File No. 9110253
WORLD TRADE CENTER
TASK FORCE INTERVIEW
FIREFIGHTER RICHARD BANACISKI
Interview Date: December 6, 2001
Transcribed by Elisabeth F. Nason
BATTALION CHIEF KENAHAN: December 6, 2001.
The time is 3:30 p.m. This is Battalion Chief
Kenahan of the Safety Battalion of the Fire
Department of the City of New York. I'm
conducting an interview with Rich Banaciski of
Ladder 22.
Q. Please tell us the events of September 11 as
you recall them?
A. We got the alarm for us to respond, just, I
would say, a minute after the second plane had hit the
tower. Then they actually came over the voice alarm.
Actually told the companies to respond outlet. We
responded in and it was all the west side companies
were actually all running down together, down the West
Side Highway, because it was closed going northbound.
So we could see what was going on, the two towers, both
of them burning pretty good and then we got into, down
to the site. We were at the corner of West and Vesey.
That's where we parked the rig, in front of the Verizon
building.
We were told to bring extra cylinders. We
each brought our extra cylinders and we brought our
rollups, the whole thing, and we reported in to the
command post, which was in front of -- I think it was the Merrill Lynch building. There was a parking
garage. There were two ramps that went in that parking
garage.
Q. On West Street?
A. On West Street. We reported in to there and
I remember they had the command post set up. They were
telling the engines to the one side, all the trucks to
the other side, put your cylinders in the middle. We
were there. They were getting the command structure
going. I just remember we were -- initially we were
out by the street and they started having jumpers, so
they all kind of moved back towards the parking garage,
towards the building, so nothing would come down on
us.
We were there I don't know, maybe 10, 15
minutes and then I just remember there was just an
explosion. It seemed like on television they blow up
these buildings. It seemed like it was going all the
way around like a belt, all these explosions.
Everybody just said run and we all turned around and we
ran into the parking garage because that's basically
where we were. Running forward would be running
towards it. Not thinking that this building is coming
down. We just thought there was going to be a big explosion, stuff was going to come down.[Implosion-1 Jet Fuel-0 DC]
There was just a tremendous cloud that came
into the parking garage. Somebody actually laid out a
search rope, I think it was the officer of 76 Engine
too, Lieutenant Farrington. He laid out a search rope
so some of the guys could find their way to a back
door, set up a back staircase in the Merrill Lynch
building. We followed that up and we ended up coming
out behind the building where the Marina is. Back in
there. A lot of guys made their way out there.
We kind of -- from there we kind of regrouped
together because we lost each other when the building
came down. We all ran, so we kind of regrouped there,
got ourselves together. Then there was a lot of people
not knowing what to do, do you know what I mean.
I said to the officer, I'm going to go look
for our chauffeur and I knew he parked the rig right in
front of the Verizon building. I went up there. I
started looking for him. He had moved the rig, not
knowing now -- now I know, but he had moved the rig.
I'm not exactly sure where he put it, but I went to go
look for him because I couldn't get him on the radio
due to the amount of radio traffic. People looking for
this guy, this guy, companies looking for their own guys.
So I was kind of looking around over there,
up and down West Street and looking on Vesey and I just
remember there was a police officer standing there and
he just started saying, it's starting to lean, it's
starting to lean. I remember looking up, looking at
the second building and just seeing it starting to
move. I just started running back down Vesey towards
the water again to where I had come from. That's
-- the second building came down there.
So we kind of -- same thing, there was a time
period where people were kind of in shock, not knowing
what to do. I just remember we finally said we got to
go somewhere now. We got to figure out what's going
on.
I remember going back up Vesey to West and
then they were telling us to go north. Go north up on
West Street, because there is a foot bridge north, like
an arched foot bridge. Had everybody going north of
that. We will regroup up there.
I just remember that's when I started seeing
all the guys coming in from home, all the guys from the
company and we actually -- everybody from this house,
we stuck together and we actually from there, a little bit of time, maybe an hour or so, they actually started
telling us to go here, go there. They moved us from
one spot, they moved us on to Vesey again. Because
then they were worried about -- we actually searched
the Verizon building, because there was reports of
firemen there. Basically our whole house searched that
building.
