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one location on the 100th floor, and severe smoke conditions were reported
throughout floors in the 90s and 100s over the course of the following half
hour. By 9:30, a number of civilians who had failed to reach the roof remained
on the 105th floor, likely unable to descend because of intensifying smoke in
the stairwell.There were reports of tremendous smoke on that floor, but at least
one area remained less affected until shortly before the building collapsed.
There were several areas between the impact zone and the uppermost floors
where conditions were better.At least a hundred people remained alive on the
88th and 89th floors, in some cases calling 911 for direction.
87
The 911 system remained plagued by the operators' lack of awareness of
what was occurring. Just as in the North Tower, callers from below and above
the impact zone were advised to remain where they were and wait for help.
The operators were not given any information about the inability to conduct
rooftop rescues and therefore could not advise callers that they had essentially
been ruled out.This lack of information, combined with the general advice to
remain where they were, may have caused civilians above the impact not to
attempt to descend, although stairwell A may have been passable.
88
In addition, the 911 system struggled with the volume of calls and rigid stan-
dard operating procedures according to which calls conveying crucial informa-
tion had to wait to be transferred to either EMS or FDNY dispatch.
89
According
to one civilian who was evacuating down stairwell A from the heart of the impact
zone and who stopped on the 31st floor in order to call 911,
I told them when they answered the phone, where I was, that I had passed
somebody on the 44th floor, injured--they need to get a medic and a
stretcher to this floor, and described the situation in brief, and the per-
son then asked for my phone number, or something, and they said--they
put me on hold. "You gotta talk to one of my supervisors"--and sud-
denly I was on hold. And so I waited a considerable amount of time.
Somebody else came back on the phone, I repeated the story. And then
it happened again. I was on hold a second time, and needed to repeat the
story for a third time. But I told the third person that I am only telling
you once. I am getting out of the building, here are the details, write it
down, and do what you should do.
90
Very few 911 calls were received from floors below the impact, but at least
one person was advised to remain on the 73rd floor despite the caller's protests
that oxygen was running out.The last known 911 call from this location came
at 9:52.
91
Evidence suggests that the public-address system did not continue to func-
tion after the building was hit. A group of people trapped on the 97th floor,
however, made repeated references in calls to 911 to having heard "announce-
ments" to go down the stairs. Evacuation tones were heard in locations both
above and below the impact zone.
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HEROISM AND HORROR
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