Transcript · English → Spanish
Witness Account of Building Collapse
Sí, era como si hubiera un gran alboroto.
Los bomberos se estaban preparando y empezaban a desplegarse
y a seguir a estos,
eh, autobuses que se dirigieron al centro.
Y, eh,
el representante de la Cruz Roja dijo, se acercó y, y, y
dijo: «Bueno, tienen que quedarse detrás de esta línea porque
están pensando en
derribar el edificio». No dijeron qué edificio.
Solo dijeron: «Derribar un edificio».
Así que dijimos: «Está bien, ya saben, les creemos.
Ya saben, nos quedaremos detrás de la línea». Y
se acercó y habló con uno de los, eh, entre todo el alboroto, se acercó
y le preguntó a uno de la Cruz Roja o a uno de los bomberos qué estaba
pasando. Supongo, no sé si obtuvo una respuesta o no.
Volvió con la mano sobre la radio y lo que parecía una
cuenta regresiva,
y en los últimos segundos, quitó la mano y se oyó tres,
dos, uno, y solo decía: "Corran por sus vidas.
Corran por sus vidas". Y luego, como otros dos o tres segundos,
se oyeron explosiones,
como ba-bum. Es un sonido distintivo.
No es como cuando la compresión, como bum, bum, bum, bum, bum,
como pisos que se desplomaban y derrumbaban.
Esto fue ba-bum, y se sentía un retumbo en el suelo,
como
si casi quisieras agarrarte a algo.
Para mí, supe que eso era ex- una explosión.
No tenía ninguna duda. Y para entonces,
estábamos corriendo hacia la calle.
La mitad de la gente se había puesto
a correr calle arriba, y entonces todos corrían h-
hacia el centro de la
calle. Mientras tanto, todos los que estaban al sur de esa intersección corrían
calle arriba, perseguidos por esta nube de h- humo, que
era monstruosa,
y simplemente, la gente estaba siendo derribada, pisoteada.
Y, ya sabe, me preguntaba, «¿Corro hacia,
ya sabe, hacia el polvo y bajo corriendo para quizá intentar
ayudar a esas personas que estaban en los autobuses,
o intento ayudar a la gente aquí mismo,
o simplemente me cubro las espaldas y salgo corriendo e intento es- ya sabe,
¿o busco refugio y me escondo?»
E hice lo mejor que pude allí mismo en la intersección,
levantando a algunas, a
unas personas, y luego salí corriendo y busqué refugio para
mí.
¿Y eso fue la caída del edificio siete?
Fue el edificio siete el que cayó.
Sí.
End of transcript · 396 words · machine translated
Original transcript (English)
Yeah, it was like there was a whole lot of commotion. The firefighters were picking up, and they were starting to, to roll out and, and go follow these, um, these buses that went downtown. And, um,
the, uh, the Red Cross rep was like, he goes over and he, and he, and he says, "Well, you got to stay behind this line because they're thinking about bringing the building down." They didn't say what building. They just said, "Bringing a building down."
So we're like, "Okay, you know, we'll, we'll take their word for it. You know, we'll stay behind the line." And he went over and he talked to one of the, uh, through all the commotion, he goes over and he asks one of the Red Cross or one of the firefighters what was going on. I guess, I don't know if he got an answer or not.
He came back over with his hand over the radio and what sounded like a countdown, and at the last few seconds, he took his hand off, and you heard three, two, one, and he was just saying, "Just run for your life. Just run for your life." And then it was like another two, three seconds,
you heard explosions, like ba-boom. It's like a distinct sound. It's not like when the compression, like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, like floors that were dropping and collapsing. This was ba-boom, and like you felt a rumble in the ground,
like almost like you wanted to grab onto something. That to me, I knew that was ex- an explosion. There was no doubt in my mind. And by that time, we're running out into the street.
Half the people had taken off running up the street, and then everybody's running i- into the center of the street. Meanwhile, everybody that was south of that intersection was running up the street, getting chased by this s- cloud of smoke, which
was monstrous, and they were just, people were getting knocked over, trampled on. And you know, like I was asking myself, "Do I run into, you know, into the, into the dust and run down there to maybe try to help what, those people that were on the buses,
or do I try to help the people right here, or do I just try to cover my own ass and take off and try to hi- you know, or seek cover and hide?" And I did the best that I could in the intersection right there, picking some, a
few people up, and then I took off and ran and seeked cover for myself. And that was building seven falling? That was building seven that fell. Yes.
