File No. 9110254
WORLD TRADE CENTER
TASK FORCE INTERVIEW
FIREFIGHTER RICHARD BATTISTA
Interview Date: December 6, 2001
Transcribed by Elisabeth F. Nason
BATTALION CHIEF KENAHAN: The time is 4:49
p.m. This is Battalion Chief Dennis Kenahan, the
Safety Battalion of the New York City Fire
Department. I'm conducting an interview with
Richard Battista of Engine 76.
Q. Richard, explain to us what you remember on
September 11.
A. Well, September 11, the day started out
normally just like any other day. The men had gotten
up for breakfast and I turned on the channel, I turned
on the news TV and we saw that one of the World Trade
Center towers had been struck by an airplane. At that
time we thought it was an accident. Shortly after, the
second plane struck the second building. We started
receiving our alarms and everybody came over the voice
alarm telling us exactly what to do.
Members started to turn out and we made our
way downtown. We took a route along the West Side
Highway and on our way down there you could see both
towers in flames and you could see a lot of smoke in
the immediate area. On arrival we got there, the
Lieutenant had - Lieutenant Farrington, told us
basically what we needed to do as to - just start
getting to a staging area and while he was receiving his orders from the Battalion, we pretty much kept a
wait in front of what is now -- I think was the
American Express building.
At that time he just told us basically to
prepare, getting extra water, whatever else we might
have needed for the flight up. I think he was getting
reports of possibly going up to a building, one of the
floors in the second tower.
Q. North tower or the south tower?
A. Sorry, the north tower. At this time, I had
just been waiting for a while, and all I could remember
from my vantage point was seeing civilians jump out of
the buildings in the west side of the tower and landing
around the surrounding streets. At that time, to be
honest I didn't really focus too much on what was going
on around me because I was sort of fixated on what was
happening up above, so I didn't really get too much of
a time to notice what was happening immediately around
me. I know there was a lot of people running back and
forth and there was havoc, but it didn't really dawn
upon me at that time that I should be aware of my
immediate surroundings.
Once they started falling, we got a report of
a firefighter being injured, from someone maybe falling, so we decided to move back further away from
the tower. I remember specifically the command post,
which may have been, I don't know, maybe 40 feet in
front of us, something in that nature. When I saw
that, Lieutenant Farrington told us to move back so we
were sort of underneath a garage area when we first
heard reports or guys yelling that one of the towers
was coming down. I was able to stick my head out and
look up a bit and once I saw that I just immediately
turned around and ran into the building.
Within seconds everything was pitch dark. I
remember something actually hit me on my shoulder, what
it was I don't know. It could have been a helmet, it
could have been something that hit me on my left
shoulder. Even though we weren't immediately in front
of the south tower, in that vicinity, because I wasn't
able to see what was coming down around me, I thought
maybe it was a piece of the building or something, so
at that point I just ducked into a corner and put my
-- rolled up in a fetal position, just balled up and
waiting for the worst to be over.
Once things settled down I heard firefighters
asking for help. Someone actually stated oh, I have
asthma. I can't breathe, whatever. So I was one of the few firefighters that I remember who actually had
my cylinder on my back, because some of the
firefighters had actually put them down to rest,
because we had been waiting for a while.
At this point I turned on my flashlight and I
tried to look for anyone that I might be able to assist
within the garage area, keeping in mind I didn't know
how badly affected the building I was in was. I just
knew it was pitch black in front. I couldn't see out
where I came in from originally, so I thought who
knows, maybe we are underneath or trapped as well.
After some of the haze started clearing, we
started seeing bits of light, but we couldn't exactly
see the entrance. Lieutenant Farrington had the
forethought of getting a search rope tied off to a
bannister and made his way out to the back of the
building heading towards the west river. He started
calling out to the members of the 76 and other
companies. We found the line and made our way out the
building and back down under some steps and coming out,
surfacing on the other side.
At that time I really don't remember too many
other faces, because myself, I have a little over a
year on the job, so I really don't know too many other people from surrounding companies, just a few familiar
faces.
I do remember once we made it out the back of
the building, running towards the river and I saw
several members of our truck company, 22 Truck. Those
were the only distinguishing faces I could make out.
Not only was it hard to see, but a lot of helmets were
covered with soot at that point after we made it out
the back, so it was difficult to even see some of the
numbers, even if I did look for it.
At that point we waited by the river and
tried to gather everyone because all the members who
were in the Engine that day, I think two of the members
might have gone a different way, so we were waiting to
catch up with them and then we were waiting to make a
voice communication with them over the handy talky, but
there was just so much confusion that that wasn't able
to happen right away.
Eventually we did meet up with them and we
started walking up north when the second tower
collapsed. At this point that walk turned into a run
very quickly and we made our way to, I believe it's
Vesey or on West Street, and started going up West
Street until we were able to come to another meeting point.
Other than that, that's pretty much all I can
recall at this point.
Q. The point that you are just talking about
now, had the second tower come down yet or not?
A. No.
Q. What happened after you met at that point,
did you go back at all or did you stay up there when
the second tower came down?
