4um: Live CNN Interview with William Rodriguez on 9/11/01 at 1:30 PM EDT

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Title: Live CNN Interview with William Rodriguez on 9/11/01 at 1:30 PM EDT
Source: CNN Pipeline
URL Source: [None]
Published: Sep 13, 2006
Author: Transcript written by honway
Post Date: 2006-09-13 11:27:00 by honway
Keywords: None
Views: 4894
Comments: 40

Below is a partial transcript of a live interview with William Rodriguez by CNN’s Aaron Brown on 9/11/2001, beginning at 1:30 PM EDT.
BROWN: William Rodriguez is a maintenance worker at the Trade Center, I believe,in any case,he is on the phone with us now. Mr. Rodriguez, can you hear me?
RODRIGUEZ: Yes, I can hear you clearly.
BROWN: Tell me where you were when,…what, which of the two buildings were you in?
RODRIGUEZ:I work in Building One, the one that got hit the first time.
BROWN: Tell me what happened.
RODRIGUEZ: I was in the basement which is a support floor for the maintenance company and we hear like a big rumble, not like an impact, like a rumble, like something, like moving furniture on a, on a massive way and all of a sudden we hear another rumble and a guy comes running, running into our office and all his skin was off his body,all his skin. We, we went crazy, we started screaming, we told him to get out. We took everybody out of the office outside to the loading dock area and then I went back in and when I went back in I saw people, I heard people that were stuck on an elevator, a freight elevator because the elevators went down and water was going in and they were probably getting drowned and we get a couple of pipes and open the elevator and got the people out.
Source: On 9/11/06,CNN provided their live coverage from 9/11/2001, on CNN.com's Pipeline in real time. I taped the interview and transcibed the words, leaving out the several "uhs".
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 24.
#1. To: All, *9-11* (#0)
From Port Authority Transcripts:(B-4 is in the basement)
http://www.firehouse.com/news/wtcscripts/wtc_channel8.pdf
MALE CALLER- B-4 LEVEL: Officer, help. We're down in the B-4 level. This is Turner's field office. There's been a big explosion. We've got water lines open. There seems to be steam and smoke in the area.
.................
MALE CALLER- B-4 LEVEL: It's...yeah, we got smoke. I don't know whether it's from fire, or just dust. We got broken water lines, water all over.

honway posted on 2006-09-13 11:28:32 ET Reply Untrace Trace Private Reply
#2. To: All (#1)
http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=21830
"Where's the f------ sprinkler system?"

honway posted on 2006-09-13 11:30:20 ET Reply Untrace Trace Private Reply
#3. To: All (#2)
http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=21830
"Where's the f------ sprinkler system?"

From the link above
Excerpts:
The transcript of nearly 2,000 pages includes the words of dozens of victims. Some identified themselves by name. The release comes two weeks before the second anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
As maintenance and electrical workers talked to each other on their dedicated radio channel, one man trapped in a stairwell on the 103rd floor of the north tower called repeatedly for help.
"Open the stairway door," he called. The radio picked up his labored breathing, and he reported smoke rising. "People stuck in the stairway, open up the goddamn doors." Later he burst out, "Where's the f------ sprinkler system?"
My comments:
For over 18 months many have been asking that same question, "Where was the sprinkler system?"
The question has considerably more impact coming from someone in the Tower as compared to coming from someone at a keyboard.
Maybe this man deserves an answer to his question.
I first considered the question when I read about the five Middle Eastern men arrested in Memphis on Feb.5,2002 for buying fraudulent Tennessee drivers licences.
One of those arrested, Sakher A. Hammad , "had a visitor's pass for one of the towers dated Sept. 5. He has allegedly told investigators that his Brooklyn plumbing company worked on the building's sprinkler system."
Sakher reported that his cousin, also arrested with him was working on the sprinkler system..
A letter presented in court from Hammad's alleged employer,explaining his work in the World Trade Center, is signed with an alias,Sergei Denko, and is from a non-existent company named Denko Mechanical.
Katherine Smith was a State of Tennessee employee that was also arrested for providing the fradulant drivers licences to Hammad and friends. Katherine Smith was associated with a Memphis man named Khaled Odtllah, who was the ring leader of the scam. According to press reports, on September 11,2001, the Memphis resident Khaled Odtllah was driving his car from New York City to Memphis.
"Katherine Smith, out of jail on her own recognizance, died in a fiery car crash the night before she was scheduled to appear at a detention hearing." She was found alone in a car owned by Odtllah, burned alive with gasoline. The last time developments into the Katherine Smith death were reported in the press was when in June 2002, the Medical Examiner for Shelby County was found in a stairwell in his work building tied up with barbed wire with a bomb attached to his chest. In those press reports it was stated that four months after Katherine Smith was burned alive with gasoline, the Medical Examiner had still not determined if it was homicide or suicide.
A lot of folks contributed to the effort to make the details of this story available to those interested, since the mainstream media never covered this story.
I will provide the links for those interested. All I ask is, if someone has a reasonable explanation why the national media never covered this story, please share it with me.
The five Middle Eastern men were all free by August 2002, released with time served. Sakher A. Hammad served 51 days, Katherine Smith got death, and the Medical Examiner got the scare of a life time.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/655625/posts
Suspect in ID fraud goes free on bond (Tennessee)
Memphis Commercial Appeal ^ | March 29, 2002 | Bill Dries

