PART 1: ORAL HISTORIES NYFD FROM SEPTEMBER 11TH,2001

File No. 9110071 

WORLD TRADE CENTER 

TASK FORCE INTERVIEW 

EMT FAISEL ABED 

Interview Date: 

October 12, 2001 

Transcribed by Elisabeth F. Nason  

MR. ECCLESTON: Today's date is October 12, 2001. The time is 747 hours. This is Christopher Eccleston of the New York City Fire Department. I'm conducting an interview with the following individual. 

Q. Please state your name, rank, title, assigned command area of the Fire Department of the City of New York regarding the events of September 11, 2001. 

A. My name is Faisel Abed. I'm an EMT assigned to Battalion 8 and my unit is 08 David 2.

Q. Also present in the room is -- 

A. Christine Bastedenbeck of the New York City Fire Department.

Q. Were you assigned to the World Trade Center disaster on September 11, 2001?

A. Originally, basically we weren't assigned, but we heard so much commotion over the radio, we decided, you know, we asked Central, send us and we went even as they dispatched us to the World Center.

Q. Who were you working with that day?

A. Charles Beshett.

Q. So they assigned you to the World Trade Center? 

A. Yes, I mean there was so much noise when the 3 first call came over, everybody just went like ballistic over the radio. Whoever was there. There was 01 Adam that was like the under the building at that time and then there were a couple of other units that said we will go, we will go. We said we will take you. It sounded legit. It did sound legit, but in the back of our of minds, we thought maybe it's one of the generators that blew up, something electrical, something mechanical. It's just such a tall building, things happen, you know. 

So we asked Central to send us the job and we are driving down 34 Street and we get to 23 Street and you see tower one. It's like oh, shit, oh, god. Look at this. The first thing that comes to your mind is oh, it's an act of god, it's a terrible tragedy. I mean you think you know -- you look at it and say -- it's not the first time a plane hit a building. You had the Empire State Building. My parents told me back in 1945 when a big bomber hit the building, so it's an accident, god, it's a tragic accident. 

But then we are driving and now we are like, we are about a half mile out, halfway from the World Trade Center and we see this shiny object coming and me and my partner are going, what the hell, what's wrong with that plane. What is wrong with that plane.* There is something not right with that plane. And he just -- the tower blew.[planes-1, no planes-0 DC] 

So my partner said stop the freaking bus, stop the freaking bus. The building's going to fall. The building's going to fall on us. It was coming -- the force -- you see like the -- shit, the whole top of the building go off and just the junk that was coming out of there and the explosion was -- I thought it was Hollywood. I thought this was an act. I said this can't be happening. In New York. It's not happening. 

I slowed it down. He got scared and I got scared so we kind of just slowed down a bit, you know, and he says listen, we really can't go in there. There is too much coming off the building. You could see stuff flying out of the building and people way before you get there. So we do it. We go, we go. We finally go to Vesey and West. Turned there. 

There was a couple of other units there. They set the staging area up. We had about 15, 20 people coming out of the building and there were nurses from, they're from AMEX. I think they are from the American Express building. A couple of their nurses. They were bringing patients out. They were sitting down right on the sidewalk. Some were badly burned, some were injured. Some were just in shock. Basically we are there. We are treating some.

Q. Could you indicate where you parked your vehicle.  

A. Here is north, we are right here. I would say we are right here. Exactly right here. We are right here. 

Q. Just make a number 1 there. 

A. Okay. We were right here. West and Vesey and the water is right here and you can't go past the water. 

Q. Okay, what vehicle were you in?

A. 350.

Q. 350?

A. 350. So what happened at that point we get out. We get out our stuff, we are just starting to take care of the patients. We are tagging them red, yellow, whatever color might be at that situation at that time. We were there on the scene maybe -- I know the second plane hit a little bit after nine, if I'm correct. If I remember. We got our stuff out. We started triaging the patients. We stayed right there.  I mean we didn't go any further because of the fact that it was just a dangerous situation.

