendiary was used. And for the record, I do suspect that Jones is sincere in his conclusions.

Considerably less legitimate aspects of the World Trade Center "investigation", yet hugely prominent, include the following:

Watch out for fake witness testimonies made years after 9/11, which in the event of any new investigation (à la HSCA) will undermine efforts to get to the bottom of the case. These will need to be debunked, causing additional confusion and leading to most people quickly giving up. I've come across various examples of this.

Fake phone calls. At least when it comes to calls made from Flight 11 and Flight 175, there's little reason to doubt that they took place. Betty Ong from Flight 11 explained events over the course of several minutes and her account can he heard on Youtube these days. According to her, the hijackers stabbed two persons, sprayed what appeared to be tear gas or pepper spray in the front portion of the plane, and locked themselves into the cockpit with the pilot. Similar claims came from Flight 175, where the hijackers were said to have used knives and what appeared to be pepper spray. In this case both pilots were killed before the plane crashed.

Seismic spikes that indicate massive underground explosions. We have to thank Christopher Bollyn for that, who took claims from a number of scientists out of context. These spikes were used as "evidence" for the detonation of mini-nukes and could potentially be linked to the Israeli moving vans - fine with Bollyn and his highly racist American Free Press. The fact is that anyone who looks at the seismic data can see that there's a build up of several seconds towards the peak, which coincides with rubble starting to hit the ground. The scientists in question also later stated that Bollyn had taken their statements out of context.

A bomb in the basement. What is certain is that a 20-ton freight elevator with burning jet fuel crashed down to the basement, causing widespread damage and a number of burn victims. There are only two testimonies that describe damage of an extent that could potentially indicate explosives, but this is anything but certain. Who knows how much overpressure the falling elevator and burning jet fuel may have caused. The two legitimate testimonies are from Mike Pecoraro and Phillip Morelli . A much more prominent one is from the hugely popular William Rodriguez - but I'll guarantee you right here right now that he has invented his (later) story. His account live on 9/11 clearly describes the falling elevator with burning fuel. Later on he changed his account to hearing a bomb prior to the impact of the first plane and how everyone was "pushed up" by it - completely contradicting every other witness from that day. It's one hundred percent guaranteed disinformation - and the reason why he has been promoted literally everywhere. The fact that he was an associate of James Randi should make people think.

Descriptions of plane impacts "confused" with those of the collapses. I have been very careful in this article to not confuse the two. All references to explosions in this article were made in reference to the collapses or moments in time other than the plane impacts

Several good (potential) leads to check out deeper

The connections of the CIA with the ISI and Saudi intelligence, the two intelligence agencies who kept in contact with Osama bin Laden after the fall of the Soviet Union. Much more about that in part two of this article.

The peculiar lives of the hijackers in Venice, Florida. Daniel Hopsicker uncovered more than a few interesting facts about them. However, the rest of the media has shown zero interest in Atta and his entourage.

The slow response of the air force on 9/11, especially pertaining to Flight 77, which was allowed to fly all the way back to Washington, D.C. and circle around the Pentagon before crashing into it. We should have expert testimony on all the defenses in Washington, D.C. of that period. We have next to nothing on that.

The use of explosives and thermate at the World Trade Center. We should have had many times the testimony that we have today. We also need more and better footage of the collapses when it comes to audio. The same goes even more for World Trade Center 7.

Numbers: who described seeing and hearing what exactly

At the end of this document we will be taking a quick look at the audio and visual evidence for explosives having been used. Back in 2005 one of things I set out to do was find a

One of the best videos to hear the collapse sound (headphones!). A rumble, followed by a thunderous boom - and only then a complete collapse of the tower. Even the reporter himself calls it a "huge explosion". I'm not an expert, but have been around high explosives and that's a very, very familiar sound.

video clip of the collapse and hear for myself if it began with an explosion. It took a long time to find a proper video, but after watching and listening to it I almost fell from my chair. There actually appears to have been a very loud explosion right when the towers began to come down. You 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 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. This is unfortunate and makes witnesses all the more important.