A. Once we made it out to that meeting point
where the Chiefs were trying to get a head count over
on West Street, I was (inaudible) for a message from
the Chief's aide and found out that we had to go back
in eventually to find -- to see how many members we
could find. This took some time, because like I said,
everything was out of whack. People -- whole companies
weren't together, so it took some time for us to not
only gather the men but gather our bearings, because
you could imagine once we were waiting we also got
another report of a plane in the area, so we thought
possibly at that time that another building around us
might get struck.
I remember sitting down and drinking water
and trying to get a bite of an apple or something by that time. When we finally did get our job duties,
what we were supposed to do, we started gathering up
again and we were told we had to turn out on a
spreading fire in what I believe is 6 World Trade
Center or the customs building, possibly a bank.
At that point, this was later on, closer to
the afternoon maybe, maybe 12, but I'm not exactly
sure, during that time --
As I was saying, once the afternoon came
around, 12 or 1, by that time I think a new officer had
met up with our company, we had Captain Jirak take us
into that fire on that 6 World Trade Center where we
helped extinguish some fires on the back of that
building.
Prior to that, earlier in the day, just to
backtrack a little bit, when the second tower
collapsed, I remember we were all by the water way, by
the river, right on the river's edge, and we were
looking in the general direction of the towers, but you
couldn't see much, because I believe the other
building, maybe 4 World Trade Center or the American
Express building, was blocking our view. We couldn't
really see nothing but what was up in the sky.
Once we finished extinguishing the fires, we once again met up on West Street with Captain Jirak and
we just waited for further orders to go out and start
making searches. That's about it.
Q. Okay, anything else you would like to add?
A. No.
BATTALION CHIEF KENAHAN: Thank you Richard,
for all your help. This concludes the interview
it's now 5:05 p.m.
File No. 9110019
WORLD TRADE CENTER
TASK FORCE INTERVIEW
LIEUTENANT BRIAN BECKER
Interview Date: October 9, 2001
Transcribed by Maureen McCormick
MR. MURAD: The date is October 9, 2001. The
time is 12 o'clock, 1200 hours, and this is Murray
Murad the New York City Fire Department.
MR. CUNDARI: George Cundari.
MR. MURAD: I'm conducting an interview with
the following lieutenant.
THE WITNESS: Brian Becker, Engine 28, Group
22.
MR. MURAD: The New York City Fire
Department. We are currently at Engine 28,
Ladder --
THE WITNESS: 11
MR. MURAD: --11,regarding the events of
September 11, 2001.
Presently there is no one else in the
interview room, and we will be conducting the
interview with Lieutenant Becker.
Q. Lieutenant, would you like to give the story
of what -- your accounts of what took place on that
tragic day.
A. Okay.
Q. And your role.
A. I had relieved the lieutenant from the night
tour. He had left -- I was in the kitchen with the other firemen. I was standing up with a cup of coffee,
and I heard a loud explosion. It sounded like it was
coming from the back of the firehouse. I thought it
was north of the firehouse.
I put down my coffee, and I said to the guys,
"I think we're going to work. That was an explosion."
So walking out to the apparatus, we heard the voice
alarm came over and said there was an explosion in the
World Trade Center. So we were putting on our boots,
getting ready. The engine was dispatched on the box.
The time was 8:48.
I knew right away. I felt right away it
was -- I remembered thinking they got us this time,
because I heard the explosion, so I knew it was a large
explosion, and the World Trade Center, so I figured we
were on route to a big disaster.
There was never a doubt in my mind, as I
recall, that it was anything other than a terrorist
attack.
We went east on Houston Street to the FDR,
down the FDR Drive, and by the time we were approaching
the Brooklyn Bridge, we could see the tower. We could
see fire lapping out of the tower. Seemed like all
four sides.
I guess we could see two or three sides from
the FDR Drive and could see fire lapping out of
multiple floors from about three quarters of the way up
the building.
We made our way around the Battery, plowing
through traffic, and made our way up West Street past
the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. We saw -- on arrival, we
saw a lot of debris in the street on West Street. I
could see what seemed to be -- coming down the FDR, I
could see both towers, but I could see -- I only saw
the fire in the north tower. The other one hadn't been
struck. I'm sure of that.
We saw a lot of debris in the street as we
came up, and I was concerned. I could see what seemed
to be remains of bodies in the street. I told the
chauffeur to stay as far to the left as he could,
because I didn't want to get hit with a body in the cab
and die right there. I remember thinking that.
We drove just past One World Trade Center,
and we stopped under the pedestrian overpass, just
north of the -- we got in a sheltered spot. We
dismounted the apparatus. I'd say that was right
here. We stopped.
Q. This is where the apparatus was, on West Street?
A. Right, I would say we stopped just about
underneath there. Underneath -- if that's a pedestrian
walk --
Q. Right.
A. -- we stopped the apparatus under there just
to stay out of shelter, because I figured there were
jumpers, and I figured it was a very dangerous place to
stop, so we stopped under the overpass.