We stayed there, people were coming out and we triaged them. We were there, I would say approximately maybe an hour. I know it started -- I think that building starting coming down around 10 o'clock or something like that. I don't exactly remember what time, but it was about that time the first tower came down.

Q. We have the time.

A. Yes, I don't remember exactly, but I know it did come down, the first building, right. 9:55. About an hour from when we were first there. With the grace of god we had gotten all the people out of there. We had gotten all the patients out of there. They were transported and everything. 

Next thing you know, you hear another -- they had said there were jets out there that day. They were out there. I started to hear another jet, right, it sounded like a flush of a jet. What it was was actually the building coming down. I didn't actually see the building coming down but you heard it. Why I didn't see it, I don't know. We were just so busy concentrating on what we are doing. You just heard  this thrushing, thrushing noise like a rocket. I thought the building was under attack again.

You just start seeing this smoke coming down. We just took off. We went north. We actually -- sorry, we went west. We went towards the river. All right. Then we just went towards the river and went up north a little bit behind the building. That was after the first one went down.

Q. Were you still with your partner at that time?

A. No. At that time, forget it, we were gone. We separated. It was just one of those things. We separated. I was looking for him. He was looking for me. I asked all around if -- someone told me he saw him. He was okay. I heard at one point that he went to the hospital with another co-worker of mine, but that wasn't true. 

We were there, I would say for maybe another 20 minutes, half an hour or so, and then the second building came down, so we had to run even more further. We ran up north further, and then what happened we ran into the school. Actually the school was coming out, Stuyvesant High School, the kids started coming out. They didn't have a clue what was going on. 

So we have like 3, 4,000 kids coming out of the school, not realizing the magnitude of what's going on. So we are starting to walk. Now it's coming down and we are starting to walk, but the school is funny, the school is like a break wall for the smoke that is coming from the building, so when the kids got past one end of the school they started panicking. So we all started getting nervous, because the only place else to go was the Hudson River.

I'm a good swimmer, but the Hudson River? So I started telling the kids, everybody, just calm down, everybody keep on walking. Keep on walking, keep on walking. We finally got out to West Street and went just go all the way up till we stayed at the -- what's the place up there.

Q. Chelsea Pier?

A. Yes, Chelsea Piers. After that, then there was a gas leak. There was another explosion, the gas went. At that point it was just total helplessness. We felt terrible. We felt bad.

Q. Where your vehicle was left --

A. The vehicle was left right there. It was left right there at West and Vesey Street. Just left it there, left everything. Just left everything. They tell you if running, don't look back. I was running looking back, making sure that cloud was coming, because it was coming. It was a horrific cloud. 

It was like this monster coming out of the sky that was going to swallow you up. Then I noticed people jumping off the building. I caught this one guy over there. My eye caught him. It was just one of those things. My eye caught him. I was watching. 

That's pretty much it.

Q. Once you got to the Chelsea Piers, and they had you staged there --

A. Well, I tell you, everybody -- it was so -- at that point, at that point, I think right after the first building collapsed, people were just walking around. They didn't know what to do. Everybody was just walking around. I was walking around like I lost my little puppy. I was definitely just total shaken. Forget it.

It got more organized at one point. At one point it started to get organized. I think after the second building went down, it finally started to get organized. Started getting all the ambulances lined up on West Street. It just really started to get organized, but like I said, there wasn't really much for us to do. You had 400 ambulances there, just idling their engines. Not really doing anything. It was a shame. 

If you ask me, can we ever prepare ourselves for something like this, not this magnitude. Not this magnitude, no. This was something else way beyond our comprehension and something that we, you know, can never handle again. It's impossible. It really is. As much training as we get, MCIs and things like that every year, I never want to see this again. I really don't.

I'm staged by the Empire State Building, so every time I stage by the Empire State Building, I'm like, I'm looking up all the time now. I mean I'm just like, oh. My partner is saying what are you looking at? Terrible terrible thing, really was.

