The Forgotten 9/11 First Responder Testimonies

499 Witness Testimonies from EMT's, Paramedics and Firefighters paint a very different picture of what happened on September 11, 2001

I’ve seen a lot of witness testimonies that get used to push specific narratives in the conversations about what people theorize happened on September 11, 2001.

Math Easy Solutions downloaded and combined all 500 PDFs of 9/11 firefighters, paramedics, and EMT witness testimony from the NY Times archive and combined them into a searchable 7,058 page PDF!

Something to keep in mind when working through all of these testimonies;

‘To determine what happened on 9/11, all available evidence must be considered. We cannot pick and choose which observable facts we may want to explain and then ignore the others. Any explanation must consider all the available evidence...” - Dr Judy Wood.

I have written two articles so far, that covered some of the testimonies, and I would request that you read the two following articles, before reading further;

• Going in Search of Planes in NYC on 9/11 - Revisiting 1st Responders’ Accounts.

• The Sounds of Explosions on 9/11 - Was every BOOM a BOMB?

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I would like to bring some of the testimonies to your attention, with the following clips;

You can watch the 1h 30 minute documentary here.

EMT Jessica Maldonado;

Question: How does fire in two huge skyscrapers, cause vehicles to spontaneously combust?

What you would have learned, if you read my two articles above, is that the testimonies point to very strange effects, that cannot be explained by any thermal or kinetic mechanisms and today, I just want to focus on one testimony, seeing most ‘truth seekers” will never take the time to read through 7 000 pages of testimonies, to find all of the testimonies that could be used to prove the various anomalies seen by these witnesses, that CANNOT be explained by two planes flying into buildings, or the use of thermite, bombs or nukes, to cause the destruction witnessed at the World Trade Center complex on September 11, 2001.

At the end of this testimony, I’ll be pointing out some interesting observations in this first responder’s testimony, so be sure to scroll down all the way, it’s a long and disturbing testimony.

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Let’s read the testimony of LIEUTENANT RENE DAVILA, October 12, 2001, Transcribed by Laurie A. Collins - The NY Times archive PDF - File No. 9110075

It’s important to keep in mind, about 8 pages of testimony has been redacted, why?

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MR. ECCLESTON: Today’s date is October 12th, 2001. The time is 12:20 hours.

This is Christopher Eccleston of the Fire Department of New York City. I’m conducting an interview with the following individual. Please state your name, rank, assigned command of the Fire Department of the City of New York.

LIEUTENANT DAVILA: Lieutenant Rene Davila, shield number 328, lieutenant in Battalion 04, Fire Department of New York.

MR. ECCLESTON: Also present in the room is. MS. BASTEDENBECK: Christine Bastedenbeck of the New York City Fire Department.

Q. Lieutenant Davila, were you assigned World Trade disaster on September 11th, 2001?

A. I was assigned or I put myself on assignment immediately after I heard the transmission of the plane hitting the tower.

Q. Can you tell me about the events of that day?

A. Okay.

R . DAVILA

Q. Start from the top.

A. Actually just prior to the plane hitting tower one, I was in the office communicating with Lieutenant Bill Melarango. I just happened to be standing over the desk when I heard one of my units, “01 Charlie,” put a priority message over the frequency stating that the plane just hit the tower. Seconds later I heard another one of my units, “01 Adam,” yelling the same thing. I immediately put myself on the assignment. I ran out, jumped in the vehicle, starting responding. When I got over to Rutgers and South Street, I was able to see the building.

I saw a big hole, what appeared to me at that time to have been a fire or probably secondary to an explosion. I confirmed there was an incident.

I couldn’t confirm it was a plane because I didn’t see the plane.

Immediately I confirmed the incident. I was over the citywide frequency. Basically I started calling for resources. I told them immediately to alert the senior staff. I told

them to get the MERV rolling, start sending all available units to that location. Being around during the bombing, I basically knew we had an incident which was going to generate a great many patients. I couldn’t tell you exactly what floor it was. I couldn’t tell you how many floors were gone but there was a good portion of the building that was definitely destroyed. So I knew we had some casualties and fatalities.

Responding now -- what do you want me to talk about? Do you want me to talk about

personal feelings too?

Q. Sure. Everything.

A. Well, as far as I feel, a lot of personal feelings came. Personally I always thought about -- you know you see that guy on 911 or something like that and he’s a hero or something and he’s a big shot or whatever. I know for myself -- I can’t speak for somebody else -- yeah, I’m going to be like that. Well, I was given the opportunity to be that guy, and I immediately did not want it. As I’m driving, I’m driving and I’m also talking on the frequency. But I remember that coming through my mind.

I also thought of Lieutenant Tony Torres, first of all because he’s from the battalion, second of all because he’s Hispanic, but next he was the first responding supervisor to the bombing at the World Trade Center towers.

Going through all those thoughts and stuff also, I started trying to think logistically, trying to think of how we were taught. Preplans, I don’t even know if they existed since the merger. However, I still think that way.