They told us to get out of there because they
were worried about 7 World Trade Center, which is right
behind it, coming down. We were up on the upper floors
of the Verizon building looking at it. You could just
see the whole bottom corner of the building was gone.
We could look right out over to where the Trade Centers
were because we were that high up. Looking over the
smaller buildings. I just remember it was tremendous,
tremendous fires going on.
Finally they pulled us out. They said all
right, get out of that building because that 7, they
were really worried about. They pulled us out of there
and then they regrouped everybody on Vesey Street,
between the water and West Street. They put everybody
back in there.
Finally it did come down. From there -- this
is much later on in the day, because every day we were so worried about that building we didn't really want to
get people close. They were trying to limit the amount
of people that were in there. Finally it did come
down. That's when they let the guys go on. I just
remember we started searching around all the rigs.
That was basically the rest of the day, the
rest of the night. We were searching around rigs
looking for men. That was it.
BATTALION CHIEF KENAHAN: All right.
Q. Do you have anything else to add?
A. No.
BATTALION CHIEF KENAHAN: Okay. Thank you
very much for your cooperation. The time now is
3:45 p.m. This concludes the interview.
File No. 9110428
WORLD TRADE CENTER
TASK FORCE INTERVIEW
FIREFIGHTER ALBERT BARRY
Interview Date: January 9, 2002
Transcribed by Laurie A. Collins
CHIEF CONGIUSTA: The time is 1200
hours. This is Battalion Chief Frank
Congiusta of the Safety Battalion of the
Fire Department of New York. I'm conducting
an interview with the following individual.
FIREFIGHTER BARRY: Firefighter Albert
Barry, Engine 65, third grade.
CHIEF CONGIUSTA: The interview is
being conducted at the quarters of Engine
65, and it's regarding the events of
September 11th, 2001.
Q. Okay, Al, do you want to give your
story?
A. Okay. We got the call at 9 a.m., third
due on the fifth alarm. We rolled up to West
Street and Vesey where our chauffeur let us off.
We grabbed the rollups, an extra bottle, and
proceeded to the north tower and entered the
lobby area through a broken window.
I believe we went up the A stairwell.
It was pretty congested with civilians coming
down. We kept telling the civilians to stay to
the right, we're moving up to the left. We made
it to about the 16th floor when the south tower collapsed.
We did not know that. This is all
hindsight, of course. The only thing that I can
recall that happened was there was a big whoosh
of air that pushed from the south up to the
north. The building moved a little bit, nothing
out of the ordinary, I guess.
From there we made it to about the 20th
floor when we heard a radio signal for a mayday
to remove ourselves from there, the building was
in eminent collapse. On our way down, the
stairwell was pretty much fluid. We were sharing
air with civilians.
Nobody that we came down with was
injured in any way just some civilian was
hyperventilating. There was, I recall, an older
woman that was being carried down by some
civilians in a chair. We told the civilians to
put her down and we immediately took command of
her, checked her vitals, and she was all right.
I helped carry her down a little bit.
Then we passed her along to some other civilians
who carried her down some more. It was a quicker
pace because people were making room for her to come down.
I guess we got to about maybe the fifth
floor, and the power was out. There was a bit of
a smoky condition at that point. But everybody
continued down. Nobody was running. It was very
calm.
Once we made it to the lobby,
(inaudible) seemed to be a triage set up in the
lobby area. Our lieutenant said there's no need
for us to be in here, let's make our way out the
way we came in, and that's what we did. Once we
came out the window, there was debris all over
the place.
I've been told that Chief Al Turi was
directing everybody to move north. He was
screaming at the top of his lungs, "Go north!"
with a megaphone in his hand, he wasn't even
using the megaphone.
We took a few steps out, turned around,
and the north tower was coming down. It was
coming down on our back. That's when we just
started running up, and at that point 65 Engine
got separated.
