Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11

by Mitchell Zuckoff

The North Tower’s external steel columns cut through the Boeing 767’s fuel-filled wings like the blades of an egg slicer. Fireballs visible for miles exploded from the entrance wound and from blown-out windows on the east and south sides of the tower. More fireballs raced up and down elevator shafts, blowing out doors and walls as far down as the basement levels. Toxic clouds of hot, thick smoke poured up and down the central core and gushed out of the broken building. No longer was the morning sky an unblemished blue. Despite the explosions, less than half of the ten thousand gallons of jet fuel from Flight 11 burned in the initial fiery blasts. The rest sprayed through the impact floors and nourished fires that consumed combustibles from the plane and the office furnishings. Those fires fed off fresh air that flowed into the torn-open building. As flames gathered strength and spread, trapped survivors rushed toward sealed and broken windows in desperation. At the same time, the fires began to threaten the remaining support columns that already carried a heavier-than-normal load from their broken neighbors. Meanwhile, fires licked at the exposed steel of floor supports that were shorn of their fire-retarding insulation.