Q. Did you eventually get to finding your partner?

A. Thank god, yes. We hugged each other. We gave a big hug, yes, we found each other.

Q. How long were you separated?

A. Almost until -- Jesus, almost until -- it had to be afternoon, one o'clock, 1:30, 2:00. I finally found him down around the command center. What happened was that I had gotten pulled off. I had a Chief come pick me up and drive me to the hospital, because our Captain was hurt, so he saw me walking up the street and he says do you have a unit? I said no, he says hop in with me and he took me up to the hospital.

Q. Who was your Captain?

A. Captain Stone.

Q. Okay. He had gotten hurt on the scene?

A. Apparently. Now that I've opened my mouth, I'm sorry, but he actually escaped. He was in the building. He almost -- from what I know, he almost -- escaped with his life just about. He really did. You didn't hear this from me, please. I'm afraid I'm opening a can of worms.

Q. No, you are not, no.

A. He almost escaped with his life. He really did. He just missed it. The building almost fell on him.

Q. Thank goodness he got out.

A. Yes, he got out. So I was in the command car with him. He drove me up to Bellevue and then I was told to take the command car and I went back downtown to the command center. That was pretty much it.

Q. Is there anything else you would like to add to this regarding the events from the time the plane hit until about 12 noon?

A. It was just mass chaos. That's all I could say. It was just mass chaos. I think everybody was just saying, you know, there really isn't much we can do when the buildings went down and that we just got to look out for ourselves and take care of ourselves. That's basically what it was. We were just taking care of ourselves. We had no choice. 

If we get hurt, who are we going to help. It was just basically be safe, keep yourself, keep your distance, keep your ears open, keep your radios open to see what was going on. That's pretty much the whole thing in a nutshell.

MR. ECCLESTON: Thank you very much for conducting this interview with me. This interview is concluded at 758 hours. The counter on the cassette recorder is 194.

[..For the no plane people,3 times he says 'something is wrong with that plane' D.C]

File No. 9110463 

WORLD TRADE CENTER 

TASK FORCE INTERVIEW 

PARAMEDIC ROBERTO ABRIL 

Interview Date: January 17, 2002

Transcribed by Elisabeth F. Nason

MR. MURAD: Today is January 17, 2002. The time is 0800 hours. My name is Murray Murad of the Fire Department of the City of New York. I'm conducting an interview with the following individual.

Q. Please state your name, your rank and your command please? 

A. Paramedic Abril, Battalion 49.

Q. This interview is being conducted at Battalion 49 in Astoria station. This is regarding the events of September 11, 2001. Would you please give us your perspective on that day, on what happened on that tragic day?

A. We were working. We started to work at 8 o'clock. We got a job for an OB comp, somewhere in Astoria, and we went to aid, to help one of the BLS units here, I think it was 5 Adam, with a patient. We ended up going 82 to Elmhurst.

When we were 81 at Elmhurst, we received -- the guy on 6 Zebra told us that we were assigned to the World Trade Center, because a plane had hit one of the buildings. I didn't believe it to begin with and I told Carlos that we had to go to the World Trade Center because there was a plane that crashed into the building. We took off 63 from Elmhurst. We went down Woodside Avenue to Queens Boulevard and took the Midtown Tunnel through.

Q. Just one question. Sorry to interrupt you. Who was your partner on that day?

A. Carlos Lillo. 

Q. Carlos was your partner?

A. We went down to the Midtown Tunnel, but at that point, there was only one plane had hit one of the buildings and the other one was still intact. So we went out to the other side in Manhattan. We went across 34 Street to Tenth Avenue. We went down Tenth Avenue and we took Broadway, West Broadway down to the World Trade Center.

We were stopped at West Broadway and Vesey by one of the Lieutenants there, he told us to bring our vehicles around to where everybody was staging. Instead the staging of the vehicles took place at Washington and Vesey.

At that point is when Carlos took his gear and said well, I'm going to go ahead and go to triage while you park the vehicle. We didn't know -- it looked serious, but we didn't know it was so traumatic.

