No mention of it in a dictionary. I started with your firefighter discussion page. On it, junior member altermany opposed the older fellow who talked about the history of firefighters pulling the line to indicate evacuation the building. Before thinking this is disinformation, I was first struck by the older man's enjoyment of history.

So then, a little google, and voila...

http://911review.org/WTC/WTC7_pullit_Industry-term.html

And sure enough, there appears to be a lengthy list of quotations in the demolitions business. The history/etymology of this term appears to date back to demolitions times when they would literally use cables and pull walls down. But after that, the quotes start rolling in...

From link above...
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22pull+down+a+building%22
828 results for for "pull down a building"

Samples from the search results there:

Sept. 24, '98
Four executive members of the Atebubu youth association (AYA) have been arrested by the police
over the demolition of a building which was being rehabilitated for use as the office of the Atebubu town council.
Members of the association allegedly went on rampage and pulled down the building
because, according to them "as a swish building, it was not fit to be used as a town council office."
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=4018

The next house erected in Seneca was a concrete stone building, put up by Downing & Stewart;
the latter soon after selling to A. M. Smith. Downing & Smith sold to L. J. McGowan,
who finally pulled down the building and erected the substantial stone structure in which Hazard & Sons now do business.
http://www.kancoll.org/books/cutler/nemaha/nemaha-co-p4.html

Sadly, this location is now history. The folks that opened Coach and Horses years ago
finally sold out the land and building for development and the dozer pulled down the building just last month.
http://dinesite.com/info/review-read/post-39614/??&t=0

The Gweru Synagogue complex was sold to a church, the KweKwe one sold to the
Hindoo Community as a temple, I understand it has since been re-sold. The
Kadoma Synagogue was also sold to a church last year who pulled down the building
and I understand built a larger complex on the site.
http://www.zjc.org.il/showpage.php?pageid=261

Ox’s hoof found in wall
‘When I lived at Lyddon House some twenty years ago, a very old cottage adjoining was pulled down.
The building was largely of rubble and one of the men engaged in the task of demolition, found embedded in a wall,
the hoof of an ox shod with a miniature horse shoe
http://www.apotropaios.co.uk/dorset_survey.htm

: the President soon spread his Lodgings westward on their present site;
and the old Hospital buildings were not pulled down.

The quadrangle was given its present appearance little more than a hundred years ago.
In 1822 the north side was pulled down. The building was said to be in a dangerous state of decay,
but in fact the demolition was apparently carried out at the instigation
of a faction among the Fellows during the long vacation.

The remains of the building, including the Grammar School,
were pulled down as unsafe in 1824,
and the Grammar Hall was restored and adapted by Buckler.
http://www.magd.ox.ac.uk/history/buildings.shtml

The story of Samson is paralleled in the history of a hero named Zipanca, told of in the "Popol Vuh,"
who, being captured by his enemies and placed in a pit, pulled down the building in which his captors had assembled,
and killed four hundred of them.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/atl/ataw/ataw306.htm

Because Silverstein was on the phone with the fire department, and that is when he said, "I remember getting a call from the fire department commander, telling me that they were not sure they were going to be able to contain the fire, and I said, you know, we've had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it, uh, and they made that decision to pull, and then we watched the building collapse"

Either way, the SLANG is being applied by Silverstein himself. Whether by old firefighter or by demolition usage. In the case of what he said about firefighters, it would mean withdraw the firefighters and give up, and in the case of demolition, it would be to pull the building down. Either way HE IS USING SLANG ON THE PHONE WITH THE FIRE DEPARTMENT COMMANDER. I don't use caps much, but it just felt right. Cheers - Mark

Right, and by that logic because Government officials have said they didn't have anything to do with September 11, 2001, and because the 9/11 Commission and the NIST reports provide an alternative interpretation of what happened that day, we should just stop with the whole "new investigation into 9/11" thing.

Also, I don't understand this "how would he know that term" perspective. He's a real estate investor and developer, and has been since 1957. His company, Silverstein Properties (according to Wikipedia) was involved with many building developments and building renovations. Do you really think that developers don't communicate with the architects, construction workers, and other experts (e.g., demolition experts) who help them to build their developments or who help them to tear down buildings to make room for new ones? That seems entirely reasonable to me.

he was in a position to "watch the building collapse"
After either pulling the firefighters or pulling the demo lever he implies knowledge that the structure was going to collapse and he was watching at the right time from the right window or what? It also implies that he was not surprised or shocked. So even if we are to believe that pull just meant pulling the firefighters out then to avoid additional loss of life, indirectly he has implied that lives were in danger and after pulling them out in time you were not surprised to see the total structure demolished in seconds. Not a raging fire that would burn for hours, not that you were in meetings somewhere to discuss the days events, no you and presumably others somehow had ringside seats to watch it disappear as you expected into dust in SECONDS!!!

I think his statement implies that at the very least he expected the building to collapse and that the fire department knew it too. But somehow he wants to salvage his humanity by his comments about the loss of life and what does that really mean? It means that when the demo charges hit a snag and the building was still standing the real decisions were about 1) continue the plan and finish the job, probably not much discussion there I presume. and 2) limit the loss of additional life especially firefighters and evaculate prior to the demo or not inform anyone else without a need to know. AKA the good mayor etc. So in effect Silverstein is really saying hey discussions were made to save lives here folks we're not entirely heartless maniacs! Yeah right Larry and here's a toast to you that your luck doesn't run out before justice can be won!