A supplement by the edi tors of

JOURNAL OF EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES M A G A Z I N E&

9-11 Responders Show Their True Valor

Contents

EMS Untold: The World Trade Center DisasterThe first 24 hours of EMS response on Sept. 11By Lisa Dionne

Fire Personnel in MemoriamA remembrance of firefighters lost in the line of duty

Live to Tell25 eyewitness accounts of the Sept. 11 EMS responseInterviews by Lisa Dionne & A.J. Heightman

27 Glenn Asaeda, MD, FDNYEMS27 Jennifer Beckham, Flushing Medical Center28 Scott Beloten, Maimonides Hospital Ambulance Dept.32 Rene Davila, FDNY EMS36 Jack Delaney, New York Presbyterian Hospital38 Tamara Drummond, NYU Downtown Hospital EMS Dept.39 Louis Garcia, St. Vincent’s Manhattan40 Zachary Goldfarb, FDNY EMS46 Jerry Z. Gombo, FDNY EMS49 Cosmo Jackson, MetroCare Ambulance50 Al Kim, MetroCare Ambulance50 Walter Kowalczyk, FDNY EMS53 Juana Lomi, NYU Downtown Hospital EMS Dept.55 Alexander Loutsky, FDNY EMS57 Orlando Martinez, FDNY EMS59 Robert A. McCracken, FDNY EMS63 Amy Monroe, FDNY EMS64 Jonathan Moritz, FDNY EMS65 Ernestina Nyquist, St. Vincent’s Manhattan66 Janice Olszewski, FDNYEMS67 John Peruggia, FDNY57 Frank Puma, FDNY EMS69 Ben Shelton, St. Vincent’s Manhattan69 Charlie Wells, FDNY EMS71 Robert Wick, Flushing Hospital Medical Center

EMS Personnel in MemoriamThose who made the ultimate sacrifice,not for family or friends, but for strangersBy Keri Losavio

Unsung HeroesResponders who tended their home fronts kept the New York 9-1-1 system running smoothlyBy Blaine Dionne

After the FallHow local, state & federal responders searched for survivors amid the rubbleBy Nancy J. Rigg

From the AshesFDNY resurrects its apparatus fleetBy Bob Vaccaro

A Little Help from FriendsEmergency manufacturers donate money, equipment & apparatus to New York agenciesBy Jeff Berend

TestamentsReflections on Sept. 11, plus stories of hope

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About the CoverTop: FDNY EMT Moussa Diaz renders care to a severely burned female patient on Sept. 11 near the World Trade Center complex.Photo Jennifer S. AltmanBottom: After the collapse of the World Trade Center towers, an FDNY engine transports an extra complement of firefighters to Ground Zero.Photo Willie Cirone

This PageGround Troops: FDNY firefighters prepare for fire battle following the World Trade Center collapses.Photo Doug Kanter

JOURNAL OF EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES

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@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ ?V'@ @(Y? @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@3@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ V' (Y @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@5V4@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@0Y

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PUBLISHER EMERITUSJAMES O. PAGE

PUBLISHER/GENERAL MANAGER Jeff Berendjeff.berend@jems.com

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Lisa Dionnelisa.dionne@jems.com

EDITOR A.J. Heightmanaj.heightman@jems.com

DEPUTY EDITOR Michelle Garridomichelle.garrido@jems.com

SENIOR EDITOR Keri Losaviokeri.losavio@jems.com

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Jed Henson jed.henson@jems.com

ASSISTANT EDITOR Blaine Dionneblaine.dionne@jems.com

EDITORIAL SECRETARY Laurie Colvin

EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Phone 800/266-5367

Fax 760/930-9567

OPERATIONS/PRODUCTION MANAGER Tim FrancisPRODUCTION COORDINATOR Lisa M. Griffis

SENIOR DESIGNER Jason Pelc

ADVERTISING MANAGER Lisa Tucker, EMTEXHIBITS MANAGER Tiffany Freeman

CLASSIFIED/ONLINE SALES Christy Freeman

ADVERTISING DEPARTMENTPhone 800/266-5367

Fax 760/431-8194

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Phone 410/893-8003 Fax 410/893-8004

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SR. CREDIT MANAGER Kathie FritschIS COORDINATOR Arron Morgan

www.jems.com; www.firerescuemag.comJEMS, Journal of Emergency Medical Services (ISSN 0197-2510), and FIRERESCUE MAGAZINE (ISSN 1094-0529) are published monthly by Jems Communications, 1947 Camino Vida Roble, Suite 200, Carlsbad, CA92008; 760/431-9797 (fed. ID #13-935377). COPYRIGHT 2002 Jems Communications. No material maybe reproduced or uploaded on computer network services without the expressed permission of the pub-lisher. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Jems Communications, P.O. Box 469012, Escondido,CA 92046. Claims of nonreceipt or damaged issues must be filed within three months of cover date.Periodicals postage paid at Carlsbad, Calif., and at additional mailing offices. Canada Post InternationalMail Product (Canadian Distribution) Sales Agreement No. 1247948 (JEMS) and No. 1247921(FIRERESCUE MAGAZINE). JEMS and FIRERESCUE MAGAZINE are printed in the United States.

W W W. A L L I S O N T R A N S M I S S I O N . C O M

An Allison automatic transmission is the most time-saving component in your vehicle’s drive line.And the new Allison Automatic EVS (Emergency Vehicle Series) raises truck and driver performanceto a new level. Especially engineered for emergency vehicles, the EVS accommodates higherhorsepower engines to deliver more torque to the wheels. This, combined with Allison Automaticfull-power, fully automatic shifts, means faster acceleration for shorter trip times. No clutch topress and no manual shifting lever reduces driver distraction and stress. On scene, precise vehiclepositioning is accomplished with just subtle presses on the accelerator. The new EVS also offerselectronic controls that can be programmed to inhibit vehicle movement during the use of auxiliaryequipment, for added safety. And all this superior performance is backed up with a five-year standardwarranty. No other transmission contributes so much to getting your job done faster and better.Specify the Allison Automatic EVS on your next truck purchase.

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TM Trademark of Allison Transmission Division of General Motors Corporation.

The people of Pierce and Medtec are

saddened by the tragic events that

struck America on September 11.

We dedicate this space to the

firefighters, police officers and

emergency crews who lost their

lives trying to save the innocent

victims.

And we pray for all those directly

affected by this horrific tragedy—

including the thousands of men and

women involved with the rescue

efforts. God bless America.

I was getting a foot up on the day’soperation as usual. I got a rundown on myway into work from our emergency medicaldispatch, which dispatches the ambulance.They briefed me on how the evening went. Inaddition, I got a briefing from the resourcecoordination center [RCC] on the previousnight’s activities, a tour count and the type ofchief coverage that I was going to have thatday. The third briefing I got was from myovernight chief. I got to the office early, asusual. It was a beautiful morning.—Jerry Z. Gombo, assistant chief of EMSoperations, FDNY EMS

We were getting our breakfast at 8:45. Wewere at the counter; we usually order BLTs.They were making it, and we heard arumble. The building we were in—theWoolworth Building—shook. Debbie, the girl[who works at the deli] looks at Pu and me,“Shouldn’t you guys go outside and checkwhat’s going on?”

I told her, “If they need us they’ll call us.”—Orlando Martinez, EMT, FDNY EMS

Me and Bonnie, [my partner], went to ourbagel place. We’re like, “We’re just gonnahave an easy day. We’re not gonna buff anyjobs. Let’s just go do what we’re supposed todo, and that’s it.”

We’re sitting by this little old man’s housewho always yells at us when we run ourengine. Another BLS unit comes over, 52Edward. We’re talking with them, and I’mlike, “Turn off the engine.” Sure enough, thelittle old man comes out … screaming at us.—Jennifer Beckham, EMT, Flushing HospitalMedical Center

We were at an intersection by the BrooklynBridge. Me and my partner, Eric, were talkingsmall talk. And I noticed—the World TradeCenter was right in our view—a plane goingdown. It was flying low, and I interruptedhim, “Eric, look at that! Look how low thatplane is! It’s gonna hit. It’s gonna hit!” A fewseconds later, it exploded. We just shook.

Quickly I took my radio, and I thought, “Ihave one shot to get it right,” because theradios are terrible down here. You alwayshave to repeat yourself, or they put us outwith no response and stuff. I said,

“01 Charlie for the priority.”“01 Charlie, go.”“01 Charlie. We have just witnessed a

plane hit the World Trade Center.”—Alexander Loutsky, EMT, FDNY EMS

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The untold story ofEMS response to the

World Trade Centerattack on Sept. 11

By Lisa Dionne

RonaldBucca47Fire Marshal

William Feehan71First DeputyCommissioner

Peter J.Ganci Jr.54Chief ofDepartment

MychalJudge68Chaplain

PaulMitchell46Lieutenant

MatthewRyan54Battalion Chief

FaustinoApostol Jr.55Firefighter

WilliamMcGovern49Battalion Chief

FDNYBattalion 2

FDNYBattalion 1

FDNYLeadership

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Within an hour of the Trade Centerattacks, 23 EMS supervisors had

been dispatched, along with 29ALS units and 58 BLS units. Eight

hours later, 31 EMS supervisorshad been dispatched and were

working with approximately 400 on scene EMS personnel, including

47 ALS units (28 from voluntaryhospitals) and 98 BLS units (23

from voluntary hospitals).

Few know that the entirety of EMSresponse in lower Manhattan began withone EMT’s call to dispatch at 0848 HRS onSept. 11. It’s one of myriad stories we’venot yet heard about the role of EMS in ournation’s greatest hour of need.

The day those twin beauties fell to theearth, editors at JEMS and FIRERESCUE

received more phone calls and e-mailsthan our office has experienced in years.Particularly stressful were conflictingreports as to the fate of our personal andprofessional friends in New York City.Several of us could be no other place thanhere—on the phone, watching TV, listeningto the radio, corresponding online.

It wasn’t long before folks began askingus about the role EMS played in New Yorkthat fateful day. Truth be told, we didn’tknow the EMS story for a long, long time.Like many of you, we found ourselvesincapacitated with grief for the lost souls—from FDNY firefighters to NYPD and PortAuthority police to courageous civilian andundocumented “other” responding per-sonnel—all of them innocents.

Yet sometime about the 20th referenceto “heroic emergency workers,” our missionbecame clear. We were frustrated as gener-ic credit was given to “emergency workers”by our well-intentioned media peers whodon’t understand the valuable role of EMS(paramedics, EMTs) in the emergency serv-ices triad. Witness this mention in the Sept.24, 2001, issue of New York: “‘They’re look-ing for their brothers,’ says an ambulancedriver ” [emphasis added].

Although the EMS losses pale quantita-tively in comparison to our fellow firefight-ers and police, they have shattered thenational EMS community in an undeniablyqualitative manner. So during a stagger-ingly beautiful week last November, weflew east. Like you, we wanted to knowwhere EMS personnel were at 0846 HRS

when the first plane hit. What was theEMS preplan for a disaster of this magni-tude? How many patients did they treat

that day? How did they survive the crash-es, the collapses and the emotional andphysical tolls the event required of them?What were those first 12 to 24 hours like?

Time and again, EMS providers fromFDNY, hospitals and private services alikeexpressed a collective sentiment bestarticulated by FDNY EMT Eric Ramos in anote to us, “Thank you for coming to hearus. We were forgotten, and you have cometo recognize New York’s best.”

We’ll tell you right now: We didn’t talk toeveryone. We didn’t get every story andevery detail. No one got every story orevery detail. Likely, no one ever will.Therefore, we apologize now to those weinadvertently offend by unintentionalomission. We submit this story as thebeginning of an EMS archive of Sept. 11.

In the next 60 pages, we provide thematte and frame for the stunning land-scape that was EMS response on Sept. 11.Then we let the EMS responders paint theimage for you themselves, in largely unedit-ed transcriptions from the deeply movingand honest interviews they provided.

You’ll meet an EMT who went fromapplying hair gel on the drive to the TradeCenter to struggling painfully with her ownmortality in the aftermath. You’ll meet aparamedic mother of two who—after transporting patients to Beth IsraelHospital following the collapse of 2 WorldTrade—ripped an IV from her arm to returnto Ground Zero on the back of a motorcy-cle. You’ll meet a paramedic who saw oneof his best friends—also a medic—for thelast time just moments before the SouthTower collapsed.

Prepare yourself. What you’re about to read is tragic and,

at times, humorous. It encompasses theentire spectrum of human suffering and ispainfully graphic. The entirety of the storywe heard must be told, without omission, inorder to understand what EMS personnelexperienced in those first few hours. To editthose portions would be to delete history.

FDNYBattalion 4

FDNYBattalion 6

FDNYBattalion 7

FDNYBattalion 8

RichardPrunty57Battalion Chief

ThomasO’Hagan43Lieutenant

JohnWilliamson46Battalion Chief

StephenHarrell44Lieutenant

OrioPalmer45Battalion Chief

PhilipPetti43Lieutenant

ThomasDeAngelis51Battalion Chief

ThomasMcCann46Firefighter

ADDRESSES &

ACRONYMS

1 World Trade Center

North Tower=1 World Trade2 World Trade Center

South Tower=2 World Trade7 World Trade Center

7 World Trade=home toOEM

Citywide: The FDNY EMSfrequency used for MCIs,special events, etc.LSU: Logistical SupportUnits—vehicles that carrysupplemental EMS suppliesand are positioned on sceneat an MCI; three weredispatched within the firsthour of the attacks.MERV: Mobile EmergencyResponse Vehicle—a specialEMS vehicle used toprocess multiple patients atonce; can also be used as amobile surgical unit; twowere dispatched within thefirst hour of the attacks.OEM: Mayor’s Office ofEmergency Management;formerly housed on the 43rdfloor of 7 World TradeCenter; also the location ofthe Emergency OperationsCenter (the “war room” ofany emergency effort inwhich representatives fromlocal, state and federalhealth and disasterresources must worktogether to solve problems).RCC: ResourceCoordination Center—anFDNY EMS division thatcoordinates and ensuresEMS resources (units,personnel) throughout thecity are appropriatelydistributed.

12

FDNYBattalion 11

FDNYBattalion 9

FDNYBattalion 12

The First CrashAfter Loutsky delivered his priority call following the crash ofAmerican Airlines Flight 11 into the north wall of 1 World Tradeat approximately 0848 HRS, a Signal 10-40 (aircraft crash) wastransmitted over FDNY EMS’ Citywide frequency.

FDNY EMS personnel most proximate to the Trade Center atthat moment included EMTs Loutsky and Ramos, the 01 Charliecrew. According to the Trade Center preplan, incoming EMS unitswere to stage at Greenwich and Vesey, just north of 1 World Trade.

01 Charlie quickly fled its post near the Brooklyn Bridge tojoin its fire and police counterparts,many of whom were alreadyclimbing the stairways of 1 World Trade to help evacuate occu-pants and access the involved floors. On the way to the preplanlocation, 01 Charlie was forced to stop at Church and Fulton *to treat patients.“When we got there thousands of people werecoming out of the building after the first plane hit,”says Loutsky.“They had terror and fear in their faces.They were running.Theywere screaming.We were inundated.”

Unbeknownst to Loutsky and Ramos, fellow FDNY EMS 01Adam crew—EMTs Orlando Martinez and Frank Puma—was justup the street at the Woolworth Building—near their usual poston Vesey between West Broadway and Church (in front of 5World Trade).After hearing and then visualizing the first crash,they proceeded west down Vesey toward the preplan location.Like the 01 Charlie crew, Martinez and Puma were inundatedwith patients escaping east from the Trade Center Complex.They stopped their vehicle and began treating them just yardsfrom Loutsky and Ramos.

“When we first got to Church and Vesey, I called the stationand talked to Lt. [Bill] Melaragno,”recalls Martinez.“I said,‘Listen,we need backup.There’s nobody here.When’s the help coming?’But they were already here.This building’s so large. … I didn’trealize they were down the block.”

1 Adam’s crew received initial backup from St. Vincent’sManhattan and NYU Downtown Hospital EMS units dispatchedas part of the 9-1-1 system. Shortly thereafter, crews from NewYork Presbyterian Hospital, MetroCare and a host of other serv-ices formally requested by the 9-1-1 system responded accord-ingly.(For a list of all EMS resources that responded as part of the9-1-1 system, see sidebar, p. 22.)

In that location—a slab of pavement running along ChurchStreet from Liberty to Vesey—sprung a bona fide EMS stagingarea .There, EMS personnel aggressively triaged and treated theinitial waves of critical and walking-wounded patients, who pre-sented with such injuries as first- to fourth-degree burns,fractures,internal bleeding and inhalation burns. It’s important to note thatthe time spanning 0848 HRS to 0959 HRS (from the first crash untilthe South Tower collapse) was the busiest period of the event forEMS crews on all sides of the Trade Center. It was during this briefwindow of time that providers helped the most patients—even ifit was just directing them away from the madness above.

As patient triage and treatment developed on the east side ofthe Trade Center, a separate EMS staging area was born nearerthe Hudson at West and Vesey streets in and around the pedes-trian North Bridge .After hearing Loutsky’s initial transmissionover the radio, first-due FDNY EMS officer Lt. Rene Davila wasskeptical.“My reaction was,‘These guys are bananas. I gotta goover there and straighten them out,’” he recalls.“I thought theyhad lost it—until I heard [Martinez and Puma’s] call secondslater.Then the radio started charging up with voices.”

Davila immediately left his post at Battalion 4 and headednorth, confirming the incident over Citywide. He also requestedall available resources, including FDNY EMS’ Mobile EmergencyResponse Vehicles (MERVs).Nearing the Trade Center,he tried tostage at Greenwich and Vesey per the EMS preplan.However,likethe 01 Charlie and 1 Adam crews, he was forced down to WestStreet. Davila parked in the northbound traffic lane just acrossfrom 1 World Trade and, as the highest ranking EMS official onscene at the time, established EMS operations.

In those early moments,Davila struggled to focus personnel ontriage.“I wanted to start the START system to triage patients,” herecalls.“I didn’t have the capability to treat any patients. People

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FDNY paramedic Phil Ashby (left) assists a patient onthe east side of the Trade Center Complex.

CarlAsaro39Firefighter

DennisDevlin51Battalion Chief

AlanFeinberg48Firefighter

CharlesGarbarini44Lieutenant

EdwardGeraghty45Battalion Chief

JohnPaolillo51Battalion Chief

FredScheffold Jr.57Battalion Chief

GlennPerry41Lieutenant

* These icons denote specific locations on the map. See pps. 24-25 for detail.1

were coming out with first-to fourth-degree burns afterthe explosion—unbeliev-able what I saw coming outof this disturbance. All Iwanted,once I got 10 to 15units on the scene, was totriage because I knew themagnitude of people that[was] going to be comingout of this.”

The influx of FDNY andvoluntary (hospital, privateand other EMS services thatrespond as part of the 9-1-1system) units on scenemade it difficult for Davilato establish an incidentcommand system (ICS). Aspersonnel scrambled outof their rigs to treat nearbyevacuees, Davila and

Loutsky, the staging officer at West and Vesey at that time, attempt-ed to control the unfolding chaos. “My concern was triagingpatients, but my first concern was everybody’s safety,” recallsDavila.“Numerous times I was yelling that it was a hard-hat opera-tion. I’m standing here watching the rescue units run inside Tower1. I’m transmitting, and I’m praying to God that I get some morebosses to the scene.”

From 0848 HRS until 0903 HRS, first-in EMS units on the east andwest sides of the complex had to negotiate a staggering amount of

debris in order to do their jobs. American Flight 11—a Boeing 767on its way from Boston to Los Angeles—carried more than 20,000gallons of jet fuel. Upon impact, the plane exploded, sending debris(from the plane and the structure) toward the south, east and westareas of the Trade Center Complex.“Those [I-] beams were the sizeof Buicks,”remembers FDNY EMT Jonathan Moritz.“You had debristhat looked like windowsills, glass and concrete.The magnitude ofthe debris that came down was unreal.”

As minutes ticked by,incoming units were generally told to stageat West and Vesey where Davila had established EMS operations.Due to unstable conditions many detoured to such locations asChurch and Fulton (again, on the east) or West and Liberty (to thesouth) near the pedestrian South Bridge.

The EMS Command Post Unbeknownst to Davila, FDNY EMS Assistant Chief of OperationsJerry Gombo (the No. 2 in EMS command) was on his way, havingdetoured at Church and Fulton to clear EMS units treating patientsin the middle of the exposed street.

Once at West and Vesey, Gombo checked in with Davila and pro-ceeded to FDNY’s fire Command Post—then located in the lobby of1 World Trade .There Gombo conferred with Chief Peter Hayden,the fire incident commander, and formally established the EMSCommand Post.“We set up our Command Post in close proximity to[the fire department’s]—within arm’s reach,”says Gombo.“This way,if they’re in need of anything, they know exactly where we are.”

Minutes later,Hayden alerted Gombo that they were to relocatethe Command Post from the lobby of 1 World Trade to a drivewayarea at 2 World Financial Center.The new Command Post lay justwest of the Trade Center Complex and south of where Davila hadset up EMS staging.Gombo followed suit, re-establishing EMS com-

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A fire department vessel loadedwith evacuees departs N.Y. Harbor.

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FDNYBattalion 49

FDNYBattalion 22

FDNYBattalion 43

FDNYBattalion 47

CharlesMargiotta44Lieutenant

GeoffreyGuja47Lieutenant

AnthonyJovic39Lieutenant

MichaelBocchino45Firefighter

JosephGrzelak52Battalion Chief

JohnMoran42Battalion Chief

LawrenceStack58Battalion Chief

FDNYBattalion 50

mand there as well.As he evacuated 1 World Trade, Gombo ordered all EMS

personnel out of the building. “When I left the initialCommand Post, I gave clear direction that EMS personnelwere not to be in the building,” says Gombo. “As far as ourprotocol with high-rise complexes, EMS personnel are notoutfitted with SCBAs and bunker gear. If there were anypatients, they would have been brought out to us—either byfirefighters or other civilians.”

At the new joint Command Post, Gombo issued the follow-ing directions to his FDNY EMS officers:

1. Division Chief Walter Kowalczyk—assume the role of the EMS operations officer for the entire incident;

2. Deputy Chief Charles Wells—proceed to West and Liberty to assess EMS ops at that location; and

3. Capt. Janice Olszewski and Lt. Bruce Medjuck—pro-ceed to Church and Fulton to assess EMS ops at that location.

Also present alongside Gombo at the fire Command Postwere FDNY Fire Chief Peter Ganci, FDNY DeputyCommissioner William Feehan and FDNY Division Chief JohnPeruggia—among others.

For the next few minutes, these officials prepared theirrespective EMS and fire strategies—completely unaware ofwhat lay ahead. Meanwhile, EMS personnel worked vigor-ously at locations on the east, west and south sides of theTrade Center Complex. Most first-in personnel shared onethought:This was an accident.“In training they always stressthe secondary device,” says Moritz.“Nobody would have everconsidered a second airplane being utilized as a secondarydevice—ever! At this stage in the game, nobody was expect-ing anything else.”

The Second CrashApproximately 18 minutes after the North Tower was hit,United Flight 175—also a Boeing 767—slammed into 2World Trade Center.The effects of this secondary device fur-ther endangered rescue workers and hampered EMS opera-tions as debris from the explosion pummeled the areasbelow the South Tower. Many on scene didn’t know whathad happened until the debris—and the people—began rain-ing down on them.

Gombo, who stood in an exposed area at the jointCommand Post, clearly recollects the scene following the sec-ond crash.“Before I really had an opportunity to react, therewas another flood of people, running out of the [South]Tower. There were plane parts falling on the ground. Thingsburning.We weren’t even sure what was burning, whether itwas jet fuel falling to the ground or what,” he says.

After the second crash, Gombo sent Davila east to Churchand Fulton to assess the EMS operation there. In spite of a sec-ond plane crash, the process of identifying and setting up EMS

sectors continued. Key staging locations at West and Vesey ,Church and Fulton and West and Liberty streetsremained, and informal treatment areas surrounding the TradeCenter Complex cropped up as incoming EMS units—whileattempting to drive into the area—encountered patients inneed of treatment and transport.

Chaos EnsuesFDNY, hospital, private and volunteer ambulances continuedstreaming in after the second hit. EMS units, includingMetroCare, Hatzalah, Columbia Presbyterian and Maimonides,staged in the southbound lane on West Street just under thepedestrian South Bridge . EMT Jennifer Beckham, FlushingMemorial Hospital, reports that hers was the first unit in a lineof ambulances staged to the south with their engines runningand rear doors open. FDNY officers at West and Liberty askedcrews to stand by to receive patients from 2 World Trade asthey were brought from inside the tower. As EMS personnelstood ready, debris—and victims—continued streaming downon them.

Aside from the loss of their EMS peers and other innocent

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HAIL TO THE CHIEF

The most amazing thing out of the wholeoperation is the independent action from the EMTs and paramedics that regrouped,followed their basic training and took a lot of leadership on their own.—Robert A. McCracken on the role of EMSpersonnel at the Trade Center disaster

As editors, the symbolic moments when readers’ interests sowell coincide with a source’s lamentations seem few and farbetween. By the time I found myself sitting to the left of ChiefAndy McCracken last fall at 9 Metro Tech, I had already interviewed many in his charge. Good people—sensitive, caring, professional and loyal. I couldn’t wait to hear what he had to say, for whoever led the troops I’d spent hours withmust be one hell of a leader.

He’s a rough-hewn, no-nonsense guy who speaks softlybut directly. I studied his profile carefully as he recounted hisexperiences on the 11th, listening for meaning in the wordshe spoke—or didn’t. McCracken’s a bear of a man whoseconstitution can intimidate. However, he’s as comfortable discussing EMS operations as he is agonizing over his ownpost-incident feelings.

Sometime between minutes one and 91 of our discussion, I understood that the wellspring of soul and dedication topatient service I’d seen in every face at FDNY EMS—whethertwo months or 20 years on the job—emanate from him. Hisconcern and compassion for his people are palpable, and therecovery task before him large. For this, we salute him.—LD

FDNYBattalion 48

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FDNYDivision 1

FDNYBattalion 57

FDNY CitywideTour Commanders

FDNYDivision 11

DennisCross60Battalion Chief

JosephMarchbanks Jr.47Battalion Chief

GerardBarbara53Assistant Chief

DonaldBurns61Assistant Chief

JosephFarrelly47Captain

ThomasMoody45Captain

TimothyStackpole42Captain

bystanders, most personnel present on the 11th carry the bur-den of witnessing victims who jumped or fell from the towers.A contentious subject, the spectacle of the jumpers was anunqualified constant in our conversations with responding EMSpersonnel.The majority of those interviewed for this story vivid-ly recollected—without solicitation—those who jumped.

From eyewitness reports, the incidence of jumpers increasedwhen the South Tower was hit. By this time 1 World Trade hadbeen aflame for nearly 20 minutes, its heat offering no mercy tothose above and just below the involved floors—96–103.Moritzsaw six or seven jumpers from 1 World Trade when he arrived onscene.When 2 World Trade was hit, the pattern repeated, forcingthose above and just below involved floors 80–86 to endure theheat or flee the building by leaping.

“I can’t tell you the feeling I felt [when those people were jump-ing].I kept saying,‘Our guys are on the way up to you.Why are youpeople jumping?’” recalls FDNY EMS Chief Robert McCracken,who arrived south of the Trade Center Complex after the secondplane hit.“I had no idea the stairwells were inaccessible.And whenthe flames really roared, you knew they had no choice. Theyweren't unconscious; they knew what the hell they were doing.

“The thing that really bothered me the most [were] the onesthat were so far away from the buildings,” he says.“You wonderhow an individual can get 40–50 feet from the building.You can’tjump that far.Were they blown out? Was it the atmosphere? Werethey running and saw light?”

It’s difficult to imagine how providers on all sides of the TradeCenter Complex negotiated the massive debris from the build-ing, much less the emotional and physical challenges presentedby people leaping to their deaths. Whether on the job twomonths or 20 years, providers are haunted by what one FDNYEMT describes as “falling tear drops.”

The jumpers were a painful symbol of the patient care realitySept.11:EMS could do nothing for those who fell.“I kept saying,‘Do not look at where they’re coming from.They’re coming from90 stories up.They’re dead the second they hit.There is absolute-ly no reason for us to go over and even check. They’re dead.That’s it,’” says Jack Delaney, director of EMS, New YorkPresbyterian Hospital. “It put a whole different spin on emer-gency medicine. It truly was a war zone. Protocols were out thewindow. It was a matter of survival at that point.”

EMS Ops Post-Crash 2The moment United 175 slammed into 2 World Trade,a paradigmshift occurred in the minds of most EMS personnel on scene.“Two planes—that’s much more than coincidence,”says Gombo.“In my mind, I switched from accident to terrorism.”

Operationally,FDNY EMS maintained its staging commitmentsat West and Vesey, Church and Fulton and West and Liberty.Smaller staging and treatment areas evolved in the vicinity aspatients escaping the Trade Center rushed to incoming EMSunits, begging for assistance.

Post-crash No. 2, EMS officials focused on two concerns: 1)EMS would need more resources to handle the thousands ofanticipated patients, and 2) personnel in exposed or debris-riddled areas were more vulnerable than ever to injury.

FDNY EMS Deputy Chief Zachary Goldfarb, who had beensent to West and Vesey,encountered 40–50 EMS personnel underthe pedestrian North Bridge.They had parked their vehicles onthe southbound side of West Street (North of Vesey) and wereawaiting patients.Standing in the middle of West Street,Goldfarbcalled for nearby officers. His goal was to set up a casualty col-lection point for the injured in that area, as well as to maintainegress for the ambulances.

He instructed Capt. Jace Pinkus and a lieutenant to move allEMS personnel underneath the North Bridge up against the exte-rior of 3 World Financial Center—across the street—away fromfalling debris. He also requested they document all personnel inthat location.“One of my big issues is accountability at the scene,”says Goldfarb.“As an EMS supervisor, I never want to be ringinganybody’s door saying,‘Johnny’s not coming home tonight.’”

As his orders were carried out, Goldfarb looked back on thescene.“I said to myself,‘I don’t like the way this looks,’”he recalls.“I think I saw things that I now don’t want to remember. I calledPinkus on the radio and told him to move the operation inside 3World Financial and do an accountability check. I told him to getthe whole thing buttoned up in the building.”

As the upper floors of both towers burned,compromising thebuildings’ construction, Goldfarb’s foresight at West and Vesey,along with McCracken’s simultaneous activities south of thecomplex, likely saved many EMS lives. McCracken, who hadparked south of the complex on Rector Street, proceeded northon foot, attempting to divert incoming EMS personnel south—away from the towers.“My main objective was to get everybodyoff Liberty, get them off West Street.A couple of my trucks were

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At most MCIs, some thing—product, strategy or other—often emerges as the call’sMVP. On Sept. 11, that wasthe Gator. All-terrain vehi-cles that FDNY EMS origi-

nally brought in as part of the department’s Y2Kpreparation, they proved indispensable for quicktransportation amid Ground Zero’s daunting terrain.

“On the 11th, the first Gator arrived with an EMSunit—two paramedics—from Queens on it,” explainsKowalczyk. “They were tremendous assets because the urban environment of lower Manhattan quickly lost paved roadways. The terrain we had to gothrough made the Gators the most maneuverable for people, victims and equipment.”—LD

GATOR GRATITUDE

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FDNYDivision 15

FDNY Engine 1

MartinEgan Jr.36Captain

ThomasHaskell Jr.37Battalion Chief

WilliamO’Keefe49Captain

AndrewDesperito43Lieutenant

MichaelWeinberg34Firefighter

there—on Liberty facing the West Street corridor,”he says.“Theythought I was kidding.I said,‘Get out of Liberty because [2 WorldTrade] looks very unstable.’”

McCracken continued giving directives to fire and EMS per-sonnel in the area. His goal was to have all EMS vehicles facingsouth to evacuate patients to the South Street Ferry area .“Ialso reminded everybody about using [their] natural body sens-es—hearing, taste, smell,” recalls McCracken.“Don’t ask me why.I’ve never said that before on a command. But it was somethingyou had to rely on because this was a bad feeling all the wayaround.When I pulled up, I said,‘This is a bad one.’”

While clearing the Liberty area of EMS and fire personnel,McCracken was called via radio to the Command Post.He nevermade it there.

South Tower CollapseAs McCracken journeyed north on foot, John Peruggia wasreceiving disturbing news at 7 World Trade . “We got someinformation from a buildings person or an engineer that therewas significant structural damage to the towers and they were indanger of immediate collapse,” recalls Peruggia.

Shortly thereafter,Peruggia heard an unforgettable screechingsound. McCracken was overcome with the noise as well:“Just asI got out of Liberty the sound under my feet was like an earth-quake. It sounded like a jet engine screaming in my ear. … Ithought it was another plane coming in.”

Back at the Command Post, Gombo was busily discussing EMSresources with Commissioner Feehan.“It must have been just min-utes—at least that’s the way it felt—[from the South Tower beinghit] when something very strange started,”he says.“All of a sudden,the sky got very dark.We felt the ground vibrating and heard atremendous roar.For a second,I thought it might be another plane.But when I looked up it appeared the sky was coming down.”

Nearby,Kowalczyk saw a plume of smoke erupting as 2 WorldTrade began to fall. He ran with Gombo and several otherstoward the underground garage at 2 World Financial.“I’m saying,

‘Fool, why am I doing this?’” says Kowalczyk.“My thinking andmy training says I’m basically running into a dead end. What’sgoing to prevent this debris from following the natural course ofthe driveway into the garage?”

It did follow.Most pedestrians near the Trade Center Complexwere consumed by a stultifying cloud of debris and dust as theSouth Tower crumbled.To the east at Church and Fulton, Davilaescaped into the Millennium Hotel, where he was knocked tothe ground.“The hotel lobby was dark. I saw a light and wenttoward a door,”he says.“I was a chicken-shit, scared supervisor. Iwas panicked. The noise I heard was something like I neverheard before in my life.You could still feel the doors shaking, themetal in the hotel bending.”

Then Davila experienced an emotional cycle described bymany EMS personnel who lived through the first collapse: feel-ings of fear, acceptance, then anger.“I went through a warpedfeeling. I think we all shared it—all of us there through the col-lapse period. We’re always in dangerous positions, and there’salways that life-threatening possibility,”he says.“But I knew I wasdead. All of sudden my feeling was, ‘OK, I’m gonna die. Calmdown. Die with some dignity.’”

After momentarily absorbing his perceived fate, a survivalinstinct kicked in. Amazingly, Davila found a working phone; hecalled his wife.“You could hear her hysterical because she workedup Church Street and saw the building collapsing,” he says.“Shetold somebody in her office,‘Call 9-1-1!’

“I said,‘Fern, I am 9-1-1.’”Southeast of the complex, McCracken found himself in a cor-

ridor unable to see his hand in front of his face. “All I heard,before the darkness really got in [was] this woman screaming,‘My baby! My baby! My baby!’” he remembers.“While I was inthis corner, pulling my helmet and my face shield down, I feltsomething between my legs. [I reached down and felt] a childbetween my legs. Don’t ask me how it got there.”

McCracken began swirling through the fear,acceptance,angercycle.“You start to think you’re going to die,”he says.“I started tothink about my children, and, for the first time, I actually prayedto the Mother Mary.That was gonna get me through.”

A rush of air blew through the corridor he was in, and win-dows broke as dark descended.“It got so quiet,”says McCracken.“I said, ‘This can’t be death; this can’t be death.’ ... Somebodyyelled,‘Is everybody OK?’As I opened my mouth to respond,I gotthis total mouthful [of debris]—as if I was buried in the sand. Isaid,‘Oh my God,I’m going to suffocate here.I cannot believe it.’”

Struggle to SurviveDuring the next 29 minutes, Gombo, Kowalczyk, Davila andMcCracken worked their way out of their respective entrap-ments. EMS personnel previously staged at the three EMS sectorsaround the Trade Center Complex were scattered by the collapse.

During this period EMS personnel faced difficult odds.Most of

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Shelled ambulances line the southbound lane of WestStreet just beneath the pedestrian South Bridge.

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them were seriously incapacitated.A 110-story office building hadcollapsed on them. The incinerating, murderous souffle of steel,concrete,office furniture and airplane parts made personal survivalthe moment’s priority.

Lone personnel searched through a snowstorm of particulatefor their partners. Ambulances and command vehicles closest tothe towers lay crushed and burning.Those vehicles lining streetsclosest to the perimeter stood abandoned, their back doors open,covered with inches—even feet—of debris.

Even the most physically fit providers struggled simply to inhale,much less to walk,amid the melee.When they could stagger in anydirection, it was difficult to discern where to go because no onecould see where they had ended up after the blast of the collapse.And no one knew where to go,anyway:On-scene communicationsproved difficult at best.Department radios transmitted spottily, if atall, during this period. Cell phones—personal or departmental—proved worthless without their signals.

As the particulate matter began dissipating in pockets aroundthe Trade Center, happenstance reunions occurred on the perime-ter of the Complex. EMS personnel joined with police and firefighters to assess their surroundings and develop any kind ofresponse strategy. The injured, who emerged from beneath firevehicles, shelled-out buildings and various nooks and crannies,required eye rinses and respiratory assists. EMS personnel werejolted from the mental and physical shocks of the collapse toaggressively focus on patient treatment—even if it meant lootingambulances for oxygen and saline.

Gombo and Kowalczyk’s group, which had escaped from theCommand Post, worked their way through 2 World Financial andexited the west side of the building.They proceeded past the WinterGarden area to West Street.There, they met up with Goldfarb, who

after moving his people off the street at West and Vesey into nearby3 World Financial, had propelled himself into the back of an ambu-lance as the South Tower collapsed.

Together at West and Vesey, FDNY EMS brass began relocatingresources,such as moving vehicles west toward North End Avenue.“The triage team in 3 World Financial had re-established in thelobby of the Embassy Suites building,” reports Goldfarb.“We weregetting patients—evacuees. A lot of public safety people, civil-ians—about 25–30 cardiac and trauma patients.We also had a lotof walking wounded drifting in and out.We had fractures. Smokeand dust inhalation.Shock.They were injured in the [first] collapseas opposed to the initial events.”

No ReprieveStill somewhat south of the Trade Center Complex, McCrackensearched desperately for his personnel and directed everyone toproceed south.“All I know is [as] I went looking for the Command

The aftermath at Church and Vesey, a major EMS triagelocation prior to the collapses.

