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Half the Conversation Conveys Horror of 9/11

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Times Staff Writer

It was 9:50 a.m., and the caller simply refused to hang up. He was trapped on the 105th floor of one of the World Trade Center towers, and the 911 dispatcher was trying to get him off the phone.

“Just stay where you are. Don’t do nothing. Just stay where you are,” said the dispatcher, identified only as Fire Department 408. “We’re coming. Yeah. Hang up, sir. We’re on the way.” But the man would not hang up. Finally, Fire Department 408 thought of something else to say.

“I swear to you,” he said. “I swear to you, we’ll get someone up to you.”

Nine hours of recordings released by the city of New York on Friday evoke the horror and confusion that swept through emergency services the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Addressing callers as “hon,” “sir” or sometimes “lady,” dispatchers repeated one message -- like a mantra -- to people who couldn’t breathe and were beginning to panic: Sit tight; we’re coming.

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The recordings, which do not include the words of the callers, show that people stuck in the towers received contradictory and sometimes misleading advice. Some dispatchers recommended opening windows, not realizing the panes were sealed shut; other emergency operators warned urgently against breaking the glass.

Dispatchers repeatedly instructed callers to stay where they were, put wet towels over their heads and under the doors, to stay low and not to panic -- the standard procedure for emergencies in high-rise buildings. Only a handful advised that they try to get out of the buildings.

David Rosenzweig, president of the dispatchers union, said he would give the same orders today, because “if the fire is below you, there’s nowhere to go. The exits are like chimneys.

“Right up until the time the building collapsed, they had hope,” he said. “If they went in the stairwell, they were dead.”

New York officials fought hard to prevent the release of the recordings, which were requested by the New York Times in 2002 under the state’s Freedom of Information Law. The city argued that other records sought by the paper contained information needed to prosecute Zacarias Moussaoui, and that the last moments of the victims in the towers were intensely personal and should remain private.

Lawyers for the Times, joined by a group of victims’ relatives, made the case that the recordings contained important information about how emergency services functioned in the crisis. The New York State Court of Appeals in March 2005 ordered the city to release the operators’ words but said the victims’ appeals could be redacted.

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Norman Siegel, a lawyer who represented the family members, on Friday said the operators’ comments were “inconsistent and contradictory” and said they proved that the operators were not properly trained or not working from a uniform script. But he took pains to praise their compassion.

“We do not want the 911 operators to become scapegoats,” he said. “The 911 operators were themselves in the dark.”

Sally Regenhard, founder of the Skyscraper Safety Campaign, whose son Christian was a New York City firefighter who died on Sept. 11, agreed. “The operators desperately tried to manage a situation that they were not trained to manage.”

Police and fire officials, meanwhile, said the recordings gave them reason to be proud. In a statement, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said they “remind us once again of the remarkable performance of our 911 operators, who displayed professionalism and compassion under the most trying of circumstances, often staying on the line with anguished callers until the very end.”

Between 8:46 a.m., when the first plane hit, and 10:28 a.m., when the second building collapsed, 130 calls were made to 911 from inside the World Trade Center. On some floors, as many as 100 people clustered together while one person called.

The calls were patched through to dispatchers at four locations. Four dispatchers were answering calls from headquarters in Central Park, several miles uptown from the site of the attack, and 17 dispatchers were stationed at centers in the Bronx Zoo, at Forest Park in Queens and at Prospect Park in Brooklyn, Rosenzweig said.

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At times, dispatchers in the recordings sounded confused about what was taking place. One dispatcher tried to explain his situation to a caller: “I don’t know anything more than what people calling in tell me. I don’t have any access to a radio or TV or anything. I don’t know.”

Although the Fire Department and Port Authority police ordered an evacuation of both towers at 8:59 a.m., there is no mention of the order in the dispatchers’ recordings. Instead, at 9:17 a.m., dispatchers received word over the public address system that the fires had subsided. At 10:15 a.m., after the south tower collapsed, one dispatcher appeared not to know about it, asking, “It’s still standing, right?”

Glenn Corbett, who teaches a fire-safety course based on the events of Sept. 11, said the dispatchers -- had they been given better information by officials on the scene -- could have helped lead some people to safety. Although there were no clear exits from the top of the north tower, one stairwell in the south tower was passable. Corbett said the dispatchers were handicapped by their isolation.

“All they knew was something bad happened in the buildings,” said Corbett, assistant professor of fire science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “Can you imagine not knowing, sitting in a blank-walled building in Central Park? You don’t have good information to tell the people.”

