There were some units there, along with a Battalion Chief and I gave them some instructions as to what to try to do. And while I was still in that immediate area, the south tower, 2 World Trade Center, there was what appeared to be at first an explosion. It appeared at the very top, simultaneously from all four sides, materials shot out horizontally. And then there seemed to be a momentary delay before you could see the beginning of the collapse.
At that point, I turned and ran west on Albany Street, okay, in an attempt to get beyond the corner of this building on the diagram marked Dow Jones. I got a ways down. As I was running down the street, the cloud kind of overtook us, then the air seemed to be filled with a lot of very light material. Most of it appeared to be paper.

--CHIEF FRANK CRUTHERS
Interview Date: October 31, 2001

At that time I started walking back up towards Vesey Street. I heard three explosions, and then we heard like groaning and grinding, and tower two started to come down. To the firefighters and the cops that I was standing there with started running northbound on West Street and we made a left on Vesey and ran again towards North End Avenue where we were having EMS triage, and we stopped over there.

--PARAMEDIC KEVIN DARNOWSKI
Date: November 9, 2001

At that time we proceeded into the middle of West Street directly underneath the north tower. At that time, I had a very tight feeling in my stomach, just experiencing what I went through with 2 World Trade Center, being that close. I didn't feel at ease at all.
We were standing underneath and Captain Stone was speaking again. We heard -- I heard 3 loud explosions. I look up and the north tower is coming down now, 1 World Trade Center.

Q. Did you see any fire Chiefs or anybody like that?

A. I saw two fire Chiefs. I don't recall their names. I saw two fire Chiefs, Chief Basile, Captain Stone and I don't recall who else was over there. We were standing in a circle in the middle of West Street. They were talking about what was going on. At that time, when I heard the 3 loud explosions, I started running west on Vesey Street towards the water. At that time, I couldn't run fast enough. The debris caught up with me, knocked my helmet off. I tumbled and then eventually I started running again. I made it behind a building on North End Avenue. I set up a triage area in that corner building and at that time I started treating patients.

--EMT GREGG BRADY
Interview Date: November 1, 2001

I was watching the fire, watching the people jump and hearing a noise and looking up and seeing -- it actually looked -- the lowest floor of fire in the south tower actually looked like someone had planted explosives around it because the whole bottom I could see -- I could see two sides of it and the other side -- it just looked like that floor blew out.
I looked up and you could actually see everything blew out on the one floor. I thought, geez, this looks like an explosion up there, it blew out. Then I guess in some sense of time we looked at it and realized, no, actually it just collapsed. That's what blew out the windows, not that there was an explosion there but that windows blew out.
The realization hit that it's going to fall down, the top's coming off. I was still thinking -- there was never a thought that this whole thing is coming down. I thought that that blew out and stuff is starting to fly down. The top is going to topple off there.

--BATTALION CHIEF BRIAN DIXON
Interview Date: October 25, 2001

The first plane had hit. We pulled up in front, and we headed inside toward the lobby. On the way inside you saw the usual stuff like everyone else saw, things falling and stuff like that.
We got inside the lobby and we waited to hear from a chief or whoever what's going to go on, wait until we found out what's going on. What wound up happening is they teamed us up with 4 Engine, I believe it was. What it was is they combined us as one hose team pretty much. So they dropped half of their rollups and we kept half of ours, we kept one standpipe kit, and we headed up together.
As we were going up, they said on the lower level the second plane hit the other building. Me personally, I felt it on another level up, so I think the timing was off between everybody.
We just kept walking up. As far as we knew, there were no planes or anything coming in. There wasn't even a plane that hit that building. We just knew there was a fire up there. Any other explosions that we felt from inside were maybe extra machinery or something like that. Those were the words that we were getting. So we just kept going up the stairwell.
We got up to about the 17th floor, and we felt another pretty big explosion. At this time about every two floors, every three floors you'd stop into an office, get some water, take a breather. Guys were pretty winded. They had equipment on and carrying everything.
We're taking a breather, and I believe that's when the other Trade Center went down and everybody felt it and they didn't know exactly what it was.
...
There was nobody in the intersection, nobody in the streets in general, everyone just saying come on, keeping coming, keep coming. That's when it went. I looked back. You see three explosions and then the whole thing coming down. I turned my head and everybody was scattering. From there I don't know who was who. I don't even know where my guys went. None of us knew where each other were at at that point in time.

