ny b30 pa police reports 1 of 2 fdr- norris- insp-cmdr timothy i

8/14/2019 NY B30 PA Police Reports 1 of 2 Fdr- Norris- Insp-Cmdr Timothy I

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September 11, 2001O n September 11 , 2001, at approximate ly 0850 hours PO John O'D on nell entered m yoffice at PATH to inform me that "something happened" at the WTC. Building On e is onfire- he was not sure if there was a b o m b or if a plane hit the building. I immediate ly gotup , grabbed my hat and started to exit m y office when th e phone rang. It was ChiefRomito. He wanted to k n o w wh a t w as going on at the Trade Center. I told him that Id idn ' t know but that I was en route there now . He told him that he would see m e overthere. I told him I w ould meet him at the Comm and Center in the Lobby of B u ild ing One.We never did meet.As I was exit ing the PATH Police Desk I saw a cop whom I did n' t know . He was POAnthony Croce. He told me it was his first day OJT at PATH. I threw him my car keysan d told him to drive me as fast as he could to the World Trade Center. The HollandTunnel had been closed off. We got to the WTC w ithin minutes .A s we w ere drivin g down West B roadway towards the W orld Trade Center I could seethat Building #lwas on fire with heavy smoke emanating from the upper floors. As wedrove up to the Vesey St. entrance, I saw Director Morrone and Tony In fante on theVesey St sidewalk about to enter the b uildin g. I believe I saw C hief Hall in a vehic le onVesey St. I exited m y car. Director Morrone an d Tony Infante acknowledged me and theywent inside.I entered the World Trade Center from Vesey St. and proceeded to B uild in g #1. Peoplewere exiting th e building onto th e main concourse in an orderly f ashion . Despite th e factthat the sprin klers were s pray ing water by the revolvin g doors, people did not seem topanic nor were they runn ing. They were w alking fast toward the 8 th Ave subway.I stayed a few m inute s on the concourse d irecting people w ho were exitin g the building.As more officers arrived, I stationed them so that they could assist these people. It was atthis tim e that I saw Ernesto B utcher exit Tower 1 and wa lk down the concourse tow ardBuilding 5.I then proceeded to the C o m m a n d and Control Center in the Lobby of Building #1 . Myintention was to coordinate with th e Fire Department in order to set up a commandcenter. There w ere nu mero us fire chiefs and firefighters in the lobby. This w as verychaotic place, as the fire chiefs were attempting, via radio, to get inform ation regardingthe fire in Tower 1.

Over the next few minutes in the Lobby of Tower 1,1m et Chief Hall, Inspector Fields,Lieutenant Kassimatis, Sgt. Devona, Capt. Whitaker, PO Bulger, PO Foreman, POMcNeil, and PO Webb. Doug Kopaloff , Gene Raggio, Ken Grousalis, Jo e Amatucci an dJohn O 'Neil (FBI-Silverstein) were also there at the Fire Com ma nd console. I think I alsosaw Sgt. B ob Vargas.


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W h i l e ta l k i n g to C h i e f Hal l , a N Y C Fire Chie f came up to me and in fo rmed m e t ha t th eC o mma n d an d Control Desk inside th e Lobby of Tower One w as in an unsa fe locat ionH e stated th at his firefighters were up ins ide Tower One and had in fo rmed h im t h a t th efire w as rag ing out of control. H e further stated that h e feared th e express elevators m i g h tcome crash ing down thereby des troying an yth ing in the Lobby of B u i l d i n g 1 i nc ludingth e C o m m a n d an d Control Center. H e suggested that we m o v e th e C o m m a n d C e n t e r ov e rto the Financia l Center . I told h im t ha t I needed to go over to the Financ ia l C e n t e r toascertain the feasibil i ty of loca ting the Comm and Cen ter ou t s ide of t he W orld TradeCenter. I t was aroun d this t ime that I heard and felt th e second plane h i t t i ng Tower 2.A s I walked over to the F in a n c ia l C e n t e r via the N o r t h B r id g e I could se e n u m e r o u sindividuals j u m p i n g from the Towers. I also saw a lot of d e b r i s f a l l ing from the Towers .There were many fire apparatus on W est Street. I entered the Fin an cial Center andqu ick ly de termined tha t locating to that locat ion wo uld be unsu i t ab le for us. I proceededback to the Lobby of Tower 1 and informed th e Asst . Chief tha t I would n ot locate mymen in the Financ ia l C e n t e r but instead wou ld re-locate to the Police Desk in B u i l d i n g 5where I had access t o be t te r com mun ica t ions . He informed me that he was going to locateto the Fin an cial Cen ter. I then directed some Port Au tho ri ty officers (n am e s u n k n o w n ) toth e Police Desk. I directed PO's W ebb, McNeil , an d Foreman to the Police Desk. The ystated th at they were with Capt . W h i t a k e r an d w o u ld be a long shor t ly . I informed DougKarpoloffand Gene Raggio of the Fire Department 's assessment of the C o m m a n dCenter's location and how unsafe it was. Doug Karpoloff resisted leaving th e area stat ingto me t h a t all the c o m m u n ic a t io n e qu ip m e n t th a t was needed w as there at the console. Itold him t ha t I was go ing up to the Police Desk an d t ha t I w a n t e d him to relocate up to theDesk. He stated tha t h e would be a lon g w h e n he could, however, I got the impress ion tha the had no intention of leaving th e area.W h e n I left th e Lobby of Tower 1 there were still m a n y firefighters a nd fire chiefs in theLobby.I, a long with (I t h i n k ) PO Bulger, went to the Police Desk in B u i l d i n g #5. At the PoliceDesk were PO's Murray an d B rady bo th answer ing t e lephones . Also at the Desk wereDets. Paugh, Nafey, PO Steve Magget , W TC M a n a g e r Al lan Reiss, and I t h ink POSolivan. There were other Police Officers t here as wel l . Everyone was d i l ig en t ly work inga t t empt ing to coordinate a response to the crisis.

