Never-before-seen footage from 9/11 released 25 years after devastating terror attack
A documentary airing this weekend is offering previously unseen footage captured during the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
Created in collaboration with Reuters, 9/11 The Unseen Footage combines previously unearthed footage with testimonies from eyewitnesses, including journalists Aimeé Marcoux and Soren Larson, as well as Stuyvesant High School student Lila Nordstrom and off-duty firefighter Brenda Berkman, to coincide with the run-up to the 25th anniversary of the attacks.
"That was probably when I was the most frightened."
A cameraman for Reuters, Larson was getting ready for what he assumed would be another day at work when he received a phone call from his boss informing him that a plane had hit the World Trade Centre.
"I knew it was going to be an intense day and I was a little nervous about how things were going to unfold," he recalled.
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Larson arrived on the scene shortly after the South Tower collapsed and made the decision to get as close as possible to the World Trade Centre complex.
"Your job is to get as close as you can to get the best footage of the emergency response," Larson explained. "So that's where we were headed."
His job brought Larson right into the middle of the chaos, witnessing scraps of paper and discarded shoes littering the sidewalks, all of which were covered in dust.
Larson would also be there for the collapse of the North Tower, with his team deciding to hang back and film the dust cloud as it swallowed the surrounding streets.
"The dust cloud was travelling pretty fast, way faster than you could outrun," he said.
"I filmed [the dust cloud] as long as I could, but it right came at me. That was probably when I was the most frightened.
"I got on my knees, I took off my shirt, and I put it over my mouth... I didn't know what it would be like, whether it would cut off my air, whether it would give me a little bit of coughing or whether it would really seriously hurt me," he added.
As more and more New Yorkers were able to flee from Manhattan, the scale of the devastation soon became clear to first responders.
Explosions could be heard underneath the rubble as car engines combusted under the intense heat and pressure.
Even more jarring was the ringing noise echoing out from underneath the debris. These were PASS alarms, devices which signify when a firefighter is facing danger to life.
"I thought I would be hearing people crying out for help," Berkman, who was called in to assist with the aftermath, explained. "The lack of noise was completely unnerving.
"We knew that there were firefighters in there somewhere because we heard their alarms," she added.
A total of 343 firefighters were killed during the World Trade Centre attacks.
With thousands of people trapped underneath the collapsed towers, it became clear to authorities that a major rescue and recovery event would be taking place.
The service dogs of 9/11
As well as law enforcement and emergency services workers, volunteers with relevant skills and specialist dog search teams from across the country.
An estimated 300 service dogs would join the recovery process, all trained to traverse through rubble without being distracted by other rescue workers, climb ladders and rappel into small spaces.
"I find it magical," Cindy Otto, a specialist dog search team member involved in the rescue attempts, said. "To watch a dog traverse a collapsed building, ignore all of the live people who are working in that environment and find the odour of a person they cannot see.
"When they get [a scent], they're trained to bark."
The presence of the dogs in the rescue and recovery process also provided an unintended moral boost for first responders, with Otto remembering seeing workers being 'drawn to' the dogs.
Recalling an interaction between three young firefighters and a German Shepherd, named Logan, handled by a colleague, Otto said: "As soon as they reached out to pat Logan, the clouds that were covering their eyes changed... they had a little bit of light, they had a little bit of a smile.
"You could just feel that this dog brought a sense of hope, of possibility and comfort."
Despite the best efforts by rescue and recovery teams, only 20 people were pulled from the wreckage alive.
This included 14 people who took shelter in the North Tower's Stairwell B and two Port Authority Officers who were buried under deep concrete on the concourse between the towers. The last survivor was Genelle Guzman-McMillan, who was pulled from the rubble 27 hours after the attacks.
2,977 people would perish in the attacks, with remains of those lives lost still being identified to this day.
9/11 The Unseen Footage will air on Saturday 29Th August at 9pm on Channel 5, and be available to stream on 5.
Brenna Cooper