I parked my vehicle. I asked the Lieutenant if I should leave the keys. He told me no, just to stay by the vehicle, but there were plenty of people pulling me aside to help them out. I remember a lot of leg fractures and extremity fractures. I found myself triaging people. Many of the Metro Care ambulances were sent away with patients, but I mean, when the Lieutenant disappeared, there was nobody else at the triage where they had parked all the vehicles. There was nobody else there.

The initial collapse, not the actual collapse, but the top part of the building collapsed on top of these firemen and cops on West Broadway and Vesey as I was walking towards the building. I was unable to make it any more, because there was a lot of dust.

We witnessed a lot of stuff. We witnessed people falling off the buildings. We witnessed a lot of firemen dying from the initial collapse. You know, all this time Lillo was trying to get to me. He got on the TAC two channel on the radios. He told me that he was on West Broadway in the middle, between World -- I think it was 6 World Trade Center and the north tower. 

That's when he told me to come over and meet him, so what I did was I went around 6 World Trade Center to try and meet him and at that point is when the north tower collapsed and I couldn't make it there any more.

On the way back, again, a lot of people were pulling at me, telling me to help them and I got some of these people in the ambulance. I kind of drove up a couple of blocks, I think it was Warren Street, I see it now. I think it was Warren Street, where I stopped and let them out and then I went back trying to look for my partner, but I found myself picking up more people and putting them again on Warren Street.

Then I went back a third time. Then I found myself stuck treating an old lady that was in a wheelchair with her daughter I think it was. I tried to -- wheel her back to the ambulance. On the way back to the ambulance, I met up with a couple of other paramedics that they said they were from the Bronx. We were trying to -- it was all chaos. We didn't know what to do, where to go, so between the three of us, we kind of got together and tried to get some of these people out. 

Finally again, put some of the patients in  this ambulance. I think it was when the south tower collapsed is when we took our last set of people, but it was some of the parking police department, those people that give out the tickets. The last three that I took out with these paramedics and we took them out to, I think it was Canal Street or one of those streets, about 10 blocks away from the actual site.

I went back, but at that point I couldn't go back any more, because it was too much dust. It was a lot of smoke and actually there was a lot of people that needed help. I couldn't go back. My main concern was to get my partner. I couldn't find him. I kept saying if anybody saw him, but I guess everybody was busy.

Q. Did you happen to find out where Carlos' last location was where he was operating at?

A. Physically I didn't go. I couldn't get there because of what I just said. But he told me it was between the building that we initially saw. He told me between the two buildings, come into the north tower, and that's what I was trying to do. So I figure he was between the 6 World Trade Center and the north tower. Somewhere around there.

Like I said, there was 3 collapses. The first one that the top of the building collapsed. I see here is the northeast plaza building. That building collapsed first.

Q. That was the south tower?

A. Yes, that would make it the south tower, yes. So the top of that building collapsed. Like I said, I witnessed 5 people got killed there. Then it was too much dust. That's when I think I saw Captain Rivera there too. I asked him if he had seen my partner and he said listen, I'm going to go back in there.

Q. Who was that, Captain Rivera?

A. Yes.

Q. Joseph Rivera?

A. Yes, JR.

Q. Okay, JR, fine.

A. I told him listen, I'm missing my partner. We got separated for some reason and I need to go back. I need to find him. He says don't worry about it. I'm going to go back in. You take care of these people and I will go back in and find him. He did. He went back in. That was about it.

When we were -- they didn't let us go to Citywide. They told to us stay on Queens west. The reason how I know that is because there was a lot of traffic and I remember in all the chaos, I wanted to make sense of why people were still going to Rikers Island. Why are people still going to minor injuries when we need a lot of help here.  

I remember listening to the radio, to all the normal traffic that you would have, when I know these people would need help. When the initial collapse happened, all my masks ran out. I had like 20 of those -- I think they are class A or class one masks that we always carry. But I gave them out and as soon as -- 5 minutes they were all gone. I remember keeping, I said listen, I got only two left. I had one for myself and one for my partner. I can't gave give them away any more. Then I remember getting on the radio and saying listen, can somebody bring some masks, because I need a lot of masks over here.

