Fall and Rise
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20. Chris Young arrived by subway: Interview with Christopher Briggs Young, November 15, 2017.
21. Cecilia Lillo was hungry: Interviews with Cecilia Lillo, January 6 and 8, 2018, with phone and email follow-ups. Her account of the entire day comes from those interviews and follow-ups.
22. the usual awful time: Some background on Moussa Diaz, including certain phrases, comes from a story published five days after 9/11: Mitchell Zuckoff, “Six Lives: Reliving the Morning of Death,” Boston Globe, September 16, 2001, p. A1. Most information about the experiences of Diaz, Paul Adams, Carlos Lillo, and other Battalion 49 EMTs comes from multiple interviews with Diaz and Adams in January 2017, along with transcribed interviews they and fellow EMTs Roberto Abril, Kevin Barrett, and Alwish Moncherry gave to the World Trade Center Task Force: Diaz and Barrett on January 17, 2002; Adams on November 1, 2001; Abril on January 27, 2002; and Moncherry on October 22, 2001. In cases of minor disagreements involving sequences or dialogue, this account relies on the author’s interviews with participants.
23. a million or more: It is difficult to determine the exact number of people in the entire Financial District on September 11, 2001, or any other day. However, see the March 2012 paper titled “The Dynamic Population of Manhattan,” by Mitchell L. Moss and Carson Qing of the Rudin Center at New York University. As they write, “An analysis of tract-to-tract worker flow data from the 2000 Census Transportation Planning Package indicates that census tracts in Midtown and Financial District (typically less than one-tenth of a square mile) have up to 70,000 commuters and residents in skyscrapers and office buildings during the day with a population density of up to 980,000 people per square mile. If visitors staying in hotels or touring nearby neighborhoods were included, the number of people per square mile could even exceed 1 million in several of these tracts.” https://wagner.nyu.edu/files/rudincenter/dynamic_pop_manhattan.pdf, accessed February 4, 2017.
24. five feet one: Interview with Andrea Maffeo, February 1, 2017.
25. Wai-ching Chung: New York Times “Portraits of Grief” tribute, found at www.legacy.com/sept11/Story.aspx?PersonID=94791&location=2, accessed February 6, 2017.
26. the sight of rainbows: Emily Gold Boutilier, “Three in 2,996,” Amherst (College) Magazine, Summer issue 2011, www.amherst.edu/amherst-story/magazine/issues/2011summer/safronoff/3in2996/node/332776, accessed February 8, 2017.
27. Trader: Archived website of destroyed World Trade Center Marriott Hotel: http://web.archive.org/web/20010302170701/http://www.marriotthotels.com/NYCWT/meeting.asp, accessed February 7, 2017.
28. “bus soooooooo crowded”: Copy of email sent by Elaine Duch at 8:41 a.m., September 11, 2001, provided by Janet Duch Cardwell.
29. Roughly 8,900 people: As discussed elsewhere, there remains disagreement about the exact number of people in each tower at the time of the attacks. This figure comes from NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation, p. 26.
Chapter 13: “God Save Me!”
1. 283,600-pound guided missile: NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation, pp. 20–30. The complete description of initial damage to the North Tower relies upon the NIST report findings unless otherwise noted.
2. 1,355 people: NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation, p. xxxviii.
3. more than seventy-five hundred: NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation, p. 26. NIST puts the estimated number of people on the 91st floor and below at 7,545, while acknowledging rounding errors.
4. could have remained standing: This is a significant finding of NIST, found on p. 23 of the NIST NCSTAR 1 report.
5. Vaswald George Hall: Unbylined story, “Can’t You Ever Say No?” New York Times, December 3, 2001. Elaine Duch didn’t know Hall’s name. His identity was established with help from the 9/11 Memorial and Museum’s chief curator, Jan Seidler Ramirez, who reached out to former Port Authority officials. Elaine Duch’s former boss, Jim Connors, recalled that the messenger was employed by a company that worked for the law firm Skadden Arps. That memory led to Martha Feltenstein, a retired Skadden Arps lawyer, who confirmed Hall’s name, which appears on the 9/11 Memorial.
6. her boss standing over her: Interview with Janet Duch Cardwell, September 27, 2017.