Luckily there are many such witnesses who actually describe one or more explosions preceding the collapses. 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 degrees Celsius), temperatures that had actually been measured by employees of Bechtel. [ 1 ] 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.

Many firemen seem to have stopped just short of saying that something fishy had happened, more than likely because it's not considered good manners or a career enhancer to oppose

the opinions of immediate superiors, the authorities or the media. And certainly 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.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. Hopefully there will come a day that the witnesses simply put up a few Youtube clips with their own unfiltered opinions. However, we do have a lot already. 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

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.

referring to the plane impacts. There are quite a few Youtube clips around in which witnesses talk about hearing explosions.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 puts 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:

witness testimony alone is not at all meager. In contrast, it is relatively 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. He was not told, however, about the accounts of Barry Jennings and Michael Hess that a massive explosion had already taken place in the lobby of the building early in the morning. 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 partner's similar observations . Personally I assumed the man

speaking the truth and counted his partner 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.

WTC 1-2: Reports of explosions after impact and during collapses

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..." (Turi retired in 2002, along with many other supervisors and ordinary fireman 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." "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 fireman in a "mass exodus".)"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."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."

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." "[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."

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..." "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..."

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." "Jimmy, don't go too close, Jimmy. They're still blowing up, Jimmy."

Fireman filmed in the WTC complex (Youtube): "There's a bomb in the building. Start clearing out."

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." "I got an eyewitness who said there was an explosion on floors 7 and 8, 7, 8."

New York Fire Department Official on the radio (Youtube): "And we've got another explosion on the tower, 10-13, 10-13."

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."

Dusty fireman interviewed on 9/11 (Youtube): "We never even really got that close to the building. An explosion blew and knocked everybody over."

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. 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. 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."

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, a marble panels that were once walls that were loose from the wall of the Trade Center." Could possibly be from the elevator falling down.

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." Not counted. The lobby may have been damaged that bad by the falling elevator.

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."

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: (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 watching it and running."

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)

2002, Dennis Smith, 'Report from Ground Zero: The Story of the Rescue Efforts at the World Trade Center', p. 18 (report of fireman Dennis tardio) man : "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."

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."" "[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.""

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)

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."

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."

September 17, 2001, Christian Science Monitor, 'A Changed World', page 2 of 9: "Tom Elliott was at work in his office at the Aon Corp., an insurance brokerage firm, on the 103rd floor of the World Trade Center's other, south tower. ... Elliott and two others headed down the building stairwell, a narrow beige corridor with a yellow stripe painted down the middle of concrete steps. They ran into a few other people as they descended, but there still hadn't been any announcements, and the absence of other escapees was making them feel as if they had prematurely panicked. Then, as they reached the 70th floor, they heard an announcement: The building was secure. No one needed to evacuate. One woman in the small group said to Elliott, "Do you want to believe them? Let's go!" They had descended three more floors when United Airlines Flight 175 slammed into their own south tower like an arrow from a giant crossbow [78th-84th floor]. It was 9:03 a.m. ... Although its spectacularly televised impact was above Elliott, at first he and those around him thought an explosion had come from below. An incredible noise - he calls it an "exploding sound" - shook the building, and a tornado of hot air and smoke and ceiling tiles and bits of drywall came flying up the stairwell. "In front of me, the wall split from the bottom up," he says. ... In a flash of panic, people began fleeing higher into the building. Then a few men began working on the crowd, calming people down, saying that downstairs was the only way out. As they descended, a few other survivors stumbled into the corridor. A construction painter, his white T-shirt covered in blood, was helped downstairs by others. But the stairwell was still far from jammed with evacuees. Elliott assumed his was one of the final groups descending. They saw only two firemen going up. They told them there had been an explosion near the 60th floor." "Tom Elliott was at work in his office at the Aon Corp., an insurance brokerage firm, on the 103rd floor of the World Trade Center's other, south tower. ... Elliott and two others headed down the building stairwell, a narrow beige corridor with a yellow stripe painted down the middle of concrete steps. They ran into a few other people as they descended, but there still hadn't been any announcements, and the absence of other escapees was making them feel as if they had prematurely panicked. Then, as they reached the 70th floor, they heard an announcement: The building was secure. No one needed to evacuate. One woman in the small group said to Elliott, "Do you want to believe them? Let's go!" They had descended three more floors when United Airlines Flight 175 slammed into their own south tower like an arrow from a giant crossbow [78th-84th floor]. It was 9:03 a.m. ... Although its spectacularly televised impact was above Elliott, at first he and those around him thought an explosion had come from below. An incredible noise - he calls it an "exploding sound" - shook the building, and a tornado of hot air and smoke and ceiling tiles and bits of drywall came flying up the stairwell. "In front of me, the wall split from the bottom up," he says. ... In a flash of panic, people began fleeing higher into the building. Then a few men began working on the crowd, calming people down, saying that downstairs was the only way out. As they descended, a few other survivors stumbled into the corridor. A construction painter, his white T-shirt covered in blood, was helped downstairs by others. But the stairwell was still far from jammed with evacuees. Elliott assumed his was one of the final groups descending. They saw only two firemen going up. They told them there had been an explosion near the 60th floor."

