One editorial said, for example: "Borja reported to Ground Zero after the World Trade Center collapsed, and he labored in the pulverized concrete, glass and smoke that formed a cloud over the rubble." Again, there is no documentation that Borja was there until three months later, when the fires that burned under The Pile were largely extinguished and the dust cloud had abated in intensity.
Key word here is largely extinguished ... yes, most of them were out, but there were still quite a few still burning for several more weeks. And not just smoldering, these were live fires, within the pile, which were still burning.
My information on this comes firsthand from people who were there; responders, FDNY, NYPD, residents in the area