Pentagon survivors tell of those ‘not so fortunate’

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This article was published 06/12/2001 (9036 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WASHINGTON — As she limped blindly through smoke and debris, smelling her burned hair, feeling the pain from her peeling skin and a blow that had momentarily knocked her to the floor, Ann Parham thought about her mother.

“I thought about my mother and the kind of news she would be getting,” Parham said. “I didn’t want that to happen, so I kept moving.”

Parham was among the lucky ones Tuesday on the west side of the Pentagon. She got out.

“I am very, very fortunate,” she said. “I am blessed. Other people, I’m afraid, were not so fortunate.”

“We commented to each other that we were at ground zero,” she said. “In hindsight, we should have known right there to get out, but we didn’t.”

Patrick Smith, who had also been watching the horrifying news, remembered: “I just had a kind of sinking feeling in my gut that we could be the next target. When I heard the blast, I had no doubt in my mind what it was.”

Smith and Parham were among the more than 20,000 civilian workers and members of the armed forces who evacuated the Pentagon Tuesday morning. Some were injured and emotionally shaken by brushes with death. Others were so far away in the vast structure that they felt only a thudding sound — “like snowfall coming off the roof,” in the words of Deputy Under Secretary of Defense Jeanne Fites.

“There were folks with burns, cuts, abrasions, smoke inhalation,” said Army Maj. Ryan Yantis. “We’ve got some pretty high emotions here today.”

Alan Wallace, a civilian firefighter who works for the Defense Department, was among those treated for burns. He and a partner were working near the helipad where the airliner first hit the ground.

He heard the roar of the plane, looked up and saw it about 50 feet above them. “Run for your life,” he shouted and the two men dove under a fire truck stationed beside the helipad.

“There was a crash, a fireball. I didn’t know what had happened. I said. ‘Mark, are you OK?’ There was debris everywhere.”

He and his partner got up and worked for about 45 minutes helping people before Wallace was relieved for treatment of second-degree burns on his arm.

“Initially we got down, just in case there was a second explosion,” Hilton said. “Then we evacuated.”

“It was the ugliest sound you ever want to hear,” said an Army colonel who declined to give her name. “A low boom. And then there was fire and smoke.”

Two Arlington County firemen, Derek Spector, 37, and Greg Gulick, 32, were among the first emergency personnel to reach the scene.

Deployed to fight the fire roaring deep into the west side of the building adjacent to the Pentagon helipad, they saw people coming out of scarred building, some moving on their own and some being carried.

“It’s a wall of fire that’s going to burn for days,” Gulick said. “There’s debris everywhere that is feeding the fire.”

“It was hot, very hot,” Specter said, noting that they could get no closer than 100 feet from the building.

Both firemen ended up in an Arlington hospital, Spector with a twisted ankle and Gulick felled by dehydration.

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Since the Defense Department operates worldwide, some of those who found themselves fleeing for their lives were officials in Washington from out of town on business — including a group of 25 civilian Navy employees. The official leading the meeting remembered hearing an explosion before chaos descended.

“It was pitch black and it was full of smoke. It was very, very hot. We were pretty close to the fire and the explosion,” the official said, declining to give his name for security reasons.

“A lot of brave people got us out of that,” he said. “One guy directed us through the darkness. We were just following his voice. We were just holding onto each other and trying to walk our way out.”

Did he fear for his life? “I don’t know if you have time to worry about it. You focus on getting out.”

All 25 visitors made it out uninjured. Suit jackets slung over their shoulders, they walked more than an hour through late-morning heat, back to their hotels in downtown Washington.

“I think it’s starting to sink in — the enormity of the event,” he said. “We’ve had a great loss of life all over the nation today. I don’t think things are ever going to be the same.”

Though many survivors remarked on the calm nature of the evacuation, several noted that panic overtook some once they reached safety. “People were screaming and running,” said Timothy Magalis, a maintenance mechanic.

Even before the fires were extinguished, FBI agents lined up five abreast on Washington Boulevard west of the building and began gathering up debris in paper “evidence” bags.

And an F-16 fighter patrolled the skies.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld remained in the Pentagon throughout the day. He was in his office on the north side when the plane hit.

Pentagon spokesmen said Rumsfeld rushed to assist in the rescue effort immediately after the plane hit.

–Los Angeles Times