The Boston bombings: The raw audio
Listen to police, fire and EMS respond
I first learned of the bombings yesterday when my airplane touched down at Reagan National. Several breaking news alerts popped up. About 21 minutes after the blasts, I clicked open one of the many iPhone apps that streams in the radio feeds from Boston's police, fire, and EMS departments.
You can listen to the first 24 minutes of the police department response here. A supervisor, Delta 9-8-4, was on the scene of the second explosion immediately. His instinct: Clear an adjacent road for ambulances. "All officers, watch for secondary devices."
The Fire Department's audio — an engine company reports an explosion at 671 Bolyston Street — is here. "We have reports of two explosions here; we have at least a dozen people with serious injuries." Tower 17 was the first truck on scene. "We have a mass casualty," the dispatcher responds. Within three minutes, the dispatcher had secured a route for the paramedics to get to the scene and a chief was warning of secondary devices. "Fire alarm" is the dispatch center.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The "UCC" refers to the joint police, EMS, fire, and emergency response command post.
Here are several longer versions of the scanner audio as recorded by hobbyists.
The police department brass use the call-sign pre-fix "Yankee," and whenever someone with a "Yankee" in their name is on the air, you know that something major is happening. The dispatchers, commanders, and officers were organizing the chaos, but already, they were internally organized. A universal command center had been set up quickly; one dispatcher was in charge; one chief was in charge; orders were funneled up and down the chain. Boston uses relatively few frequencies for its special operations, and though this means that they could easily get clogged, it also makes it easier to communicate with everybody.
Within a half hour, on the detective channel, the "Victors" — the detectives — were gathering at a point. On the main channel, a senior officer was handling the requests for EOD canines, a half dozen of which had just arrived from nearby jurisdictions.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
It did seem as if the department had rehearsed for something like this, and indeed, I learned later that they had. The FBI and various Boston agencies have practiced responding to major mass casualty events.
When I was in college, I would spend many a weekend afternoon sitting on a bench outside a fire station in downtown Boston, listening to the station scanner and trying to get through my history reading. The bench was positioned between two large bays, and so when a "box" was struck and the fire apparatus were dispatched, they would pass by me on both sides, deafeningly, screamingly loud, a blaze of red. I found it exhilarating.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Marc Ambinder is TheWeek.com's editor-at-large. He is the author, with D.B. Grady, of The Command and Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry. Marc is also a contributing editor for The Atlantic and GQ. Formerly, he served as White House correspondent for National Journal, chief political consultant for CBS News, and politics editor at The Atlantic. Marc is a 2001 graduate of Harvard. He is married to Michael Park, a corporate strategy consultant, and lives in Los Angeles.
-
'Voters know Biden and Trump all too well'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Is the Gaza war tearing US university campuses apart?
Today's Big Question Protests at Columbia University, other institutions, pit free speech against student safety
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
DOJ settles with Nassar victims for $138M
Speed Read The settlement includes 139 sexual abuse victims of the former USA Gymnastics doctor
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Why Puerto Rico is starving
The Explainer Thanks to poor policy design, congressional dithering, and a hostile White House, hundreds of thousands of the most vulnerable Puerto Ricans are about to go hungry
By Jeff Spross Published
-
China is now just another autocracy
The Explainer On the long-lasting consequences of Xi Jinping's power grab
By Noah Millman Published
-
Is America the main obstacle to peace in Korea?
The Explainer There's only one way Korea would unify — and the United States won't stand for it
By Noah Millman Published
-
Why on Earth does the Olympics still refer to hundreds of athletes as 'ladies'?
The Explainer Stop it. Just stop.
By Jeva Lange Last updated
-
Berlin's wall and ours
The Explainer What that signifier of the Cold War indicates about our unsettled historical moment
By Noah Millman Published
-
The catastrophe in Yemen
The Explainer A Saudi Arabian blockade has left millions of civilians starving, and without fuel or clean water. What is this conflict about?
By The Week Staff Published
-
China's strongman
The Explainer Xi Jinping is China's most powerful leader in decades. What are his plans for the country — and the world?
By The Week Staff Published
-
How to ride out the apocalypse in a big city
The Explainer So you live in a city and don't want to die a fiery death ...
By Eugene K. Chow Published