--FIREFIGHTER FRANK CAMPAGNA
Interview Date: December 4, 2001

Tower one now comes down. Same thing but this time some of us take off straight down West Street, because we realized later on, subconsciously we wanted to be near buildings. We all thought it was secondary explosives or more planes or whatever.

--CHIEF LAKIOTES
Interview Date: December 3, 2001

So when that one went down. I thought the plane was exploding, or another plane hit. I had no idea it was coming down. But I couldn't see it gone, because I couldn't see it really in the first place with all the smoke.

--EMT LINDA MCCARTHY
Interview Date: November 28, 2001

Anyway, with that I was listening, and there was an incredibly loud rumbling. I never got to look up. People started running for the entrances to the parking garages. They started running for the entrances. I started running without ever looking up.
The roar became tremendous. I fell on the way to the parking garages. Debris was starting to fall all around me. I got up, I got into the parking garages, was knocked down by the percussion. I thought there had been an explosion or a bomb that they had blown up there. The Vista International Hotel was my first impression, that they had blown it up. I never got to see the World Trade Center coming down.

--CAPTAIN MICHAEL DONOVAN
Interview Date: November 9, 2001

THE BEST CAN REMEMBER WE WERE JUST OPERATING THERE TRYING TO HELP OUT AND DO THE BEST WE COULD THEN WE HEARD LOUD EXPLOSION OR WHAT SOUNDED LIKE LOUD EXPLOSION AND LOOKED UP AND SAW TOWER TWO START COMING DOWN CRAZY

--BATTALION CHIEF JOHN SUDNIK
INTERVIEW DATE NOVEMBER 2001

I'm just standing under the first pedestrian bridge near Vesey Street, and I see my old fire company 131, I see 101 from my battalion, a couple of the companies there. IÌm over there standing and someone starts yelling: There's an explosion. All of a sudden you could hear some weird sound like crumbling. All of a sudden everybody starts running.

--FIRE MARSHAL SALVATORE RIGNOLA
INTERVIEW DATE NOVEMBER 5 2001

I DIDNT KNOW IF IT WAS AN EXPLOSION DIDNT KNOW IT WAS COLLAPSE AT THAT POINT THOUGHT IT WAS AN EXPLOSION OR SECONDARY DEVICE BOMB THE JET PLANE EXPLODING WHATEVER

--CAPTAIN JANICE OLSZEWSKI
INTERVIEW DATE NOVEMBER 2001

HAD RIO CLUE WHAT WA GOING ON NEVER TURNED AROUND BECAUSE SOUND CAME FROM SOMEWHERE THAT NEVER HEARD BEFORE SOME PEOPLE COMPARED IT WITH AN AIRPLANE IT WAS THE WORST SOUND OF ROLLING SOUND NOT THUNDER CANT EXPLAIN IT WHAT IT WAS ALL KNOW IS AND FORCE STARTED TO COME HIT ME IN MY BACK CANT EXPLAIN IT YOU HAD TO BE THERE ALL KNOW IS HAD TO RUN BECAUSE THOUGHT THERE WAS AN EXPLOSION
RAN ABOUT 10 12 FEET UP THIS LITTLE GRASSY HILL AND BY THEN THIS FORCE AND THIS SOUND CAUGHT UP WITH ME ALREADY THREW MYSELF BEHIND THE LAST SUPPORT COLUMN OF THE PEDESTRIAN OVERPASS IT BECAME PITCH DARK THE SOUND GOT WORSE THE FORCE JUST KEPT PASSING ME AT TIMES THOUGHT IT WAS LIKE AN ORANGE LIGHT MAYBE COMING PAST ME
...
HAPPENING THOUGHT IT WAS JUST MAJOR EXPLOSION DIDNT KNOW THE BUILDING WAS COLLAPSING WAS SITTING WITH MY LEFT SIDE TOWARDS THE SUPPORT BEAM TOTAL DARKNESS TOTAL NOISE
...
THERE WAS NO AIR WHATEVER THIS EXPLOSION WAS SIMPLY SUCKED ALL THE OXYGEN OUT OF THE AIR YOU COULDNT BREATHE AND THE FEELING OF SUFFOCATION CANT EXPLAIN NO FURTHER ON THAT
...
WENT OUTSIDE TO SEE WHAT COULD DO WHEN AW THE ECONID BUILDING OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER STILL UNBEKNOWN TO ME THE FIRST ONE HAD COLLAPSED
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 RED FLASH CAME OUT OF THE BUILDING AND THEN IT WOULD JUST GO ALL AROUND THE BUILDING ON BOTH SIDES AS FAR AS COULD SEE THESE POPPING SOUNDS AND THE EXPLOSIONS WERE GETTING BIGGER GOING BOTH UP AND DOWN AND THEN ALL AROUND THE BUILDING
...
SO HERE THESE EXPLOSIONS ARE GETTING BIGGER AND LOUDER AND BIGGER AND LOUDER AND TOLD EVERYBODY IF THIS BUILDING TOTALLY EXPLODES STILL UNAWARE THAT THE OTHER BUILDING HAD COLLAPSED IM GOING IN THE WATER SAID CAN SWIM IM TAKING SOMEBODY WITH ME ARID HOLD THEM BECAU IT WA MAYBE FOOT DROP
...
AGAIN DIDNT SEE WHAT WAS HAPPENING BEHIND ME BUT KNOWING OF ALL THE EXPLOSIONS THOUGHT HERE WA ANOTHER EXP1O COMING ARID THILI OUTNID AGAIN ARID THIS WAVE OF THIS FORCE AGAIN JUST JUMPED ON THE BOAT CLOSED THE DOOR WITH MY LEFT HAND AND JUST SANK DOWN TO MY KNEES

