PART 2 :ORAL HISTORIES NYFD FROM SEPTEMBER 11TH,2001

Four more interviews, one involving one of the first doctors on scene.A bit disturbed that there were blacked out sections in a couple of these,the one that is almost 13 lines,happens at a interesting time in the narrative.I could perhaps guess what is blacked out,but I will leave it for now until I get a bigger sample.What I will say now,is that I had an ongoing thread on these interviews(I might have had 70 of them)at my old blog,before it disappeared,and I do not recall any interviews having blacked out sections.As for the tone of these 4,the last response of the 3rd sums up the responders mindset.....

A. Thoughts and comments? No, I was just -- I just -- you know. I have been through a lot of stuff in my own personal life, but I never seen anything like that. I am a Persian Gulf War veteran and I have never seen anything like this before in my life, and I still to this day can't believe it. I just can't believe it, that it happened. Basically that's all.

File No. 9110421 

WORLD TRADE CENTER

TASK FORCE INTERVIEW 

FIREFIGHTER JOHN AMATO 

Interview Date: January 2, 2002

Transcribed by Laurie A. Collins

CHIEF MALKIN: Today's date is January 2, '02. The time is 1330 hours. This is Battalion Chief Malkin of the Safety Battalion. I'm conducting an interview today with Firefighter third grade John Amato, Engine 68. We're in the quarters of Engine 68. There's nobody else in this room at this time. The interview concerns the events of September 11th. What follows is the interview.

A. We got the call early that morning to go to 35 Engine. We got down to 35 Engine. We mucked it up with a bunch of other companies. We took some equipment from 35 Engine. Then we got the call to go down to the World Trade Center.

As we were driving down to the World Trade Center -- actually we took a little detour because a couple of -- I think 64 Engine was leading us. We didn't exactly know how to get down there, which delayed us a little bit, thank God.

When we got down there, we parked I'd say maybe 10 blocks, 10 to 12 blocks away from the World Trade Center. We gathered all the J. AMATO 3 equipment, the rollups, the standpipe kit, and we started walking down the West Side Highway.

As we were walking down -- actually as we were driving down, we heard that the first building had collapsed, which is the south tower?

Q. The south tower collapsed first.

A. The south tower collapsed first. We didn't know what kind of collapse it was. We thought it was a partial collapse. We thought it was maybe two floors pancaking.

At that point we were walking towards the building. We still didn't know it was a total collapse. As we get closer and closer, we notice that the smoke is clearing. We don't see the south tower. Now we're starting to talk to each other, started to actually worry what's in for us next. 

As we approached Chambers Street, kept walking, still no one had told us about the total collapse. We get down to about Barclay and Vesey Street, which is a block away from the overpass, the bridge overpass that goes across the West Side Highway. All you hear is a rumbling in the  street. It sounded like an earthquake. When I was a younger kid, I was in an earthquake and it felt like the same exact feeling. I looked, and I could see the antenna on the top of the roof coming straight down.

We all turned and just threw our rollups down and started running as fast as we could. I took about five steps, I turned back to look behind me, and the debris was on my heels. Guys were just scrambling through the streets. Finally the debris overcame us, and you couldn't see anymore. It was like pitch-black, total darkness.

I kind of ran into a building. I hit the building. One of the gentlemen working in the building I think I see was an engineer pulled me over towards the entrance. I went into the entrance. You couldn't see. It was dark as night.

Finally a few minutes went by, about four or five minutes went by, it started clearing, and we started looking for members of Engine 68 as well as all the other engines that had driven down with us.

We found everyone. We were told to stay at Chambers Street until further notice. That's about it.

Q. That's about it? So you stayed at Chambers Street?

A. We stayed at Chambers Street. They didn't give us permission to go back in there, since we had already been involved with the collapse.

Q. So you stayed there for some period of time at Chambers, the staging area?

A. The staging area, yeah.

Q. And then from there you left? You took your rig back to 68 at some point?

A. Oh, yeah, I'd say about 11 p.m. that night.

Q. Wow.

A. Yeah, we stayed there the whole day.

Q. The whole day, and they never put you work?

A. No.

Q. Were there a lot of companies at the staging area?

A. There were a lot of companies there. They just didn't want anyone involved with the immediate collapse back in there. That was their idea. Since we were on paper as one of the companies, they didn't want us to go. 

Q. You really didn't interact with any other companies or anything like that? You were walking in, it started to collapse, you ran out, wound up at the staging area eventually, and that's about it. Is everybody from 68 okay?

A. Yeah.

Q. Everybody came back? 

A. Yes. We had minor injuries from running into, not being able to see. We did have some minor injuries, including myself.

CHIEF MALKIN: Okay. It's 1336 hours. This concludes the interview with Fireman Amato. I thank him for the interview, and that's the end. 

File No. 9110062

WORLD TRADE CENTER

TASK FORCE INTERVIEW

DR. GLENN ASAEDA

Interview Date: October 11, 2001

Transcribed by Nancy Francis 

MR. McALLISTER: This is Kevin McALLISTER from the Bureau of Administration. It's October llth, 2001. We're in the south conference room at Fire Department Headquarters. It is 1536 hours and I am joined by. . .

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: Assistant Commissioner Jim Drury. 

MR. McALLISTER: And ...

DR. ASAEDA: Glenn Asaeda, M.D., Deputy Medical Director with the Fire Department Medical Affairs.

Q. DR. ASAEDA, I'd like to draw your attention to September the llth, 2001, and get your recollections of that day, if we could.

A. Yes. I was actually one of the physicians for the Office of Medical Affairs that was coming on duty as the on-call medical director for the system and was actually headed to Manhattan for an unrelated sexual assault task force meeting. I was actually on the Long Island Expressway going towards the Midtown Tunnel when I happened to look over to my left and actually did see one of the towers, what appeared to look like one of the top floors kind of smoking, but from my angle, there were four smokestacks, I guess on the Brooklyn side or the Manhattan side, just in front of the towers, to a point where it looked like it was actually smoke from the smokestacks, and I thought at that point, wow, that's interesting, it really makes the tower look like it's on fire.

I had just taken a bioterrorism course that the Fire Department had offered, I think a month or two months before downstairs, and at that time the instructor from the federal government had said, do you know how to tell if it's a good day for bioterrorism? We had not known and they had explained to us that by looking at the smoke from the smokestack you can tell. If it rises straight into the air and dissipates, it's a bad day for bioterrorism, good for the people because what happens is anything released would go into the air, we wouldn't breathe it in. A good day for bioterrorism but bad for citizens would be a day where the smoke seems to kind of hover, even come to the ground, anything released could actually be inhaled. So, as I looked at that, I thought, oh, potentially this is a good day for bioterrorism. I was just thinking that off the top of my head.

