9/11 Rescuer Saw Explosions Inside WTC 6 Lobby

9/11 Rescuer Saw Explosions Inside WTC 6 Lobby
http://killtown.blogspot.com
February 10, 2006

In an exclusive Killtown interview, Ground Zero EMT Patricia Ondrovic talks about her harrowing day at the WTC on 9/11. Within minutes after the South Tower collapses, she witnessed the WTC 5 blowing up, cars exploding, and explosions inside the lobby of the WTC 6, all the while narrowly escaping with her own life.
Patricia can be reached at: fieldangel911@yahoo.com

9/11 Rescuer Saw Explosions Inside WTC 6 Lobby

Arriving at the Scene

Killtown: Where you one of the Ground Zero rescuers on 9/11?

Patricia Ondrovic: Yes.

KT: What was your position and who did you work for?

PO: I was an emergency medical technician [EMT] with the Fire Department of New York.

KT: How did your day start off on Sept. 11 and when did you get called to the scene at the WTC?

PO: It started off like any other. I had dropped a patient off at Bellevue and one of the Doc’s asked if I was going to respond to the WTC. I told him it was out of my area. I asked "why, what’s going on?" He told me they were getting reports that "a helicopter" had crashed into one of the towers. I responded after both planes had hit. I was on scene approx 45 min before the first tower fell.

[The 2nd crash happened at approx 9:03 a.m. and the South tower fell at approx 9:59 a.m.]

KT: Was the WTC area part of your regular route?

PO: No, I worked in the Times Square area. The WTC was far downtown from where I was.

KT: What did you immediately do once you arrived at the scene and do you remember where exactly you arrived at?

PO: I reported to a staging officer who told me to park the ambulance along Vesey Street. I ended up parking along the street in front of the 6 World Trade with several other ambulances. We were going to get any injured people who were brought out of the burning buildings to transport to the hospital. I don’t remember where we entered from as I was not so familiar with the area.

Another Airplane Warning

KT: Did you basically stay around that area before the South Tower collapsed at 9:59 am?

PO: Yes, we were staged waiting for the triage teams to bring us patients when an officer in a white shirt and blue pants (don’t know from what agency) said that there was a radio transmission that stated, "Another plane was headed towards us!" We were told to get to our vehicles and get ready to move fast, but it wasn’t fast enough. All of a sudden there was a lot of activity within the several agencies there and everyone started to scramble to ready their respective vehicles.

KT: When you were told another aircraft was approaching, was this right before the South Tower collapsed?

PO: Maybe 3 to 5 minutes prior. I don’t know if that estimation is correct, but I remember we all had time to take a minute and look into the skies all around to see if we could see anything.

KT: Did you see any planes in the sky?

PO: No, there was nothing in the skies at that time.

KT: Did you happen to see any helicopters, military or non-military, flying around?

PO: I didn’t see any helicopters at the time either.

KT: Where did they want you to move your vehicles too, any particular spot, or just "away" from the WTC?

PO: "Just get ready to move fast" is the phrase I remember.

KT: Did they want you to move away from the area right away, or just get ready to move if another plane was coming in?

PO: I don’t know, they just told us to get our equipment, put it back in the vehicles and "get ready to move...fast". At that point, they seemed to realize it just wasn’t a safe place to be.

KT: In retrospect, did it seem a little too coincidental that they told all of the rescuers to get ready to move out of the area minutes before the Tower collapsed?

PO: It was a bit eerie at the time as well. In that job, when someone tells you to "just move fast" there’s nothing to question, you just move. We had been on scene for a while before just setting up and waiting for patients and all of a sudden there was so much activity. It did seem odd that after being there for some time all of a sudden everyone had to get ready to get out. I personally never expected the buildings to come down.

KT: Did you receive any direct warnings or hear any rumors that any of the towers might be coming down?

PO: We were not told the building was possibly going to collapse. I did not hear any rumors about a building collapse. I never heard anyone say anything to the effect that any of the buildings in the area were not stable at the time. We were simply told to get to our vehicles and get ready to move.

KT: Was Vesey Street blocked off between Church St and West St?

PO: Yes, I think all that were there were fire, police, EMS, and OEM [Office Emergency Management].

KT: Did you ever see any videos or cameras being confiscated from anyone that day?

PO: No.

KT: Did you see any newscasters or any other media people on or near Vesey taking any footage?

PO: No, none that I could see.

Cars Blowing Up

KT: What did you do when the South Tower started coming down?

PO: I didn’t know what was happening, but there was a loud "roar" — lots of crashing sounds. I was attempting to put my stretcher back into the vehicle. The ground was shaking and I saw a sea of people, mostly the various agencies on scene, Fire, Police, EMS, all running towards me. I had no idea what they were running from, but I decided I’d be ahead of them and just started running west towards the river. As I was running, parked cars were blowing up and some were on fire, the street was cracking a bit as well. Very shortly after I started running, everything became one big black cloud. I was near the West Side Highway and I couldn’t see around me anymore.

KT: Before you heard the loud rumbling which was the South Tower coming down, do you remember hearing any strange noises like gunfire or crackling sounds?

PO: No.

KT: You talked about the cars blowing up in your WTC Task Force interview, correct?

PO: Yes.

KT: Can you estimate how many vehicles blew up around you?

PO: At least three and some were on fire as I was running by. I was still on the south side of Vesey running west. The burning cars were between my ambulance and about the middle of the 6 World Trade where the lobby doors were at...

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