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FDNYEngine 4

FDNY Engine 5

FDNY Engine 6

CalixtoAnaya Jr.35Firefighter

JamesRiches29Firefighter

ThomasSchoales27Firefighter

PaulTegtmeier41Firefighter

Manuel Delvalle32Firefighter

PaulBeyer37Firefighter

ThomasHolohan36Firefighter

WilliamJohnston31Firefighter

Post,here it came again—the sound—a low roar [like] an enginecoming at you. You felt like you were getting sucked into the[engine] intake,” says McCracken.

Disoriented, he looked for a street sign or a building marker.“The most frustrating thing was seeing fire trucks collapsed,crushed. Firefighters bent over trying to get air. PASS alarmsgoing off. No command structure anywhere,” he laments. “I didn’t see anybody of rank in my area at all. The next thing Iknew I was running from the next tower.That’s when it struckme that the first noise I had heard was [2 World Trade collaps-ing].This was the next tower chasing me.”

Indeed, as most Americans watched the nightmare unfold ontheir television sets,on scene EMS personnel in lower Manhattanhad virtually no idea that the South Tower had completely fallendown—much less that they were enduring the second collapse.As the North Tower pancaked to the ground just yards from theirlocation in the Embassy Suites Hotel,EMS officials,who had beenattempting to regroup after collapse No. 1, knew the operationwas about to take a dramatic turn.

“We decided to retreat from the scene and pull back,”explainsGoldfarb.“We didn’t know what the next hit would be.We decid-ed to evacuate our assets, set up remote staging areas, bring inheavy-duty mutual aid to support staging and set up distant CCPs[casualty collection points] because we anticipated thousands ofcasualties—injured. We were trying to figure out where OEMwas going to be.”

Operationally, EMS was reorganized as follows:•All EMS personnel close to what is now known as

Ground Zero would remain in their locations until moreinformation became available;

• Kowalczyk was sent to organize an EMS triage sector farnorth at Chelsea Piers ;

• Gombo and Goldfarb went to 1 Police Plaza (formersite of OEM and the city’s Emergency Operations Centerbefore it moved to 7 World Trade, which was nowaflame) to coordinate EMS activities from that location;

• EMS personnel would continue triaging to the south atSouth Street (Staten Island) Ferry .

Hundreds if by SeaAs his senior staff endured collapse No. 2 and strategized to hisnorth, McCracken emerged from the building he’d been in andtook to the streets.“Visibility got a little better, like a snowstorm,”he says.“I went back to the south and made my way down to theharbor.There were little Coast Guard boats and police launchesevacuating people. It seemed like a small amount of people. Ididn’t see any injured.”

At Robert Wagner Park (just west of the South Street Ferry),heencountered an estimated 1,500 people. “You could not seelower Manhattan from there,but for some strange reason,this lit-tle piece of real estate had good air quality,” McCracken says.“Everybody kept saying,‘We got to go through [the smoke anddebris cloud].’ I kept saying, ‘I don’t know what’s on the otherside of that smoke.We’re not going.We’re staying at least wherewe’re in a safe haven.’”

From that location, he assisted people onto tugboats and fer-ries and had them evacuated to New Jersey. Water evacuationwas a tremendous asset in this incident. Early on, a staging areawas established at South Street Ferry. Prior to the second col-lapse,police, fire,Coast Guard,Port Authority and private sea ves-sels were approaching the west shore of lower Manhattan.Fromnorth Battery Park City to Robert Wagner Park and points below,these vehicles helped evacuate the injured to such locations asStaten Island and Liberty Park in New Jersey for treatment andtransport to medical facilities.

Chelsea: Abundant ResourcesAt the north triage sector,Kowalczyk focused on set-up.“Chelsea… became a mobilization point for anything medical.We startedto give birth in a matter of minutes to an EMS system almost aslarge as one of our own divisions,”he says.

Kowalczyk began assessing and organizing resources—frompersonnel to supplies. Crowd control overwhelmed even lawenforcement officials at that location.“Here we were in the mid-dle of the only exit from Manhattan,” says Kowalczyk.“It was anevacuation route and thousands of people were exiting north.14

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The Millennium Hilton served as both backdrop and shel-ter for personnel before and after the towers collapsed.

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FDNYEngine 8

FDNY Engine 21

FDNYEngine 10

RobertParro35Firefighter

GreggAtlas44Lieutenant

JeffreyOlsen31Firefighter

PaulPansini34Firefighter

WilliamBurke Jr.46Captain

Meanwhile, picture the amount of people coming into NewYork, streaming toward the towers.”

EOC ImprovisedGombo and Goldfarb arrived at 1 Police Plaza and established EMScommand.At the time,they were the only FDNY personnel there.“We knew it was going to take time to get FEMA assistance,” saysGombo. “But we needed to do whatever we could until thoseresources reached us.We anticipated thousands of patients.”

Knowing that local hospitals couldn’t accommodate suchlarge patient quantities, Gombo and Goldfarb identified severallocations for CCPs: the Javits Center on the west side, theBrooklyn Navy Yard to the east and the Yankee minor league sta-dium in Staten Island to the south.“The plan was … to set theselocations up, staff them with hospital personnel—primarily sur-geons and doctors—secure medical equipment and have itbrought to those locations and send patients there,” recallsGombo.“We planned to activate these locations by 1800 HRS.”

Sadly, Gombo and Goldfarb would ultimately scale back theoperation.At 1800 HRS two of the three CCPs were demobilizeddue to a lack of patients.

By late afternoon,McCracken had made his way to the newlyestablished EMS Command Post at West and Chambers .Nearby Stuyvesant High School,which had seen a fair number ofpatients earlier in the day,was being used by EMS mostly to treaton-scene emergency personnel (police, fire, and so forth).Kowalczyk had been relieved at Chelsea and joined McCrackenand others to plan the ongoing EMS presence on scene.

“Our biggest urgency after 7 [World Trade] went down [justafter 5 p.m.] was regrouping,”says McCracken,“trying to figure outwho was left and making sure we could account for everybody.”

That evening, Kowalczyk and Goldfarb stayed to organizeongoing EMS commitments for the disaster.The remaining EMSsupervisors were officially sent home. Less than 15 hours afterAmerican Flight 11 hit 1 World Trade,the need for EMS resourcesto care for critically injured patients was, for the most part, over.

Upsetting Role ReversalThe legacy of EMS involvement at the Trade Center disaster willevolve as time passes. While providers overcame tremendousodds to treat and transport hundreds of patients from the siteearly in the incident, they ultimately faced a cruel reality:Whatinitially looked to be the largest MCI in American history—onethat would have required an unprecedented EMS response—never materialized.

Data collected from five Manhattan hospitals report 790injured survivors from the Trade Center attacks were treatedbetween 8 a.m. Sept. 11 and 8 a.m. Sept. 13. But these figuresaccount only for reported injuries and only for patients seen inManhattan during the time period. At press time, 3,023 peoplewere confirmed dead or still reported dead or missing.

For now providers seem grossly disappointed with the turn

of events that Tuesday morning.And most anguish over havingbecome victims themselves.“My personal frustration is that wewent down there with the expectation of saving a lot of lives,”says Delaney.“In actuality ... we were concentrating on savingour own lives. Anybody we came across, we helped. But wewere retreating instead of going in.”

The author wishes to thank every source who so willingly gave of theirtime and resources during the preparation of this article.

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The following services were requested by FDNY CitywideDispatch to respond to the Trade Center disaster on Sept.11 from the time the event occurred through 0900 HRS onSept. 12.

• Beth Israel Medical Center• Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center• Cabrini Medical Center• Flushing Hospital• Jamaica Hospital Medical Center• Lenox Hill Hospital• Long Island College Hospital• Lutheran Medical Center• Maimonides Medical Center• Montefiore Medical Center• NYU Downtown Hospital• New York Hospital of Queens• New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center• New York Presbyterian Hospital• North Shore University Hospital• Parkway Hospital• St. Clare’s Hospital• St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center• St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Centers: Bayley Seton• St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Centers: Manhattan• St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Centers: Mary

Immaculate• St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Centers: St. Mary's• St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Centers: St. John's

Queens• St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Centers: Staten Island• Staten Island University Hospital• Victory Memorial Hospital

Community-based volunteer ambulance corps:• BRAVO Volunteer Ambulance Service• Flatlands Volunteer Ambulance Service• Broad Channel Volunteers Inc• Little Neck-Douglaston Community Ambulance Corps• North Shore Rescue Squad Volunteer Ambulance

In addition to the above organizations, mutual aid requestsmade by OEM and the New York Department of Healthresulted in additional on-scene EMS resources from com-mercial and volunteer ambulance services in New York andNew Jersey as the event unfolded. Source: FDNY EMS

Main Characters: EMS Personnel WhoResponded to the Trade Center

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JohnGiordano47Firefighter

KevinBracken37Firefighter

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Live to TellInterviews by Lisa Dionne & A.J. Heightman

On Sept. 11, 2001, EMS personnel worked under unimaginable circumstances. Many crews faced death twice within a time span of less than 60 minutes. EMS personnel wereforced to render care under true battlefieldconditions. While in the middle of patient care,crews had to run for cover to save their own lives,contrary to the usual course of events at an MCI. What follows are their personal accounts: graphic, descriptive and, most importantly, in their own words. You may notice—as we did—inconsistencies among the accounts. As you have probably experienced in your own life—and as providers certainly experienced on the 11th, emotions and stress can inhibit our memories. We attempted to substantiate and clarify incongruities. Consider them part of the inevitable dilemma involved in creating an archive and documenting history. Caution: Because wewanted to represent the actions and words of these providers as true to the events aspossible, we have broken our normal policy on not publishing profanity. Therefore, some portions of the material you are about to read contain graphic language.

Live to TellInterviews by Lisa Dionne & A.J. Heightman

On Sept. 11, 2001, EMS personnel worked under unimaginable circumstances. Many crews faced death twice within a time span of less than 60 minutes. EMS personnel wereforced to render care under true battlefieldconditions. While in the middle of patient care,crews had to run for cover to save their own lives,contrary to the usual course of events at an MCI. What follows are their personal accounts: graphic, descriptive and, most importantly, in their own words. You may notice—as we did—inconsistencies among the accounts. As you have probably experienced in your own life—and as providers certainly experienced on the 11th, emotions and stress can inhibit our memories. We attempted to substantiate and clarify incongruities. Consider them part of the inevitable dilemma involved in creating an archive and documenting history. Caution: Because wewanted to represent the actions and words of these providers as true to the events aspossible, we have broken our normal policy on not publishing profanity. Therefore, some portions of the material you are about to read contain graphic language.

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FDNYEngine 54

FDNY Engine 55

PaulGill34Firefighter

JoseGuadalupe37Firefighter

LeonardRagaglia36Firefighter

ChristopherSantora23Firefighter

PeterFreund45Lieutenant

RobertLane28Firefighter

ChristopherMozzillo27Firefighter

StephenRussell40 Firefighter

Glenn Asaeda, MD, deputy medicaldirector, FDNY EMSAs I neared the World Trade Center, Iparked a block away. I grabbed my hel-met and headed toward the CommandPost that had been established in frontof the North Tower. I talked to theIncident Commander and learned an

EMS treatment center had been set up in 7 World Trade.So I decided to go there and assist.

Debris was falling. I looked up to see bodies falling. Iinitially thought they’d been overcome by carbonmonoxide.But then I saw a man climbing out a window,trying to reach another floor.He didn’t make it. I’ve seenpeople jump before, but never from so high.When theyfall from 20–25 stories,by the time you’ve said,“Oh God,please don’t jump,” it’s over. But this time I kept repeat-ing,“Please don’t jump. Please don’t jump. Please don’tjump.” I witnessed dozens of people jumping. And thiswas just one side of one building.

As I headed into 7 World Trade, an EMT gave me anoverview of what he knew—reds, yellows, greens. Soonafter I entered the building I heard a crash,and everyonedove for cover. This was the collapse of the South Tower.Everything went black.“Anthrax,” I thought. So I sent anEMT for the antidote kit.Then I thought,“What good willa kit meant for 125 people do here? If we’re not deadnow, we will be.”

So we ran. I didn’t know the building layout and did-n’t have a flashlight. But someone had a camera andstarted flashing the strobe.He said,“I think the exit’s thisway; follow the flash.”

We got out of the building and had to decide whichway to go. We picked north, away from 1 World Trade.Had we gone south, the collapse of the North Towerwould have caught us.

What haunts me to this day is witnessing people jump-ing to their deaths from 100 stories.Atthat moment, I realized all of the med-ical training that I had was absolutelyworthless because I was helpless to doanything for these people.

EMT Jennifer Beckham, Flushing Hospital Medical Center,Unit 52 Frank

I work a BLS unit at Flushing Hospital Medical Center.OnSept. 11, me and my partner Bonnie [Giebfried] went toour bagel place.We’re like,“You know what? We’re justgonna have an easy day.We’re not gonna buff any jobs.Let’s just go do what we’re supposed to do and that’s it.”

I was reading the paper. I said,“Bonnie, look at this.Today is National 9-1-1 Day.”We were listening to WNEW,which I never listen to—ever—and we heard this guy go,“A plane crashed into the World Trade Center.”

I said,“Bonnie, are you listening to this idiot? Planesdon’t crash into the World Trade Center.”

All of sudden, the radio started to go crazy.You heardeverybody getting called to the 59th Street Bridge. Wewere like,“What the hell is going on? Planes don’t crashinto the World Trade Center. It doesn’t happen.”

I got on the radio. Dispatch was like,“Hold on, units!”Then she screamed,“All right,52 Frank,you want to pickup [52 Edward’s] late job? It’s on your screen.”

I said,“OK, 63 [en route].We’ll take it.”Then I said [to Bonnie],“Let’s stop at my car. I went

grocery shopping last night, and I have a whole thing ofjuice boxes in my car.We’re gonna be there all day.Wegotta have something to drink.” I thought we would getsome overtime. I wanted to come home and have a real-ly cool story to tell.This is what we live for.

So we stopped at my car.We got the juice boxes. I gotmy extra camera. We started driving [from Queens toManhattan].And everybody was going crazy on the radio.We were high-fiving each other. I was taking pictures [of1 World Trade].

I was doing my hair. Bonnie’s going,“Don’t put gel inyour hair.” I was like,“No, I gotta do it. I just cut it short,and it’ll be all over the place.” I was thinking we wouldrun into some cute firemen.

So we were driving down Church Street, and Bonniesaid,“Oh my God, Jen, there’s body parts in the street.” Ilooked into a pile of red mush. Like someone took flesh,stuck it into a blender, put it on high for 10 seconds anddumped it on the street. I looked up at [1 World Trade]and saw the huge hole.The pictures do not do it justice.I turned to Bonnie and said,“I want to go home. I don’twant to be here.This is not cool any more.”

We ended up at West and Liberty. We parked under-neath [the South Bridge] just below the Marriott. Wewere the first in line; everybody else lined up behind usgoing south on West.There were MetroCare,Hatzalah and

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FDNYEngine 58

FDNYEngine 74

FDNYEngine 201

FDNYEngine 205

RobertNagel55Lieutenant

RubenCorrea44Firefighter

GregBuck37Firefighter

PaulMartini37Lieutenant

ChristopherPickford32Firefighter

JohnSchardt32Firefighter

RobertWallace43Lieutenant

Columbia Presbyterian units filing behind us,facing the towers.Noone knew what was going on. I was taking pictures, and I saw ajumper come down. Pink shirt; black pants. It took him so longto hit the ground.Four seconds is an eternity when you’re seeingsomeone fall out of a building.When he hit the ground, he justexploded. And we saw three more coming down. I remembergoing,“No, no, no, no, no—don’t do this. Don’t do this to me. Ican’t handle this.”

[FDNY EMS] Capt. [Karin] DeShore came over. Apparentlythey had a person, a victim, in the lobby [of 2 World Trade].Wewent in the lobby,going,“Where are all the people?”In the lobby,there was this lady there with a little jazzy wheelchair, sittingwith a friend.We put her on the stretcher because the wheel-chair wouldn’t make it outside with all the hose. She had proba-bly been there for a while watching things fall. Outside, I startedto do the paperwork on her,and she said,“I’m not a patient.I justneeded help getting out.” She said,“Will you help me get in thechair?”Her legs were really stiff,and she couldn’t get in the chair.She [asked],“Where should I go?”

I said,“I don’t know where you should go, but just get out ofhere.”So she headed west across the street from the towers withher friend.Then Capt.DeShore ordered us to load all our stuff upand go across [West] Street to a little grassy knoll.Then I heardthis roar, like a 747 or a fighter plane. I looked up, thinking,“Thisis really cool,747s flying around!”Not having any clue what wasgoing on. I looked to the left and I saw the South Tower sinking.I saw three little poofs—I guess probably part of the floors. I canstill see them if I close my eyes: poof, poof, poof.

Bonnie grabbed me and shoved me.Then I ran.I saw a big build-ing in front of me,and I took a step to the right and then went tothe left, into a little alcove.

There were six or seven people in the alcove.I remember beingby a window on my hands and knees,with my window punch andmy radio, pounding on that window. I remember looking up, try-ing to take a breath. I thought,“I can’t breathe. I’m gonna die thisway.This is really a horrible way to go.”

Then I heard a little tiny pop; the window shattered on me.Acop had shot the window out. I crawled over the windowsill andgot in [the building] and threw up. I screamed for Bonnie andfound her. It was just as dark in there as it was outside.Turns outwe were buried under four stories of debris—we’d been standingright across the street from [2 World Trade] when it came down.

We ended up breaking into this bread shop.We walked in andsaw a big metal bowl with ice and orange juice. I grabbed anorange juice and started drinking. I didn’t even think I shouldspit it out. I just drank it and blew my nose.When we walked outof the bread store, it was a blizzard of volcanic ash. It was dark,dirty, hard to breathe. I didn’t know what to do.

We found a MERV because we needed supplies.We took twoO2 bags, a tech bag, cravats, sterile water, saline.We didn’t thinkwe’d need longboards or short boards.

Walking around outside, I heard another loud roar. I knew the

North Tower was coming down. Underneath the bridge was aparking garage;we went in there.Me and Bonnie yelled to see ifanyone was there.There were six or seven of us.We used flash-lights to get ourselves together.

We went back to the MERV to get more equipment.We walkedtoward the water. But Bonnie started having an asthma attack.There was an ambulance on the corner. I found it and broke intoit. I took the Albuterol, nebulizers and oxygen for Bonnie. I alsotook their antidote kit because I figured,“What else is coming?”

So I set Bonnie up.And I went back and got their tech bags andtook their MAST pants out.Then I threw their MAST pants out,’cause I figured anybody who needs MAST,they’re dead.I just kepttaking things I thought we would need.

Back at the waterfront, we ended up with a trauma nurse. Itold her,“Listen,you gotta be stingy with this stuff.Don’t give thefiremen the water to drink. You gotta keep it to wet people’seyes.You cannot give it to them to drink. Just tell them ‘No.’”

Then we started loading people on the fire boats to go to Jersey.People came up to me [and said],“I have chest pains.”

I told them,“Get on the boat.I can’t help you.Get on the boat.Go to New Jersey. I can’t help you.”What am I gonna do for aheart attack person? Nothing.

I don’t know if it’s really hit me yet. I’ve only cried once. I getteary-eyed. I still have nightmares that me and Bonnie are on the106th floor trying to break a door open. I keep saying, “Thistower’s gonna collapse.Bonnie,we know it’s gonna collapse.”I feellike I’ve been punished by being able to come home. It’s so hardto deal with. Me and Bonnie talked the other day that I wish Iwould have died, so I don’t have to deal with all this crap.

My second day back to work, I called Capt.DeShore. I thankedher for saving my life. She said,“I thought I gave you a death sen-tence.I thought I killed you.I remember sending two girls into theSouth Tower to get somebody.I don’t remember you coming out.”

It made me cry because she saved my life when I came out ofthat building by sending me off the street over to the grassyknoll. She saved all our lives.

Scott Beloten, EMT-P, Maimonides HospitalAmbulance Dept., Brooklyn, N.Y.I had just finished my first shift—I was doing adouble.That morning I was working a transfertruck. My boss stopped us and said the WorldTrade Center had just gotten hit by an airplane.I was like,“Yeah right.”We turned on the radio,and—immediately—we found out it was true.So we figured a Cessna.What an idiot [the pilotis]! It’s daylight.

When we got back to the garage, the other paramedics andEMTs were watching TV, and you could see that it wasn’t aCessna that hit the building.Alan Simon [our ambulance direc-tor] said,“Let’s mobilize.”So me,Alan, Pete Cuzzolino and a para-medic student,Ralph Bijou,went to the ambulance.We picked up

BELOTEN &

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FDNYEngine 207

FDNYEngine 214

FDNYEngine 216

KarlJoseph25Firefighter

ShawnPowell32Firefighter

KevinReilly28Firefighter

CarlBedigian35Lieutenant

JohnFlorio33Firefighter

MichaelRoberts31Firefighter

KennethWatson39Firefighter

DanielSuhr37Firefighter

paramedic Joe Cutrone and headed into the city.Pete drove.We got on the Prospect Expressway that leads to the

Gowanus Expressway, and it was clear all the way to the city.Wegot through the Battery Tunnel in minutes.We came out of thetunnel and saw it.You can’t imagine. It was horrific on TV,but tolook up to the towers to see the huge gaping hole in one and theother one with numerous floors on fire—I said,“Oh my God.”

We parked by the [pedestrian] South Bridge on West Street,just south [of the South Tower]. Other ambulances were linedup. Maybe we were 200 feet from the towers.

Ralph said,“I just saw somebody jump.”Then he said,“Theregoes another one.” It really didn’t register. We got out of theambulance and started getting our equipment together. I lookedup at the tower and saw people jump and got fixated on it.Youdidn’t realize they were coming 600, 700, 800 feet. I watched aperson just sail across Liberty Street, right into the parking lotacross the street,100 feet away from us.He landed on a car. I feltlike I was watching a movie.

It was so surreal. I watched person after person jump.Therewere so many. It was horrible watching people land.When theylanded, you heard a thud or a bam or a bang.Then you heard asecondary bang.You saw people’s body parts going in differentdirections. I remember one specifically: the person landedbehind a car, and I saw their blood and intestines come up fiveor six feet in the air.

Every time [someone jumped], I was stuck to this personcoming down,watching them pray,watching them try to fly. JoeCutrone turned to me and said,“Scott,you can’t do a damn thingfor them.”So I said,“All right, let’s go.”

We crossed the street to head through the Marriott WorldTrade Center Hotel to get to the lobby of the South Tower,wherewe thought forward triage would be located.Debris was comingdown. I was watching so I wouldn’t get hit by a jumper.That’swhen a good friend of mine, [FDNY paramedic] Ricardo Quinn,came walking across the street. Ric and I went to paramedicschool together, and we became best friends when we wereparamedics.We were about the same age. He was married. I’mmarried.At that time, his child was four; my child was two.Weused to study—all-nighters—together.

Ric walked across the street with us.We walked toward thecorner of West and Liberty. There was a staircase and glassawning in front of the building.As we walked in, a flat piece ofmetal came down at me. Since it wasn’t solid, it wasn’t comingstraight down. It was shifting side to side. I didn’t want it to cutmy head off, so I blocked it with my arm. I figured it was betterto sacrifice my arm than my head. I deflected it, and there musthave been a sharp edge underneath that came across four of myfingers. Ric turned to me with his typical smirk and said,“Youschmuck, why didn’t you run?”

Ric busted my chops about my hand.As we went inside, JoeCutrone said,“We’re gonna stop and bandage your hand.”

I said,“No, Joe, people need our help.”

I thought,“We’ve gotta get to forward triage; maybe even upon the upper floors.” But Joe insisted on bandaging my hand. Itcouldn’t have taken more than a minute.

While this was going on, Ric said, “Listen, I’m gonna walkahead and go to forward triage. I’ll call you on your radio and tellyou where forward triage is located.”

Joe finished bandaging my hand, and we went across [theMarriott] lobby. It was massive, maybe two or three stories high.There was no furniture, just large, square marble planters in arow. There was a giant glass wall [extending] the height andwidth of the lobby.

When we were about to go through the large glass door toenter the South Tower,we heard twisting metal and what sound-ed like an explosion in the distance.You heard it getting louderand louder and rolling toward you—just like in a movie. I tookRalph and pushed him the other direction back to where wecame from. I yelled,“Run!”We all ran back the way we came.

It was just firemen and policemen in the lobby,and everybodyran. It was like slow motion.You were running and hearing thisnoise rolling and [getting] louder and louder.Ric must have beenjust on the other side of that wall [in the South Tower] becausehe couldn’t have been more than 30 seconds ahead of us.Whenyou ran, you could sense [the shockwave] behind you. It gotlouder and louder, and then you heard that glass wall break.Youknew the glass was about to hit you. I remember diving behindone of those planters.

I remember lying there,gasping for air.I went to take a breath,and my mouth was filled with all this debris. It was like if yousheetrock a room and sweep up the debris and stuff it into yourmouth.You couldn’t breathe. I figured,“OK, let me spit this out,and I’ll breathe.”So I spit it out,and I went to take a deep breath,but I couldn’t. I was suffocating. I couldn’t breathe, and everytime I breathed, I inhaled more of this garbage.

I called out to Joe and Ralph. No answer. I figured they weredead. Now I was alone and scared. The image of my childrenpopped into my head. I wanted to live. So I started walking likea blind man with my hands out in front of me. I saw a firemanwith a flashlight,and I grabbed onto him.I wasn’t letting him go.We were going from room to room, and there was debris.Ceilings had collapsed.You didn’t know which way to go.

Everywhere we went, the building [the Marriott] wasplugged.You couldn’t get out.We found a staircase that took usdownstairs to the lower level.Everywhere we went down there,it was collapsed.You couldn’t find a way out. I remember think-ing I was in the Poseidon Adventure when they walk throughthe corridors. Finally, we cleared some debris, and we came outby a loading dock on West Street.

When I looked out on West Street, it looked like a giant parkinglot. It was quiet except for debris still coming down. It was surre-al because the only person I saw was a lone fireman. It was like abomb hit, and everybody was killed,and you made it out.

The street that was bustling [before] with all these people and

cameramen,fire trucks and ambulances now [was littered with] allthese destroyed ambulances, rolled over. I saw an EMT helping afemale EMT who was injured. He said,“Can you help me?” I justwanted to go. But in my heart, I couldn’t leave her. I looked at her,and I said,“Come on baby, you gotta get up.You gotta walk.”

She said,“I can’t.”There was just the two of us, and I didn’t know what was next.

So I walked over to an ambulance. It was destroyed.You couldn’topen the doors to get a stretcher out or anything.But we got a stairchair out. We got her on the stair chair and took her across thestreet to one of the World Financial Center buildings. As wecrossed,we found an intact ambulance.So we took the longboard,collar and stretcher and brought her inside the building.We board-ed, collared and secured her on the stretcher. Just as we finished,we heard a ripping sound, and the world came crashing downagain.You heard that twisting and the boom, and it just came clos-er and louder.

We grabbed the stretcher; it was still in the down position.Westarted running down the hallway. But we couldn’t get anywherewith the patient on it.We just wanted to get her and ourselves asfar back [as possible]. I don’t know why I did this because I [had]always said I would leave a patient behind and save my own life.

We ran down the hallway, and all of a sudden the front windowsof this building just blew out.I was praying the glass wouldn’t cut mein half.You felt that sensation again,right behind you.I dove,but thistime I couldn’t dive behind anything.Then the lights went out. Mymouth must have been open; it filled up with debris, and I couldn’tbreathe again. I heard the patient screaming ’cause she was supineon this board, and everything was landing on her face. I felt so badfor her because she was strapped in. I really felt bad.

There was a store with its lights on. One of the guys picked up

something, smashed the front door, and we went in.They had their air-conditioning on. You could breathe. Their

phone worked.A couple of guys looked for food and supplies.Theyfound apples and soda. It was like an oasis. I went to call my wifeand couldn’t remember her work number.

The EMTs [who had gone to look for a way out] came back.They had found a way out.We went out the back of the buildingby the Hudson River, and people directed us to a triage center thatwas in another hotel on Vesey near 3 World Financial.We wheeledthe patient over there and got her on an ambulance.

I started triaging people, and—out of nowhere—there was JoeCutrone. I was so happy to see Joe.He was alive. I wanted to jumpup and down like a little kid.We were chased out of the buildingbecause there was supposedly an exposed gas line.We got all thepatients out. I grabbed a stretcher and two sets of ALS gear, and westarted down West Street.We got to Lower Manhattan CommunityCollege and started to take care of injured cops and firefighters.

Joe and I went over to help [two] paramedics who had this fire-man who was having chest pains in an ambulance they found withall its windows blown out. I looked at Joe, and I said,“Joe what doyou think? Let’s go over to St.Vincent’s with them.They must be get-ting inundated with thousands of patients.We could help there.”Heagreed, and the four of us went to St.Vincent’s.When we pulled upto St.Vincent’s, they had all these chairs and stretchers ready.Theremust have been 40–50 doctors and another 40–50 nurses.But therewas nothing to do.There were no patients.There was nothing.

Joe and I got separated when the ED staff took me to anotherbuilding to suture me. I finally got in touch with my wife and start-ed crying. I just needed to hear her voice.

I got a ride to Brooklyn.When I stepped out of the ambulance towalk back into the garage,it was the first time I felt safe through this

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FDNYEngine 217

FDNYEngine 219

FDNYEngine 226

StevenCoakley36Firefighter

NeilLeavy34Firefighter

Philip T.Hayes67Firefighter,Retired

KennethPhelan41Lieutenant

JohnChipura39Firefighter

DavidDeRubbio38Firefighter

BrianMcAleese36Firefighter

StanleySmagala Jr.36Firefighter

whole entire thing.I have a lot of built-up emotion about a lot of things,things that

I’ll never forget and never be able to escape. If we [had arrived]three or four minutes sooner,I would have been three or four min-utes deeper into the building. If I didn’t get hit by the metal, Joewouldn’t have made me stop.Had that piece of metal taken off myfingers,Ricardo would be alive because he never would have goneahead;he wouldn’t have left me.

The next morning,when I woke up,I called Ric, figuring that ifwe got out,Ric got out. I got Ginny [Quinn,Ric’s wife], and I said,“Ginny, is Ric there?”

She said,“Scott,he didn’t come home.”I said,“Ginny,he didn’t come home? He was with me yesterday.”That’s when she started making phone calls, and I started call-

ing people I know in the fire department to find out if he wasalive. Ric is driven. He wouldn’t have called home. He’d be work-ing his ass off like you wouldn’t believe.Ric thrived on that.

Ric was the guy you got behind.Ric led the way.When Ric andI were fire department EMTs and in medic school, there was ahigh-profile call Ric was on.It was a school bus that a giant oak treefell on with five little girls inside. Everybody was all excitedbecause Ric was there.They all wanted to get the story from Ric,and I knew he was hurting. I walked over to him, and I said,“Ric,how are you?”

With a pained look on his face, he looked at me and said,“Fivemore faces I have to live with.”

Never did I think it would be Ric Quinn’s face I’d have to livewith.

Editor’s note: Ricardo Quinn’s body was found on Jan. 22, beneaththe debris of the South Tower.

Rene Davila, lieutenant, FDNY EMSI was [at Battalion 4], speaking to Lt. [Bill]Melaragno.When [FDNY EMTs Alex Loutsky’sand Eric Ramos’] unit first went on the air [withthe transmission reporting the first crash], myreaction was,“These guys are bananas.I gotta goover there and straighten them out.” I thoughtthey had lost it—until I heard [FDNY EMTsOrlando Martinez’s and Frank Puma’s] call sec-

onds later.Then the radio started charging up with voices.I ran out the door and began traveling south on South Street.

I passed the projects, and I looked up at the Towers and saw thegap in [1 World Trade]. I called Citywide and said,“I am confirm-ing there is an incident; some type of explosion.” I told them itappeared that a couple of floors had blown up.

I told them to send every available resource and alert the sen-ior staff.I said to roll the MERV.I actually used the plural—roll theMERVs because we got MERVs in other boroughs designed totreat a bunch of people and for surgical procedures. I knew wewould need two,three maybe four divisions with two,three,fourstaging areas.

I headed [west] down Vesey toward Greenwich. I noticedbodies laying out.A lot of debris and still [more] debris comingdown. Definitely an unsafe area. There was no way we wouldstage there,which is what the preplan indicated. So I turned lefton West Street and proceeded to the entrance at 1 World Tradenear the garage on the east side of the street.

I got there within five minutes of the first hit. On my arrival,Loutsky and Ramos’ vehicle was the only EMS vehicle I saw. Iassumed command of the EMS operation. I called Citywide andsaid,“Condition 04, I am assuming command of EMS operationsat this location.”My next thought was to grab a hold of the MCI,grab control of the people responding before everything gotcrazy. My next concern was communications.

Alex, I made my staging officer. He was to get patients whocould walk out of the vehicles.As staging officer,I wanted him tojot down incoming ambulance unit numbers and tell them to getout of their vehicles, get triage tags for incoming patients.

[Ramos’] direction was communications. He was to stand byin case I lost my voice.Eric followed orders.The rest of the day—every time I turned around—we were bumping into each other.

In the beginning, I wanted to start the START system to triagepatients. I knew I didn’t have the capability to treat any patients.People were coming out with first-degree to fourth-degree burnsafter the explosion—unbelievable what I saw coming out of thisdisturbance.All I wanted once I got 10 to 15 units on the scenewas to triage because I knew the magnitude of people that[were] going to be coming out of this.

In our 9-1-1 system we also have voluntary units—the St.Vincent’s unit,the Cabrini Hospital units.These units operate andtransport [the same as any other] 9-1-1 units. But some of themare not as accustomed to our incident command system [as oth-ers].As the patients came out,[EMS personnel] would grab them.I was like,“No—no way.”My first objective was to triage—not totreat.Their reaction was,“What’s wrong with this lieutenant?”

My concern was triaging patients, but my first concern waseverybody’s safety.Numerous times I yelled that it was a hard-hatoperation.“Get out of that ambulance? Gotta have a helmet on.”

When I first got there—five minutes after the first hit—therewas no way I was letting my guys go inside the building. I had acouple of guys in our system [who] came to me as a supervisorand wanted to go in [1 World Trade]. I’m like,“No way. I don’thave time to explain.Bottom line: Either do what I say or you’reout of the ballgame.”My philosophy and the way I was trained isthat we let the trained people go in and bring the patient back.

So I was standing there watching the rescue units run insideTower 1. I was transmitting and praying to God that I’d get somemore bosses to the scene.As I was transmitting, my peripheralvision caught plane number two. Next thing I knew, I lost theplane [from sight], and then the explosion [happened].Everybody stopped for a second,but the operation kept on mov-ing. Rescue units kept going inside, and you had more fire appa-ratus going toward Tower 2.

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34

FDNYEngine 230

BrianAhearn43Lieutenant

FrankBonomo42Firefighter

MichaelCarlo34Firefighter

JeffreyStark30Firefighter

EugeneWhelan31Firefighter

EdwardWhite III30Firefighter

Within five minutes after the second hit, I got relieved. I hadseen officers [before then],but they were lieutenants like me.I hadthem help Alex with staging and triage.A couple of minutes later,I saw [FDNY EMS] Lt. [Ross] Terranova and [FDNY EMS] Chief[Jerry] Gombo,our No.2 in EMS command of the fire department.

In our system, it’s normally a face-to-face hand off of com-mand. I’ve known Chief Gombo for many years.You gotta under-stand:We already had Tower 1 hit.We already saw one or twopeople jump off the buildings. Now you had Tower 2 [hit].Youhad hard debris,paper and smoke coming out of both buildings.

He looked at me; I looked at him. Both of our mouths wereopen.It was the same reaction you probably had when you turnedthe television on.This is the MCI of all mothers.I gave him my clip-board that Alex had [kept] with all the units already on the scene.

Then he asked me,“Rene,what’s on the other side [of the tow-ers]?” I was already so lost in everything that I couldn’t recall. Igo,“Alex,What’s on the other side?”

“Church and Fulton.”“Church and Fulton.”He ordered me to go to Church and Fulton and start the oper-

ation there.I wanted to take my own unit with me because theseare my guys. [Heading there], I made a right on Church [offVesey], and we missed Fulton because of all the debris in thestreet. I drove over bodies and lamp posts. I said,“I’m going tocatch a flat.” I [returned] to Church and Fulton right in front ofthe Millennium [Hilton] Hotel.You had people pouring out ofevery exit, going up every street. I started getting some units tohelp me. I sent all the walking wounded up Fulton Street.

We set up triage and treatment areas. I was getting volunteerunits and the paid-for units,like AMR,that have no concept of ourincident command system.They were clogging my egress fromthe location. I told [Loutsky] to fill those units up [and get themout].The only units I kept were the fire department units, theCabrini units, the St.Vincent’s units—because these were EMTs Iknew within the system.

Prior to the first collapse, the system was starting to falltogether: Supervisors were arriving on scene. We had a goodtriage system operating fairly well.Our LSU had arrived.We weretreating people with 02;nebulizers—treating a lot of asthmatics.On that intersection,a cop said a patient was having a grand malseizure.The cop goes,“You better help him.”

I said,“You know how you can help? Push him away on thesidewalk where he’ll be safe, and you haul ass up Fulton Street.”

Fulton Street was basically green tags.You walk? You go. Onepatient really rattled [me].He was a Hispanic male.Had no shirt.He had a hole in his upper left chest—the size of my fist.I lookedat it as I felt his left shoulder, and I thought,“For all intents andpurposes, he should be pneumo, hemo—he should be dead!”

However, he was alive. We treated him. My units wanted totransport this guy.This is one of the positions that I was put intoas a supervisor: I had [my people] screaming,“Let’s get him outtahere. He’s gonna die!” But I couldn’t use an ambulance to trans-

port just one patient. It was the good of the many vs. the good ofthe few. I didn’t have enough resources in that sector. I walkedby, and this guy looked at me, and he had this stare. Every time Iwent by, I saw the guy getting a little ashier. I know he was goingdeeper, deeper into shock. I couldn’t transport him.

In the middle of this we heard a rumble.The best way I coulddescribe it is driving by La Guardia Airport and all the jets are linedup.You hear the engines revving,ready to take off.I felt the groundshake,and I heard people yelling,“The building is falling!”

