September 11 World Trade Centre emergency calls to be released

The voices of US fire-fighters who went to rescue people from the burning World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001 hold clues about what happened after planes struck the towers – but until now, many went unheard.

Today, city officials planned for the first time to publicly play recordings of voices from hundreds of emergency calls. They are among 1,613 previously undisclosed emergency calls recently discovered by city officials.

The Fire Department said the calls were discovered after the city turned over more than 100 dispatches in March under a court order. Most of the calls are from fire-fighters asking dispatchers where they should report for duty, the department said.

The New York Times and families of September 11 victims sued for access to the emergency calls and fire-fighters’ oral histories.

Lawyers said they wanted to find out what happened in the towers after two hijacked planes crashed into them and what dispatchers told workers and rescuers in and around the buildings.

Lawyer Norman Siegel, who represents September 11 families, called on Mayor Michael Bloomberg to pledge that no more emergency recordings from that day existed.

“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?”

A spokesman for the mayor declined to comment.

The city in March released transcripts of 130 calls from people trapped in the towers, including only the voices of operators and other public employees. The callers’ voices were cut out after city lawyers argued their pleas for help were too emotional and intense to be publicised without their families’ consent.

Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta ordered his department to search for additional recordings when another tape turned up shortly after the March release of 911 calls. City officials listened to all calls to emergency and fire dispatchers between 8.45am and 10.45am on September 11 to locate all available recordings.

The fire department said that when it first turned over its emergency calls, officials “misinterpreted instructions they were given on what kinds of calls to copy” and “failed to capture” other 911 calls they knew had to be made public.

“The department regrets the delay,” it said in a statement.

The calls include 10 made by people trapped in the twin towers, although those will include only the voices of the operators who heard their pleas. Also, 19 of the 343 fire-fighters who died, along with two emergency medical technicians, identify themselves to dispatchers.

The city planned to play the remainder of the call – with only the operator’s voice – of Melissa Doi, who spent more than 20 minutes on the phone with a 911 operator from the 83rd floor of the south tower before she was killed. Excerpts of Doi's side of the conversation were played for jurors in April at September 11 conspirator Zachariah Moussaoui’s trial.

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