They worked in the twin towers and even lived through one bombing (in Rodriguez case), they were there on 9/11 and you challenge their interpretation from behind your PC, doing a bit of googling.
In short, yes. Because people quite often misinterpret what they see and hear when they don't have all the facts. As an example, an engineer makes an assumption that the smell of kerosene is from burning cars, because he has no information to think otherwise, even though cars don't have kerosene in them.
Had he been aware at the time that a jet airliner had just smashed into the building and spilled jet fuel down the elevator shafts I'm sure he would have immediately assumed he was smelling said jet fuel.
My assessment of what happened is based on the COLLECTIVE experience of HUNDREDS of people. Not two people in the basement who had no f-ing idea what was going on.
Your "bomb in the basement" theory does not explain the extensive damage to elevator shafts and doors throughout the building, from basement to roof. It does not explain the specific accounts of "kerosene" and "jet fuel" given by a great number of people who, just like your two pet witnesses, were heroes who were there on the day. It does not explain the repeated accounts of flash burns (Rodriguez mentions these burns himself, you may recall).
In contrast, the theory that jet fuel spilled down elevator shafts and ignited creating devastating compression waves and flash burns IS consistant with EVERY survivor (and non-survivor) testimony I have ever come across, including the two you like to quote.
Go and tell these heroes that they didnt see what they saw.
They saw f-all. They didn't even HEAR that much. And (allowing for changes in story) I think they heard and saw what they say they heard and saw. What I DON'T think is it meant what they decided it meant.
-Gumboot