I looked up, and I didn’t see that building no more. I saw awave of smoke and debris.All hell broke loose. I ran inside theMillennium [Hotel].I got knocked down.I don’t know what I gotknocked down by—the debris or the pressure.

The hotel lobby was dark. I saw a light and went toward adoor. I was a chicken-shit scared supervisor. I was panicked.Thenoise I heard was something like I never heard before in my life.You could still feel the doors shaking, the metal in the hotelbending.

This is comic book, now: In this narrow room there was abunch of computers and phones. I went to one of the comput-ers to go for help on AOL or something. I’m like,“You dumbass.Everybody is doing this.”

I opened up the door.There was a bunch of debris and dark-ness in front of me.All I had was my Maglite. I moved the debrisand tried to walk. I found myself inside an elevator. I go,“This isnot good because I could walk into an elevator shaft where thereisn’t no elevator.”

I found my way back and closed the door to the room. I wentthrough a warped feeling. I think we all shared it—all of us therethrough the collapse period. We’re always in dangerous posi-tions, and there’s always that life-threatening possibility. But Iknew I was dead.All of sudden my feeling was,“OK, I’m gonnadie. Calm down. Die with some dignity.”

The next thing that came to me was,“Don’t defecate on your-self because everybody will be talking [about] how they pickedup Lt. Davila body’s with shit on it.”That’s the honest truth. Ipicked up the phone and got a dial tone. I called my wife. I toldher,“I love you. Say goodbye to everybody.”You could hear herhysterical because she worked up Church Street and saw thebuilding collapsing. You could hear her tell somebody in heroffice,“Call 9-1-1!”

I go,“Fern, I am 9-1-1.”Maybe 15 minutes went by. I went from scared to a calmness.

Then I got pissed off. I was pissed off, and I’m going,“All right, ifI’m gonna die,I’m gonna die fighting.”I told my wife,“I’m leavingthe phone open, but don’t expect me to come back on. I’m get-ting out of here.”

When I opened the door,I saw a little light.The lobby was com-pletely destroyed—a lot of glass and debris.I came out on the sideof Fulton Street, and I found [Eric].We hugged,we kissed, and wemarried each other! I told him,“What we can’t do alone, we cando together.”

Then we did something very stupid:We went back! I go,“Ramos,guess what? My wallet,my [federal tax] refund check is in my vehi-cle [parked in front of the Millennium].They’re not gonna writeanother check.We gotta get it.”

So we went. My vehicle was burnt.The windows were all out.The air bags had exploded.The seats were burnt. But my bag wasintact.And my check.

We started walking, holding hands.You heard a rumble.A ladyscreamed, “The building is leaning.” About that time, the rumblestarted again. I looked back and saw debris starting to come down.

We ran,holding onto each other. I looked back.You ever go to abeach with a high surf and that big wave is coming and you’re like,“Oh shit”? That’s what this was.This pile of smoke coming—a roargetting louder. It overcame us, and we were in the dark.

I grabbed my handkerchief and put it on my mouth and nose. Itold Ramos to grab something and cover his mouth and nose andbreathe deep.We walked through this in the dark. My thoughts atthat point were worse than during the first collapse. I didn’t knowif we were going to make it.

Ramos goes,“Lieutenant?”“What the fuck you want?”“I lost my radio.”“Your fuckin’ radio? If we live through this, remind me to write

you up for losing the radio!”Next I heard hear a boom. I had walked into a lamp post. I did-

n’t see it.“Ramos,this is not gonna work.Move over to the right andtry to feel the buildings.”That’s how we made it up Fulton Street.All the businesses must have closed after the first hit.We finally sawa Subway sandwich store,and the light was on.I looked in and said,“Open the God damn door!”

When they opened the door I go,“Who’s in charge?”An [Asian]

man shrugged. I go, “Well, by order of New York City FireDepartment, I’m in charge. Go in your register, get your money andput it in your pocket.” Because we’ve been brought up in a serviceof civilian complaints, I didn’t wanna hear no comment about nomoney.

The people in there were happy to see us in our uniforms, andEric was looking at me because I’m the boss.It helped me keep mycomposure because they looked to me for leadership.

I was hot as hell. I took my turnout coat off and threw it on topof the food counter.Then the guy threw my jacket on the floor. Igo,“What the fuck you doing?” He goes,“The food, the food!” Sonow I was pissed off. I grabbed my coat, threw it on the counterand told him not to touch it.Then I had everybody go to the backand stay calm.

About 15 to 20 minutes later, I saw a little light in the street. I hadthe guys in the store get everybody towels,wet them in the sink andcover their faces. I told everybody to hold hands, go out and walkeast.That’s when we got out and made it to Broadway. I saw one ortwo ambulances there.We went inside Chase Manhattan Bank,and Igrabbed one of the watercoolers and dumped some on our heads.

We come out,and I’m going,“That Loutsky—he’s one pain in theass, but I would sure like to find him.”And we went back, lookingfor him heading back down west on Fulton toward the towers.Wefound him running like a madman. He was all right.

After the second collapse, I tried to get on the radio. Suddenly itseemed like you could hear Citywide transmitting any personnel inthe area go to two locations. Battery Park had an EMS staging areaand the other staging area turned out to be the Unified CommandPost—West and Chambers at Stuyvesant High School.

We had to regroup, so the best place to go was the closest sta-tion or hospital—NYU Downtown Hospital. The picture down

36

FDNYEngine 235

FDNYEngine 238

StevenBates42Lieutenant

NicholasChiofalo39Firefighter

FrancisEsposito32Firefighter

LeeFehling28Firefighter

LawrenceVeling44Firefighter

GlennWilkinson46Lieutenant

there was unbelievable.These people were prepared for this bigMCI. Surgeons, doctors, nurses were [outside] waiting. Debrisfrom the buildings had made it all the way to the East River—even in front of the hospital.You saw the Brooklyn Bridge andpeople walking out of Manhattan. No patients to treat. Therewere literally no patients to treat because, as we finally know[now], it was all casualties.

[When I finally got home that night] I turned the TV on.That’swhen it started hitting me. I knew it,but now I was seeing whathad happened around me.

When Chief Gombo told me,“I want you to go around and takecommand of the other side,” I had choices of EMTs to take withme.My choice of EMTs was my guys because no matter what wego through in between [calls] with each other,that’s personal.Thatpasses. I’ll scream at them in the morning and chase them out ofhere.They come in,“Oohh,the Puerto Rican Hitler.”But it’s part ofthe job. I loved these guys before the event, and now I love themeven more because we shared something together.We shared adisaster together. It was almost like an out-[of]-body experience,because these guys felt the feelings,and I felt the feelings.

Jack Delaney, director of EMS, New York Presbyterian, the UniversityHospital of Columbia and CornellI was notified by our communication centerthat a small aircraft had gone into Tower 1.Wehad one unit responding,and then about threeminutes later the comm center told me that wehad multiple units responding.

In addition to the 9-1-1 units, we sent 23EMTs and paramedics.When something like this occurs,the [trans-fer] units respond back to the hospital and start moving on what-ever equipment they think they’ll need.Unit 10-David was comingout of [NYU Downtown Hospital].So they responded down there.When they got down there, the second plane had hit.

I responded with our other units.We parked right in front ofTower 2 on West Street. Everybody was trying to get away fromthe building.We were probably 1,500 feet away from the build-ing because of the people who were jumping out of the build-ings. Then debris started coming down, so some of our unitswent and parked under the pedestrian South Bridge.That bridgeactually is what saved the majority of us. I think we would havelost a lot more if we weren’t near it.

I walked to [the Command Post] to get our orders.I was walk-ing back down to the group to tell them what our assignmentwas, and an ESU cop standing right in front Tower 2 startedscreaming,“Everybody run for your lives! It’s coming down!”

When the ESU cop yelled, you heard a “pop, pop, pop.” Ilooked up to where I thought the noise was coming from.That’swhen you could see the debris starting to break away at onelocation.You could see the top of the tower hanging over, notperpendicular with the rest of the building.

We just looked around and saw what we could dive under orrun for. Everybody scattered in different directions. Then thetower came down.We had 23 personnel there at that point.Andprobably about 18 or 19 were there with us on that side. I thinkthat if I were closer to the front entrance of the building,I wouldhave run into the lobby.There was no concept the building wascoming down.That would have been my safe haven.

Everybody scattered.As we were running, the smaller debrisstarted landing around us.Then when the larger debris startedfalling around us—I-beams and that type of material—the threeor four guys running with me dove under some stairs that led tothe bridge. [After the collapse], I got up and started movingpieces away. There was [now] six or eight inches of this dustfrom the building concrete on the ground.It was just pulverized.I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t hear.You felt your way around.

There was a plate-glass window that had been broken, so wewent in and started walking through the [1] World Financialbuilding.None of us could talk.Our mouths were full of this con-crete. My ears were full of concrete.

Our eyes were burning. We couldn’t see where we weregoing. Every time you opened your eyes, you couldn’t see whatwas going on.We made it down to a small deli.

We looked for towels so we could put them over our faces.Unfortunately, with modern technology, there were no regulartowels—just disposable napkins. So we took off to go back andsee if we could find the rest of our coworkers.We went back towhere the building came down but couldn’t find any of our peo-ple. Then everybody started yelling the second building wascoming down. So we took off again.

Thank God windows kept breaking. We ran by the ChaseManhattan Bank. I figured,“Bank, secure. Go in there.”We doveinto the bank.You could hear the ground rumbling and 1 WorldTrade coming down.The bank started to fill up with dust andsmoke.So we went in deeper, into the back rooms of the bank. Ishut one of the doors behind us to keep the smoke out. I toldMike [Mokson] to stand under a doorframe, and we stood thereas the building came down.The entire building [we were in] wasshaking.The ceiling tiles were coming down.The light fixtureswere popping out of the ceiling. I actually thought the buildingwe were in was about to collapse.The power in our buildingwent out, but the bank’s emergency lights went on. When wetried to get out of the bank,all the doors I closed to keep us freefrom the debris were locked.We went around some corridors,found an open door and exited the bank.

We walked down toward the New York Harbor. Everybodyseemed to be migrating down toward the water zone. Policeboats had started to congregate at that location. I ran into a cou-ple of my staff members and [FDNY EMS Deputy Chief] CharlieWells. I looked at Charlie; Charlie looked at me, and we huggedone another.Then we started gathering [our] staff.

I saw a lot of civilians down at the water. People didn’t knowwhat the hell hit them.There was no sense of time down there.

DELANEY

38

FDNYEngine 279

FDNYEngine 285

FDNYEngine 320

RonnieHenderson52Firefighter

MichaelRagusa29Firefighter

AnthonyRodriguez36Firefighter

RaymondYork45Firefighter

James J.Corrigan60Captain, Retired

People weren’t in a total panic.They were walking along askingfor directions.We were walking around there looking like snow-men. Literally, the only thing you saw of people was the redaround their eyes.

Back at Ground Zero,I could intermittently get through on myNextel to keep in touch with my dispatcher,do roll calls and fig-ure out who was missing. I had been out of radio contact formore than 90 minutes until then. It took about three hours toaccount for 21 of our personnel.

We [did] radio roll calls, trying to locate the different staffmembers.There was a period of time where some of us were notin radio contact.We were hoping that our two missing members,[Keith Fairben and Mario Santoro],were just out of radio contact.They were last seen working near Tower 2.Newsweek has a pho-tograph of them treating patients there. The last photographtaken of them was about 12 minutes before the building camedown. Keith was on the cell phone with his dad just minutesbefore Tower 2 collapsed. His dad called him, and he said to hisfather,“Dad,I’m really busy.There’s a lot of people here that needmy help. I have to go.”

Mario and Keith weren’t responding over our private radios.The fire department was calling wondering why they weren’tresponding to the fire department [dispatchers]. So it was a mat-ter of did they lose their way, or did something happen?

My personal frustration is that we went down there with theexpectation of saving a lot of lives.In actuality,for a period of time,we were concentrating on saving our own lives.Anybody we cameacross,we helped.But we were retreating instead of going in.

I didn’t go home for a week and a half after this event.My kids,[ages 20,13,9],came to the hospital to see me the Thursday afterthe event.The following Sunday, I snuck out of the hospital andwent home. Sunday tradition: Go to mass and then Dad cooksbreakfast. I was out of here for about three and a half hours.

Out of our 23 responders, 14 were injured.When you’re look-ing at 10' beams that weigh 13 tons—these things are six inchesthick—all you need is one of them to tap you on the shoulder,andyou’ll never be talking about it. I kept saying to my staff,“I don’twant to hear any more bullshit about wearing these damn hel-mets. If it weren’t for the helmets,we all would have been dead.”

Throughout the night [of the 11th] and throughout the follow-ing days, there were a lot of rumors going around about this onebeing found, that one being found. There was a tremendousamount of misinformation throughout the EMS, police and firecommunities because you were dealing with a lot of emotion.

On [the 12th], I gathered the staff because it was getting to apoint where if I left the premises,people were saying,“He got noti-fication.” I told them that I made a commitment to the families tostop the misinformation.I told the families I would tell them exact-ly what was going on at all times because we had been told—unof-ficially—five or six times within the first 24,36 hours that they hadfound their bodies.That was an emotional roller coaster.

After that, I pulled the staff together, and we had impromptu

staff meetings about three or four times a day.I promised them thatI would tell them everything, honestly. I told them I had agreedwith the families that I was not going to notify them until I per-sonally verified that it was actually their loved one that had beenrecovered. I also told the staff that I was not going to share withthem the discovery before I shared it with the families.That wasthe only rule I was not going to break.

We lost a total of nine vehicles:seven ambulances and two com-mand vehicles.When I was being treated in the emergency room,the president of the hospital came and spoke to me.He said,“Calland do a verbal order,and we’ll replace everything you lost.”

We had three or four staff members who wanted to take fly-ers of Keith and Mario around to the hospitals in Jersey andthroughout New York.They coordinated that among themselves,and there was no duplication of effort.This was something theyfelt they wanted to do.They wanted to make sure their cowork-ers weren’t lying in some ICU on a respirator, not able to speak.They did that on day two, three and four.We gave them the vehi-cles to take. Kinko’s made them free color copies.

The lack of recognition of EMS efforts by the news media andothers has affected the staff. I try to get them to put everythinginto perspective. Had the towers not collapsed, we probablywould have gotten a lot more recognition. Mostly, I think peopleare upset about the lack of recognition for those that have fallen.

Tamara Drummond, EMT-P, NYUDowntown Hospital EMS Dept., Unit 01Victor with partner Juana Lomi, EMT-PI was working on 01 Victor with Juana Lomi.NYU Downtown Hospital is at Beekman andGold Streets, not far from the World TradeCenter. When we got to Church and VeseyStreets, there were so many injured peoplerunning out at us that we just started triaging.

A lot of people had placed tourniquets on [the injured], so wewere removing a lot of tourniquets.

The patient volume was getting so heavy that we decided tomake a triage area over at St. Peter’s Church. If the injured couldwalk,we told them to walk to the church.We told BLS units to goto St.Peter’s and start taking the injured to the hospital by fours.

Somehow I lost sight of my partner because she was triagingon one side, and I was triaging on the other.The next thing Iknew, I heard this loud crash. It was the second plane runninginto the South Tower.All of a sudden there were huge chunks ofdebris raining down on us. Fiery pieces of metal.A big piece ofthe plane’s fuselage fell to one side of me.The plane came infrom the south and when it went through the building, the stuffthat came out rained down on us on the northeast side. Thepieces of debris were the size of desks.

When the plane pieces started to come down I ran maybe ablock. People were getting hit with the shrapnel from the plane.There were big sizzling pieces of metal cutting into people around

DRUMMOND

& LOMI

us.When I turned to look up,I realized that I still wasn’t in a safe areabecause chunks of the plane had damaged the building I was stand-ing under. So I went back another block. It was chaos. People werebeing trampled,grabbing at you, screaming and yelling.

I was trying to process everything that was happening,and I alsoworried about my partner because I didn’t know where she was. Iwas two blocks away from Church and Vesey.Another ambulancecrew came up to me.An EMT from the crew was hysterical, tellingme about her daughter and how she [the EMT] can’t be out here. Isaid,“Well,you know,there’s nothing you can do.This is your job.Thisis what you have to do.So buck up,and let’s get this done.”

My partner was three ambulances in front of me while we weretelling them where to go,so she was quite a bit away from me.That’swhen I heard a sound that was like four or five trains coming.Thevolunteer crew that I was talking to at the time was getting ready todrive away. I told the driver,“No, no, no, don’t drive away.Take mewith you.”They quickly pulled me into the ambulance across the pas-senger’s lap and down into the small space where the radios are inthe cab.The driver was hysterical.As we fled,I could hear big piecesof debris hitting the ambulance, and I began to see a huge cloudapproaching.Suddenly,I realized I was leaving my partner behind.SoI said,“No,you have to let me out.I have to go back.”They didn’t real-

ly want to stop,but I insisted.So [the driver] cameto a rolling stop and told me to get out. I gotreunited with Juana several hours later back atNYU Downtown.

Louis Garcia, EMT-P, St. Vincent’sManhattan, Unit 06 KingWe were getting breakfast on University Placeand 12th Street, and my wife called me [on my

cell phone],hysterical,telling me that a plane had hit the World TradeCenter. I immediately ran out and told [my partner] Steve [Craver].

We could hear commotion on the radio as we jumped in theambulance.We went to the West Side Highway and headed south.We were there a minute and a half after the [first] plane hit.Weparked underneath the pedestrian North Bridge that crosses near6 World Trade to Winter Garden and the World Financial Center.Because of the potential hazard of falling debris,I parked under thebridge, near the massive pillar in the center. I figured that wouldprotect the unit and us.

There were people running up to the ambulance with com-pound fractures, no clothing on, totally burned—third-degreeburns. No hair on their heads, no eyebrows, no eyelashes.

Steve opened up the back, and I started filling the ambulance[with people].Somebody on scene was ordering us to triage,to staythere on scene. But I felt in my heart that wasn’t the right thing todo.I looked at Steve;he was trying to help these people in the back,trying to clean their wounds and cool them off. I said,“We’re goingto transport.” I made a U-turn and transported to the hospital.

These patients were from the ground level.They all came out ofthe elevators or walked by the elevators.The elevators were infer-nos from the jet fuel.The pressure from the explosion blew out theelevator doors on the main floor.Whoever was walking by thoseelevators [in the North Tower] was burned or had multiple traumainjuries.

We transported six patients to St. Vincent’s. Steve and I had toleave people behind because it wasn’t safe. The top of Tower 1appeared to be leaning—above the fire floors. It’s something that’shaunting me,and I know it will haunt me until the day I die.

As we left,a woman ran up to us and said,“Do you have sheets?”I said,“Yes.”GARCIA

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40

FDNYHazmat Company 1

FDNY HazmatOperations

DennisCarey51Firefighter

JohnCrisci48Lieutenant

MartinDeMeo47Firefighter

ThomasGardner39Firefighter

JonathonHohmann48Firefighter

DennisScauso46Firefighter

KevinSmith47Firefighter

JohnFanning54Battalion Chief

She said,“I have a woman that’s burned here.” People wererunning.It was chaos. I’ll never forget that image of this [injured]woman, literally with no clothes on.Her back was badly burned.She had no hair left.No eyebrows left. She was sitting down, likein a squatting position,and her skin had peeled up and was crisp.She sat there and looked up at me, and I felt terrible.

I said,“Ma’am,there’s more ambulances coming.There’s gonnabe people here for you.”She was shaking and looked up at me. Itook a sheet, covered her and poured water on her to cool herdown.The [uninjured] woman said,“I’ll stay here; I’ll stay here.”And we left [with our other patients]. She probably passed awaybecause of the burns.But I also wonder if they [both] were therewhen the building started coming down.

When we arrived [at the hospital] with the first six [patients],I told everybody,“There’s gotta be thousands.”At the end of theday, we were very surprised that there weren’t as many patientsas we expected. Having no patients is probably the most frus-trating thing about the incident.

We went back to the scene.We were there before the secondplane hit. When we arrived, they were using the outside of 3World Financial as a secondary triage area.We were directed toturn west on Vesey and back up to the curb near 3 WorldFinancial.As we walked toward the building, I heard a loud rum-ble. It was almost like an earthquake. It was unreal. But I was sofocused on getting us out of the area that everything else turnedoff—like tunnel vision.You really don’t hear much.

I ran into 3 Financial Center initially.I tried to stay focused,butat the same time, I followed everybody. It was probably a badthing to do,but people were running [and] so hysterical, so con-fused. Steve and I got separated for a while. I ran in and every-body was running back and forth,hysterical.There are numerousentrances to 3 World Financial,and people were running in fromall sides. It was almost like a dream.

My instincts told me to get out of there.When I ran out, it wasliterally snowing [debris]. I found Steve in the back of our ambu-lance.We decided to leave the area.As we left, we ran into [St.Vincent’s paramedic] Richie [Fellegara].He was covered in whitefrom head to toe.We also ran into [St.Vincent paramedic] KenJaimes. They both kept telling us, “Just keep moving farthernorth, farther north.” Steve and I went west on Vesey to NorthEnd Ave.We then followed Chambers Street to West.As we wereturning left [north] on West Street,Tower 2 collapsed.

I was very proud of Steve because he kept me focused.It’s notanything that he said. It was just the way he acted. I was saying,“Let’s get this person and let’s go.”And he was saying,“Louis, let’sjust do this.”When we came [back to St. Vincent’s], everybodywas very calm.They were so ready to treat patients or give ussupplies. It gave us a sense of comfort.

You don’t know what’s right or wrong when you start feelingyour emotions. I never felt like this before. I was very cocky thefirst two weeks after Sept. 11, acting like nothing was botheringme.And then all of a sudden, I was like,“Wow! These emotions,

something’s not right.”[St.Vincen’t paramedic] Ben [Shelton] hasknown me for a long time.I asked him as a friend,“What I’m feel-ing, is this normal?”

He said,“I’ve been doing EMS a long time, and I have never,ever felt like this.” I was confused by my feelings. Ben gave mevery good advice. I felt comfortable with what he said to me. Itkind of gave me some sort of closure.

Zachary Goldfarb, deputy chief, FDNY EMSMonday the 10th we started our 6 Charlie shift[a four-day shift from 10 p.m.to 8 a.m.].Me andmy aide,[EMT] Mary Merced,went in at 10 thatnight.I had just gotten a new Crown Vic,and wehad cleaned it top to bottom. The previousday—Sunday—we spent our tour looking at thevarious LSUs in our area and our two MERVs tosee how their stock levels were. I just had this

annoying feeling that they weren’t stocked the way they shouldbe.So we spent the next two nights doing inspections.

Tuesday morning we left Brooklyn at 8:30 to drive homewhen we heard a cop screaming on the police frequency that aplane had just hit the World Trade Center. I listen to the radio alot, and I know when it’s real.This was real.

We turned the car around and told Citywide we wereresponding. It took us 26 minutes to get there.The sky was per-fectly blue—not one cloud.A beach day. Mary’s driving; I’m onmy department cell phone, calling [FDNY EMS Division Chief]Walter [Kowalczyk]. I said,“Listen.Plane into the towers.Big job.Gotta respond.”

My responsibility was to plan this thing.We had to go throughthe [Brooklyn]-Battery Tunnel because I knew the police wouldcut off a lane for us. At that point only the first plane had hit.When we saw the plume coming up from the building,we knewit wasn’t a small plane.

I was on the phone with the Citywide dispatch supervisor,giv-ing him direction. I told him to put together task forces in theboroughs to support Manhattan. I told him to call 10 units ineach task force and put them in each borough at the bridges.Youride the edge of the rail on something like this. If you bring toomany [resources] in,you’re going to hurt the city; if you don’t getthem ready,you may hurt the city, anyway. I also told him to acti-vate our regional mutual-aid agreement.

We pulled out onto West Street.From a beautiful sunny day wepulled into Hades.The second aircraft had hit while we were inthe tunnel.There was debris in the street and tons of emergencyvehicles around.We proceeded north and parked just below theSouth Bridge before Liberty.

We got out of the car and saw stuff coming off the building:air-plane stuff, building stuff, people stuff. I was there in ’93, and onthe one hand I’m like,“OK,we’ve done this already.We know howto deal with this.”On the other hand,this was very different.In ’93one of the first things that grabbed me were a couple of windows

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42

FDNYLadder 2

MichaelClarke27Firefighter

GeorgeDiPasquale33Firefighter

DenisGermain33Firefighter

DanielHarlin41Firefighter

FrederickIll Jr.49Captain

CarlMolinaro32Firefighter

DennisMulligan32Firefighter

broken out with smoke showing.When you see that in a high-risebuilding, you know it’s a problem. Here, you had a big chunk ofbuilding missing out of two high-rises and a lot of smoke showing.

We put on our helmets,grabbed the command board, IC vests,notepads,phones—the stuff we usually take.We each grabbed ourown personal cell phones,which we don’t normally do.Later on,those phones worked when the department phones didn’t.

The first thing that was awry in this incident was we couldn’tget to the preplan location for EMS staging at Greenwich andVesey.The second issue was what was going on [around us]. Ididn’t head for inside [1 World Trade].We went to the area facingthe entrance to the Marriott. That’s where fire had set up theCommand Post.

I told my aide to start setting up the command board. I got onthe radio to EMS operations to say,“I’m here.What do you needme to do?” I radioed Chief [Jerry] Gombo, the EMS commander.His aide told me to come to the lobby of 2 World Trade.

I went to walk across the street when Mary screamed,“Stop!”“What?”“You can’t go over there,” she said.“Look over your head!”Big pieces of steel and debris were falling.That was the first

time she saved my life that day. I called back on the radio,“I can’tget across the street.”They told me to stand by at the CommandPost.Mary called dispatch to see where the units were.Our pro-tocol is the aide sets up a command board,contacts dispatch,IDswhich units are present and tracks them to find out where theyare. It also gives us accountability for our off-duty people.

One of my big issues is accountability at the scene.As an EMSsupervisor, I never want to be ringing anybody’s door saying,“Johnny’s not coming home tonight.”In ’93 I was the command-er at the South Tower.We sent a bunch of people in the tower,but we didn’t have accountability for who was where. In areview of that job, we decided if there had been a secondaryevent in ’93, we could have lost a lot of people.

I told Mary and two other EMS personnel to move our stuff tothe mouth of the garage to protect them from stuff falling. I wastalking to Chief [Peter] Ganci and setting up the [EMS] liaison.Walter arrived. He sent me to Vesey and West to take commandthere. I took Mary and the two guys with me to Vesey and West.

I wasn’t seeing patients.At the intersection under the NorthBridge in the north-bound traffic lane, I ran into 40 to 50 EMSpersonnel with their equipment. They had staged their ambu-lances north of the intersection in the southbound lane facingsouth. But [there were] no patients. My strategy was to set up aCCP [casualty collection point] and triage area and to make surewe had egress for ambulances.

I called over a couple of officers—[FDNY EMS] Capt. [Jace]Pinkus and a lieutenant. I told them,“Get all the resources upagainst 3 World Financial to get them out of the line of fire of thedebris. Set up triage there. Get accountability; get a list going.”

Then I encountered [FDNY EMS] Chief [Fred] Villani headingsouth on West. I had him recon on Vesey heading west on North

End.My tactic was to get everything clear on West Street.I was in the middle of the intersection at West and Vesey look-

ing back on the scene,trying to do an assessment.I said to myself,“I don’t like the way this looks.” I don’t remember exactly what Isaw. I think I was seeing things that I now don’t want to remem-ber. I called Pinkus on the radio and told him to move the opera-tion inside 3 World Financial and do an accountability check.I toldhim get the whole thing buttoned up in the building.

Almost at the same time, an ESU cop came along wearing bal-listic equipment, carrying an MP-5, saying,“This is a tactical area.Clear the intersection!”

We were on the street near a MERV. I don’t remember it beingparticularly noisy or chaotic. My piece of the pie was under con-trol. I was sort of detached. I would have been surprised if it hadbeen different.The only way I can make a parallel is this: If you doa patient assessment, you don’t really see the patient’s face.Clinically you check the nose,pupils.An hour later, I wouldn’t rec-ognize that patient. I think that’s a self-defense mechanism.Youkeep that shield up.At a big incident it works the same way.If youstart thinking,“Oh my God, it’s so horrible!” it would completelyscrew you up.You wouldn’t be able to work.

I was looking south on West, and Mary was looking up.All of asudden she shouted,“Oh my God, it’s coming down!”

She’s got this keen sense of hearing and heard something crack-ing in that building. I saw this huge smoke thing coming right atus. It went dark on the street.We ran north. I saw the doors to anambulance open in front of me. I shouted to Mary to come inthere.Then I projected myself into this rig and shut the doors.Mary kept sprinting up the street. She looked back at that cloudand was like,“Forget it. I’m going the other way.”

The cloud engulfed the rig. I heard debris falling on the roof.Then stuff started coming in the rig.“Why is stuff falling in here?”I crawled in the driver’s compartment; both windows weredown.The truck was still running,so I powered the windows up.

No way was I thinking the building would collapse. After aminute or two, I heard Mary calling me on the radio. I got out ofthe truck and went back to 3 World Financial. Everything wascovered in debris and dust, but all our people were accountedfor. I tried to get through to the Command Post but couldn’t. Ithought, “If no one’s answering on the Command Post, thenmaybe I should take command.” But I didn’t wanna be like AlHaig.Then [FDNY EMS Capt.] Mark Stone ran up to me:“I waswith Walter, but he’s trapped. I gotta go back and get him.”

Then I moved the group in the lobby [of 3 World Financial] tothe far westernmost point [of the building].We were getting a fewpatients. I decide to recon an exit from this area to find a betterplace [to stage].Stone had collected himself;Kowalczyk had beenfound.We found a back exit that put us on Vesey.I sent Stone backto Pinkus and told them to evacuate [3 World Financial] using thisroute and to relocate to North End Ave.and Vesey.

At Vesey and North End, it had resumed being a beautiful day.Mary and a number of the EMS chiefs and resources were there.

The triage team in 3 World Financial had re-established in the lobbyof the Embassy Suites building. Now we were getting patients—evacuees.A lot of public safety people, civilians—about 25 to 30cardiac and trauma patients.We also had a lot of walking woundeddrifting in and out.We had fractures. Smoke and dust inhalation.Shock.They were injured in the [first] collapse as opposed to theinitial events.

We were on the street at Vesey and North End when my pair ofears—Mary—said,“The other building is coming down.”

“Relax. Get a grip.”“You know I have very sensitive hearing.”“Let’s just get everybody inside and under cover.”We were like,“What the fuck is going on? What is happening

here?” Events were outpacing the ability to process them or clear-ly and definitely react to them.“The fog of war.”We weren’t in thelobby of the Embassy Suites two minutes when the next one camedown.It was nuclear winter.It went dark—like black.I have no rec-ollection of sounds. In the ambulance, the only sound I recollectedwas stuff falling on the roof. Maybe there’s some defense mecha-nism that doesn’t let you remember.

When it lightened up, everything was coated like it snowed.Wewere trying to get a sense of what was going on.We realized this was-n’t the place to come up with an action plan; it was too chaotic.Wetried to get on the radio, but it wasn’t reliable. Cellular phonesweren’t working.How much of our infrastructure had we lost? Whocould we talk to? It was a complete absence of information.We did-n’t know if we had been nuked,missile attacked or what.

In all likelihood,[the general public] probably had a better idea ofwhat was going on than we did.We went to the back corridor of theEmbassy Suites and decided to retreat from the scene and pull back.We didn’t know what the next hit would be.We decided to evacuate

our assets, set up remote staging areas, bring in heavy-duty mutualaid to support staging and set up distant CCPs because we antici-pated thousands of casualties—injured. We were trying to figureout where OEM was going to be.

Chief Gombo decided to go to 1 Police Plaza because that’swhere the city’s Emergency Operations Center [EOC] was beforeit moved to 7 World Trade [a few years ago]. Gombo issued assign-ments.We decided to set up at Chelsea Piers on the north side andon the Manhattan side of the Staten Island Ferry for south side cov-erage.We decided to leave everything on scene to officers alreadyon scene [and closest to the site].This was the best possible deci-sion at that point.We tried to broadcast this stuff over the radio.

It was like a black-and-white movie trudging out of there. Wewere retreating.We never retreat. It was so sad. Mind you, we hadno idea what was behind us.We walked up North End with dustmasks on.We made it to Chambers and West. My task was to gowith Gombo to 1 Police Plaza.

We were the first fire department reps there.We began settingup the larger scale, back-office citywide response. It was about11:30 in the morning.

At the EOC we looked at the big picture.We had sporadic con-tact with the scene. Radios, cell phones worked on and off.At onepoint we lost the TV.We operated on the assumption that whatev-er happened would generate thousands of patients over severaldays. We set up the city infrastructure to manage that. Here aresome entries from the log I kept that day:

1142: Order DMATs, DMORTs and four USAR teams.1154: Morgue set up at Pier 92. (People were setting up stuffindependently.)1157: U.S. Park Police set up a CCP at Federal Hall—Wall Streetat the Stock Exchange.

44

FDNYLadder 3

PatrickBrown48Captain

MichaelCarroll39Firefighter

JamesCoyle26Firefighter

GerardDewan35Firefighter

KevinDonnelly43Lieutenant

JeffreyGiordano45Firefighter

JosephMaloney45Firefighter

JohnMcAvoy47Firefighter

1200: No contact from any chiefs.1200: Activate three CCPs. (If a patient was in a life-threaten-ing situation, they went to a hospital; if not, they went to aCCP.We had NYPD help us set up the Javits Center [on theeast side], the Brooklyn Navy Yard [to cover patients whoended up in Brooklyn] and a minor league baseball stadium[Richmond County Bank Ballpark, aka “Yankee Stadium”] inStaten Island.We sent NYPD to secure the sites and sent statepolice to secure the Javits Center. We told vendors sendingsupplies where to go with what. I wanted the CCPs runningby 1800. Meantime, we waited to hear about the patients.Atfour that afternoon,we realized there would be no patients.Atthat time,we told all the CCPs except Javits to stand down.By1800, we decided to stand down Javits, too.)1207: Activate regional mutual aid.(In our preplan,a task forceis eight BLS units, two ALS units and an officer or task-forceleader. I ordered 10 task forces to mobilize: five fromWestchester County and points north to Randall’s Island; andfive task forces from Long Island,Nassau and Suffolk countiesto Shea Stadium.)1210: University Medical and Dental Hospital of New Jersey[UMDNJ] in Newark reports 1,000 patients at Ellis Island get-ting deconned; 200 patients at the PATH station in Hoboken;50 to 60 patients in Jersey City at Exchange Place;150 patientsin Monmouth County (south Jersey) at Atlantic Highlands;andan unknown number of patients at Weehawken—where themouth of the Lincoln Tunnel opens up. UMDNJ runs the EMSCommunications Center, called REMS, in Jersey. They’re themutual-aid response for Jersey.1245: Set up an ESF8 [emergency support functions—func-tion 8 involves health and medical] EOC. (This is basically aplace to bring together all the interested health-care parties—hospitals, health departments, EMS, mutual-aid providers, fed-eral public health service, medical examiner, FEMA, etc.—tosupport the Citywide EOC we had established. We got callswith offers of resources—physicians, medical supply compa-nies—all of this unsolicited. On the fly, we had to come upwith a plan for where to mobilize this stuff and make sure itwasn’t a supply of bombs or something, catalog it and safe-guard it until we needed it.We also had to control a massiveinfusion of personnel resources.)1247: Order CISD—call medical services and tell them tomobilize every CISD person.1300: Police telling me they’re sending body bags to Pike Slip,Pier 94, Staten Island Ferry, Chambers and West and Pier 40.1315: Passenger buses sent to the CCPs.1328: Order Verizon to set up 50–100 phone lines at each CCP.1500: Finally get through to the comm center. Hear from achief at Ferry terminal—ready to move people, no one tomove. Also hear from Brooklyn side of Brooklyn Bridge—ready, but no patients.1830: 20 ambulances coming from New Jersey for mutual aid.

Police reporting they have 10,000 body bags.1845: Bodies are being set aside to enable search and rescue.(That told me the USAR search teams were finding bodies andmoving them to look for survivors.)At 1900 Gombo told us that we’d all been relieved.We decided

to go back to the scene.Half of lower Manhattan was blacked out.Everything was under maximum security—shotguns and M-16s.We encountered FDNY EMS personnel on Center Street in privatecars and looking to work.So we formed a detail of 10 people.Marytook their names,and we all headed off into the darkness.

On Chambers, I heard them calling for EMS resources on theradio.There was a male trapped in Liberty Plaza, and they talkedabout doing an amputation. We sent some of our detail on aGator—they were God-sends; you could have traded them forKrugerrands—with a safety officer to assist the victim at Liberty.

We took the rest of our detail to Chambers and West. It was 8or 8:30, and we were re-energized.We ran into Walter, who wasthe EMS commander at that point. I volunteered to stay on theovernight shift with him to plan for the next tour.We wanted toget personnel into 12-hour rotations.

Everyone else [left].Walter and I set up the incident.We wereworking out of the back of a Suburban. The guys from EssexCounty had a small Command Post truck there.We adopted that asthe EMS Command Post.A while later, they said had a bigger one.At 2 a.m. in rolled this huge command center from Essex County.We moved in and set up the incident command system,spendinga good chunk of the night planning:staff schedules,setting up sup-plies, etc.At this point we were still anticipating and hoping forpatients.But we had only seen a few—mostly rescue personnel.

We got relieved at 6:30 or 7 a.m.Mary and I had been up sinceMonday evening. It was Wednesday morning. We got a Gatoroperator to give us a ride to find our car.This was the first timewe were seeing the devastation—this huge, smoking blitzkriegof a pile—in the daylight. It was so sad. It was so fucked up. Ican’t even tell you.As we drove down Broadway,you could lookdown side streets and see the remains of the [World TradeCenter] complex lying everywhere.

When we got off the Gator, we had our masks on and beganto debate where the car was. We have a rule that the aide isalways right. Mary didn’t think it was over there, but we wentclambering up Liberty,anyway.I was really afraid of what I mightstep on or find. In front of us was a huge smoking hole; firesburning; smoke; a huge debris field.

Mary said,“I told you it wasn’t over there.”At the South Bridge,we stopped. Both of us saw what looked like a melted light bar.Our car hadn’t been crushed,but it was completely incinerated.Nothing was left in it but an ear piece for the stethoscope and achip from my PalmPilot. All our personal equipment—every-thing—gone. Ninety-six miles on it.Toast.

