Witnesses to the Towers' Explosions

For years, researchers of the 9/11 attack have built a case for the controlled demolition of the Twin Towers primarily on the basis of one body of evidence: the scores photographs and videos of the Towers coming down. Whereas authorities were unable to prevent the circulation of this visual evidence, they successfully suppressed the largest body of eyewitness evidence for nearly four years. That body is a collection of hundreds of "oral histories" 503 firefighters, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians, many of whom witnessed some aspect of the total destruction of the Twin Towers.

The vast majority of these accounts remained suppressed by the city until the New York Times won a Freedom of Information lawsuit against the City of New York in 2005, and announced the release of the records on August 8, 2005. The newspaper published the accounts in the form of PDF documents. ¹ 

A perusal of some excerpts of these accounts containing recollections of the sights, sounds, and immediate observations of the destruction of the Twin Towers suggests the reason the city fought to keep them suppressed: the witnesses consistently describe loud bangs at the onsets of the events, and explosive features characteristic of controlled demolition.

Rich Banaciski Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) [Ladder 22] ... 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. New York Times file 9110253

Brian Becker Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) [Engine 28] 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. New York Times file 9110019

Greg Brady E.M.T. (E.M.S.) [Battalion 6] 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. New York Times file 9110184

Timothy Burke Firefigter (F.D.N.Y.) [Engine 202] 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. New York Times file 9110488

Ed Cachia Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) [Engine 53] 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. New York Times file 9110251

Frank Campagna Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) [Ladder 11] That's when [the North Tower] went. I looked back. You see three explosions and then the whole thing coming down. New York Times file 9110224

Craig Carlsen Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) [Ladder 8] ... 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. ... You did hear the explosions [when the North Tower came down]. New York Times file 9110505

Jason Charles E.M.T. (E.M.S.) ... and then I heard an explosion from up, from up above, and I froze and I was like, oh, s___, I'm dead because I thought the debris was going to hit me in the head and that was it. ... I look over my shoulder and I says, oh, s___, and then I turned around and looked up and that's when I saw the tower coming down. New York Times file 9110486

Frank Cruthers Chief (F.D.N.Y.) [Citywide Tour Commander] .. 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. New York Times file 9110179

Kevin Darnowski Paramedic (E.M.S.) I started walking back up towards Vesey Street. I heard three explosions, and then we heard like groaning and grinding, and tower two started to come down. New York Times file 9110202

Dominick Derubbio Battalion Chief (F.D.N.Y.) [Division 8] It was weird how it started to come down. It looked like it was a timed explosion ... New York Times file 9110064

Karin Deshore Captain (E.M.S.) 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. New York Times file 9110192

Brian Dixon Battalion Chief (F.D.N.Y.) ... 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. New York Times file 9110166

Michael Donovan Captain (F.D.N.Y.) 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. New York Times file 9110205

James Drury Assistant Commissioner (F.D.N.Y.) 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. New York Times file 9110098

Thomas Fitzpatrick Deputy Commissioner for Administration (F.D.N.Y.) Some people thought it was an explosion. I don't think I remember that. I remember seeing it, it looked like sparkling around one specific layer of the building. ... My initial reaction was that this was exactly the way it looks when they show you those implosions on TV. New York Times file 9110001

Gary Gates Lieutenant (F.D.N.Y.) 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. New York Times file 9110065

Kevin Gorman Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) [Ladder 22] ... 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. New York Times file 9110434

Stephen Gregory Assistant Commissioner (F.D.N.Y.) mean, it could have been as a result of the building collapsing, things exploding, but I saw a flash flash flash and then it looked like the building came down. ... [It was at] 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. New York Times file 9110008

Gregg Hansson Lieutenant (F.D.N.Y.) 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. New York Times file 9110017

Timothy Julian Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) [Ladder 118] ... 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. New York Times file 9110386

John Malley Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) [Ladder 22] 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. New York Times file 9110319

James McKinley E.M.T. (E.M.S.) 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. New York Times file 9110072

Joseph Meola Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) [Engine 91] As we are looking up at the building, what I saw was, it looked like the building was blowing out on all four sides. We actually heard the pops. Didn't realize it was the falling -- you know, you heard the pops of the building. You thought it was just blowing out. New York Times file 9110287

Keith Murphy (F.D.N.Y.) [] I had heard 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 hear someone say oh, s___, that was just for the lights 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. New York Times file 9110238

Kevin Murray Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) [Ladder 18] 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 New York Times file 9110020

Michael Ober E.M.T. (E.M.S.) 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. I just froze and stood there looking at it. New York Times file 9110093

Janice Olszewski Captain (E.M.S.) I thought more could be happening down there. 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. New York Times file 9110193

Angel Rivera Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) Mike Mullan walked one flight up, and then the most horrendous thing happened. That's when hell came down. It was like a huge, enormous explosion. I still can hear it. Everything shook. New York Times file 9110489

Daniel Rivera Paramedic (E.M.S.) [Battalion 31] 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. New York Times file 9110035

Kennith Rogers Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) 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. ... I figured it was a bomb, because it looked like a synchronized deliberate kind of thing. I was there in '93. New York Times file 9110290

Patrick Scaringello Lieutenant (E.M.S.) I started to treat patients on my own when I heard the explosion from up above. ... I was assisting in pulling more people out from debris, when I heard the second tower explode. New York Times file 9110030

Mark Steffens Division Chief (E.M.S.) Then there was another it sounded like an explosion and heavy white powder ... ... That's when we heard this massive explosion and I saw this thing rolling towards us. New York Times file 9110003

John Sudnik Battalion Chief (F.D.N.Y.) 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. New York Times file 9110198

Jay Swithers Captain (E.M.S.) 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. New York Times file 9110172

David Timothy E.M.T. (E.M.S.) The next thing I knew, you started hearing more explosions. I guess this is when the second tower started coming down. New York Times file 9110156

Albert Turi Deputy Assistant Chief (F.D.N.Y.) 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. New York Times file 9110501

Thomas Turilli Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) ... it almost actually that day sounded like bombs going off, like boom, boom, boom, like seven or eight, and then just a huge wind gust just came ... New York Times file 9110501

Stephen Viola Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) ... 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 New York Times file 9110439

William Wall Lieutenant (F.D.N.Y.) [Engine 47] 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. We ran a little bit and then we were overtaken by the cloud and we hid behind a white Suburban. New York Times file 9110285

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References

1. The Sept. 11 Records, New York Times,