Despite the political accolades for the brave members of the NYFD and NYPD, the truth of the matter is that the vast majority of building residents saved themselves. People were not rescued en masse by firefighters. Many were rescued by selfless co-workers. Some such heroes eventually died, staying too long to rescue too many. Those folks that survived IGNORED official speaker messages to stay put or return to work and left the building. Some did stay put waiting for rescue and some in the 2nd building went back up to work. They died.

Once the 1st bldg fell (the 2nd one that was hit), messages were sent to all firefighters to get out of the other building. Thanks to the NYFD radio communications fiasco, these messages were not received and hundreds of NYFD died in futility. They had time to walk back down and out.