So I took my microchip, and we walked back to the Gator. Itwas gone.We hiked through Battery Park. It was a beautiful morn-ing.The sky was clear except for this column of smoke over the

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Statue of Liberty. I remember thinking the guys that did thisscrewed up because they didn’t take down the statue.There werebarges lined up waiting to take patients.We just took this long,sadwalk down the waterfront.We went to the Staten Island collectionpoint.There weren’t any patients there, but a bunch of crews.Wetalked to the chief there and then hitched a ride with a supplytruck to the quartermaster’s to get another vehicle.

We climbed into the cab at 9:30.We hadn’t slept in 36 hours.Wesat back in the seat.That Titanic song [“My Heart Will Go On”]came on.The D.J. said,“This is for all those people who were lostat the World Trade Center.”The song started up. For the first timeI’m relaxing, off my feet, and it washes over me. I started cryingright there in the truck.That song made a connection for me.

Jerry Z. Gombo, assistant chief of EMS operations, FDNY EMSThe first notification I received that there wasa problem at the World Trade Center was whenone of my lieutenants ran down from fire oper-ations and advised me that a plane had just hitthe World Trade Center. He was sent by Chief[Peter] Ganci, the chief of the fire departmentwho worked on the same floor as we do—on

the seventh floor of fire headquarters operation. Chief Ganci’soffice faced the towers,and he actually saw the first plane hit andsent someone to inform Chief [Dan] Nigro—who was the chiefof operations at the time—and me that a plane had hit the WorldTrade Center.

On occasion we have a warped sense of humor here. Initially, Ithought the lieutenant was joking around. From the side of thebuilding that Chief Ganci was on,I was able to see smoke comingfrom the World Trade Center. So I knew rather quickly that it was-n’t a joke.At 8:55 a.m. myself and Lt. [Ross] Terranova (who shad-owed me throughout the entire incident) responded (in separatevehicles) from fire headquarters along with Chief Ganci, ChiefNigro and, I believe,one if not two of the commissioners.

We drove over the Brooklyn Bridge and went directly towardthe Trade Center.As a result of the hordes of people and debris,weended up parking near St.Paul’s Chapel (on Fulton Street betweenChurch and Broadway) by the cemetery.As we approached, I wasgearing up,psychologically, for a major,major MCI.The only infor-mation we had was that a plane had hit the Trade Center.We did-n’t have any information on the size of the plane or the [number]of people on board.At the time,we assumed it was an accident.At9:01,I gave an on-scene signal verbally to the Citywide dispatcher.

While walking down Fulton Street toward the Trade CenterComplex we encountered hordes of people exiting from everywhich way.As I approached Church Street near 4 World Trade,several EMS units were setting up a treatment and triage area. Iremember seeing two FDNY EMS units and at least two volun-tary units [ambulances from private hospitals contracted as partof the New York 9-1-1 system].

Several people were just lying in the street, so I believe thestreet was already closed.I saw no vehicular traffic,only an unbe-lievable amount of pedestrian traffic running from the buildingand debris all around.

I asked [EMS] to relocate because they were impeding theflow of people exiting the Trade Center.The EMS personnel wereall wearing their protective helmets. I told them to keep theirhelmets on and set up triage and treatment area off to the north-east corner of Church and Fulton.It appeared that there was lessthan a dozen patients,which supported my thought that perhapsit was a small plane and an accident.After relocating them, I feltcomfortable with the EMS resources working in that sector.I toldthem I would go to the other end of the tower and send addi-tional resources as soon as I arrived there.

I continued west on foot, crossing the Trade Center Plaza andapproaching West and Vesey streets.At that point, I wasn’t look-ing up at the tower.There was too much going on at street level,and I just wanted to assess the situation and get the other EMSsectors set up.There was no longer debris falling.

When I arrived at West and Vesey, I was greeted by Lt. ReneDavila,who had several units and [EMS] officers with him.He gaveme a quick briefing on the resources he had.There weren’t a sig-nificant number of patients.Several other EMS officers showed up,including [FDNY EMS] Capt. [Janice] Olszewski and [FDNY EMS]Lt. [Bruce] Medjuck. I asked them to go back to that initial EMSgroup I had encountered on the east side of the Trade Centerbecause I wanted officers there to assist in coordinating treatmentand transport and in setting up a staging area on that side.

I inquired as to where the fire Command Post was and wasadvised that it was located in the lobby of the North Tower.So Lt.Terranova and I went there to meet up with the fire incidentcommander. In addition to Lt. Terranova, I took [FDNY EMS]Capt. [Mark] Stone and, I believe, [FDNY EMS] Chief [James]Basile and two EMS crews with me.

On our way to 1 World Trade, we saw glass all over the plaza,plane parts on the ground and pockets of different things burning.In comparison, this side of the towers displayed much more of anactive disaster scene.There was a significant amount of [human]parts, including arms, legs and torsos. In all my years of EMS expe-rience, I’d never seen a disaster of this magnitude. Other than thecameras not being there, it felt like this was a movie shoot.

From the mechanism of injury,the scenario was painted.I knewthere would be fatalities. There was no way we were going toescape this incident without anybody being hurt. We’re talkingabout the World Trade Center—thousands of people [in the build-ings]—let alone the number of souls who were on the aircraft.

When we reached the lobby, we didn’t even have to walk inthrough the door [of the North Tower].The glass was already shat-tered throughout the base of the building.As I walked in,I noticedthe tiles had dropped off of the marble walls.It looked like a build-ing under construction.There were only emergency personnel inthe lobby of 1 World Trade.There were no civilians.No patients. It

46

GOMBO

seemed a little odd.The fire incident commander was

[FDNY] Chief Peter Hayden. I informed himthat I was there.He acknowledged.Our SOPis that we set up the EMS Command Post inclose proximity to theirs—within arm’sreach.This way,if they’re in need of our serv-ices, they know exactly where we are. I wasthe highest-ranking EMS chief on scene andassumed command of the EMS operation.

Then we received a report that theremight be civilian patients in an auditoriumin the back. I asked Chief Basile to take acrew and go back there. While speakingwith Chief Hayden, Eddie Gabriel [deputydirector for the Mayor’s Office ofEmergency Management] approached. Heasked if there was anything he could do tosupport the operation.There was some dia-logue as to the activation of mutual aid—toput them on standby but not have themrespond because there wasn’t a significantnumber of patients.

Several minutes had passed when ChiefHayden informed me they were going torelocate the fire Command Post across WestStreet in front of [2 World] Financial Center.He did not specify why they wanted to relo-cate. I don’t believe we had any intelligenceas to the building falling at that time.

Several minutes prior to the second planehitting,we set up EMS command next to thefire Command Post in the driveway of 2World Financial Center.When I left the initial(forward) Command Post, I gave clear direc-tion that EMS personnel were not to be inthe building.EMS personnel are not outfittedwith SCBAs and bunker gear.Patients wouldhave been brought out to us—either by fire-fighters or other public safety personnel.

When I arrived across the street, the fireCommand Post was set up, and ChiefKowalczyk was already setting up the EMSCommand Post. Kowalczyk was my majorchief that day. Chief Ganci andCommissioner [William] Feehan were alsothere, along with several other rankingchiefs. More of my chiefs started reportingin; the Command Post was set up; the com-mand boards were set up. Although it wasone large operation,we had to have multipletreatment and triage sectors set up given thesize of the Trade Center Complex. I sent[FDNY EMS] Deputy Chief Charlie Wells toreport what was going on [at] the south sideof the Command Post at West and Liberty.Atthat time the three treatment and triage sec-tors were at Church Street and Fulton (near4 World Trade),West and Vesey and West andLiberty. Shortly after we [began] discussingstrategy at the relocated fire Command Post,the second plane hit the South Tower.

I personally did not see the plane goinginto the tower. Several others in theCommand Post stated they visualized theplane.We knew then that there was some-

thing really bad going on.With the second plane in, I knew this

was no accident.Two planes—that’s muchmore than coincidence. In my mind, Iswitched from accident to terrorism.BeforeI had an opportunity to react,another floodof people ran out of the [South Tower].There were plane parts falling on theground. Things burning. We weren’t evensure what was burning, whether it was jetfuel falling to the ground or plane parts.Wesaw people ejected from the building andlanding in the plaza. I wasn’t sure whetherthese people had been on the plane.Therewas no way of me telling,other than seeingthem flying through the air.

We already had a strategy set up,an oper-

ation in the process of being implemented.The second plane didn’t change much ofour strategy from an EMS perspectivebecause we had our teams/sectors alreadyin key locations. Subsequently, we weregoing to need more EMS resources becausewe did not know how many additionalpatients would be generated from that sec-ond plane or what to expect next.

From a fire perspective, they were con-fronted with a much more complex opera-tion. As a result of the second plane, theygenerated additional fifth alarms and call-ins for a significant number of [additional]fire suppression resources.

I remember conversing withCommissioner Feehan about the EMS

48

FDNYLadder 4

JosephAngelini Jr.38Firefighter

MichaelBrennan27Firefighter

MichaelHaub34Firefighter

MichaelLynch31Firefighter

DanielO’Callaghan42Lieutenant

SamuelOitice45Firefighter

JohnTipping II33Firefighter

DavidWooley53Captain

resources that were responding in. It must have been just min-utes—at least that’s the way it felt—[from the South Tower beinghit] when something very strange started.All of a sudden,the skygot very dark.We felt the ground vibrating and heard a tremen-dous roar. For a second, I thought it might be another plane. Butwhen I looked up it appeared the sky was coming down.As theSouth Tower was collapsing, it was like this huge cloud comingdown.The noise was as if you were walking on a runway withplanes coming down above your head.

Within seconds,personnel [in our area] either retreated downthe driveway of 2 World Financial, which I did with several peo-ple from the Command Post, or ran toward the street. Several ofus dove behind a white van parked at the base of the driveway.The next thing I remember is pitch darkness—no more light.

The majority of the people in the Command Post prior to thefirst building collapse ran behind us into the underground garageat 2 World Financial. When we stood up, we couldn’t see any-thing. It was extremely difficult to breathe because every timeyou inhaled, your mouth filled with soot. Even with a flashlighton, there was so much soot and cement dust and who knewwhat else was in the air, you couldn’t see in front of you.

We were close to the opening of the garage.We moved every-body in our party toward the back.There was a separate area, anoffice space, a few steps up. After we made sure no one wasbehind us,we moved into that office space and closed the door.In that area, we were able to breathe without having to inhalesoot and garbage.Walter and Ross were down there with me andabout 15 or 20 others—people from OEM, fire officers, firefight-ers.We asked the firefighters to find us a way out.We didn’t knowwhether there was another exit.

I did not know the whereabouts of the others who had beenin the Command Post. I had to assume that instead of retreatingback to the garage, they went forward toward the street. [Thetime] prior to that collapse was my last encounter with both[Ganci and Feehan].

So we were in this office.There was a phone on the desk thatdid not work.There was no dial tone.Our radios didn’t work.Ourcell phones didn’t work.A pretty grim picture was developingrather quickly.

My wife asked me later,“Did you think that you were gonnadie down there?”At no point did that even enter my mind.Therewere people panicking, and I felt I needed to remain as focusedas possible.We had a five-gallon water cooler, so we rinsed ourmouths to breathe easier.The firefighters were able to locate anexit on the opposite end of the building,which led us out into amarina area on the west side of the building.

When we exited the garage, there was absolutely no evidenceof what [had] just went on.The sun was shining.We saw boats inthe marina. I found that amazing.But more amazing than that wasthe silence. After that rumble of the building [falling], there nosounds.No sirens.No birds.No nothing. It was an eerie feeling.

The plan was to walk around the building and go back to the

Command Post. We exited from the North Cove. We walkedthrough the yacht harbor and turned right on Vesey.There, it wasan extremely rude awakening. We went from a beautiful, calmatmosphere with no debris to everything covered with soot andan unbelievable amount of paper.

When we reached Vesey near the New York Mercantile, therewere several EMS units treating people on the street and a MERVparked there.They had set up a triage area in the lobby of thebuilding on the corner.They seemed to have the situation undercontrol—[FDNY EMS] Capt. Howie Sickles was coordinatingtheir activities. I needed to be at the Command Post to coordi-nate this MCI. I had made it several yards down Vesey headedtoward 4 World Financial when the second collapse occurred.

It wasn’t as loud, but I saw this tremendous cloud comingaround the corner. I said,“Oh my God, here we go again!”Weducked behind the building where they had set up this indoortriage area.After [surviving] that second mushroom cloud com-ing toward us, we were not going to go back to the CommandPost where it had been prior to the initial collapse.

I had several chiefs with me—[FDNY EMS] Chief [Pedro]Carrasquillo, Basile, Kowalczyk, [FDNY EMS Capt.] Fran Pascale,Zach Goldfarb and Chief Fred Villani. We found a private areabehind where the treatment and transport were taking place,and we had a quick strategy session.We really had limited infor-mation as to the extent of what was going on outside ourpurview.We had EMS resources here. Clearly, we would not goback to what is now called Ground Zero, although we were onthe perimeter.I divided up the chiefs that I had with me.We iden-tified two staging locations that we felt were far enough from theincident site yet close enough [to] them to stage and set up treat-ment areas and casualty collection points.

I had to make these decisions [based] on what informationwas available at the time. I didn’t know whether there wereplanes coming down elsewhere in the city. I was concerned forthe safety of my personnel. I did not want my people to be any-where near Ground Zero due to concern about additional col-lapses,explosions or gas-main breaks,etc.We identified two loca-tions—South Street Ferry to the south, and Chelsea Piers to thenorth. I split the chiefs between those two locations. I left onechief behind to make sure the patients were taken care of in [thelocation on Vesey] and that the EMS crews would [eventually]leave that area [after they had cleared out the patients].

The Emergency Operations Center [run by the Mayor’s Officeof Emergency Management] was not going to be in commissionbecause of its location at 7 World Trade, where they would berelocated. I tried to think of where it would be relocated.Whatcame to mind was 1 Police Plaza. I informed the chiefs that I wasgoing to 1 Police Plaza to coordinate activities from that location.I took Chief Goldfarb, Lt. Terranova and Chief Goldfarb’s aide,Mary Merced, with me.

The place was buzzing. It was jammed with public safety per-sonnel—primarily police officers from every branch within the

49

New York City Police Department, plus representatives from out-side organizations—health, sanitation, FBI. They were puttingtogether the war room with different representatives.

First, I told the EMS folks with me to call a relative.Then weinformed fire operations, EMS operations and dispatch that wewere on site at 1 Police Plaza.

We knew that it was going to take time to get FEMA assis-tance. But we needed to do whatever we could until thoseresources reached us.We anticipated thousands of patients.Weknew that the hospitals couldn’t handle this type of patient load.We met with police and the health department personnel andidentified several locations where we could set up large casualtycollection points.There was some discussion about the use ofChelsea Ice Rink as a temporary morgue should the need arise.

We identified the Javits Center,on the west side, the BrooklynNavy Yard and the Yankee minor league stadium in Staten Islandto be used for casualty collection points [CCPs].

The plan was that we were going to set these locations up,staff them with hospital personnel—primarily surgeons and doc-tors—secure medical equipment and have it brought to thoselocations and send patients there.We planned to activate theselocations by 1800 hours.

As time progressed and these plans were put into place, wewere informed that there weren’t many patients and that thehospitals could handle it. Based on the information we receivedfrom emergency medical dispatch, there wasn’t going to be aneed to activate the CCPs.

One other thing that came to mind shortly after our arrival at1 Police Plaza was patient tracking.That’s always an adventureunto itself.We agreed that the police department would dispatchpolice officers to area hospitals to assist us in capturing patienttracking and accountability information.

At about 3 p.m., I received the information that Chief Ganciand Commissioner Feehan had been killed in close proximity tothe Command Post. I couldn’t believe it. One minute we’re con-versing, putting together a strategy to deal with the situation.Next, I find out that both of those officers perished.

I was in constant contact with emergency medical dispatch aswell as the [FDNY EMS] Resource Coordination Center.Additionally, we were trying to account for all of our personnel.Throughout the day, I had been informed that not all EMS per-sonnel were accounted for.The concern was that we wouldn’tknow all those working on scene because the TV networks werebroadcasting that any emergency personnel should report forduty—go to the site.When personnel went in on their own, wehad no way of knowing their status and/or their location.

I remained on site at Police Plaza until late that evening. Irequested RCC to send me an officer so I could go back to GroundZero.I had to see what was going on from an EMS operations per-spective.We made our way on foot to the EMS Command Post onWest and Vesey.There were police officers and state troopers allover.The destruction was incomprehensible.Vehicles turned over,

destroyed ambulances,destroyed fire apparatus.Dark.Wet.Dirty.With rescue personnel all over the place.

On my way over to the Command Post, I had to see if my carwas still around. It was! The driver’s side window was smashed.Later,I learned that while people were escaping the collapse andpassing parked cars, they smashed the windows to stick theirheads in to get a breath of fresh air.

At the Command Post around 10 p.m.,I saw [FDNY EMS] Chief[Robert] McCracken and some of the other chiefs I was with ear-lier in the day.We hugged each other to acknowledge the fact thatwe were there.At that point there were few civilians being treatedat West and Vesey.A schedule was being put together so that appro-priate relief personnel could be used. But we knew, for the mostpart, it wasn’t going to be a significant EMS operation.

Over the next few days, the only ambulances on the scene ofthis operation were primarily mutual aid ambulances.Foot teamsand triage teams staffed by FDNY EMS personnel were situatedin key locations.We also deployed Gators,and they proved to bea tremendous asset. I was there Wednesday and Thursday andthen directed back to headquarters on Friday.

Every day I speak to the EMS deputy chief on site at the TradeCenter, who functions as the operations officer and medical liai-son to the fire chief overseeing the site. I frequently walk the siteto make sure we’re on top of the EMS resources.We have beensteadily de-escalating the amount of EMS resources on site, andwe do that in conjunction with fire operations.

We have one EMS captain, one EMS lieutenant, two BLS unitsand one ALS unit on scene.They have a Gator,as well as a stockedambulance in the two sectors that we now have operatingthere—west and east. Those resources are on standby in caseanybody gets injured, whether a construction worker or fire-fighter or any other emergency personnel. In addition, we havetwo morgue ambulances—the stretchers have been removed.There is one EMT assigned to each of those vehicles. Theyremove recovered emergency and public safety personnel[‘sbodies] to the [medical examiner’s] office.

We’ll continue to support the fire operation down there.I knowthere’s still a significant number of firefighters unaccounted for.And they’re determined to remain on site until everybody’saccounted for.Personally, I don’t believe that everybody’s going tobe accounted for. It’s not possible.Words cannot describe what’sbeen going on as far as the operation down there, the memorialservices, the families, the media inquiries. Of course we have to

pick up the pieces and move on.

Cosmo Jackson, EMT, MetroCareAmbulanceBefore the South Tower came down,FDNY hadall the drivers on the divider in the middle ofWest Street,near the [back of] our ambulances.Me,being a fool—seeing both towers on fire—I wandered closer and closer to the buildings.

FDNYLadder 5

LouisArena 32 Firefighter

AndrewBrunn 28 Firefighter

VincentGiammona 40Lieutenant

ThomasHannafin 36 Firefighter

PaulKeating 38 Firefighter

JohnSantore 49 Firefighter

GregorySaucedo 31 Firefighter

MichaelWarchola 51 Lieutenant

JACKSON

50

FDNYLadder 7

FDNYLadder 8

GeorgeCain35Firefighter

RobertFoti42Firefighter

CharlesMendez38Firefighter

Richard Muldowney Jr.40Firefighter

VincentPrinciotta39Firefighter

VernonRichard53Captain

Vincent Halloran43Lieutenant

My partner [EMT Yamel Merino] was still in the staging area get-ting instructions.

I heard what sounded like thunder and, when I looked up, Iheard the rumbling sound. But, what a lot of people didn’t seebecause they weren’t that close, [was that] the whole top ofTower 2 exploded. Completely exploded.

When I started running, I didn’t know it was coming down. Iran because it exploded, and I thought I was gonna get crushedby debris falling. I took off down West Street toward Vesey.

I remember jumping across the divider on West Street. Theforce of the building coming down knocked me down threetimes.The debris was so hot. I was afraid of getting burned.Eachtime I got back up and continued running—bam!, I'd be on thestreet again. By the time it had stopped, both of my hands wereswollen from me hitting the street hard. I kept wandering twoblocks down West Street and [followed] some people onto a[New York Transit] bus that was there.

As the bus started rolling, the [North Tower] came down.Thebus took us as far as he could toward Battery Park, and then thebus stalled on us because of too much of that soot stuff going intothe system.There was an EMT on the bus from AMR who lost herpartner. She said,“Listen, I’m gonna try to get you some help.” Bythen I was throwing up, could hardly breathe and had gashes onmy hands. She put my arms around her shoulders and got theback of my pants and literally dragged me a block.She said,“Listen,if we get out of this,we’re gonna be like best of friends.”

A Regional ambulance went by us. She chased that ambulanceabout a block and started banging on the side of it to [make it]stop.They had a DOA in the back.They stopped and rushed me toSt.Vincent’s Hospital.St.Vincent’s was great.They had triage set upright there on the street. Because my breathing so bad, theyjumped on me right away.They ran lines, had oxygen on me andgave me medications. Later that evening, my breathing finally gotbetter.

Editor’s note: EMT Yamel Merino died while working at the TradeCenter on Sept. 11.

Al Kim, vice-president of New York City operations,MetroCare AmbulanceResponding ambulances set up on West Street.We were set upon the furthest southbound lanes near 2 World Trade, in 90°angles.An FDNY EMS officer directed us to coordinate our crewwith forward triage in the Marriott Hotel.

Ambulance 15 George, the unit [MetroCare EMT] Yamel[Merino] was on, as well as three of our other 9-1-1 units, werepart of the responding units there.A slew of FDNY units and hos-pital units that provide 9-1-1 response also converged on thesame location.

We set the units up in a row. There were units that were 9-1-1assigned to this area anyway.Obviously,they were the first ones inprior to any kind of official deployment. I found out after the factthat these units had removed patients at least two,three,four times

prior to the official set-up.They found people coming out, startedloading up,going to the hospital and returning.

I was under the pedestrian South Bridge, maybe 40 feet fromthe South Tower.The crews were lined up outside their ambu-lances.There was a fire chief in the lobby of the South Tower.Theplanes had hit both towers,and firefighters were already ascend-ing the towers. The goal was that they would send patientsdown. Then we would get waved from the lobby. There wasdebris coming down, but nothing that bad at that point.

I was to wave EMS crews in, crew-by-crew.They would get apatient with their stretcher and remove them to their vehicle.Then the next crew would go in.That was the premise of the set-up. Obviously, we were way too close.

Yamel’s was one of the first units to park in the area. Theywere one of the first units waved over to head in the directionof the South Tower. Soon after they left our area,Tower 2 camedown and the area became buried along with some of the buses.Yamel’s partner, Cosmo Jackson, ran by me.Yamel was betweenme and the tower. She was buried under falling debris.

I didn’t run anywhere. I had no time. When I recovered, Ithought I was in a cave. Steve Zakheim, our chief operating offi-cer, was to my right. We were screaming for each other. BrianWashburn, operations director for New York PresbyterianHospital,was to the left of me.He had just pulled up to look afterhis 9-1-1 units as well.

I immediately went looking for Yamel and Cosmo. But, theplace was on fire.We had to get away from it. I later returned tosearch for Yamel,but couldn’t find her.After I found [my remain-ing personnel], I turned the crews affected by the collapse intopatients and sent them away.

Walter Kowalczyk, division chief, FDNY EMSI was working in my office in Brooklyn thatmorning.I monitor the fire department radio inaddition to the EMS frequencies.The first signthat I became aware of [that something waswrong] was when the radio announced the firedepartment had transmitted a second alarm forthe World Trade Center.This was not unusual,

but when I switched from the Brooklyn to the Manhattan fre-quency, it became clear a plane had gone into [1 World Trade].

At 9:01 I was called by Citywide to respond.As I was leaving,aTV was on in one of the offices and [the crash] was already onCNN. Clearly the incident had been confirmed.The route I tookfrom my office to the site put me on the Gowanus Expressway.

As I approached the Gowanus [an elevated part of the high-way that leads to the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel],I saw clearly whatwas going on.[FDNY] EMT Michael Ober was with me,and I toldhim,“This could be terrorism,and we need to be cautious aboutprotecting ourselves and keeping our eyes open.”

Initially when I left the office, I thought it was an accident.

KOWALCZYK

51

FDNYLadder 9

FDNYLadder 10

JeffreyWalz37Firefighter

JohnTierney27Firefighter

GeraldBaptiste35Firefighter

SeanTallon26Firefighter

When I got closer and saw the enormity of the event, I was con-cerned that this was something else. I’m not sure if the secondplane had hit prior to my arrival at 9:23, but the upper floors ofthe Trade Center were well engulfed.From a distance,we could-n’t discern the North Tower from the South Tower. I believe thesecond plane hit while we were on the Gowanus.

I came through the Battery Tunnel,and the police departmentalready had emergency routes in effect. So inbound traffic intothe Trade Center was only emergency [vehicles]. Comingthrough the tunnel were other ambulances, fire trucks,police.Aswe pulled onto West Street from the Battery Tunnel, we had touse caution and slow our response, given the debris alreadythere from the building, as well as body parts.

I positioned my vehicle on Liberty Street between West andthe Hudson River by the Marriott World Trade Center Hotel. Inever saw my vehicle upright again.

The radio frequency was inundated with transmissions anddispatch information.From a command-and-control perspective,the first thing we needed to do was identify where theCommand Post was.As I walked up West Street, other fire offi-cials indicated to me that the Command Post was in 1 WorldTrade. Traditionally, from a firefighting EMS operation, we’re ajoint Command Post:The medical branch is set up in conjunctionwith the fire command and reports to the incident commander.

As we entered [1 World Trade],we had to be cautious.Althoughwe had helmets and response coats on,there was a lot [of debris]coming down.We were physically walking through body parts,torsos.You had to get focused on command and control, but youhad this human element affecting your decision-making.

At that point,Chief [Jerry] Gombo was on scene.As I receivedinformation from him, he said,“We need to get out of the con-course level.They reported another plane coming in.” Now, thatgoes back to me being unsure [at this time] if the second planehad hit or, if given the magnitude of the incident, there was areport of a third plane.

The thing that initially surprised me—and I’ve managed a mul-titude of EMS operations with high casualties—was you usually geta grip on yourself and know what you have to do.[But] my mouthwent dry to the point where I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t physicallyget a Lifesaver or piece of gum to try to do the job I needed to do.

With the order to exit the concourse level, we walked acrossWest Street to the front of 2 World Financial Center.We relocat-ed the EMS Command Post to a driveway there with the fireCommand Post.Alongside us was Chief [Peter] Ganci, the chiefof the fire department.

Chief Gombo and I started to establish command and control.Chief Gombo, the EMS command officer, was to establish andcoordinate strategy with incident command. I was the opera-tions officer in charge of implementing the strategy. Chief offi-cers had responded in, and we started to give out assignmentsthat were broad in nature.

At that point,the street extensions were Vesey on the north and

Liberty on the south.There was a multi-prong approach,trying toget face-to-face directions, having chief officers indicating to ourCitywide dispatcher where our Command Post was,utilizing cellphones. I remember Lt. [Ross] Terranova being on a cell phonewith Citywide giving directions.

Just as we were—I’m not even going to use the word “stabi-lized”—it started.A noise I can never forget. It was loud, but yetit was soft:The collapse of [2 World] Trade.We didn’t know whatwas happening.We were setting up the Command Post in themiddle of the driveway as it started.We saw a plume of smokeerupting, and we ran. Several members, including myself andChief Gombo, escaped west into the driveway [of 2 WorldFinancial], which turned into an underground garage.

There was a point that was beyond our control:the bodies com-ing off the Trade Center. I’m not talking about one or two.Therehad to be half a dozen or more.And there was nothing we coulddo.That’s another sound that I’ll never forget.The only sound I cancompare it to is the sound of plywood hitting the floor.That noise.Also, in front of 1 World Trade there is a [glass]-enclosed driveway,and the bodies were coming through that glass. Some [bodies]landed on it,some went through it.These bodies were not on fire.I’m not sure if they were jumping, if—in the smoke environ-ment—they saw a light and they thought it was an exit, or if thesheer explosion blew out the windows and the suction drewthem out.You just tried not to look.When you tried to focus onwhat you had to do,the sounds associated with these people mak-ing contact with the ground interrupted that sense of thinking.

So we escaped into the garage area.That was scary because Icouldn’t find my aide. I knew that Chief Ganci and Commissioner[William] Feehan were next to me at the Command Post. Ganciand Feehan were that close.I went into the garage.Obviously,theywent toward the Trade Center.People ran in different directions. Ididn’t know where they were as the mushroom cloud developed.

As I’m running,the life questions are coming to me.I’m recent-ly widowed with two children.So right away,I’m wondering,“WillI ever again see my eight-year-old and my 13-year-old who dependon me for parenting?”In other words,escaping into the garage,I’msaying,“Fool,why am I doing this?”Because, typically in a buildingcollapse,you have a building that’s going to arc in one direction oranother. My thinking and my training says I’m basically runninginto a dead end.What’s going to prevent this debris from follow-ing the natural course of the driveway into the garage?

For a time, that’s what we thought was happening. In a sense,the cloud came down—the dust and debris.We were trapped inthat garage area, but we weren’t sure what we were trapped by.The garage area filled with smoke, and we didn’t know how toget out. Probably two dozen people were in there—a cross-sec-tion of city government from firefighters to police officers toCommissioner [Thomas] Fitzpatrick.

It was eerie to hear one of the fire officers screaming for hismen,“16 where are you? 16 where are you?”This is a man who’strained to get us out and he can’t even find his people to aid us.

52

FDNYLadder 11

FDNYLadder 12

MichaelCammarata22Firefighter

EdwardDay45Firefighter

JohnHeffernan37Firefighter

RichardKelly Jr.50Firefighter

MichaelQuilty42Lieutenant

MatthewRogan37Firefighter

AngelJuarbe Jr.35Firefighter

MichaelMullan34Firefighter

Chief Gombo stood next to me, gasping for air.The daylightthat existed when we escaped was no longer there.The accesspoint to that garage was filled with debris from the Trade Center.Air quality was a little questionable, so we didn’t know what ourdestiny was to be.Everybody maintained their composure.We allacknowledged that we couldn’t worry about doing our jobs.Atthat point, it was our survival. I thought I was living a movie.Butthis was no movie. It was real life.

I can’t tell you how long we were there. It could have been anhour,but I don’t think it was more than 15 to 20 minutes.We final-ly got out.Somebody found a staircase and we exited on the northend of the Financial Center in the area of the Winter Garden.

In the Winter Garden area,we saw the water.I thought we hadexited into a snowstorm.The entire air was hazy, filled with drysnow. I thought that breathing outside would be better thanbreathing inside; [it wasn’t].

We started to walk north up West where we met with ChiefZach Goldfarb and Chief [Frederick] Villani.Our objective was tograb whoever we could and hold a strategy session.That’s whenthe second collapse started.We evacuated into the lobby of theEmbassy Suites Hotel, which is across the street from theAmerican Express Building [3 World Financial Center].

[When the second collapse occurred] we retreated back intothe hotel. In our minds the entire portion of southern Manhattanwas questionable from a safety perspective.After some discussion,the decision was made to go to Chelsea Piers, an area between23rd Street and the West Side Highway.Normally, it functions as amulti-faceted recreation facility—basketball, racquetball, roller-skating. I was directed to go set up operations [there].

We met with the management of Chelsea,who were extreme-ly cordial to us.Whatever we needed, we could have.

Then we started to set up operations on 23rd Street.Within 45minutes, we had about 75 ambulances from all types of jurisdic-tions—the hospital-based component to the private componentto resources from outside New York City.

We set up an operation with the staging officer, [FDNY EMS]Capt. [Gerald] Gelbard and tried to categorize our resources. Atone point, the ambulances went from 17th Street, or maybe even16th Street, all the way up to 23rd Street.And we’re not talkingabout one row.We probably had three rows of ambulances there.

The people responding wanted to go down [to the TradeCenter area] and make a difference. The hazardous materialstechnicians—BLS units with hazmat certification—got in myface several times.They identified themselves as hazmat techni-cians and said they needed to get down there. I had to get backin their faces and say,“You’ll stay here.”

Finally, I hit home to them when I said,“I’m responsible foryou going home to your spouse,parents, relatives.Your destiny isin my hands.And until I get directions that it’s safe to operate,nobody is moving anywhere.”

Chelsea then became a mobilization point for anything medical.We started to give birth in a matter of minutes to an EMS system

almost as large as one of our own divisions; in fact, probably big-ger,given the magnitude of the resources there.

Managing those resources was a problem in itself—control-ling them, categorizing them. The police or a group of lawenforcement officers from the U.S. Secret Service assisted us incrowd control.Here we were in the middle of the only exit fromManhattan. It was an evacuation route and thousands of peoplewere exiting north. Meanwhile, picture the amount of peoplecoming into New York, streaming toward the towers.

When [FDNY EMS] Dr. [Glenn] Asaeda and [FDNY EMS] Dr.[Neal] Richmond from Commissioner [John] Clair’s officearrived, I was happy to see them. In addition to the hundreds ofEMS providers, we were being overrun by busloads of doctorsand nurses.I’m not talking about cars—busloads.Dr.Asaeda tookresponsibility for the medical professional component.

Now many operations started to come together.We had a stag-ing area for EMS personnel to report to; we had a mobilizationpoint for any medical component.Then we took a portion of ourresources to set up a casualty collection point at Chelsea.Thatdid two things for us: It gave us a functional medical sector, andit also gave some of the medical professionals a sense of focus—at least for the next 90 minutes.

Then there were the logistical supplies that came with [theincoming personnel] or after them. I would have sworn therewas a manufacturing building around the corner piping outthings from IV solutions to hardware to LIFEPAKS to stretchersto oxygen—you name it. We were starting to become over-whelmed. Shortly after that, Chief [John] Peruggia, who workedfor Chief Ganci,contacted me over the radio.He was running theEMS operation at Chambers. During this process, I recorded thenumbers of resources that we had available for dispatch.At onepoint, the initial [number] was 40 BLS units, 20 ALS. I gave thatreport to Chief Peruggia, who then requested I respond to theCommand Post at Chambers and West.

On arrival there, I saw somewhat of a Command Post estab-lished.I spoke to Chief Peruggia,and we agreed that I would takecommand of the medical branch of the overall operation. Thesystem there was starting to come together.There weren’t anycasualties, though.There were reports here and there of a casu-alty.That was probably most frustrating.

Cell phones were virtually useless, and, for a period of time, alot of [communication] was face-to-face. Initially, it was almostimpossible to run a face-to-face operation, given the geographyand the demographics of the [event]. It took some self-startingon the part of all the EMS providers—EMTs, paramedics, EMSsupervisors,chiefs,captains—to do what they thought was rightfor the EMS operation.As we started to get communications backtogether, it didn’t take much to get a workable operation. Westarted to [operate with] branches and divisions, with mobilesectors in the north and south.

As the events started to unfold, [FDNY EMS] Chief McCrackenarrived at the Chambers and West Command Post.About 5 p.m.,

53

FDNYLadder 13

ThomasHetzel33Firefighter

WalterHynes46Captain

DennisMcHugh34Firefighter

ThomasSabella44Firefighter

GregoryStajk36Firefighter

we were getting ready to sit and talk when 7 World Trade began tocollapse.We ran north, but then, two or three minutes later, wecomposed ourselves and returned to focus on strategy.

We had a sense that we needed to get a picture from every-body on what they were dealing with and where we needed topick up.We needed to regroup.And we came to a mutual agree-ment,both within the region and outside the region, in terms ofresources.We spoke about shoring up the instant mutual aid andtrying to get the 9-1-1 system back into place.

You just never know what little component is going to pushyou over the edge.This event resurfaced many major incidentsfor me. [For example], the bombings on New Year’s Eve 1982when we were preparing for the Times Square celebration andthere were explosions at 1 Police Plaza. One of the things that’salways in the back of our minds is the secondary device.At PolicePlaza, there were explosions happening all around us.The samething kept happening to us at the World Trade Center.

The other MCIs [I’ve worked] were closed incidents.The inci-dent happened; you responded; you mitigated the response; youimplemented incident command;you removed the victims.Done.

These were open incidents, and you had no control. At thebombings and at this event, the rescuers quickly became victims.We were there here to help people,but we became victims. I feelfor our people. I feel for the people who have gone through this.

Juana Lomi, EMT-P, NYU Downtown Hospital EMS Dept.,Unit 01 Victor with partner Tamara Drummond, EMT-PWe heard a large bang.We ran outside and saw Tower 1 on fire.We jumped in our bus and started to respond.On the way there,our dispatch alert was already in the vehicle computer. I parkedat Vesey and Church, near Borders bookstore, located in 5 WorldTrade. Initially, the incident didn’t seem like it was gonna besomething of great magnitude. It seemed manageable. I wasn’tgetting nervous or anything.

I told my partner,Tamara [Drummond],“Anybody who comesout of there and who’s able to walk, have them walk. If there’s afractured arm or upper body trauma with no respiratory distress,tell them to walk to a triage area we set up at St. Peter’s Churchon Church Street, just north of Vesey.”We didn’t have to go intothe towers because people were running out. It was over-whelming.We had a lot of badly burned patients.

When the second plane hit, I heard this tremendous rum-bling—the loudest noise I’ve ever heard in my entire life. I saw ahuge shadow in the trees as it approached. I thought it was anexplosion. I didn’t see the second plane hit. I heard what sound-ed like a huge train.When it hit, I didn’t have my helmet rightthere,and things started flying off of the South Tower.There wereshoes, cell phones, money, wallets and briefcases dropping.

I ran to our vehicle and got my helmet. Debris was falling indifferent directions. Everything after that started to move quick-ly. Everybody started to move.Vehicles started to move away. Ilost Tamara after that. I didn’t know where she was.

I didn’t drive away because I was trying to hide from thebeams and other things falling from the sky. I went underneathan overhang at the Borders bookstore.The shape of the building[5 World Trade] helped protect me. I’m only 5'2", so I was able tohide. I stayed there for a little while, but then people started torun and scream and things got worse.Then a police officer yelledacross the street to me,“Girl, what are you doing here? Movenorth.”I said,“No,I can’t move anywhere.My partner is not here,and I have to help people.”

