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by Curtis L. Taylor and Sean Gardiner
September 12, 2001, News Day
The World Trade Center was destroyed just
days after a heightened security alert was lifted at the landmark
110-story towers, security personnel said yesterday.
Daria Coard, 37, a guard at Tower One,
said the security detail had been working 12-hour shifts for the past
two weeks because of numerous phone threats. But on Thursday,
bomb-sniffing dogs were abruptly removed.
"Today was the first day there was not
the extra security," Coard said. "We were protecting below. We had the
ground covered. We didn't figure they would do it with planes. There is
no way anyone could have stopped that."
Security guard Hermina Jones said
officials had recently taken steps to secure the towers against aerial
attacks by installing bulletproof windows and fireproof doors in the
22nd-floor computer command center.
"When the fire started, the room was
sealed," said Jones, who was in the command center when explosions
rocked the building. "Flames were shooting off the walls .... We started
putting wet towels under the doors. The Fire Department unsealed the
door and grabbed us by the hand and said, 'Run!' "
Security worker Diane Easton said she was
out front writing tickets when notice of "a plane flying too low" placed
security personal on alert.
"The plane went right through the
building ... and debris started falling everywhere, then 15 minutes
later the second plane," Easton said.
Nancy Joyner said several police officers
were knocked down and then were stampeded in the ensuing frenzy.
"People were flying out of the windows;
there was nothing we could do," Joyner said. "People were pulled from
the top floors by the wind tunnel created."
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