102 Minutes: The Unforgettable Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers (40 page)

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Authors: Jim Dwyer,Kevin Flynn

BOOK: 102 Minutes: The Unforgettable Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers
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Here, too, Palmer was ready:
Debbie Palmer, interview by Jim Dwyer, January 2004.
Mary Jos crawled across the ground:
Mary Jos, interview by Ford Fessenden, May 2002.
Young had not seen Jos on fire:
Ling Young, interview by Eric Lipton,
New York Times,
April 2002; interview by Jim Dwyer, August 2, 2002.
Despite being battered:
Judy Wein, Ed Nicholls, interviews by Eric Lipton, April 2002; interviews by Jim Dwyer, August 2002.
From the 88th and 89th floors came calls:
9/11 Commission staff reports, May 2004; interviews with Peter Mulderry, Kimmy Chedel, Kris McFerren, by the
New York Times
staff.
Of the eighty-seven people:
Work figures from Sandler O’Neill.
Around this time, Alayne Gentul:
Jack Gentul, interview by James Glanz, April 2002.
Another Fiduciary employee on the 97th floor:
Marion Biegeleisen, David Langer, Jack Edelstein, interviews by Lauren Wolfe for the authors, December 2003.
Ed McNally, the director of technology for Fiduciary:
Liz McNally, interview by James Glanz, April 2002.
Over the radio, the fire dispatcher:
FDNY response tape, 9:35 A.M. All quotes of firefighters in chapter 12 were taken from this tape.
He quietly lobbied:
Frank Gribbon, FDNY, interview by Jim Dwyer, February 20, 2004.
The director of Morgan Stanley:
James B. Stewart,
Heart of a Soldier: A Story of Love, Heroism, and September 11th
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002).
Not far behind them were Judy Wein:
Judy Wein, interview by Jim Dwyer, August 2002.
The firemen looked at them:
Ed Nicholls, interview by Jim Dwyer, August 2002.
Firefighter Tom Kelly struck people:
Biographical details from Maureen Paglia, Dennis Kelly, and Tommy Patchel; interviews by Lauren Wolfe for the authors, December 2003–January 2004.
The city’s 911 operation:
Jim Dwyer and Ed Wyatt, “Bloomberg Plans Overhaul of Creaky 911 System,”
New York Times,
April 13, 2004, p. A1.
Peruggia summoned an emergency medical technician:
John Peruggia, oral history, FDNY, October 25, 2001.
The 83rd floor appeared to be draped across windows:
NIST, “World Trade Center Investigation Status,” December 2003.
Kevin Cosgrove from Aon:
Matthew Walberg, John Keilman, Mickey Ciokajlo, and Ted Gregory, “Small Things Remind of Huge Loss,”
Chicago Tribune,
October 15, 2001, p. 10.
The voices from the 105th floor:
New York Police Department, “911 Sprint Run,” September 11, 2001. (SPRINT is a computer system that logs 911 phone calls.)
Calling from the 93rd floor:
Marcia De Leon, interviewed by Eric Lipton, May 2002.
On the street, Rich Zarillo had arrived:
Steve Mosiello, oral history, FDNY, October 23, 2001.
After thirty-three years in the Fire Department:
Ganci had been in the Fire Department for thirty-one years when he was named chief.
A few months earlier, Robert Gabriel Martinez:
N. R. Kleinfeld, “A Niche for Helping,”
New York Times,
December 31, 2001.
“They’re trying”:
Transcript, Port Authority Radio Channel 27 (security), September 11, 2001.
At that moment, at the command center:
Steve Mosiello, Albert Turi, FDNY, oral histories, October 23, 2001.
 
