Tfw the boring gas-leak inspection turns into a desperate escape from two collapsing skyscrapers by MetallicaDash
October 3, 20251900’s picture of legendary WWII general George S Patton III as a young man with his father, George S Patton II, DA for Los Angeles county & the first mayor of San Marino California (1125×791)
MetallicaDash on October 3, 2025 3:14 am CONTEXT [Jules and Gédéon Naudet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_and_G%C3%A9d%C3%A9on_Naudet) had spent the latter part of 2001 filming a documentary about a rookie’s rise through the ranks of the New York Fire Department. Gédéon acted as the main cameraman, but one morning the fire station received a report of a possible gas-leak at a restaurant downtown, and he sent his brother Jules with them to get some practice with the camera. While filming the firemen at the location, the sound of a plane was heard, and Jules turned his camera just in time to capture the only clear footage of [American Airlines Flight 11](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_11) impacting the North Tower. The next three hours of video are among the most intimate and intense on-the-ground footage of 9/11 ever captured, starting with the unit immediately radioing in the impact and driving down to the building, capturing the immediate aftermath as the first crew on the scene. Much of this is among the only footage taken inside the buildings during the attack, almost an hour of which captures the FDNY trying to organize a response from the lobby, along with the impact of the second plane sending everyone reeling, and the desperate scramble for shelter as the South Tower collapsed beside them, shortly followed by a desperate race to get away from the North Tower before it did the same. Jules continued to film the entire time. Gédéon spent the attacks filming the response at the mostly abandoned Fire Department, and spent some time wandering through the streets capturing the awe of diverse bystanders and citizens. Their collected footage was eventually made into [a documentary](https://youtu.be/_Iw-1bOQNIA?si=JfW8_tTe0sW6hJgJ), and although Jules’s footage has never been released in full, much of it has been taken from other sources and [edited together](https://youtu.be/CqzbHEfX3o8?si=9OdjKgpsKEq6lGa6) in what I can only describe as a real-life version of 1917.
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CONTEXT
[Jules and Gédéon Naudet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_and_G%C3%A9d%C3%A9on_Naudet) had spent the latter part of 2001 filming a documentary about a rookie’s rise through the ranks of the New York Fire Department. Gédéon acted as the main cameraman, but one morning the fire station received a report of a possible gas-leak at a restaurant downtown, and he sent his brother Jules with them to get some practice with the camera. While filming the firemen at the location, the sound of a plane was heard, and Jules turned his camera just in time to capture the only clear footage of [American Airlines Flight 11](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_11) impacting the North Tower. The next three hours of video are among the most intimate and intense on-the-ground footage of 9/11 ever captured, starting with the unit immediately radioing in the impact and driving down to the building, capturing the immediate aftermath as the first crew on the scene. Much of this is among the only footage taken inside the buildings during the attack, almost an hour of which captures the FDNY trying to organize a response from the lobby, along with the impact of the second plane sending everyone reeling, and the desperate scramble for shelter as the South Tower collapsed beside them, shortly followed by a desperate race to get away from the North Tower before it did the same. Jules continued to film the entire time.
Gédéon spent the attacks filming the response at the mostly abandoned Fire Department, and spent some time wandering through the streets capturing the awe of diverse bystanders and citizens. Their collected footage was eventually made into [a documentary](https://youtu.be/_Iw-1bOQNIA?si=JfW8_tTe0sW6hJgJ), and although Jules’s footage has never been released in full, much of it has been taken from other sources and [edited together](https://youtu.be/CqzbHEfX3o8?si=9OdjKgpsKEq6lGa6) in what I can only describe as a real-life version of 1917.