Below are excerpts from the radio transcript leading up to the discovery of the missing firefighters. The speakers are not identified.
15:47 We’re on 15. We’re having trouble getting up from the stairwells. They have everything boarded up and blocked off.
16:13 We’re on the 15th floor…we’re gonna have to drop down a floor. The fire’s taking off. We have no water.
16:17 It’s getting pretty bad up here Chief. Heavy smoke, heavy fire in the other part of the building. They’re using search ropes. They’re trying to locate the members.
16:25 All the staircases, all the landings are plywooded up, ah, really secure. It would take us a week to get up there if we were to go and check each one. All the way up to the 15th floor you cannot get into the staircase.
16:35 Ladder 8 to Command Post. We’re gonna need a FAST-PAK. We need some air up here. We’re all running low on air. We’ve all taken a beating on 15. We’re starting, we’re gonna need FAST-PAKS, extra bottles and fresh troops.
16:39 We got fire extension on the 14th floor. It just blew through the wall here. We’re going over on the scaffold, K. Say again, we’re bailing out on the scaffolding, south side of the building, K.
16:41 Mike, if we have Engine 4, Engine 10, Ladder 10, Ladder 15, Rescue, Squad and Battalion 2 confirmed where they are, let’s get everybody down below this fire, and we’ll start all over again. I want to make sure we have everybody accounted for.
17:01 I got a member down [Graffagnino]. We’re trying to get him out of here on the 14th floor. His PASS alarm is going off, non-responsive.
17:04 Jack, my main concern right now is getting everybody down below the fire. We barely have water and I need to account for everybody and we’re not doing a good job with that. How many more people do we need to get down below the 14th floor? Who have we not accounted for?
17:07 I think I’m hearing another PASS device in there. I’m gonna bring a guy in with me and see what we can find out. We might have another guy in there.
17:08 Alright Command, we got the one member from Engine 24 [Graffagnino]. We have unconfirmed reports that there may be another member from 24 missing, so we are trying to make our way back in there.
17:10 Engine 3 with a mayday. I have an unconscious fireman [Beddia].
