Final words: ‘Please God it’s so hot, I’m burning up’

FRANTIC callers trapped on the upper floors of the burning World Trade Center sought help from emergency operators who were unable to offer much more than words of encouragement, according to recordings of emergency phone calls from September 11, 2001, released yesterday.

“There’s heavy smoke and flames and the building management is announcing that everything is all right, and it’s not and they’re confused,” said one fire dispatcher after fielding a phone call from someone trapped on the 82nd floor.

Another operator, speaking to someone stranded on the 103rd floor, promised: “I’m going to do my best.”

“I want you to go on the floor. Kneel on the floor. On the floor,” said another operator. And a fourth, speaking to a woman stuck on the 83rd floor, offered hope of a rescue team that never appeared.

“Listen to me, ma’am,” the operator told a panicky Melissa Doi during a 20-minute phone call. “You’re not dying. You’re in a bad situation, ma’am.”

A portion of Ms Doi’s end of the conversation was played for jurors at the trial of September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui.

“I’m going to die, aren’t I?” Ms Doi asked the dispatcher. “Please God, it’s so hot. I’m burning up.”

But the operator encouraged Ms Doi to keep her composure. “Ma’am, just stay calm for me, OK?” she asked. The conversation ended with the operator trying vainly to speak with Doi, a financial manager for IQ Financial Systems: “Not dead, not dead,” the operator said to no response.

The phone line cut out. Ms Doi and five others inside the tower would never make it out. “Oh, my lord,” said the operator, whose words to Ms Doi were previously not made public.

The conversations were among 1,613 previously undisclosed emergency calls from the morning of the September 11 terrorist attacks. They include the voices of at least 19 firefighters and two emergency medical technicians killed when the twin towers collapsed, although most of the calls are from firefighters asking dispatchers where they should report for duty, the Fire Department said.

One tape contained an unidentified firefighter calling from the 35th floor, reporting a chaotic scene of civilians — some with burn injuries — heading down the stairwell as the firefighters headed up.

“Apparently it’s above the 75th floor,” the firefighter said. “I don’t know if they got there yet. We’re still heading up.”

The New York Times and families of September 11 victims sued for access to the emergency calls and firefighters’ oral histories. Attorneys said they wanted to find out what happened in the towers after two hijacked airliners crashed into them and what dispatchers told workers and rescuers in and around the buildings.

The calls also include 10 previously unreleased calls made by people trapped in the twin towers, although those calls include only the voices of the operators who heard their pleas.

In March the city released transcripts of 130 calls from people trapped in the towers, including only the voices of operators and other public employees.

Attorney Norman Siegel, who represents September 11 families, called on Mayor Michael Bloomberg to pledge that no more emergency recordings exist. A spokesman for the mayor declined to comment.