Then, as I was in traffic, I saw the car next to me honking, flashing its lights, and often in a  marked car I get that. Can you tell me how to get to Bellevue Hospital? Can you tell me where the corner of this and that is? So I didn't think much of it. I rolled down the window only to hear the driver say, did you see the plane hit the World Trade Center? At that point I realized it was a real situation, looked back at the tower and thought, oh, my God, and for some reason I felt why is the Citywide radio so quiet? I didn't come to realize that, when I actually stopped for coffee initially, I had forgotten to put the Citywide back on. On my car it just doesn't automatically go on.

Almost afraid to push the Citywide button, I pressed it, got the radio to go on and it came to life, and I hear the first thing, confirmed aircraft into the World Trade Center tower, send me everything you've got, and this is hard hat operation. As soon as I heard that, I actually got on the cell phone with Commissioner Claire.

Q. Do you think that was the first or the second plane that had hit? 

A. That was the first plane.

Q. Okay.

A. At that point, realizing that Commissioner Claire was actually in Albany for a state EMS meeting, I actually dug into my bag, got his cell phone number, just to let him know, called him on the cell phone, and at that point I was told, I'm watching it, I'm seeing it on TV right now. Do me a favor and when you get in on scene, give me another report. So I said okay, I acknowledged that and started to roll in. At that point, also, as I'm rolling, I called my wife just to let her know that the plane had hit the tower, I'm going to go in, just watch it on the news.

Probably about three minutes from the tunnel, I ducked into the tunnel with traffic with the lights and siren, and at that point didn't realize until later that communications was lost for me. I didn't know about the second aircraft. I think I had 1010 WINS on trying to hear the news. In the tunnel, I didn't hear any of that as well. I just remember, when I popped out of the tunnel, that my adrenaline was so pumped, I thought to myself, you've got to calm down, you've got to relax a little bit and just concentrate on doing what you have to do.

As I popped out of the tunnel, emergency vehicles, marked and unmarked, from every aspect, just in front of me, to the side of me, behind me, and I realized that this is something I need to really be careful as to how I'm driving because we're not usually accustomed to so many vehicles going in one place.

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: Excuse me. Doctor, you said the tunnel. Which tunnel?

DR. ASAEDA: The Midtown Tunnel.

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: Okay.

A. At this point almost a convoy of emergency vehicles were going towards the World Trade Center. Since I was on the east side, I continued all the way down. As soon as I got towards the Brooklyn Bridge, I could see more closely the smoke and just thousands of people were just kind of running, walking towards the Brooklyn Bridge.

Q. Were both of the buildings standing at that point in time?

A. Yes, they were.

Q. Okay.

A. Again, still I had not realized about the second plane hitting the tower. Also, because of the bioterrorism course and just the threats, I'm thinking to myself, I had just imagined that it was a single engine Cessna type of plane, not knowing it was a commercial airlines by any means. I kept thinking also  to myself, be careful, it still could be terrorism, it could be bioterrorism, they could have had some kind of chemicals and biological agents on board. I kept thinking don't go downwind, don't go downwind. But because of the flow of people, the direction that I was hoping to take ended up putting me further south, which actually put me directly downwind, and I remember thinking to myself, oh, my God, this is where I don't want to be. I turned off the air-conditioner, holding my breath, as if that would work, thinking do you know what? You're in the worst place.

As I rounded the corner, more emergency vehicles now on the West Side Highway trying to get north towards the towers, the next car that I saw coming next to me was Chief Downey's vehicle.

Q. So you drove all the way south down the east side and looped around --

A. Correct.

Q. -- at the Battery and headed up West Street?

A. Correct. Because there were too many people coming directly east. I knew that I couldn't go that way. So as I rounded the bend by the ferry, got back onto the west side, the next unmarked car that I saw was Chief Downey. Now, I don't think he was driving because I don't think I could have seen him that clearly, but I remember that he looked in towards the window of my vehicle, he smiled and actually waved, and I actually remember saying verbally, hey, chief, knowing that he couldn't hear me. But I particularly remember Chief Downey because I've had the opportunity of going on FEMA deployments with him to the Dominican Republic and joining him when the Japanese firefighters had come by, they wanted to speak to the S.O.C. chief and whatnot. So he was I remember physically one of the last people that I had known recognizing going to the scene.

As the first convoy had gone in front of me, I actually diverted my vehicle to two ambulances that I had seen right under the south walkway bridge. I saw two ambulances, Fire Department ambulances, pulled up next to them and said--

Q. That's the south bridge that crosses the West Side Highway?

A. Correct. The one that's still intact.

Q. Right?

A. Or was still intact. At that point, I pulled up next to the ambulances. I asked them, is this the command post? They said no, it wasn't. I said, who set you up here? I believe they were EMTs. I don't think they were medics. They had said, there's so many people running this way, we felt this was a good area to be in. I said, it sounds good, just make sure to let a lieutenant know where you are so he can account for everyone, and I asked them, do you happen to know where the command post is? They directed me to in front of 1 World Trade Center on the West Side Highway.

Also, at this point I noticed just women's shoes all over. I guess they had taken them off to run. I guess they couldn't run in the heels and whatnot.

Q. That was on West Street?

A. That was on West Street and even previously, coming around from the east side to the west side, just shoes all over, it was just interesting to see that, along with the debris.

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: If I may interrupt.

DR. ASAEDA: Yes.

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: You were directed to the command center on West Street across from 1 World Trade?  

DR. ASAEDA: Correct.

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: Did you in fact reach that command post?

DR. ASAEDA: Yes, I did.

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: Was that in front of the World Financial Center? 

DR. ASAEDA: Yes, it was. 

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: Okay. 

A. So as I pulled my vehicle, I realized that the West Side Highway had a lot of emergency vehicles. I couldn't actually get onto that. I went up the service road the wrong way with just the lights on, no siren at this point, saw the people gathering, I would say, 30 to 40 feet in front of the stairs of the World Financial Center. I think they call it the American -- I don't know if that's the same as the American Express Building or whatnot.

Q. No. 3 World Financial?

A. I would guess it would be 2, but I'm not sure of the number.

Q. The American Express Building?

A. Yes, the World Financial. I remember parking my car on Vesey and West on the corner, it was the northwest corner. There were emergency vehicles there as well. I was on the end double-parked and I thought to myself, I don't want to block anyone. Again, not realizing the magnitude of what was about to happen, I thought to myself, I still have a meeting to go to in about half an hour, so once I figure out what's going on here and everything settles, I still need to be able to pull my vehicle to go to the meeting. So I parked my vehicle, remembered that it was a hard hat operation, grabbed my helmet, grabbed my jacket and proceeded to the command post. 