--CAPTAIN KARIN DESHORE
INTERVIEW DATE NOVEMBER 2001

The second building came down.

Q. But you weren't involved with that part, because you were already out of the area, you were by the boat loading people?

A. Right, because we heard the explosion. We wasn't there.

Q. Right.

A. It was just like -- I think the second building, I could be wrong, but the second building that fell crumbled. It's the first building that fell. It actually came down, so -- I really didn't witness the second building at all.

--EMT MALA HARRILAL
Interview Date: November 2, 2001

It was weird how it started to come down. It looked like it was a timed explosion, but I guess it was just the floors starting to pancake one on top of the other.

--BATTALION CHIEF DOMINICK DeRUBBIO
I n t e r v i e w D a t e : O c t o b e r 1 2 , 2 0 0 1

Q. This is the first building collapsing?

A. Right. There was an explosion and after we started running, I was able to make it to Chambers and West, where I only saw one EMT, EMT Vega. She is new here. She was the only EMT I saw from the station and with all the cops and everybody else running, rescue workers. I grabbed her and I said just stay with me. We will try to get out of here.

--EMT ORLANDO MARTINEZ
Interview Date: November 1, 2001

At that point I looked back and most of the people who were triaged in that area with the triage tags on them got up and ran. I took a quick glance at the building and while I didn't see it falling, I saw a large section of it blasting out, which led me to believe it was just an explosion. I thought it was a secondary device, but I knew that we had to go.
...
Within a few moments, I regrouped with Bruce Medjuck and I asked him to tell them on the radio to send us MTA buses to get people out. That didn't happen. But one thing that did happen was an ambulance pulled up which was very clean. So I assumed that the vehicle had not been in the - what I thought was an explosion at the time, but was the first collapse.

--CAPTAIN JAY SWITHERS Interview Date: October 30, 2001

I was going to run down further into the bay, and then -- I don't know. It's very strange, but in the loading dock, right against the wall very close to the door was a white van, and it was just parked there, and I said, "All right. We are going to grab refuge behind this van." We went to the back of the van, and we got down on the ground, and we heard this huge, thunderous, loud sound, and then it was completely dark and completely silent.
...
People began to scream. I remember Jerry saying, "Ross," and I said, "Jerry." We had each other. He had a little flashlight. He had the flash on, and we were trying to see did we see anybody else. Then I thought to myself -- I thought of the thing about the '93 incident when they had this Ryder truck full of explosive, and now I realized how strange it was that this white van was parked in this loading dock. I started to think to myself, God, did we step into the wrong place here? So I said to Gombo, "Look, we gotta get out of here, because we don't know --" I didn't know the integrity of the building we were in, what fell on us, how much we're under, so we tried to go back and look, but it was too dusty.

--ROSARIO TERRANOVA
Interview Date: October 26, 2001

Everybody's heads were all popping up now. Everybody is digging out, so I ran into a couple of firefighters and I said, "Well, you know, what the hell happened?" Some kind of an explosion, he goes, and that's what I thought it was, because it was like coming at you sideways, so we looked out, and we're getting the people out, and as we are getting people out through this debris onto West Street, I'm looking at the medical treatment area, and all the fire apparatus, and all the ambulances were on fire, and nobody is around. You know, where is everybody?