That was about it. When I turned around and I tried to help these people before the north tower collapsed, the first big collapse, we were helping -- we were at, I think the American Express building. We had people that were burnt. We had people that had fractures and other people with psychological type of problems. We had staged them there, because there was really no control over anything at that point. That's when the north tower collapsed. It was when I heard Mayday, Mayday. Some of the firemen that were running back were telling us run, run, run. We started to run and now that I think about it, some of these people with fractured limbs, they kind of took off running.

That's it. Then after that, we just started to drive and we started to treat these people and I lost my partner. That was it.

Q. Is there anything else that you would like to add or that you can think of?

A. About the whole thing?

Q. Yes. Personal stuff.

A. At that point, what I didn't understand was why is it that we were triaging people on the first floor of this building that has a plane on top. I couldn't understand that. When I had a chance to walk in to see what was going on, there were actually close to 5 DOAs on the street. Some of them had no legs, some of them that had no arms. There was a torso with one leg, with an EMS jacket on top. I guess somebody wanted to just cover it. There was a fireman that had been hit by a body. I really didn't understand why is it that we were triaging people on the first floor instead of going somewhere else. 

What else did we do? Then after that everything came down and we were away from the dust cloud and everything, we were somewhere around, I think it was West 23 Street, somewhere around there. You could still smell the dust and smoke and we just wanted to come back. We kept going back, but at one point it was useless because most of the people that could get out were already walking back and there wasn't too many people other than the regular hysterical people, there was no really injuries.

Other than -- maybe we treated a couple of eyes injuries, cops that were coming out. There was one cop that was actually crying blood. There was blood dripping down from his eyes and later I found out, the doctor explained to me that when you get concrete in your eyes it becomes rock and when you close your eyes, your cornea, your eye is bleeding. So I guess -- we just flushed the eyes and they kept going. That's pretty much it. 

MR. MURAD: Paramedic Abril, I would like to thank you for this interview. The time now is 015 hours. This concludes this interview. Thank you very much. 

File No. 9110130 

WORLD TRADE CENTER 

TASK FORCE INTERVIEW 

ELOY ALBUERME 

Interview Date: October 23, 2001 

Transcribed by Maureen McCormick 

MR. RADENBERG: Today is October 23, 2001. I'm Paul Radenberg of the Fire Department, City of New York. The time is now 0603 hours. I am conducting an interview with -- 

LIEUTENANT ALBUERME: Lieutenant Albuerme, Shield 108. 

MR. RADENBERG: Of EMS Battalion No. 8. This interview is being conducted at EMS Battalion 8 regarding the events of September 11, 2001. 

LIEUTENANT ALBUERME: On September 11, 2001, I was assigned to an M.O.S. daughter who was sick at the school. Responded there. Before we responded there, I heard the call come down that an explosion occurred at the World Trade Center. Then I called my CO, and I advised him of such so he can respond.

At the completion of my assignment, I called citywide through my cell phone, advised the citywide tour commander that I was going to respond to the World Trade Center.

I responded into the World Trade Center southbound on 7th Avenue into West Broadway, which at West Broadway and Murray Street, I stopped to assist a unit that had eleven patients from -- that were injured  due to the incident.

At the completion of that, I then went down to Barclay street, which I made a right to West Street, which I made a right, which I also encountered a couple of units, a few units that were sitting right there on West Street and Murray.

I asked one of the medics to have all the vehicles turn around facing northbound and to collect a key and make that as a staging area.

At that time, one of the trade buildings collapsed, and I turned right -- turned left on Murray Street, using the District 37 building as my cover, which at that time I was screaming out to everybody to come my way to use the building as a cover, and then after that I assisted (inaudible) for the people to be evacuated, and then I don't know how I got to Chambers Street, but I went down on Chambers Street, and we just started setting up triage area at the Manhattan Community College, so in case we had to take any of the personnel, and after that I encountered a couple of EMS personnel that had their cell phone on them, which I used their cell phone number as a communication device in case -- so that way we can talk to each other, since all the radio communication at that time was down.

