Orio Palmer’s last words over the radio described two fires he thought his team could handle, seven minutes before the tower proved him wrong

On September 11, 2001, FDNY Battalion Chief Orio Palmer’s radio transmissions from inside the World Trade Center’s South Tower captured one of the clearest firsthand accounts of that morning’s rescue effort. As detailed by Unilad, Palmer reported from the 78th floor that he and his team had located two pockets of fire they believed could be extinguished with two hose lines, an assessment he relayed seven minutes before the South Tower collapsed at 9:59 AM. He reached that floor after climbing 37 flights of stairs while carrying about fifty pounds of gear.

Before beginning that climb, Palmer had already spent time restoring critical infrastructure inside the tower. He repaired radio and repeater links so he and other chiefs could stay in contact as the emergency unfolded, then worked with his team to fix an elevator that carried them to the 40th floor before the stairwell climb began.

Palmer, a two-decade veteran of the New York City Fire Department, was among the first responders on scene that morning. On the 75th floor, he crossed paths with Fire Marshal Ron Bucca, who had climbed every flight from ground level, and he continued updating colleagues over the radio as he pushed higher, telling his team, “We’re going to have to hoof it” before adding that he was on the 69th floor and needed a higher water bank.

His radio call from the 78th floor became one of 9/11’s defining records

When Palmer reached the 78th floor, his voice was audibly out of breath as he passed the update to command. “Battalion Seven…Ladder 15, we’ve got two isolated pockets of fire. We should be able to knock it down with two lines. 78th floor numerous 10-45 Code Ones,” he said, using the department code confirming that civilians had already died.

According to The 9/11 Commission Report, Palmer and his team were still working one minute before the tower fell, having just freed a group of civilians trapped in an elevator. The anniversary has kept public attention on that record this week, amid a separate dispute over Trump’s 9/11 rescue claims, though Palmer’s own actions that day were documented independently through the recovered transmissions.

As noted by the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, Palmer was widely regarded within the FDNY as one of its most knowledgeable and physically capable members. He ran the New York City Marathon in 1989 to celebrate his daughter Dana’s first birthday, and he kept pushing himself through fitness challenges throughout his career; the FDNY later named its official fitness test after him.

His wife, the late Debbie Palmer, once described him as a light hearted, humorous man who loved spending time with his children, Dana, Keith and Alyssa, along with his nieces and nephews, and recalled that he made up fairy dances for his young daughters. His children later built a website to honor his memory, writing that his actions on September 11 and the way he lived before that day have long motivated them and people who never met him, in a week that also saw Republicans skipping Trump’s midterm convention over its steep attendance fee.

Palmer is survived by his three children and seven grandchildren, who live on Long Island, New York; his wife Debbie passed away in 2021, two decades after his own death. A white rose is placed in his name each year at the 9/11 Memorial.