So when I traveled down there, I was trying to go ahead and get down there where I could get down by Vesey Street. Vesey, as far as I remember, is the preplan for our staging area. I remember I ran down, I came down around across by Beekman Hospital and made a right over on Beekman Street and went up. I did a couple turns across Broadway. I ended up coming down Vesey.

Right over here, right before the union is normally where we would have set up staging, but it appears when the towers got hit that a lot of debris already was in that street and in that area . Alot of debris was flyin g around there, and it definitely wasn’t, if anything, as safe to set a staging. Plus I noticed that all the other apparatus and stuff was still continuing on over t o West Street.

So I continued on to West Street, made a left - hand turn , and I set the first -- staging and command post basically -- you’ve got West Street . I was on the eastside of West Street.

I was setting staging of my units, and I had my command right over here, pretty much adjacent to the rescue that was running into tower one.

Q. That’s where you parked your vehicle then?

A. That’s where I originally parked my vehicle .

Q. Can you just indicate that by a number 1 on the map?

A. Trade Center one, Trade Center two. So I’ll be like number 1.

Q. So you parked your vehicle there.

A. Right.

Q. And you tried to establish a command post there?

A. That’s what I had given directions. Right behind, right on the other side of the

median there was the bus of 01 Charlie. I couldn’t see my other unit, 01 Adam, which later I found out they were actually on Liberty Street. A couple other voluntaries were starting to arrive at that time, but I remember going over to 1 Charlie because they were my unit. I went to the back of the vehicle. They had about six -- is my language permissive?

Q. Whatever you want to say.

A. This is exactly the way I talk. I ran to the back of the vehicle, and I said, “What the fuck you got?” No, I saw the patient in the back of the vehicle. I saw some people with difficulty breathing. Nobody was on 02. I didn’t see no amputation or anything at that point. I already knew that there was that type of patient coming out, because when I first went 84 on the scene and advised citywide, one or two people leaving the tower, I’d seen a couple of amputations.

I’d seen a couple body parts in the street coming towards that location. I saw people coming completely burnt at me where their clothes were singed off with burns, probably from one to fourth degree going down into the bone. They were walking to me, and I was immediately going, “Walking wounded, you go down that way across the street.”

I went in the back of 1 Charlie. I said, “Do your patients walk?” He said, “Yeah.”

“Tell them to get the fuck out and run that way.” At that time I told him to close the door to the vehicle and pull every triage tag that they had available. I started just yelling at them, “Triage, triage, triage.”

Then as the other units were responding in, all I was telling them is -- they were like -- everybody was trying to run to grab a patient. I said absolutely not. I think that was one of the most difficult things I had. In fact, right now today, I was talking at roll call to people about triage and the importance of triage. I said, “Triage, triage, triage.”

There were a couple AMR units there. I think the next unit I saw was a St. Vincent’s paramedic unit, and the same thing again.

They’re serious. I don’t care. Triage, triage, triage.

At that time I went ahead and I noticed already I was losing my voice. I grabbed the crew of 1 Charlie. I knew these two guys. I told both of them to stick to me like glue. One of them was the staging officer. The other one had to stay with me because he was going to be my voice. Just in case I lost my voice completely, at least I was able to talk through him and he would have been able to communicate for me.

The onset from the time I was basically trying to grab a hold to try to get an ICS system operating. I knew senior staff was responding.

I have to be honest, when I first got there, the first thing I did was get out of my vehicle and look to see if I saw another light blue shirt. I was hoping somebody else got there before me. That’s what I was actually hoping. But no, to my dismay, there was no one else there.

Q. Who did you make this staging officer?

A. The staging officer was EMT Alex Loutsky.

Q. Who was the other

A. As a matter of fact, you’ll probably see him. He’s in the press paper. He’s downstairs too.

Q. Who was the person that stayed with you?

A. He was the one that just went out ill, secondary probably to this, Ralph Ramos. Again just trying to get a hold of the whole situation. At that point I remember one thing. St. Vincent’s unit had some people in their vehicle they were going to transport, and I said, “You’re not going anywhere. You’re triaging.” I knew the importance of triage at that time until we got some more resources.

In between that I’m trying to transmit basically what’s going on. I can’t really remember much of my words except basically I was given them the access and advising that we have clear access to the location from both sides of West Street. I knew that was clear on both sides, whatever they could get in from that location.

There was debris all in the air, and I remember I mentioned at one time this is a hard hat operation. Then as I’m communicating I catch from my peripheral vision on the right -- I didn’t even think about it hitting the building. I’m just basically like what the hell is he doing there. Before I knew it, he disappeared behind the building, and bingo, there was an explosion.

I remember yelling over the frequency, however I communicated, a secondary explosion in the second building. At that time I remember I repeated over and over, because I had debris hit my helmet, “This is a hard hat situation, a hard hat operation, a hard hat operation.”