honway posted on 2006-09-13 11:31:27 ET Reply Untrace Trace Private Reply
#12. To: honway (#3)
this is the first i have seen of this story.

christine posted on 2006-09-13 12:20:52 ET Reply Untrace Trace Private Reply
#13. To: christine (#12)
this is the first i have seen of this story.

William Rodriguez is a real American hero.
His story reminds me a great deal of the experience of OKC Police Officer Terry Yeakey ,with one very important difference. William Rodriguez is still alive.

honway posted on 2006-09-13 12:37:12 ET Reply Untrace Trace Private Reply
#15. To: All (#13)
New York visit reveals extent of WTC disaster[molten metal still red hot weeks after the event]
http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=30926

http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/terrorists/papd/1.html
Link
Prologue
On the morning of September 11, 2001, as the North Tower of the World Trade Center burned, a bus sped to the scene from the Port Authority Bus Terminal near Times Square in midtown Manhattan. The bus had been commandeered by the Port Authority police to transport officers to assist with the rescue efforts. Among the officers on that bus were Christopher Amoroso, Antonio Rodrigues, Dominick Pezzulo, Will Jimeno and Sergeant John McLoughlin. They could see the inferno in the sky through the bus windows as they approached, each man impatient to get there, all of them eager to do whatever they could to save lives.
Their shift had started routinely that morning at the bus terminal. The rookies, Jimeno, 34, and Pezzulo, 35, were stationed at the terminal entrances, Jimeno at the north entrance on 42nd Street, Pezzulo at the south entrance. Pezzulo and Jimeno were good buddies, having both graduated from the academy nine months earlier. Word had spread quickly that an airplane had struck the World Trade Center. At that point the general assumption was that the collision of American Airlines Flight 11 at 8:46 a.m. was a horrible accident. Sergeant McLoughlin ran through the bus terminal collecting men who wanted to help downtown. Jimeno and Pezzulo immediately volunteered. Officer Christopher Amoroso
When the bus arrived at the site, it was directed to the underground parking garage, passing under the burning North Tower to the South Tower where the men got off. They were one floor below the underground shopping concourse. Sergeant McLoughlin, who had 10 years of experience in emergency services, quickly organized his men, leading them to a storage room where emergency equipment was kept. They loaded a laundry cart with helmets, axes and Scott Airpaks and rushed toward the North Tower, pushing the heavy cart. Officer Jimeno remembers that he had been pushing the cart from behind and Officer Rodrigues told him to shove over so he could help. Officer Amoroso squeezed in next to Rodrigues so that he could push, too.
As they raced toward the North Tower elevators, they heard a loud droning sound that none of them could identify. Jimeno asked Sergeant McLoughlin if this was a “second plane” coming in, and before McLoughlin could answer, the floor shook with the impact of United Flight 175 as it ploughed into the South Tower. The men kept pushing their cart, but the shock waves from the collision rattled everything around them. The floor buckled, and the walls started to crack. The five officers ran for their lives.
Burning jet fuel rushing down elevator shafts from the point of impact on the 81st floor sent a monstrous fireball in their direction. McLoughlin shouted for his men to run to the freight elevators. As they fled, the ceiling gave way and the concourse above crashed down on them, dispersing the fireball. Officer Antonio Rodrigues
The damage was beyond belief, yet some of the lights were still working, and Jimeno could clearly see the destruction all around him. He was on his back, surrounded by debris, his left leg trapped under a slab of concrete. His friend Dominick Pezzulo was face down next to him, covered with plaster dust and chunks of ceiling, but he was alive. Jimeno looked around for the others, calling out to them. Sergeant McLoughlin responded, saying that he was pinned down as well. Jimeno couldn’t see him, but he estimated from the sound of McLoughlin’s voice that he was about 20 feet away. Jimeno called out to Officers Amoroso and Rodrigues, but neither responded. He shouted their names for a full two minutes. Amoroso and Rodrigues had been at the back of the pack as they ran from the fireball. Officer Dominick Pezzulo
Pezzulo, who lifted weights to stay fit, told Jimeno that he was all right and started to dig himself out. When he finally got to his feet, he assured Jimeno that he would get him out. But then a deafening rumble drowned out his words and everything started to shake violently. The two men couldn’t see it, but the South Tower was collapsing. Instinctively Jimeno tried to curl up and protect himself, but there was little time to react and, for Pezzulo, no clear course of escape. New chunks of concrete rained down, and a heavy concrete slab the size of a mattress landed in Pezzulo’s lap.
The dust was thick, clogging the air. Jimeno was coughing, his eyes tearing as he tried to get oriented.
“Dominick!” he called out. “Dominick!”
But then it started all over again. Twenty-nine minutes after the South Tower fell, the North Tower started to collapse.
Jimeno was desperate to get to his friend, but he couldn’t move. When the noise finally subsided, McLoughlin reported that nothing new had hit him, but that he was still trapped. Jimeno could hear Pezzulo’s labored breathing.
“You okay?” he said to his friend. “Dominick? Talk to me.”
“Willy,” Pezzulo said, struggling to get the words out. “Willy, I’m hurt bad.”

