Sep 11th 2010, 18:09:50
I was in an architectural life safety class at NJIT being taught by a leading forensic architect who had previously designed interior fit outs in both towers, and was very familiar with the complex. The day's lecture was on fire suppression systems in high rise buildings.
About 30 minutes into the class, a late arriving student told the class that he had heard that an airplane had crashed into one of the towers. We assumed it was a smaller plane like the one that crashed into the empire state building in 1945 (a B-25, which was about 1/15th of the weight of the planes that hit the towers). The professor described that given the height of the towers, the fire department would not be able to pump water up to the fire, and that the sprinklers would have to put the fire out. Given his familiarity with the towers and the assumption that it was a small plane, he didn't think it would be a problem.
About 20 minutes later, another student came running in and told the class that two jumbo jets had crashed into the towers (one each). The professor immediately said "They're both coming down."
We ran up to the roof of the architecture building (about 10 miles from the WTC), and saw the pillars of smoke rising from the towers. A few minutes later, tower 2 collapsed. When tower 1 came down, I was on my cell phone, trying to contact my grandmother to see if she had heard from my parents (both of whom worked in lower Manhattan). Since the news was reporting that most of the people from lower Manhattan were walking across the Brooklyn bridge, her apartment in brooklyn was a logical place for them to go.
My dad caught the last ferry out of pier 11. He was on the Hudson river sailing towards New Jersey when the first tower collasped. My mom saw the second plane hit from her office window 4 blocks away. She walked up to Penn Station, and eventually caught a train back to New Jersey.
About 30 minutes into the class, a late arriving student told the class that he had heard that an airplane had crashed into one of the towers. We assumed it was a smaller plane like the one that crashed into the empire state building in 1945 (a B-25, which was about 1/15th of the weight of the planes that hit the towers). The professor described that given the height of the towers, the fire department would not be able to pump water up to the fire, and that the sprinklers would have to put the fire out. Given his familiarity with the towers and the assumption that it was a small plane, he didn't think it would be a problem.
About 20 minutes later, another student came running in and told the class that two jumbo jets had crashed into the towers (one each). The professor immediately said "They're both coming down."
We ran up to the roof of the architecture building (about 10 miles from the WTC), and saw the pillars of smoke rising from the towers. A few minutes later, tower 2 collapsed. When tower 1 came down, I was on my cell phone, trying to contact my grandmother to see if she had heard from my parents (both of whom worked in lower Manhattan). Since the news was reporting that most of the people from lower Manhattan were walking across the Brooklyn bridge, her apartment in brooklyn was a logical place for them to go.
My dad caught the last ferry out of pier 11. He was on the Hudson river sailing towards New Jersey when the first tower collasped. My mom saw the second plane hit from her office window 4 blocks away. She walked up to Penn Station, and eventually caught a train back to New Jersey.
m0m0rific