9/11 Tapes Evoke Chaos And Horror

Fire Dept. Lifts Veil On Rescuers' Radio Messages, Oral Histories

(CBS/AP)  The Fire Department on Friday released thousands of pages of oral histories recorded by firefighters about Sept. 11 and hours of radio transmissions, a vast mine of records that evoked anew the chaos and horror of the attack.

“Somebody yelled something was falling,” firefighter Maureen McArdle-Schulman recalled. “We didn't know if it was desks coming out. It turned out it was people coming out, and they started coming out one after the other.”

“I felt like I was intruding on a sacrament,” she said. “They were choosing to die and I was watching them and shouldn't have been.”

Compelled by a lawsuit filed by The New York Times, the department made public 15 hours of radio transmissions and more than 500 oral histories describing the rush to the World Trade Center, which saved an unknown number of civilians and cost 343 firefighters their lives. In all, 2,749 people died in the twin towers' collapse.

Deputy Commissioner Thomas Fitzpatrick, said, “Based on the number of jumpers, we could only assume that hundreds of people were trapped.”

At least 450 relatives of dead firefighters requested copies of the oral histories and radio recordings, and they received them by express mail Friday, the fire department said.

Listening to the tapes yields an array of emotions. Some voices are sad; some are terse. Some of the audio is garbled or difficult to understand. Hear more audio.

Some families and other critics of the city's response have been hoping the new documents would help them challenge the conclusion that many firefighters in the north tower heard, but chose to ignore, an evacuation message issued after the south tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m.

CBS News Correspondent Trish Regan reports that Michael Burke's brother, William, was the only firefighter in his company who didn't make it out of the north tower. Michael told Regan that he will listen to the tapes when he feels ready.

“I will probably listen to them in bits and pieces. I think they'll be very difficult. It will be interesting to hear if we could hear Billy's voice,” he said.

The 945 minutes of dispatches and recorded histories fill 23 cds, WCBS' Marcia Kramer reports. A reading of just a few of the 12,000 pages of transcripts from the oral histories made clear they were packed with dramatic descriptions of the day.

"When the south tower collapsed, what we did was we either ran, got blown or fell down. ... I realized ... we have people up there," said Fire Chief Salvatore Cassano. "The building is loaded with our guys."

Cassano was manning the department's command post with Department Chief Peter Ganci, who was later killed after the two were separated. Ganci was the highest-ranking firefighter who died that day.

"I'd like to hear his voice again," one father of a fallen firefighter told Kramer(video), when asked about his son.

At least one fire lieutenant quoted in the oral histories heard the evacuation message and saw his colleagues leaving.