The recording starts at 2:57 a.m., with the scratch of radio static: “Command, do you need additional rescues? So I can get two or three more.”
Orlando Fire District Chief Bryan Davis crackles over the radio right about 3 a.m.: “Command to staging: Once we recycle these through we’re going to be pretty good, but we’ve got some walking wounded, some greens.”
A gunman’s June 12 attack on “Latin Night” at a gay nightclub in Orlando killed 49 and left dozens more severely wounded in a standoff with police that lasted roughly three hours. But it may be months before records outlining the sequence of events are released. To date, the FBI has releasedthe transcript of a single 911 call Omar Mateen made a half hour into his rampage, lasting less than a minute.
What is available now, though, are partial recordings of the radio channel used by Orlando firefighters and first responders, made by a company called Broadcastify.com that archives scanner feeds from around the country. The tape starts about an hour after the shooting at Pulse began.
The “greens” Davis mentions are people with minor injuries who were able to escape from the nightclub during the initial firefight. “The Initial rush of individuals that we saw—those numbers vary depending on who you ask,” Davis told WLRN. “By our calculations and what we’ve done, we saw anywhere from about 35 to 50. “
Within a half hour, Davis said local fire departments alone has about 80 people on the scene. But by 3 a.m., there still isn't much information coming from inside the club, where the gunman has been on the phone with a hostage negotiator. “We’re being told possibly up to 15 remaining in the club that are barricaded in,” he said.
We're being told possibly up to 15 remaining in the club that are barricaded in.
About 15 minutes later, staff at Orlando Regional Medical Center, or ORMC—just a quarter mile from the nightclub—comes on the radio. “This is Jake from ORMC. Right now we have active fire shots outside. We can’t take any more in. We have staff quarantined right now.”
“This is the level 1 trauma center: This is the facility that’s designed to handle those types of injuries,” Davis recalled. “We’ve got to re-group.”
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The fear is that the gunman might have had an accomplice. “You know, a lot of that runs through your mind,” Davis said. “You talk about, take the Boston Marathon, where there was one explosion and subsequently there, just a short while after, had another one.”
Ultimately, they determine there was no shooter at the hospital. Only a few minutes later, according to information released by the FBI, the shooter tells law enforcement he has a bomb outside the club. When K9 units zero in on the shooter’s car, emergency responders have to move out of the expanded “hot zone,” another 200 yards farther away from Pulse.
“This is a big reach here, but do they have two or three gurneys we can use here so that we can utilize them to move victims from the nightclub to the treatment?” Davis asks over the radio.
Piecing together a timeline from audio on the fire radio only makes it clearer how much information is missing. It is close to 40 minutes after Mateen’s claim of having a bomb, for instance, before fire officials can be heard discussing an “EOD”—explosive ordinance device—and a “bomb truck.” Throughout, Davis said more sensitive conversations were happening face-to-face.
At 4:21, police pull an air-conditioner out of a dressing room window at the club, and eight victims manage to escape. “Command to treatment: eight, eight coming out.”
Chief, was that us? That was a breach. That was a breach!
Starting a little before 4:30 a.m, radio traffic gets really quiet, as police get ready to bust their way into the nightclub. “They didn’t tell us specifically” what they were going to do," Davis said. “They just told us they were going in.”
Right around 5 a.m., a voice on the radio asks, “Chief, was that us?” Davis’ reply came four seconds later: “That was a breach. That was a breach.”
Police use an explosive charge and a truck with a battering ram to knock down part of the nightclub wall, leading to a final confrontation with the gunman.
“It was almost instantaneous, and I can tell you the exchange of gunfire from where I was was very loud, very surreal and very short,” Davis said.
It still takes some time to be sure it was safe for responders to go in. “Position of cover…all personnel, if I can see your face, you’re not in a position of cover,” Davis warns his team at 5:15.
As the last survivors streamed out of the club, the bomb threat was still an active concern, according to Davis.
By 5:45 the fatigue is audible in transmissions over the radio. “All FD units, report to your vehicles, we’re going to move the command post,” comes a weary dispatch.
“The reality of it, or the gravity of it, really I don’t think set in for most until after that second wave of victims,” Davis said, “and I think a lot of that’s because then we knew the shooter was down.”
All along, emergency responders had been getting updates from the police about the potential number of victims that would be coming out of the club—but they were unprepared to see how many people had actually died.
At 6:31 that morning, this call comes in: “House fire 1105 [Inaudible] avenue…caller’s advising they woke up to a fire in the house. The occupants are attempting to evacuate.”
“Our hearts and our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families, but we get back to work the very next morning,” Davis explained. “The fire department doesn’t shut down. The phones don’t stop ringing. People are still calling 911 for help.”
It’s been nearly two weeks since the attack. Davis is anxious to learn what investigators will turn up in the coming months. His staff is going through counseling programs like those used for emergency responders after Sandy Hook and Aurora, Colorado. But, he said, “sometimes the best peace comes from getting back to normal.”
