Search Tactics and Procedures Below Grade
As the fire was being controlled and the extent of the explosion became clear. Rescue Co. 3. FDNY s primary building collapse unit, was assigned to search the massive destruction caused by the bombing. A tremendous amount of crushing debris had been caused by both the explosion and the subsequent collapse of several floors of reinforced concrete, each more than a foot thick; thus, a high victim survival rate was not likely. However, the possibility that even one victim was trapped alive justified the operation.
As information with regard to the whereabouts of workers slowly was reported in, we found out that close to two dozen maintenance personnel were having lunch in a cafeteria in the vicinity of the blast center only minutes before the blast. We also considered the possibility that several workers and civilians may have been located in the parking garages when the blast occurred.
As Rescue Co. 3’s void search team was being assembled, a staging area for our tools and equipment was set up in a safe area close to our chosen point of entry into the bomb crater. Each firefighter checked his own equipment and all tools and instruments to be utilized in the search. Each firefighter’s equipment included full turnout gear, since smoldering fires from cars and debris still were burning; handlights, which would be our main source of illumination while searching the rubble; portable radios so we could remain in constant contact w ith each other if necessary; and SCBAs.
Each team also laid out and checked the equipment it would use —the thermal imaging camera and search camera (see sidebars), carbon monoxide meters, oxygen indicators, explosimeters, search ropes, and hand tools.
Four two-man sections were organizcd and briefed. For obvious safety reasons, they were to keep in visual and voice contact at all times. Team one was assigned the unit’s thermal imaging camera; team two the search camera; and teams three and four each had the various meters and worked in conjunction with teams one and two. The main objective of these void search teams was to locate and extricate any victims who may have been caught in the blast area at the time of the explosion. An initial surface search of the entire area was undertaken for two reasons:
- to determine the extent of the damage and evaluate the dangers in the operating environment, and
- to determine how many and what types of voids were created by the blast and whether they could be effectively searched for survivors.
Since each rescue firefighter was equipped with a radio, one team member stayed on the primary tactical channel to monitor the overall operation and listen for problems, condition updates, or any other pertinent information that was being relayed continually by the command post. The other search team member switched to a secondary tactical channel that gave the teams direct access to each other and the void team officer on a less-crowded frequency. This way, new information could be immediately relayed to each team.
COLLAPSE VOIDS
When the teams were ready, we descended into the lowest level of bomb damage via a flight of stairs unaffected by the blast. The majority of the debris had settled at this location. Our entry point was blocked almost from the start; in the access doorway to this level, about twothirds of the way up the opening, one of the sections of concrete floor from above, about 50 feet wide and 80 feet long, had come to rest in a supported lean-to collapse. As we slowly penetrated the area, the awesome destruction caused by the explosion began to unfold. As we entered the blast area by hoisting ourselves on top of the slab blocking the doorway, we stopped momentarily to examine the destruction. Immediately to our left stood a shear wall, constructed mainly of large steel beams and some masonry’ block. This w as one of the stabilizing walls in the building; the steel “H” beams were roughly four by four feet, and every other set of columns was diagonally cross-braced for strength. The columns themselves were undamaged; however, very little of the masonry building material was standing. T his material created a debris pile approximately 1 5 feet high along the entire face of the wall. It would be extremely difficult to search and climb through.
(Photo courtesy of Port Authority Risk Management.)
Diagonally across on our left, the entire side of the crater lay in a lean-to collapse supported either on top of machinery or directly on the lowest level. This had resulted in tons of debris being deposited into the bottom of the crater. Numerous objects hung precariously on these tilted sections of concrete —several automobiles, equipment, tables, chairs, and lockers from a destroyed locker room w ere just some of the items ready to come crashing down at any time. In one section, a vehicle was hanging over the edge of broken slab, ready to fall into the area where the rescue teams were operating. The only thing stopping it from falling w as a group of reinforcing bars sticking out of the concrete—not exactly a substantial holding device.
Directly across from the stairwell entrance, all the levels that had been destroyed were sheared off in an unsupported lean-to fashion. The slabs were leaning precariously, with sections of loose concrete hanging by only a few strands of reinforcing bar, an extremely dangerous condition. On our right side, where the ramps for the parking garage were located, we discovered similar conditions. Unsupported sections of concrete were hanging but. in this case, without a large amount of debris accumulated on the floors, since they had been in continuous use as the parking hit egress up until the time of the explosion.
Directly to the right of the stairway entrance was the most dangerous area within the crater. Two levels were hanging in a totally unsupported leanto position; and a large section of the flooring, about 30 by 40 feet, was hanging by only a few pieces of reinforcing bar. Just above this area was a storage section, where dozens of chairs and tables were stacked more than 10 feet high and leaning dangerously toward the blast crater. This area was monitored closely throughout the operation.
The lowest level of the blast damage was a machinery room. Maneuvering along this level was extremely dangerous, since it was filled with openings that normally were hoistways to the level below for replacement of large piping and machinery. They usually were covered by steel gratings, most of w hich had been dislodged or were missing after the blast.
One void search team concentrated on this level, where tons of debris had come to rest on top of and around the large machinery’, creating dozens of individual voids. Each of these voids had to be systematically searched, since it w as highly possible that workers may have been trapped in one of them. As these individual voids were being searched, the search camera proved to be an excellent tool for probing into smaller voids that firefighters could not physically penetrate.
The four void search teams from Rescue Co. 3 searched the entire explosion area and perimeter for more than two hours in some of the most severe collapse conditions ever encountered. Moving around the collapse area was extremely time-consuming and difficult due to the mass of broken concrete and debris, and much of the area was unstable. Conditions had to be evaluated and monitored with each step as the search team firefighters methodically covered the entire collapse area. Operations also were hampered by the fact that lighting was limited to handlights and some portable lights.
Conditions were so dangerous that when the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms took charge of the scene after the fire had been extinguished, their personnel were not permitted to operate in the area until the situation was made safer by removing the hazards. This took several days*