I didn’t know what had happened. I was below it. I couldn’tsee it.All I heard was the sound. So I stepped across the street,and things were still flying. I had little pieces falling on my hel-met. It was like a hammer hitting on my head.

Then I saw the flames, and people hanging out the windows,looking down,trying not to move and just waiting.I looked up andsaw what looked like a female falling. I turned away, then I turnedback and looked again. Sometimes you don’t want to see some-thing, but you look just because you want to know what’s goingon.Then another guy jumped.And then another.That’s when I real-ly started feeling uncomfortable and started moving quickly. I toldpeople,“Get out of here! Run to the church.Run to the church.”

Earlier,I had told Tamara something wasn’t right.In my 14 yearsin EMS, I have never been in anything like this. I told her,“Listen, ifanything happens,don’t go too far away from me and head for thesubway [entrance],” because it was close. Now she had movedaway and disappeared. I was worried.Where was she? I was moreafraid of something happening to her than I was about myself.

Then the South Tower collapsed. I thought it was a bomb. Iheard what sounded like when they throw pieces of sheetrockright on top of each other at a construction site. It had a dominoeffect. It was like,“Ton,ton,ton.”It got really dark,and there werefumes [in the air]. I didn’t know the building wasn’t therebecause it was so dark.

I continued to look for Tamara as everybody started driving off.On the corner opposite me, there were two police officers stand-ing near the subway entrance. I said,“Guys,what’s going on?

They said,“I don’t know, girl, but try to keep your eyes openand move away from underneath that store.”Then more peoplewere running [down the streets], screaming and yelling. Theyhad fractured arms, head trauma and burns.

Then I saw this big guy, about 6'5", fall on his knees, right inthe middle of the street.Beams and debris were falling near him,and this guy started preaching. He opened his arms to the skyand was yelling,“This is the end!”

I said,“He’s gonna die; something’s gonna fall on top of him.”A cop said,“Come on. Keep going, girl.” He wanted me to go

across the street.But I didn’t.I ran over to the man and said,“Guy,come on. Get up.

He was still chanting,“This is the end.” He was gone. I saw inhis eyes that he was not listening.Then, I pulled him by the arm.I said,“Sir, get up! Get up!” I hit him on the shoulder. Nothing.Finally, I turned around and gave him a kick with my boot, right

54

FDNYLadder 15

RichardAllen30Firefighter

ArthurBarry35Firefighter

Thomas R.Kelly51Firefighter

ScottKopytko32Firefighter

ScottLarsenAge unavailableFirefighter

JosephLeavey45Lieutenant

DouglasOelschlager36Firefighter

EricOlsen41Firefighter

on his back. Boom! I hit him so hard that he went forward andhit his face. He woke up, realized he was in danger and got upand ran away, leaving his briefcase behind. I guess I snapped himout of it.Thank God.

Then I ran to the other side of the street. People started com-ing en masse.The two officers and I ran for the subway entrance.I was thinking about getting to shelter,getting to cover. I wantedto use the subway as a passageway to go underneath the debris.I thought it was more protective to walk underground than onthe streets. I told people,“Come [in the subway], you can get allthe way to North and get off on Chambers from here. Walkunderneath the train; protect yourself; get out of here!”

It was already dark, and heavy debris was falling. I still didn’tlook up to see what was collapsing. I couldn’t see.And before Iknew it, the second building—Tower 1, closest to us—camedown. I saw a dark shadow coming toward us.That’s when thetwo officers, a couple of civilians and I jumped in the subwayentrance.We fell all the way down.No,it was more like we rolleddown the steps.The only thing I had was a bruised leg.

Then the whole entrance was closed off by debris—beams orsomething.I tried to look up.There were a lot of people [outside]screaming. I knew we had to go through the subway to get out.

I thought the entrance and everything around us was gonnasink in. Inside the subway, the fumes got worse because the sub-ways were all connected with the World Trade Center.Everybodywas screaming;everybody was moving;everybody was nervous.They didn’t know what to do.

I told people to keep walking. Nobody could see.You couldonly hear people.You were bumping into people,and everybodywas grabbing each other. So I said,“Listen, I know for a fact thatthere’s an exit north of here. I know the stations. Just lean on thewall, and we’ll walk our way out of here.” The fumes over-whelmed you.You had to breathe, but you couldn’t breathe.

I lost my helmet, my belt, my stethoscope, my cell phone—everything fell off when I fell.And I wasn’t gonna look for it.AllI had was my pants and my shirt.

We walked only two blocks, but it seemed like an eternity. Ithought like I was a blind person. I think that occurred to mebecause I have two friends that are blind—totally blind.They goin new places and determine the edges, the corners and thedoors by touching. I learned that from them.That’s why I toldeverybody,“Touch the walls.You can’t see.Touch the walls.”

We found our way to the Chambers and Church exit.Everybody got out.We told them to just keep walking north. Ialso told them where the [NYU Downtown Hospital] was.

When I went to the job, it was daytime. By the time I got outof the subway it was nighttime. It was pitch black.You couldn’tsee. I thought,“Where’s Tamara?” I turned around on ChambersStreet and started walking back.The whole street was filled withpaper and dust. I thought,“This is the end.There was a nuclearwar,and it caught us.”I prayed,“God,if my family’s dead and if myrelatives are dead, I don’t want to be alive.”

One of the officers followed me,“Why are you going back?”“Why am I going back?”I said.“because my partner’s in there.”When I got back to Church and Vesey,the only vehicle left was

mine. It was completely covered with dust; the windshield wasbroken;a little mirror was gone;and it had a flat.I started to drivethe vehicle slowly and moved it to Chambers Street and left itthere. I continued to look for Tamara.

She [had been] in this area, but then I couldn’t see. I couldn’ttell where the corners were anymore. I figured there had to besome place where she had hid. I started to look for her like Iwould a little kid.I wasn’t able to walk well.There were too manythings on the ground.There were only five or six people in thatarea because almost everybody had evacuated. Some peoplewere underneath cars. Some were dead.

The more I walked, the more things I started to see on theground. I was praying that I wouldn’t see a blue uniform. I start-ed finding pieces of clothing with body parts.I know from work-ing in the field what pieces of flesh look like even if they’re cov-ered by dust.

After 45 minutes, I couldn’t look any more.The officer said,“Go back [to the hospital] because maybe she went back.Maybeshe drove away with somebody.”

I thought,“I can’t go back to the hospital without her.They’regonna say,‘Where were you? Why didn’t you help your partner?’”

I took a deep breath and started walking back.Somebody hadmoved my vehicle to Greenwich Street. It was still running. I didn’t shed a tear while the commotion was going on. I wasbeing strong. But now I was crying because I knew it was over,and I couldn’t find my partner.

I put my head on the steering wheel and said,“Oh God.Whatam I gonna do now?”Then I turned my head to the side and sawmy supervisor,Peter Fromm,coming toward me.Peter had a ter-rified look in his eyes. I said,“Peter, what happened here?”

“I don’t know,”he said.“Tell me what happened to you.”I went through the whole thing and told Peter,“I have go back

to find Tamara. I’m afraid she’s dead.” I jumped out to go back.Peter,a soft-spoken guy that I’ve never seen yell or anything,said,“Juana! No.You listen.We’re going to the hospital. She might beat the hospital.You don’t know.”

So Peter and I rode back to NYU in a vehicle that wasn’t doingthat well with the wipers on to clear the dust away. On the waywe found two firemen and put them in back. The fumes hadovercome them both, and one was having an asthma attack. Idropped them off at the ER. I put some water on my face,washed out my eyes and pulled my hair back.

When I finally went back to our garage, I saw Lt. Rene Davilacoming out of the garage.He hugged me and started crying.And Ithought,“OK, he must know Tamara’s dead.” But she wasn’t. Hewas just happy to see me alive because nobody knew where I was.He had seen me on Church Street and didn’t know if I survived.

I started crying and said,“My God,Tamara’s dead. I can’t findTamara.”Then, I felt somebody tapping me from the back, and it

was Tamara.She was there all nice and clean.I started hitting her,hug-ging her and telling her,“Don’t you ever leave me again.”

Alexander Loutsky, EMT, FDNY EMSWe were in vehicle 219 at an intersection rightby the Brooklyn Bridge.Me and my partner [EMTEric Ramos] were talking small talk. And Inoticed—the World Trade Center was right inour view—I noticed a plane going down. It wasflying low, and I interrupted him,“Eric, look atthat! Look how low that plane is! It’s gonna hit.It’s gonna hit!”A few seconds later, it exploded,

just went in and exploded.We just shook.We shook.Quickly I took my radio, and I thought,“I have one shot to get it

right.”Because the radios are terrible down here,you always have torepeat yourself,or they put us out with no response and stuff. I said,

“01 Charlie for the priority.”“01 Charlie, go.”“01 Charlie.We have just witnessed a plane hit the World Trade

Center.”[The dispatcher’s] voice went,“What?!”and then everything went

crazy on the radio.You couldn’t transmit anymore.A few secondslater,we were trying to transmit that we were staging at Church andFulton—at the very end of Fulton,aimed at 5 World Trade Center.

About a minute later we were by St. Paul’s [Chapel] and theMillennium Hotel. Eric was acting as the triage officer. I was tryingto do the transmission and trying to get a spot to start operatinguntil some semblance of command came along.As far as we knew,we were the only ones there. But 01 Adam was just by [us at]Church and Vesey. So we were quite close to one another.

When we got there thousands of people were coming out of the

building after the first plane hit.They had terror and fear in theirfaces.They were running,screaming.We were inundated.We had nocommand at that point.We saw fire trucks over on Liberty.Accordingto the MCI plan we have on board that comes through our MDT[mobile data terminal], we were supposed to go to the concourselevel in Tower 1. But by the time we got to Church and Fulton, thepriority was not,“Let’s go to the concourse level.” It was,“Look at allthese people coming out.”You couldn’t abandon them.

[At some point we relocated to] West Street right in front of 1World Trade—underneath the North Bridge between Liberty andVesey—to assist [FDNY EMS] Lt. [Rene] Davila in establishing EMSoperations at that location.He said to me and Eric,“I want you guysto stick to me.You’re my staging officers,and I want you to stick tome like glue.”

I knew by looking at his face that the weight of us was on hisshoulders. I felt good about that and a little safe about that. It reas-sured us. Lt. Davila had us use MCI triage tags on the victims—about a dozen of them.We sent a lot of the walking wounded—thepeople that were yellow tagged—out of the borough. So wewouldn’t inundate the neighboring hospitals that would have themore critical or unstable patients.

We were in front of 1 World Trade triaging people when the sec-ond plane hit. I wasn’t aware of it at the time.All of our patients ranaway.We had to get out of that area because it was totally unsafe.Everyone high-tailed out of there.We had this [North] Bridge cov-ering us, so a lot of the debris—the metal and everything—didn’thit us squarely. Rene told us to go back to Church and Fulton.Weheaded south on West Street, but that’s where the explosion camefrom.Things were falling down.We took one look up Liberty Street,and it was total destruction.The building was on the floor.Therewas no way to get through.

LOUTSKY

56

FDNYLadder 16

FDNYLadder 20

RobertCuratolo31Firefighter

RaymondMurphy46Lieutenant

JohnBurnside36Firefighter

JohnFischer46Captain/FormerLieutenant

JamesGray34Firefighter

SeanHanley35Firefighter

DavidLaForge50Firefighter

RobertLinnane33Firefighter

People were screaming.Terror is the word to describe it.Youhad some people looking up into the building—they just lost it.You had people running for their lives.They knew that this wasthe end of the world.

When we got back to Church and Fulton, I was the stagingofficer.My function was getting people out of there.I loaded [pri-vate and hospital ambulances] up as much as I could—up to sixpatients each—to get them out of there, because [the area] wasunstable. For example, I said,“Where you from?”

“Brooklyn.”“Name a hospital.”“LICH [Long Island College Hospital].”“Go—that’s where you’re going.”We saw a fair number [of patients]—in the 10s at a time.Burn

victims—second- and third-degree, long-bone fractures, asthmaattacks.

Then there was the rumble. It sounded like a volcanic erup-tion. Everybody started screaming and running up Fulton. Ithought I was gonna get trampled.A lot of the patients also ran.

I ducked under a little truck. Everybody went by, like a stam-pede.When I came out from under the truck, I saw this garage bythe Millennium [Hilton] Hotel. It [has] an indentation of about afoot.There was a cop huddled there. I went and huddled next tohim.As I looked at the building [2 World Trade], I saw it comingdown. I didn’t think we were gonna make it. You couldn’t runaway from that.Then the thing came down.Everything was black.

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see. I realized with all this par-ticulate matter that I wasn’t going to be able to hold my breathfor minutes. I couldn’t hear. I panicked a little bit. I sorta felt likethe fish that shakes a little bit because I couldn’t breathe. I tookmy radio and started banging it around. I cracked glass.When Icracked the glass, I put my hand inside, and it felt familiar. Itturned out to be a van. I slipped inside and brought my headdown low. I covered my head with my jacket and took shallowbreaths.There was a lot of pressure there.

Everything started to settle.It was like being in a fog.I could see10 to 15 feet ahead of me. I didn’t see anyone. I knew NYUHospital was two blocks straight ahead of me. I figured I couldmake it,so I went there.They saw me and washed me down.Theystuck my head in the sink.They gave me oxygen.They put a pulseox on me and tried to get me to stay. I said,“No, I gotta go back tomy post. I gotta go back. I don’t want to abandon my post.”

So I went up Church and Fulton, and I saw our ambulance inflames. I met up with a firefighter,Alex Santoro, and a cop.Thethree of us made a pact not to separate, to stick together. Wewere looking for, but not finding anyone else.

Then, suddenly, we heard a rumble and high-tailed it outtathere. We made it up from Dey Street—that becomes JohnStreet—right at the corner of John and Broadway.We ducked ina store that makes old-fashioned chocolate, slammed the doorand everything went totally black. If we had stayed [outside] asecond or two more, we wouldn’t have made it.

Even with the door shut, all this pressure was billowing in.Weemptied out the chocolate jars and filled them with water beforethe water main went.We didn’t know how long we’d be there.

As things cleared up a bit, it was like a fog again.We went outlooking for survivors again.There wasn’t anyone on the streets,but there were people in the buildings, in the basements,hiding.We got a couple of pipes in case we needed to break into storesto get water and supplies.

As I was leaving, my radio started to work. I heard that theyhad some kind of triage at South Street Ferry. I told the fire cap-tain that I wanted to go check it out and went to South Ferry. Imet up with [FDNY EMS] Chief [James] Basile around noon.There was a MASH kind of triage outside the ferry.

Chief Basile gave me a new set of commands—to help evacu-ate lower Manhattan. I was directing people—the general pub-lic—onto ferry boats to Brooklyn, Staten Island, New Jersey.There were hundreds and hundreds of people. I did that for 12hours; lost my voice. I wasn’t doing any EMS; I was just workingas part of an evacuation operation.

It was there that I found out that Eric was OK and in a hospi-tal. I felt better then.We’re with our partners more than we’rewith a spouse or family.We’re on the streets in a small, compactarea with that individual for eight hours or more.After a whileyou get to know each other real well.

I took the ferry to Staten Island. I went home, but couldn’tsleep and went back to Ground Zero on Wednesday. I workedthe 9-1-1 system and then went to Ground Zero. You felt thatyour life was spared, so you should be of benefit to someonewho was buried there. On the 12th we thought there were oth-ers buried and alive.You wanted to spend as much time as youcould getting those people out of there.

But after a week or so, I said,“I don’t want this rubble to dic-tate my life.” You’re like a zombie, returning to your tomb orsomething. I didn’t want to be like that.The hypersensitivity tosound, sleeplessness, the nightmares, this, that and the otherthing. I remember [FDNY EMS] Capt. [Brian Milzoff] saying,“Thebest place, I believe, for you is with your peers.”" And, it was sotrue.That’s why, for me, when I got home, I could only sleep acouple of hours. It was better for me to be here.

After a week, I did morgue duty.They had a forensic patholo-gist—the ME [medical examiner] or a representative from theME’s office who would open the bag and take out body parts.Myjob was to identify and document body parts.They had me,a copand a firefighter working there because we could better identifyour own people. For example, I might see shears that belongedto a medic.

I think a good number of people that suffered and who diedthere were degloved. I witnessed the degloving of a hand, thedegloving of bodies: It was like they were pushed out, like abanana from the peel.We actually had pieces of skin.Maybe a six-inch vertebrae and the skin.There were very few intact bodies,andeven the intact bodies were not recognizable.Sometimes,a family

member would not be able to say,“Oh well, that’s my ... whatever.”"A lot of the firefighters that had their bunker gear on were intact.Welooked in their uniforms to see their names and things like that.

There was a lot of mixing of body parts.We had one interestingone—a pair of trousers with a hip bone, two legs and a wallet. Itwas perfect for us because it had a wallet and we could identify it.They handed me the wallet. I was able to identify the person.Thenwe looked to see what else we had. We had flesh, bone, otherthings.But, then we took a second look,and we had two right legs.Two right legs. It was two people.

The thing that really affected me was an intact body that fell outof the building into the Plaza area.The hand was charred black ina grasping position. I could see how the person had been graspingthe building—not wanting to jump,but not wanting to be inciner-ated.“Should I jump or should I burn?”It must have been a tremen-dous agony. This person was found dead due to the fall—everybone broken—but the hand was charred black. That was verypainful. It’s not so much what you saw as what you [imagined] thatthey went through. It’s an agony to me.Very difficult.

Orlando Martinez, EMT, & Frank Puma, EMT,FDNY EMSMartinez: Before the first plane hit,we were acrossfrom Barclay and Church—one block north ofVesey Street. We were getting our breakfast at8:45. We were at the counter. We usually orderBLTs.They were making it, and we heard a rum-ble. The building we were in—the WoolworthBuilding—shook. Debbie, the girl [who works at

the deli], looks at Pu [Frank Puma] and me and goes,“Shouldn’t youguys go outside and check what’s going on?”I told her,“If they need

us, they’ll call us.”I told Pu,“Pu just go outside. I’ll wait for the food.”So Pu goes out-

side and doesn’t come [back] for a minute.The food wasn’t ready yet.So I said,“You know what? Let me go out and see what’s up withPuma.”I went outside and looked around the block. I saw Puma.Hismouth was just dropped.He was looking up. I look up, too, and say,“Oh shit.That’s gotta be bad. I’m gonna be here all night.”

The vehicle was parked a block away.I ran back toward the vehi-cle—01 Adam—because I was driving that day.

Puma:When we heard everything, I ran outsideto go see what was going on.I thought a manholecover or something blew off. I saw people flyingdown Church. What the hell’s going on? I randown there and looked up.I saw the flames shoot-ing out the top of the tower [1 World Trade]. Mymouth just dropped. “Holy shit!” I grabbed myradio.I said,“1 Adam.A fucking bomb just went offin the Trade Center!” My dispatcher told me tostand by. I didn’t find out until later that peopleheard my transmission first and then Alex [Loutsky’s]. Both of thetransmissions cut into each other.My voice stood out more becauseI was screaming so loud.

Next thing I know,Orlando pulled up next to me in the vehicle. Ijumped in and we drove down to the corner and stopped.

Martinez: Actually, we went the wrong way on the street. I wascranky—I didn’t eat my breakfast.We parked on Church and Vesey.There was some debris.We opened the ambulance doors and wereflooded with people asking for help.We tried to treat as much as wecould.We got one guy with second-degree burns.

Puma: Second- and third-degree burns from head to toe.Martinez: Nasal burns.We got some internal bleeding.We gave

PUMA

MARTINEZ

58

FDNYLadder 20

FDNYLadder 21

RobertMcMahon35Firefighter

GeraldAtwood38Firefighter

GerardDuffy53Firefighter

KeithGlascoe38Firefighter

JosephHenry25Firefighter

WilliamKrukowski36Firefighter

BenjaminSuarez35Firefighter

▲

him oxygen. Five minutes later the bus was just crowded withpeople.We couldn’t throw ’em all out. So we treated as much aswe could.We doused some water on their eyes.

When we first got to Church and Vesey,I called the station andtalked to Lt. [Bill] Melaragno. I said, “Listen, we need backup.There’s nobody here.When’s the help coming?” But they werealready here.This building’s so large.As soon as you got close toit,you had to stop and help people. I didn’t realize [other crews]were down the block.

Puma: There were too many things going on.Way too muchchaos.There were units everywhere. We thought we were theonly ones there.

Martinez: The first units to back us up were St.Vincent’s and[NYU Downtown] Hospital—part of the 9-1-1 system. The firstunits parked on Church and Vesey and came to help us.

When the second plane hit, we got in the back of the vehicleand closed the doors. We heard “clinks” hitting the top of thevehicle.We thought we would be crushed.After a minute and ahalf, I got out and ran to the driver’s seat.We felt like we were indanger.We had enough patients who required critical treatment.One patient had respiratory burns, and we thought he would gointo respiratory arrest. So I started driving down Vesey, goingtoward NYU Downtown.

Twenty feet in front of us,right on the next corner,a man waswaving toward me. I looked at him.Then I looked down.Therewas a female next to him on the curb. She was just laid out. Itseemed like she didn’t have any legs.But, they were just so badlycrushed.They just blended in with the street. I saw her torso:“Oh, she’s gotta be dead.”

I stopped,anyway.We had just gone 20 feet. I don’t know whywe stopped.“Puma get the stretcher and get out the back andtake a look at this lady.”We looked at her.Her legs were crushed.Her pelvis was exposed. She was waving her arms.There was alot of blood around her,a lot of flesh.And it was just this one manholding her head.But she was screaming,still talking,waving herarms,“Help me!. Help me.”

I got the longboard and the stretcher. I told the burn patienton the stretcher to get up and get on the bench. But he was tooweak, so I helped him up and threw two [other] people out [of]the ambulance and told them to get the “whatever”out.

Puma: They had a couple of scratches on their arms, a couplecuts—nothing big. I told them,“Your injuries aren’t serious—getout.The hospital’s that way—just run!”

Martinez:We tried to board her.We couldn’t board her.She wastoo wet from all the blood. She was very slippery. Finally I justgrabbed her hip bone, just kind of picked it up, the best I could.Just slid her on the board.

Puma: When we tried to roll her over, we saw that her wholebackside was ripped off.

Martinez: I said to Puma, “She’s gonna stop breathing anyminute, just watch her breathing. She’s getting ready to die.”

Puma: Part of the tire and the landing gear [had hit her].

Martinez:Part of the landing gear was found on Vesey andChurch, right across the street from where we were. It was gray.A large tire was right next to her.A large piece of metal had slicedher back.We got her on the longboard and picked up as muchflesh as we could from where she was and put it between herlegs.We strapped her down. I remember there was no collar orHeadBed.We just got her on the board. Put her on the stretcher.Put her in the ambulance.Started driving toward the hospital.It’sonly three blocks away.

We got to the hospital, I opened the back doors.She had a col-lar and HeadBed on. Puma finished her off.

Puma: I’m good like that.Martinez: It was the wrong size collar, but it was a good job,

anyway.We got her out [of] the ambulance.We rushed her intothe ER.We forgot about everybody else.

Puma: It was a traumatic rescue.In the ambulance going to thehospital, I was holding her hand, and she was screaming,“Helpme! It hurts! Please help me!”

I said, “Listen, you gotta calm down. It’s gonna be all right.We’re gonna be at the hospital.Try to stay calm.”

Martinez: They actually pumped her with 40 units of blood. Iturned around before I left the ER,and I saw her raising her rightleg.So I knew she had some sensation.She wasn’t paralyzed yet.

Puma:A couple days later,we found out that she was still alive.She didn’t lose her legs, either.

Martinez: We get back to the vehicle and all the patients weregone.But,all their purses and wallets and bags were in the back. Itook it to the ER and dumped it. I told the nurses,“These are thepatients’. Just sort it out.Do what you can.”

Then I told Puma, “We gotta go back. But I gotta wash myhands.They’re full of blood.” I washed my hands. He washed hishands.The stretcher, it was full of blood.We couldn’t take thisstretcher back.We doused it with water and washed as much aswe could. Didn’t put a sheet back on.We just took it like that.

Puma:We dropped off our patients before the first tower evenwent down. When [Orlando] started driving to go back in. Iknew something was going on,and I didn’t want to go back justyet. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw other ambulances goingacross to Battery Park City.We were going down Park Place andwe made a left onto Church—to go back to Vesey and Church.But we were going the wrong way.Fire engines were coming ourway, so we had to back up. I said,“No, no. Let’s just follow them.That’s where our staging is.” When we got to North End andVesey, there were 10 other ambulances lined up.

We got out and looked in the back to see what we needed toget from the LSU. We were missing sterile water, 8x10s, 4x4s,multi-trauma pads, saline and burn sheets.We were pretty muchdepleted of all supplies.

When Orlando went to get more supplies at the LSU truck, Iwalked back up to West Street.We heard them screaming overthe radio that the first tower was leaning,that it was ready to fall.So I came back up to Vesey Street and ran straight down toward

the Hudson River.Orlando ran north.So me and him got separatedfor an hour and a half.

Martinez: I carried three bottles of water four blocks I stopped fora second to calm down, looked at the water:“What am I doing?” Ithought Frank was in front of me. I figured he had a head start. I fig-ured if I run, I’ll catch up.For a good two hours,we were separated.I thought he was dead.He thought I was dead.

I ran up Westside Highway near West and Vestry. I ended up rightby the St.Vincent’s garage. I was too exhausted to run anymore.

Puma: I was in front of 3 World Trade when I heard them shout,“Start running!”After the first tower came down,I got in the truck tomove it.Then I went to look for my partner or anyone I knew.

After that, right before the second tower collapsed, I was atVesey and North End when I heard them scream, “The secondtower [1 World Trade] is coming down.” I went to the truck anddrove it as far as Chambers and West before the cloud of smoke anddebris caught up with me.It was pitch black in the truck.I thought,“I can’t outrun this.”

I threw [the truck] in park. I didn’t want to overheat the engine. Icouldn’t see my steering wheel. The smoke found its way in. Ithought,“Please God,either let me live through this or kill me quick.”

About five or 10 minutes later, the smoke started to settle. Icould see light again. I jumped out of the vehicle to see if I knewanyone from my station. I found one person, Mike D’Angelo. Igrabbed him and said,“Let’s get out of here.”He jumped in the pas-senger seat, and I jumped in the driver’s seat. I started the truck,rolled down the window and started driving north on West.

I got about 10 blocks north, and I see someone doing jumpingjacks in the street.That was Orlando.We gave each other a big hugand said at the same time,“Bro, I thought that you were dead.”

Robert A. McCracken, chief of EMSCommand, FDNY EMSNormally, I would be in headquarters before 9a.m., but I went to check on a project in one ofour stations.When I was on the Belt Parkway, thesignal came down. I got on the Gowanus[Expressway]; they had opened up the [HOV]lane for emergency vehicles only. It was a streamof fire trucks, ESU [Emergency Service Unit],

police cars and ambulances going into lower Manhattan.I could not believe a small plane could do this because there’s no

way [it] can make that kind of smoke and damage.When I got to theentrance to the Gowanus,my car was being showered with confet-ti. It looked like nice-size pieces of paper. I was saying,“Where is allthis confetti coming from?”The plume of paper was blowing fromlower Manhattan into Brooklyn. I’m in the [HOV] lane, saying [tomyself],“This can’t be an accident. Be cautious of a secondary inci-dent or a terrorist incident.”I was hearing the transmissions from [Lt.Rene] Davila about how they were setting up triage.

When I came out of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, I had to stopand park at Rector Street because of the body parts laying all overthe ground.We were running over body parts: chunks, flat piecesof skin, no skulls attached to [the body].You’d just see the headwith no skull inside.You could see just their hairline, like a door-mat—nothing else underneath it. I’ll never forget that one badpiece I saw. I could not believe it.

There were parts of an [airplane] engine, and then I looked upand said,“Oh, my God, a second plane hit.”When I looked to theSouth Tower, there had to be a hole in the side of that building thatwas six stories high. Not straight, but on an angle.

When I got out of my car, I saw a couple of firefighters. I said,“Dome a favor. If any more ambulances come out of this tunnel, divertthem up South End Ave. Stay off of West Street.” I asked a firemanheaded for the South Tower to get the ambulances off Liberty andsend them back to West Street to go to the south end [of the island].

CANCI (L) &McCRACKEN

60

FDNYLadder 24

FDNYLadder 25

StephenBelson51Firefighter

DanielBrethel43Captain

MatthewBarnes37Firefighter

JohnCollins42Firefighter

KennethKumpel42Firefighter

RobertMinara54Firefighter

JosephRivelli Jr.43Firefighter

PaulRuback50Firefighter

Then I met Chief [Gerard] Barbara [chief of the Bureau of FirePrevention] on Albany and West. He said,“They’re going to runanother third-alarm assignment in the South Tower. I’m going tomeet Chief [Donald] Burns [a citywide tour commander].Whatdo you know so far?”

I said,“I believe the Command Post is relocated from the lobby[of 1 World Trade] to West Street. I’ll meet you in Tower 2.”

I figured the guys on Liberty and West would be sending every-body down south,which would be a safe haven for them.

When you looked at the corner of [2 World Trade],you said toyourself,“It’s like a table that somebody cut [a leg] off. It’s gonnacrush down.The weight of the [damaged floors of the] buildinghas got to force it to crush the [floors immediately below].”Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think it was going toimplode—that the building was not going to support the weight.

When I got farther up toward Tower 2, Commissioner[Stephen] Gregory,[assistant commissioner of communications],was getting out of his car and said he was going to the CommandPost.Then a fire marshal called me over—don’t ask me why—and asked me for blankets. I said,“Richie, I’m trying to find com-mand.I don’t have blankets.All the ambulances down there haveblankets.They’re looking for live victims.”

He said,“There’s bodies everywhere.”I said,“I know that.”You couldn’t help but look up.All this confetti, all this stuff

was showering you.You were seeing bodies fall. I’ll never forgetthe couple jumping out, holding hands, or the guy you saw onTV,swimming all the way down.It sounded like plywood hitting.I didn’t realize they were popping through glass, going throughglass panels. It sounded like a broken picture tube when they hitthat part of the building.That’s what it sounded like to me—notbroken glass. It sounded like a broken picture tube or a breakingfluorescent bulb kind of sound.

On my side,as long as the walking wounded were moving,webypassed them. As long as they were making their own waysouth, we bypassed them.They asked where there were ambu-lances.We told them,“South Ferry end, South Ferry end.”

My main objective was to get everybody off Liberty, get themoff West Street.When I met Gregory, he said he had an EMS cap-tain on scene.This was the first EMS supervisor I knew of onscene.What I had in resources on Albany [Street] were Hatzalahambulances,commercial ambulances,volunteers and only a cou-ple of department ambulances.

I had a firefighter making sure the [EMS personnel] didn’t goup West Street, and I had a firefighter getting them off Liberty.Tothis day I don’t know if those two guys are alive.The people werestarting to go down south. On each block, we set up sectors. [Ifthere were] no officers, I looked at a group of people and said,“Any medics here? Good,you’re in charge.You have medical con-trol.You supervise this group until I get a boss.”

There were no bosses. I was trying to find an EMS captain tomake him in charge of this whole sector,which was going to be

the south sector.We already knew there was a north sector setup.As I got up to Liberty,Hatzalah must have had 20 trucks—40providers. Thank God all those resources were there becausethat’s all I had.

A couple of my trucks were on Liberty, facing the West Streetcorridor. I told everybody to get out of this corridor, get out ofLiberty. They thought I was kidding. I said, “Get out of Libertybecause [2 World Trade] looks very unstable.”

I wanted all ambulances off Liberty, and I wanted everythingto face south on South End Avenue. If there was going to be anytransport, they weren’t going to cross Liberty and they weren’tgoing to go north. Everything was going south.

So I told these guys,“That’s your evacuation plan—everybodygoes south.”

“Where?”“To the [Staten Island] Ferry.We have to get out of this area."I also reminded everybody about using [their] natural body

senses—hearing, taste, smell. Don’t ask me why; everybodythought I was crazy. I’ve never said that before on a command.But it was something you had to rely on—your natural senses—because this was a bad feeling,all the way around.When I pulledup I said,“This is a bad one.”

Just as we got everybody out [of the Liberty area], I got a trans-mission over the command frequency to go to the Command Post.So [before I left] I got everybody in a little corridor—like an over-hanging building.We set up a little treatment area;we put a coupleof stretchers in there with all the ambulances facing south.

Just as I got out of Liberty the sound under my feet was likean earthquake. It sounded like a jet engine screaming in my ear.I didn’t know Tower 2 was coming down.I thought it was anoth-er plane coming in. I had no idea that this roaring sound wasactually the building coming down.

All I felt [next] was a fireman pushing me.Other people wererunning. I found myself around Liberty,back in a corridor,hidingbehind a building.And then everything changed.You could feelthe atmosphere come and push you.You noticed debris comingat you, but you hadn’t felt it yet. I thought it was a bomb.Everything became total darkness.You couldn’t see.

All I heard,before the darkness really got in,[was] this womanscreaming,“My baby! My baby! My baby!”And while I was in thiscorner, pulling my helmet down and pulling my face shielddown, I felt something between my legs. [I reached down andfelt] a child between my legs.Don’t ask me how it got there.Thebaby was lying on the ground between my legs. It couldn’t havebeen more than two years old.

That’s where you start to think you’re going to die.You wantto die in your sleep, and you want to die peacefully. I started tothink about my children, and for the first time, I actually prayedto the Mother Mary.That was gonna get me through.

As this force came, I heard windows breaking and it was totaldarkness. I opened my eyes. It got so quiet. I said,“This can’t bedeath;this can’t be death.”I didn’t hear nothing [and it was] total

61

FDNYLadder 27

FDNYLadder 35

FDNYLadder 38

FDNYLadder 42

JohnMarshall35Firefighter

FrankCallahanAge unavailableCaptain

JamesGiberson43Firefighter

VincentMorello34Firefighter

MichaelOtten42Firefighter

Michael E.Roberts31Firefighter

JosephSpor35Firefighter

PeterBielfield44Firefighter

darkness. And all of a sudden somebody yelled, “Is everybodyOK?”As I opened my mouth to respond, I got this total mouth-ful—as if I was buried in the sand. I said,“Oh my God, I’m goingto suffocate here. I cannot believe it.”

The next thing I knew, somebody broke the window infront of me. I said,“What are you doing?” I don’t know who hewas. He had a flashlight and said,“There’s people on the otherside of the windows.” It wound up being one of my HazTacguys [FDNY EMS HazTac ambulances are outfitted with haz-ardous materials equipment].

On the other side of that window was debris from the build-ing. People were trying to get out through the window [directlyin front of me].They couldn’t see that the other windows werebroken.That explained why my window was blown in and theother ones were blown out.That drove me crazy—why three ofthe windows were blown outward. For some reason, the pres-sure or the atmosphere didn’t break the window in front of me.If it had, it probably would have cut me up.

The next thing we know, we were pulling people out of thisbuilding. We formed a human chain. In the human chain, themother of the small child [who I retrieved from between mylegs] appeared, and I handed the child off [to her].

We went inside [the building], and there was a deli. I don’tknow what was worse, being outside or inside. So we startedevacuating everybody south. I realized it was just [like] a snow-storm. It was quiet.You saw people walking slowly. I didn’t seeone EMS provider. I looked down the street and saw all thetrucks empty and vacant. I got as far as two blocks and said,“Where are all my people?”There was nobody. I was alone withcivilians and some ATF [alcohol, tobacco and firearms] cops.Before this went down, I knew I had at least 40 Hatzalah guysand [FDNY EMS] Deputy Chief [Ulysses] Grant, who I put incharge of the sector [near Rector Street] before I headed up WestStreet to the Command Post. So I had left Grant with [FDNYEMS] Capt. [Frank] D’Amato and [FDNY EMS] Lt. [Pauline]Cronin in that sector.

I walked back and start searching all the stores. I saw people[who] made it into stores:“Get out,I don’t know what else is com-ing.”Now people were telling me the White House had been hit;the Capitol was hit—that’s when I realized we were at war.

I ran over to [another] deli, and Chief Grant was in there. Hesaid,“Where you going?”

“I’m going to make sure everybody’s OK,and I’m going to theCommand Post. Get everybody reassembled back to the water’sedge. Start bringing them down to the Ferry terminal.”

So he got people going south.I don’t know how long this took.All I know is [as] I went looking for the Command Post here itcame again—the sound—a low roar [like] an engine coming atyou.You felt like you were getting sucked into the [engine] intake.

I can’t tell you what building I ran into.I was totally lost,becauseI couldn’t find street signs.You couldn’t see markers or buildings.The most frustrating thing was seeing fire trucks collapsed,

crushed.Firefighters bent over trying to get air.PASS alarms goingoff.No command structure anywhere.I didn’t see anybody of rankin my area at all.The next thing I knew I was running from the nexttower.That’s when it struck me that the first roar I had heard wasthe [2 World Trade collapsing].This was the next tower chasingme.

I didn’t know the first tower had come down.As a matter offact—talking about senses—I thought it was a flashover. I waswaiting:“Where’s the fuel? Where’s the flashover? Where’s theexplosion after the darkness?” I had no idea it was a building.Total darkness—like the end of the world.

I saw a door and ran in as hard as I could, as fast as I could.Somebody knocked me down, gave me a push, gave me that lastding. I was in before he was.To this day, I’m still hurting from thatpush.But I’m lucky.Whoever pushed me probably saved my life.

I ran as far back as I could into a building.You had to pause. Itwas strange because I had lived through the first one,and I knew[what was coming with] the second one. I was calmer with thedarkness and the after-effect. I knew I wasn’t going to choke onthis stuff and suffocate from it. I was not the victim now.

I had to get out of there. I somehow got back out on the otherside of the building. It started to get light.Visibility got a little bet-ter, like a snowstorm.That’s when I went back to the south andmade my way down to the harbor.There were little Coast Guardboats and police launches evacuating people. It seemed like asmall amount of people. I didn’t see any injured.

When I got down to Robert Wagner Park—by Battery Park—there were close to 1,500 people [there]. You could not seelower Manhattan from there,but for some strange reason,this lit-tle piece of real estate had good air quality. Everybody kept say-ing,“We got to go through [the smoke and debris cloud].”

