seen the smoke and fire for themselves, and had already initiated a response on their own. Forward evacuation The aircraft turned off the runway onto a short taxiway called link "D" and came to a full stop facing northwest. Evacuation efforts began immediately, but several difficulties were encountered. The purser, who was the crew's senior flight attendant, tried to open the right front exit door about 10 seconds before the aircraft stopped, but it jammed due to a design fault in the emergency slide system and he abandoned attempts to open it. After about 25 seconds, the purser opened the left front door and successfully deployed the escape slide. At this time, the first two fire engines arrived. One began showering the fuselage and the open door with foam to prevent the fire from spreading to the door and the slide as passengers were evacuating, and to provide cooling to protect the passengers still inside. When the second fire engine arrived, the first concentrated on the burning jet fuel and the left engine. The second sprayed foam over the fuselage and the open door. During this time, the "No 4 stewardess", Joanna Toff, had kept passengers out of the forward galley area to allow the purser time to open a door. When the left side door was opened, exiting passengers jammed themselves in the narrow passageway between the two forward galley bulkheads. Toff bodily pulled the passengers out one at a time until she cleared the jam. Meanwhile, the purser had resumed working on the right front door, and he successfully opened the door fully and deployed the escape slide about one minute after the plane had stopped. Sixteen passengers and Toff escaped through the left front door, one of whom was dragged out by Toff while unconscious. The purser and 34 passengers made their escape through the right front door. Overwing evacuation More difficulties were encountered at the overwing exits. The left overwing exit was blocked by smoke and flames. The passenger seated at the right overwing exit had difficulty understanding how to operate the hatch. At that time, no requirement existed that exit-row passengers receive a briefing on how and when to open the hatch. Once the hatch was released, it fell inward onto the passenger seated next to it, trapping her. Two passengers lifted the hatch and put it on a seat in the next row back,