New Twin Towers Tapes Released

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

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.

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.

Independent investigations with access to the documents have already described major flaws in the city's response to the attack: Emergency radios did not function properly. Police and firefighters did not work together. Discipline broke down. Vital messages went unheard.

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

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.

Firefighter Kirk Long, whose Engine 1 was sent to the World Trade Center's north tower — the first to be struck by a plane and the second to collapse — described rushing up a stairway as evacuees were coming down.

"I was watching every person coming down, looked at their face, just to make them happy that they were getting out and we were going in, and everything was OK," Long said in his oral history.

Long said he heard the north tower shake and thought something in the basement had exploded.

"At that time I never knew that the south tower had gone down," he said.

Firefighter Long described leaving the north tower and being helped by another firefighter to another building nearby that had some clean air.

"There was a lot of mothers and babies there," he said. "I was ready to leave. They were a little shook up because I was covered up with all this dust. I was leaving and they started to cry. They didn't want me to go without them. So I stayed for maybe 10 or 15 minutes until it cleared up a little bit. Then I walked them over to the west side, where there were boats and fresh air."

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

Another firefighter, Patrick Martin of Engine 229, said that after the south tower had collapsed and before the north tower came down, his lieutenant instructed him to go on a boat that was taking people to hospitals across the Hudson River.

"I told him I wasn't leaving," Martin said. "We were still missing one guy."

Fire Lt. Gregg Hansson, whose Engine 24 was called at 8:47 a.m.

one minute after the first plane crash — described hearing the call to evacuate while he was on the 35th floor of the north tower.

"I was in the vicinity of the battalion chief, who was on the command channel, when I heard a mayday given over the command channel to evacuate the building," Hansson said in his oral history. "He started to tell everyone to evacuate, and I did also. I saw all the units get up, everybody got their gear, everybody started for the staircases to evacuate."

The New York Times, joined by families of Sept. 11 victims, sued the city in 2002 to release the records, which were collected by the Fire Department in the days after the collapse of the twin towers.

The city withheld them, claiming the release would violate firefighters' privacy and jeopardize the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui, who ultimately pleaded guilty to conspiring with the Sept. 11 hijackers.

In March, the state's highest court ordered the city to release the oral histories and radio transmissions but said the city could edit out potentially painful and embarrassing portions.

In another oral history, fire Lt. Howard Hahn described using his cell phone that day but said his fire department radio was barely functioning.

"I was able to get through, but the transmissions was very hard," Hahn said. It was very hard to control. You're basically doing your own show."