We got off the rig. I asked the chauffeur,
"Where are you headed?" He said -- whatever he said,
he ended up hooking up on Barclay and West Broadway.
That's just north of 7 World Trade Center, which it all
interconnected, we think. You know, I'm pretty sure.
Or maybe he was on Vesey. I'm not --
Q. Between Barclay and Vesey he parked?
A. Okay.
Q. He parked there.
A. As we were heading into the building, one of
the guys said -- we were very excited and very pumped
up, and it was a terrible situation. It was like a
battlefield. It wasn't -- we kept it together, but we
were -- as we were heading in, one of the guys, I
forget who, said, "I forgot my mask." So we were delayed. I said, "well, you got to get your mask.
We'll wait for you here under the overpass."
So we probably waited about 30 seconds or a
minute or so. I would say 30 seconds to a minute while
he ran to the rig, which was still, I guess, blocked by
traffic and pulled his mask off, so we stayed as a
unit. That delayed us for a few seconds.
All these things contributed, I think, to our
survival. That's why I mentioned that, because, you
know, every little -- every second made a difference.
Q. At that time, the rig was still on West
Street and --
A. Well, I guess it was like a few -- a few --
maybe -- you know, there was traffic and a lot of --
you know, it was rush hour still, so he hadn't made the
corner. He hadn't -- anything like that, so I would
say 30 seconds to a minute.
So I grouped with the other firefighters
under the overpass, and we gave him riding positions,
and I gave the senior man the nozzle and things, and
then when the other guy came back, we said, "Okay,
let's make it a direct route right into the -- let's
move fast."
So we moved into 1 World Trade Center from that northern pedestrian overpass, from underneath
that, so we took the shortest route, and I think we
just went in a window. I think the glass was blown out
there.
I remember getting the impression that the
elevators were blown out, and I kind of can verify
that, because a chief grabbed me by the shoulder, and
he said, "Engine 28, you're teaming up with Engine 4
and just take four roll-ups and head up."
I don't know who the chief was. There was no
command. It was chaos in the lobby.
Q. Can I just interrupt?
Was there any communication at that point
from the time you got off the rig and you waited for
the other firefighter to get his gear and the 30
seconds?
Was there any radio transmissions or was
there any direction?
A. Nothing that I recall. Honestly, nothing
directed to us for certain, and we didn't direct
anything. I didn't speak with them, because I knew I
bounced the first division for years, and I responded
to the World Trade Center several times, so I knew the
procedure, you know.
Even though this wasn't typical at all, I was
still going on that I knew I was going to report into
the lobby command post. I knew where it was.
So we got into the -- like I was saying, when
the chief grabbed me by the shoulders, he said, "Take
four roll-ups only between the two companies. Team up
with Engine 4 and start your way up," and I remember
specifically asking him how are we going up, and I
remember thinking that it was a stupid question,
because I knew the elevators were blown out, but I just
asked it anyway, just in case he knew something I
didn't know, and he said, "You're walking."
I have an impression of smoke around the
elevators, and bent doors, and it was pretty -- the
lobby was pretty devastated. I don't remember who that
chief was.
So we teamed up with Engine 4. I knew the
officer, Joe Farrelly, so we were talking, making small
talk and making our way up, and about two or three
levels up, there were a lot of civilians coming down,
and it was very -- pushing through them, so heavy
traffic against us, and I saw a building personnel
person, and I said, "Is there a better staircase?" And
he goes, "Yes, there is. I'll take you to another one." He took us up maybe one or two more levels,
either to the 3rd or 4th Floor, and I think we switched
either from C to B or B to C. I don't really remember
the letters any more.
We made our way down the hallway on the 3rd
or 4th Floor, both units, and by then I think there was
a chief with us, and as I recall, he had an 11 on his
helmet, so I presume since then it was not the division
so I presume it was chief from the 11th Battalion, and
so we pretty much then traveled up as a unit, 4 Engine,
Engine 28 and this chief.
There was also -- I remember a fireman or two
from Ladder 8, and about the 10th Floor or so, the
chief made a decision to -- the new stairway we were in
had a lot of people coming down, and the chief made a
decision that we were going to pause and get these
people to another stairway and direct them to another
stairway to try to vacate that stairway as best we
could for us to go up and use it as an attack
stairway.
So I would guess we were something like on
the 10th Floor or something. So we probably spent a
couple of minutes directing civilians to another
stairway. They were all very cooperative, and there was no panic to speak of, and I remember reassuring of
the civilians saying, "You're all right now. Just
continue now. You are safe now."
I asked people occasionally has anybody been
coming from a fire, you know, a floor where they have
seen fire or smoke, just trying to determine how far up
we had to go. So I had the impression we were heading
for Floor No. 60, but it actually would have been
higher.
So the firemen were getting pretty tired by
then, and they wanted to take little breaks every few
floors, so our progress was pretty slow. We weren't
aware of any -- of the other plane. We heard rumors
that another plane was on route, and one of the guys,
Lieu, "Did you hear that? There's another plane on
route, another one."
