The public outrage following the exposure of such rescue results was palpable. Videos uploaded by bystanders clearly showed people calling for help from beneath the rubble. Yet, the firefighters on the scene were not expediting their rescue efforts, meticulously moving stones one by one.
Shortly after, it began to rain, and the firefighters promptly withdrew. They did not reappear throughout the night. It was only after the rain stopped the next day that the firefighters resumed their work, but the trapped individuals were no longer heard calling for help. It was evident that the victims, squeezed by heavy debris and then battered by a night of rain, had completely lost the strength to call out, or perhaps had already passed away.
The circulation of this video ignited a firestorm online. Many Americans, unable to contain their frustration, directly questioned the local fire department about their rescue methods.
"We were ensuring the safety of the survivors!" the head of the local fire department stated with a poker face. "As everyone knows, after a building collapses, the structure of the debris is extremely unstable. If certain stones are removed forcefully, it could lead to a secondary collapse of the overall structure, ultimately crushing the survivors beneath. Therefore, we could not use heavy equipment and had to rely on manual labor for small-scale removal!"
"What about the 72-hour golden rescue window? With such slow progress, even if survivors aren't crushed, they'll die of confinement!" the reporter pressed. "Even if heavy equipment couldn't be used, why did you halt the rescue midway?"
"Because it was raining!"
"What does rain have to do with rescue? Couldn't you have rescued in the rain?"
"People are very susceptible to colds when working in the rain. If they are simultaneously engaged in strenuous physical labor, the cold will worsen. For the safety of the firefighters, they cannot work in the rain and must wait for it to stop! This is for their health!"
"It's just a cold, they could have endured it. But lives were at stake under the rubble; how could you do this!"
"That's not quite right. All people are equal. We cannot ask one person to risk illness to save another's life; that is incorrect. Firefighters are people too!"
"But we taxpayers pay your salaries. Taxpayers fund firefighters' wages, so firefighters should perform their duties and rescue the taxpayers trapped under the debris. Even if you might get sick, we can cover medical expenses, provide compensation, and so on. We are willing to pay for your rescue, wouldn't that be acceptable?" the reporter argued.
"No!" the spokesperson shook his head.
"No, what?"
"All those medical expenses and compensation you mentioned, none of it exists!" The fire department spokesperson removed his hat, revealing his bald head. "I was a firefighter myself and participated in the 9/11 rescue. I immediately rushed into the Twin Towers and rescued over a dozen injured individuals."
"Although I was fortunate enough to escape the collapse of the Twin Towers, I did not have dust protection equipment and worked continuously for several hours in the smoke, which led to me developing severe pneumoconiosis, a condition that has now progressed to lung cancer. I have been undergoing chemotherapy for over a year, and I don't know how much longer I can last!"
"Actually, pneumoconiosis doesn't easily turn into lung cancer. With meticulous treatment, it can be cured, but it requires substantial funds, far exceeding the maximum limit of medical insurance."
"At the time, I applied to the relevant authorities for medical subsidies, hoping they would provide compensation so I could afford treatment. But no matter how we pleaded, they simply told me that no one had forced me to enter a dusty environment to rescue people, so my pneumonia had nothing to do with the government. We brought this upon ourselves, and the government bears no responsibility for compensation!"
"We took legal action against these people, but ultimately the court ruled against us. They did not have to pay any of my treatment costs, and thus my pneumoconiosis was allowed to progress to lung cancer!" The bald spokesperson put his hat back on and looked at the guilt-ridden reporter. "Are you still asking our firefighters to risk severe colds and the danger of being buried by collapsing debris to save survivors with whom they have no connection?"
While the above scenario does contain some artistic exaggeration, it is an undeniable fact that the United States' disaster rescue system experienced a catastrophic decline after the 9/11 incident. All rescue agencies prioritized the unconditional protection of their personnel's safety and lives above all else. Consequently, in any major disaster in the US since then, the number of survivors successfully rescued has been extremely small.
