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A Wife Responds to "After the Fall"
US NEWS & WORLD REPORT - (by Monica Gabrielle)
Dear Editor:
Re "After the Fall" (issue, May 13):
This is in response to the article written by Avery
Camerow, After the Fall, May 13, 2002.
I take issue with the comment quoted from the ASCE report
"...the buildings held up extraordinarily well to the impacts and the
raging fires that ultimately destroyed them, saving lives by remaining
upright for many minutes while occupants streamed to safety."
My husband was caught on the 78th floor Sky Lobby of Tower
2, injured in the second plane attack and unable to continue down alone.
He sat there for over 45 minutes waiting for help that would never come.
He should have been rescued. People did not stream to safety. There was
mass pandemonium in those buildings.
The WTC towers were NOT fully occupied. As a result, the
proportion of those that were killed needlessly – BY THE BUILDINGS – is
large and would have been larger had the attack occurred later.
Those mammoth buildings were NEVER meant to be fully
evacuated. Did the occupants know this? As we found during the 1993
bombing, it took hours to get the occupants out! "Many minutes" was just
not enough time to save those that were left in the buildings. My husband
and the almost 3,000 innocent victims were killed because of poor
construction and lack of fire and emergency plans among other things.
There is absolutely no way for the Fire Service to defend buildings of
that enormity in a major emergency. My husband and the 3,000 souls never
had a chance. Terrorist attack or no terrorist attack – they were
doomed.
Monica Gabrielle
Co-Chairperson
Skyscraper Safety Campaign
www.skyscrapersafety.org
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