I made it through the smoke, through the debris, once everything cleared. Being that
65 Engine was separated, once we made it up to
Stuyvesant High School, that's when everybody was
pulled back together. 65 Engine was brought
together again.
That's about it, the long and short of
it.
Q. Okay. I just have a couple questions.
A. Go ahead.
Q. Did they give you a specific task? In
other words, when you came in, did they tell you
to go to the 30th floor or the 50th floor?
A. Yes, there was a chief, I guess it was
at the staging area. There was basically just
one chief standing there saying, "All right, you
guys make your way up to the north tower." I
don't know --
Q. He didn't tell you to go to the 30th
floor or the 50th floor?
A. No. He just said make your way up to
the north tower. That was it. We got our
rollups and gear and everything else and that's
it. That's about it, then.
File No. 9110013
WORLD TRADE CENTER
TASK FORCE INTERVIEW
EMT ANTHONY BARTOLOMEY
Interview Date: October 9, 2001
Transcribed by Nancy Francis
MS. BASTEDENBECK: Today's date is October
9th, 2001. The time is 0916 hours. This is Christine
Bastedenbeck of the Fire Department of the City of New
York. I'm with Christopher Eccleston. We're
conducting an interview with the following individual:
Q. Please state your name, rank, title, and your
assigned command of the Fire Department regarding the
events of September llth, 2001.
A. My name is Anthony Bartolomey, an EMT
assigned to EMS Battalion 4.
Q. What unit were you working on September 11?
A. 02 Bravo Tour I.
Q. Who were you working with on that day?
A. Pasquale Felitti.
Q. On that morning, were you assigned to the
World Trade Center?
A. Yes.
Q. Approximately what time?
A. At approximately 8:55 a.m.
Q. At approximately what time did you arrive?
A. At about 8: 58.
Q. On your way there, were you able to see
anything that was happening?
A. Debris floating in the air from the towers, people running away from the towers and vehicles left
abandoned in the street. We were approaching from
Broadway coming westbound on Cortlandt Street. There
were two taxicabs and a soda truck left abandoned by
their drivers. My partner actually got out of the
vehicle and pulled the vehicles over to the side so we
could get the ambulance through. We made a right turn
onto Church Street, parked on Church and Fulton in
front of the Millenium Hotel on the southeast corner.
Q. When you arrived there, did any civilians
report anything to you?[This gentleman was one of the first on scene D.C]
A. Yes. Numerous civilians were telling me that
a plane had hit the building. There were discrepancies
as to the type of plane. Some were saying it was a
Cessna or Leer jet type, a small jet plane. Some said
it was a large passenger plane. One person actually
said that it was like a military style plane that
actually shot missiles into the building.[And that is a resounding slam dunk right there,hell they were arguing the type plane to this guy,so Planes-7,Military style-1 No Planes-0 D.C]
Q. Who did you report to when you first got
there?
A. When we got there, there were no supervisors
on the scene. We reported to a paramedic unit from New
York Downtown, I believe it was 1 Victor. They're
paramedics based out of Beekman Downtown Hospital. They had had their vehicle on the corner of Vesey and
Church, on the southwest corner, in front of 5 World
Trade by Borders Bookstore. They already had three
patients in their vehicle. There were more patients
approaching as we had gotten there. So we grabbed our
equipment out of our vehicle and walked up a block to
them. It was them and a crew from 1 Adam was there
also treating some patients. Nobody had established
staging at that time yet, or, if they had, it hadn't
come up over the radio. So pretty much we stayed where
we were and started to treat patients there.
Q. That was where; at the corner of --
A. The corner of Vesey and Church Street.
Q. Okay. Then just tell me the events that you
remember happening.
A. Then as we were starting to treat some more
patients, we heard rumbling. We thought maybe it was
debris falling from the tower. You look up and you see
the flame of the plane hitting the second building.
When you see the footage on TV, you see it fly in one
side and the fireball shot out through the other side.
We actually saw the fireball shot out from the north
side of that building.
Everybody got behind the vehicle to brace themselves against any debris that was coming down.