I kept saying,“I don’t know what’s on the other side of thatsmoke.We’re not going.We’re staying at least where we’re in asafe haven.” I got somebody to go scream for a tugboat and thenext thing you know,the tugboat and ferries started showing up,and we evacuated 1,500 people to New Jersey.

It was rough getting people on the first boat.People were tak-ing time to say goodbye to their loved ones and [asking],“Whereare we going?”There were people arguing with us,“How are wegoing to get back? I’ve got to go back to my apartment.And I’vegot to get my pet.”

I tried to tell them,“Listen, forget all that.We’ve got to get youout of here.”

After we got most of them out, we had about 200 stragglerswho still weren’t getting on the available boats.The only way Icould get to their emotions was by saying,“People, you have togo now.You have no choice.You’re stopping us from effectinganother rescue.By us sitting here,negotiating with you to get onthe boats,we cannot move forward.We want to secure this area.”Finally, the last 100–200 people got on the boat.

After numerous boats took them to Jersey, I got reunited withGrant, D’Amato and a bunch of the Hatzalah guys.We made our

62

FDNYLadder 101

PatrickByrne39Firefighter

SalvatoreCalabro38Firefighter

BrianCannizzaro30Firefighter

JosephGullickson 37Lieutenant

ThomasKennedy36Firefighter

Joseph Maffeo30Firefighter

TerenceMcShane37Firefighter

way to the Staten Island Ferry.There must have been 50 ambu-lances there.They had set up a casualty collection point floor.When I got there, I met [FDNY EMS] Dr. [Allen] Cherson andChief [James] Basile who had set that up.I said to the guys,“Howmany patients made it to you?”

“This is it.”“You gotta be kidding me—that’s it?”For the first time, I was [now] able to establish some commu-

nications with Chief [Jerry] Gombo via telephone. Somebodyhad a Gator and took me back to the original Command Post. Ifound a couple of EMTs and paramedics on the street.“OK, youguys are in charge. Stay here as long as you can. I’m going to tryto get you some backup.”

When I got to Vesey I saw Chief [Peter] Hayden for the firsttime.He was standing on top of a rescue unit with all the peopletrying to regroup and organize a search-and-rescue [operation]. Icannot tell you what a relief that was. He was yelling as loud ashe could. He asked me what I had established.

I said,“I’ve got some partial resources here.I got a casualty col-lection point here, and I’m being told there’s another casualtycollection point up at Chelsea.”

At that point [Chief] Walter Kowalczyk started calling me.I said,“This is great.”I finally [heard] my first transmission.For some rea-son, I didn’t have enough wattage on my portable. I had to walkback to Rector Street and [transmit from] my car.When I got outon the car [radio], Kowalczyk said to try to make my way up toChambers [and West, the newly formed EMS Command Post]. Imade my way up to Chambers. It was probably three in the after-noon before I got there. I was wheezing from all the garbage thatI sucked in. I got an Albuterol treatment and eye treatments.

You know what I was frustrated about [when the second towercollapsed]? That I became a victim and not a rescuer anymore—because nobody knew where the hell I was.Nobody knew whereI was.That upset me the most. In an earlier transmission, every-body thought I was in Tower 2 because that’s [where] I led every-body to believe I was going.Then I got diverted by the [fire] mar-shal and wanted to get the resources in the south end.

When the first [tower] went down, I didn’t know it wentdown until the second one went down. But I knew then therewere at least three- to five-alarm assignments for both of thosebuildings. What concerned me the most was the high-rankingguys I knew. Chief Barbara had been on his way to meet ChiefBurns in [the Command Post], so I knew that those two guyspossibly were dead.And if it weren’t for Gregory telling me theCommand Post was relocated up West Street, and Richie callingme for the blankets, I likely would have gone into [Tower] 2.

I think our biggest urgency after 7 [World Trade] went down[just after 5 p.m.] was regrouping, trying to figure out who wasleft and making sure we could account for everybody.[Regrouping] goes back to your training.We always tell the guysin ICS training that there are times that benefit outweighs yougoing further down the tubes.You tell your sector officers to find

the most capable, highest-ranking person to take over your sec-tor.Then you take 10–15 minutes to get debriefed with the inci-dent commander on site so the commander can get a full scopeand then come up with a different plan of action.

It’s worth it for that 10 minutes—to pull people out of thosesectors—to get a sense,rather than you doing personal recon.Getthem to come in and find out what your resources are.What areyour obstacles? What do you need? Get the brain trust of peoplethat were there at the time to say, “OK, where do we go fromhere?”We’ve done that on many occasions. It’s always been bene-ficial. Sometimes people don’t want to do that, and you just slidefurther, lose control and never recover.That’s basically what it wasturning into.The [regrouping process] lets you interpret:What areyour voids? What are your injuries? We asked every person to pro-vide an area report so we could reassess where we needed help.

Early in the event,construction workers stripped our trucks. Ina normal situation I’d grab each of them,saying,“What the hell areyou doing? Why do you got my helmet on? Why do you got myturnout jacket?”Guys who had surgical masks on—doctors—werejust stripping the trucks.I would have loved to just see my people.It was such an eerie feeling to see open trucks,with no providersaround,and anybody and everybody trying to grab equipment andjust help.Trying to gain control was virtually impossible.

One of the things that really struck me occurred on day nine.Itwas the first day I was able to walk in my community. I wenthome,had a good rest and started walking through the communi-ty. We lost 81 people in my neighborhood on the 11th—11 ofthem were firefighters People told me,“I thought you were dead.Thank God you’re still alive.”They had never seen my truck move,saw the newspapers piling up and heard all kinds of rumors.

You know,you go to CISD—and I’m not saying it doesn’t workbecause sometimes we see a tremendous turnaround in our peo-ple—but you don’t walk out with a clean slate.The only reason I’msleeping a little better today is because I’m taking a muscle relax-er. I have pain in my lower back and my hip,and I have this burn-ing sensation from my hip down to my thigh. I had an MRI theother day. I’m not a person who’s afraid of heights, and I’m notclaustrophobic.But I got in there, and I felt like I was in a coffin. Isaid,“Take me out.” It reminded me of being covered in the dark-ness [again].A couple of deep breaths and I went back in.

So I’m having some problems. I’m sure it’ll take a couple ofyears. It’s like the Happy Land fire [a fire at the Happy Land SocialClub,a bar in the South Bronx,that killed 87 people].People werefrozen in time.All those people trying to get over each other.Tryingto get to the door. It was all smoke,and they were frozen in time.

When you look at the different psychological effects, I look atthe guys who were there before the buildings went down, after[the collapses] and [throughout] the complete rescue-and-recov-ery phase.Those are the guys I’m worried about.That’s the fall-out I worry about.

The most amazing thing out of the whole operation is theindependent action from the EMTs and paramedics that

63

FDNYLadder 105

FDNYLadder 111

Vincent Brunton43Captain

Thomas W. Kelly51Firefighter

HenryMiller Jr.51Firefighter

DennisObergAge unavailableFirefighter

FrankPalombo46Firefighter

ChristopherSullivan39Lieutenant

regrouped, followed their basic training and took a lot of leader-ship on their own.That’s the common aspect [of this event].

We chose not to go inside.There were numerous, numeroustransmissions,“Away from the building,stay away from the build-ing—hardhat operation.” Normally in a high-rise fire, we go toestablish EMS operations side-by-side with the incident com-mander [IC] at the lobby Command Post and set up a lowertriage sector at a floor designated by IC as safe for operationsbelow the fire floor.At this incident,Gombo chose not to do thatbecause of the hazards involved and that made the big differencein the number of EMS injuries and deaths that occurred.

Amy Monroe, lieutenant, FDNY EMSWhen I turned on the news that morning, Isaw a plane burning in the side of the TradeCenter. I decided I wouldn’t overreact. Aplane had hit the Empire State Building yearsbefore,but it appeared to me,because I couldsee the extent of the fire, that it was gonna bea big job. I live in lower Manhattan andBattalion 4 is where I work. So I know the

area and the World Trade very well. I picked up the phone andcalled the Battalion.Lt. [Bill] Melaragno answered the phone.Hescreamed,“Just get in here! Get in here!”

I threw on part of my uniform and ran out the door.I could’vecalled my husband on the cell phone, but for some reason Istopped by my kids’ school. I drove there, ran in barefoot andlooked for my husband because I thought he would still bethere [dropping them off]. I wanted to tell him where I wasgoing. I couldn’t find him. So I jumped in my car and went tothe Battalion.I took one of the guys that was there,and I jumpedin an ambulance.

At that point, I knew the job was pretty serious.Being on theUrban Search and Rescue Team, I knew it could potentially turninto that type of operation. So I took my bunker gear with me.We actually hid it in a little spot on the ambulance, which iskinda weird, but I knew that if things got crazy, everythingwould disappear. I found it in that spot eight hours later.

The second plane had hit when we were seconds away fromthe corner of Church and Fulton. I had a really bad feeling andwas trying to call my husband just to say,“Look,this is where I’mgoing. I don’t know if I’m coming back.”

When I got down there, I became the transport officer,decid-ing who was going to what hospital, etc. Units were starting toturn toward the Trade Center. I stopped everybody and madeeverybody pull back to Broadway because I felt that [the scene]was really unsafe. You could see the debris on the street, thestuff coming out of the windows.

Janice Olszewski was the captain operating at the scene atthat time, and [FDNY paramedic] Manny Delgado was therewith a lot of officers.

I’ve worked all over the city, but lower Manhattan is really

MCI City. We do MCIs all the time here. I have to say, for the[scope of the] scene, it really was not that crazy.I thought every-body was really organized,professional. [EMT] Alex Loutsky waseven tracking people’s names and what hospitals they weregoing to—that’s how organized it was.

We did not have a tremendous amount of units parked under-neath that site.They were either loading or moving away fromthe site. I was standing right in the middle of the street. Mostpeople were back against the Millennium Hotel.A woman whostarted to walk across the street [from the Trade CenterComplex] passed out, right in the middle of the street. I reacheddown to grab her leg and somebody else did, too, and we weregoing to put her in the patient care area. She wasn’t in arrest oranything, but she was unconscious. As we picked her up, Ilooked over my shoulder and saw Janice standing there.That’swhen Janice said,“Run!”

We heard it first. I thought,“Oh Jesus, they’re sending in athird plane to wipe out all the rescue workers.” I didn’t have avisual but I could see the cloud coming. I turned to FultonStreet along with other people, and we just ran. Janice wasrunning with me side by side. We reached out to grab eachother’s hands, and we were overtaken by this stampede ofpeople. We got separated. I refused to go underneath a car,which is what a lot of people did or down the subway. St.Paul’s [Chapel] was there. I saw that wrought-iron fence [nearit]. I had a landmark. So I reached the corner of Broadway andFulton and grabbed the fence to stabilize myself. It had startedto get cloudy—not completely dark.The wind hit me.Then itbecame very, very dark.

The cloud felt thick. It was like stuff was being stuffeddown your throat.We couldn’t breathe at all. It got really quiet,but the thing you heard in the distance was these very quietvoices saying,“Help me! Help me! I’m dying! I’m dying!”

It was absolutely pitch black.At that point,I chose not to holdonto somebody’s hand. I had this lifeguard mentality:Don’t holdonto somebody’s hand; they’ll pull you under. Truthfully, Ithought I was gonna die. I couldn’t breathe. I thought about mykids:“God, please don’t let me die now. I’ve got two boys.”

After that, I saw this orange light. I don’t know what it camefrom or what it was. It got a little bit grayer, and I started tobreathe through my shirt. I turned to try to find something andsaw this outline of a vehicle. I opened the door, and when I gotin three civilians were inside. It was a fire Suburban. Inside wasa doctor,an older man (about 70) and this younger guy.One guywas actually hurt and crying hysterically; the other guy was hav-ing respiratory problems.We did not see anybody moving out-side at all. Nobody. It got a little bit lighter, and we were able tosee some things, but we never saw another person.

I told the younger guy,“Hotwire this fucking vehicle now.”And then he started crying and said,“I can’t! There’s a plate!”Helooked like this macho guy, but he was so out of control. Heleaned over the steering wheel, crying.

MONROE

64

FDNYLadder 118

FDNYLadder 131

JosephAgnello35Firefighter

VernonCherry49Firefighter

ScottDavidson33Firefighter

RobertRegan48Lieutenant

LeonSmith Jr.48Firefighter

PeterVega36Firefighter

ChristianRegenhard28Firefighter

I saw this other vehicle with its lights on. I knew there’d bekeys in it if the lights were on.I told the guy who was crying,“Getout and go and see if that vehicle is locked.”

He got out of the vehicle and when he came back,he was stillcrying,saying,“It’s locked! It’s locked!”So I told the doctor to seeif he could find anything heavy [in the back]. He the pulled outthis huge drill. I said,“OK, let’s go.”So we all got out and the doc-tor broke the window. I put them all in the back seat. For somereason, I couldn’t open the front door. So I climbed in throughthe broken window.That’s when I cut my hands up.

We rounded the corner of 14th Street and the sky was reallybeautiful.The vehicle died. It had so much dust in the engine. Sowe got out.The young hysterical guy was in the middle of thestreet rolling around,vomiting.He said he couldn’t breathe;it wasbizarre.This lieutenant came whipping up, stopped and got out.I said,“Look, you’ve gotta take us to the hospital.”The lieutenantsaid,“First of all,we can’t transport him [the hysterical guy] in theSuburban because it’s against the rules.”

I said,“Look, are you out of your mind?”He told me,“I’ve got six ambulances responding now to this

location.”I said, “Are you fucking crazy? The World Trade Center col-

lapsed! You think you’re gonna get ambulances here now?”We had four or five patients at that location,and I still had the

other two with me. So that was already seven or eight people inhis car. I finally walked up to the hysterical guy in the street andsaid,“Listen, if you wanna live, you better get your ass up off theground and walk right now.”

He got up and we all got in the vehicle and took off. I literallysat in the lieutenant’s lap on the way to Beth Israel [Hospital].Atthe time,nobody knew the towers had collapsed; they just knewthere was a plane crash.We were the first collapse victims at BethIsrael Hospital.They hydrated me, and I was there maybe 15 or20 minutes. The charge nurse told me,“They just bombed thePentagon.”

So I said,“I gotta leave.”I took the IV out of my arm and walked home. I didn’t have

any clothes because they decontaminated me. So I walked thefive blocks home in my hospital gown.They wouldn’t let me offthe block, either because they thought I was a psych patient orbecause they wanted to contain victims. I told one of the cops Iworked for the fire department. He said,“Go.”

I went home, went upstairs, changed into some clothes andasked my neighbor—he has a motorcycle—to take me back downto where I was.All the highways were closed down,but they let uson because I had my fire department jacket on.I went back in theearly afternoon and deployed with USAR. I found the ambulancethat I came in with abandoned on the street and almost com-pletely stripped. But I found my gear still in the little hiding placewhere I left it. I deployed with USAR and went out on the pile.

I was on the pile until five the next morning. On the pile atthat time, it was body parts—a hand here and leg there.When

you saw the devastation from on top of the pile, it was a totallydifferent perspective. I hate to say this, but I thought we’d findpockets with people more than they found. What [this event]reinforced for me is that we are in control of nothing—nothing.

Jonathan Moritz, EMT, FDNY EMSI was on 04 Henry,a hazardous materials ambu-lance.We had heard the boom [of the first planehitting] and had a thousand people waving to usand pointing to the World Trade Center.My unitwas the third or fourth unit on scene. By thistime, the entire lower west side of Manhattanwas shut down. People had just stopped theircars,gotten out and started running.The streets

were crowded with people,debris.We got down there, we started hearing Lt. [Rene] Davila set-

ting up his incident command center.We couldn’t even get overto where [the command center] had been set up. I believe [wewent] up Broadway and ducked down and got to Church andDey streets.

We saw six people come out of the upper floors of the firsttower where we pulled up.We started treating people that hadbeen piling [out of the buildings] and falling onto Church Street.We were just dragging them, literally dragging them away fromthe scene. People were getting trampled.We would start pullingand some of them would just [get up and] start walking.

We thought we heard a second boom.We looked up and theentire tower was turning into a fireball.My partner and I took offrunning down Dey Street, trying to get away from the debris,because the plane came from the [opposite] side and bleweverything out toward us.

We had a patient, I remember, after the second plane hit. Shewalked down from the 78th floor. She was in an elevator whenthe plane hit. How she was walking was beyond me. She wasthird-degree, full-thickness burns head-to-toe—and walking. Shesaid the elevator lit up like a power light on a hot water heater.Flashed and then stopped. She said doors opened up and every-body piled out. She said she walked down to the 70th floor.Wepacked [her] up [with] six patients and headed up to the hospi-tal. She was 38. I believe she survived. She was alive and talkingwhen she came to me and was alive and talking when I left theER.To my knowledge, she’s still probably alive.

This debris that looked to be really small [on TV]—thosebeams were the size of Buicks.You had debris that looked likewindowsills and glass and concrete.This stuff was probably thesize of an office cubicle, probably an I beam.The magnitude ofthe debris that came down was unreal.

When we came back after the debris had come down, therewas a police officer who came up to me. He had a shrapnelwound. He said that something very small hit him. It put a holeabout 6 inches in the back of his arm. It broke his arm in threeplaces and exited out of his elbow. So, I start [immobilizing] his

MORITZ

65

FDNYLadder 132

FDNYLadder 136

FDNYLadder 166

AndrewJordan36Firefighter

MichaelKiefer26Firefighter

ThomasMingioneAge unavailableFirefighter

JohnVigiano II36Firefighter

SergioVillanuevaAge unavailableFirefighter

MichaelCawley27Firefighter

William X.Wren61Firefighter,Retired

arm.He’s regaining strength.We gave him everything.He says healso was hit in the back by something. His bullet-proof veststopped it from going through his chest.

One of the first pictures I saw in the periodicals that cameout, I said to my parents and my family,“I don’t know why I’mstill standing because I was parked right in front of the building[in the photo].”And knowing where that debris was going andwhat it looked like afterward,I still to this day wake up and won-der why I’m here.

Ernestina (“Ernie”) Nyquist, EMT-P, St.Vincent’s Manhattan, Unit 02 VictorParamedic Humberto Rubet and I were sittingin our unit in front of the hospital and all of asudden Berto and I saw a huge ball of smoke.The first plane had struck the World TradeCenter. I said,“Oh shit, Humberto, just go!”Andhe flew to the scene.

En route, I said to Humberto,“How are wegonna handle this?”We knew it had hit the 80–90th floors,so weknew we would have tons of patients coming out. I had neverexperienced anything like this before. I’ve been a medic for onlythree years. I said to Humberto,“I’m scared.”

He said,“I’m gonna tell you what to do,I’m gonna protect you.Stay with me. Follow my lead.” We got there and parked atChurch and Vesey,near 5 World Trade and Borders bookstore.Wedidn’t even get out of the ambulance. People just opened ourdoors and said,“Come with us. Please come with us.”

They brought us to a guy burned from head to toe. I said tohim,“I know this is going to be a strange question, but I have toknow what’s going on in those buildings.For everybody’s safety,can you please just tell me where you were.” He looked at meand said,“I was in the basement of the North Tower.”

I said,“My God, Humberto, these people are coming out fromthe basement.What is going on in that building?”

Within three minutes, we were all blocked in. Ambulanceswere leaving, fire trucks were coming, people were running inall directions. It was chaotic. It was hectic.

Humberto handed me my hard hat and said,“Here’s a hard hat.”“A hard hat? I need so much more than this.”Within seconds, it felt like the whole ground was shaking,and

I was running for my life. A second plane had struck 2 WorldTrade. The debris flying over my head was incredible. I saw amailbox near a building that had construction scaffold next to it.I ran and stayed under the scaffold and behind the mailbox.

The debris lasted so long.Humberto and a paramedic studentwent behind the ambulance. They later told me the cars thatwere near them on Church Street were crushed.

I ran about three blocks and told myself,“Get out of here.” Iwanted to,but then I thought,“I can’t be running this way. I gottago back.”I was petrified to come down Church again because I feltlike I was going to be hit with debris.I wound up with “Conditions

8,” an FDNY supervisor that responds to special conditions, atWashington and Vesey streets,near 7 World Trade.I also linked upwith a BLS crew.A lot of private and volunteer units were nowpulling up to the scene.We had people that didn’t have radios.Communication was difficult. Some people not used to doing 9-1-1 calls were taking this job.

Some crews were saying,“We can’t leave; we gotta wait to betold what hospital to take the patients to.”

I said,“You don’t gotta wait for nothing. If they’re talking, putthem in your ambulance and just go. Just go!”

When I was on Washington Street, somebody came and saidthey wanted us in one of the buildings. I said,“They want us togo into that building? We were pulling burned people out of abasement. We cannot go into that building right now.” IfHumberto and I would have gone in there, I don’t think wewould have come out.

We were trying to save as many as possible.The Conditions 8boss and I were trying to get people with broken patellas,ankles—whoever couldn’t run—put into ambulances.

Then I got a feeling of impending doom. I ran into Will Neatefrom Lenox Hill. I was really upset and told him I had to find mypartner.“This is not a safe scene. I’m getting my partner, and weneed to be at least a block or two away from this.” I asked Will,“How do I get back to Humberto?”The Conditions 8 boss said,“Ican’t get him over the radio.”

I thought, “I’ll get him over the air myself.” I transmitted,“Humberto, 2 Victor.Where are you? This is Ernie!”

Then I heard Humberto on the radio,“Come back to Churchand Vesey; I’m here!”

I went back to Church and Vesey, and I met him,“Humberto,before we do anything else, we really gotta get this ambulanceout of here and go the other way.”

Humberto said,“Just let me find out what’s going on.”He defi-nitely had a lot of control that day. He was definitely holding upfor me and trying to get as many people as he could get to rundown Church Street.People were just watching him.I rememberhim saying to two or three people,“Go! You’re holding up.Youneed to go.You need to get out of here.”

One woman said to me,“You transport these people.”I said,“If they can walk, they can go to the hospital.They need

to walk.We can’t just transport people that can walk.”People run-ning were trampling each other. It was chaos.

Humberto got behind the wheel, and—all of a sudden—weheard over the radio,“Mayday! Mayday! The building is comingdown! Mayday! Mayday!”I looked at Humberto,and he looked atme. I screamed,“Humberto, this is gonna be the hardest thing,but we gotta go. Put your foot on that gas and go.”

I remember turning around,and all you saw was this big cloudof soot and smoke. It was just so hard for him because he heardpeople saying over the radio,“I can’t get out; I’m trapped!”

I said,“Humberto,please,you gotta go.You have to go!”At thatpoint I thought the building was gonna come down on top of us.

NYQUIST

66

FDNYRescue 1

JosephAngelini63Firefighter

GaryGeidelAge unavailableFirefighter

TerenceHatton41Captain

WilliamHenry49Firefighter

KennethMarino40Firefighter

I thought,“We’re all dead.”There were people jumping on our ambulance.We had a full

load of people in the back. People just jumped in; others werejumping on. Humberto was trying to tell people,“You’re gonnaget hurt.You gotta run.You gotta get off the bus.”He couldn’t gofast because people were jumping on. It was a mess.

We went up four blocks and stopped near Franklin and Varickstreets.Humberto started to set up a new triage area because westill had injured people appearing.[A short time later],he lookedat me and said,“Ernie, we gotta go back.”

And I was like,“We’re going back?”So we went back down. We were about a block away from

where we were originally,and all of a sudden,right in front of us,World Trade 1 started to fall. Humberto had to back the ambu-lance up to try to get away from this. He said,“Ernie I’m gonnarun somebody over.”

I said,“Humberto, we gotta get out.”I thought the whole call took 10 minutes, but someone said it

probably took three hours.The first time I got in contact with myhusband,when I got back to West Street,was around noon.My hus-band’s a firefighter at engine 243 in Brooklyn.So I thought,“We’reboth gonna be down here.”I was thinking,“We’re both dead.”

I think we did an incredible job by directing people awayfrom there. I think more people would have just stood there andlooked in amazement if they didn’t have people constantlytelling them, “You gotta go. You have to run.” I can’t believe25,000 people made it out alive.

My supervisor and I went there that night. I felt like I was inshock from the whole thing.I think I went back a little bit too soonbecause it really hit me about the number of people that were lost.

Janice Olszewski, captain, FDNY EMSI had just been promoted, and it was my firstweek in my position. I was sitting at my desk,and people were running by me.Simultaneously, our pagers all went off. [Thepagers] said,“Plane hit the World Trade Center.”I didn’t really believe it, so I ran down the halland looked out the window. I saw the hole in1 World Trade.

A lieutenant and I went to Vesey and West streets.There was acluster of my supervisors in that area. We ran to [Chief JerryGombo]. He immediately said, “Go to the other side.” We randown Vesey and ended up at Church and Vesey. We went oneblock over [to Fulton and] started setting up on Fulton andChurch in front of the Millennium Hotel. We met up with Lt.Rene Davila as he was setting up that corner.

It was pandemonium. We had a lot of units arriving from alldirections.As a captain, I was the highest-ranking officer on thatcorner.People were being evacuated out of the [towers]—both ofthem.They were streaming out,and the cops were directing themto our triage corner … with all sorts of injuries; you name it: soft-

tissue injuries, burns, smoke inhalation—just everything.A cou-ple of people started having seizures on the street.We were try-ing our best to set up a traditional MCI area. I was assigningsupervisors to [each] of the sectors.

A couple of police officers came to me and said,“You need tosend people inside the lobby because [some of the injured] can’tget out.They’re too hurt.”

It was hard, but I said,“No, I’m not sending people in therebecause it’s too dangerous.”Not because I thought the buildingswere going to collapse, but [because] I was concerned for ourpeople.The debris [was] falling close and [there was] smoke andthey didn’t have their protective clothing or training to go inthere, so I didn’t send anybody in. I’m kind of glad for thatbecause about 10 minutes later, the first building fell.

We were only there 40–45 minutes before [the South Tower]collapsed. We were just starting to get [comfortable with the]pandemonium. I already [had been] thinking that corner wasbecoming overwhelmed, and we needed to get a bigger boat. Iwas thinking of [using] a few hotels as a triage area. But just as Ihad those thoughts, the first [tower] came down.You heard itfirst—that monstrous roar. I didn’t know what it was. It was justa tremendously loud, rumbling, thunderous, growing-in-strengthsort of roar. People were moving away from it in a wave. I tookone look over my shoulder and saw the cloud of smoke anddebris. It was coming right down.You had no choice but to run.

That cloud was so big, and it seemed to envelop so much.Asyou were choking and not able to breathe,you thought,“I simplywill not have time to get out of here.”

It got completely silent.There was eerie silence after the col-lapse, like a snowfall at night. I didn’t know if I was up, down. Ididn’t know if I had turned around the wrong way. I was chok-ing. I couldn’t breathe. I was feeling and kicking my way,and theonly thing I heard was one or two or three people saying,“Helpme! Help me!”

I thought,“I need to help somebody.” I couldn’t help anybodybecause I was dying, and I needed to get out of there. I couldn’tsee them or possibly know where they were calling from.That’sthe only thing I remember hearing—people calling for help.

I was dying. I was going unconscious. I figured that if I passedout in that cloud, I would suffocate. I found the will from some-where,and I stayed on my feet. I stayed conscious.I kept gropingand feeling. I bumped into some kind of vehicle. It was perpen-dicular to the way I was going, so I figured I had hit the nextintersection. So I turned left, and I followed along the car.Then Isaw a red traffic light.That’s the only thing [I saw] through all thedust and darkness—one single red traffic light.

That was a fabulous point of reference. It sucked the worldback into perspective.I knew I was standing up.I knew I was ona street,and I could follow it.So I staggered toward the light,andthen I saw another one,so I followed that.Slowly but surely,it gotlighter. I made my way out of the clouds and into brilliant sun-shine. It was Broadway. I [had gone east on] Fulton and hit

OLSZEWSKI

67

DennisMojica50Lieutenant

MichaelMontesi39Firefighter

GerardNevins46Firefighter

PatrickO’Keefe44Firefighter

BrianSweeney29Firefighter

DavidWeiss41Firefighter

Broadway.My instinct was to not go back right away and [also to] stop

people from going in. I was thinking, “Everybody I was therewith is dead.”You were convinced that somehow you made itout,but nobody else did.I just assumed everybody else was dead:all the chiefs and supervisors.

I was trying to stop vehicles from going down the streettoward [the Trade Center].Half of them went [past me].Some ofthem recognized me and stopped. I told them, “You guys,[shouldn't] go right back. Let’s treat people that come out righthere. I’m still not comfortable with where we are.We need to gofarther north.” I jumped in the back of an ambulance, sucked onsome oxygen and then gave it up after a minute to somebodyelse. I got back out, and I was walking when there was a rumbleagain.That’s when 1 World Trade fell.

I was still on Broadway, and I ran from another cloud now. Ihad to jog away. I got three blocks up, and more ambulanceswere coming toward me. I was again trying to stop them. Ijumped in one of the ambulances that stopped for me. I said,“Turn around and drive.They were like,“But, but … ” I said,“No,turn around and just drive.” So we went to White Street and setup a casualty collection area to treat people. I told crews,“Getout your water;get out your oxygen,because that’s what they’regoing to need—the people coming out of there.”

We must have treated 30–35 patients. I was trying to regroup. Icould hardly talk. I couldn’t breathe very well. I was covered in—covered in—the dust. People were trying to make me go to thehospital.But I wasn’t listening. I just needed to do my job.

I remember saying at the time to whoever was listening to mebabble,“I don’t know what happened,but there’s gonna be thou-sands of casualties here.” [But] you had very [few patients] inbetween [collapses]; [they] were either crushed by what hadhappened or got out and were relatively all right.

Finally I got a radio. I heard,“Supervisors should report,and theCommand Post is now at Chambers and West Street.” I jumped inan ambulance,[and] they drove me toward that area.I got out andsaw one of my bosses who physically pushed me back in theambulance and said,“Go to the hospital.”I must have been a mess.

I asked him,“Where do you want me to go? What do you wantme to do?” He looked at me like I was crazy and said,“You aregoing to the hospital and that’s that.”That same ambulance tookme to NYU Downtown Hospital.

There was an army of doctors and nurses at NYU. Theyopened up the back door and an entire team of doctors and nurs-es surrounded me. I was attacked with patient care.They weredoing everything.They started a line, gave me oxygen and 12-lead. I looked around.

I wanted to say,“Where are your patients? How many have youtreated from the incident?”And [then I] remembered, this wasabout two to two and a half hours later. I finally asked, “Howmany did you treat?”They said,“12.”

Twelve? Twelve? I couldn’t believe it. It hit me like a ton of

bricks.Then I said,“I hate to say this,but they’re all dead.You’re notgoing to get a lot of patients.You’re going to get maybe rescuerslater on.”It really hit me—the magnitude.

I [later] saw a picture of the Millennium Hotel where we set up[initial triage]. I was stunned at the devastation.There were over-turned shells of cars burned out, destroyed.The windows of thehotel were blown out. It looked like a war zone, like it wasbombed.You think,“How did I get out of that?”One of our FDNYparamedics,Carlos Lillo,was lost in that area.There are pictures ofhim in that area with us. It’s so hard to come to grips with that.

[When I finally got home], I wandered around my apartment.I bumped into things, literally. I didn’t know what to do. I wouldstart to do something, forget what I was going to do, and just goto do something else, forget that. Just completely dazed andshocked and stunned and exhausted and still having the inhala-tion problem. It was just a combination of emotions. I slept liketwo hours and got back up. I was too wired, too much adrena-line, too much thinking of what the hell just happened.And allthe people who had died, and all the people who they still did-n’t know were dead or alive. I came back into work. Just to helpout in any way, to contribute to this massive thing.

John J. Peruggia, deputy chief, FDNYI was on the Staten Island Expressway on myway to work in Brooklyn. One of my staffcalled and said a plane [had] just hit the WorldTrade Center. I was listening to the [AM/FM]radio,and all the radio antennae are on the topof [1 World] Trade Center, so I thought every-thing was OK. I told them to stay at [FDNYEMS] Headquarters [in Brooklyn], and that I’d

be there in 10 or 15 minutes.I turned on my [department] radio and heard them assigning

EMS units on Citywide.At the same time, reports began to comeover the radio: “Explosion at the Trade Center. ... Reports of aplane hitting.”

As I made my way,I saw the amount of fire and smoke.I knewit was not a Cessna or a small plane.I called my staff person backand told him he and anyone around should go to the World TradeCenter, and I would meet them there. I was one of the first EMSofficers on scene in ’93, so I knew the confusion that would behappening and that they would need a lot of help.

No sooner did I hang up the phone than I got paged to callthe Operations Center. They notified me that OEM was beingactivated for a crash into the World Trade Center. I asked them topage two of my staff and redirect them to OEM,on the 23rd floorof 7 World Trade .

In the [Brooklyn]-Battery Tunnel,the news put out a report thatanother plane had hit the second tower [2 World Trade]. I knewthis was clear, deliberate and had to be some sort of terroristattack. I got goose bumps. I panicked because I’m thinking,“Theymethodically just calculated two attacks to the Trade Center, and

PERUGGIA

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FDNYRescue 2

WilliamLake44Firefighter

DanielLibretti43Firefighter

PeterMartin43Lieutenant

JohnNapolitano33Firefighter

KevinO’Rourke44Firefighter

LincolnQuappe38Firefighter

EdwardRall44Firefighter

I’m in this tunnel. If they did that, they could blow up the tunnel.”When I saw the light at the end of the tunnel—no pun intended—I said,“Well, at least I could swim from here.”

As soon as I exited the tunnel, I parked. I wasn’t even going totry to get close. I put on my helmet and turnout gear and startedto make my way north.I had heard about the Command Post overthe radio, so I was going there and then to OEM.

I was walking over aircraft parts,pieces of building,body parts.People were screaming and running past me.A few people yelled,“Cross the street! Cross the street!”Bodies were coming down.AsI got closer I saw [FDNY] Chief [Peter] Ganci and [Citywide TourCommander] Dan Nigro standing across the street from [1 World]Trade Center at what appeared to be a Command Post. I checkedin with Ganci—who I reported to. I said,“I’m going over to OEM.”

He put his hand on my shoulder and said,“Peruggia,be carefulgoing around the corner.There’s a lot of stuff coming off the build-ings.”I didn’t realize that would be the last time I’d ever see him.

I proceeded to OEM with a fire captain.When we got to themezzanine level [of 7 World Trade], they told us the building wasbeing evacuated because of reports of a third plane.Various rep-resentatives from the different agencies were trying to grouptogether in the lobby to figure out where to safely move OEM.Atthe same time I saw some EMS people outside working on somevictims. I moved them in the lobby and told them to set up anoperational sector there, where it would be safer. Capt. [Mark]Stone was in charge of them.One of my staff, [FDNY EMS Capt.]Abdo [Nahmod], didn’t have his [personal protective equip-ment]. So I put Abdo in charge of that sector and sent Stone toCommand Post because he had his equipment.

Subsequent to that, the security people from 7 [World Trade]opened the loading docks so we could move the few injuredpeople there. I think they had three patients in the loading bay.That area was protected by the building and the pedestrian walk-way, so nothing could fall on it.Also, the façade of 7 World Tradefor two or three stories is all glass.So if anything had crashed intothe façade, it would have crashed glass into the lobby.

At that point I went outside the building to see what was goingon. I saw [Commissioner Thomas] Von Essen and briefed him onthe situation. He asked where the mayor [of New York City,Rudolph Guiliani] was headed. I told him he had left the buildingto head up West Street. He asked where Ganci was; I told him[Ganci was at] the Command Post.Then Chief Nigro passed by. Idid a face-to-face with him.He was doing a perimeter survey of thedamage.Then I went back into the lobby to see if we knew any-thing on the third plane,where were we going to move,etc.

There was a screeching sound—a sound like a jet plane. I sawthis huge cloud of smoke and debris heading our way, and I bar-reled through the revolving doors.The dirt and debris and thepressure of the collapse broke the windows and threw me to thefloor. Everything was dark.We couldn’t breathe.We heard a fewpeople screaming. I thought a third plane had just hit.We saw alittle bit of light; they had opened the door from the loading bay

into the lobby.Everyone in the lobby headed toward the loadingbay.They had closed the garage doors [to the outside],and every-one was OK there.We told them to find their way out and walkwest toward the water.

I took up a position between 5 and 6 World Trade.I was direct-ing people to stay along 6 and take the outside escalators at 5 togo toward Vesey and Church Street. I knew we had ambulancesand other resources at Church that could give them medical[assistance]. As we evacuated people from the plaza, I realizedthe South Tower had collapsed. I was there in ’93 and participat-ed in all the post-incident stuff for that.They told us,“These build-ings won’t come down;they can withstand anything.”So I could-n’t believe it [had collapsed].All those people in the building. Iknew in the back of my mind [they couldn’t have survived].

Me and Phil decided to go back to the Command Post.As wedid,I wanted to go through 7 World Trade to make sure everyonegot out.We went back over the pedestrian walkway to 7 WorldTrade.In the street-level lobby,we saw that everyone was out.Wewent through the loading bays and saw all the EMS equipment.We exited the loading bays onto Vesey and proceeded onto WestStreet back toward the Command Post.

At West and Vesey there were injured firefighters. I saw someEMS people operating on Vesey between West and the water—FDNY, Hatzalah, some hospital units. They started treating thefirefighters.We said,“Let’s get them away from the site.”Fire andstuff was falling around us.A Hatzalah ambulance was on fire.Afew minutes went by, and I heard that sound again. I knew whatthat represented now.

I ran north on West, hoping to make it far enough so nothingbig [would] land on my head. I hadn’t gotten far when I heardsomeone yell, “Chief! Chief!” I saw a fireman standing near anengine. He screamed,“Get under the engine!” I heard muffledsounds, screaming and then absolute silence. I thought I wasburied. I thought,“I hope someone’s going to find me.That I’mnot going to suffocate. That the tank of water above my headwon’t rupture and drown me.” I thought about the last words[spoken] when I left my family that morning.

Maybe 10 or 15 minutes went by.Then somebody pulled onmy leg. It was an ESU cop and a firefighter. “You OK?” Theyhelped me. I went to the truck to rinse my throat and eyes. Igrabbed a multi-trauma dressing and threw it inside my helmetbecause my head was bleeding.

