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by David Batty and
Julian Borger
August 5, 2002,
The Guardian
A tape recording
found in the rubble of the World Trade Centre shows that two
firefighters managed to reach the wounded on the 78th floor of the south
tower, where the airliner struck, before it collapsed.
According to the
New York Times a fire commander can be heard calling reinforcements to
the south tower but those answering the call were held up by traffic
jams and confusion about where to report. That almost certainly saved
their lives.
The tape, which
has come to light days before the official report on the fire
department's response to the attacks is published, was not examined by
the investigators.
The report by the
management consultants McKinsey & Co finds that more firefighters died
than should have done, because of poor communication and management and
lapses in discipline.
Joseph Callan, the
assistant fire chief, who radioed an evacuation order about an hour
before the building collapsed, told the Guardian: "I got no
acknowledgement... Some of those who escaped later told me they never
heard it."
The department
lost 343 members in the disaster, and Mr Callan admitted that its
emergency planning had not been good enough.
"The largest fire
we'd dealt with in a high rise building was only over two floors. And we
only trained for operations that lasted a few days."
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