I looked around me, and everybody like maybe stopped for a few seconds like, whoa. I can honestly say that it didn’t stop the operation from moving in the direction that it was moving at that particular time. Everybody kind of appeared to still continue doing what they were doing. The firefighters were still loading into the building, except that now they’re starting to run over to tower two. A little while right after that, I started seeing a couple light blue shirts come in. I don’t remember the lieutenant’s name.

Lieutenant Mann was one of them from operations I remember seeing. Then I saw Lieutenant Terranova.

Q. Ross?

A. Ross he’s here now. And Chief Gombo. I came over to Chief Gombo. I still speak about this, because the look that he gave me -- he looked at me with his mouth open, and I looked at him the same way. I handed him my clipboard with the units that I had there to start. It was basically like the command was turned over with very little communication. It was just like this is it. He knows I knew the area, and he asked me what was in the other side of the building. I’m like a little rattled. I think Loutsky or Ralph, because these guys follow directions, I told them to stay with me like glue.

Every time I turned around, I bumped heads with them. They told me Church and Fulton. Church and Fulton was told to Chief Gombo. He said, “You go ahead and start operations over there and get the vehicle over there. “ We sent 1 Charlie, in their bus, came back over here, on Vesey going over t o Church and Fulton right here in front of the Millennium.

Q. Did your vehicle go there also?

A. Yeah. I got in my vehicle, and I started going. However, on the way there a body jumps -- well, I think I drove over a couple of bodies and stuff like that. Another walking body jumped in front of my vehicle . That happened t o be Captain Stone.

He was like, “Stop!” He ran from somewhere and just -- “Where you going?” I said, “Church and Fulton.”

He said , “I need you to take me here.”

I said , “Chief Gombo told me to go ahead.”

He said , “I told you to fucking take me here.

“I said , “Okay. You’re going there. You’re going there.”

I put him in the vehicle and brought him over to the command post, got my vehicle turned back around, and I made it to Church and Fulton.

Q. That’s indicated by number 2 on the map?

A. Right. Church and Fulton, I tell you, when we first got there, it took longer than it would take normally to get there. There were lamp posts in the street. There was all kinds of metal on the street. There’s soot about two feet high in different areas throughout the street. There’s bodies. There’s been a couple of bodies and people still coming out. Of course now we’re being approached by PD and everything: I have a patient here. I’ve got a patient there. I’m telling them, “I can’t handle it. Tell them to run and go that way. Tell them to go that way.”

What we started doing is right in front of the Millennium, started to direct walking wounded to go over up Fulton Street, and the ones that needed oxygen, things of that nature, we were setting up over here in this area.

Already by that time now I started getting more resources. I saw the Cabrini paramedics show up. I had a lot of AMR units there. Lieutenant *********** - came. ***********************************************.

Q. ****************** ?

A. ***************** Right. Now, you want t o hear personal feelings? I’ll give you personal feelings.

You know what, she could be a fantastic person, but they don’t have field experience. I think this is very important, because a couple incidents happened. I went over and I see Loutsky, and I walk over.

First of all, she was there. She was a captain, the highest ranking. But I still felt that I was in charge of that operation and I felt it calling me to that.

I had my unit 1 Charlie, and I see Alex. By t h a t time we’ve got AMR, and we’re loading the AMR buses. They were parked, and they were parking all over. There was no structure. So what we’re doing is we’re blocking that access and egress out of that location. There was no structure. The same thing with my voluntary units that were coming there. They had 911 training. They’re able to go ahead and treat the patient accordingly. However, no idea of the incident command system, staging or about getting in, getting out.

When I started doing AMR, I started to tell Loutsky, “Load all the minor injuries and stuff in there. Get them and just tell them to take the bus over to Brooklyn.” I didn’t want to load the hospitals in Manhattan. Shoot the bus over to fucking Brooklyn. Just get them out of the way, because they were in the way. That was the bottom line. But I see Loutsky at one time with a clipboard, and he’s trying to take names of people that are fucking hysterical.

I said, “What the fuck are you doing?” He said, “The captain told me to do tracking and take names.”

Tracking is fine when you’ve got 10 patients and 20 patients and maybe even 50 patients, but I’ve got two fucking 110-story buildings emptying out in front of me and I’ve got a captain telling me do tracking.

So I told him, “Fuck what the captain said. I’m in charge, and I’m telling you forget about names and forget about fucking numbers. Just load them in the bus and get them out of here. “If I ‘m wrong, you write me up, and I’ll go see your guys in BITS. But you know what? Fuck it. I thought that was -- and I told her afterwards when we did that interview for Third Watch. I made it a little joke. I had to be a little respectful, but I had to go ahead and explain that.

The sector was starting to get - formed -- we had like the sector. I had ******************** again, people from operations *********** is a very nice guy. People in operations, they’re not used to the fucking street or to reality. He came in and all of a sudden he started talking on the radio. I said, “ ******* what the fuck you doing talking on the radio?”