--Deputy Chief CHARLES WELLS
Interview Date: October 25, 2001

In that process of him trying to explain to me to pull my ambulance over, I heard a loud bang. We looked up, and we just saw the building starting to collapse. I looked over and started to scream at my partner, which he was inside the vehicle.

Q. Who was your partner that day?

A. My partner was Naomi Nacional.
I was screaming from the top of my lungs, and I must have been about ten feet away from her and she couldn't even hear me, because the building was so loud, the explosion, that she couldn't even hear me. I just saw everybody running; and she saw us running, and she took off behind us.

--EMT JULIO MARRERO
Interview Date: October 25, 2001

The next thing I knew, you started hearing more explosions. I guess this is when the second tower started coming down.

--EMT DAVID TIMOTHY
Interview Date: October 25, 2001

The next thing I heard was Pete say what the fuck is this? And as my eyes traveled up the building, and I was looking at the south tower, somewhere about halfway up, my initial reaction was there was a secondary explosion, and the entire floor area, a ring right around the building blew out. I later realized that the building had started to collapse already and this was the air being compressed and that is the floor that let go. And as my eyes traveled further up the building, I realized that this building was collapsing and I turned around and most everybody was ahead of me running for the garage, and I remember thinking I looked at this thing a little bit too long and I might not make this garage. But I did.

--CHIEF ALBERT TURI
I n t e r v i e w D a t e : O c t o b e r 23, 2 0 0 1

The next thing I know, we heard a little bit of a rumbling, and then white powder came from the first collapsed building. I thought it was an explosion initially. We got hit with the powder. We tried to run. We got hit with the powder. It took a few minutes to clear.
...
After that, I still thought it was an explosion. I thought it was some kind of thermal explosion where I'm either going to get burnt -- and I had kind of ideas that it was going to be something like Hiroshima where all this heat was coming at me and we were going to get burnt -- or if the heat didn't burn me, I thought that all the parts coming out of this building, the windows, metal, all the things like that, that I might be severed in half.

--LIEUTENANT GEORGE J. DeSIMONE
Interview Date: October 22, 2001

I made it up onto the -- I guess you call it the concourse level, the mezzanine level, and onto the foot bridge when I started to hear -- I thought I heard an explosion of some sort, but I kind of dismissed it. I figured, ah, it's just something burning upstairs. I really didn't think of what was going on.
Okay. I start going across this pedestrian bridge. I'm the only one on this bridge. I'm walking across it, and then I just remember feeling a rumble and hearing this rumbling sound that was really intense. It actually shook my bones.

--PARAMEDIC LOUIS COOK
Interview Date: October 17, 200

We were in the process of getting some rigs moved when I turned, as I heard a tremendous roar, explosion, and saw that the first of the two towers was starting to come down.
...
When the dust started to settle, I headed back down towards the World Trade Center and I guess I came close to arriving at the corner of Vesey and West again where we started to hear the second roar. That was the north tower now coming down. I should say that people in the street and myself included thought that the roar was so loud that the explosive - bombs were going off inside the building. Obviously we were later proved wrong.
...
The sight of the jumpers was horrible and the turning around and seeing that first tower come down was unbelieveable. The sound it made. As I said I thought the terrorists planted explosives somewhere in the building. That's how loud it was, crackling explosive, a wall. That's about it. Any questions?

Q. Any other feelings or thoughts that you might want to have included in this?

A. No, it was just unbelieveable. Seeing how close Commissioner Von Essen and the Mayor were to that location was also quite startling. That's about it.

--ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER JAMES DRURY
Interview Date: October 16, 2001

Then we heard a rumble, some twisting metal, we looked up in the air, and to be totally honest, at first, I don't know exactly...but it looked to me just like an explosion. It didn't look like the building was coming down, it looked like just one floor had blown completely outside of it. I was sitting there looking at it. I just never thought they would ever come down, so I didn't think they were coming down. I just froze and stood there looking at it.

--EMT MICHAEL OBER
Interview Date: October 16, 2001

After that I heard this huge explosion, I thought it was a boiler exploding or something. Next thing you know this huge cloud of smoke is coming at us, so we're running. Everyone is, firemen, PD, everyone is running away from the World Trade Center, up Vessey Street. This is North End, we was running around Vessey and around North end to get away from the first smoke.
...
We was trying to clear out the treatment area, and as we're clearing the treatment area, I hear this huge noise. Someone told me the building is exploding, I couldn't believe it. So we started moving the treatment area back even further. After the second one fell, we started running up…where is it? I'm not sure what these buildings represent, but we ended up down by the water, the cloud pushed us all the way to the water.

