| Note: At the time this article was published, all external links were alive and functioning. But the Internet is a dynamic forum. Webmasters sometimes change or remove pages, and entire web sites sometimes disappear. Whenever practicable, we have cached copies of the originals. |
"When a hijacked Boeing 757, skimming the street lights, smashed into the Pentagon on September 11, firefighters at nearby Reagan National Airport were the right responders in the right place with the right equipment."Eerie. The prescient opening paragraph addressed the very points I was to raise seven months later in "Pentagon RESCUE? Open, Bloody Questions . . ."
"Being among the first responding fire units, National's aircraft rescue firefighters (ARFF) crews were able to set up their apparatus directly in front of the gaping hole in the Pentagon. That was where their training in fighting aircraft fires and the capability of their foam units to extinguish jet fuel fires were put to the best use.
"The ARFF foam units knocked down the bulk of the fire in the first seven minutes after their arrival . . ."If that was so, what did we all watch on TV?
"The ARFF foam units knocked down the bulk of the fire in the first seven minutes after their arrival . . . "According CNN, the section of the roof collapsed at 10:10 a.m. Recall that the structural damage to the building -- caused by the alleged plane crash -- had already occurred at 9:38 a.m. If the bulk of the fire was out by 9:47 a.m., what caused the roof to collapse 23 minutes after the bulk of the fire was out?
". . . Foam Unit 331 hit the fire with foam from its roof and bumper turrets . . . ,"then Foam Unit 331 ran low on foam. The article states:
"Prior to Foam Unit 331 running low on foam, National's Foam Unit 345 was called to respond."But the Military District of Washington displays a photo of truck 345. It is clearly spraying water, not foam, into the fire. The caption under that photo reads:
"Fire truck 345 from Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Fire Department throws a stream of water into the collapsed point of impact as smoke billows from the Pentagon shortly after an airplane slammed into the west side of the building."http://www.mdw.army.mil/news/news_photos/911/pages/firetruck.html
"Picture No. 4 is a closer view of the hinge area of corridor 4 mentioned previously. You can clearly see the fire suppression foam's loosing battle against the aviation fuel."In the foam vs. fire battle, the NFPA Journal says the foam won in seven minutes. On the other hand we have Geoff, who says the foam lost. So there is a problem with consistency. It's hard enough to believe the Ministry of Truth says, but it's even harder to figure out what they are actually saying.
"Washington, D.C., Nov. 3, 2000 — The fire and smoke from the downed passenger aircraft billows from the Pentagon courtyard. Defense Protective Services Police seal the crash sight (SIC!). Army medics, nurses and doctors scramble to organize aid. An Arlington Fire Department chief dispatches his equipment to the affected areas. "Note that the plane crash takes place inside the Pentagon courtyard, and that the Arlington County Fire Department is called in to extinguish the fire.
"'This is important so that we're better prepared . . . This is to work out the bugs. Hopefully it will never happen, but this way we're prepared . . . '"The article goes on to say:
"A major player in the exercise was the Arlington Fire Department.
"'Our role is fire and rescue,' Battalion Chief R.W. Cornwell said. 'We get to see how each other operates and the roles and responsibilities of each. You have to plan for this. Look at all the air traffic around here.'"This passage is also of interest:
"Burrell [Jake Burrell of the Pentagon Emergency Management Team] has coordinated these exercises for four years and he remarked that his team gets better each year. "We have already noticed that, in these practice sessions, the Arlington County Fire Department was designated to respond to a fire caused by a plane crash. There was no mention of requesting foam trucks and ARFF teams from the metropolitan airports. This surely was a fundamentally flawed emergency response training exercise. Furthermore, it suggests that on September 11, the Arlington County Fire Department was THE designated fire department to handle such a disaster, no matter how unsuited to the task they were.
|
See also:
|
|
All original works copyright 1996-2004 Carol A.
Valentine |
|
Carol A. Valentine President, Public Action, Inc.
http://www.Public-Action.com |