Reply #3: I think you're misinterpreting the record-eagle story

[Jazz2006]

but it's very poorly written and easy to misunderstand as it vaguely lumps the impacts, the collapses of both towers and the aftermath all together in the opening parts of the story, and throughout the story, it never is clear on who is where when.

Still, it doesn't say that there was any explosion inside of WTC7, and I have never seen any evidence at all that there were any explosions inside of WTC7.

Moreover, there is no indication in that story of where Mr. Jennings was at the time of the "initial blast" but it says that "after" the initial blast, he reported to the 23rd floor of WTC7, the inference being that he was somewhere other than WTC7 at the time of the "initial blast". Presumably, then, the "initial blast" was either a plane hitting WTC2 or a plane hitting WTC1 (it’s impossible to tell which from the few stories about him that I’ve been able to find but I seem to recall reading something about this in one of the 9/11 related books and that he was either in one of the towers or outside initially - I can't remember exactly, though, and it could have been someone else and not him).

Nonetheless, it seems most likely that the "explosion" that damaged the lobby (and the 3rd floor) of WTC7 was probably the collapse of the south tower. This is consistent with the only other news stories about him that I've found and also with the NIST report:


Pandemonium, horror outside Trade Center as people jump, towers
Source: AP - AP Wire Service
Sep 11, 2001 13:31
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By TOM HAYS
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) _ Shortly after the first explosion, an elevator opened at One World Trade Center. A man stood inside, engulfed in flames. It was just one of the horrific sights at the scene of the terrorist attack on New York's tallest buildings.

Kenny Johannemann, a janitor, said he and a second person grabbed the man, put the fire out, and dragged him outside. Then Johannemann heard a second explosion _ and saw people jumping from the upper stories of the Twin Towers. ``It was horrendous; I can't describe it,'' Johannemann said as he
stood, shellshocked, outside the building afterward.

Clemant Lewin, a banker who works across street, said that after the initial explosion, he looked out the window and also saw people jumping from the building from as high as the 80th floor, including a man and a woman holding hands as they fell. ``I'm traumatized for life,'' Lewin said. ``Someone needs to take responsibility for this. This was somebody's father, this was somebody's sister, somebody's mother. We should have seen this coming. I'm disgusted.''

As most people fled the area, others were drawn to it, desperate for information about friends and relatives who worked there. ``I don't know what to do,'' a weeping Alan Rivera said as he stood behind barricades, hoping for word about his niece, who worked in the Trade Center. ``I can't get through to her on the phone. ... No one can tell me anything.''

Seen from West Broadway through billowing brown and black smoke, Tower 2 tilted across the street. Ash, 2 inches deep, lined the streets. Scores of police and firefighters emerged from the sealed-off area, gasping for air.

(Note: that seems to indicate that it was after the south tower fell, since before that time, there weren't inches of dust covering the streets or firefighters 'emerging' and gasping for air.)


After the initial blast, Housing Authority worker Barry Jennings, 46, reported to a command center on the 23rd floor of 7 World Trade Center. He was with Michael Hess, the city's corporation counsel.

They were the only ones there. They felt and heard another explosion, probably the collapse of one building. He broke a window and screamed for help. Then they went down a stairwell.

"I told Hess, `We've got to try to get out of here.'" They got to the lobby, or what was left of it. "I thought I was dead. The whole building shook. ... I looked around, the lobby was gone. It looked like hell. It was like a bad movie."

Though covered in soot, Jennings was not physically injured. He said Hess escaped safely as well.

AP-ES-09-11-01 1317EDT

http://www.wpi.edu/News/TechNews/wtc.shtml

Terrorist attack collapses World Trade towers, shakes the nation
By Larry McShane, Associated Press, 09/11/01

Eyewitness Kenny Johanneman was inside One World Trade Center when the nightmare began. He helped rescue one burning man from an elevator before running outside, where he saw people plunging from the upper floors. "It was horrendous," he said. "I can't describe it."

The attack, eight years after a car bomb in the towers' basement parking garage, focused on the top of the buildings. Clyde Ebanks, an insurance company vice president, was sitting in a meeting on the 103rd floor of the south tower when his boss said, "Look at that." He turned to see a plane slam into the other tower shortly before 9 a.m.

A few minutes later, the second plane slammed into his tower.

Ebanks managed to walk down to safety, emerging from the building with tears running down his face and ash in his hair. "I worry about some of my co-workers," he said.

Outside St. Vincent's Medical Center, paramedics stood in the street soliciting blood donations. Nearby, on the Brooklyn Bridge, thousands of people stood transfixed, staring in disbelief at the endless smoke.

Three inches of thick gray ash covered the streets around the destroyed buildings. City Housing Authority worker Barry Jennings, 46, was in a city command center on the 23rd floor of a neighboring Trade Center building during the second explosion.

He and city Corporation Counsel Michael Hess made it downstairs, where the lobby was just gone. "I thought I was dead," Jennings said. "It looked like hell."

http://www.boston.com/news/daily/11/world_trade_center.htm

It’s tough to tell which explosion was which, but given that there were two to three inches of dust on the streets, that would seem to indicate that the south tower had fallen, don’t you think?

And, assuming you’ve read the NIST report on WTC7, you already know that damage to the building 7 was reported on the lower lobby floors by the collapse of the first tower, although it was the collapse of the second tower that did the serious damage later, right?

Edit to fix bolding.
Edit again to fix stupid mistake.