I ran into Mike Butler, the chief of fire prevention. He said theCommand Post had been wiped out. “I need to set up a CommandPost for fire,and you need to stay with me and set up a CommandPost for EMS,” he said. Initially, we were going to establish theCommand Post on West and Warren,but we moved it up one moreblock to West and Chambers.My portable radio wasn’t [working].I went over to an EMS command vehicle and tried the radio,whichworked. I told the Citywide dispatcher to hit the alert tones andclear the frequency. I told them that unless they were in contactwith someone of a higher rank than me on scene who was going

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FDNYRescue 3

ChristopherBlackwell42Firefighter

ThomasFoley32Firefighter

ThomasGambino Jr.48Firefighter

RaymondMeisenheimer46Firefighter

DonaldRegan47Firefighter

GerardSchrang45Firefighter

PeterNelson42Firefighter

to take command of the operation, I was going to assume com-mand and give them direction.

They said,“10-4,sir,standby.”To me,that meant they weren’t talk-ing to anyone else.They cleared the frequency and said,“Proceed.”

I assumed command of EMS operations and reported that fireand EMS command were established at West and Chambers. Iasked anyone not operating in the immediate vicinity to respondto Chambers and West for an assignment and any ambulances notinvolved in the immediate vicinity to respond to Chambers andWest Broadway,which I was going to make a staging location.

I asked them to begin a roll call of EMS chief officers and theirresources. That’s when we found out that [Chief Walter]Kowalczyk and Chief [Francis] Pascale were at Chelsea, Chief[Jerry] Gombo was over at police headquarters, and Chief[James] Basile was at South Street Ferry.

A few minutes had gone by,and I was face-to-face with [ChiefPedro] Carrasquillo. He had heard me on the radio.A couple ofsupers showed up;Chief [J.P.] Martin showed up.Actually,he waspart of the task force I had initially called for that was preparingin Brooklyn. He had seen everything fall [from his location] andthought everything was wiped out. Just prior to hearing me, hewas going to set up the Command Post on the Brooklyn side ofthe Brooklyn Bridge, but instead he made his way over toChambers with his task force.

Over the next hour we tried to begin to get organized, to seewho was where. I had Kowalczyk come to West and Chambers.I asked Carrasquillo to go to the site and see what EMS peoplewere doing and to send freelancers up and pair them withsupers to establish incident command with EMS.

Walter made his way down, and I relinquished command tohim. I became the operations officer. I found out from [DeputyChief] John McFarland [who was assigned to West and Vesey]that Pete Ganci was dead.They let me know that they had found[Ganci].I went over and gave Nigro that information,and he pro-ceeded down to Vesey Street.

I was there until the following day.My car survived but was cov-ered in four inches of ash.It was the only time I put my lights on—to drive home to see my family.

Ben Shelton, EMT-P, St. Vincent’sManhattan, Unit 07 William Ken [Jaimes] and I were tied up on another jobwhen things started going down.A minute afterwe gave an available signal, they sent us to thesite.We went down 7th Avenue, passed by thehospital and saw Louis [Garcia]. He was wide-eyed and said,“It’s horrible; it’s just horrible.”

We figured the safest and quickest accesswas the West Side Highway.An FDNY EMS officer directed us tostage on Vesey Street just west of West Street.We entered Vesey,dida U-turn and faced out toward West, in line with other units.A lotof units were already there—at least 20–30 ambulances parked in

a row—and so was one of the city’s MERVs.One of the officers in charge asked us to get our equipment,

set up the MERV and wait for patients to be brought over.Weworked with a couple of medics from Lenox Hill and an EMTthat works for the city and drives the MERV.

People were jumping [as we set up], but for 20 minutes fromwhen we got there, no patients were coming over to where wewere.We just watched and waited for something to happen.

All of a sudden, I heard this roaring noise. I thought it was a jetflying overhead.Out of the corner of my eye,I saw one of the tow-ers start to shake and smoke,“Oh my God, it’s coming down!”

Initially, it sounded like a dull rumble; then a roar that every-body thought was a jet. Remember how they did the soundeffects with the dinosaur screaming in Jurassic Park? It soundedsort of like that—the sound of the metal ripping and tearing.

Everybody bolted west. I ran behind a movie theater complex[on the north side of Vesey]. Mostly small debris—dust andsmoke—blew past. I kept going in a northwest direction, cross-ing a vacant lot.Then the precipitant came. It was a brownish,grayish, really fine ash. I thought, “I wonder what the hell’s inthis?” I grabbed my handkerchief and threw it over my face. Iwalked to the Hudson River, looking for our guys. Our vehiclewas still on Vesey Street, but everything was covered in dust.

I grabbed my stretcher and was going to get my equipmentout of the MERV.A lot of EMS personnel had come back to thescene by then and were picking stuff up, getting ready to move.All of a sudden the same thing started all over again. I heard thatsame dull roar. Everybody bolted toward the river again. It tookanother half an hour before I could go back to Vesey to see whatI could salvage.This time when I returned,my vehicle was gone.

Charlie Wells, deputy chief FDNY EMSI went to Barclay and West Streets. I parked, looked up and start-ed putting my bunker gear on. I realized that both towers werefree burning.Usually I just put a jacket or pants on,but [that day]I put everything on. I even strapped my helmet to my chin,which I never do. I realized this was going to be something younever really dealt with before. It just looked like too much.High-rise towers, free burning like that.

I proceeded [south] down West Street [and] instinctively start-ed to strategize:This is where we would begin to establish fourmedical sectors. I got to the Command Post and Chief [Walter]Kowalczyk said to establish a medical treatment sector at LibertyStreet and West Street.So I proceeded down West Street,past theMarriott, to the corner of Liberty and West.

When I arrived there, there were two or three FDNY EMSambulances and about 10–15 [other] ambulances.They were allhugging the World Trade Center side of Liberty and West. Iannounced who I was and that I was assuming command of thisparticular corner as a medical treatment sector. I told everybodyto get in their vehicles and go to the west side of West Street andLiberty and set up to receive casualties.

SHELTON

FDNYRescue 4

FDNYRescue 4

FDNYRescue 5

PeterBrennan30Firefighter

KevinDowdell46Lieutenant

TerrenceFarrell45Firefighter

BrianHickey47Captain

WilliamMahoney38Firefighter

Durrell Pearsall38Firefighter

JohnBergin39Firefighter

CarlBini43Firefighter

[FDNY EMS] Deputy Chief Robert Brown and his aide, EMTJason Katz, and I directed units to re-deploy to the west sidebecause there was debris falling on Liberty Street.We felt theywere a little too close to the complex to be safe.We weren’t envi-sioning any collapse [at this point]. My first impression was, thebuildings were gonna burn all day and burn themselves out.

Within a minute, I saw a fireman running toward us fromLiberty Street. It was Timmy Brown from Rescue 3.He came rightup to me,“Chief! Chief Charlie! Come upstairs! Fifty,100 casualtiesin the South Tower lobby!”

I said,“Give me a brief description of their injuries.”He said, “Fractures and burns.” I said, “OK, fine. Let me [put

together] a triage team.We should be able to get a lot of them outin fairly quick order.”

I turned around,“All right,get your helmets on.I’m gonna take10 people and go into the south lobby and perform triage.”[But]nobody had helmets except for the 18 Charlie crews. So I said,“You [two], come with me.”

I told Chief Brown,“Bobby, I’m taking this 18 Charlie crewwith Timmy,we’re gonna go into the South Tower.We’ll assess it.I’ll get back to you right away with what I’m gonna need.”

We got maybe a third of the way, alongside the South Towerand I stopped them and said,“Timmy,Timmy,we can’t go any fur-ther because there’s debris falling in front of us.”

He went,“No, no, no, it’s all right, just stay close to the wall.”Right after that we felt this horrible vibration and shaking.We

instinctively ran back in the direction we came from.We tried tofind a doorway into the South Tower but couldn’t find one.Wekept running. Finally, we found a door.We bailed into it and feltthis horrendously powerful velocity of wind, followed by dark-ness.Then we were hit with dirt and debris.

That [wind] picked me up. I felt like I was rolling in a wave atthe beach. I felt myself rising off the ground. It lasted a good 45seconds, with this horrible, horrible sound [like] a train comingthrough the subway station at full speed with a jet engine on it.

It stopped and there was dead silence. You couldn’t hear athing. It was the most horrible moment because you could hearnothing—not a breath.You couldn’t breathe.Your ears,your noseand your mouth were filled with dirt, debris.

It turns out I was picked up off my feet and was up at the ceil-ing, about eight to 10 feet off the ground and under debris.

I was upside down. I started to wiggle, and I fell. Every time Iwiggled, I fell. So, I found a girder and I held onto it. I kept fallingand finally hit the bottom.

I started to burrow and hit a wall. So I burrowed up and wasable to stand.I could see light.Then,all of a sudden,I saw a bunchof heads start to pop up at the same time.

I got on top of this girder and started walking across, pullingpeople up.There were 50–100 people in this area, which turnedout to be the Marriott Hotel’s restaurant. I looked toward thembecause I heard a clicking sound.“Click, click. Click, click. Click,click.” It was the flashing light on a pumper that got pushed into

the side of the Marriott.We never got into the South Tower.[When we ran],we actually

ran about 10 feet past the South Tower and got into the Marriott.The reason why we weren’t killed was because the South Towercollapsed [to the] east. If it went west, it would’ve crushed us.

We got the group to West Street and told them to just rundown Liberty until they got on a boat.There was nobody aroundon West Street.The 15–20 ambulances,about four or five enginesand six ladder companies, were all on fire.

You couldn’t see. It was like a snowstorm, but the snow wasgray and black. I made it back to the middle of West Street.Now,one by one, everybody started to regroup.There were a coupleparamedics and EMTs who were hysterical. We grabbed themand got them to snap out of it.A couple EMS officers were alsoupset, but we got them composed and back into a leader role.

I said,“All right,let’s get the gear out of the back of all the ambu-lances that are burning and let’s go to the front of [the] WorldFinancial Center. We’ll set up another medical treatment sectorthere.”We got a significant amount of gear.Then, people startedcoming. If they were walking and there were no obvious signs ofbleeding,we told them to keep walking to the marina.

There were buildings and vehicles on fire on Liberty Street.Aswe moved people down Liberty Street toward the river, BobbyBrown yelled something to me.Then,all of a sudden,I could heara sound.Bobby heard it before me and had this look of utter fearon his face.He just started running.Then I started to run.We gotto the World Financial Center façade, and the next thing we feltwas this strong wind again.

The wind picked us up and blew us through the plate glass win-dows. I was able to crawl off to the left side.There was a fire lieu-tenant from hazmat operations that I know well. I go,“Stan, Stan!Just go this way! Left,left!”We went left,found a huge pillar and hidbehind it.Then the whole thing repeated itself all over again.

We stayed for a minute while this long, high-pressure debriscame at us. And this horrible sound again, this train with a jetengine on it. When it stopped I couldn’t breathe at all. It wastotally black, I couldn’t see. It felt like somebody had just openedyour eyelids and poured dirt into them.

I spit everything out. I was lying on top of Stan. So, I rolledover, wiggled off to the side and told him,“Stan, I can’t breathe.Give me some of your air.” He took his mask off, and we startedbuddy breathing.

We went outside and across this courtyard. I was lookingaround, trying to see,calling out for 18 Charlie,EMS, fire,anybody.Everybody was walking around in a daze.No one was talking.

I kept throwing up. Not being able to see, I stumbled into adeli. I went into their refrigerator and started pouring whateverI could find on my face, washing my mouth out.All of a sudden,a voice behind me goes,“Buddy can you help me?”

I turned around and (grayed out with a thick three or four inchcoating) was the form of a person lying on the floor. I didn’t seehim when I climbed through the window. I said,“Hey,sure.I’ll help

70

you. I’ll get you out of here.”All of a sudden,he said,“Are you Charlie Wells?”I turned around

and it was Dave Handschuh, a New York Daily News photogra-pher.He said the towers came down.He said he photographed thefirst tower coming down and got hit by debris. I said,“The towerscame down?”I couldn’t fathom it.

He had a fractured tib-fib. He said three firefighters got him inthe deli. I grabbed him and started dragging him out the door.There was nothing to splint him.I said,“Just cross your legs and I’mgonna drag you out head first.”He screamed when we went overthe lip of the broken door.A couple of firemen and a cop cameover and we picked him up and moved him all the way to themarina.We got him on a police harbor unit and that was the last Isaw of him that day

I ran into Assistant Commissioner Steve Gregory. He said,“Charlie, we lost [FDNY Chief] Pete Ganci.The whole commandpost was wiped out.” I told him I was going to try to corral EMSpersonnel and re-establish a command sector for EMS operations.

I ended up on Vesey Street where ambulances were running,but they were locked up.We had to break windows. I told peopleto get into an ambulance,find their way to West Street,start gettingcasualties and head north.

The EMS chiefs had a briefing in the Embassy Suites. I got thereafter them.I called my wife.I just wanted to let her know I was allright but that it was gonna be a long day.I told her,“Something ter-rible happened down here. I can’t really talk too much.”

I spent the next hour gathering EMS resources, relocatingambulances to the south toward the Staten Island Ferry to estab-lish a medical sector and moving crews that were in betweenbuildings and behind the World Financial Center.

I went east to Broadway.There was a large contingent of fire andEMS personnel being mustered and staged with Drs. Kerry Kellyand [David] Prezant from the fire department’s medical office.Weset up a sheltered triage and treatment center in an office buildingnear Broadway and Reade streets. We had desks brought downfrom the upper floors to use as stretchers. In about a half an hourwe had a very defined medical treatment center for orthopedics,ophthalmology,cardiac [problems].

Robert Wick, EMT-P, Flushing HospitalMedical Center, Unit 52 X-rayI was with Al [Toro,my partner].We were com-ing down Church Street.When we got four orfive blocks away, the streets were coveredwith debris, and cars were crushed.We got toChambers and Church, and we saw a nurseholding up a bag. I told her to get in.

We drove to West Street and Vesey. Thereweren’t many civilians walking around. It was all fire and EMSpersonnel, police. There was an FDNY captain there—KarinDeShore from Battalion 46—who directed us,“Park your ambu-lance. Leave your keys.”

I had the student help me get the stretcher, all the bags andthe boards.Al parked the bus up on Vesey Street, a block in.Wegot separated.While he was parking the ambulance, they herdedus down West Street.We were all in amazement.I didn’t ever takemy eyes off the top of the building. I could have walked oversomeone, wouldn’t ever have known. I’m watching the top ofthe building, pushing the stretcher. The medic student was infront of me,dragging me along with the stretcher. I was hesitantto go farther because I had left Al behind.He [finally] caught up.

We made it to Liberty and West, which is at the base of theSouth Tower.We were there for 10 minutes watching the top ofthe building.We were all in the street or on the corner—12, 15units.You could see people coming out of the buildings, two ata time.There was a walkway with covered glass—like an awningover it.You saw the bodies hitting the awnings.The blood wasdripping down these awnings.

I looked at Al and said, “Wow, we’re really too close.” The[FDNY EMS] captain said,“OK,we’re gonna back up,’cause we’rea little too close.”Then somebody was running around saying,“Terrorists hit the Pentagon.”

We started back up to this building, and there was a bridgethere—an overhang. I only got a couple of feet when I heard,“Ohmy God!”And everybody in my peripheral vision started running.

I didn’t think at the time it was the whole building.I ran under-neath the bridge, looking at the columns, the size of the cementcolumns:“My God, I hope it supports the building falling down.”

People were scattering.I lost Al.I was with three or four people,between a Suburban and a car parked underneath this bridge.I gotas low to the ground as I could.You heard it come down.Secondslater it went from day to night. It was like somebody took a hand-ful of dirt and just threw it in your mouth.You couldn’t breathe.You couldn’t see.Your eyes were filled,your nose,everything.

Then I went into this one building that I knew was facingwest.I said,“There’s light;there’s light.Let’s go to the light.”So wecrawled on our hands and knees over this debris,holding hands.We got to a fire truck.You could only see six inches in front ofyou. I got to the bumper of the fire truck, and I looked out andsaw a red light on the top. I got to the back of the fire truck, andI was able to stand up.That was a relief in itself because I thoughtwe were trapped.

I had so much stuff in my eyes. I could just make out shapes. Igot a little farther, and I found an ESU cop lying facedown on theground.He was gagging and coughing on the debris.I helped himup to walk a block.That was where the water was—New York CityHarbor.Harbor Patrol started putting everybody into the boat.I goton to help this cop.I actually sat there and put the regulator on anoxygen tank. I used the cop’s Leatherman [tool] to tighten itdown.There was still a lot of smoke,and you could hardly see any-thing.They took off across the water [toward New Jersey].

We got to the other side and then the other building fell down.I saw the cloud. I [originally] didn’t think the whole building hadfallen down. I thought it was just the top part.

MichaelFiore46Firefighter

AndreFletcher37Firefighter

HarveyHarrell49Lieutenant

DouglasMiller34Firefighter

LouisModafferi45Captain

JeffreyPalazzo33Firefighter

NicholasRossomando 35Firefighter

AllanTarasiewicz45Firefighter

71

WICK

72

In MemoriamHonoring EMS personnel whomade the ultimate sacrifice, not for family or friends, but for strangers

By Keri Losavio

Three hundred and forty-one FDNY firefighters and officers diedin the line of duty on Sept. 11 while responding to the World TradeCenter attacks. You’ll find their names, ranks and photos begin-ning on p. 10.

Many paramedics and EMTs who worked as firefighters orpolice officers, who had full-time jobs in the towers or who vol-untarily went to the scene also died that day. However, only eightproviders were part of the official EMS response.

Twenty-four-year-old Keith Fairben, EMT-P, NewYork Presbyterian Hospital (NYPH) EMS, was inone of the first units assigned to the World TradeCenter after the North Tower was hit.After caringfor patients at Church and Fulton streets, he andhis partner, Mario Santoro, proceeded into theSouth Tower.“Keith was fully aware of the dangersthat existed and willing to put his life on the lineto help others,”says Jack Delaney,director of EMS,

NYPH.“He rose to the occasion.”Although he was a fun-loving prankster,according to Delaney,

Fairben could switch gears easily and seriously focus on his as-signments. He had worked for NYPH since Sept. 14, 1998.

FDNY paramedic Carlos Lillo, 37, worked out ofBattalion 49, Astoria, Queens. A New York native,Lillo received his paramedic training at BoothMemorial Hospital (now New York Hospital ofQueens). He worked for FDNY EMS (and NYCEMS prior to the merger) for 16 years.On Sept.11,Lillo was treating patients on Church Street, facingthe North Tower. Manuel Delgado, EMT-P, FDNYoffice of medical affairs, remembers seeing Lillo

crying as he treated patients on the street.“My wife is in there,”Lillo told him. His wife, Cecilia, worked for the Port Authorityon the 64th floor. He never knew she made it safely out of theNorth Tower.

Carlos and Cecilia met at a New Year’s Eve party in 1997.Atthe time of the attacks, they’d been married for a little morethan a year.“We spent three wonderful, beautiful years togeth-er,” says Cecilia.“I wish we could have spent more.”

“Carlos always had a smile on his face. He was atypical [fora paramedic]; you kind of get cynical in this job,”says Delgado.“But Carlos never had anything bad to say about a patient. Hewas the quintessential paramedic: caring and thorough. He’dbe the one you’d want as your partner.”

“He loved the streets; he loved his job and was proud of

what he did,” says Cecilia. “I hope for all the paramedics outthere, that because of Carlos and because of Ricardo Quinn[who also died], that they’ll realize their job is as dangerous asthat of firefighters and police officers.”

Twenty-four-year-old Yamel Merino, EMT,worked for MetroCare Ambulance for morethan three years. Dispatched from the Bronxas part of the 9-1-1 response, she was on WestStreet when the South Tower collapsed.

“Yamel never refused an assignment or re-quest. ... It happened because Yamel waswhere she wanted to be, in the middle of thebiggest attack in our country’s history, helping strangers,” saysJames O’Connor, MetroCare vice president.

Merino, the single mother of an eight-year-old son, was hon-ored by the New York State Ambulance Association as its EMTof the Year in 1999 and MetroCare’s EMT of the Year in 2000.

“Yamel was always the first one up and always ready to go,”says Al Kim, MetroCare director of operations. “That wasYamel.”

Richard Pearlman, 18, volunteer, Forest HillsVolunteer Ambulance Corp., joined the corpsas a dispatcher when he was just 14 years old.At 18, he joined the Senior Corps. Accordingto Bryce Friedman, vice president, Forest HillsVolunteer Ambulance Corps, Pearlman was agood kid, and the volunteer ambulance corpshelped give him direction and focus. He wasstudying for his EMT certificate.

On Sept.11,Pearlman was delivering documents to 1 PolicePlaza, as part of his day job working for an attorney, when thefirst plane hit Tower 1. He traveled to the World Trade Centerin a police car and called his parents on the way. Photos takenon scene show him helping with patient care near the SouthTower before it collapsed.

“If we could have a lot more like him, we’d have a lotstronger volunteer corps,” says Friedman.

Forty-year-old Ricardo Quinn was a paramedicwith Battalion 57, FDNY EMS, in Bedford-Stuyevesant, Brooklyn. He worked for FDNYEMS (and NYC EMS prior to the merger) fornine years.The Army Airborne Division at FortBragg awarded Quinn a Certificate of Ap-preciation for his assistance in training theirparamedic students. “He loved what he did,”says Quinn’s wife,Virginia.“He was proud to wear the uniform.”

Ricardo, who was well-known for his sand sculptures, metVirginia at Jones Beach when their two sons started playingtogether.“It was love at first sight,” says Virginia.“He was warmand generous and a great father.” They were married for 12years and have a nine-year-old son together.

Quinn loved working with children. This past summer hehad shoulder surgery.When he went back to work, he was onlight duty and spent time teaching kids about public and firesafety.

Sept. 11, on his way into the South Tower via the MarriottHotel lobby, Quinn witnessed his friend, Scott Beloten, EMT-P,Maimonides Hospital Ambulance Department, have four of his

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fingers cut by falling metal. Only after Quinn ensured his friend-was being adequately cared for did he go on ahead to continuecaring for others.

Mario Santoro, 28, EMT-P, New York PresbyterianEMS, was working overtime Sept. 11, coveringfor Fairben’s regular partner.

“Mario was extraordinarily proud of what hedid, extraordinarily proud of what the depart-ment did. He shared that with anybody andeverybody who would listen.” says Delaney.“He’s made the department very proud of him.”

According to Delaney, Santoro was veryinvolved in his community, coaching basketball and football. Healso spent as much time as possible with his wife and two-year-old daughter.

Mark Schwartz,50,EMT,was EMT supervisor andassistant vice president for Hunter Ambulanceand a member of the Metro New York DisasterMedical Assistance Team. His wife, Patricia,describes him as “a big teddy bear. He waseverybody’s friend.” Sept. 19 would have beentheir 25th wedding anniversary.

Schwartz had been an EMT for 19 years, thelast 14 with Hunter Ambulance. “It’s still not

real.When I’m at work,he’s at work.When I’m at home,he’s stillat work—because work was his life,” says Patricia.

But Schwartz was also proud of their two children. His 20-year-old son is following in his father’s footsteps and studying tobe a paramedic.

A task-force supervisor, Schwartz was on West Street in frontof the South Tower walking toward the triage area when thetower collapsed.“I had spoken to him right before he went tothe [Trade Center]. He had the adrenaline pumping. He wasexcited,” says Patricia.“It was important to him to help people.He still had enough sense to call me, buthelping was what he was supposed to bedoing.”

Thirty-year-old David Marc Sullins, EMT, hadworked at Cabrini Hospital EMS for almosttwo years. His wife Evelyn says, “He wasdetermined to become a paramedic. He wasplanning to enroll this spring.”

On Sept.11,Sullins was working a double shift.He was last seenin the South Tower, triaging a patient. His partner went back totheir ambulance to get supplies, and then the tower collapsed.

“For patients in life-threatening situations, he would alwayssay things to make them fight, to strive [to live],” says Evelyn.“For young patients, he carried toys in his trauma bag.” He hadMatchbox cars for the boys and Barbie figurines for the girls.Sullins leaves two sons, ages two and five.

Keri Losavio is senior editor of JEMS and managing editor of EMSInsider. She has more than 10 years publishing experience.

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FDNY SafetyBattalion 1

FDNY SOCBattalion

FDNYSpecial Operations

RobertCrawford62Firefighter

CharlesKasper54Battalion Chief

RaymondDowney63Battalion Chief

MichaelRusso44Lieutenant

PatrickWaters44Captain

TimothyHiggins43Lieutenant

Every Tuesday for the past three years, New York PresbyterianHospital paramedics Alex Massac and Scott Strong have workedtogether.Tuesday, Sept. 11, was no exception:The crew beforethem is always good about leaving them a clean bus,and by 0730HRS, they were waiting for their first call of the day. It was anuneventful morning until around 0846 HRS, when they were atthe intersection of 66th Street and York Avenue and first receivedword a plane had hit one of the 110-story World Trade Centertowers.

When the flood of subsequent radio reports confirmed itwas no false alarm, Massac and Strong immediately requestedpermission to join their comrades at the World Trade Centercomplex. Because they were about 70 blocks north of the site,however, dispatch instructed them to stay put and cover theirimmediate 9-1-1 area.

“[Being told to stay put] was disappointing initially when thefirst plane hit,” Massac says.“But then the second plane hit; wesort of took a deep breath and thought this could be terrorism.We’re always taught that terrorists will do something once,[thenlaunch a second assault or detonate a secondary device] to killthe rescuers. So at that point we said,‘We need to just hold offnow and make sure we understand what’s going on.’”

They didn’t have much time to hold off. Approximately 10minutes later, dispatch sent them to an office building in

Manhattan’s Upper East Side where employees had called 9-1-1for a coworker suffering an anxiety attack. She was having diffi-culty coping with the magnitude of the situation, and hercoworkers were afraid for her safety.

“We entered the room where her office was. It was all cubi-cles,”Strong recalls.“She was on the phone with her minister,andshe wouldn’t let go of the phone. She wouldn’t budge; she waslike a solid rock. Every muscle in her body was tense.”

Suddenly, the woman began screaming,sprang from her chair,and began thrashing on the floor. She was experiencing whatcould best be described as an emotional seizure.

“She must have been flailing around for 10 or 15 minutes; theheight she was obtaining off the floor was pretty amazing,”Strong says.“We couldn’t communicate [verbally] with her, butshe would make eye contact with us.All we could do was clearaway the furniture [so she wouldn’t injure herself] and wait. Sheknew what she had to do. She did it; then she calmed down.”

Massac says dealing with a person in such a state proved frus-trating. “We couldn’t console her,” he says. “Once she calmeddown, we realized why she needed the help. She couldn’t gethome to New Jersey. She had family in the Trade Center, and her[office] building had a perfect view down the island ofManhattan [from the intersection of 39th Street and 2ndAvenue], and you could see the building on fire.”

UnsungHeroes

Responders who tendedtheir home fronts on Sept.

11 kept the New York 9-1-1 system running

smoothly

By Blaine Dionne

Even as the worst attack onAmerican civilians played out intheir own backyard, many NewYork emergency workersremained in their coverage areas.

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And so it went the rest of the day.Mostof their calls were for patients experienc-ing anxiety attacks. Massac and Strongspent anywhere from 30 minutes to anhour with each patient, until they knewthe patient would be all right.They werepara-therapists in addition to being para-medics, a role in which they were bothproud and uneasy. Proud because, to adegree, they helped people who weresuffering, but uneasy because they could-n’t use the medical training they’d accu-mulated throughout their careers on oneof the bloodiest days in American history.

“Not having patients [from the WorldTrade Center incident] was frustrating,”Strong says. “Here we are with all thistraining and no [physically injured]patients. And essentially everyone weknew was down there except us. Wewanted to be there,but at the same time,we were relieved we didn’t have to bethere.”

From 0846 HRS until 1800 HRS, whenthey were finally relieved from their unit,Massac and Strong’s coverage areaswelled from their normal 30 blocks tomore than 70.They would cover the areabetween 23rd and 57th Streets and 6thAvenue to the Hudson River—basicallythe entire Upper East Side of Manhattan.They worked a double shift in the field,and then as many hours as they couldlater that evening. Strong worked in thePresbyterian comm center, and Massacremained on standby at the hospital,help-ing to organize the food and provisionsthat had poured in from neighboringcommunities.

According to FDNY EMS officials, anaverage day in New York yields 3,000 to3,500 9-1-1 EMS calls. On the 11th, therewere approximately 4,100. In Massac andStrong’s case, the vast majority of thoseextra calls were anxiety attacks.These twomedics alone responded to roughly 14anxiety calls during their double shift.

Massac and Strong are among theunsung heroes of Sept. 11.They representthose rescuers who maintained their regu-lar coverage areas and responded to theemergency calls that kept coming in.ManyEMS and fire personnel continued to serveNew York’s broader needs on Sept. 11. It’soften tempting to pull resources torespond to major incidents, but NewYork’s EMS response system ensured thatadequate service was maintained to allcoverage areas at all times. Thousands ofNew Yorkers can be grateful these dedi-cated professionals stayed the course.

Blaine Dionne is assistant editor for JEMS andFIRERESCUE Magazine.

Massac Strong

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FDNYSquad 1

JamesAmato43Captain

BrianBilcher37Firefighter

GaryBox37Firefighter

ThomasButler37Firefighter

PeterCarroll42Firefighter

RobertCordice28Firefighter

After the FallLocal, state, & federal rescuers

search for survivors amid rubble

By Nancy J. Rigg

When the World Trade Center towers collapsed on Sept. 11,early estimates placed more than 10,000 people in or aroundthe site, including hundreds of emergency responders whorushed to the scene when the towers were struck.Althoughefforts to locate and rescue survivors trapped in the rubblebegan immediately, the task proved daunting because 89 mem-bers of FDNY’s command staff were among those reportedmissing.

The New York City Mayor’s Office of EmergencyManagement (OEM) provides interagency coordination duringmajor emergencies. For the response on Sept. 11, FDNY, OEM ,NYPD and other key city agencies worked together under a uni-fied command structure, with FDNY in charge of fire and res-cue operations at the Trade Center site.

OEM staff members had to evacuate their offices, located at7 World Trade, when the structure caught fire after the firsttower was hit.Despite the destruction of the city’s EmergencyOperations Center (EOC), OEM personnel continued operat-ing even as they secured an alternate location and set up anew EOC.At the request of the New York City Mayor’s office,OEM contacted New York state and federal agencies, request-ing additional resources, including the immediate deploymentof Urban Search and Rescue Task Force Teams from theFederal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

OEM sponsors New York Task Force 1 (NY-TF1), the city’smulti-agency USAR team, which responds to major structuralcollapses under FEMA. OEM personnel learned soon after theattack that all members of NY-TF1’s upper command,scores ofFDNY special operations rescue personnel and more than adozen members of NYPD’s Emergency Services Unit weremissing or had been killed, leaving a huge vacuum in the city’stechnical rescue operations and command capability.

Rescue Ops in an Urban War ZoneTo fill its staffing void and launch effective rescue operations,FDNY mounted an unprecedented total recall of all personnelshortly after the first tower collapsed. FDNY Firefighter John

O’Connell, who works on Rescue 3 in the Bronx, was calledback to work and arrived on scene just as the North Towerplummeted to the ground.Although he had prepared to face atleast a partial collapse of the towers,“We never anticipated thewhole building coming down,”O’Connell says.

FDNY Battalion Chief John Norman was at home whenrecalled. From a USAR perspective, Norman explains thatdeveloping an immediate strategy for searching such a vastrubble pile—with more than a million tons of pulverized,smol-dering debris and heavy steel—would have been a challengefor even the most experienced structural collapse specialists,such as Ray Downey, chief of FDNY special operations com-mand. Unfortunately, Downey was one of several FDNY USARspecialists among the missing.“The hit we took was absolutelyincredible,” Norman says.“We lost people at the upper com-mand level, including the chief of the department and twoassistant chiefs, as well as the entire upper echelon of ourUSAR task force.”

According to Ray Lynch, OEM’s deputy director for NY-TF1,

After the first tower collapsed, FDNY recalled hundredsof off-duty personnel to help establish command andassess potential rescue strategies.

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“The fire department, police department, Port Authority andother agencies within the city quickly regrouped and did atremendous job under the circumstances.” When 7 WorldTrade,which had been gutted by fire,collapsed just after 5 p.m.on the 11th,OEM did not lose radio communications.“We wereable to coordinate all of the city’s agencies and call for addi-tional resources,”Lynch says.

For overall command and control purposes, FDNY dividedthe 16-acre impact zone into quadrants, using major streets toidentify the boundaries and assigned sector chiefs to each sec-tion.With significant fires burning, firefighting was one of thetop priorities.Additionally, rescuers conducted a “hasty search”in all surrounding buildings impacted by the collapses toensure as many survivors as possible were located. Based onthe assumption that only a few specific locations within theprimary collapse zone might offer survivable void spaces,FDNY incident command treated these specific areas as sepa-rate rescue sites and began assigning FDNY, state and federalUSAR resources to them.“We knew we had three key areaswhere there were a lot of people missing, including the NorthTower, the South Tower and the Marriott Hotel,”Norman says.

As one of the surviving FDNY USAR specialists, O’Connellwas assigned to the primary rubble pile. “We went right towork,” O’Connell says.“Searching voids, that’s my job.The firstspot we started searching was between the two towers.”

Overwhelming ResponseA multitude of operational difficulties challenged rescuers: thethreat of additional terrorism, fire, communications problems,heavy smoke, choking dust, unknown chemicals, as well as aflood of unsolicited volunteers offering assistance.“This wasone of those ‘you all come’ events,” Norman says.“Red lights,blue lights, green lights, yellow lights, pink lights—any colorlights within driving distance were here. Some of the conver-gent volunteers came for the right reasons and contributedpositively,but the overwhelming response put an extra burdenon our command staff that we didn’t need.”

With responders’ agendas ranging from noble to purely self-serving, rescue officials accepted offers of help carefully.“Thenumber of unsolicited volunteers was an amazing, but danger-ous thing,” Lynch says.“If a chief from a department shows upwith 20 people in turnout gear, you’ve got to be really carefulbecause you can end up with a lot of people—who may nothave the right training—losing their lives.”

“I’m trying to run the search and rescue operation, and I’vegot people on the site who I’ve got no communications with,no control over, who are doing things that are causing prob-

lems or safety threats for people in other areas because they’renot part of a coordinated system,” Norman says.“It took a fewdays before we eventually gained control over this throughtightened security, but I had to throw a few people out, tellingthem not to come back or they would be arrested.”

Within hours of the collapse, select personnel joined FDNYcrews on “bucket brigades” located throughout the impactzone, removing vast layers of pulverized debris. Ironworkersand construction workers with heavy cranes and equipmentwere integrated into the operation to handle the heavy steelgirders that fell like “pick-up sticks,” according to O’Connell.Tons of debris was taken to the Fresh Kills Landfill, whereNYPD detectives and FBI agents searched for evidence,humanremains or personal artifacts officials hoped to return to thevictims’ families or survivors.

By Sept. 12, FEMA USAR task force teams had joined withFDNY personnel for one of the largest and most complextechnical rescue and recovery operations ever mounted.

FEMA Supports LocalsFEMA began developing the USAR National Response Systemin 1989 to quickly deploy qualified personnel to disastersnationwide. There are 28 USAR task-force teams, each com-prising 62 fire-rescue specialists, structural engineers, medicalprofessionals, logistical and communications specialists,canine search teams and incident support teams (ISTs),whichserve as liaisons with local jurisdictions in command of anoperation.

Dave Webb,FEMA’s National USAR unit chief,was in Virginia

77

EdwardD’Atri38Lieutenant

MichaelEsposito41Lieutenant

MichaelFodor53Lieutenant

DavidFontana37Firefighter

MatthewGarvey37Firefighter

StephenSiller34Firefighter

Heavy equipment, cranes and a sea of local, stateand federal personnel worked around the clock torescue or recover victims. Highly sensitive camerasaided the search.

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Dave Webb, FEMA’s National USAR unit chief, was in VirginiaBeach,Va.,conducting weapons of mass destruction training whenthe first tower was hit.Webb immediately began activating FEMAUSAR task forces.“The official way that federal response must betriggered is that a local government tells the state they are over-whelmed, and if the state can’t provide enough assistance, thegovernor makes a request to the president for a federal disasterdeclaration. But we do have some latitude under the Stafford Actthat allows the president to take preemptive measures when hedeems it necessary,”Webb says.With airspace shut down nationwide,Webb rented a vehicle and

rushed back to Washington, D.C., to coordinate the federal USARdeployment to NewYork City and the Pentagon. “Between 9 and10 a.m. on Sept. 11,we activated eight USAR task forces,” he says.“Because of the lifesaving nature of the mission, we didn’t waitaround for the bureaucracy.We acted on verbal agreements and fol-lowed up with the appropriate paperwork as soon as we could.”IST members were immediately deployed to NewYork and the

Pentagon, although the logistics of moving personnel from as faraway as Colorado and California proved challenging for FEMA staffmembers. Maryland (MD-TF1) and Virginia Task Force 1 (VA-TF1)were deployed to the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania (PA-TF1),Massachusetts (MA-TF1), Ohio (OH-TF1) and Indiana (IN-TF1)were activated via ground transportation to NewYork.The IST is the overhead or management team responsible for

the federal USAR task forces.Lt.Fred Endrikat,Rescue Company 1,Philadelphia Fire Department (PA-TF1), and Capt. Alim Shariff,Cunningham (Colo.) Fire Protection District (CO-TF1), served on

the FEMA IST in NewYork.According to Endrikat, IST operationschief,“When FEMA comes in, the whole goal of the USAR programis not to take over an incident,but to assist the local agency,whichalways maintains jurisdiction over the incident.”“Regardless of the size of an incident,”Shariff explains,“there are

certain steps you need to take to get the process started.”Logistically,moving USAR resources into NewYork was a challengecompounded by restrictions on commercial air travel and accessto military transport aircraft,now involved in a state of war.Shariff,who served as the planning section chief, and other IST membersfrom Utah and Colorado, jumped on a plane that had beenapproved to transport blood products to NewYork.When they gotto the Javits Convention Center, the site selected by OEM to houseFEMA assets, Shariff was impressed.“New York had an organizedstructure in place,which made integrating our resources into thesystem easier,” says Shariff.“In spite of the devastating losses theyhad suffered, for New York to pick up and go on so quickly wasamazing.”Within 24 hours of the attack,PA-TF1,MA-TF1 and OH-TF1 were

ready to assist in search operations on the rubble pile. Endrikat,who represented the FEMA task forces, and Norman, who repre-sented FDNY, worked closely to coordinate USAR operations.“[Norman] was responsible for the development of strategy andoperational planning for the NewYork Fire Department,”Endrikatsays,“and I was responsible for all the federal task forces.Our strat-egy had to be in sync.Whatever NewYork determined the priori-ties were for any given operational period,we would try to assistthem with whatever they needed.”

