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CNN Live At Daybreak

Audio Clips of Police on September 11

Aired October 04, 2001 - 07:03   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Three weeks after the attacks on the World Trade Center, we're hearing just how surprised and frightened police and firefighters were as those towers collapsed. Weren't we all? That shock is apparent in the radio messages recorded by New York police and fire dispatchers that morning.

Here is a sample of some of that radio traffic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKERS: The building has collapsed...urgent, identify....south tower, collapsed....10-4 Manhattan to field com....26, stand by, Manhattan to field com....Marine 6 to Manhattan, urgent. Marine 6....Tower Two has had a major explosion and what appears to be a complete collapse surrounding the entire area....We're across the street from the towers....we have POWER PPL trapped in the building on the first floor....acknowledge....I just told u...across from the WTC...There's the North Pedestrian...I think it collapsed. Building just collapsed....I don't have much air....10-4 Manhattan to field com....urgent....I can barely breathe, please send somebody....10-4....OK, the person calling for help, listen to me, you need to calm down and relax....stand by, we do have somebody on the way....get off the air, you are to remain calm....We understand there is a major collapse, can you give us some kind of report Kay?....involved in a secondary explosion....at Tower 1, Kay, I've got five patients, they need to be treated and transported....I have them in my command car, you have to direct me to the nearest treatment center....Treatment center set up at Church and Fulton, sir, and Vesey and West....We have staging at Chambers and West....also a forward triage at Two World Trade....at this time unknown if it's available....Need someone to check Tower Two and give them an update there....We could use more PPL, because the place is filling up with ashes....Oh my God. The building is coming down. The building just collapsed. The second building just came down....The second tower just came down. The second tower just came down. The tower's coming down. Central, central, central, the building just fell, central, the building just fell. It's coming down....Get away from it! Get away from it! Get away from it! Everybody move away from the tower. That's a 10-4. 10-13. We've got a second tower down. All non- essential personnel, move away from that collapse. Non-essential move away. Get all the frigging cops away from the building! What's wrong! Let's go! All units remove ourselves from location at this time. We got another tower collapse....We are on the Manhattan side....There's a lot of debris and people are really falling out all around us. Do you want us to go back on the Brooklyn side...to go back on the Brooklyn side or do you want us to wait here, because we can't move....

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Again, that was the New York police radio traffic the morning of September 11. No matter how many times we file a report on this story, that pretty much sums it up. There really are no words to explain what you just heard except to listen to them in real time and...

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