Barry Jennings the only WTC building 7 witness last testimony 9/11 2007 english spanish italian

Video Transcript:

Hi my name is Barry Jennings. I'm 52 years old. I've worked for 33 years at one location. Basically I said I'm married father of four. Why do you tell people your experience from the very beginning of the day on September 11th 2001? All right it was as I told you guys before it was very funny I was on my way to work and traffic was excellent I received a call a small session I had to hit the World Trade Center and I was asked to go and man the Office of Emergency Management at the World Trade Center 7 on the 23rd floor as I arrived there there were police on the lobby they they showed me way to the elevator we got up to the 23rd floor me and Mr. Hesse who I didn't know was Mr. Hesse at the time we got to the 23rd floor all we couldn't get in we had to go back down then security and police took us to the freight elevators when they took us back up and we did get in upon arriving into the OEM EOC we noticed that everybody was gone I saw a coffee that was on a desk still the smoke was still coming off the coffee I saw I saw a half-eating sandwiches and only me Mr. Hesse was up there after I called several individuals one individual told me that to leave and leave right away Mr. Hesse came running back in and said we're the only ones up here we got to get out of here he found the stairwell so we we subsequently went to the stairwell and we're going down the stairs when we reached the eighth or the sixth floor the landing that we were standing on gave way there was an explosion and the landing gave way and we're I was left there hanging I had to climb back up and now had to walk back up to the eighth floor after getting today's floor everything was dark it was dark and it was very very high very high I asked Mr. Hesse to test the phones as I took a fire extinguisher and broke out the windows once I broke out the windows I can see outside below me I saw police cars one fire buses on fire I looked one way the building was there I looked the other way was gone I was trapped in there for several hours I was trapped in there with both buildings came down the firefighters came they came to the window because I was gonna come out on the firehose I didn't want to stay there any longer it was too hot I was gonna come out on the firehose they came to the window and they said they started yelling do not do that you won't hold you and then they ran away see I didn't know what was going on that's what went the first towel fell when they started running the first towel was coming down I had no I had no way of knowing that then I saw them come back now I saw them come back with more concern on their faces and then they ran away again the second towel fell so as they turned the rear and the second time the guy said don't worry we'll be back for you and they did come back this time they came back with 10 firefighters and they kept acting where are you we don't know where you are I said I'm on the north side of the building because when I was on the stairs I saw north side excuse me all this time I'm here in all type of explosions all this time I'm hearing explosions and I'm thinking that maybe it's the buses around me that were on fire the cars on fire I don't see no you know but I'm still hearing these explosions when they finally got to us and they took us down to what what they they called the lobby because I asked them I said when we got down there I said where are we he said this was the lobby and I said you got to be kidding me it was total ruins total was like keep in mind when I came in there lobby had nice escalators it's a huge lobby and for me to see what I saw was unbelievable and the firefighter that took us down kept saying do not look down and I kept saying why he said do not look down and stepping over people and you know you can feel when you're stepping over people they took us out through a hole that the I don't know who made this hole in this wall that's how they got us out they took us out through a hole through the wall to safety I think they were taking me out one fire fire had fallen I believe he was having a heart attack but before that this big giant police officer came to me and he says you have to run I said I can't run my knees are swollen he said you'll have to get on your knees and crawl in he said because we have reports of more explosions and that's when I started crawling and I saw this guy fall behind me his comrades came to his aid they dragged into safety I was looking for for ambulance for my knees and at that time they told me we had to walk 20 blocks to a to refuge before I got there I would this news grab me and started interviewing me that's basically it now real quick I'd like it's possible for you to elaborate on now you originally said on ABC7 that you got to the H floor and that's for the explosion was that's what blew you off and there you said you got down six floor well it was down to eight floor we got back into okay the six floors when we got down to okay so you made it all the way down from 23rd floor to the six floor right that's when the explosion happened now where did that originate from the explosion come under you under it was definitely under us definitely under us now it didn't like left you what is that yeah blew it blew it blew it blew it blew it blew it it blew it was back and then I found myself I thought I was on a stair landing wasn't I found myself hanging on so you want me to go into that if you could sure sure it was good black you can see anything right right right if you could please elaborate sure okay when I made it to the six floor and and and the there wasn't explosion this was what beneath me keeping mine now it's pitch black in there all the lights went out so when the explosion happened it blew us back I'm thinking I'm standing on on on the landing I'm actually holding on to a pole above us and I had to climb back up because Hess is yelling what are we doing now I said there's only one thing we can do is and let's go back up so that's when we went back up to the eighth floor and I busted out that window my other question was gonna be sure that you worked in the Office of Emergency Management since it's inception in 99 could you just tell people what the OEM was and your experiences with it like how how often you would be there what the job of the OEM was okay when when the Office of Emergency Management did an activation they always they always included our locale and what it what it what we did was what they did was monitor the emergency they actually coordinated the emergency from several agencies and that's what we did we were there as part of I was there as part of one of my agencies which I can't I can't name and we would sit there and we would do set reports we would get updates as far as the emergency that was on hand and that's simply what we would do every agency that was involved in an emergency was there and that was a man 24 hours I've heard when the the activation only when there was an emergency activation was that man 24 hours OEM was man 24 hours without the activation when they opened up the OEM with the EOC that was activated for as long as the emergency was going on once the emergency was was decided then they would you know they were they would stand down okay my other question was they had drill in preparations called tripod do you know anything about tripod that was down up here yes I was I was I was part of that are you were part of your podcast that at all yeah just discuss any aspects of tripod well the only thing the only thing I remember is tripod was we did a drill which was supposed to be a man made disaster a terrorist attack and it was supposed to be some kind of chemical and all they did was drill they went through the whole steps on what what you would do here you'd come here how you would you know they went through the whole thing and we were just part we were just actually we were just viewing it we were just part of the viewers that was it we wasn't part of the actual we would just view the individuals honoring the results of the action media reports we've heard that it was supposed to take place on the 12th but preparations were before that in other words throughout the week they've been manning the separate stations do you know when they when it was actually like in progress because you said you've been part of it and seen it so obviously there was something going on before the 12 like did you observe this in like the 10th the 11th like right prior to 911 no no this was after yes our our participation was after was after yes yes then can you just give us permission to use and say louder the words can use this footage yes you can use this footage all right looks like I I think I'll elaborate on a few things sure