Gombo don’t got time to hear that shit. This is the big one. We got an assignment. You do the assignment. Bottom line, get the patients out. Maybe down the line you get calmed down. Then you start playing here’s the command system. Bottom line is you’ve been trained to do this; you go ahead and do it. I’m pissed off a little now about it after the fact. Then you didn’t have the time. It was just like what the fuck are you doing?

So I came out and said, “You want command? Here, use my radio. Take command. But we need to react. Somebody needs to be the treatment officer. You’re a medic. I gave you the treatment officer.”

Bottom line, I didn’t want to go ahead and pull I’m the senior lieutenant, whatnot. It wasn’t time for that. These are some of my feelings, because if they’re going to do anything about this, people need to remember the old way we used to do it in EMS that, you know what, the senior lieutenant is the one in charge until the next person of rank comes in, in that nature.

The bottom line is get the patients out. Triage and get the patients out of the goddamn way. That’s the bottom way. That’s the way I was taught. That’s the way Chief Goldfarb taught me back in the old days. This is the way you do MCI, this is the way you do it, get it done. Guys like Captain Stern and Jeff Armstrong.

All these guys, they did MCIs, not the playing and fucking around on the radio, talking about I’ve got this and that, because you know what? You got thousands of people coming. By now I’m watching people jump out of windows. It’s not like when I saw them jump six, seven or eight out of the Shomberg Plaza up in Harlem. They were jumping now one, two, three, four, smashing like fucking eggs on the ground.

People were getting hit by bodies falling.

These guys were talking about write down names. I was like, you’re fucking out of your mind.

(Interruption.)

A. Again, the system was starting to get running. I remember Duane Walker. Duane Walker is one of the division supply guys. He came and brought extra tanks of 02, starting unloading those in the sector. I remember asking somebody to try to tape off areas over here in front of the Millennium, because you had the lobby, you had the lobby was here in the corner, and I was telling the walking wounded to go that way. We had people with all kinds of injuries. A lot of the primary injuries that we were getting originally was nothing but hysterical patients, a lot of hysterical.

I remember one guy across the street went in to a grand mal seizure and stuff like that, and they pulled me over there . This guy is down and I looked. I said , “He’s having a seizure. Just stay around him and make sure he doesn’t get hurt. Bye.”

We were starting to get people moving.

Again, we were using AMR. They had like three or four buses there , if I’m correct. I know about two of them before the collapse happened I was able to get out , load them up and get them out of here.

Now, something that really fucks with me a lot is Lillo. Lillo came up to me and said, “Lieutenant, my wife is in the building. “ I’m like, “Oh, what are you saying? What are you saying?” I don’t even know his wife. I knew his other wife that worked the same job, but I don’t know his new lady.

“Okay, do me a favor. Help me out here and if I see her I’ll direct you to her.”

We were just working along. People were pulling my coat, “This one is more serious. I’ve got to go.” Tag them. We get a bus, we throw them in.

I remember one guy was laying down. He had an open chest wound about the size of my fist in his right chest. I kept on looking. I knew what was coming. I knew he was going to go downhill. He had that look in his eye like -- he wasn’t even talking. He was going into shock.

All of a sudden you heard the rumble and people yelling and screaming. You look and you see -- I didn’t see the top of the building.

I didn’t see the top of tower two. The collapse started. You felt like the ground -- it was like a deep sound, rumble; like you’re laying on the platform and the D train is coming. You look and you see what -- I best describe it as a wave coming.

I started running in my direction. I started running into the hotel. Something knocked me. I don’t know whether it was --

Q. The Millennium?

A. We were in front of the Millennium. I’m talking going in through the lobby.

Q. Okay.

A. Something knocked me down. I don’t know if something hit my helmet or whether it was a force. I got down, and I thought I’ve got to get up. By the time I got up, it was like [sound] I’m overcome by black and I’m running in the building in this black, and I’m running and I’m running and I’m running.

The next thing I know, I see a little light, and I follow that light. I run in there, and I find I’m in an office, and I close the door. I close the door and then I start walking, and I’m panicked, I’m panicked. I lost it. I lost it for a few minutes in here.

In this room there’s nothing but computers, maybe five, six computers, and phones.

As I’m in there, this force is still coming through the cracks of the door. I see some coats and I saw a water fountain. So I wet them, and I wet them and I stuff them under. I’m like walking back and forth, “I’m a medic. I’m a medic. I’m not a fucking firefighter. What do you do? What do you do? What do you do?”

I went to one of the computers for a minute. I thought I’d go on AOL or something and call for help. I was like, “What the hell am I doing?” I was in a dead end. There was no way out of that office. I’m now going, “What the fuck did you do? You idiot.

You ran out.

There’s no way out. You’re going to die in here.” It was getting real difficult for me to breathe in there, the dust, and there was no air transmitting across. There was a bunch of debris. I tried to get out. I said, “I’ve got to get out of here.” I’ve got one of those little super lights from Gauls magazine. Better than a mag light. It’s pretty bright. It wasn’t bright enough. Could you excuse me a minute?

