FDNY Chief Orio Palmer - 9/11 Phone Calls from the Towers
This is a clip from the 2009 documentary, “9/11 Phone Calls from the Towers“ which portrays the actions of Battalion Chief Orio Palmer on September 11, 2001.
On September 11th, Orio was able to single-handedly fix an elevator in the South Tower of the World Trade Center and take it up to the 41st floor sky lobby. Once there, he went on to run up 37 flights of stairs to reach the plane’s impact zone on the 78th floor. Orio was met there by Fire Marshal Ronald Bucca; they were the only first responders to reach the impact zone that day. There he reported, “Numerous 10-45s, code ones” or fatalities. Orio directed survivors of the impact how to get out of the building, relayed essential information to firemen below over the radio in an attempt to form a strategy to combat the flames and evacuate survivors, and brought comfort to those stuck & injured on the 78th floor by assuring them that help was coming.
Unfortunately, his efforts weren’t enough to prevent the buildings from coming