Is that why rescuers don dig from underneath the structure to reach people?
A. Yes, to do so is impossible without injuring or killing rescuers. Q. Why do rescuers use “bucket brigades” to remove the debris rather than heavy equipment, such as bulldozers or cranes? A. Heavy equipment can’t get close enough to the core of the site. The equipment is blocked by twisted steel and slabs, at a minimum. Plus using heavy equipment would destabilize the structure, risking the lives of rescuers and victims buried in the rubble. Only by hand can the pulverized concrete, glass, furniture and other debris be removed. In a large site, such as the World Trade Center, the bucket brigade has to span a long way across potentially unstable parts of the structure to firm ground that can handle large trucks to haul it away. The site itself spans four square city blocks and seven different collapsed buildings. Q. In the World Trade Center, for example, what amount of debris are we talking about? A. In the first five days after the collapse of the towers, 30,000 tons of debris had b