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dinating search-and-rescue operations,making sure we got all areascovered and ensuring that this was done safely.”The nature and sizeof the collapse was unprecedented, compounding search opera-tions.“With the exception of the perimeter, the collapse was a vir-tual pancake.There weren’t many areas that had large, survivablevoids,”Norman says.

A few survivors were rescued during the first 36 hours follow-ing the attack, which motivated everyone to search as many voidsas quickly as possible. “We knew the primary areas where we werelikely to get any survivors were the staircases and elevator shafts inthe two towers and the Marriott Hotel,so we targeted those areas,”Norman says.“Most of the accessible voids were searched withinthe first 48 hours.”

Maps, Equipment, Dogs in DemandGetting copies of maps and building plans of the Trade Center com-plex was an essential first step to coordinate search operations.“In1972, I had worked on the original buildings as the fire-protectiondesigner,” Norman says.“The drawings the Port Authority gave uswere the exact drawings I had looked at 30 years ago; they had myscribbling on them.FEMA’s support staff scanned the drawings intoa computer and started to generate maps we could use to targetareas that needed to be searched.”

The situation on the rubble pile was dynamic. With no stan-dardized marking system shared by FDNY, the FEMA USAR taskforces or volunteer rescuers, there was frequent duplication ofsearch efforts amid the constantly shifting debris. “We had people

going into areas that had been searched two and three times,”Norman says.“One of the things we’re working [on] for the NewYork City Fire Department is to implement the FEMA marking sys-tem for future operations.”

FEMA task force technical search specialists with high-techequipment, including listening devices, search cameras and canineteams, were “the most in-demand of all our resources, along withthe structural engineers,”Endrikat says.“Because the site was so bigand the task so massive, we would send our canine and technical

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Technical rescue specialists erected a high-line rescue ropefrom the bottom of the primary rubble pile to the top. Theline helped move heavy rescue equipment and personnel—including search-and-rescue dogs.

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FDNYSquad 18

EricAllen44Firefighter

AndrewFredericks40Firefighter

DavidHalderman40Firefighter

TimothyHaskell34Firefighter

WilliamMcGinn43Lieutenant

ManuelMojica37Firefighter

LawrenceVirgilio38Firefighter

search components in with New York firefighters to locate vic-tims,” Endrikat says.“The structural specialists made on-goingassessments of void spaces and other structural hazardsthroughout the operation.”

Firefighter Lou Brasten (Rescue Company 1, Philadelphia FireDepartment, PA-TF1 search team manager) and firefighter RichBenditt (Rescue Company 1, Philadelphia Fire Department, PA-TF1 rescue specialist) worked with engineers from several fed-eral agencies, including the Department of Justice andDepartment of Energy, to test cutting-edge robotics, listeningdevices and search cameras during void search operations.“A lotof this equipment is classified,”Brasten explains.

“The robots were not very useful due to the nature of the col-lapse”Benditt says,“and because it was almost impossible to geteveryone on the rubble pile to quiet down, listening devicesproved of limited use.”Benditt indicated that several new searchcameras being tested by engineers were valuable to rescuers,particularly those that offered color images, not just black-and-white.“One camera had a lot of potential,”Benditt says.“The engi-neers modified a color search camera that allowed us to zoom to20 power, move the head left and right 180˚ and rotate it 360˚.None of our current search cameras has this level of resolution.We could look across half a block with this camera, pick out

something in a room that was sheered off, zoom in and see asweater, a glove or a pair of boots.We never found anyone alive,but we did locate remains.”

On day two, Michael Kurtz, medical specialist with PA-TF1,noted one unique contribution by PA-TF1 technical rescuespecialists, who erected a high-line rescue rope from the bot-tom of the primary rubble more than 100 feet to the top tomove heavy rescue equipment, search dogs and personnelmore efficiently.

“It was very sobering when the body of a New York Cityfireman was recovered by the New York guys, placed in theStokes litter basket and brought down from the top of thepile,” Kurtz says. “It stopped the whole operation. The litterwith a flag draped over it was lowered down, and every-body—from crane operators to people on the bucketbrigades—stood up, took their helmets off and quietly salutedas the Stokes came down to the bottom of the pile.”

FEMA Stands DownA total of 20 of FEMA’s 28 task forces were deployed for sevento 10 days each in New York City and rotated shifts over a peri-od of five weeks to support local search-and-rescue opera-tions. There was never an official transition from rescue torecovery efforts, but when it became clear that all potentialsurvivors had probably been located, the FEMA USAR teamsstood down. FDNY continued the recovery operation in con-junction with other local resources. IST members Endrikat andShariff remained in New York for more than 40 days to assiston-going operations and help rebuild NY-TF1.

“People who worked side-by-side with the FEMA task forceteams were dazzled by their capabilities and their great levelof dedication and training,” Norman says. “This is one legacythat will go a long way in our job.”

Endrikat noted that as after-action reports are prepared andpersonnel who served in New York have had time for reflec-tion, numerous lessons learned will be evaluated to improvefuture operations.“We have no historical perspective for anyincident like this anywhere in the world,” he says.“If you stepback and take a look at the magnitude of the incident, thesheer number of people who were lost, including firefighterson the operational end of it, who had a strong background intechnical rescue and special operations, New York did atremendous job.”

Nancy Rigg is a writer, documentary filmmaker and public educationconsultant in Los Angeles.

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Rescue workers formed bucket brigades to cleardebris and rubble from the World Trade Center site.

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FDNYSquad 41

ThomasCullen III31Firefighter

RobertHamilton43Firefighter

MichaelHealey43Lieutenant

MichaelLyons32Firefighter

RichardVanHine48Firefighter

GregorySikorsky34Firefighter

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FDNY resurrects itsbattered apparatus fleet

By Bob Vaccaro

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FDNYSquad 252

TarelColeman32Firefighter

ThomasKuveikisAge unavailableFirefighter

PeterLangone41Firefighter

PatrickLyons34Firefighter

KevinPrior28Firefighter

The Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center left a gaping holein the heart of FDNY. Hundreds of responders lost their lives, andhundreds more have spent each day since then grieving theirpersonal losses and rebuilding the department.

Part of this rebuilding process involves replacing FDNY’sburned and battered apparatus fleet. Although not nearly as dev-astating as the loss of a brother firefighter, losing a rig is tough.

Massive DispatchMoments after American Airlines Flight 11 ripped into 1 WorldTrade, emergency dispatchers received a flood of radio and tele-phone calls reporting the carnage. At 0846 HRS, the ManhattanCommunications Office (CO) transmitted a first-alarm assign-ment for 1 World Trade at Manhattan Box 8087. (FDNY still usesa box system to locate emergencies. All intersections in NewYork are identified by one specific box number, and most inter-sections still have an actual alarm box a person can use to reportan emergency.) By 0859 HRS,CO had transmitted a full fifth-alarmassignment for Box 8087.

Additional alarm assignments occurred in rapid succession.CO transmitted a third alarm for Brooklyn Box 1377, located atthe entrance to the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel on Brooklyn’s side,to form a staging area. When United Airlines Flight 175 hit 2World Trade,CO transmitted a fifth alarm assignment for 2 WorldTrade at Box 9998.CO subsequently transmitted a second alarmfor Manhattan Box 50, located at West and Albany, to fight anoth-er structural fire at the World Trade Center complex; a secondalarm for Box 2033,located at Battery Park City;a single alarm forStaten Island Box 8000, located at the ferry terminal in St.George;and a single alarm for Manhattan Box 320, located at theBrooklyn Bridge.

How many FDNY vehicles sat on scene before the towers col-lapsed? Multiplying all the World Trade Center-related alarms byFDNY’s alarm dispatch protocol (see sidebar p. 84) indicates aminimum of approximately 141 apparatus filled southManhattan the morning of Sept. 11.

Where were these vehicles located? Most of the respondingapparatus lined the streets for a two- to three-block radiusaround the World Trade Center complex,within easy striking dis-tance for the 110-story Twin Towers.

The waves of broken steel,concrete, flame and wind releasedduring the towers’ disintegration wiped out 96 FDNY vehicles.Apparatus destroyed include:

• 18 1,000-gpm pumpers;• 19 ladder trucks;• 11 support units (rescue trucks, hazmat tenders, high-rise

units, etc.);• 10 ambulances;

• 16 Suburbans; and• 22 sedansVarious reports have estimated the replacement cost for all

these rigs at $47 million to $50 million.Fortunately for the millions of New York citizens who rely on

FDNY for fire protection,FDNY’s Fleet Services Division had pre-pared for such an event and immediately began pushing newand spare vehicles into service. Several apparatus manufacturersalso stepped up production efforts to help FDNY rebuild its ail-ing fleet as soon as possible. These combined efforts had thedepartment back at full strength less than four days after Sept.11.

Spare WheelsReplacing FDNY’s damaged rigs proved a major undertaking.According to Tom McDonald, deputy commissioner of FDNY’sFleet Services Division, the department had excellent contin-gency plans in place prior to Sept. 11. He says FDNY kept asspares approximately 10% of its total number of ladders, includ-ing rear mounts and towers, and roughly 20% of its pumpers. Inaddition, the department kept another 22 spare pumpers—com-plete with hose—in reserve.These vehicles, located throughoutthe city’s five boroughs in various firehouses,were put into serv-ice immediately following the attacks.“If it were not for the hardwork of [my] people—some who came in from retirement andworked hour after hour putting equipment back into service—the department would not have been able to recover so quickly,”McDonald says.

New RigsThe incomprehensible vehicle losses FDNY endured requiredmore than back-up apparatus, however; the department needednew trucks.Offers to bolster FDNY’s pared-down fleet poured infrom numerous manufacturers. In the end, FDNY stuck predom-inately with its usual manufacturer—Seagrave Fire Apparatus.“While [we were] happy with all of the offers that came in, [we]decided that it was best to stick with [our] long-time apparatusbuilder, Seagrave,” McDonald says.“This was due to saving timeon training firefighters on a new type of apparatus, as well asSeagrave having the specs already in-house.”

On Oct. 8, Seagrave received an order from the City of NewYork for 54 heavy-duty custom fire trucks.The order, valued at$25 million, includes 17 rear-mount aerials; five tractor-drawnaerials; four high-pressure pumpers; three squad pumpers; and19 1,000-gpm pumpers. Six Seagrave custom chassis will beshipped to Aerialscope, a Seagrave affiliate, to build five towerladders.

“All of the replacement apparatus has been ordered and is

being manufactured right on schedule,” says George Kanaugh,marketing and sales manager for Seagrave. Contrary to popularrumor, Seagrave did not halt production of other apparatus toaccommodate FDNY’s replacement order. “We already had 29rear-mounts, nine 95' towers and one 75' tower on order [fromother customers] before Sept. 11 … that will be fulfilled ontime,”Kanaugh says.“No other business has been turned away.”

In order to accomplish these demanding production goals,Seagrave added a third shift to its production lines.“Our employ-ees [are] working overtime to complete this large order of 54additional pieces of equipment,”Kanaugh says.“In addition,manyof our employees are multi-tasked.This means they can work onthe aerial ladder line, the pumper line and other areas.This savesa great deal of time and also ensures the same quality on allpieces of equipment that are manufactured.”

On Jan.22,Seagrave’s first four replacement fire trucks left thecompany’s factory in Clintonville (Wis.) bound for New YorkCity.The trucks included two custom pumpers, a tractor-drawnaerial and a 100' rear-mount aerial that features a custom, full-body memorial mural. All of Seagrave’s replacement units willcarry a custom bronze-cast medallion inscribed “Dedicated ToNew York’s Bravest—9-11-01.” The company will continue todeliver replacement apparatus to FDNY through late fall.

E-One also took orders for new trucks from FDNY.The com-pany will manufacture five 26' heavy-duty, walk-in rescuesmounted on tandem-axle Cyclone II cab/chassis; two 15', non-walk-in tactical support units mounted on International 4x4cab/chassis (these vehicles will include rescue cranes and quick-deployment rescue boats mounted atop the bodies); two walk-in, high-rise units mounted on Mack MR cab/chassis (each willhave a breathing-air cart assembly that carries equipment forhigh-rise building fires); and one satellite pumper mounted on aMack MR cab/chassis. This unit will have a 4,000-gpmwater/foam turret and two 2,000-gpm monitors.

It’s on Us!Several manufacturers are donating apparatus to FDNY. E-One,for example, donated a 19' aluminum rescue body to be used asa decontamination unit. The vehicle will be mounted on aFreightliner FL80 two-door cab/chassis donated by Freightlinertrucks.

Seagrave,on behalf of its employees,donated a complete cus-tom pumper.Ferrara Fire Apparatus built a pumper on an Infernochassis with money raised through a statewide fund-raising cam-paign in Louisiana. Dubbed the “Spirit of Louisiana,” the pumperwas crafted by Ferrara employees who donated their own timeto complete the rig before Christmas.The vehicle, Engine 283,was assigned to Brooklyn’s busy Brownsville neighborhood.

Pierce donated a rescue vehicle built on a Kenworth chassis—the truck will be assigned to the second piece of Haz-MatCompany #1 in Queens. Luverne Fire Apparatus teamed with

84

FDNYSquad 288

FDNY TacticalSupport 2

Ronnie E.Gies43Firefighter

JosephHunter32Firefighter

JonathanIelpi29Firefighter

RonaldKerwin42Lieutenant

AdamRand30Firefighter

TimothyWeltyAge unavailableFirefighter

JosephMascali44Firefighter

FDNY Fast Facts

• FDNY protects more than 8 million people in fiveboroughs covering 320 square miles.

• The department responded to more than 29,281structural fires and 31,058 non-structural fires in2000.

• FDNY EMS units responded to 1.2 million medicalemergencies in 2000, 400,000 of which were criti-cal/life threatening.

• The department employs approximately 11,400 offi-cers and firefighters, 2,800 emergency medical tech-nicians and paramedics and 1,200 civilians.

• The Bureau of Fire Prevention performed 181,328inspections in 2000.

FDNY’s Alarm Dispatch Protocol

First Alarm:

Second source call: three engines, two trucks,one battalion chief, rescue and squad companies;Working fire (10-75) call: four engines, twotrucks, one fast truck (a rapid intervention team),two battalion chiefs;

Second Alarm: four engines, two trucks, one battal-ion chief, field communications unit, tactical supportunit, rehab unit and other special calls as needed

Third Alarm: four engines, one truck, one battalionchief;

Fourth Alarm: four engines, one truck;

Fifth Alarm: four engines, one truck; High-rise office building (10-76) call: fourengines, four trucks, three battalion chiefs, addi-tional rescue companies with hazmat, collapseunits and squad companies.

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86

Spartan Motors to build and donate a pumper built on a four-door Spartan Gladiator chassis. American LaFrance donated aheavy rescue truck built on a Condor chassis.And finally,GeneralSafety Equipment, a branch of Rosenbauer America, donated aheavy rescue truck built on a Mack Trucks Inc. chassis.

Ordinary citizens are also helping pick up the tab. For exam-ple, Akron, Ohio, and its surrounding communities initiated afund-raising campaign that raised $1.4 million in just one month.The community arranged to pay Seagrave for one of the nine 95'tower ladders it built for FDNY.The ladder truck was recentlydelivered and assigned to Ladder 163 in Queens. Remainingmoney from the Akron fund was used to purchase two newFDNY ambulances and three NYPD police cars.

Bank of America, which lost three employees in the WorldTrade Center, raised funds through its staff across the nation anddonated three pumpers to FDNY in its employees’ memories.

At the end of the Civil War, New York firefighters donated ahose carriage to firefighters in Columbia, S.C., after Columbiaburned when Union troops took the town. Columbia pledgedthen to return the favor if New York City ever needed similarhelp,and the town didn’t forget.Students from Columbia’s WhiteKnoll Middle School launched a fund-raising drive that eventual-ly collected $520,000 in donations from all over the country andused the funds to purchase FDNY a new fire truck.

Getting Its Fleet BackWhen the hijackers took down the Twin Towers last September,they delivered a terrible blow to FDNY in lives lost and, to amuch lesser degree, apparatus destroyed. FDNY proved resilientin getting its fleet back to full strength thanks to the depart-ment’s contingency plans, its members’ hard work and the gen-erosity of apparatus manufacturers and ordinary folks.

FIRERESCUE MAGAZINE apparatus editor Bob Vaccaro has 27 years of fire-service experience. He has served as a firefighter, line officer and chiefof department with the Deer Park Fire Department on Long Island.Vaccaro has also worked for the Insurance Services Office®. He has abachelor of science degree in business management and economics,with a concentration in fire protection administration.

MP8818 Spare E-210MP8912 Spare E-4SP9374 Engine 55SP9401H Engine 6SP9402H Engine 10SP9404H Engine 34SP9405H Engine 65SP9602 Spare Sq-252SP9703 Engine 15SP9709 Engine 21SP9723 Engine 204SP98014 Squad 1SP98021 Engine 1SP98032 Engine 76SP00017 Engine 7SP00029 Engine 202SP00030 Engine 28SP00035 Squad 18SL8904 Ladder 8SL9403 Ladder 132SL9406 Ladder 10SL9411 Ladder 11SL9413 Ladder 3SL99008 Ladder 113SL01002 Ladder 4SL99012 Ladder 101SL99013 Ladder 20SL00002 Ladder 5SL00003 Ladder 6ST9402 Ladder 105ST99001 Ladder 18ST99006 Ladder 9ST99007 Ladder 1SR9601 Rescue 1SR9602 Rescue 2MH 9705 High Rise 1MH9706 High Rise 2IM98002 TSU 1IM9101 TRV (SQ.1)IH9704 MSU 4MS9304 Satellite 1GM8931 FCU spareGM98005 HMT Sq-18GM98006 HMTSq-252GM98009 HMT R-5FM8963 Shop TruckFM9161 Shop TruckFA94030 Amb. 295

FA97031 Amb. 217FA97047 Amb. 302FA97148 Amb. 311FA97179 Amb. 506GM9166 RAC 3 spareGM9445 spare poolGM9458 Div. 11GM9739 spare poolGM9744 Batt. 12GM9745 Batt. 1GM9756 Batt. 6GM99039 EMSGM99117 SOCGM99118 SafetyGM99126 Batt. 46GM99130 Batt. 48GM99154 EMSGM99168 Batt. 4GM99172 Batt. 9GM99175 Batt. 7GM99180 Batt. 2FS9359 EMSFS9708 spare poolFS9711 OperationsFS9716 SOCFS9720 OperationsFS9724 Haz-MatFS01041 EMSFS010142 Chief of Dept.FS01045 Chief of Ops.FS01047 Dep. Comm.FS20003 Div. 1FS20004 Div. 3FS20008 Div. 11GS9147 OEMGS9313 Comm.GS9332 BFIGS9345 PIOGS9350 OperationsGS9353 spare-poolGS 9520 BFIGS9522 BFIGS9534 Fleet ServicesGM9555 EMSGS99004 EMS

Source: Fire Apparatus

Journal

FDNY Apparatus Destroyed on Sept. 11

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The year 2001 had been a challenging one for many manufactur-ers and service providers in the fire and EMS industry. A soften-ing economy, lagging stock market and an overall uncertainfinancial future forced many vendors to work especially hard tomaintain the bottom line.

Then the world changed on Sept. 11. Business forecasts andeconomic concerns took a backseat. Across the board, vendorsput their businesses on standby and rushed equipment, supplies,apparatus, ambulances and people to the World Trade Center andthe Pentagon. In unprecedented fashion, manufacturers and serv-ice providers came together to give all they could. Their donationslikely totaled more than $100 million in cash and supplies.

It’s impossible to tell all their stories, but we gathered reportsfrom many of them to share herein. We also want to recognize theefforts of vendors whose stories aren’t mentioned in this report.

Apparatus & AmbulancesPierce Manufacturing is donating a replacement air-and-lighting-support rescue vehicle to FDNY. Built on a Kenworth chassis toFDNY specifications, the truck bears a special 9-11-01 vehicleidentification number. Pierce also loaned a fire truck to a groupof Salt Lake City firefighters who toured 16 states to raise moneyfor families of the fallen.The group drove the vehicle from coastto coast in October and November, raising $130,000 for TheFallen Fund.

The employees of Spartan Motors gave blood and wrote per-sonal checks totaling $12,000,which the company matched.Stillnot satisfied they’d done enough, Spartan employees proposedsomething more: They would donate their time on nights andweekends to build a replacement fire engine to FDNY specs.Spartan CEO George Sztykiel called subsidiary Luverne FireApparatus President Jeff Lautt, who’d been thinking along thesame lines.The manufacturers teamed up with several suppliers,who donated warning lights,sirens,pumps,tanks and other com-ponents. Spartan and Luverne covered the rest.Their collectiveefforts resulted in a pumper to be delivered in March. It replacesone of the almost 100 vehicles FDNY lost on Sept. 11.

Seats for both the Pierce and Spartan/Luverne rigs were donat-ed by 911 Seats.W.S.Darley donated an EM 1,500 gpm two-stagemidship pump for placement on the Spartan/Luverne apparatusand contributed $7,500 to the National Fallen FirefightersFoundation.

Among the many units destroyed in the Trade Center collapseswere two of the four FDNY Mask Service Units (MSUs). EarlyWednesday morning,Sept.12,Tom McDonald,FDNY deputy com-missioner, called Eddie Smith, director of sales and marketing ofHackney Emergency Vehicles. His plea: Provide at least one newMSU as soon as possible.The units can store 286 SCBA bottles,which were critically needed for the rescue-and-recovery effortsat Ground Zero.Hackney responded with an unprecedented planto compress its normal production schedule of six to eightmonths to 30 days.Amazingly, the company produced the unit injust two weeks;FDNY took delivery on Oct.1.

Minutes after the Trade Center disaster, Seagrave FireApparatus rallied to complete a previously ordered 75' FDNYtower ladder for immediate delivery the evening of Sept. 11.Seagrave also sent staff to New York.They spent seven days work-ing side by side with FDNY mechanics to help repair damagedapparatus. In just eight days, Seagrave personnel delivered sevenpreviously ordered rigs, including rearmounts and pumpers.Normally, it would have taken two to four weeks to finish theunits. Seagrave announced on Jan. 14 that it will donate a com-

plete custom pumper to FDNY to replace one of the destroyedunits. The company also organized several fund-raisers, held ablood drive and created a special Sept.11 memorial mural for oneof the rigs delivered to FDNY (see p. 92).

Marion Body Works donated a Long Four Door 20" raised roof,severe-duty cab.The cab shipped from Marion for final assembly inOctober, and the completed apparatus was delivered to FDNY inJanuary. Marion employees donated their time to complete theproject.

R-O-M Robinson Shutters spearheaded a number of fund-rais-ers to replace a battalion chief’s response vehicle. In addition,R-O-M hopes to raise more than $100,000 in donations.

Marque Ambulances worked with a group of South Bend,Ind.,fund-raisers to donate an ambulance to Cabrini Medical Center,which lost two ambulances in the Trade Center collapses. Thefund-raisers purchased the ambulance below cost from Marque,which displayed the ambulance at fund-raising events.

EMS SuppliesIn Wappingers Falls, N.Y., Laerdal Medical Corp. immediately didwhat seemed natural: It organized a blood drive. More than 150Laerdal staff and local residents donated blood during a 12-hourperiod.In addition,Laerdal donated 19 skids of emergency equip-ment—airway management, spinal immobilization, monitoringand more—to the World Trade Center site.With the help of UPSand a New York State Trooper escort, the supplies arrived in NewYork City within hours of the tragedy.

Ferno donated its Millennia backboards to assist in the rescue-and-recovery efforts at Ground Zero.After working with customers

A Little Helpfrom FriendsEmergency manufacturersdonate money, equipment& apparatusBy Jeff Berend

Pierce Manufacturing loaned this fire engine to agroup of Salt Lake City area firefighters who toured16 states, raising $130,000 for the families of fire-fighters lost in the Sept. 11 attacks.

to delay and reschedule orders and withemployees working nonstop to meetdemand, Ferno donated additional equip-ment to the disaster sites in New York andVirginia. Ferno employees even drove thesupplies to the World Trade Center site fromWilmington, Ohio. Supplies from Ferno’smortuary product line were also donatedand used in the efforts to respectfully searchfor,handle and identify the remains of manyTrade Center victims.

Medtronic Physio-Control’s relief effortstotaled $1.2 million: $200,000 for theAmerican Red Cross, $500,000 to the TwinTowers Fund and the $500,000 balance inequipment donated to the Washington,D.C., Fire Department and FDNY.Medtronic also provided loaner ambulanceequipment and sent five service techni-cians to New York. They spent sevenstraight days repairing equipment.

Cardiac Science worked with the U.S.Merchant Marine Academy in King’s Point,N.Y., to gather Survivalink AEDs for deliv-ery to Ground Zero. Cardiac Science alsorushed in spare electrodes to help with anycardiac emergencies.

Aether Systems Inc., in conjunction withCingular Wireless,donated 500 RIM devices(handheld communications devices) thatwere used by the New York Public SafetyDepartment, including police and fire per-sonnel, at Ground Zero.

MidAtlantic Medical Legal Consultantsassisted at the Pentagon in several ways.First, the company assembled and distrib-uted commemorative lapel pins for theMD TF-1 USAR team and family members.MidAtlantic also designed and distributedT-shirts honoring the Pentagon emer-gency responders with the motto,“We areproud; we are brave; we are one.” Thecompany made identical T-shirts for theproviders’ children.

Alliance Medical donated respirators andother protective equipment to rescuers. Italso donated funds to the Firefighter’s

Workers at MSA’s Jacksonville facility assemble Advantage200 respirators.

A blood drive organized by LaerdalMedical Corp. sent blood to thosein need.

Laerdal Medical Corp. sent 19 skidsof supplies with a State Trooperescort to the Trade Center site.

Seagrave designed acustom bronze-castmedallion to mounton the front of all

cabs designated asreplacement units

for those destroyedon Sept. 11.

Hand Vario tool, which was used to open elevator andambulance doors and lift concrete for fibre-optic place-ment.

• Matjack sent 100 various Matjack airbags with acces-sories to the WTC site, as well as 30 cots with blankets,pil-lows and sheets.The company also sent 100 cases of waterbottles.

• Onan Corp.gave a 20-kW PTO generator for a GeneralSafety Fire Apparatus truck donated and delivered to FDNY.

• Sterling Rope Company and PMI donated rescue ropeto assist in the WTC rescue efforts.

• Angel-Guard Products donated its Rescue Shovel tothe FEMA team based in Beverly, Mass., as well as to ageneral equipment drive for World Trade Center rescuers.The company’s contributions totaled more than $3,000.

• Allison Transmissions employees donated $23,098

Association of Missouri to replace its FallenFirefighter Memorial statue, which wasgiven to New York City.

Fire & Rescue EquipmentAlong with an initial company-sponsoreddonation of $100,000 to the IAFF fund,MSAmatched its associates’ and retirees’ dona-tions to the fund. It reprioritized a numberof existing orders and shipped more than$3 million (three truckloads) of product toNew York City, Washington, D.C., andSomerset, Pa., within 48 hours of theattacks.The company sent SCBAs, thermal-imaging cameras, respirators, protectiveeyewear, gas detection instruments, hardhats and more.

Globe Firefighters Suits donated $5,000cash to the American Red Cross,300 pairs ofleather firefighter gloves to FDNY and 100suits of special emergency response gear forthe rescue teams.The company also shipped300 EMS suits and 400 turnout suits to thePentagon rescue efforts and rushed numer-ous other orders to other departments assist-ing in the clean-up efforts.

Other Contributions• Lion Apparel made a monetary contri-

bution to the IAFF 9-11 fund.• Waterous Company made a significant

contribution to the 9-11 Firemen’s ReliefFund and the United Way and matchedemployee contributions dollar for dollar.

• Wehr Engineering/Glas-Master mademonetary contributions to the 9-11 Fundand will continue to donate a dollar foreach rescue knife sold until Sept. 11, 2002.

• Smeal Fire Apparatus Co. sent a cashdonation to FDNY.

• Fire Facilities made contributions tothe American Red Cross and the 9-11Disaster Relief Fund.

• Kussmaul donated equipment forapparatus donated to FDNY.

• Duo-Safety Ladder Corp. donated a 24'900A two-section aluminum exterior ladderwith safety shoes for mounting on a Ferrarafire truck built, donated and delivered toFDNY in December.

• Fire-Dex donated $3,100 to the IAFFfund, delivered in person to the IAFF’sRichard Duffey. Fire-Dex also delivered sev-eral hundred pairs of firefighter gloves toFDNY.

• Ajax Rescue Tools donated five 911-RKSuper Duty Air Hammer Rescue Kits toFDNY.These were personally delivered bymembers of the Franklin Park, Ill., FireDepartment, who volunteered their effortsin the recovery operations;

• American Rescue Technology sent itsRESCUE & FIRE APPARATUS

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toward Sept. 11 victim relief. This wasmatched by Allison’s parent company,General Motors.In addition,Allison has hon-ored all requests for free transmissions forvehicles donated to New York City.

• Code 3 produced and shipped newlight bars to FDNY and sent an installationcrew to help restore old fire apparatus toservice. Code 3 employees donated $5,750,and the company brought the total to$15,000 for the Widows’and Children’s Fundof the Uniformed Firefighters Association.

• Task Force Tips (TFT) teamed withParatech Inc. to deliver Paratech inflatablebags to the Trade Center site.The donatedParatech equipment was loaded onto two

TFT trucks and two Paratech trucks anddriven 17 hours to New York by employeesof the respective companies.

• Cutter’s Edge donated saws and otherequipment to the Trade Center site.

• Within minutes of the tower collaps-es, Total Fire Group decided to build andsegregate a stock of almost 400 FDNY-specBen 2 helmets.The company surveyed theroster of units that likely responded andproduced specialized helmet fronts forthose who died. Employees workedaround the clock. Tragically, 343 helmetswith the specialized ID fronts would beneeded.With permission from then-FDNYCommissioner Thomas Von Essen,Total FireGroup worked with both FDNY unions todeliver the customized helmets to familiesof the fallen for the memorial services. Inall, Total Fire Group donated more than$90,000 worth of FDNY-spec Ben 2 hel-mets and fronts to the families.

Total Fire Group also delivered PROBoots to the Trade Center site and a tractor-trailer load of the boots to the Pentagonsite within 24 hours of the disaster.Additionally, the company donated truck-loads of respirators, work boots and workclothes to rescuers.

FDNY called in many retired firefightersand officers to assist the department in mak-ing official notifications and to care for fami-ly needs. Total Fire Group acquired theirnames and donated several thousand dollarsto supply the retirees with needed dress uni-forms.Total Fire Group also raised $25,000for direct donations to FDNY families.

Outpouring of SupportThe outpouring of donations—people,money, equipment and apparatus—byAmerica’s emergency manufacturers fol-lowing this horrible tragedy was unprece-dented. In the midst of a challenging economy, many vendors helped howeverthey could. Competitors worked together.Employees worked tirelessly. Companiesgave selflessly.

We’ll never know everything fire andEMS vendors did to help. Much of it wasbehind the scenes. But these companiescame through when it counted, and that’sall that really counts.

Jeff Berend is Publisher/General Manager ofJEMS and FIRERESCUE Magazine.

Editor’s note: The information in this articlewas obtained directly from the manufacturers.

Seagrave personnel created aSept. 11 memorial mural forone of the rigs it delivered to FDNY.

ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001, OUR COUNTRY BEGAN MOURNING

THE LOSS OF HUNDREDS OF YOUR PEERS,

BRAVE MEN AND WOMEN, WHO DIED BECAUSE THEY PUT OTHERS’ NEEDS FIRST.

WE ARE HUMBLED BY THEIR SACRIFICE

AND INSPIRED BY YOUR CONTINUING, PROFESSIONAL SERVICE.

With sincere appreciation to all

the organizations who sponsored the

“Courage Under Fire” supplement:

Access CardioSystemsAllison TransmissionAristaTekAugustus Fire Tool CompanyCET Fire Pump Mfg.Chelsea ProductsDanko Emergency Equipment Co.Desi’s Fire EquipmentEMCO Industries, Inc.Eye Safety Systems, Inc.FernoFire Facilities, Inc.Fouts Bros. Fire EquipmentGarden State BatteryHartwell MedicalHero’s SaluteHumat, Inc.Jones and Bartlett PublishersLaerdal Medical Corp.Marion Body Works

Medtronic Physio-ControlMSA/Cairns HelmetsNational Assoc. of Fire InvestigatorsOld South ManufacturingPathfinders Rescue EquipmentPetzl AmericaPierce ManufacturingPublisher’s PressS&S Fire Apparatus Co.Seagrave Fire ApparatusSkedco, Inc.Spartan MotorsSpiewakTempest TechnologyTraverse RescueWehr EngineeringWelch AllynWorkriteZumro, Inc.

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▲ As I sat there looking at the final resting place for many ofthese men, I felt as if the dead were asking me not to forget them… to keep their memories with me for the rest of my life. I madethem a promise that I would remember them every waking dayuntil I finally join them.

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▲ This incident changed me for thebetter. I’ve always been a veryresponsible person. I like to do things allby the book. Now, I’m starting to see life alittle bit different. I now know that I’m nottotally in control of certain things. So I’mtaking things easier now, without all thatanxiety that I placed on myself.

I don’t think anyfirefighter that daythought twice aboutentering the TwinTowers. As firefighters,you never think twiceabout advancing intothe jaws of death; it’sinstilled in our bloodand character.

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Personnel Band Together to Save Fallen BrotherKevin Shea is among those who count themselves lucky tobe alive.

After the World Trade Center’s South Tower collapsed,SteveZakheim, chief operating officer for MetroCare Ambulance,firefighter Richard Nogan (Ladder 113) and Al Kim, vice pres-ident of New York City operations, MetroCare Ambulance,crawled south on West Street to get away from fires burningin the debris.As they moved through the black cloud of dustthat blanketed the area, the men saw the outline of a bodybeneath the debris, about 40 feet from the pedestrian SouthBridge that had protected them when the towers crumbled. Itwas Shea—an FDNY firefighter who had been injured nearAlbany Street.Although he was alive, he had a broken neck.

Daily News photographer Todd Maisel, who was nearbytaking photos of the incident, witnessed the trio’s efforts totreat and stabilize the injured firefighter and put down hiscamera to assist. He and Zakheim retrieved a backboard andother medical equipment from nearby damaged, burningambulances. Maisel then retrieved his camera and capturedShea’s rescue on film.

The group immobilized Shea, moved him to the lobby of abuilding on Albany Street and left him with a female doctorand a group of firefighters.Shea had been rescued just in time:the North Tower collapsed minutes later.“I was glad we gotShea out of the area,” Kim says. Shea later learned he was theonly member of FDNY’s Engine Company 40, LadderCompany 35 to survive that day.

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If anything good can come from this tragedy,it would be the knowledge that the spirit ofthese brave men will be with us for eternity.

I can still smell the Trade Centersometimes—in my car, in clothes that I wasn’twearing down there. I go to my closet and putthree or four jackets on before it finally doesn’tsmell like the World Trade Center.

▲ When the list of guys missing came out, ittook me three or four days to go through it.After two or three pages, I had to stop. GuysI’ve known for 23 years were killed, over ahundred men—and I know them.

▲ From left to right: Steve Zakheim and Al Kim, both ofMetroCare Ambulance, and an unidentified police officerinitiate care for firefighter Kevin Shea. FirefighterRichard Nogan points toward Albany Street as an exitroute. Shea’s neck was fractured in three places.

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Goin’ to the ChapelFDNY paramedic pops the question right after attacks By Keri Losavio

Dear Helpers of theGovernment: Thank You!

New York school children reach out to emergency personnelWhen the children at St.Andrew Avellino School in Queens want-ed to show their appreciation to New York City’s firefighters,EMTs and paramedics after Sept. 11, they put a little time and alot of care into creating colorful cards. Children from AnnBeloten’s kindergarten class crafted the first set of cards for Ann’s

husband, Maimonides Hospital paramedic ScottBeloten, who responded to the World Trade Centercollapse (see his account on p. 28). Soon secondgraders joined in, creating a large poster for Scott.Finally, the school’s two sixth-grade classes madecards for 25 firefighters and paramedics across NewYork City. Sentiments ranged from “You risked yourlives saving people,” to “Thanks to you, our city issafer.”To the left,a sampling of their creative efforts.

Orlando Martinez, EMT, FDNY EMS, was one block away fromthe World Trade Center when the first plane hit.After he and hispartner, Frank Puma, transported a patient who’d been criti-cally injured by part of a plane’s landing gear to NYUDowntown Hospital, he called his girlfriend, MaddalenaPassarella, and told her a plane had hit the World Trade Center.

“I told her I was OK and that I had to go back in to help moreinjured people,” says Martinez.“She told me to be safe and callher as soon as I could.”

She went into the living room, turned on the TV and sawwhat all of America had been seeing.About an hour later, thetowers collapsed.She panicked,not knowing whether Martinezwas dead or alive.Five hours later,he called to let her know hewas alive, although very shaken up. When he arrived homeabout 10 p.m., Maddalena wouldn’t let him leave her sight.

The following day, Martinez’s brothers came over and drovehim and Maddalena to his parents’ house in Brooklyn. Hiswhole family—including his pregnant sister who drove fourhours from Pennsylvania—wanted to see him.Toward the end

of the night, Orlando gathered everyone in his parents’ livingroom and thanked them for their love and support.“I reachedinto my pocket and pulled out a black jewelry box,approachedmy girlfriend, got down on one knee and opened the box. Ihanded her a diamond ring and asked for her hand in marriagein front of the whole family,” says Martinez.“After she floodedthe floor with crying, she finally said,‘Yes.’”

“Life is too short,” says Martinez, who had the ring for threemonths prior to the terrorist attacks.“If I had perished in theTrade Center, my biggest regret would be not having toldMaddalena how much I love her and letting her know that Iwas planning to spend the rest of my life with her.”

Their wedding bells will ring this October.

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