So we kind of knew somehow that a plane had
hit. We knew it was a terrorist attack. Just -- I
don't know -- accumulated knowledge along the way, I
guess, from civilians talking or a little handy-talkie
chatter, but by then, I presume, it was already 9:30 or
something.
Q. You never heard the second plane?
A. We never heard the second plane.
Q. Just to verify, you were in the first tower
that was struck, which was in the north tower?
A. Yes.
Q. And you had --
A. World Trade Center No. 1.
Q. And you had --
A. So I would say within -- we were probably in
there like at probably 9:04, 9:05 or something like
that, so I would say just as we were in the stairway
heading up, the other plane probably hit the other
tower. I would say -- but we weren't aware of that.
We had very poor handy-talkie communications. We
didn't hear much of anything. There must have been
Maydays galore out in the street. We didn't hear any
of them. I didn't. The chief didn't apparently
either.
I remember it took a long time. A couple of
the firemen were having a tough time keep going. We
stayed as a unit, all of us still, all -- both
companies, the chief, and by the time -- I remember we
got -- had to go in to Floor No. 28. I said, "Come on,
guys, we are at 28. Come on, next stop is 28th
Floor." So that's accurate in my mind.
After that, I think we made another push after that, but that is not as accurate in my mind,
that I'd say we were in the 30th or 31st, 32nd Floor,
or something like that, and a few of the guys were
lying wiped out on the floor, you know, taking a break
with their masks off and lying in the hallway when
there was a very loud roaring sound and a very loud
explosion, and the -- it felt like there was an
explosion above us, and I had a momentary concern that
our building was collapsing.
Looking up, guys were diving into the
stairway, and then it was like -- everybody was very
scared by then. I'm talking the firemen, and then we
were very worried about what was going on. We didn't
know, but apparently that was the other building
falling. I think we were that far along.
So we regrouped in the stairway for a couple
of minutes, and I told the guys, "All right, hang on.
Let's see what's going on." I still wanted to go up
and fight the fire. The chief was very good. He said,
"All right, everybody calm down."
A couple of firemen said, "Did you feel that
rush of air?" and things like that, and how it was
going on. It really felt like our building was coming
down, and then the chief, who was out of sight for a few minutes, then came running up the stairs, and
that's my impression, and he was saying -- "All
right--" everybody was very adamant and loud, and he
said, "Everybody, we are -- all Fire Department
personnel are out of the building. We are getting
out. Leave all your equipment," he was yelling, "Leave
your equipment, and just get up and go, go, go," like
that.
So I presume that he got the word that the
other building had fallen.
Q. What floor were you guys on?
A. I would say 30th or 31st, something like
that.
Q. That's when the chief --
A. That's when we were notified. I think this
was the 11th Battalion. I think his body was recovered
yesterday.
Q. Oh,boy.
A. But I'm not sure, because I thought that the 11th battalion also was with Ladder 6 when they were --
so I'm not clear on all this.
So we made -- we started to make our way back
down, and there were no civilians to speak of in our
stairway. There were a couple of stragglers being helped by somebody or other. We did tell them keep
going down, and there were -- we might have seen a
couple of firemen, but everybody was in the process.
Everybody was heading down. Nobody was heading up any
more, and it was pretty clear that we were getting
out.
Q. Did you have an idea what time you guys
started to descend down?
A. I would say it was like one minute after the
first building collapsed, the first collapse of the
other building.
Q. So five after ten then?
A. Right. It took us a long time to get up
there.
Q. There were firefighters above you?
A. Not that I know of, no. I mean, we didn't
see anybody going up ahead of us. We just saw
civilians coming down, and by the time we were heading
down, there were really no civilians any more, and we
had a clear track to the -- and to the lobby.
When we got to the lobby, there was total
devastation then. When we went in, it was blasted
apart, and there was broken glass everywhere. All the
windows were out, but when we got down, just my impression was that it was like being outside. You
know, you weren't even in the building any more. It
was devastation, but we were in the northwest corner of
the building, so we were diagonally separated a hundred
percent from the first collapsed building. We were on
the opposite corner -- we were the most sheltered
part.
We got to the lobby, and we saw things. We
saw an arrest being made of some Arab-looking type
guy. I think he had a blue uniform type World Trade
Center type maintenance type person. It was my
impression. It didn't seem important to me. It seemed
like he was being arrested by a Port Authority type
policeman. That's my impression. I remember them
putting cuffs on him, and I remember one of the firemen
saying, "Look, they're arresting the guy," and I said,
"Never mind that. Never mind that."
You know, it was not our concern. There was
chaos in the lobby. It was random people running
around. There was no structure. There were no
crowds. There was no -- no operation of any kind going
on, nothing. There was no evacuation. It was just
people running around, a few Port Authority police, and
I think Engine 4 made it down.
I was talking to guys this morning. You
know, we were with them. I remember on one or two
floors above, Joe Farrelly, the captain, saying, "Oh,
Brian, how you doing? I thought you were behind me,"
you know, but I ended up ahead of him the last flight.
We were checking floors intermittently on the way down
occasionally, make sure there were no firemen and
stuff. We were trying to do a dignified retreat.
