Emergency Calls from Firefighters on 9/11 Being Released

New York City officials Wednesday morning released tapes of emergency calls made by firefighters on the morning of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center towers. The tapes, which include calls made by at least 19 firefighters who were killed, are part of more than 1,600 previously undisclosed emergency calls recorded on that morning.

Last August, thousands of pages of emergency workers’ oral histories and radio transmissions were released to the public. The Fire Department of New York said Tuesday that they had found additional emergency calls in recent months, most of which are from firefighters asking dispatchers where they should report for duty. Of the 343 firefighters who were killed, 19 of them, along with two medical technicians, identify themselves to dispatchers. The department said that all of the calls "reveal extraordinary professionalism and bravery."

The New York Times and families of 9/11 victims sued city officials for access to the emergency calls, saying that they wanted to find out exactly what happened in the towers after the two hijacked jetliners crashed into them. They said that the public should know what emergency dispatchers told rescuers and workers in and around the buildings. Attorney Normal Siegel, who represents some of the families whose loved ones died on 9/11, asked Mayor Michael Bloomberg to promise that there are no more emergency recordings from that day that are still unreleased.

"We need the mayor to assure the family members that this is it, that this is everything we have," Siegel said. "If it was 10 or 20 tapes, one could understand that they overlooked some. But if you're talking hundreds, and possibly as many as 2,000 tapes, the serious substantial question is, how did this happen?" The fire department said Tuesday that when it first turned over its emergency calls, as ordered by the court, officials "misinterpreted instructions they were given on what kinds of calls to copy," and they "failed to capture" other 911 calls that should have been made public.

In March, under court order, the city released transcripts of 130 calls from people who were trapped in the towers. In those transcripts, the words spoken by callers were omitted after city attorneys argued that their emotional pleas for help were too intense to be made public without the consent of their families. The families of the 21 rescuers who identified themselves in the calls released Wednesday have been notified. Because they were public employees, their entire calls will be released, rather than having their voices edited out.

The city also plans to play the remainder of the call from Melissa Doi, a victim who was trapped in the 83rd floor of the south tower. Doi spent more than 20 minutes on the phone with a 911 operator before she died. Although the remainder of the call will contain only the operator’s side of the conversation, excerpts of Doi’s side of the conversation were played for jurors in April during the trial of 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui. "I'm going to die, aren't I?" Doi asked the dispatcher. "Please God, it's so hot. I'm burning up."