7. battalion chief: World Trade Center Task Force Interview with Chief Joseph Pfeifer, October 23, 2001. Manhattan Dispatch Tape 432 transcript, Side A, 8:46 a.m. to 9:31 a.m. www.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/nyregion/wtctape1.1.pdf. Also see Joseph Pfeifer, “First Chief on the Scene,” Fire Engineering, September 1, 2002. www.fireengineering.com/articles/print/volume-155/issue-9/world-trade-center-disaster/volume-i-initial-response/first-chief-on-the-scene.html.
8. “A plane just crashed!”: Interview with FDNY Deputy Chief John A. (Jay) Jonas, October 13, 2017, with email and phone follow-ups for fact-checking.
9. “a number of floors on fire”: Manhattan Dispatch Tape 432 transcript, Side A, 8:46 a.m. to 9:31 a.m. www.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/nyregion/wtctape1.1.pdf.
10. more than two hundred fire units: McKinsey Report: FDNY 9/11 Response, 2002, p. 9. Also see 9/11 Commission Report, p. 289.
11. “You show up”: Michael Daly, The Book of Mychal (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2008), p. 324. Judge’s homily also is captured on numerous YouTube videos, including: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpI6oRgHeNU.
12. “A plane hit the towers”: Interview with Moussa “Moose” Diaz, January 17, 2017.
13. “How many people”: Interview with FDNY Deputy Chief John A. (Jay) Jonas, October 13, 2017, with email and phone follow-ups for fact-checking.
14. “could be a terror attack”: Time stamped is 8:49 a.m., from Squad 1-8. Manhattan Dispatch Tape 432 transcript, Side A, 8:46 a.m. to 9:31 a.m. www.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/nyregion/wtctape1.1.pdf.
15. “The best-kept secret”: Vincent Dunn, Command and Control of Fires and Emergencies (New York: Fire Engineering Books, 1999), pp. 145–46.
16. “People trapped”: Dunn, Command and Control, p. 145.
17. “Listen up, everybody”: Genelle Guzman-McMillan with William Croyle, Angel in the Rubble (New York: Howard Books, 2011), p. 23.
18. on street level: Dwyer and Flynn, p. 4.
19. about two dozen: Jim Dwyer, “The Port Authority Tapes: Overview; Fresh Glimpse in 9/11 Files of the Struggle for Survival,” New York Times, August 29, 2003.
20. “This building was designed”: World Trade Center, in Memoriam, History Channel, produced by Actuality Productions Inc. This version of the documentary was revised in 2002, after the attacks.
21. architect Gerry Gaeta: Interview with Gerry Gaeta, October 23, 2017. Also see Dean E. Murphy, September 11: An Oral History (New York: Doubleday, 2002), pp. 50–52.
22. “Uh, we’re on the eighty-eighth floor”: Transcripts of World Trade Center radio transmissions, WTC Ch. 25, Radio Channel B. Also see Dwyer and Flynn, p. 84.
23. charred remains: Several firefighters reported seeing this early victim in the North Tower lobby. See the account of Firefighter Peter Blaich of Ladder 123 in Firehouse Magazine, September 9, 2002. www.firehouse.com/article/10579453/ff-peter-blaich-ladder-123.
24. nineteen commendations: City of New York press release, “Mayor Bloomberg, Former Mayor Giuliani, and Elizabeth Petrone-Hatton Rename West 43rd Street Between 10th and 11th Avenue After FDNY Captain Terence S. Hatton,” June 4, 2005.
25. as many as fifty thousand people: 9/11 Commission Report, pp. 290–91.
26. between 14,000 and 17,400: Dwyer and Flynn, p. 2. The New York Times and USA Today conducted extensive research into the number of people in the trade center buildings and reached rough agreement on the lower number, while NIST reported the higher estimate in July 2004.
27. born on the Fourth of July: New York Times, “Portraits of Grief: Christine Olender,” October 20, 2001. Transcripts of Christine Olender’s calls: WTC CH. 10, PAPD Police Desk, 3541 Right.
28. He suspected: Interview with PAPD Officer Ray Murray, June 23, 2018.
29. “do whatever you have to”: Transcripts of Christine Olender’s ca
lls: WTC CH. 10, PAPD Police Desk, 3541 Right.
