Larry Silverstein and “pull it”

In the 2002 PBS special America Rebuilds, Silverstein said: “I remember getting a call from the, er, fire department commander, telling me that they were not sure they were gonna be able to contain the fire, and I said, ‘We’ve had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it.’ And they made that decision to pull and we watched the building collapse.” [1]

Theorists read “pull it” as demolition slang. In a September 2005 statement, his spokesman Dara McQuillan said the fire commander had told Silverstein firefighters were inside trying to contain the fires, that Silverstein said the most important thing was their safety, “including, if necessary, to have them withdraw,” and that later the commander ordered them out. [1]

Daniel Nigro, who took command of the fire department that day, told the BBC that the owner had no say: “When we are in charge of a building, we are in charge and the decision will be the fire chiefs and his alone.” [3]

Even taken the other way, the remark does not fit a demolition: preparing a 47-story building takes weeks, and NIST found no blast. [2]

On 24 July 2001 the Port Authority signed 99-year net leases on One, Two, Four and Five World Trade Center with companies set up by Silverstein Properties, and leased the retail space to Westfield. [1]

After years of litigation, courts in 2004 set the maximum award at $4.68 billion. A May 2007 settlement, in which seven holdout insurers agreed to pay $2 billion more ($870 million to the Port Authority for the Freedom Tower and $1.13 billion to Silverstein), brought the total paid by the 23 original insurers to $4.55 billion. Under the redevelopment plan, Silverstein entities were to build three of the five new office towers. [2]

Building 7 was not part of the 2001 deal. The BBC reported that its insurance dated from 1987, when it was built. [3]