--EMT JAMES MCKINLEY
Interview Date: October 21, 2001

I looked up, and the building exploded, the building that we were very close to, which was one tower. The whole top came off like a volcano.
...
So now both towers have been hit by a plane. The north tower was burning.
So the explosion, what I realized later, had to be the start of the collapse. It was the way the building appeared to blowout from both sides. I'm looking at the face of it, and all we see is the two sides of the building just blowing out and coming apart like this, as I said, like the top of a volcano.

--LIEUTENANT GARY GATES
Interview Date: October 12, 2001

I was in the back waiting, you know, so we could wait for patients and I was hooking up the regulator to the O-2, when I hear people screaming and a loud explosion, and I heard like "ssssssssss..." the dust like "sssssssss..." So I come out of the bus, and I look and I see a big cloud of dust and debris coming

--EMT JUAN RIOS
Interview Date: October 10, 2001

THEN THAVS WHEN KEPT ON WALKING CLOSE TO THE SOUTH TOWER AND THAVS WHENTHAT BUILDING COLLAPSED HOWDID YOU KNOWTHAT IT WAS COMING DOWN THAT NOISE IT WAS NOISE WHAT DID YOU HEAR WHATDID YOU SEE 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 THAVS EXACTLY WHAT BECAUSE THOUGHT IT WASTHAT WHEN HEARD THAT FRIGGING NOISE THAVS WHEN SAWTHE BUILDING COMING DOWN

Q. WHAT DID YOU DO?

A. RUN MOST OF THE PEOPLE RAN INTO THE BUILDING BUT WASJUST TOO FAR FROM THE BUILDING TO RUN INTO THIS TRIAGE BUILDING
...
I GHT COULD ACTUALLY TOUCH THE BUILDING WHEN IT COLLAPSED THE SECOND TIME WHEN IT COLLAPSED BUT AGAIN WAS PREPARED BECAUSE HEARD THAT SAME NOISE IT WASLIKE WATERFALL NOISE

--PARAMEDIC DANIEL RIVERA
INTERVIEW DATE OCTOBER 10 2001

I started to treat patients on my own when I heard the explosion from up above. I looked up, I saw smoke and flame and then I saw the top tower tilt, start to twist and lean.
...
I was assisting in pulling more people out from debris, when I heard the second tower explode. When I tried to evacuate the area, by running up Fulton...

--LIEUTENANT PATRICK SCARINGELLO
Interview Date: October 10, 2001

When the tower started -- there was a big explosion that I heard and someone screamed that it was coming down and I looked away and I saw all the windows domino -- you know, dominoeing up and then come down. We were right in front of 6, so we started running and how are you going to outrun the World Trade Center? So we threw our tools and I dove under a rig.

--FIREFIGHTER KEVIN MURRAY
Interview Date: October 9, 2001

So we just ran as a unit to the overpass again, and we took a look up, and it was like one -- it was like, holy shit. It was like -- because it was like -- I guess the building was kind of -- I don't remember specifically, but I remember it was, like, we got to get out of here. So I think that the building was really kind of starting to melt. We were -- like, the melt down was beginning. The collapse hadn't begun, but it was not a fire any more up there. It was like -- it was like that -- like smoke explosion on a tremendous scale going on up there.
I said to the guys -- I said, "We are in the collapse zone." I mean, that sounds like a joke, but I said, "We got to -- we can't stay here." So we started running up West Street, and I'd say within 50 yards or so the building was collapsing behind us, and then it was like everybody was, like, oh shit, you know. This is it. Every man for himself, running up West Street.
...

Q. What did you hear when the building starting collapsing the second time? Did you feel -- just started coming down? You didn't hear anything, feel anything?

A. We felt -- our whole building that we were in, when World Trade Center 2 collapsed, that was the first one to collapse. We were in World Trade Center 1. It was a tremendous explosion and tremendous shaking of our building. We thought it was our building maybe collapsed, there was a collapse above us occurring.
It was tremendous shaking and like everybody dove into this stairwell and waited for, I guess, 20, 30 seconds until it settled, and that was our experience of the other building collapsing.

--LIEUTENANT BRIAN BECKER
Interview Date: October 9, 2001

Still in the hallway, we heard a big shake in the building. It's my belief that was the tower two coming down. I'm not positive, but you could definitely feel an incredible shake.