Debris came down. There was glass and metal hitting
the ground around us. That's when we decided to get
out of that area because we didn't know what else was
going to come down on us. So we got the people that
were able to walk from there, we got them to walk, got
ourselves out of there.
I'm not sure where my partner went after
that. I went towards the subway station on Church
Street in front of that cemetery. It's by the Trinity
Church annex. Because people were standing there just
like deer in the headlights kind of thing, just
staring.
Q. Did you walk at that point?
A. I ran, actually.
Q. You ran. Okay.
A. It was only across the street because we were
on the west side of the street. The subway station is
on the east side. There's a double entrance. Two
stairways converge into one. They go down into the
mezzanine level. People were just standing there. I
was telling them get down, get underground, because
they're sitting there while stuff is still falling on
them. So I get them down there
That's where I started finding patients and
apparently somebody was there with -- I guess he must
have been treated and the crew that was there ran and
he got left behind because he had a cervical collar and
he had a triage tag around his neck. So I had a couple
of civilians help me carry him down the stairs to the
bottom, to the mezzanine level, where the token clerk
is, put him there, and then they had another patient
who was a female. She had fallen and hit her head.
She had a lump about the size of a golf ball on her
forehead. She was going in and out of consciousness.
We put her down next to the other guy. Then there was
an elderly female who felt weak in the legs and was
unable to walk. So now I had three patients there in
front of the token booth.
So I go back upstairs, come up on the radio,
let them know, you know, I'm half crew. I don't know
where my partner is. I've got three patients not able
to walk. I need somebody to get them out of there
because at that point I had no equipment on me either.
Slowly but surely the police started coming down with
some equipment to help carry the patients out. We got
the third one out of there. I forget exactly what
time. It was right before the towers fell, which that was about between 9:55 and 10:00, approximately.
Because we had gotten back upstairs with the last
patient and there was nobody around. There were police
officers there saying the tower was in danger of
collapse and so they were evacuating the immediate
area.
So we went up one block to Barclay Street.
We were still on Church walking northbound. We got to
St. Peter's Church, and I'm not sure who these people
were, I'm not sure if they were federal or plainclothes
police officers also, told us start setting up a triage
over in front of St. Peter's Church because at this
point nobody really was sure where everybody was
going. So anybody who could walk was walking, getting
out of the immediate area.
So we still had this one guy on a long board
with a collar on him, and they brought one other person
over who was in a stair chair. I forget exactly what
his injuries were. I believe he had hurt his ankle or
something like that. That's when we heard the rumbling
of the tower starting to collapse and we started to get
people inside the church because you saw the cloud of
the smoke and the soot that was kicked up when the
tower fell. At the rate of speed it was coming up the street, we weren't going to be able to outrun it, so we
decided the best bet would be to get back in inside.
We got who we could inside. I got caught outside of
the church when the dust cloud overcame me and then I
felt my way back in. There were some other officers
and people inside the church, and we waited there until
the dust subsided a little bit so we could get out.
At that point I lost track of time. I
couldn't tell you exactly what time everything happened
after that. We get outside I was complaining my throat
was burning from breathing in -- I don't think how long
I was outside breathing in all the soot and
everything. There was a unit from Booth Memorial
Hospital, another ambulance unit. They already had
patients in their vehicle. They took me and told me to
go with them, and then they brought me up to Roosevelt
Hospital.
Q. And you became a patient there?
A. Yes.
Q. Where were you when the second tower
collapsed?
A. I'm not sure because, like I said, I lost
track of time. So I'm not sure if I was still in the
church when the second tower came down because we were in there for quite a while before you could see outside
enough to step out because the soot and the dust, the
black in the sky to the point where it looked like it
was nighttime outside.
Q. You said you ended up going to the hospital
with a Booth Memorial unit?
A. Yes.
Q. In the time that you were down at the scene
of the Trade Center, did you run into any EMTs or
paramedics that you knew?
A. I ran into one, but I didn't know him. He
said he was from Brooklyn.
Q. Was he on duty or off duty, in a uniform?
A. He had the uniform shirt, but he was wearing
jeans, so I'm assuming he was off duty at the time.
