Posted on 07/24/2002 1:20:11 AM PDT by kattracks
Edited on 05/26/2004 5:07:35 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
July 24, 2002 -- In a new book, former Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen describes a department "in complete disarray" just after the Sept. 11 attacks, with many top officials missing and its people at the World Trade Center knowing less than a shocked world watching on television.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
The next clip of Von Essen you see him walking uptown, about 20 feet behind Mayor Rudy Giuliani, again looking completely lost.
Von Essen failed everybody, especially his own fire dept. by allowing firefighters to go up the towers, also for ordering the locking of doors to access to the roofs of the WTC.
Now he writes a book, go figure!
| Tuco-bad | The next clip of Von Essen you see him walking uptown, about 20 feet behind Mayor Rudy Giuliani, again looking completely lost. |
Probably trying to monitor the radio traffic so he knows what's going on (in case the mayor asks).. it gets a little intense when ten people are screaming on the channel at the same time. I sometimes stumble around myself when I'm trying to concentrate on a radio in an emergency.
| Tuco-bad | Von Essen failed everybody, especially his own fire dept. by allowing firefighters to go up the towers, also for ordering the locking of doors to access to the roofs of the WTC. |
What else are ya gonna do when you need manpower upstairs? And why would you want people on the roof, with fire burning toward them, with no way to rescue them there, instead of finding an intact staircase and sending them down the stairs?
| ConCon | I've been waiting for someone to ask just what all those NYFD guys really accomplished at the WTC. Brave, yes. Useful? Uncertain. |
They delivered apparatus and manpower to the scene... They safely evacuated thousands of people, took hydrants, charged standpipes, protected exposures, conducted SAR operations and brought situational awareness to the brass hanging out in the radio room. The loss of life would have been much higher if they hadn't stepped up to the challenge of the situation. They did their best. They didn't give up.
You don't know what you're posting about.
As I said, Von Essen looked "lost" in the lobby of the WTC, just walking around, not taking command, the same when walking with the mayor, Von Essen was not "monitoring" radio traffic, just walking again looking more "lost" than earlier. (all shown in the movie made 911.)
As for the WTC roof doors being locked, the roofs were suppossed to be a safety exit for escape, but the doors were locked in a jurisdictional dispute between the police who had helicopters for resuce and the fire department high officials.
I am a former firefighter/paramedic. I think it'd be impossible to use helicopters for roof rescues in that situation. You had a broadcast mast on the one tower and commercial 2-way antennas on the other one... air turbulance due to the heat and smoke so thick you couldn't see where you were going. Did you see any rescue choppers around those towers in the news footage?
Yes - in fact the police on the helicopters were distressed NOT to see anybody on the roof to help and rescue.
BTW - around 1/4 of the rood of the North Tower was essentially free of smoke.
One day, after all the hurt somewhat dissipates, a book will be written of the failures at the WTC.
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