MR. ECCLESTON: We’ll stop the tape at 12:47. (Pause.)

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MR. ECCLESTON: We’re continuing this interview at 12:49.

A. I was in this office or whatever it was. I went ahead -- I opened up the door, and some of it -- the noise had settled. However, you heard distant sounds. I said let me try to get out of here. I opened up. It’s pitch-, pitch-, pitch-black. The only light was inside the door.

I grabbed this mag light, and I said maybe if I could make it out through this corridor or whatever I walk through I’ll hit some light and I’ll get the hell out of here. I’ve got this light and I’m feeling myself through the wall. With the flashlight you could only see probably less than a foot.

I’m feeling. All of a sudden I am walking and walking and I find myself inside an elevator. That’s when I realized this is the wrong thing to do, because it could be the elevator is not here and I’m going to end up falling down the shaft.

So I tried to get back. It took me a while to find myself back. By now I’m really gagging for air. I get back in, and I close back that door. When I got in there, now it’s a different feeling. It’s a feeling of this is it, I bought the bullet, I’m going to die. I have to honestly say, all of a sudden from the panic that I was at it was just like a warmth. What do you do?

Actually what I did, I picked up the phone, and I got a dial tone. I called my wife. She doesn’t really work too far. I called her, and I’m thinking -- if she answers the phone hysterical. I got the secretary or somebody in the office, and she was on the phone. She said, “I saw it . “Her office is up at 250 Church. They viewed the whole thing. She knows I work this area and the whole nine yards.

• I’m said, “ *****************************************************

  **************************************************************************************** You could hear her yelling on the other side of the phone with people from 911.

I’m said, ********************************************************************************************************************************* [About half a page is redacted - pages 25 & 26]

I don’t know how much time goes by between those periods, but there still wasn’t the second collapse. I come out. I push out some of the rubble and stuff like that. I started seeing a little light, which turned out to be the lobby.

I came out in the lobby, and it’s destroyed. I couldn’t go out the way I came in through the lobby. I came out through the side door on Fulton Street. I’m covered in soot.

I come out. It was terrible when I got there and we set up all of this and how I drove there. There were people on the ground. There was debris morbidly all over.

I was devastated. I was like relieved that I got out of that building, but I was like look at this. The radio was basically quiet then. If you heard anything, it was point-to-point communications.

You heard some maydays and you hear people yelling for help, 13. I’m like walking like the (inaudible), and I met up with this kid Ramos. And we hugged and we kissed. I told him, “What we can’t do alone we can do together. We’ll get the fuck out of here.”

He goes (inaudible). I said, “Ramos?”

He said, “What?” I said, “I left my wallet and my refund check in the fucking vehicle. I don’t think Uncle Sam is going to give me another refund check.”

Q. At this point was your vehicle lost?

A. Basically all we to do is go around the building, came around. But it took longer than usual because you’re walking in like this shit. Like you move and it’s this soot like heavy dust. While we’re walking I realize that we only have two people. I see my vehicle. The seats are covered. I’ve still got my bag. I hold it like a trophy. Like people collect basketballs. I haven’t touched -- whatever the force was, it was so strong that it went inside of the bag. But we were there. Vehicle 219 was destroyed.

Q. Was it on fire?

A. What?

R . DAVI LA

Q. Was it on fire?

A. Fire? We saw the sucker blow up. We heard “Boom!” We were walking up Fulton Street. I don’t know how far we made it up when someone says, “The building’s coming down.”

By the time I realized, it’s a repeat. We were running, and I looked back and it seems like the sides of the street were getting narrower. The sound got louder and the wave. I remember we separated one time and Ramos wanted to go down into the train station. I said, “No fucking way. We’re out here. Without ventilation, we’re definitely dead.” I said, “If I’m going to die, I’m going to die with a fighting chance.”

We held hands, and we were running.

The next thing we know, [sound]. When it covers you, it’s silent. Ramos was just a little slightly like (inaudible). I couldn’t see him. I tell him -- I always have a handkerchief; it’s an old Spanish thing. I had my handkerchief, and I wrapped it around. I told Ramos the same thing. I said, “Wrap something around your mouth. Keep the soot and stuff out and just breathe shallow. Just take enough oxygen, because you don’t want to breathe all this dust.”

If anything that was comical, the human body -- or maybe I’m just a fucking nut.

Things that happened, because we’re walking and Ramos says, “Lieutenant.” I’m like, “What the fuck you want?” You could hear each other and that’s it.

He said, “I lost my radio.” We’re dying. We’re going to die. This guy is telling me he lost his fucking radio. I said, “Remind me if we make it through this, and I’ll fucking write you up.”

The next thing you hear (knock), my helmet hits -- I still don’t know what it is.