We didn't really realize the extent of what
was ahead or what had already happened, and we got to
the -- then we got to the lobby.
I have no more recollection of Engine 4. We
gathered Engine 28, me and the four firefighters. We
gathered by the edge of the lobby, the northwest corner
of the lobby by the broken glass, and I made a move
towards going out, and then I was worried that we were
going to be hit by bodies or falling debris, and then I
said -- "I don't know, you know, what --" this is the
truth, this is what happened actually in that moment.
I said, "I don't know. Maybe we should stay
here for -- maybe we are safer here at the edge of the
lobby." And one of the senior guys said, "Let's get
the F out of here." So we said, "Okay, let's go,
let's -- Ready, here we go. Let's head for our overpass."
So we just ran as a unit to the overpass
again, and we took a look up, and it was like one -- it
was like, holy shit. It was like -- because it was
like -- I guess the building was kind of -- I don't
remember specifically, but I remember it was, like, we
got to get out of here. So I think that the building
was really kind of starting to melt. We were -- like,
the melt down was beginning. The collapse hadn't
begun, but it was not a fire any more up there. It was
like -- it was like that -- like smoke explosion on a
tremendous scale going on up there.
I said to the guys -- I said, "We are in the
collapse zone." I mean, that sounds like a joke, but I
said, "We got to -- we can't stay here." So we started
running up West Street, and I'd say within 50 yards or
so the building was collapsing behind us, and then it
was like everybody was, like, oh shit, you know. This
is it. Every man for himself, running up West Street.
Q. So what members of the Company 28 were with
you that day? Do you recall?
A. With me?
Q. Yes.
A. Chelsen, Ippolito, Campagna -- he's an eight-week guy -- and Kehoe. He's the famous
photographed firefighter of Engine 28 on the steps.
Q. Did you happen to remove any injuries or
civilians or any of your own members following any
collapse?
A. After the -- after the collapse, we were
about 50 to a hundred yards north of the pedestrian
walkway, and the collapse was occurring, and the
firemen were all ahead of me, but my four firemen were
ahead of me running up West Street, and then the black
cloud just came roaring at us, and then we got
separated for an hour or so, and I made -- I was torn
between -- after like, you know, five or ten minutes, I
guess, if I kept trying to get it together.
Everybody -- you know, it was chaos. You know, it was
pure chaos, and after maybe ten minutes or so, trying
to figure out what had happened, and where we were, and
letting the dust settle a little so we could see where
we were, I kind of figured my four guys were safe.
I thought my chauffeur was dead for sure,
because he was parked somewhere near the building. I
made a little effort to -- I headed back. I figured I
have to head back and try to see about my chauffeur,
and I started back on my own, but we were confronted, like, with a huge pile of burning building, and the --
not even getting near the overpass where we were, and
there were other buildings burning, like towering right
to the side, and I was by myself, and I just talked to
myself, Well, geez, I just almost got killed, and I'm
not going to tempt fate any more. Didn't seem like
there was anywhere to go.
We were kind of blocked. All the rubble was
on West Street, so we would have had to go all the way
around by the river to get around to the other side, so
- -
Q. Just going back to the handy-talkies, the
communication.
A. Right.
Q. While operating prior to the first collapse,
and following the first collapse, were there any
communications?
A. We didn't hear anything. I didn't hear
anything.
Q. Also during the second collapse --
A. After the second collapse, it was pure
pandemonium on the handy-talkies.
Q. Is there a certain channel that you guys
operate on?
A. We stayed on the primary technical Channel
1. We never switched.
Q. You never switched.
Just going back, given the current status of
any member missing or deceased member, did you see them
or did you --
A. No, I never saw a firefighter die. I never
saw -- turns out our chauffeur made it. He was pulled
into a building. He had experienced both collapses on
the street, and he had been somehow pulled in on the
second one that would have destroyed our apparatus
totally. He was pulled into a building by a policeman
or something into a federal building or something.
MR. MURAD: George, any questions?
BY MR. CUNDARI:
Q. What did you hear when the building starting
collapsing the second time? Did you feel -- just
started coming down? You didn't hear anything, feel
anything?
A. We felt -- our whole building that we were
in, when World Trade Center 2 collapsed, that was the
first one to collapse. We were in World Trade Center
1. It was a tremendous explosion and tremendous
shaking of our building. We thought it was our building maybe collapsed, there was a collapse above us
occurring.
It was tremendous shaking and like everybody
dove into this stairwell and waited for, I guess, 20,
30 seconds until it settled, and that was our
experience of the other building collapsing.
MR. MURAD: Lieutenant Becker, I would like
to thank you for allowing me to do this interview
with you.
The time now is 1220 hours, and I'd like to
state this concludes the interview.
Thank you very much.
File No. 9110357
WORLD TRADE CENTER
TASK FORCE INTERVIEW
FIREFIGHTER MICHAEL BEEHLER
Interview Date: December 17, 2001
Transcribed by Elisabeth F. Nason
BATTALION CHIEF KING: Today's date is
December 17, 2001. The time is 1616 hours. This
is Battalion Chief Stephen King with the Safety
Battalion, FDNY. I'm conducting an interview with
the following individual: Firefighter Michael
Beehler, Firefighter 6 grade from Ladder company
110, who had the irons position on September 11.