On my way to where the EMS command center was, I went over there and I tried to speak to an EMS chief that I have started communication, I had two different staging areas set up for ambulance to respond in case we need them.

At that time, I was told to go and see the captain. The captain then told me to go see the chief. The chief told me to go back to the captain, who told me I will be in charge of transport right at the Chambers command center.

After that, it just stayed there until 2:30 in the morning, return to the station, and I went home.

Q. The first unit that you met up with on Murray and West Broadway, do you remember what unit it was, EMS unit or a volley?

A. They were a vollie unit.

Q. A vollie unit?

A. Okay, they were a vollie unit, and then I had a 911 unit. I think it was ten charlie from -- sorry, from Lenox Hill, and I think one unit from St. Vincent's.

Q. And on West and Barclay, the units that were there?

A. All EMS units.

Q. All EMS units?

A. Right.

Q. Do you remember which units they were offhand or --

A. No idea.

Q. Recognize any of the personnel?

A. I didn't recognize no other personnel. That is why I asked who was the senior man, and I had to put a senior man in charge of that staging area. What I did ask was turn around and face north so in case they have to transport, they had a clear avenue to transport, and as they were turning the vehicle around, that's when the tower building came down. I don't know which building came down, but I know one of the buildings came down.

Q. When you were on Murray Street itself, by the D.C. 37 building, any other EMS personnel with you?

A. No, I was by myself.

Q. You were by yourself? They all went north on the Westside Highway?

A. They all went north on the Westside Highway.

Q. With the collapse?

A. Right, with the collapse.

Q. Do you know that chief and the captain?

A. There were a whole bunch of chiefs there. The captain I just don't remember his name, but there were a whole bunch of EMS chiefs there.

Q. And they were up on Chambers?

A. Chambers, there is -- yeah, they established command.

Q. Anything else you'd like to add?

A. Basically no. I think that we should start doing more drilling on an incident like this, as far as I think that we haven't done in many years because they're too comfortable. It's not only keeping in practice to have a lot of (inaudible) to make sure that everything is done correctly. You have proper training, like the army had the war games and things like that. We have this command, this system. We should have that more often, you know, and in a city anything could happen.

MR. RADENBERG: Okay. The time is now 0609 hours, and the interview is concluded. 

File No. 9110265 

WORLD TRADE CENTER

TASK FORCE INTERVIEW 

FIREFIGHTER STEVEN ALTINI

Interview Date: December 7, 2001

Transcribed by Laurie A. Collins 

CHIEF KEMLY: Today is Friday, December 7th, 2001. The time is 1615 hours. This is Battalion Chief Ronald Kemly of the Fire Department, City of New York. I am conducting an interview with the following individual: Steven Altini, firefighter first, assigned to Engine Company 24 of the Fire Department, City of New York. The interview is being conducted at the quarters of Engine 24 in the engine office, regarding the events of September 11th, 2001.

Q. Fireman Altini, would you please tell me what happened on September 11th.

A. Okay. Me and two other off-duty firefighters responded from home prior to the recall. We went over the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. Looking towards Manhattan, we could see the two towers, pretty heavy smoke rushing from the towers.

We responded through Brooklyn via the Gowanus Expressway. We were waved through the easy pass lane from PD as we showed our ID, who we were. We proceeded to go through the Battery Tunnel. We noticed no fire apparatus or  emergency vehicles as we went through, just some civilian vehicles.

As we exited the Battery Tunnel to lower Manhattan, we proceeded to make a right turn onto West Street where we were confronted with a lot of debris in the street, airplane debris, human remains and such.

We pulled our pickup truck just north of the Marriott at Carlisle Street on the east side of West Street, facing north. As we exited the vehicle, two other firefighters donned their protective gear and headed north towards tower two or one.

Me being in civilian clothes and no protective gear, I proceeded west across West Street to Commissioner Gregory and his aide and asked them where the off-duty firemen were going, and what I can do. I was instructed to either remain at the scene or proceed over to City Hall where the firefighters were now mustering up after the recall.