Suddenly Tower # 2 fell. Myself , PO B r a d y and PO M u rra y d o ve u n d e rn e a t h th e PoliceDesk for shelte r. Ligh ts wen t out . The Desk area filled with dust . Some ce i l in g t iles fellout . Th e Desk area however was pret ty intact . W e weren ' t sure what had h a p p e n e d . Ithought i t was a b o m b or a part ial collapse of B u i l d i n g 5. I guess I thoug ht th is since Ic o u l d n ' t compreh end tha t one of t he Towers had co l lapsed .


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Everyone at the Desk, maybe 8-10 officers, fled toward th e rear of the station but couldno t exit. Det. Paugh then led us toward the front of the Police Desk where we exited Thearea was littered with debris, all lights were out and the air was filled with dust . Youcould barely see, yet there were m any people covered with dust who were looking for away out. One of the officers had a flashlight and announced fo r everyone to come to thelight so we could go out as a group. It is un kn ow n how m any people w ere there. W estumbled down th e steps in front of the Police Desk since there was mu ch debris in ourway from the fallen ceiling and walls . The group exited through Borders Books out ontoChurch St. An A frican-A me rican lady covered in dust was holding onto my arm theentire time pleading with me to take her to safety. Her eyes were closed. W e exited ontoChurch St and crossed the street to safety. Once across the street the air was a littleclearer and you could actually see. The gro up dispersed.A lone, I decided that I had to go back into the building to search for survivors. Iapproached th e Trade Center by the Vesey St entrance and met Nelson Chanfrau. W eentered the Trade Center bu t quickly determined that it was too dark an d dusty to see. W eexited and went over to a New York City Police Eme rgency Services truck, went insidean d found tw o large (1/4 mile light) flashlights. We took th e lights and proceeded insideth e Trade Center by PATH Square. Chaos reigned.The first thing that hit my senses was the quietness of it all. It was surreal. Then as wepanned our flashlights about, we observed the devastation that had taken place. Storefrontglass was all shattered an d blown out. C eil ings had fallen down. The floor was litteredwith debris of all types and sizes. There were also some other em ergency un its w ithflashlights attempting to find survivors. The flashlights looked like beacons in the darkan d dust. I began yelling in the dark to see if there were any survivors but I received noresponse. A s Nelson Chanfrau and I walked we saw no bodies by PATH Square. I thinkother units might already been in that area. I had been yelling bu t there was still noresponse. I proceeded to walk down a corridor towards Build ing #4 when th e corridorsuddenly stopped due to a complete structural cave in. There w as also a large fire in thearea from what seemed like a broken gas line. I was just about turn around and leave thearea when my flashlight illuminated a bloody arm waving from underneath a debris pile.I quickly went over and proceeded to uncover an individual who was buried. Two orthree firefighters and a FBI agent began to assist me. Nelson kept th e area lighted withhis flashlight and lit the way for us as we carried this injured person out onto Vesey St.The man was semi-conscious and heavy and it seemed like an eternity be fore we em ergedin th e light and fresh air of Vesey St. We placed him down on the sidewalk in order tocatch our breath.Just at this time, another firefighter began to yell to us from across th e street. He waslooking up at the Towers and yelled for us to hu rry up since he thoug ht the second Towerwas about to fall. The two firefighters and my self again picked up the injured man andmanaged to walk three or four steps when we felt extreme vibration and an incrediblenoise "like a thou sand freigh t trains". I knew ins tan tly that the Tower was falling down .


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We w ere exposed on the street. I managed to dive under the NY C P olice E mergen cytruck that earlier we had taken the flashlights from. Debris began to rain down onto thetruck and I feared that I would be buried under it. The air was so filled w ith dust that Icovered m y mo u th and nose with my tie as I said prayers that I would be spared. After ashort period of time I emerged from underneath the truck into pitch-black darkness barelybreathing. My eyes were filled with dust. I was in extreme fear for my life. I couldn ' t se eand I was afraid that m ore buildings would collapse. W ith m y eyes closed, I felt my wayacross th e street to the wall of the US Post Office. Debris and burn ing cars littered th estreet and I fell more than once attempting to cross th e street. W h e n I reached th e PostOffice I blindl y felt m y way "hand over hand" on the wall up to Church Street and thennorthbound.Tw o or three blocks up on Church Street a janitor pulled m e inside a bui ld ing . He washedmy eyes with water and gave m e some water to drink. He then told me i t was unsafe toexit back onto C hurch St. and led me through a truck dock, which allowed me to exitonto a side street. The cars on this side street were on fire. I proceeded northbound andfound out via radio (which I still had) that a temporary command site would beestablished at Manhattan C om mu nity College. It wa s there that I teamed up wi th C hiefHall, Lt. Jim O 'Neil, Insp. Fields, then Insp. Morris, Insp. Ceccarelli, Capt. Alb in andnumerous other units.I never did find out what h ad happened to the in dividua l that w e were carrying, nor thefirefighters that were assisting m e. Nelson Chanfrau escaped by hiding behind a firetruck. He did, however, suffer injuries. I suffered no disabling injuries.For the remainder of the 11 th I stayed at Manhat tan Communi ty College where w eestablished a Command Center and began to coordinate a response fo r rescue into th eWorld Trade Center site.

T imothy I. NqrrisInspector/CommanderWestern Consolidated Police Zone

ny b30 pa police reports 1 of 2 fdr- norris- insp-cmdr timothy i

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