honway posted on 2006-09-13 12:46:55 ET Reply Untrace Trace Private Reply
#16. To: All (#15)
Burning jet fuel rushing down elevator shafts from the point of impact on the 81st floor sent a monstrous fireball in their direction. McLoughlin shouted for his men to run to the freight elevators. As they fled, the ceiling gave way and the concourse above crashed down on them, dispersing the fireball. Officer Antonio Rodrigues
The damage was beyond belief, yet some of the lights were still working, and Jimeno could clearly see the destruction all around him. He was on his back, surrounded by debris, his left leg trapped under a slab of concrete.

I believe there is some important information available in this article if you eliminate the speculation.
Burning jet fuel rushing down elevator shafts from the point of impact on the 81st floor sent a monstrous fireball in their direction.
A monstrous fireball in the basement is important information.
"Burning jet fuel rushing down elevator" caused the fireball is unsupportable speculation.
McLoughlin shouted for his men to run to the freight elevators.
Why would McLoughlin order his men to the freight elevator if the freight elevator was the source of the monstrous fireball?

honway posted on 2006-09-13 12:54:08 ET Reply Untrace Trace Private Reply
#24. To: honway (#16)
Thank goodness William broke ties with Jimmy "CGI/hologram" Walters.
There was only one elevator that went the whole distance and they were sealed by the elevator itself.
I know of one that was working and had employees in it when the tower was hit. They had no burns from a "fireball" traveling down 1000 feet.
The rest of the elevators were staggard and sealed at each mechanical floor as were the stairs.
If these fireballs are true, then why were there no fireballs spilling down the stairwells blowing out the stairs and doors?
I did read an interesting account of a fireman checking lower floors and stating that every 3 door had blast damage from the INSIDE of the office. When this fireman pryed one door open, he found a "smoke event and dust" with no fire.

Kamala posted on 2006-09-13 15:11:01 ET Reply Untrace Trace Private Reply
Replies to Comment # 24.
#31. To: Kamala (#24)
Image:World Trade Center Building Design with Floor and Elevator Arrangment.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:World_Trade_Center_Building_Design_with_Floor_and_Elevator_Arrangment.jpg

honway posted on 2006-09-13 17:52:14 ET Reply Untrace Trace Private Reply
End Trace Mode for Comment # 24.
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