More 911 Tapes from September 11 Released

Another batch of calls made on September 11, 2001 to 911 operators were released yesterday. The NY Times and victims' families made a freedom of information request, and 19 new calls from civilians to operators were made public. The Times reports:

While the calls included a rich example of the valor of the day, they also showed that the emergency response agencies worked as separate fiefdoms, with callers having to tell their stories multiple times as they were transferred from police operators to fire dispatchers or to Emergency Medical Service.

And no one in the 911 system passed along what could have been a life-saving order that had been issued by fire chiefs on the scene: to evacuate the buildings.

The transcripts are harrowing. The fire safety director for O.C.S. Security, Larry Boisseau, called 911 to say there were injured people in 2 WTC:

Larry Boisseau: "Two World Trade Center. We have injured people in the lobby of the building. They need medical attention. [The emergency responders?] not going to be able to come in that way. We've got debris all over the outside of the building."
Operator: "Hold on, sir, ok?"
Boisseau holds
Operator: "EMS is not picking up."
Boisseau : "OK, maybe you can keep trying. I kind of got to get going. This is my job. Fire safety."

Boisseau died when the tower collapsed seven minutes later; his wife was told he died while trying to pull children from a day care center.

The first September 11 tapes were released last March. A second "final" batch was released last August. And here's an article from the Star-Ledger about Boisseau.