Q. But you didn't know his name?
A. I didn't know who he was. He just said he
worked out of Brooklyn.
Q. The only place you went prior to the collapse
was into the subway station?
A. Yes.
Q. And that was --
A. The E train. It's the World Trade Center
station of the E train.
Q. From which street did you enter into that?
A. From Church Street in between I believe it's
Cortlandt -- no. Fulton and Vesey. Right here in
front of St. Paul's cemetery.
Q. You never went into the Trade Center
buildings themselves?
A. No. The closest I got was in the front,
right here, where Borders Bookstore was, which is right
over here. That was as close as I got. I never
actually went inside the building, no.
Q. So for the first collapse you had gone to St.
Peter's Church?
A. Yes.
Q. As the building came down and the cloud of
smoke approached you, you felt your way into the
church?
A. Yes.
Q. Then you came outside and you're not even
aware of when the second tower came down?
A. No.
Q. Do you know approximately what time you
became a patient?
A. That would probably be around between 10:30
and 11:00. I have the paperwork from the hospital. I don't have it with me. But it would tell you what time
I got to the hospital and the time I was released.
Q. Okay. Is there anything else that you'd like
to include in the interview, anything you want to say?
A. No, that's about it.
MS. BASTEDENBECK: Then this concludes the
interview with EMT Anthony Bartolomey. The time now is
9:28 on October 9, 2001.
File No. 9110105
WORLD TRADE CENTER
TASK FORCE INTERVIEW
EMS CHIEF JAMES BASILE
Interview Date: October 17, 2001
Transcribed by Laurie A. Collins
MS. BASTEDENBECK: Today is October
17th, 2001. The time is 839 hours. My name
is Christine Bastedenbeck from the New York
Fire Department. I'm here to conduct an
interview with the following individual.
CHIEF BASILE: Chief JAMES BASILE,
B-A-S-I-L-E, EMS operations, EMS Division 2
commander.
MS. BASTEDENBECK: Also present for the
interview --
MR. ECCLESTON: Christopher Eccleston
from the New York City Fire Department World
Trade Center disaster task force.
Q. Chief, I'm just going to ask you if you
can recount the events of September 11th, 2001.
A. I first became aware of the World Trade
Center incident from my staff, who was watching
the morning news. They had turned on the news,
and we had seen the original plane had struck
tower number one of the World Trade Center. At
that point we started to monitor the radio
activities here, the CAD job.
Within a few minutes, the other
building was struck. At that point I called the Citywide Dispatch Supervisor, informing them we
were available if necessary. I felt at that
point based on the magnitude of the incident that
I should respond.
So I responded from Division 2's office
with paramedic Louis Cook. We traveled Pelham
Parkway onto the Hutchison River Parkway to the
Whitestone Bridge, where we had seen the
magnitude of the incident outplayed firsthand.
From the Whitestone Bridge, we entered the
Whitestone Expressway onto the Van Wyck
Expressway onto the Long Island Expressway, where
we started to take a real perspective of the
incident because of the closer we had gotten.
By the time we reached the Queens
Midtown Expressway, that perception now before
the tunnel, we had seen how big it really was.
My greatest fear was additional attacks at that
point, knowing past history with terrorists and
how they operate.
By the time we got to the tunnel, there
must have been 20-25 vehicles behind us, a few
cars in front of us. Chief Hirth was in front of
us. Chief Carrasquillo was also in front of us.We got into the tunnel. We had clear access into
the tunnel and onto 34th Street and the FDR
Drive.
We traveled the FDR Drive, came through
the tunnel down in lower Manhattan and out onto
the West Side Highway. I parked the vehicle at
approximately West Street and I believe it was
Albany to Carlisle. It might have been Albany.
Q. Can you just indicate with the
number 1?
A. Carlisle to Rector or Albany. I'm
going to put a 1 here.
I exited the vehicle with all my
appropriate gear and walked up to the command
post, which was located adjacent to the Winter
Garden theater at that point. I met with Chief
Jerry Gombo and Chief Walter Kowalczyk and was
directed to go into the lobby of number One World
Trade Center at that point. The buildings are
still up and intact.