Rosenzweig said the dispatchers performed “far beyond what I had expected,” using the same protocol they had used in a successful evacuation during the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. But the experience of working Sept. 11 was so traumatizing that many could not return to their jobs.

“I had lots of people that basically changed their occupation,” he said. “They don’t want to talk to people that are dying.”

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The first calls came in seconds after the first plane crashed into the north tower, and they were marked by confusion. One dispatcher, told that a man had jumped from the tower, asked the caller, “Which window, which floor?”

At 9:09 a.m., another offered this explanation to a caller: “They’re saying it might be a terrorist attack. It would have to be, because what are the odds of two planes crashing into the same buildings, OK?”

In some cases, dispatchers remained on the line for long minutes, trying to communicate with callers who were gradually overcome. Dispatcher 8685 stayed with a man on the 105th floor of a tower from 9:17 to 9:22.

“Oh, wow,” the dispatcher said, when told that 60 people were huddled together and that the stairwell had collapsed. Then he issued orders: “Listen. Everybody wet the towels. Listen. Lie on the floor. Everybody wet the towels; put it over your head.”

The dispatcher listened to the caller repeat his or her words to the crowd, then said, “Oh, my God.... Oh, my God. You can’t breathe at all?”

Seconds later, the dispatcher told the man to calm down.

“I know it’s hard to breathe. I know it is,” the dispatcher said. “OK, listen, listen, listen to me, listen to me; OK? Listen, don’t -- Try not to panic. You can save your air supply by doing that, OK?”

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Finally, the dispatcher tried to reassure the caller.

“Everybody is downstairs already. It’s just a matter of getting up there and getting you out.” The man indicated that the fire was coming up from beneath them. The dispatcher told the group to “find another staircase and see if you can make it upstairs.” Then the caller hung up.

“Ain’t this terrible? Oh, my God,” the fire dispatcher said.

There was little time to reflect, but at 9:52, Dispatcher 8695 was able to speak for a moment with a colleague on the line.

“It’s an awful thing, an awful, awful, awful thing to call somebody and tell them you’re going to die,” said the dispatcher, who had just spoken to a group on the 86th floor of one of the towers. “That’s an awful thing. I hope -- I hope they’re all right, because they sound like they went -- they passed out because they were breathing hard, like snoring, like they’re unconscious.”

For most of the morning, though, the dispatchers spoke in calm voices. As late as 10:17, a dispatcher identified as Fire 528 pleaded with a man on the 97th floor of the north tower to relax.

“I understand your concern, sir, and I understand your panic, but we are there in the building,” the dispatcher said. “I understand. Please,” said the dispatcher. “Stop talking, and let the air -- you’re losing your oxygen. So try to be quiet and remain calm, OK?”

It was 10:18 a.m. “Please,” the dispatcher said. Ten minutes later, the building collapsed.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

In terror’s grip

Some quotes from 911 operators during recorded phone conversations Sept. 11, 2001:

8:46 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 11 hits the north tower

8:48 a.m.: “You saw an explosion at the twin towers?”

8:58 a.m.: Port Authority police mobilize; city police and fire departments send major emergency alerts

8:58 a.m.: “He jumped out which window, which floor? Do you know?”

9 a.m.: “OK, if you feel your life is in danger, do what you must do. I can’t give you any more advice than that.”

9:03 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 175 hits the south tower

9:09 a.m.: “They’re saying it might be a terrorist attack. It would have to be, because what are the odds of two planes crashing into the same buildings, OK?.... OK. I can’t believe this. It’s got to be -- It’s got to be hell.”

9:10 a.m.: “I’ve got a guy on the 106th floor and he wants to know how to deal with a hundred people. He wants some directions. I don’t know.”

9:17 a.m.: “We are trying to get up there, sir. Like you said, the stairs are collapsed, OK? Put the wet towels under your head and lie down, OK? I know it’s hard to breathe. I know it is.”

9:26 a.m.: “All I can tell you to do is sit tight, because I have almost every fireman in the city coming out.”

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9:35 a.m.: “We have a caller. He’s not on the line. States there’s a male hanging out the World Trade Center, the window by the antenna tower.”

9:47 a.m.: “You’re not by yourself.... I don’t know anything more than what people are calling and telling me. I don’t have access to a radio or TV or anything.”

9:53 a.m. “I’m still here. The Fire Department is trying to get to you. OK, try to calm down.”

9:59 a.m.: South tower collapses

10:17 a.m.: “I understand your concern, sir, and I understand your panic, but we are there in the building. We’re getting there as soon as we can.”

10:28 a.m.: North tower collapses

Source: Associated Press

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Times staff writers Lynn Marshall in Seattle and Robert Lee Hotz in New York and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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