Paul, I found a transcript of the interview of Barry Jennings. I made one myself ages ago but I couldn’t find it and I couldn’t be bothered to do it all again, but now I’ve found one on-line I can post the relevant sections:
– When we reached the 6th floor, the landing that we were standing on gave way. There was an explosion and the landing gave way. And I was left there, hanging. I had to climb back up. And now I had to walk back up to the 8th floor. After getting to the 8th floor, everything was dark. It was dark and it was very, very hot. Very hot.
– I asked Mr. Hess to test the phones as I took a fire extinguisher and broke out the windows. Once I broke out the windows, I could see outside below me. I saw police cars on fire. Buses on fire. I looked one way, the building was there. I looked the other way, it was gone.
– I was trapped in there for several hours. I was trapped in there when both buildings came down.
– The firefighters came. They came to the window. Because I was going to come out on the fire hose. I didn’t want to stay any longer. It was too hot. I was gonna come out on the fire hose. They came to the window and they started yelling, “Do not do that. It won’t hold you.” And then they ran away.
– See, I didn’t know what was going on. That’s when the first tower fell. When they started running, the first tower was coming down. 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 tower fell. So as they turned and ran 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 asking, “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.”
– All this time, I’m hearing all types 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 that were on fire. I don’t see no . . . you know? But I’m still hearing these explosions.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Note that it is not in chronological order: Jennings says he was “trapped in there for several hours”, and later he says that the firefighters came, but ran away twice as WTC2 and WTC1 collapsed. So that can’t be in chronological order, because both collapses occurred within 90 minutes of the first aircraft impact.
Note that the reason Jennings gives for the firefighters running away is his own inference, because he says he was on the north side of the building, yet the Twin Towers were not visible from there. As he said, “See, I didn’t know what was going on. […] I had no way of knowing that.”
So we can’t take Jennings account at face value; we have to work out what it implies:
– “After getting to the 8th floor, everything was dark.”
So by this time the emergency lighting had failed. That time is recorded because the alarms ceased too; emergency power failed when WTC1 collapsed. So Jennings didn’t get back to the 8th floor until after the collapse of WTC1. Why was there no light from the windows? Because they were covered in dust, and the dust came from the collapses. That is confirmed by this section:
– “I took a fire extinguisher and broke out the windows. Once I broke out the windows, I could see outside below me. I saw police cars on fire. Buses on fire.”
So he couldn’t see out until he broke the window, so the window had to be covered in dust. Outside, he saw vehicles on fire, and vehicles were set ablaze by the collapses.
– “I looked one way, the building was there. I looked the other way, it was gone.”
It’s not clear what this means; neither of the Twin Towers were visible from the north side of WTC7, and Jennings himself confirms that he didn’t see the collapses. Maybe he had looked out of a south side window earlier between the collapse of WTC2 and WTC1 and the trauma muddled the order of events in his memory, but at face value it just doesn’t make sense.
Note that he heard “all types of explosions”, so explosions with various different sounds, and “I’m thinking that maybe it’s the buses around me that were on fire, the cars that were on fire”, so he thought these were outside the building. He does say “I don’t see no . . . you know?”, but we know he couldn’t see out except through the window he broke. And it’s easy to tell if a sound is outside or inside because sounds outside echo around the streets. So the only “explosion” he reports inside is when the landing collapsed, but that’s also when it went dark, so that was almost certainly the collapse of WTC1 because that’s what destroyed the emergency power.