This interview is regarding the events of
September 11, 2001.
Q. Mike, you can start whenever you want.
A. Okay. That morning I was sitting in the
house watch at about quarter to nine, when a few
Lieutenants or a few officers were out front. We had
the apparatus doors open. We were just finishing
checking out the rig and one of the Lieutenants from
the field comm. unit had said that he saw smoke and he
said wow, what is that over there. Do they have
something going in Manhattan or is that just a
compactor fire.
I was on the house watch and I said I don't
know. Let me turn the radio on, so I went in and
turned the radio on. With that I heard a second alarm
being transmitted at the World Trade Center.
With that, I notified my officer, because we go on box 8031 to the World Trade Center on a second
alarm or greater. So I let him know that we were
probably going to be going. Went out and got geared up
and came back into the office, turned the TV on and we
saw what they were saying was a plane crash into the
north tower.
With that, we were just waiting to get sent
and we got sent about 3, 4 minutes after that. We all
got on the rig. Went over with 31, Battalion 31
followed us. As we were going over, I remember looking
out the window of the rig and seeing a lot of smoke and
saying wow, this is something. I remember hearing over
the radio that they had a lot of fire there and they
had jumpers and what not.
As we got to Manhattan -- we went over the
Brooklyn Bridge. As we got to Manhattan, there was a
lot traffic, a lot of people on the road. We got
pulled up. We had came down Broadway and as we got to
Liberty Street, I believe -- yes, we got to Liberty
Street and made the right off of Broadway on to Liberty
and we were on Liberty between Broadway and I believe
Church and we had gotten off the rig with Battalion
31. We were speaking to them on where we should go
because we were assigned to the north tower.
I remember just hearing an explosion that
basically I can't describe the sound of. It was
actually the second plane crashing in. We were on the
side, we were on the south side of the south tower when
it came down -- I mean when the plane crashed in. I
just basically said to myself something's not right
here. It didn't feel right to me. I told my boss,
just I said to him this doesn't feel right. We don't
belong here. He said yes, I know, come on.
As we looked up though, when it happened,
alls we saw was a big ball of flames and the flames
went away. We saw a lot of smoke and debris was
heading everywhere. People were just running. People
scattering like -- the best way to say it is like a
scattering of roaches when you turn the lights on.
People were going anywhere that they could.
We got back in the rig, we backed up on to
Broadway, went up to, I believe it's Battery Park or
wherever it was. We went down, made the next right,
which was back on Church Street. We came back down onto Church Street. We parked the rig in front of, I
think 5 World Trade Center it was. Looking on the map
here.
We got out, grabbed all our stuff. I had the irons, I grabbed the irons, the bunny tool and we all
grabbed extra cylinders and we started making our way
up towards Vesey. We made it down to Vesey and on to
West Street, walking into the northwest corner of the
north tower. They had a mini command post set up, I
believe it was from the First Division.
We walked in, Lieutenant Mera, the officer,
he said, he told us to stand to the side while he went
and got an assignment. We all put our stuff down.
Engine 207, came in, followed us in and the guys that
were working from the engine, the three guys that were
on the back step came in with the officer. The officer
went to the desk and they came over and joined us where
we were standing.
We were only there for maybe about 2 minutes
when Lieutenant Mera came over. He said come on, we
are going up to the 21 floor. There are reports of
people trapped there. We had a Battalion Chief with
us. I don't know the Chief's name.
Q. Chief Picciotto?
A. I believe so. We all picked our stuff up.
He said he thought there was a bank of elevators that
were working. So we went up to the mezzanine, I
believe it was. We went up the escalator to the mezzanine. There was a bank of elevators there that
were still in service, so we took that up to, I believe
the 15 or 16th floor. We got up and then we walked up
to the 23 floor from there in the B staircase, I
believe it was.
People were coming down. People were calm in
the staircase, they didn't really seem too
overanxious. They were saying god bless you, this and
that. We made our way up to the 23 floor. We dropped
our stuff that we didn't need. At that point I just
put the irons with my (inaudible) for the can. We went
back down to the 21 floor and we started just searching
the 21st floor. All the doors were locked. We were
forcing all the doors. There was nobody on the floor.
We practically searched the entire floor. We hadn't
found anybody.
There was one last section that we went to go
search and as we went in there, two of us -- two guys
went to the right and two guys went to the left. I was
one of the guys that went to the left. It was like an
office there where it was like a split office almost.
I was by I guess the outer part of the building and I
just remember feeling the building starting to shake
and this tremendous tremendous like roar and I just -- I kind of didn't even notice it, but like out of
the corner of my eye, I saw out of the building, I saw
a shadow coming down.
At that point I thought it was the upper part
of the north tower that had just basically like toppled
over, fell off. I didn't actually see the building
part go by me, because I think I was on the opposite
side. But I just remember feeling this tremendous
tremendous shake and hearing this, like, noise. Again
I can't describe.