While I was en route to the site, I actually remember hearing the other physician's vehicle designation arrive on scene, so I knew that he was on seen probably about five to seven minutes before I had arrived.

Q. Who was that?

A. That was Dr. Cherson.

Q. Okay.

A. So I made it a point to, once reporting to the command post just to find out what was going on, to see if I could find the other physician as well. Since he was the previous physician on call and first on the scene, I figured I would let him take the lead and let him direct me as to where he wanted me to go.

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: At what time was it now, do you know, doctor, approximately?

DR. ASAEDA: This must have been, I would say -- it turns out it was after the second aircraft had crashed but before the first building. I don't remember the exact time of the second plane, but 9:10, 9:15, somewhere in that time frame.

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: Yes.

A. But even at this point, I still didn't realize that a plane had hit. Again, being so close and looking up, I couldn't even see the other building really from where I was standing. I walked over to the command post. At that point I remember seeing a piece of debris fall from the north tower, literally past us, and hit the World Financial Center behind us and come down, and the only reason I saw that is everyone was kind of looking up going, whoa! I kind of looked up and I thought, wow, this is very close.

By the same token, I had looked up at the same time and noticed what I thought was debris turning out to be people, and at first I just couldn't imagine it would be people, but as they landed I was pretty sure it was people. I thought, well, they must be unconscious or falling out. Upon looking closer, there were some people that seemed to be on fire coming down, some that looked like rag dolls coming down, but at least 70 percent of them actually flailed until they hit the ground and one, I mean, they looked like ants from the distance we were at, but actually looking like he or she wanted to get to the next window.

I remember thinking under my breath and saying out loud that I could hear myself, I go, oh, my God, please, no, no, no, no, and they were jumping. I've seen people, you know, I've worked as a paramedic in the past in California, so I've seen people jump as high as 25 stories, but that was very different in that in that it was just kind of, oh, my gosh, and they hit. Here, with four times the height, it was kind of an oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God, until they finally hit.

At that point I had met Dr. Cherson and the paramedic aide that was with him, Paramedic Delgado from our office as well.

Q. Is this at the command post?

A. This is at the command post, initially across the street from World Trade Center.

Q. Who else was at the command post at this time? 

A. I remember seeing Chief Ganci. I also remember Chief Downey speaking to Commissioner Von Essen walking in front of me. Also, at about this time Mayor Giuliani and his entourage had actually walked behind us, and then a couple of fire chiefs that I had seen from the training or whatnot, but I couldn't recall their names, some of the Dominican Republic staff as well that had been sent.

Q. Was Commissioner Feehan there?

A. I had briefly seen him, but I can't remember exactly where I had seen him.

Q. Okay.

A. At this point, as I was standing in front of the command post looking to try to take in what was going on, Dr. Cherson came back to me and said that they were going to move the command post into the lobby of 1 World Trade Center. So at that time he said to me he was going to go in there with Paramedic Delgado, Manny Delgado, and he wanted me to take the EMS fellow who was with us and go to 7 World Trade, where they had set up one of the first treatment areas.

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: Now, was this going to be the EMS command post or the Fire Department command post? 

DR. ASAEDA: This was going to be an EMS treatment area.

A. So I agreed to it, and one of the -- I can't remember who it was but he actually brought over one of the antidote kits from one of our vehicles. I almost chuckled at that time thinking, even if it were, one kit is not enough for all the potential patients, but we brought it with us. We went into the loading dock of 7 World Trade, which was right adjacent to the telephone company building, I believe, on Vesey.

Q. Right.

A. I remember as we were walking there was smoke coming from the World Trade Center and what seemed to be in front parts of -- in retrospect, I guess it was parts of the plane or whatnot, debris from the plane, debris from the building, and I had also heard that there were people around, but I didn't get a close enough look to see what kind of status they were in.[planes-3, no plane-0 DC]

We walked into the loading dock where Captain Abdo of the Fire Department, EMS, had already established a treatment area, and we were using the START system, which is the simple triage and rapid transport, where we color code our victims into red for immediate, yellow for injury but not immediate, green for walking wounded and black for dead at this point, and he had set up the loading dock into these separate areas and there were a few patients there as well. I remember, again, walking towards the treatment area thinking this is awfully close, we need to work on getting it a little bit further out, and I started seeing a few patients that were there.

The first gentleman for some reason I remember particularly. He was a gentleman in his seventies. He had said that he was on the 59th floor of the first tower that got struck. He was actually ordering some kind of food at that cafeteria, I think it's at the 59th floor, I'm pretty sure, and thought that, when he heard the explosion, that it was the kitchen oven. He heard that other people said they don't know what it is but it's time to evacuate, so he actually came down the staircase, and he was just sitting there because he was tired he was in the. So green category of a walking wounded. I remember thinking to myself, if he was able to make it out, then it sounds like most people are going to be able to get out, and I was relieved to hear that.

As I went to another patient, I remember a Secret Service or security from 7 World Trade Center  person saying to me, did you hear that the Pentagon just got hit by another plane? Again, not knowing about the second plane still at this point, I thought, oh, my God. Then he said, and there's another plane missing. So at that point was the first point that I realized that this was a terrorist -- an intentional act, again, not knowing that the second plane had already hit.

So I thought we really need to move this out because I had a feeling they were going to come back for us. Just as soon as I had thought that, I heard what I thought was a jet engine plane. In retrospect, it turns out that it was the first tower coming down. We grabbed whatever patients we could, and what I did was I turned to my left and ducked into the little -- there was, I guess, a little connection between the lobby of 7 and the loading dock. The loading dock, I do remember thinking that it looked very secure, thick concrete and whatnot, and we all crammed, probably about 30 of us, into this little alcove between the lobby and the loading dock. 

[A 12.5 line black outed,  DC...]

and he next thing I noticed, that jet engine sound and then a loud crash and then pitch black. Then --

Q. Just prior to that, were there electrical lights where you were? 

A. Yes, there were.

Q. Did they stay on?

A. No, they did not.

Q. Okay.

A. I remember thinking that this was it for me. I really thought that this was another plane coming and I thought this was it. I remember putting the visor of my helmet down, grabbing the chin strap and just kind of squatting where I was at. After I realized that we actually made it through this initial whatever it was, it was so dark that I actually thought they had closed the loading bay doors as a security measure for us, but it turns out it was just the debris and the smoke and whatnot that made it pitch black.