Louis Cook and I went in together. We
found out it was very dangerous entering the
premise, that there was numerous parts of the
building and other foreign bodies being thrown around from the higher floors.
We entered the lobby. There I met
Citywide Truck Commander Joseph Callan, Fire
Division 1 Commander Chief Hayden and Fire
Battalion 1 Joe Pfeifer, Safety Battalion Chief
Stephen King, Father Judge, and OEM Port
Authority officials in the command post within
the lobby of number one.
We were looking to effect a way of exit
for personnel in the building and a place where
we could establish treatment sites. I advised
the incident commander that was in the Trade
Center with me that access from the front of the
building was inappropriate and that we should
look for other exits. That's when I sent Louis
Cook with a Port Authority cop to find a
different access for civilians and public safety
personnel to come in on.
We were operating in the lobby, and all
of a sudden we heard the roar of a jet engine, is
what it sounded like. We thought that there was
another plane coming into the building. We went
from the lobby area into an elevator bank area --
escalators that led into the concourse area. So there was essentially a wall that we went around
from the command post area to the escalator area.
Not two seconds later debris and dust
started to come in, and essentially we were just
shut down. Everything was dark, pitch-black.
Q. Before the collapse, was the lobby
still lit?
A. The lobby was functional. When I first
arrived there, there appeared to be a lot of
people there. The Port Authority had set up some
type of chain to help lead people out. I would
say within the last two minutes before building
two had fallen that the bulk of the people were
out of the lobby and it was essentially just the
Fire, Port Authority and OEM personnel with me.
The lobby was essentially clear.
Q. Did you go into any of the stairways or
did you stay in the lobby?
A. I just stayed in the lobby at that
point. We heard the roar of the jet -- what I
thought was a jet coming in, and I believe the
others did, and we went into the escalator area
for shelter.
Everybody got down on the ground. There was some debris that fell. There was a lot
of soot and dust. It was pitch-black. The only
light that we had was the handheld lanterns, and
there was a photographer, a video crew that was
following one of the battalion chiefs, that he
provided some light.
All access to the lobby area was cut
off, and any egress from that level was cut off.
I opted to grab a hold of a Port Authority cop
who knew the building well and ask for another
way out. We ventured to take the escalator up
into the concourse level.
I went up to the concourse level. All
the glass had been shattered out at that point.
We were able to get out. I saw people starting
to come out from the building on the concourse.
I met with Fire Battalion Chief Turner and a few
other firemen -- I don't know their names -- and
assisted in moving patients, civilians, out.
I did some quick treatment of a couple
of patients. One gentleman had a severe gash to
his forearm. I don't know how, but he had gauze
with him. So I wrapped him up. I effectively
was able to bring out about 300 civilians from the building at that point in the matter of, I
guess, 12, 15 minutes.
We were helping people over large areas
of debris and channelling them, trying to keep
them calm, bringing them over to a walkway that
led to number Seven World Trade Center.
When the majority of the civilians were
out, I waited a few minutes. There was nobody
else coming out. I had a feeling, a gut feeling
inside that it was time for me to leave. So I
started walking. I went over the walking bridge
to number seven. I went into the second level or
the main lobby of number seven and walked down
the escalator.
As I was approaching the corner of West
and Vesey, I heard over the radio that the
building was leaning. As I was crossing West
Street, that's when I heard that jet sound again.
I knew that the building was coming down. I made
it about -- somewhere between West and North End
there was a fence, approximately, I guess, 200
feet or maybe 100 yards away. I decided to use
that as a wall to protect myself from any debris,
not knowing what the extent of the magnitude was going to be.
I brought a couple of civilians down
with me, a couple of firefighters, I brought them
close to the ground. I covered them with my
turnout coat with me. I essentially waited and
figured that was it, it was all over, because of
the proximity to where we were to where the
building was.