Chapter 13: “We’ll come down in a few minutes.”
“What was that explosion?”:
Arlene Nussbaum, interview by Jim Dwyer, April 2002.
Stockpiled in the south tower:
Steve Ashley, “When the Twin Towers Fell,”
Scientific American,
October 9, 2001.
It was so strong, the earth shuddered:
Won-Young Kim, research scientist, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, e-mail, March 24, 2004.
It found Sharon Premoli just as she ascended from the concourse:
Sharon Premoli, interviews by Kevin Flynn, April 2002, January 2004.
Mak Hanna, from Frank De Martini’s crew:
Mak Hannah, interview by Jim Dwyer, August 2003; Patricia Cullen, e-mail correspondence, January to February 2004.
By 10:01, two minutes after the south tower:
New York Police Department radio transmissions, Special Operations Division channel, September 11, 2001.
The radio that captured those messages:
Chief Joseph Pfeifer, interview by Kevin Flynn, June 2004.
A moment or two after the shudder:
Steve Modica, interview by Michelle O’Donnell, June 2002; Modica, oral history, undated, fall 2001.
In the middle zone, the building:
Joseph Baccellieri, interview by Kevin Flynn, November 2003.
Warren Smith had fought fires in Manhattan:
Warren Smith, oral history, FDNY, December 4, 2001; in his oral history, Smith puts himself on the 31st floor, but other survivors, including people Smith described, uniformly say they were on the 35th floor, not the 31st.
A moment later:
In Smith’s oral history, and in an interview with Hansson, both describe hearing this message through the chief’s radio. However, in the film by Jules Naudet broadcast on CBS, Chief Joseph Pfeifer does not use the term “mayday” in giving his evacuation order. It is possible that another chief also issued an evacuation order and did use the term “mayday.”
While some firefighters in trouble gave mayday calls:
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States,
The 9/11 Commission Report
(Washington, D.C., 2004); 307.
In any event, Chief Picciotto:
In
Last Man Down,
a bestselling book by Picciotto, he maintains that no one communicated with him from the ground to order an evacuation, with or without a mayday, and that he ordered the evacuation on his own initiative. Other dramatic aspects of his account have been directly challenged by other firefighters, and Picciotto has said in newspaper interviews that he no longer makes one of the central claims of the book—that he directed the rescue of a particular woman.
Robert Byrne, a probationary firefighter:
Robert Byrne, oral history, December 7, 2001.
Hansson and his men went to stairway A:
Gregg Hansson, interview by Ford Fessenden, June 2002.
Billy recognized Captain Burke:
Rich Billy, interview by Michelle O’Donnell for the authors, January 2004.
Forty-six years old, he had worked for twenty-five years:
Constance L. Hays, “Rendered by the Flame,” November 11, 2001.
The elevator door was moving as he pushed it:
Chris Young’s account is based on interviews with Dennis Cauchon of
USA Today
and ABC News in 2002 and subsequent interviews with Joseph Plambeck, on behalf of the authors, in May and June 2004.
At the collapse of the south tower:
Frank DiMola, interview by Jim Dwyer, January 2004.
Romito’s search crew was at least the fourth agency:
National Fire Administration report on 1993 bombing.
Once again, duplicative searches:
Descriptions of multiple sweeps by, among others, PAPD Sgt. Conrad Krueger, memorandum October 1, 2001, which records that he met NYPD ESU officers in tower 1 who wanted to sweep each floor.
The word to leave finally got to Steve Modica:
Steve Modica, interview by Michelle O’Donnell, July 1, 2002.
“About fifteen floors down from the top, it looks like it’s glowing red”:
NYPD tape, Special Operations Division, September 11, 2001.
For more than eighty minutes:
The Port Authority transcripts show that Hoey was directly told to stay in the office by the Port Authority police desk. The transcripts also show that later, a colleague of someone on the 64th floor called the police from outside the building, seeking information on their behalf; he was told they should evacuate. A spokesman for the Port Authority says that this colleague did convey this instruction to the people on the 64th floor, although the agency would not make the person available for an interview.
They found a door that was open:
Port Authority commendation for Pasquale Buzzelli, 2002.
Hoey called the police desk first:
Port Authority transcripts, sergeant’s desk, Central Police Desk, September 11, 2001, 10:12 A.M.
Then Hansson walked onto the 19th floor:
Gregg Hansson, interview by Ford Fessenden, June 2002.
They could scarcely believe their eyes:
Andrew Wender, interview with Kevin Flynn, June 2002.
Baccallieri and Moscola took in the scene:
Al Moscola, interview with Kevin Flynn, June 2002; Baccellieri, interviews with Kevin Flynn, June 2002, January 2004; Baccellieri, interview with Jim Dwyer, September 2002.
Hayes, in police helicopter Aviation 14:
NYPD Special Operations Division Channel, tape, September 11, 2001.
Fred Ill, the captain of Ladder Company 2:
Jim Dwyer, “More Tapes from 9/11: ‘They Have Exits in There?’”
New York Times
, August 17, 2006.
 
Chapter 14: “You don’t understand.”
Spent, Reese sat on the stairs:
Jeff Gertler, interview by Jim Dwyer, February 2004.
For much of the morning, the hotel lobby had served:
Rich Fetter, interview by Jim Dwyer, June 2002.
“Sound off!” the sergeant, John McLoughlin:
Will Jimeno, interview by Jim Dwyer, October 29, 2001.
A bolt of fear ran through Cerquiera:
John Cerquiera, interview by Jim Dwyer, November 2001.
John Abruzzo, a quadriplegic:
Port Authority awards citations.
That sounded like madness to Gertler:
Jeff Gertler, interview by Jim Dwyer, January 2004.
Bill Spade, who eventually found two police officers:
Bill Spade, interview by Ford Fessenden, July 2002.
Over time, the flames had spread:
Video review of WTC footage by Eric Lipton.
It was 10:26:
Iliana McGinnis, interview by Jim Dwyer, May 2002.
Lucas would remember:
NYPD officer Patrick Lucas, “September 11, 2001,” memorandum, December 10, 2001.
Upon meeting this latest crisis:
Gregg Hansson, interview by Ford Fessenden, July 2002, described seeing Kelly with the man.
Hansson and James Hall:
NYPD officer James E. Hall, “Events Occurring during the World Trade Center Attack,” memorandum, November 2, 2001.
The building was unstable:
Hall, memorandum, p. 2.
… aluminum skin of the building that seemed to float:
Robert Byrne, oral history, winter 2001.

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