Q. The doors were still open?

A. They were still open.

Q. Okay.

A. I've heard in the past that, you know, these disasters are so dark that people put their hands in front of their face and couldn't see anything. I used to laugh at them and think how dark can that be? But really, it was so dark, you couldn't see the hand in front of your face. At that point we realized that the building we were in was still up, we needed to get out, but just didn't know where to go, a little disoriented. Any lighting equipment, which I actually didn't have, but any of the EMTs, I would say there were about eight of us, eight EMTs and medics, as well as the Captain and myself, EMS, we realized that we needed to get out, but none of us -- they hadn't brought their flashlights to the area we just dove into. We didn't know which way to go. People were yelling, I can't breathe, I can't breathe, and I remember from the bioterrorism course thinking, again, it could be bioterrorism, that they had said that even if you didn't have a mask, just take your tie and put it on your face, that seems to eliminate 80 percent of what may be around you. I remember thinking, they said this would work, they said this would work, and tried to breathe through this, but still everything in my mouth and whatnot.

Now, trying to make the escape out, I didn't know which way to go. Someone yelled, I think it's this way, and somebody had a camera, whether it was a photographer or whatnot, and I remember the person was flashing his camera towards us saying come towards the flash. So we made it to the flash, still pitch black, by chance met up with Captain Abdo from EMS, and I said, are all of our EMS people accounted for? He said, yes, they are. I said, then we need to get out of here. Then I said, oh, and we've got to get the patients, because at this point it was kind of, you know, we've got to get the patients as well, grabbed whoever we could. Luckily, they were for the most part all walking wounded, and even the ones that were lying were at this point up and had ducked with us. 

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: Let me stop you there, Doctor. 

DR. ASAEDA: Yes. 

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: You said there were about 30 people you crammed into this little alcove or pathway from the loading area to the lobby of 7 World Trade. 

DR. ASAEDA: Correct. 

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: Did you know any of those other people? 

DR. ASAEDA: Just the EMS personnel. I didn't recognize any of the Fire side personnel. Also I recognized one of the security personnel from 7 World Trade just because I used to go there weekly for the Mayor's PAD, public access defibrillation meeting. I recognized him. I also recognized the person who said he was either Secret Service or security, not as knowing him but just as he was next to me when we dove for cover, and then the patients who we had brought with us. But other than that, I didn't recognize any other personnel.

A. At that point, we got to the exit, made a decision to evacuate, got the patients, still not knowing which way to go because we really hadn't been able to determine what actually came down or what had happened. The decision was either to go left or right G. ASAEDA and we ended up going right, between the two buildings, in the alleyway on the north, which turned out to be the right direction because apparently there was a lot of debris and part of 7 down already. Also, I did notice as I was making my exit the sound of the firefighters' alarms indicating that they were down. I did remember that as well but just could not see anything.

As we got into the alleyway, it just started to get a little bit lighter, almost like a dusk/dawn type of deal. We got through the alleyway, got half a block up -- I don't even remember which block that was, but saw one of the first ambulances, I think it was a Cabrini ambulance, one of the voluntary hospital ambulances with people just crammed on board. I made the decision to remove them because they were not hurt. I said, we have patients that are hurt. We loaded three or four and I remember just hitting the side of the ambulance and saying, go, go, go, go, and the driver, the EMT or medic, shouted back or looked back, where are we supposed to go? I said, just go north, just go north. So they took off. 

I saw another ambulance. At this point, also, I saw people from OEM. Eddie Gabriel, who is one  of our EMS chiefs, was over there coming in with -- I think he had somebody on his arm. We saw police officers. There were some firefighters now in gear but not recognizable because of the dust. I didn't remember any identifying markers on them either. 

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: Where was this now, Doctor? On West Street? 

DR. ASAEDA: This is actually on -- let's see. This was West. This was Vesey. We took the little alleyway between the telephone building and 7 World Trade, ended up on the next block.

Q. Park Place? Murray?

A. It may have been Murray. There was a parking lot adjacent to it. It was a smaller street. I think may have been Park Place.

Q. Yes, I think so, too.

A. Then at that point I saw some of the OEM people that I recognized, just happy to see that they were okay. I got to the next ambulance, put people on board. At that point my beeper was going off. It just seemed to be the only thing that was actually going off. It turned out to be my wife calling because she had heard that I was going, and while I'm trying to coordinate everybody going, I actually picked up the  phone and tried to dial. It didn't go through. 

Once I got them on the ambulance, I actually stopped and looked at the corner and saw that there was a pay phone and thought to myself, this is a Verizon phone. There's no way that would be working. I thought, well, I have nothing to lose at this point. I dug into my pocket, happened to find a quarter, the only change I had, and I thought to myself, it's probably with my luck one of those 35-cent phones anyway, you know, it's going to be like that. I get there, pick it up, it's a 25-cent call, dial tone is there surprisingly, dropped a quarter in and actually it goes through.

My Wife[Blacked Out DC] I knew that you were going to be there, the first tower came down. I said, listen, calm down. I'm okay. I'm not going to do anything to endanger myself further. I'm okay. Do me a favor, call my mom in San Francisco, let her know that I'm okay, and then I hung up the phone. I said, I'll call you when I can, and then proceeded back towards the north tower. 

At that point I stopped myself and thought to myself, you've got to be smart about this. The first tower came down. There's a great chance that the  second one might as well. So I went back up half a block through the parking lot and then back onto West.

Q. You didn't know about the second plane at this point, but you knew the second tower was burning?

A. I didn't even know that the second tower was burning because I had no information that the second tower was hit.

Q. Got it.

A. So all the way up until the Secret Service or the security, whoever he happened to be, told me that the other plane was missing, that one plane had hit the Pentagon and another was missing, up until that point I knew nothing of a potential terrorist attack. It was only in my mind thinking in this day and age, it could be terrorism, so be careful. As a matter of fact, when I saw all that dust come through, I thought at that point, while I was walking, I thought, this must be anthrax. I mean, that's something that definitely went through my mind. 

So at that point all our patients were onto the ambulances, our EMS group kind of disbanded, but I saw Captain Abdo on West and -- again, I'm not familiar with it. It's about one block further north of where 7 used to be. I met him at the corner and at that point we were literally thinking of going back towards 1 World Trade, knowing that the command post was there, stopped ourselves thinking we've got to be smart about this, this is something else that might come down, and as we had thought that, the sound before the sight coming, saw the second tower actually come down and then heard it afterwards, at which point all of us turned north and started running. We got about a block, maybe half a block, ducked into a little alcove where there were probably 30 police officers, firefighters, again, I don't recognize any shield numbers or helmet numbers, against the wall, when other cops ran by and said, you're just not fucking far enough. So we turned around and ran north, at which point the plume of the smoke, again, kind of a warm feeling came by us, luckily no debris, almost kind of lifting us and then kind of surrounding us again. 

