Firefighter qoutes about the damage and fires in 7
"Firehouse: Did that chief give an assignment to go to building 7?
Boyle: He gave out an assignment. I didnât know exactly what it was, but he told the chief that we were heading down to the site.
Firehouse: How many companies?
Boyle: There were four engines and at least three trucks. So weâre heading east on Vesey, we couldnât see much past Broadway. We couldnât see Church Street. We couldnât see what was down there. It was really smoky and dusty."
"A little north of Vesey I said, weâll go down, letâs see whatâs going on. A couple of the other officers and I were going to see what was going on. We were told to go to Greenwich and Vesey and see whatâs going on. So we go there and on the north and east side of 7 it didnât look like there was any damage at all, but then you looked on the south side of 7 there had to be a hole 20 stories tall in the building, with fire on several floors. Debris was falling down on the building and it didnât look good.
But they had a hoseline operating. Like I said, it was hitting the sidewalk across the street, but eventually they pulled back too. Then we received an order from Fellini, weâre going to make a move on 7. That was the first time really my stomach tightened up because the building didnât look good. I was figuring probably the standpipe systems were shot. There was no hydrant pressure. I wasnât really keen on the idea. Then this other officer Iâm standing next to said, that building doesnât look straight. So Iâm standing there. Iâm looking at the building. It didnât look right, but, well, weâll go in, weâll see.
So we gathered up rollups and most of us had masks at that time. We headed toward 7. And just around we were about a hundred yards away and Butch Brandies came running up. He said forget it, nobodyâs going into 7, thereâs creaking, there are noises coming out of there, so we just stopped. And probably about 10 minutes after that, Visconti, he was on West Street, and I guess he had another report of further damage either in some basements and things like that, so Visconti said nobody goes into 7, so that was the final thing and that was abandoned.
Firehouse: When you looked at the south side, how close were you to the base of that side?
Boyle: I was standing right next to the building, probably right next to it.
Firehouse: When you had fire on the 20 floors, was it in one window or many?
Boyle: There was a huge gaping hole and it was scattered throughout there. It was a huge hole. I would say it was probably about a third of it, right in the middle of it. And so after Visconti came down and said nobody goes in 7, we said all right, weâll head back to the command post. We lost touch with him. I never saw him again that day.
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