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CNN Live Today
America Under Attack: Fire Continues to Spread at Pentagon in Aftermath of Terrorist Attack
Aired September 12, 2001 - 12:03 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. a LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, we're going to get back to our Bob Franken who's the crash site where that plane hit the Pentagon in Washington. Let's go there now -- Bob.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Leon, I am outside of course, overlooking the place where the plane collided, but CNN producer Chris Plante is inside. He reports that the Pentagon is being evacuated. Of course, they wanted to open it for business this morning, the parts that are considered safe. But Chris Plante says that it's being evacuated because of the danger of a spreading fire. We reported a while ago that the fire had spread over there to other parts of the building if, and in fact had reached the inner ring. So for the second day in a row, the Pentagon is being evacuated.
To give you some idea of how tense it is here, something happened about 10 minutes ago. About 10 minutes ago, a police loudspeaker went out off in this area, "get out of the area," said this person in on the loudspeaker, incoming plane, incoming plane, incoming plane, get out of the area. The cameras went skyward. Everyone to look for the evidence on this. About two minutes later, the police voice came on again and said, never mind, it was a friendly. So they are being so very, very careful and sometimes tense, and sometimes as a matter of fact they overreact, but of course their concern would be much greater if they underreacted.
And we have also seen evidence just in the last few minutes of how intensely the FBI plans to live up to its promise to investigate. We saw just a couple of minute it is ago, FBI agents fan out in the little grassy area right in back of me. Fanned out to look for any tiny pieces ever evidence to find out in the grass, trying to in fact live up to the promise that they made that they will investigate this very thoroughly, and of course to make sure that they did it in the area that cameras can see. So that the message could be delivered to the rest of the world -- Leon.
HARRIS: Bob, get back to you.
To say that the Pentagon is being evacuated, because of the concern of spreading fire and causing more damage. What is the latest right now on the extend of the damage inside of the building? And do you know how many people were actually back at work in the building today? FRANKEN: Well, no. But we have been told that it at host most, only be about half of the workforce. What we have been hearing is that the fire has been spreading through the roofs. It has made it to the inner ring, and according to Plante, Chris Plante, that fact has caused them to decide that they wanted to in fact get people out of the building now, because it is becoming unsafe.
HARRIS: All right, Bobbie, can you give us an idea right now of what side of the building that you are on, and what side is perhaps, I guess the biggest, looking at the biggest threat right now. Any idea on that?
FRANKEN: Right now, the biggest threat continues to be the side where the airplane collided, and you can see of course over there where it crashed into the building yesterday morning, it crashed into the building, and there is concern that there will be a collapse, particularly of that area. And as a result, the people who have been searching for some of the casualties have been very, very careful about going on. There's an ongoing debate about whether they just need to collapse that part of the building, or whether they want to try and shore it up and make it safe.
However, the other side of the building is where many of the top officials of the Pentagon are located, and the fire has continued to spread, sometimes through the roof, but it has gotten to the inner ring, and become a bit of a threat. The secretaries of the Army and the Navy, as a matter of fact, were removed from their offices, moved from their offices on that side of the building. And went down on to the basement. The evacuation is just a precautionary measure, but the fire is not under control.
HARRIS: All right. Understood. We will let you get back to covering that. Bob Franken by the Pentagon in Washington. We will check back with you later.
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