Nation: You Could Die Here

(2 of 3)

At 2:40, we learned that the warehouse near the embassy was on fire. We began to wonder how long we could hold out.

There were fresh attempts to reach the ambassador and a report that helicopters were on the way to rescue us from the roof. I was trying to listen for the helicopters when Public Affairs Officer James Thurber reached for my notebook and pen. When he handed it back, it contained this note: "3:35 Marine died." Tears started to my eyes. Thurber had his fingers to his lips. "Nobody knows," he whispered. It was an emotional piece of information the room did not need.

At 3:48, we heard new sounds. "They're on the roof," somebody yelled. Dixie 17, the American school, told us there were three truckloads of Pakistani troops on a side road "waiting to move." An embassy officer grabbed the mike. "This is the third floor of the American embassy," he yelled. "You have our permission to move those troops."

At 4:08, a voice in the back of the room asked: "You got a fire extinguisher in here?" The carpet was getting quite hot.

At 4:11, Dixie 53 (I don't know where it was) came on the air:

"The embassy is on fire—the theater building and the entrance —and there is also smoke pouring out of the motor pool. The Pakistani miliary are not doing anything at all. The front of the second and third floors is on fire."

There was a lot of banging and crashing outside the vault, but we had no way of knowing what it was. Our room was now mostly quiet. It was getting warmer and warmer; the first real thoughts began to enter your mind that you could die here, that somebody was trying to cook us to death—quite literally. The link to reality was Dixie.

"This is Dixie 14. Tell Zia to get the troops here and get the people off the roof."

Dixie 20: "More troops have arrived. The military are on the scene and have taken command.

They understand the urgency of clearing the building."

Dixie 14: "Someone is banging on the roof. Mr. Ambassador, they are shooting down the air-conditioning vents."

Dixie 20: "You are right.

There are still dissidents on the roof. You should not open the hatch."

Dixie 14: "Now they're beating on the vault door. We don't have much time."

There was a huge bang.

Dixie 14: "There's lots of smoke, gas, and they're using some heavy object to batter the doors. Do you have any hope for us?"

There was more heavy banging, and then someone un locked the door and our Marines crowded in; more tear gas came in with them. The radio now turned bad.

Dixie 14: "The floor in the vault is getting warm. There are fires underneath us. We need to evacuate to the roof. Can you tell us, is the roof clear?" No answer.

At 5:30 came a frightening call from the back of the room:

"Fire in the vault!" Amazingly, no one panicked. One official carried the fire extinguisher over to where the carpet had begun to burn. Two blasts put out the flames.

The steel shell of the vault was now so hot from the fires raging below that the tiles laid over it were beginning to crack and buckle. We were all drenched in sweat. We were breathing through wet paper towels, very slowly and shallowly, trying to save oxygen.