Then, at that point, when everything settled, we set up another treatment area at the corner of -- what corner is that? I don't recall. It's just south of Chambers, about a block south of Chambers. We set up another treatment area, started to see some of the walking wounded. There weren't too many people seriously injured. There were some firefighters that were complaining of smoke, of just inhalation and dust. We gave them some oxygen. That I'm sure was tracked because I had our EMT write down the names, but I can't recall any names. 

There was one firefighter that he had given me his name, I actually wrote it down, I still have, saying that I'm sure they think I'm missing, please notify command that I'm okay. That I actually wrote down and I actually went to one of the chiefs and they took the name down, but their communications weren't 100 percent either. So they were trying to do what they could. I made that initial report. 

At that point, while we were treating some patients and not more than maybe ten if that, they said there's suspicious packages around. I think the police officers came by and said we needed to evacuate. So we actually walked everyone further north another block and this time got to the Borough of Manhattan Community College and up on, I guess in their gymnasium area, up the stairs, we set up an area. We wanted to try to keep people like myself who were contaminated kind of out, keeping the area relatively fresh. So people who were covered like myself were kind of treating people on the outside, and those that were clean, those people were inside giving oxygen and water. 

We were probably there for about 20, 30 minutes, when we were told that there's suspicious packages again, and this time people were running towards north again saying that there's a gas leak. So we evacuated everybody and started running again, and at this point I think we all decided we're going to get as far north as we could, decided to go to Chelsea, and I thought that was a good area because just being there initially realizing this was really going to be a body recovery, unfortunately, I thought that the ice rink would be a good place for a temporary morgue. I had heard in the past, I have a friend that works at DEA, that that was a huge facility. 

As a matter of fact, I took one of the Japanese firefighters from Tokyo, who was interested in that kind of thing, while he was visiting the Fire Department here, he wanted me to stop by there just to see what kind of health facilities they had to take back to Japan with him. So I remember actually seeing the facility and remembering that it was large enough that, if they would allow us to use that facility, that would be an ideal location. 

Then, as I was running, an ambulance, I don't even know who it was, I think it was a volunteer ambulance pulled up and just yelled, Doc, jump in. We were jumping into the ambulance, seven other people, kind of all in disarray. I remember thinking what just happened? Then I was dropped off at Chelsea, met with Chief Pascale and Chief Kowalczyk, who were at that point for EMS command, and then we decided to set the hospital area there. 

About an hour after, they asked for us to return back to the -- I guess the Fire command post on Chambers and West. Then a couple hours thereafter, you know, we were trying to evaluate the best we could, 7 came down. I remember running again and some of the Fire guys started running and stopped and I guess they realized that we were far away enough. But I remember I just kept running until -- I figured until I see everything down, I'll keep running. I got about a block and then realized, okay, maybe I was a little silly. But I walked back to the command post, and then we tried to come up with a plan. 

Then for the rest of the night we were trying to set up a hospital area, one at Stuyvesant High School, which we were able to set up, also trying to set up some strike teams up near the rubble pile, G. ASAEDA really mainly for rescuers at this point, just realizing there wasn't going to be many victims, but in case a victim was pulled out. I was there for about the next, I think, total of like 28 hours on the first day, just trying to coordinate what we could, communicating with OEM as well as to the federal assets that were coming. We heard that the DEMAT teams were coming, also that the FEMA USAR task force things were coming. 

By this point, John Claire, Commissioner Claire, as well as Dr. Gonzalez and Dr. Richmond, who were also at the upstate meeting, were flown back apparently by state trooper helicopter. This was probably three, four hours into it, I think by 11:00 or 12:00 in the afternoon, and they were trying to coordinate what they could from their site. At that point, Dr. Gonzalez, who is really in charge of our New York task force, USAR, Urban Search and Rescue Team, decided that he would put together some semblance of a team to do some of the rescue efforts. So part of our obligation, myself, as being the doctor there throughout the night, would be to cover the main medical command as well as the USAR activities as well. 

At this same point, I heard that Dr. Prezant and/or Dr. Kelly had set up something at Pace, on that side. Initially, Dr. Cherson had set something up at the Liberty Street side, I think by the ferries. So I knew that we had good coverage in the areas. Then the rest of it was just trying to set up and coordinate. A lot of volunteers, medical staff and whatnot, came up very early, but I don't think they realized what magnitude of disaster this was. I had surgeons, I think 30 surgeons from a college conference at one of the hotels showed up by busload saying we're surgeons, we're here to help. I said, it would be great, but there's no one to pull out at this point. If you don't mind loading the water, that's what we're going to need at this point, you know, we sent everybody to Chelsea Piers and set up things over there. 

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY:Did you see any patients that night? 

DR. ASAEDA: Yes. 

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY:Approximately how many? 

DR. ASAEDA: All the patients that I saw were rescuers in some shape or form. None were from the initial collapse. A lot of things in their eyes, which we washed out, some respiratory complaints, some minor bumps and bruises, someone that actually needed some sutures and whatnot. The way we had it set up was that anyone who needed a transport would be placed onto the ambulance and actually sent to the hospital because we also coordinated with the hospitals to find out what they could handle and we were told that initially they got some of the burns and the sick patients from the initial planes, but that was only a few hundred throughout the hospitals. We looked at Downtown Beekman, Bellevue, St. Vincent's, as far as Cabrini as well, and we were told that, after the initial wave, they weren't getting any patients, they were ready, so we knew that we didn't really need to do too much treatment on the scene, we would try to go back to the way that things are normally run in these disasters where we'd do an initial triage, do basic treatment that we can, and then ship them to the hospital. We felt that's where they would better be served. But it turned out that there weren't that many victims from the rubble. 

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: Just a couple other questions. 

DR. ASAEDA: Yes. 

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: When did you find out for the first time that a second plane had hit the other tower? 

DR. ASAEDA: This was after, I guess after my initial run and as I was looking at the north tower and thinking of going back, they had said, yeah, did you hear the second plane hit that as well? Then I started to put things together thinking this was obviously a terrorist attack. But not until then, again, I think mainly because I was in the tunnel when the second plane had hit and Citywide at some spots apparently doesn't come through and the traffic was to hard to get on that I actually I got on the radio to tell them, 784 was my identifier for the day, 784, show me responding. I just could not get through after about three attempts and just tried to go on by computer, but that was logged as well, so I couldn't actually log on that way. 

