102 Minutes [Paperback]

This is a very detailed account of what it was like to be in the Twin Towers on the morning of September 11th, 2001. It is not so concerned with the politics of the hijackers or the details of the planes. rather the stories of the survivors and those who did not.

The confusion of the day is well conveyed, with some still sitting at their desks trying to work as people above them died. The lessons learnt from the 1993 bombing - and how they influenced the behaviour of people who recalled all too well that the people who had stayed put had been put to least inconvenience then - are also well told.

About a hundred pages in, you are just overwhelmed all over again. You can recall what it was like that day, to watch the towers abalze on TV. Some of it is almost too much, like a camera has been put inside a gas chamber at Auschwitz. The descriptions of what helicopter pilots saw particularly at the top of the north tower as people threw themselves to their deaths are truly horrendous. Relays had to be worked out at the bottom of the tower for those being evacuated so they could not be killed by the falling bodies; cops had to scream at people not to look at the plaza because it meant they would stop and stare, open-mouthed, and slow the evacuation.

The mistakes of the day are highlighted. The miserable lack of inter-service co-operation between the fire service and the police and the unnecessary equipment dragged up by doomed firefighters who became too exhausted to get out when many knew the south tower had collapsed.

The astonishing heroism of ordinary workers that day shows through. Many died so that others might live.

This is a painful, but utterly compelling book. Everyone should read it.

This book doesn't romanticise the event - it tells the story, warts and all.

For example, I thought that the collapse of the South Tower would lead to firefighters and the police immediately evacuating the North Tower. The book reveals that many of the firefighters had no idea that the South Tower had fallen - the police knew (as the police helicopters relayed the information) but on the police frequency only. Firefighters and the police used different frequencies. Cooperation between the two was poor due to longstanding rivalry.

I write coincidentally on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 (I happened to finish the book today) so there are many TV programmes on at present. The book enables me to recognise untrue stories - for example a TV programme today stated that doors accessing the roofs were locked in order to prevent suicides. Well, the book states that the doors were locked due to longstanding FDNY (Fire Department, City of New York)/police rivalry. It explains that during the 1993 bombing, a police helicopter lifted people to safety off the roof. FDNY thought that it was a publicity stunt and was dangerous as it would cause confusion in a fire, with people heading in opposite directions. So the doors were locked.

Incidentally, years ago (immediately after 9/11?) I heard a third story - the doors were locked to prevent a helicopter assault by terrorists. These three different stories show how the truth gets warped and how we cannot necessarily believe what we read even in apparently respectable newpapers or hear in TV news reports from presenters who we trust. Of course, even the story in the book could be wrong but the explanation is so detailed that it seems believable. I can imagine a reporter assuming, for example, the perfectly reasonable 'suicide prevention' story or hearing it from a person he interviewed (who didn't actually know), therefore starting an urban legend. I wonder how many other historical 'facts' are untrue.

The book reveals that people who could have escaped (as they were below the impact zone) didn't (at least at first) as 911 told them to stay put and seal the doors to prevent smoke intrusion. That was official policy, and made sense as collapse was thought impossible. In addition, many people beneath the crash zone survived the impact and should have been unable to escape but couldn't because they could not open doors. They were the sort of people that the firefighters were (in some cases) able to rescue.

Many who started to evacuate the South Tower after the North Tower was hit were persuaded to return to their offices by an announcement that it was safe to do so.

It is not necessarily true that all those that jumped did so voluntarily. Some appear to have been nudged out by the crush to escape heat and smoke.

What is particularly shocking is that a group of people evacuating the North Tower after the South Tower collapsed reported that the 19th floor was 'carpeted with firefighters...'; '...they guessed there were at least 100...'. On telling them to evacuate, someone replied "We'll come down in a few minutes" (p. 226-227, 2005 edition). It appears that they were unaware that the South Tower had collapsed or that collapse of the North Tower was imminent. Many lives were apparently lost due to poor communication.

The book reports Giuliani stating that the firefighters had received the order to leave but interpreted it as an order to evacuate civilians, not to evacuate themselves. The book rebuffs this, stating that while some firefighters heroically remained despite knowing the danger, 'numerous firefighters recalled that they were unaware of how serious the situation had become in those final minutes' (p. 251-252). The book cautions against romanticising history.

The book never mentions the conspiracy theory but the stories it tells undermine it. People inside the towers reported, during phone calls, ceilings bowing (consistent with the theory that the Towers collapsed due to fires weakening the trusses). One supposed piece of evidence to support the conspiracy is that slow motion film of the collapse shows puffs of smoke coming out of windows on floors just beneath the area collapsing, with those puffs of smoke advancing downwards like sequential explosions just ahead of the collapse. On hearing this I immediately drew a parallel with closing a door in a room with the window open when it is normally closed - the door slams shut. It is all to do with the air trapped in the room. If a skyscraper is collapsing, air is shunted downwards and will blow out windows - that's no evidence of a controlled demolition. The book confirmed this 'trapped air' theory but astounded me regarding its ferocity - 'The impossible collisions of floor, steel, glass are belting towards them. Even stronger than the noise is the wind. Sal D'Agostino tries to open a door to leave the stairwell, but it flies out and throws him against the wall. The wind lifts the engine's chauffeur, Mike Meldrum, off his feet and heaves him one floor down; it carries Matt Komorowski down three floors...' (p. 244).

The New York Police, FDNY and many civilians willingly walked into a patently dangerous situation. I have nothing but respect for them.

A truly remarkably excellent book, so well written and at times you battle to come to grips that every bit of it really happened, every person in the book is a real person, every act of heroism is fact, one of those books that you wished never ends, by the end of it you want to know more and more so you will not be surprised when you find yourself doing your own research afterwards on the net. Its not very often that I find a book that grips me from the word go, one of those that you cannot put down, you've gotta keep going, as if each page of the book becomes a floor of the World Trade Center and a race against time, do not be surprised if you find your self still reading this book at 3am because you just couldn't put it down and you just wanted to know what happened next, apart from the absolute tragic end which we know all too well...