30. more than fifty emergency calls: Complete transcripts of WTC CH. 10, PAPD Police Desk, 3541 Right. Times of calls are approximate.
31. sixteenth floor: 9/11 Commission Report, p. 298.
32. critical problems: The communication issue was examined closely by the 9/11 Commission and others, including a five-month review by McKinsey & Co. consultants commissioned by the FDNY. See McKinsey Report: FDNY 9/11 Response, 2002. See World Trade Center Task Force Interview with Battalion Chief Joseph Pfeifer, October 23, 2001, p. 5. Also see Dwyer and Flynn, pp. 60–61. Although this was squarely disputed by Chief Pfeifer, the 9/11 Commission concluded (p. 297) that only one of two necessary buttons on the repeater system was activated on 9/11: “The activation of transmission on the master handset required, however, that a second button be pressed. That second button was never activated on the morning of September 11.”
33. ultra-high-frequency Motorola radios: McKinsey Report: FDNY 9/11 Response, 2002, p. 13. Also Dwyer and Flynn, pp. 55–56.
34. rooftop rescues would be impossible: 9/11 Commission report, p. 291.
35. Within six minutes of the crash: NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation, p. 26.
36. a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory: David Von Drehle, Triangle: The Fire That Changed America (New York: Grove Press, 2004). Also NIST NCSTAR 1–7, WTC Investigation, p. 1.
37. “Please don’t jump”: Dwyer and Flynn, p. 62.
38. the unaffected South Tower: 9/11 Commission Report, p. 290.
39. not to evacuate: 9/11 Commission Report, p. 318.
40. “We need to know”: Transcripts of World Trade Center radio transmissions, Channel 8 Police Desk, 3541 Left, pp. 8–10.
41. different advice: 9/11 Commission Report, p. 287. This is borne out by hundreds of pages of transcripts of PAPD dispatch calls.
42. refused orders by their chiefs: 9/11 Commission Report, p. 303.
43. “Maybe they got one by us”: Smith, p. 88.
44. “I am not dead”: Dean E. Murphy, September 11: An Oral History (New York: Random House, 2002), pp. 152–53. The author located Mr. Armstead and attempted to speak with him for this book, but he did not reply to several interview requests.
45. “Jay, don’t even bother”: Interview with FDNY Deputy Chief John A. (Jay) Jonas, October 13, 2017, with email and phone follow-ups for fact-checking.
46. “There’s a second plane”: Transcript from ABC News, “Why No Rooftop Rescues on Sept. 11?” November 8, 2001.
Chapter 14: “We’ll Be Brothers for Life”
1. sat silently at his desk: Interview with Brian Clark, October 5, 2017, with email and phone follow-ups.
2. Stan Praimnath rode a local elevator: Interview with Stan Praimnath, October 4, 2017, with email and phone follow-ups. Also see Stanley Praimnath and William Hennessey, Plucked from the Fire (Pittsburgh: Rose Dog Books, 2004).
3. eighty-six hundred people: NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation, p. 37. This official number is higher than several careful counts by media organizations, notably the New York Times and USA Today. Overall, the NIST report put the total population of the Towers at 17,400, while the Times used turnstile counts and other methods to conclude that 14,154 people were in the Towers plus another 940 registered at the Marriott Hotel between them. Despite the difference, the NIST and NYT/USA Today numbers are far more credible than those contained in earlier reports, which consistently overstated the Towers’ population.
4. roughly half heard the sound: NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation, p. 37.
5. about half of the people: NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation, p. 37.
6. “Your attention, please”: Brian Clark’s account of the instructions from Port Authority officials was confirmed in the 9/11 Commission Report, pp. 287–89. Clark’s quote is from interviews with the author and also from his interview with an investigator for the 9/11 Commission, Madeleine Blot, March 2, 2004.
7. fond of Brooks Brothers clothes: New York Times, “Portraits of Grief: Hideya Kawauchi,” December 6, 2001.
8. often returned home: New York Times, “Portraits of Grief: Alisha Levin,” October 12, 2001.
9. a new announcement: NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation, p. 37, and Jim Dwyer, “9/11 Tape Has Late Change on Evacuation,” New York Times, May 17, 2004.