Again, in retrospect, maybe I should have had an FM station on. That would have at least given me the news. But not thinking to that extent, I just had 1010 WINS on. It must have taken me -- you know, I must have found out about the first plane maybe five to ten minutes after it actually hit because I actually do  remember seeing the smoke. I was in the tunnel when the second plane hit, popped out probably soon thereafter, and then with everything was trying to get on scene and listen to the radio. Again, I didn't hear anything about a confirmed second crash, either that or I just wasn't paying close enough attention or just didn't know about the second plane. 

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: My other question has to do with West Street. 

DR. ASAEDA: Yes. 

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: Either when you were coming over to 7 World Trade for the first time or after you evacuated 7 World Trade after the first collapse, did you notice a lot of rigs and buses lined up on West Street from like the command post on down? 

DR. ASAEDA: I remember more particularly on West Street, the south end of West Street, between the south tower and the first tower, I would guess, a lot of vehicles, heavy fire rescue vehicles and ambulances as well. I don't remember as many north of Vesey. I do remember there was like a ladder truck on the corner of West and Vesey, actually on West, on the northbound lane facing the opposite direction. That vehicle I do  remember and then sporadically here and there some other vehicles as well.

Where I parked my vehicle, I remember the vehicle I parked next to was a traffic enforcement vehicle, and then there were some -- they looked like I think it was a marked, no light, fire protection type vehicle I had seen as well, if I remember. 

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: Was your vehicle destroyed? 

DR. ASAEDA: Yes, it was. 

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: Chief Downey's vehicle, can you describe it, when you saw it? 

DR. ASAEDA: It was a dark-colored, unmarked car. I thought it was kind of particularly odd in that he looked to me like he was sitting in the back seat, behind the passenger, which would seem odd to me because I would think that, I guess, if he wasn't driving himself, he would be in the passenger's side. But in retrospect, he could have been in the passenger's side as well because he actually moved right past me, not very quickly but just enough for me to actually recognize him and say, oh, Chief, and then he got in front of me. Again, once we got onto West Street from the south end, there were probably 20 to 30 vehicles already parked and then another 20 vehicles trying to get through, so I realized that I would not be able to continue. As Chief Downey's vehicle went forward and, again, seeing the ambulances on the left, I decided to go there, at least just get out of the traffic pattern. Then that actually worked in my benefit because I was able to bring the vehicle up the side street, the service road. 

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: Anything else, Kevin? 

MR. McALLISTER: I don't have any further questions. Do you have any other recollections or observations to share with us, Doctor? 

DR. ASAEDA: That's about everything. I mean, obviously, all the volunteers, I know that everyone had great intentions, but I guess they didn't realize the extent of things. Just a tragedy. 

Also, the other thing I remember is we used to have an EMT that worked here who was actually on the 86th floor of the World Trade building and I thought to myself, he must be in there. I thought he was gone, very afraid to call his family, as he was afraid to call me. When I finally found out he was okay via the office here, I called him and he had said that he  actually was also an auxiliary firefighter here in New York City and had some thoughts of becoming a firefighter earlier. But he said as he was making his evacuation and seeing the firefighters come up fully loaded with their gear and their hoses going up to the floors to fight the fires, he said he was thanking everyone, thank you for what you do, thank you for what you do, and he said all thoughts of ever being a firefighter went right out the door for him there. 

I can only imagine what they must have been going through, and hearing that there's 343 firefighters lost, initially, over 300 initially, just the thought of that is just tremendous, but when I actually saw the names on the list, it made me think twice again and also looking at the pictures. Now, not recalling the names exactly, seeing the pictures, I recognized one of the faces and I realized that there were more people that I knew through the Dominican Republic deployment or even through the bioterrorism course. I don't remember if he's a chief. I think it's Chief Fanning or Captain Fanning was lost as well. I saw his picture on that. There was another chief that was on that list as well that I recognized from the class and it's just horrific. Not that not  knowing them makes any difference, but it just adds that personal touch that makes it really sad. 

I didn't realize that Commissioner Feehan actually lived in the neighborhood that I just moved to a couple of months ago, and so once I got off the World Trade Center site, I heard about his wake the night before and went to the funeral, and it's just very hard to take, as I'm sure you know. Just devastating. 

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: Thank you, doctor. 

DR. ASAEDA: Sure. Thank you very much. 

MR. McALLISTER: Thank you very much, Doctor. 

DR. ASAEDA: If you need anything more, please let me know. 

MR. McALLISTER: I'm just going to conclude the interview it's 1612 hours on October 11th and we are concluding the interview. Thank you. 

File No. 9110204 

WORLD TRADE CENTER

TASK FORCE INTERVIEW

EMT-D CHRISTOPHER ATTANASIO

Interview Date: November 9, 2001 

Transcribed by Elisabeth F. Nason 

MR. RADENBERG: Today is November 8, 2001. I'm Paul Radenberg of the Fire Department of the City of New York. The time is now 0631 hours. 

Q. I'm conducting an interview with --

A. Christopher Attanasio, EMT-D, 5303, Battalion 20, Division 2. 

Q. This interview is being conducted at EMS Battalion 20 regarding the events of September 11, 2001. Christopher, start from when you were assigned to the job.

A. We signed on to the KDT approximately about 8:30. At approximately 8:48 or 8:50, the dispatcher came up and said I need whoever wants to go to the World Trade Center, I have something going on. Just switch to Citywide. So my partner and myself switched to Citywide with vehicle 85 and proceeded to go down to the World Trade Center. 

We took the FDR Drive south. There was a lot of traffic on the drive going south. We decided to get off on 96 Street, which would cut across to 2nd Avenue and we took 2nd Avenue all the way down. 

Upon arrival, towers one and two were both ablaze. The second plane had hit the second tower already. Both towers were totally engulfed. People were jumping out of the buildings. There was airplane fuselage and landing gear around the site. Body parts, victims' remains on the floor. There were some injuries on the street. Some cars were on fire.[Planes- 4. No Plane Nutters-0 DC] 

I pulled over. I was directed to stage at Liberty and West, where I saw Captain DeShore, Chief Villani, my partner Roland Diaz, 03 John, Joey Fortez, and Mike Negron. Different agencies, voluntary agencies, ESU, Fire Department, Customs, Secret Service, Port Authority people, Hatzolah, and we were staging and Chief Villani had told us to get our equipment out of the vehicle because they were going to go into the first tower that was hit, because they were getting reports of casualties.

