Opinion ID: 790924
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Conditions at the World Trade Center Disaster Site

Text: 6 Less than two hours after terrorists flew two airplanes, carrying tens of thousands of gallons of jet fuel, into the World Trade Center's twin towers, both towers collapsed, trapping and killing thousands of people. Fires caused by exploding jet fuel destroyed or damaged adjacent buildings as well. Immediately, pursuant to state statutes and declarations of a state of emergency, the City took control of the World Trade Center site (WTC site or disaster site). Police officers and firefighters, soon to be joined by sanitation workers, construction workers, and others, engaged in a determined search for survivors. No survivors were found after September 12, 2001. 7 On September 29, 2001, then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced that the search for survivors was at an end. From that point on, the workers principally searched for human remains and evidence and engaged in a massive demolition and debris-removal process. Debris from the site was moved, principally by Department of Sanitation workers, to various marine transfer stations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, was loaded onto barges, and was taken to the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island. At Fresh Kills, the debris was off-loaded and was searched by law enforcement personnel before disposal. The debris-removal operation at the disaster site, involving more than 1 ½ million tons of rubble, was not substantially completed until May 2002. The City returned control over the World Trade Center site to the Port Authority in July 2002. 8 The compressive force of the towers' collapsing upon themselves had crushed such building components as concrete, glass, steel, and fire-proofing material, as well as interior furniture and equipment, causing clouds of dust and mountains of debris. The City's air sampling at the disaster site revealed particulate matter consisting principally of pulverized building materials and contaminants such as asbestos, volatile organic compounds, dioxins, PCBs, and heavy metals. Further, fires at the site burned underground for more than three months and smoldered for another month; they—and the above-ground fires—produced a pall of acrid smoke over Manhattan and Brooklyn. As early as September 12, the City was asked to provide respirators for workers at the disaster site. The numbers requested, however, far exceeded the numbers the City could supply. 9