It went down, got filled with this dust
and dirt, debris, again, this cloud. I opened up
my eyes. It was total darkness I guess for about
two, three minutes. I thought I guess this is
what it's like to be dead. Then I heard a woman
screaming next to me, and I said I guess we're
still all here. So that was good.
We waited until we were able to see a
little light. I was able to get the woman up.
We went into a bagel store which was located at
North End and Vesey, where we took some water. I
gave her water and a couple other people. At the
back of the deli counter in the kitchen area,
they had like a little portable shower, I guess a
dish shower. We hosed each other down.
I went into a building off of River Terrace, I believe, and Vesey where a lot of the
chiefs had regrouped. I met with Chief
Kowalczyk, Gombo. I don't remember the other
chiefs that were there at the time. Essentially
we were trying to put a plan together of what we
were going to do.
I was directed at that point to set up
a treatment site over at the ferry terminal.
Louie Cook and I, we wound up finding each other.
I thought he was a goner too. I didn't know
where he was. I thought it was all over.
We met, and we took a few minutes out.
I told Louis, I said, "We're not going back to
the West Side Highway. We're going to walk
around if necessary." So we were walking down
North End. We were down by the yacht harbor.
Louie Cook saw a boats mate who was sweeping
debris off of one of the boats.
He called out to the boatsmate and
asked him, "Do you have a dingy?" The guy said,
"Yeah, what do you need?" He said, "Well, we
need a ride out to the ferry terminal." He said,
"Okay." So we wound up having a zodiac
inflatable boat.
Actually it was a good respite because
we were able to get away from the scene for a
little bit and clear our heads and the air was
clear and we were able to see the magnitude of
what had just happened with us.
We got into the zodiac, and we traveled
down the Hudson River to the MIL, the marine
input center, the Coast Guard station, where they
dock their vessels. Of course Louie got off, and
he was going to hold the boat for me, and then we
got carried out into the water. Then something
jammed in the propeller, so we're stranded out
there.
I saw some Coast Guard or some New York
City cops in another zodiac. I tried to wave
them down, and they zipped by. Five minutes
later Louie is trying to throw me a life
preserver on a rope, which got about two feet off
of the pier. It was comical, to say the least.
He was able to unwrap the rope from the
propeller, and we got started again. I got up
the ladder, and I exited.
At that point we went over to the ferry
terminal. There were some EMS crews there already. I'm not positive whether I met
Dr. Cherson at that point or if it was slightly
thereafter, but in essence we took over the
second floor of the ferry terminal and we
established a medical treatment site.
We had moved all the benches out. We
had prioritized all the areas as far as
treatments. A number of physicians and health
care professionals had come in, civilians from
the street. Dominic Maggiore was there at the
time and helped set up the treatment and staging
areas.
Essentially I spent the best part of
the day there, trying to get things established,
thinking that there was going to be a mass exodus
to the ferry terminal, patients looking for
treatment, at least everybody going back to
Staten Island.
In essence we didn't treat that many
patients. We did about five transports, one
being Deputy Chief Robert Browne. He had
staggered in. He had severe conjunctiva of both
eyes and some back pain. He was immobilized and
transported to Penninsular General.
About 4:30 I was asked to go over to
the command post which is located at Chambers and
West, so I had gotten together -- I was with Mark
Steffens, Fred Villani and Louie Cook. We picked
up the car, brushed it off. There was about four
or five inches of dust on the car.
We traversed around the east side of
Manhattan, tried to get to Chambers and West. We
had gotten to -- I don't know what street this
is -- Washington. We were at Washington and
Chambers when we saw number seven come down.
That was about 5:20. We watched that come down.
We watched this plume of smoke coming at us.
I just drove up the block, and I said,
"Everybody stay in the car." We waited for
everything.
We went to the command post. I was
shot for the day. I had severe conjunctiva. I
couldn't breathe. I came back at 6 the next
morning.
Q. Anything else you want to add?
A. That's it. I think everybody's story
is going to tell it.
MS. BASTEDENBECK: This concludes the
J. BASTILE 14
interview. The time now is 855 hours.
Thank you, Chief.
No comments:
Post a Comment