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For call dispatchers, confusion reigned

BY ERIK GERMAN AND CAROL EISENBERG | Newsday Staff Writers

April 1, 2006

She was at the center of the vortex, hearing the pleas for help, the panic and the confusion.

As anguished calls poured forth from the Twin Towers, the female fire dispatcher -- identified on the tapes only as Dispatcher 328 -- was supposed to be a lifeline for others. But the tapes of her conversations that morning reveal how little she knew about the unfolding tragedy, the risks faced by tower occupants or how to guide them to safety.

"What's going on?" she asked a fellow operator at 8:52 a.m., as calls continued to pour in.

A full five minutes after American Airlines Flight 11 had struck the north tower, she was incredulous at the answer.

"An airplane hit the building?" she repeated.

Faced with unprecedented horror, she -- like other emergency personnel working that morning -- quickly realized their rule books were worthless. And so they improvised, drawing not just on their training but on considerable stores of empathy and grit.

But earlier, at 8:51, Dispatcher 328 was just overwhelmed.

"Can you speed it up?" she asked one man, as she struggled with the call volume.

Soon, however, the horror engulfing the people at the other end of the phone became frighteningly clear.

"We have 100 people trapped on the 105th floor of One World Trade Center," a panicked-sounding operator reported at 8:59 a.m., asking whether they should evacuate.

Dispatcher 328 insisted the rule book for high-rise fires be followed: "I believe they should remain where they are, if they can put something to block the smoke from coming in under the door," she said.

But as the calls mounted, she seemed to realize the rule book did not apply.

"If you feel that your life is in danger, do what you must do, OK?" she told one man just three minutes later. "I can't give you any more advice than that."

In what seems to be Dispatcher 328's last recorded call -- logged at 10:17, with the south tower in ruins and the north tower just 11 minutes from collapse -- the callers' mounting terror echoed in the dispatcher's own words.

"I understand your concern, sir, I understand your panic," she said at the end. "Stop talking, and let the air -- you're losing your oxygen. So try to remain quiet and remain calm. OK?"