More than 12 000 pages of often harrowing oral histories and 15 hours of radio transmissions from firefighters and other emergency workers who rushed to the World Trade Centre on September 11 were released by the City of New York on Friday.
The histories, compiled in the months after the tragedy, are made up of the recollections of 503 firefighters, paramedics and emergency medical technicians whose actions saved an unknown number of civilians but cost 343 firefighters their lives.
The records, including a written log of calls to the 911 system, many from trapped office workers, were released as a result of a lawsuit brought by The New York Times and some families of victims under freedom-of-information law.
They detail the horror, confusion and heroics that the destruction of the twin towers elicited, and while some critics have said releasing the documents would be a painful reminder of the loss and chaos, others hope they will cast additional light on serious flaws in the city’s response to the attacks.
In one oral history released on Friday, a firefighter whose Engine 1 was sent to the World Trade Centre’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.
Kirk Long said: ”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.”
He remembered hearing the north tower shake and thought something in the basement had exploded.
”At that time I never knew the south tower had gone down,” he said.
He recalled leaving the north tower and being helped by another firefighter to a nearby building that had 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.”
The oral histories were initially gathered on the order of Thomas von Essen, the city fire commissioner on September 11, who said he wanted to preserve those accounts before they became reshaped by a collective memory.
The New York Fire Department said at least 450 relatives of firefighters killed in the collapse of the towers have requested copies, which they received by mail on Friday.
Peter Gorman, president of the Uniformed Fire Officers’ Association, told The Associated Press: ”I think unfortunately it’s going to add to some pain, initially. For some people it might have a very healing effect. When people actually go back to that raw, emotional, historical moment, I think they’ll realise that a lot of our members, both living and deceased, did some extraordinary things that day.”
Independent investigations with access to the documents have described worrying 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 and vital messages went unheard.
In another oral history released, Lieutenant Howard Hahn described using his cellphone but said his fire-department radio was barely functioning.
”I was able to get through, but the transmissions was very hard … You’re basically doing your own show.”
Some families and other critics of the city’s response hope the new documents will help them challenge the conclusion that many firefighters in the north tower heard, but heroically chose to ignore — an evacuation message issued after the south tower collapsed at 9.59am.
Glenn Corbett, a professor of fire science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said he believes outdated radios prevented many firefighters receiving that message. He said he does not find it credible that perhaps hundreds of firefighters ignored a mayday message from their commanders.
”I’m going to look for the people saying that in those transcripts,” he told The Associated Press. ”I don’t believe it.”
The New York Times sought the records under the freedom-of-information law in 2002, but the city refused, claiming that releasing the information would violate firefighters’ privacy and jeopardise the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui, who pleaded guilty in April to six counts of conspiring with the September 11 hijackers.
The newspaper was joined by families of some of the victims in suing the city. New York’s highest court ruled in March that the city had to release the oral histories and recordings but could excise potentially painful and embarrassing portions. — Guardian Unlimited Â