I’m assuming it was a lamppost or something. That’s when I told Ramos this is not going to work, we’re not going to make it. We decided we were holding on together. We held together, baby.

We moved over to the right, and we felt along through the buildings. Along through the building, all the businesses must have been locked up after the first impact, because all the businesses were closed. We’re walking and walking.

I happened to catch a little light.

There was a glass in a cleaner. I’m banging, “Open the fuck up or I’m kicking this shit in.” Nobody wanted it kicked in because all that shit will come in. They opened up. We ran in. We came in there -- what turned out to be a Subway store.

There were a bunch of people in there. I was happy to see them; they were happy to see us. I have to honestly say that thank God for those people and the situation I thought of, because they were looking at us because we were in uniform. “Us” is me and Ramos. Ramos is looking at me because I’m the lieutenant. So, that took away the panic from me, and reliving this it’s , okay, I’m Lieutenant Davila, I’ve got to be a leader.

So I remember -- I go and I yell out, “Who’s the boss?” An oriental guy raises his hand. I said , “Well, by order of the City of New York, I’m the boss now. Go in your register, get your money, put it in your pocket.”

Then I told everybody step back, and I told anybody who tried to open up the door I was going t o kick their ass. I got everybody to the back of the store.

I remember I told the man -- there was two guys that were willing to help.

I said, “Just get some stuff, stuff it under the door and try to keep as much debris, or whatever, coming in.”

I didn’t know what was going on. I know the first building fell and there was shit all over, and I know the second one fell and we were closer to it. I have to honestly say after the first plane hit , I thought there was a chance of me dying.

After that first collapse and I was in that building, I thought I was dead. I made it through that and I’m like, oh, fuck.

I tell you, the feelings, again, that I’ve had, you know what, false pride is unbelievable, things that we have to go through, ************************************************************* [Redacted section - page 31]

This is what I’m thinking about. But I was thinking of myself as a corpse already.

Lieutenant Davila died in the line of duty. I kept these people in the back.

They’re a ll hysterical. I ‘m like, “Shut up. Stop it. You can’t control this. Let’s try to make it together. Save the oxygen.” I was telling them, “Nobody move without me knowing where you’re going.” You know what was the funniest thing?

I ended up taking off my turnout coat . I took it and I threw it over the counter. The Chinese guy came and took my turnout coat and pulled it on the floor . I’m like, “What the fuck you doing?” He said , “Food, food.”

I’m like, “Fucking food, there’s soot all over this shit. “ Now I’m mad. I took my fucking thing and I put it back over it. “Fuck you, you jerk.” **************************** [Redacted section - page 32]

I made him open up the refrigerator, get bottles of water, give it to the people to drink.

We were in there for a while. The time period that we were in there I really don’t know. I would probably say maybe 20 minutes or so like that. Then all of a sudden we start seeing the lights start flickering.

So what I did was I told them to open up the door and I came out. I came out just to look and see what’s going on there. I started seeing some people up in the corner. It was much clearer. I guess that’s where the avenue opened up, West Broadway, where it was opening up. I think Chase Manhattan Bank is over here. So what I did was I came back in there.

I saw a couple ambulances and stuff. I asked the Oriental guy, “Do you have any towels?” He said, “Yeah.” I said, “Everybody grab a towel. Wrap it around your face.” I had everybody holding hands. I had about 18, 20 people in there. I had everybody hold hands, and I just had them go out the side of the building and just head east.

We came up here, and it was me and Ramos. We came out to sunlight, I saw Bruce Medjuck there. I think I saw Pat Scaringello. Then we started hearing the radio: “Stage in Battery Park or Chambers and West.” It would be just sounds and it was horrible. It sounded horrible. I really thought that we had -- would have a lot more casualties than what it was, because I didn’t see them. The thought was devastating.

Then, I forgot, Amy Monroe showed up at he staging area *************** [Redacted - page 34] Bill Melarango. These people need to be commended. We came in and had to be there. Bill was a station boss. She was out on leave of absence. Then she shows up in a crisp white uniform.

When I got up there, my concern was for Bill, Amy and Alex. *********** [Redacted - page 34] But me and Ramos went nuts going looking for them. Walking back over there, we found Alex. He’s okay. We never found Amy. We never found Bill. We went back there looking for them and looking for them and couldn’t find them.

We thought maybe we lost them. So again it was me and Ramos. You know, I go to the right guy. I said, well, okay, we’ve got to regroup. I hear this going on -- and we begin walking. We walked down to Beekman. Beekman was set up pretty nicely. We waited for patients and stuff like that. There were a couple of patients, but not what they were preparing for. That was really like -- I started thinking, we ain’t getting the numbers.

The force of this was so great that there was debris and soot all the way down past South Street. So I had to do something. We’re there.