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."

Firefighter John Schroeder (Youtube): Apparently interviewed by the Loose Change crew. Said he was saved by Willy Rodriquez. Thinks bombs were in the building, just as his colleagues. Comes across as overly dramatic. Together with Rodriquez and Loose Change links... not going to cite.

May 26, 2002, New York Times, '102 Minutes: Last Words at the Trade Center': "Liz, this was a terrorist attack. I can hear explosions below me."

(The above quote is attributed to Edmund McNally and supposedly was given in this New York Times article listed as source. However, McNally and his wife Liz appear in this article, but there's absolutely no reference to explosions. So this portion has either been removed by the New York Times or it has been a mistake by the 9/11 Truth Movement. However, Scott Forbes of Fiduciary Trust said he knew this couple and the woman's claims about explosions.)

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."

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!"

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!"

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."

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."

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."

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."

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."

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.""

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."

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."

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)

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..."

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."

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".)

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."

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."

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.

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."

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.

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."

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."

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."

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."

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."

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."

9/11 cop on ABC (Youtube): "There were numerous secondary explosions taking place in that building [Twin Towers]. There were continuous explosions."

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.

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)

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."

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." "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."

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)

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."

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." "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."

Unknown firefighter, soon after the South Tower collapse, pushing people away from the North Tower (NIST FOIA: Release 10, WTCI-329-I-#5, Youtube): "We are walking back, because the building is about to blow up. Moving back. Flames. Debris coming down."

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. "

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."

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"."

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."

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..."

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." "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."

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. "

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." "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."

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."

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."

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."

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."

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."

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."

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."

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."

January 9, 2002, New York Times, file no. 9110434 (pdf on the site), interview with firefighter Kevin Gorman: "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."

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."

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."

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. ... 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. ... 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."

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.'"

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."

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."

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."

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."

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."

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."

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."

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."

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!" "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!"

(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."

September 11, BBC, 'Eyewitnesses tell of horror': "AP reporter Dunstan Prial said he heard a sucking sound just before the first building collapsed."

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."

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."

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."

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."

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..."

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..."

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."

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."

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."

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."

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."

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. "

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."

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."

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."

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."

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."

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."

July 20, 2005, Greg Szymanski interview with firefighter Louie Cacchioli (unreliable conspiracy source, although there's not that much reason to question this interview as Cacchioli talked about his experiences immediately after 9/11, reported by People.com (see no. 10): "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. Tommy and I had to go back down the elevator for tools and no sooner did the elevators close behind us, we heard this huge explosion that sounded like a bomb. It was such a loud noise, it knocked off the lights and stalled the elevator. “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. 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. 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 form 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.” ... 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. “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.”" "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. Tommy and I had to go back down the elevator for tools and no sooner did the elevators close behind us, we heard this huge explosion that sounded like a bomb. It was such a loud noise, it knocked off the lights and stalled the elevator. “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. 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