Q. Did you hear any explosion or anything from the first?

A. I didn't. Some people stated to me that there was at that time, but I can't recall actually hearing.

Q. You were at the 35th floor --

A. We were at the 35th floor.
...
That's basically where we were. Then a large explosion took place. In my estimation that was the tower coming down, but at that time I did not know what that was. I thought some type of bomb had gone off.
I was, I believe, ahead of the rest of the firefighters and officers there. I made it to the corner, and I took about four running steps this way when you could feel the rush of the wind coming at you. I believed that that was a huge fireball coming at the time.

--LIEUTENANT GREGG HANSSON
Interview Date: October 9, 2001

Although debris fell around us, the main structure felt as if -- we were lucky. When it sounded like the explosion stopped, the steel hitting, when it all seemed to stop, this just like a fire storm of wind and material, a sandstorm kind of, just came and wailed by, really flew past us quick.

--FIREFIGHTER CRAIG MONAHAN
I n t e r v i e w D a t e : O c t o b e r 9, 2 0 0 1

As I said that and he turned around, all this black smoke started filling and I looked at the building and it started vibrating. So I was almost next to the cemetery at that time. I was on the side of the church. I looked and all this debris just started exploding everywhere, and I turned around to run and I didn't see the patient anymore, and myself and the FBI guy just started going down that block.

--EMT RUSSELL HARRIS
Interview Date: October 9, 2001

We knew something had happened. I don't think we realized like the whole thing had come down, because we didn't even know -- she had said that something had collapsed, there was some kind of explosion, I don't know. We just got out, we stopped, and all of a sudden people just started coming out, all covered in the ash.

--PARAMEDIC TRACEY MULQUEEN
I n t e r v i e w D a t e : O c t o b e r 4, 2001

I d i d n ' t want to take one because they had a couple of f i r e t r u c k s t h a t were hanging out r i g h t i n f r o n t of him. I d o n ' t know what f i r e t r u c k s they were, but they looked kind of beaten up from t h e explosion.

--LIEUTENANT MURRAY MURAD
I n t e r v i e w D a t e : O c t o b e r 4, 2001

but for some reason 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 because I thought -- at that time I didn't know what it was. I mean, it could have been as a result of the building collapsing, things exploding, but I saw a flash flash flash and then it looked like the building came down.

Q. Was that on the lower level of the building or up where the fire was?

A. No, 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. And I didn't broach the topic to him, but he asked me. He said I don't know if I'm crazy, but I just wanted to ask you because you were standing right next to me. He said did you see anything by the building? And I said what do you mean by see anything? He said did you see any flashes? I said, yes, well, I thought it was just me. He said no, I saw them, too.
I don't know if that means anything. I mean, I equate it to the building coming down and pushing things down, it could have been electrical explosions, it could have been whatever. But it's just strange that two people sort of say the same thing and neither one of us talked to each other about it. I mean, I don't know this guy from a hole in the wall. I was just standing next to him. I never met the man before in my life. He knew who I was I guess by my name on my coat and he called me up, you know, how are you doing? How's everything? And, oh, by the way did you ... It was just a little strange.

Q. On the television pictures it appeared as well, before the first collapse, that there was an explosion up on the upper floors.

A. I know about the explosion on the upper floors. This was like eye level. I didn't have to go like this. Because I was looking this way. 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. I don't know how far down this was already. I mean, we had heard the noise but, you know, I don't know.

--ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER STEPHEN GREGORY
Interview Date: October 3, 2001

Then there was another it sounded like an explosion and heavy white powder, papers, flying everywhere. We sat put there for a few minutes. It kind of dissipated.
...
That's when we heard this massive explosion and I saw this thing rolling towards us. It looked like a fireball and then thick, thick black smoke.

--CHIEF MARK STEFFENS
Interview Date: October 3, 200 1

We looked up at the building straight up, we were that close. All we saw was a puff of smoke coming from about 2 thirds of the way up. Some people thought it was an explosion. I don't think I remember that. I remember seeing, it looked like sparkling around one specific layer of the building. I assume now that that was either windows starting to collapse like tinsel or something. Then the building started to come down. My initial reaction was that this was exactly the way it looks when they show you those implosions on TV. I would have to say for three or four seconds anyway, maybe longer. I was just watching. It was interesting to watch, but the thing that woke everybody up was the cloud of black material. It reminded me of the 10 commandments when the green clouds come down on the street. The black cloud was coming down faster than the building, so whatever was coming down was going to hit the street and it was pretty far out. You knew it wasn't coming right down. Judging from where people were jumping before that, this cloud was out much further.

--DEPUTY COMMISSIONER THOMAS FlTZPATRlCK
Interview Date: October 1, 2001