So we proceeded to the ambulance, put on our turnout gear, helmet and turnout coat, and as we were taking the equipment out of the ambulance, the second tower -- the second tower, started to come down. As the tower was coming down, we ran. I ran, I guess it was west to the West Side Highway. The tower came down. I grabbed my partner, we ran.

When the tower finally came down, there was a white cloud of smoke that hit us, knocked us to our feet. It was very hard to breathe. We inhaled a lot of white powder, whatever it was, dust, concrete, whatever it was.

After the building fell, I remember seeing Chief Pascale, her aide, her name is Immaculada, Gattas is her last name. I remember running with her. Total chaos from the scene. An ESU guy coming out covered from feet, head to toe, bleeding from his head. We treated him. People started just -- we were able to -- after the building fell we went back and rescued our ambulance. Vehicle 85, which had been struck with pieces of the building, had a broken left mirror, broken windshield, debris on it. We cleared it off.

We went back to where they were staging by Battery City and we went back, I went back to the tower that had come down, but a gentleman from OEM, who is a black male, that's all I remember, a very big black male, he had told us that his boss was in the building. We proceeded to go back to the tower that was already down and when we pulled up, we saw burnt vehicles, fire balls, smoke, debris, dust, bodies.

When we went in front of the tower, I remember a Chief saying on his bull horn, all Fire Department personnel, abandon your vehicles. I looked up, tower one was still burning, but tower two was already down. I told my partner Roland Diaz, and I had another paramedic in the back, Darnowski, Steve Darnowski, was in the back of vehicle 85. As we looked around, we saw nobody. It was a ghost town, everybody had left.

I put the vehicle in reverse, people started coming out of the woodwork. We had an injured firemen, we had a lady, a guy having a heart attack. We had another fireman with an avulsed face. We had some paraplegic lady that they had carried down, all the way down, and they left her on the street, but she wasn't injured. She just needed transportation out of the site.

We had a total of 13 patients in the back of the ambulance, ranging from cuts and burns and scrapes and bruises, to some lady having -- she was having an MI, blunt trauma, a lot of people with difficulty breathing, so we notified the dispatcher. I was 3 Ida that day, that we had injuries in front of tower two and asked for direction on what hospital to go to.

The dispatcher came back and replied take your patients to Columbia Presbyterian. I acknowledged and as I was leaving the site I picked up a rider, some gentleman that just wanted to get out of this. I put him in the front of the bus. As we are going up the highway, as we are going up 9 West or whatever you want to call it, the patient's condition started getting worse in the back, the fireman, he was really bleeding now, so we diverted him over to hospital 19, which is St. Clare's.

When we got there, we were met by several EMTs, who took very good care of us and took all the patients out. We restocked the bus and went back down to Ground Zero. We just went past Chelsea Piers. We had gotten a couple of more patients and took them to Beekman Hospital. Same thing, cuts, bruises, scrapes, respiratory problems.

After coming out of Beekman Hospital, we reported to the Chelsea Piers. Basically that's the best of my knowledge that I can remember.

Q. Okay. When you got down, coming down Second Avenue, when you got into the neighborhood of the Trade Center complex, do you remember what route you took to get to Liberty and West?

A. Right. I definitely went right by City Hall, right where J and R Records is, and I cut across. I was following another EMS ambulance who knew Manhattan, because he was zipping in and out, so I was just  following him. I was directed when I came, I came all the way around, and I cut this way.

Q. Again, down Church and Liberty?

A. Church, and I guess I'm making a right on Liberty, and these are where the busses were, on this side.

Q. Liberty and Washington roughly and the West Side Highway?

A. Right, right.

Q. Do you remember what the number on the vehicle you were following by any chance?

A. No, I don't.

Q. There wasn't anybody following --

A. FDNY.

Q. But it wasn't from Battalion 20?

A. Negative.

Q. When you got to Liberty and West, you said you saw Captain DeShore. Chief Villani was down here?

A. Yes, he was.

Q. At the site?

A. Yes, he was.

Q. Do you remember seeing any other EMS personnel or officers down there?

A. Officers, no.

Q. Any fire personnel, Fire Department personnel that you recognized?

A. Joe Truocolla, he works 18 Charlie, tour 2. He got injured, I think he works out of Boston. 22. I'm not sure. Who else did I see down there. I can't remember.

Q. Okay.

A. I don't remember. I don't remember. Just my partner Roland Diaz, Joey Fortez I remember seeing. Mike Negron. Chief Pascale. Oh, Steve Pillar. I saw Steve Pillar too.

Q. He is the ALS coordinator?

A. Coordinator for Division 6.

Q. Okay. When tower number two started coming down, you said you ran west across the West Side Highway?

A. Right.

Q. Do you remember where you wound up in that area?

A. It was right before Battery City. It was right -- let's see -- I ran this way. We ran all the way. I couldn't tell you. I don't remember. I just -- it was -- I couldn't recognize anything, the wave of white. I couldn't see. I don't remember. 

Q. Okay.

A. I don't remember.

Q. No problem. You said you had come back after the dust settled a little bit?

A. We went back to get the ambulance.

Q. To get your vehicle?

A. Right.

Q. Do you remember where you moved the vehicle to at that point? 

A. The vehicles were staged on Liberty, so we went to West Street, where I picked up that gentleman I told you. We went back, because he said, he worked for OEM. I remember that much. I remember that. We went back and I don't, you know --

Q. You got out somewhere on to West Street, West Side Highway and then --

A. After getting the vehicles and going back to the downed tower and coming back I had proceeded north on West Street, on the West Side Highway. I know that's how I got to the hospital.

Q. Okay. Do you remember approximately when you came out of St. Clare's the first trip?

A. What time?

Q. Do you remember approximately or do you know  at that point had the second tower --

A. Had fallen.

Q. Tower one had come down?

A. Tower one? To what I believe, I believe that while I was in the hospital, that's when the second tower fell. I wasn't there for the second tower. I had already picked up injuries from tower two, which was the first tower that fell. That's how I would have to believe it. Because I never saw the second tower fall. I never saw it. I only saw the first tower fall.

Q. When you came back from St. Clare's back down to the site, did you come down the West Side Highway?

A. I went all the way down the West Side Highway and I made a left. I just cut across and I was just following some emergency vehicles. I think it was ESU or Port Authority ESU, and I just went back and we just picked up some more patients. There were just patients everywhere.

Q. Do you remember where in the area you got to?

A. I think it was down as close as maybe Church and Rector, if that's possible. Maybe. We just -- we were getting flagged down by people and we were just piling them in the ambulance. There was no -- we weren't told. We were just coming back. As we were coming back down, I think I made a left and cut across somewhere, and we just started getting flagged by people walking that were covered in debris during the towers.