Thus, at this moment, even though the central section of the United States United Super Vacuum Tube Railway Company building was burning a deep red, and people were successively jumping from floors ten stories high to escape the flames, the firefighters showed no intention of entering to rescue them. Their greatest act of bravery was limited to providing guidance in the first-floor lobby.
The only stroke of luck was that several rescue helicopters were on standby due to the earlier need to transport company personnel.
However, after transporting hundreds of civilians trapped on the top floors, these rescue helicopters completely abandoned the rescue mission.
The reason was simple: it still came down to the safety of the rescue personnel. The vast plumes of black smoke generated by the intense flames billowed upwards, engulfing almost the entire top floor and completely obscuring the helicopters' visibility.
If rescue helicopters were to be deployed under such circumstances, the risk of a crash due to poor visibility, leading to fatalities, was extremely high. Thus, those trapped on the top floors were left to their own fate.
Those on floors fifteen and below fared little better. The sheer number of people fleeing downwards created severe congestion in the stairwells on some floors, resulting in a tragic stampede.
The disaster of a stampede occurring in a stairwell can only be imagined.
Finally, after burning for an entire night, the flames were extinguished by the firefighters.
Fortunately, the main structure of the building was robust, and the floors were not excessively high, thus preventing a fatal collapse. Some individuals who managed to reach the top floors survived by chance.
However, the losses were still catastrophic, particularly the casualty numbers, which reached an appalling level.
The work of clearing the remaining dead and injured took a full two months to complete, and even after two months, victims' bodies were still being discovered in hidden areas of the building.
The entire cleanup operation concluded after half a year. The total number of fatalities exceeded 2,000, approaching the horrific disaster of 12 years prior.
The entire United States was plunged into unimaginable grief for the following year.
So, did the United States United Super Vacuum Tube Railway Company, the source of all these events, face any punishment?
The answer is a resounding no. Because on the night of the accident, after urgent consultations among various high-ranking figures, the prevailing online sentiment shifted from mourning the deceased to ridiculing them.
Keyboard warriors online asserted that the deceased deserved their fate, labeling them rioters and looters. They claimed that if they had protested peacefully instead of storming the company headquarters to vandalize and loot, this accident would never have occurred. Furthermore, they argued that the arsonists were the protesters themselves, who set themselves on fire, and that the United States United Super Vacuum Tube Railway Company bore no responsibility.
Instead, the United States United Super Vacuum Tube Railway Company was portrayed as the primary victim, not only losing its entire headquarters to fire and incurring massive financial losses but also facing lawsuits from the families of the deceased demanding huge compensation. They were presented as the truly pitiable ones.
It must be admitted that this argument held considerable weight, and the United States United Super Vacuum Tube Railway Company swiftly navigated the public relations crisis.
Due to the excessive number of fatalities in this disaster, the prior issues of demolition and misappropriation of funds were no longer discussed. The entire internet was filled with expressions of sympathy for the deceased.
As the mourning period gradually subsided, fewer people paid attention to the funding issue itself, nor did they follow up on the investigation team's final report, as it was old news.
Therefore, even though the investigation team failed to produce any findings, and despite the entire building being burned down, making it impossible to locate any relevant evidence or documents, the incident was effectively shelved.
However, the initial arsonist was apprehended. Following a thorough investigation, a black homeless man was caught. During his arrest, he fiercely resisted.
Facing the overwhelming authority of the police, he ultimately chose to shoot himself in the abdomen with a gun, firing more than ten shots in rapid succession. He died while still shooting, truly a hardened and resolute individual.
Through a series of brilliant strategies, the crisis faced by the United States United Super Vacuum Tube Railway Company was resolved with remarkable speed and efficiency.
However, this did little to salvage the company's stock price. On the contrary, with the complete incineration of its headquarters and reportedly the destruction of all related technical documents, the company's stock price plummeted to an all-time low.
A company that once boasted a market value of up to 80 trillion US dollars now had a total market capitalization of less than 80 billion US dollars. In fact, this was still the case because trading in the company's stock had been halted, preventing further sales; otherwise, the stock would have continued to fall.