I called it war then. It’s really war now. I said, like, okay, I’ve got to deal with this. What will you do? What am I going to do? I started meeting a couple of people straggling out, some of St. Vincent’s units. I’m going, okay, I’m the only one here with any authority. So they were helping out at the hospital, and I told them to continue. I asked them what they were doing. They just brought a couple patients there. Then one or two of them, their partners were missing, so they were just cross-eyed. I got them in the room, calmed them down, take it easy.

I found this guy Duane Walker, the equipment guy, here. Basically I’m like, “Come on, fellows.” I got Lawrence from communications. I don’t know how he ended up getting them. He ended up there with civilian clothes and a shield. I said, “You’re going to stay with us too.”

Q. Do you know what his last name is?

A. No. I know he’s an EMT for -- he works for communications. (Inaudible). He was there. Ashby, you know about Ashby; right?

Q. Yes.

A. I found out that there was -- I forgot the name of the place now. I go there all the time. But right down Fulton Street -- okay, this is further down. Down by Beekman, down by Fulton and Pearl there’s a nursing facility, and they work in conjunction with New York Downtown. I heard they were starting a triage and the treatment center over there. I took a walk down there to see how they were doing. I spoke to one of the doctors over there. Basically what the doctor at that time told me was that they needed some saline and tubing for eye washing stuff. So I walked back to hospital 01.

I wasn’t going to bring that equipment back over there, because I knew I had to get back to an EMS command. I had to make a decision, I was going to the Battery or I’m going to West and Chambers. So I told them and I got the Cabrini people to go ahead and bring them their supplies. I did that.

Finally I was trying to decide which way I’m going to go, and my decision was I’m going to West and Chambers. My real reason for going to West and Chambers is because I knew my wife was on Church, and in walking I had to go by there, it’s just a block by. I actually went by and said I’m here, I’m alive.

Then I left and headed to the command post at West and Chambers. Everything down there was pretty calm. Actually it took a little while to get to West and Chambers and stuff like that still. You’re meeting up with people. I found out they had a little staging area already.

That’s where I met up with Captain Parra.

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MR. ECCLESTON: Rene Davila on October 12th, 2001, continuation on side two.

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A. Actually prior to meeting up with Parra on Greenwich, after we started crossing Church the other way, I ended up meeting academy personnel. I met up with a bunch of people from the academy. Captain Gio Pineda was there with a couple other people. I guess I must have been rowdy because they came both to me and Ramos and looked at us and said, “Come on, get in the bus, I’m not going on no bus. I’ve got to go work and everything else.”

Then the news media started. They found out that I was there, that I was in the Marriott and the first boss there. And Travis was there. Not the captain, the lieutenant.

Q. Barry Travis?

A. Yeah. And Maggiure -- the news media -- that’s okay -- I walked away from them. That’s when everyone went by and I saw Fern and I started heading towards West and Chambers ******************************************* [Redacted - About half a page, pages 38 & 39]

I made it back to West and Chambers.

That was a good sight. It was a good sight to see all the firefighters and all the firemen and seeing buses from like counties I never heard of. It must have been a couple hours already that passed by.

Then I made it to Stuyvesant School. Again, I’m not -- me and Ramos stuck together. I went there and I said I’m not staying and sitting in an auditorium. Then I was looking for something to do. I know I was part of it and I wanted to do more. I saw the itch in these poor kids that got there, and they wanted to do something. They were keeping them locked in -- you know why they should have had them standing outside. They were dying.

I remember I made it back out to the street and stuff again, and Chief McCracken came up to me. Chief McCracken saw me, and he said, “I thought you were dead. It’s good to see you.” That was it. We talked. We did it facing everybody hanging was. I’m still out there. That’s all there looking for Amy and Bill. I finally started -- somebody told me that Amy was at the hospital. I’ll tell you a story about that. I don’t care how unofficial that is, I (inaudible) on that one. Somebody saw Bill, so I felt a lot better.

Everybody took to their high horse and shit. I have to say that when I got to the command, I see Kowalczyk and everybody looked like they’re gummy bears, full of dust, and he was in his crisp white shirt. *************** [Redacted - page 40 & 41]

Then I saw Stone coming in, and he said, “Rene, what are you doing? I want clipboards and paper pads.” I’m like, “You’re fucking serious? You want clipboards? I’ll get you fucking clipboards. I went to Stuyvesant High School. I’m Puerto Rican. I’m pretty good at something.”

I found my way to an office, and I start opening drawers. The secretary’s always got a stash. We open drawers and find a bunch of pads. I got him a pad, I got him a fucking pencil sharpener, I got him a fucking ruler, I got him clipboards, I got him everything out of there and said, “Here, mother fucker.”

I think McCracken just noticed that I was fucking wild. He ordered me, “I want you to sit down. You’re upset.” “No.” “That’s it. Sit down.”

That was it. That was basically where I ended up, me and Ramos. Then all of a sudden Ramos kind of collapsed on me, so I got a bus for Ramos. We were married then. He was going to hospital 01. I’m going to hospital 01 with him.

I don’t know about what time. I guess it was about 8:30, 9:00 at night.