What I did was I ended up running out. I ran
into the staircase where my officer and the rest of the
guys that were with us at that time, we jumped into the
staircase and nobody really knew what was going on.
After that, everything had stopped. The boss told me
and Artie Riccio, who was driving, to go check out the
part where we just were down the hall a little bit, so
the two of us went back down and we had searched the
part where we had just been about 5 minutes prior to
that.
All the windows in that area were all blown
out. It was like a big office, it was a computer
office. I don't know what they were doing there. But
all the windows were blown out and dust was coming in. Again we just searched there, there was no structural
damage at that point on the 21 floor. We made our way
out and as we were making our way back down to the
hallway where the officer was, I heard on the radio, a
Chief come over the radio.I don't know his name.
He said this is Chief so and so. I
personally am ordering everybody out of the building
now. Anybody in the north tower get out now.
Lieutenant Mera said to all of us, he said come on, we
got to get out. He said make sure to stay together.
We are all going to get out, we are all going to go
down together. We are all going to get out together.
Once we get out, we will decide where we are going to
go.Once we get downstairs we will decide where we are
going to go.
With that we went downstairs. There was
another truck company ahead of us. What we did was we
basically piggy backed towards where --
BATTALION CHIEF KING: Time is 1626 hours.
I'm stopping the interview.
The time is 1702 hours. We are restarting
the interview, continuing the interview with
Firefighter Beehler. Okay, Mike.
A. At the time when I heard the loud noise and felt the building shake, we all ended up back in the
staircase after researching the one area. We had
gotten the order to evacuate the building. Lieutenant
Mera told us all to stay together and as we started
making our way down, we, like I said, we piggy backed
floors with another truck company, forcing each door on
the way down. Like they took the odd floors, we took
the even floors, to make sure there was nobody on that
floor and make sure that everybody heard the evacuation
order.
We got down to the 9th floor and from there
down it was very congested. It felt like we waited on
each landing for about 30 seconds to a minute, because
the staircases were packed with members of the Fire
Department that were evacuating. So you did get to 9,
then you got down to 8-1/2. Felt like you waited
another 30 seconds to a minute. Got down to 8 and
continued to go down.
When we got down to the lobby I just remember
seeing all the windows in the north tower on the lobby
floor blown out and there was like dust and debris
everywhere. I actually remember picking up a helmet,
thinking it was a Chief's helmet, and I said to
Lieutenant Mera, I said, wow, some Chief dropped his helmet here and as I picked it up, my fingers smudged a
little piece of it off. I saw it was a fireman's
helmet. The Chief came other over, took the helmet.
As we were walking out, we walked out the
same place where we came in, and I remember seeing the
board there by itself with nobody there. There was a
guy actually standing outside the building telling us
if it was safe or not to come out because he said there
were jumpers coming down at that time.
He said come on, come on, go. We went out
and we stopped right outside the building. We actually
sat on 3 truck's bumper I remember just because a few
friends of mine were in the company. I remember
stopping and we all sat down and Pauly Hyland, who had
the OV, said if this building comes down run up against
this garage. We were under the foot bridge. He said
run up against this garage, we might have a chance to
live.
With that Lieutenant Mera turned to us and
said come on, why don't we go down a little further.
We all got up. We started walking. We were walking
west on West Street, continued to go and as we kept on
walking we stopped at a rig. I got some water.
BATTALION CHIEF KING: Time is 1705 hours. I'm stopping this interview.
The time is 1706 hours. We are restarting
the interview again.
A. We continued to walk west on West Street and
we finally had stopped, I believe it was at engine
224's rig and we weren't there for more than 30 seconds
when Paul Hyland, again, the OV said something to the
effect of oh, my god, it's coming down, run for your
lives. Turned around to see the north tower coming
down. At this time I had just taken my mask off and I
just laid it down. I went to grab my mask and as I
went to grab it, 10 guys just caught me and just swept
me up with them and I just started running, figuring
maybe I could out run it.
I remember turning back around and seeing it
right behind me and basically said this is it. I
figured I was going to die right then and there. I put
my head down and as I put my head down, I just started
walking, I saw there was a mask laying in the middle of
the street. I looked around, there was nobody around
it. I just remember, I said, all right, I'm going to
pick it up. I picked it up.
As I was putting it on my back, I got covered
in the dust cloud. I went to put the mask on, I had turned the cylinder on. Couldn't see anything. I
wasn't able to breathe. I just remember trying to put
the mask on. The regulator face piece came apart and
tried -- I was able to get the regulator and the face
piece together. Took a hit -- took a hit breath of
air.
At that point I was looking for a place to go
because there was debris, nothing big coming down,
because we were about a block, block and a half away
but just to get someplace where it was safe because I
didn't know what else was going to happen. I ended up
finding an ambulance. I jumped into the ambulance.
They brought me in. I stayed there until the dust
cleared. Tried to get Lieutenant Mera on the radio,
but there was a lot of radio traffic. Guys giving
Maydays and everything like that.
