I have never seen a substantive debunker response to the 503 oral histories gathered by the FDNY in the months after 9/11. Taken together, these long-suppressed witness accounts corroborate controlled demolition of the Twin Towers.
Histories:
graphics8(dot)nytimes(dot)com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/met_WTC_histories_full_01.html
NYT article:
www(dot)nytimes(dot)com/2005/08/12/nyregion/12records.html?ex=1281499200&en=b245bfd8ba497f9a&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
The New York Times reported on 8/12/05:
Do these sound characteristic of a gravity-driven collapse induced by impact damage and fire stress, or of explosive demolition?
"You heard a big boom, it was quiet for about ten seconds. Then you could hear another one. ... It was spaced apart in the beginning, but then it got to just a tremendous roar and a rumble that I will never forget."
--Neil Sweeting, EMS Paramedic, Division 6, interviewed 10/17/01
"You just heard explosions coming from building two, the south tower. It seemed like it took forever, but there were about ten explosions."
--Craig Carlsen, FDNY Firefighter, Ladder 8, interviewed 1/25/02
"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..."
--Thomas Turilli, FDNY Firefighter, Engine 47, interviewed 1/17/02
"I heard three explosions, and then we heard like groaning and grinding, and tower two started to come down."
--Kevin Darnowski, EMS Paramedic, Battalion 20, interviewed 11/09/01
"I heard three loud explosions. I look up and the north tower is coming down now, 1 World Trade Center."
--Greg Brady, EMS EMT, Battalion 6, interviewed 11/01/01
"That's when [the North Tower] went. I looked back. You see three explosions and then the whole thing coming down."
--Frank Campagna, FDNY Firefighter, Ladder 11, interviewed 12/04/01
"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. The popping sound, and with each popping sound it was initially an orange and then a red flash came out of the building and then it would just go all around the building on both sides as far as I could see. These popping sounds and the explosions were getting bigger, going both up and down and then all around the building."
--Karin Deshore, EMS Captain, interviewed 11/07/01
"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. In my conversation with Lieutenant Evangelista, never mentioning this to him, he questioned me and asked me if I saw low-level flashes in front of the building, and I agreed with him ... 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.
...
"He said did you see anything by the building? And I said what do you mean by see anything? He said did you see flashes? I said, yes, well, I thought it was just me. He said no, I saw them too.
...
"I'm not going to say it was on the first floor or the second floor, but somewhere in that area I saw to me what appeared to be flashes."
--Stephen Gregory, FDNY Assistant Commissioner, interviewed 10/03/01
"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."
--Ed Cachia, FDNY Firefighter, Engine 53, interviewed 12/06/01
"It was a frigging noise. 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."
--Daniel Rivera, EMS Paramedic, Battalion 31, interviewed 10/10/01
I would additionally like a response to this video, which nicely contextualizes the witness accounts: www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=wDKa1Q1GwTQ
Histories:
graphics8(dot)nytimes(dot)com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/met_WTC_histories_full_01.html
NYT article:
www(dot)nytimes(dot)com/2005/08/12/nyregion/12records.html?ex=1281499200&en=b245bfd8ba497f9a&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
The New York Times reported on 8/12/05:
A rich vein of city records from Sept. 11, including more than 12,000 pages of oral histories rendered in the voices of 503 firefighters, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians, will be made public today.
The histories - a mosaic of vision and memory recalling the human struggle against surging fire, confusion, and horror - were compiled by the New York City Fire Department beginning in October 2001, but to this date, no one from the department has read them all or used them for any official purpose.
...
The New York Times sought the records under the freedom of information law in February 2002, but the Bloomberg administration refused to make them public and the newspaper sued the city. Earlier this year, the Court of Appeals, New York's highest court, ordered the city to release most, but not all, of the records.
Do these sound characteristic of a gravity-driven collapse induced by impact damage and fire stress, or of explosive demolition?
"You heard a big boom, it was quiet for about ten seconds. Then you could hear another one. ... It was spaced apart in the beginning, but then it got to just a tremendous roar and a rumble that I will never forget."
--Neil Sweeting, EMS Paramedic, Division 6, interviewed 10/17/01
"You just heard explosions coming from building two, the south tower. It seemed like it took forever, but there were about ten explosions."
--Craig Carlsen, FDNY Firefighter, Ladder 8, interviewed 1/25/02
"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..."
--Thomas Turilli, FDNY Firefighter, Engine 47, interviewed 1/17/02
"I heard three explosions, and then we heard like groaning and grinding, and tower two started to come down."
--Kevin Darnowski, EMS Paramedic, Battalion 20, interviewed 11/09/01
"I heard three loud explosions. I look up and the north tower is coming down now, 1 World Trade Center."
--Greg Brady, EMS EMT, Battalion 6, interviewed 11/01/01
"That's when [the North Tower] went. I looked back. You see three explosions and then the whole thing coming down."
--Frank Campagna, FDNY Firefighter, Ladder 11, interviewed 12/04/01
"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. The popping sound, and with each popping sound it was initially an orange and then a red flash came out of the building and then it would just go all around the building on both sides as far as I could see. These popping sounds and the explosions were getting bigger, going both up and down and then all around the building."
--Karin Deshore, EMS Captain, interviewed 11/07/01
"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. In my conversation with Lieutenant Evangelista, never mentioning this to him, he questioned me and asked me if I saw low-level flashes in front of the building, and I agreed with him ... 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.
...
"He said did you see anything by the building? And I said what do you mean by see anything? He said did you see flashes? I said, yes, well, I thought it was just me. He said no, I saw them too.
...
"I'm not going to say it was on the first floor or the second floor, but somewhere in that area I saw to me what appeared to be flashes."
--Stephen Gregory, FDNY Assistant Commissioner, interviewed 10/03/01
"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."
--Ed Cachia, FDNY Firefighter, Engine 53, interviewed 12/06/01
"It was a frigging noise. 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."
--Daniel Rivera, EMS Paramedic, Battalion 31, interviewed 10/10/01
I would additionally like a response to this video, which nicely contextualizes the witness accounts: www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=wDKa1Q1GwTQ
