FIREFIGHTER PATRICK MARTIN
WTC2
My lieutenant said he looked down at the first floor, and he could see the first floor of the south tower like exploding out. I looked up. I looked up, and the sky was filled with that debris cloud.
Stephen Gregory , Assistant Commissioner (F.D.N.Y.) flashes, explosions p 14
I know I was with an officer from Ladder 146, a Lieutenant Evangelista, who ultimately called me up a couple of days later just to find out how I was. We both for whatever reason -- again, I don't know how valid this is with everything that was going on at that particular point in time, but for some reason I thought that when I looked in the direction of the Trade Center before it came down, before No. 2 came down, that I saw low-level flashes. In my conversation with Lieutenant Evangelista, never mentioning this to him, he questioned me and asked me if I saw low-level flashes in front of the building, and I agreed with him because I thought -- at that time I didn't know what it was. I mean, it could have been as a result of the building collapsing, things exploding, but I saw a flash flash flash and then it looked like the building came down.
Q. Was that on the lower level of the building or up where the fire was?
A. No, the lower level of the building. You know like when they demolish a building, how when they blow up a building, when it falls down? That's what I thought I saw. And I didn't broach the topic to him, but he asked me. He said I don't know if I'm crazy,
EMT JASON CHARLES FILE No. 9110486
WTC1 Ground level explosion before it fell
WE GET TO THE BACK WE DONT EVEN GET TO THE BACK OF THE BUILDING WE START WALKING BACK THERE AND THEN I HEARD GROUND LEVEL EXPLOSION AND IM LIKE HOLY SHIT AND THEN YOU HEARD THAT TWISTING METAL WRECKAGE AGAIN THEN SAID SHIT AND EVERYBODY STARTED RUNNING
Police Lieutenant Michael Murphy Handwritten report. Pages 3&4 (pa-police-reports01.pdf pages 10-11)
http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=38371“…We came upon the NYPD Chief of Detectives with a couple of his men. They appeared to be appraising the situation. We proceeded past them and were within a block of WTC when a couple of loud explosions occurred in front of us.”
FIREFIGHTER KEVIN MURRAY
WTC1
We got up to the fifth floor and there was severe damage. The ceilings had come down, some walls had caved in . Major sprinkler damage. Then we went to the sixth floor and did the same t h i n g . Same sort of damage up there .