As I was there, I remember seeing Ladder 113, but there was no members there. This was between 9:30 and 10. I don't know the exact time the second plane hit the tower, but that's exactly when we left Staten Island. It took us maybe about 20 minutes to get in.

I noticed an engine company -- I believe it was Engine 211 -- pull up. As they were getting out of the rig, I went over to the chauffeur and asked them if they had protective gear that I could borrow. Being the chauffeur was also suiting up, they had no extra gear. 

With that I headed east across West Street and went through the Marriott at Carlisle Street, exiting the rear onto Washington Street, headed north one block, over east another block to Greenwich Street, where I met up with another fireman who was in full gear from Engine 249.

We proceeded north towards Engine 10, and we tried to enter their quarters through the rear basement entrance, which was locked. As we continued north on Greenwich Street towards the corner of Liberty and Greenwich is when tower two started to come down. 

The only other apparatus I saw, that I remembered seeing on Liberty Street in front of tower two, I believe it was Ladder 15. The number is not clear, but I thought it was Ladder 15. I may be mistaken. I confronted no personnel other than the one member from 249 at that point.

We found cover at the corner of Cedar and Greenwich Street as tower two was coming down, in a deli next to O'Hara's Restaurant. After it sounded like the tower was finished collapsing, we exited the deli and headed south one block, where we were separated, me and the fireman.

I met up with a fire cadet, Eddie Gonzalez, who sustained a broken left arm, I believe, and we got him to an ambulance maybe about 15 minutes, 20 minutes later. By that time tower one had already come down.

When he was taken away in the ambulance, I went around by Battery Park and back up West Street where there was a lot of firemen that weren't there earlier. I didn't see Commissioner Gregory or his aide. I didn't see any other members that I saw prior to the collapses. Just a lot of firemen from out of the borough I guess responded from the recall.

I gave Chief Mosier from the 8th Division some information about the two members that I came up to Manhattan with, because at this point I knew they were missing and I thought they were caught in the collapse of either one or two, tower one or tower two. I wasn't sure, because they didn't say where they were going.

Throughout the day I met many different personnel, and we continued to search and help stretch some hose line from the tugboats to supply tower ladders on West Street, and that was pretty much it.

Q. I'm just going to ask you a couple questions. That was pretty good. When you say you went there with two other firemen, who were the others?

A. It was Craig Monahan from Ladder Company 5 and Joseph Rea from Engine Company 255.

Q. They had their gear with them?

A. Yes.

Q. When you were on West Street, you said you were on West Street and you met Commissioner Gregory.

A. Right.

Q. Where on West Street was he? Do you know what street?

A. Yeah, we were pretty much right between Liberty and Cedar, just south of the south walkway bridge, at the median in the divider. There was a separation in the divider, and he had his car and they were there, facing north. 

Q. You mentioned 211, again on West Street. Do you know where on West Street? Is that the same location?

A. Same location. They pulled up, and the officer had come out and I believe he spoke to Commissioner Gregory. At that point I went over and spoke to the chauffeur as he was donning his gear.

Q. And the guy from 249, you don't recall his name?

A. No, I'm sorry.

Q. That's okay.

A. I was told his name a couple of times.

Q. Okay. Fine.

A. I don't remember.

Q. It would help, but that's fine. And Ladder 15, you said they were on West Street also on Liberty Street. Is that the overpass, the south overpass?

A. No, it looked like they were facing -- they were on the north side of Liberty Street facing east on a diagonal. I hate to speculate, but they may have come around by Battery Park and then up West Street and parked their rig in front of tower two. They weren't near tower one.

Q. No, but the overpass on Liberty Street, the south walkway.

A. Right.

Q. Were they near that?

A. They were just north of that and east.

Q. Okay. If you don't have anything else, that concludes the interview. Thank you very much.

A. Thank you. 

[Planes-2, No Planes-0 DC]

to be continued...