Inside: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

JIM DWYER, KEVIN FLYNN and FORD FESSENDEN
By THE NEW YORK TIMES

From The New York Times on the Web (c) The New York Times Company. Reprinted with Permission.

Above the impact zone, 800 people were trapped. Below it, the dying north tower was emptying. After more than an hour of evacuation, the stream of civilians was a trickle.

Inside the NY Times Story Part 1 - 9/11 Exposed Deadly Flaws in Rescue Plan Part 2 - Communications: 'Down to the Lobby,' But No One Came Part 3 - Command: Distrust Separates Police and Fire Part 4 - Control: Discipline Broke Down in Eagerness to Help Part 5 - Sacrifice: 'We'll Come Down in a Few Minutes' Interactive @NYTimes.com Off Site: Free New York Times Registration Required to Access Certain Segments At the Scene Audio: 9/11 Dispatch Transcripts and Transmissions Map: FDNY Response 9/11 Firefighters: Interviews/Oral Histories More 9-11 Coverage Firehouse.com's 9-11 Coverage 9-11 Emergency Services Victims Database Insider Forward: E-Mail This Page to a Friend or Co-Worker Interact: Discuss This and Other Topics in the Firehouse Forums

Then the south tower fell, and people watched around the world.

Not across the plaza. There, the crash registered only as a shudder in the bones of people up and down the north tower. "Everybody felt it and they didn't know exactly what it was," Firefighter Frank Campagna said in an oral history interview.

"The building was still standing," he said. "So we just kept going up the stairs."

On the 51st floor, three court officers felt the violent lurch and decided to get out. "We did not know that the south tower collapsed — never mind that the north tower was going to go," said Deputy Chief Joseph Baccellieri, who had rushed into the tower along with two other court officers, Sgts. Alfred Moscola and Andrew Wender. The three started down.

By that time, firefighters had been climbing stairs for more than an hour. Their mission seemed unclear. After the collapse, Chief Pfeifer radioed an order to get out. That message and others reached chiefs on some floors, but not on others. No firefighters appeared to have the hard information the police got. None seemed to know that the other building had gone down. Only a handful heard directly that they should leave. "There definitely were firefighters that we were picking up on the way down that had no knowledge," said Lt. Warren Smith of Ladder 9. "They were, like, they didn't believe us."

"Definitely, the sense of urgency was a huge factor in your ability to get out of there," Lieutenant Smith said. "I don't know what you could attest that to. Experience? Knowledge of the fact that the other building went down; did you have that knowledge? I don't think a lot of guys did."

On the 35th floor, Lt. Gregg Hansson of Engine 24 had just spoken with Battalion Chief Richard Picciotto, when a cry of "Mayday! Evacuate the building" came over the chief's radio. "I get about halfway down the hall and the building starts shaking," Lieutenant Hansson said in an interview.

Chief Picciotto hollered "Mayday!" to the four other fire companies on the 35th floor. Lieutenant Hansson and his men went to Staircase A. In the stairwell, they saw Lt. John Fischer of Ladder 20, who noticed that two of his men had continued up. "He couldn't get them on the radio, so he went to walk up and go get them," Lieutenant Hansson said. "I said, `All right, well I'm going down, I'm taking my men down.' And that's the last time I saw him."

Somewhere around the 28th or 30th floor, Firefighter Campagna, who had kept climbing after the first tower fell, ran into a crowd of resting firefighters. "A chief came down from a floor above with another company and said, `Everybody evacuate, everybody out now,' " he recalled. Firefighter Campagna and his company, Engine 28, turned around, and all survived.

Lieutenant Hansson stopped at the 27th floor to pick up a firefighter who had stayed with a man in a wheelchair and his friend. Then Capt. William Burke Jr. of Engine 21 arrived. "Somehow, it was decided that Captain Burke was going to take them down," the lieutenant said. The captain and the two men were killed.

As the court officers made their way down, they were hearing urgent evacuation messages through police officers' radios, Sergeant Wender said. On the 19th floor, they came upon a sight they recall vividly. "The hallway was filled with firemen," Sergeant Wender said. "Some of them were lying down. Ax against the wall. Legs extended. Arm resting against their oxygen tank. Completely exhausted. It led me to believe they were not hearing what we were hearing."

Chief Baccellieri recalled seeing "at least 100 of them." When he shouted that rescuers were evacuating, no one moved. "They said, `We'll come down in a few minutes,' " Chief Baccellieri said. "These firemen had no idea that the south tower collapsed."

Sergeant Moscola also said they did not move quickly when urged to go. "They said, `Yeah, all right, we'll be right there.' "

Fire Lieutenant Hansson stopped on this floor, but recalled seeing about 25 people, most of them firefighters. "An unknown firefighter pops out of the hallway, and says, `I need some help. We've got a lot of people on the other part of the floor who aren't leaving.' " One firefighter pointed to the devastation out the window. "I don't think we can get out," Lieutenant Hansson said the firefighter told him.

Lieutenant Hansson said he urged them to leave, and thought some listened. "In my mind, people weren't moving quick enough for what I thought was necessary," he said. "I had the benefit of knowing that there was an evacuation, that there was a Mayday. Other people didn't hear that."

As Firefighter Campagna passed through the lobby, he saw more firefighters. "Everyone is standing there, waiting to hear what's going to happen next, what's going on," he said. As the court officers passed through the lobby, they saw about 10 firefighters. "We made it by seconds," said Sergeant Moscola.

Near the lobby, Lieutenant Hansson and his men helped remove a heavy man with some Port Authority police officers. They tied the man to a chair with a belt. They barely made it through the door when the tower began collapsing.

Among those who escaped with little time to spare was Susan Frederick. After descending from the 80th floor to about the third, she found the stairway blocked. Behind her, some three dozen people stretched up the stairs.

Minutes later, word spread, person to person, up the line, Ms. Frederick said: "We found a way out." A firefighter had broken through an office wall with an ax.

Daylight filtered faintly through the hole, pointing to the mezzanine and the street.

"Come this way -- move quickly!" the firefighter yelled, Ms. Frederick said. He lighted the path with his flashlight. As she made it onto the street, she glanced at her watch, she recalled. It was 10:24 a.m., four minutes before the north tower collapsed. The firefighter did not exit with them.

"He stayed there because there were more people behind us," she said.

Melena Z. Ryzik also contributed research and reporting to this story.

Inside: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5