We get him on a stretcher and into hospital 01. The nurses saw me there, and they grabbed me. I kind of buckled at the knees. They treated me like (inaudible). I still couldn’t stand still. I was like, “Get this shit off me.”

That’s basically my part. That’s how my day went. I finally got out of here probably around midnight or so, and I was back up at 4:30 in the morning. I was back here at 6:00 again. ********************************** [Redacted - page 42] That’s it.

Q. Is there anything else you would like to add? Any other feelings or anything?

A. ****************************************************************** [Redacted - page 42]

Pages 43 and 44 of the testimony is nearly redacted fully!

*********************************************************************** On the EMS side of this, that I’m aware of, there’s only two fatalities. *********************************************

[Redacted - The rest of pages 44 to page 47]

A. I saw people die . I saw people jump out of windows, more than I’ v e ever seen in my life . Let me tell you something else. I’m 51 fucking years o l d . I’ve seen just about fucking everything and I’ve done a lot more. And you think about it. We have been able to keep ourselves intact. ********************************************************************* [Redacted - rest of page 48] ******************************** I’m glad to see my bosses there. I’m glad to have seen McCracken there. I thank them.

And Gombo, who I heard almost died in this. I’m glad to see these guys. I was glad to hear Goldfarb on the radio, Mr. MCI. It was like, okay, here we go. ************************* [Redacted - MOST of page 49]

Q. You’ve got a lotto be proud of.

A. EMS didn’t do things that bad. ***************************************************************** [Redacted on page 50] - Let me shut up. Thank you.

Q. Thank you today for conducting this interview with us.

MR. ECCLESTON: This interview is being concluded at 128 hours. The counter on the cassette player is 892 /-FPLT.

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What chills this testimony gives us!

At the same time, much is also revealed;

According to Lieutenant Rene Davila;

1. The sound of the Towers disintegrating is described:

“All of a sudden you heard the rumble and people yelling and screaming. You look and you see -- I didn’t see the top of the building.

I didn’t see the top of tower two. The collapse started. You felt like the ground -- it was like a deep sound, rumble; like you’re laying on the platform and the D train is coming. You look and you see what -- I best describe it as a wave coming.

I started running in my direction. I started running into the hotel. Something knocked me. I don’t know whether it was.”

Now listen to this clip, as the South Tower disintegrates, and is then immediately compared with a conventional controlled demolition. (1 minute clip)

Listen to New York firefighter, Niels Jorgensen describing what happened - He talks of a disintegration, NOT a collapse or bombs going off as one would expect for a conventional controlled demolition. (2 minutes)

Even the survivors of stairwell B, the 9/11 Surfer Pasquale Buzzelli, on Surviving the Disintegration of the North Twin Tower, also speaks of a RUMBLING and the sound of a freight train coming at him… (3minutes)

This 9/11 Survivor Pete, also talks about a crackling sound, that he will never forget.

2. The toasted cars all around the World Trade Center

Not only did Lieutenant Rene Davila, see his own vehicle spontaneously combust, but the news media was reporting on it, whilst the Twin Towers were still standing!

Read pages 213 to 246 of Where did the Towers go?

Then in his presentation, In Defence of Judy Wood, Dr David A. Hughes also touches on the toasted cars. (6 minutes)

Be sure to read my article directed at Dr David Hughes: No but, Dr David A. Hughes, as his opinion on certain aspects of the evidence Dr Wood presents, I find incorrect.

3. What is the reason for redacting parts of the testimony?

   

I can only speculate that certain aspects could be more incriminating into exposing anomalies that would help researchers come to the full conclusion that some sort of weaponized energy was in play.

As per my two linked articles at the beginning of the article, the 499 witness testimonies is a treasure trove to find testimonies that go against the official narrative and the government approved counter narrative, making sure good intentioned truth seekers do not get to the full truth of what happened on September 11, 2001.

I will again implore you to read and distribute 9/11 Jersey Girl, Patricia Casazza’s open letter to the US Government, the 9/11 truth movement and 9/11 truth seekers alike.

A last thought in closing, as shared with Sonia Poulton on 9 February, 2026.

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9/11 FACTS that hurt people’s feelings - 43 FACTS that cannot be explained due to jet fuel, bombs, thermite or nukes - Read more here

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Thank you for reading, thank you for watching, listening and still caring.

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If you like reading my articles and would like to buy me a coffee, please follow the link to my PayPal, as substack does not allow for payments to my country yet.

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If this is the first article of mine you’re reading, please rewind to my first article and work your way through all of them, as you’ve missed out on a lot of valuable 9/11 and “9/11 truther movement” information.

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Remember DO NOT get your hands on this absolutely scary book by Dr Judy Wood.

And whatever you do, don’t watch the 1h “9/11 Essential Guide”.

Free PDF book downloads by Andrew Johnson:

9/11 – Finding the Truth and also 9/11 – Holding the Truth

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