10. more than six hundred people: NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation, pp. 37 and 42. Also see Jim Dwyer, “9/11 Tape Has Late Change on Evacuation,” New York Times, May 17, 2004.
11. thirty-two hundred: NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation, p. 42.
12. “the fuck out of here”: James B. Stewart, “The Real Heroes Are Dead,” New Yorker, February 3, 2002. Also see Michael Grunwald, “A Tower of Courage,” Washington Post, October 28, 2001, and James B. Stewart, Heart of a Soldier (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003).
13. bright red blazer: Interview with Jack Gentul, November 13, 2017.
14. group of ten people: Dwyer and Flynn, p. 76. Early reporting about Alayne Gentul suggested that her father, Harry Friedenreich, was project manager for Otis Elevator Company at the World Trade Center; although Otis did build those elevators, Friedenreich was not directly involved in the World Trade Center work.
15. resembled a teacher: Jim Dwyer, Eric Lipton, et al., “Fighting to Live as the Towers Died,” New York Times, May 26, 2002. While Nora Hutton was quoted as saying Alayne pointed toward the elevators, Mona Dunn described her leading others to the stairs.
16. like a family: Interview with Anne Foodim, January 4, 2018.
17. a 38-degree angle: NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation, p. 38. Additional details of Flight 175’s impact in this passage also come from the NIST report.
18. packed lobby-bound express elevators: 9/11 Commission Report, pp. 293–94.
19. return to their offices: NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation, p. 41.
20. A handful of bloodied survivors: Jane Lerner, “Bandanna Links Acts of Courage,” The Journal News, June 10, 2002. Also see Tom Rinaldi, The Red Bandanna: A life. A choice. A legacy (New York: Penguin Press, 2016), pp. 123–26; and Jim Dwyer, Eric Lipton, et al., “Fighting to Live as the Towers Died,” New York Times, May 26, 2002.
21. she’d sat motionless: The timing of Ling Young’s account, as described in media reports, contributes to the credibility of the identification of “the man in the red bandanna” as Welles Crowther. Young told author Tom Rinaldi that she’d sat motionless for ten minutes, maybe longer, before the man arrived on the 78th floor. Welles Crowther left a phone message for his mother at 9:12 a.m., saying that he was all right. If he then rushed to Stairwell A, it would have taken him several minutes to get from the 104th floor to the 78th floor.
22. “84th floor”: John Breunig, “Father’s Note Changes Family’s 9/11 Account,” Stamford Advocate, December 28, 2012, p. 1. Also see New York Times, “Portraits of Grief: Randolph Scott,” November 17, 2001.
23. Melissa Doi: A recording of Melissa Doi’s 911 call was played at the 2006 trial of Zacarias Moussaoui. Also see New York Times, “Portraits of Grief: Melissa Doi,” February 12, 2002. Dispatcher Vanessa Barnes was identified in the Moussaoui trial transcript.
24. Ron climbed: Andrew Duffy, “Tower of Pain for Canadian Who Survived 9/11,” Ottawa Citizen, June 5, 2005.
25. called her husband, Jack: Interview with Jack Gentul, November 13, 2017, and follow-up emails and phone calls.
Chapter 15: “They’re Trying to Kill Us, Boys”
1. “We may not live through today”: Interview with FDNY Deputy Chief John A. (Jay) Jonas, October 13, 2017, with email and phone follow-ups for fact-checking. Another reported version of Nevins’s quote is “We’re going to be lucky if we survive this.”
2. “I love you, brother”: World Trade Center Task Force Interview with Firefighter Timothy Brown, January 15, 2002, p. 6.
3. Assistant Chief Donald Burns: World Trade Center Task Force Interview with Battalion Chief Joseph Pfeifer, October 23, 2001. Also Joseph Pfeifer, “Firs
t Chief on the Scene,” Fire Engineering, September 1, 2002, and unbylined story, “Fire Chief’s Remains Are among Thirteen Found,” New York Times, March 22, 2002.
4. missiles being fired: Transcript from NBC News, “The Miracle of Ladder Company 6,” September 28, 2001.
5. a girl’s foot: Several EMTs and paramedics mentioned this, most vividly EMT Lonnie Penn, interviewed by the World Trade Center Task Force on November 9, 2001, p. x.