Q. Okay. Any thoughts or comments you would like to add?

A. Thoughts and comments? No, I was just -- I just -- you know. I have been through a lot of stuff in my own personal life, but I never seen anything like that. I am a Persian Gulf War veteran and I have never seen anything like this before in my life, and I still to this day can't believe it. I just can't believe it, that it happened. Basically that's all.

MR. RADENBERG: Okay. Time is now 0644 hours. The interview is concluded. Thank you Chris. Point of correction. This interview is conducted November 9, Friday. The time is correct.

File No. 9110248 

WORLD TRADE CENTER

TASK FORCE INTERVIEW

FIREFIGHTER STUART BAILEY

Interview Date: December 6, 2001

Transcribed by Nancy Francis 

BATTALION CHIEF KING: Today's date is December 6, 2001. The time is 1715 hours and this is Battalion Chief Stephen King, Safety Battalion, FDNY. I'm conducting an interview with Firefighter Stuart Bailey from Engine Co. 224, and this interview is concerning the events of September 11th, 2001.

Q. Stuart, you can start the interview. Just tell me what position you had that day. 

A. I actually didn't have a position that day. I was one of the guys that took the run-in being off duty. 

Q. Okay. Tell us your story of what you saw that day. 

A. I worked that night in Ladder 101, the night before, and got relieved there around 8:20, came here, got in the house around 8:30. We responded shortly after that on the first plane, took the run-in, jumped on a rig with another kid, Joe Sullivan, a proby. We both took the run-in, both were off duty.

We got to the staging area by the Battery Tunnel. Before we were going into the tunnel, we were pretty much just watching it, just watching the first plane. I believe the second plane hit as we were going into the tunnel, or possibly as we were going to the staging area, the second plane wound up hitting.

At that time we realized -- the kid in the back, the proby, said it was a terrorist attack. No one even realized what actually was going on. We just thought this plane accidentally hit, until that second plane hit, then we realized what was actually happening.

Maybe ten minutes after being at the staging area, they started moving the rigs into the tunnel. As we were going into the tunnel, one of the kids that was actually walking with his gear -- I can't even recall his name, but there's a big article. The guys know his name -- actually asked Tommy Smith, who was the chauffeur, if he could jump on the back of the rig. I didn't even realize that he jumped on, neither did Tommy or anyone else, until maybe later on, then we realized the kid actually did jump on the rig. I believe he was lost. He was missing.

When we pulled out of the tunnel, the way I saw it, they couldn't keep us really right there by the tunnel. We had to proceed past the building because of all the rigs that were behind us. I guess it would have delayed them from getting in. We would have been backing up the tunnel pretty much. So they kind of had everything blocked off and we kind of swerved around debris from the plane, body parts pretty much everywhere. That's the first time I've ever seen anything like that. I'm sure no one did.[Planes-5 No Planes Nutters-0 D.C]

Then I believe we went to get a hydrant. We had a pretty close hydrant to the Trade Center itself, pretty much almost right out in front, and a Lieutenant started screaming at Tommy Smith that he wanted the rig moved. He wanted to stand out front, I guess, to relay water or to help out with that, getting water over there. So that guy actually moved Tommy from pretty much in front of the Trade Center to a little bit further where we wound up being on Vesey and West Street, over there.

At that time both buildings were going, both planes had already hit the building, and we were just standing there. I looked up, realized the transmission, our transmission, from riding over the rubble that was on the ground, the remains of the plane, ruptured our transmission tank, so transmission fluid was leaking. Tommy noticed that. So we kind of spent an extra five minutes or so kind of trying to plug that in. I guess the guys rendered it useless at that time, it would have been useless if we didn't do that, you know, just another story out there of how you get saved. But the guys got off their gear.[Planes-6(as the plane debris actually did something to the firetruck) No Planes Nutters-0] 

Guys all had their gear. I didn't have any gear on me. I didn't realize. I was just going in for the ride. I thought it was just a regular fire, a little bit bigger than regular. But as we're standing there, the guys had all their tanks on. I didn't have anything. Tommy didn't have anything. So we were kind of like maybe even a step back from everyone else, realizing what's happening, jumpers. You didn't realize, until you actually looked and saw arms and legs waving, exactly what was happening, you know, one after another. There must have been three or four dozen that jumped out right there while we were standing there, just in amazement, exactly what actually was happening.

Then all of a sudden, the further tower, the south tower, I think it is, the first one that went down, the south tower went down. We really didn't realize that it was actually the whole building going down. It looked like just maybe a side or something because you couldn't really see because the other one was in the way, and then you realized exactly what happened because, as you saw on the TV, all the smoke,  that pretty much came up ten stories high, 15 stories high, pretty much just came right at us.

Asses and elbows, you know, we just started running every which way. I think I might have actually ran a little bit further than everyone else being I had no gear on me or anything like that. I couldn't take a knee and just let everything blow over me. So I was kind of out in the front. I might have even ran an extra block or two before I turned around and just realized there was nobody even with me

I would say it was 15, 20, 25 minutes before that cloud kind of dissipated even a little bit. I started working my way back slow, relaxing, just taking it easy, realizing what's happening. I would say about a half a block away from there, I came back with my company again, not even knowing what happened to them because they weren't even near me, the second one came down. I ran again. It might have even been another block I ran.

At that time jets were coming over your head and you didn't know what was happening. Is that our guys? It didn't even dawn on me that it was our guys. It was just this happened here, big buildings are all around, they're still hitting us. 

It must have been another half an hour until I kind of got on my feet and just was like, okay, let me start working my way back. At that time guys from other companies were kind of there also, so I wound up hooking up with some kids from different companies. A kid from 20 Truck was there, a Lieutenant from 34, Lieutenant Winkler was there. I hooked up with them and I actually wound up not even seeing my company until maybe 11:00 o'clock that night, you know, working without anything. I wound up getting gear later on. Maybe a couple hours later I was able to get gear on the side, no bunker coat, no helmet, just pants.

I just pretty much worked through the whole night. I wound up finding out that they were actually alive from one of the guys from 202 that was actually on our side. Somehow or another I wound up being on the other side of the building. I wasn't even on the side where we were. I wound up being on the other side. I saw a kid from 202 and he showed me a way how to get to the other side to where 224 was. He let me know that the guys were okay. That was at 11:00 o'clock at night maybe I hooked up with them. Then we went back to the house by bus like 1:30 in the morning, you know, finally taking the bus in. That's pretty much it. I went back to work the next day.

BATTALION CHIEF KING: Okay. Thank you, Stuart. The time is 1723 hours and I'm concluding the interview with Firefighter Bailey


more to follow...