I just started walking up West Street because
I knew they were ahead of me. I finally saw them by
Stuyvesant High School. We got together and there were
4 guys there. I was the fifth. Mike Brodbeck, who was
detailed from the 210, he was the sixth guy.
Lieutenant Mera knew he was all right. He was being
treated by EMS because he hurt his shoulder, running
into an ambulance or something.
We just basically hung out there for a little
while and as the day went on, we basically just sat
around, waiting to get some more orders. I remember
seeing a lot of guys coming in. At that point guys
grabbed, they took some of our radios and they took
some of the tools that we had left. They went up and
they tried to, I guess do some searching and whatever
they could do.
I think it was around like 6:00 later on that
night, we all decided, all the guys from the house had
come in and we found-- we had known at that point that
207 was unaccounted for so, basically we just said
let's see if we can find them, find a rig, find
something, find our rig, because we didn't know
anything that was going on. This is including -- this
was after 7 World Trade Center had collapsed also.
We went searching. We searched for about an
hour and a half. We ended up finding our rig about a
few blocks away from where we parked it. We had no
luck finding 207 or 207's rig. Basically we just came
back here and that was it. We went to the chart that
we were on, 24 on, 24 off. We just went on with that.
BATTALION CHIEF KING: All right, Mike. It's
1710 hours. This interview is concluded.
File No. 9110335
WORLD TRADE CENTER
TASK FORCE INTERVIEW
EMT JODY BELL
Interview Date: December 15, 2001
Transcribed by Laurie A. Collins
MR. ECCLESTON: Today's date is
December 15th, 2001. The time is 1:05 a.m.
my name is Christopher Eccleston of the New
York City Fire Department, World Trade
Center Task Force. I am conducting an
interview with the following individual.
Please state your name, rank and shield
number.
EMT BELL: My name is Jody bell, EMT,
shield number 5209.
Q. Mr. Bell, were you assigned to the
World Trade Center disaster on 9/11?
A. Yes, I was.
Q. Can you please tell me in your own
words about the events of that day?
A. I was due in at work at 0900 hours. So
being a resident from Staten Island, I commuted
that day on the ferry. So I was aboard the 8:00
ferry leaving Staten Island. So I reached the
city at approximately 8:30. I had my car on the
ferry.
A funny thing is I bumped into my
partner on the boat. Being that it was Tuesday,
we were just talking about Monday night football, just looking forward to a good day. He had just
come off a three-day swing. We were just looking
forward to a good day, because the weather was
nice and everything was pretty good. Everything
was going fine.
As I'm driving to work --
Q. Who was your partner that day?
A. Mike Mejias, Michael Mejias.
Q. Okay.
A. As I'm driving to work, at around a
quarter to, I noticed that the traffic was
getting heavy. I'm saying to myself I might be
late. I'm wondering why there's all this
traffic, because there's never this much traffic.
This is my usual routine.
That's when we noticed a whole bunch of
police cars responding somewhere. So at first we
just -- we were thinking that maybe it's a bad
car accident or something of that nature. My
partner said he noticed people looking up in the
air. I was concentrating on getting to work.
I'm trying to get there on time.
As we moved closer to the battalion,
we're about two blocks away, and I see all the ambulances flying out of the station. I'm like,
something's going on, man. I see my lieutenant
standing in the middle of the street just like --
just flagging all the ambulances to leave. He's
in a real excited state.
Q. Who was your supervisor?
A. This was Lieutenant Melarango.
So then my partner says, "Stop the
car." So we stop the car in the middle of the
street. He's like, "Something's going on." We
jumped out of the car. We turned around, and we
see the building on fire. We see the smoke
coming out of the building and automatically
assumed that we were bombed again, that another
bomb went off in the World Trade Center, there
was another attempt at trying to destroy the
World Trade Center.
We immediately jumped back into the
vehicle, back into my car, and we get to the
station. That's when we were informed that a
plane hit. A plane had hit the World Trade
Center. So we're in awe. I just jumped out of
the car. I left the lights on. I didn't realize
that until like two days later when I tried to start it, but that's beside the point.
I was already in uniform, and my
partner wasn't. So right away the lieutenant was
like, "Just get into a truck and get the fuck out
of here."
That's exactly what he said.
I was already addressed, and my partner
ran upstairs. He said, "Just meet me out there.
Be safe." I was like, "I'll meet you out there.
Be safe." So I jumped into a unit with another
EMT, Garfield Grey. This is my first time really
meeting him. We jumped into a unit together. I
think it was unit 413. We immediately proceeded
over to the site. We got there about three
minutes later.
Q. Do you know about what time this was?
A. The scene was insane.
I lost all track of time, to tell you
the truth.
Q. Okay.
A. Once I saw that the building -- it was
unreal, and I lost all track of time from there.
We proceeded over to the site, and the
scene was hectic. There were people running
everywhere. There were units flying everywhere. There was debris falling. It was just the
worst -- it was the worst -- the horror on the
people's faces, they were scattering, running all
directions.
At first we pulled the bus -- we pulled
the bus onto West Street about right in front
of -- I'd say right in front of One World Trade
Center on West Street, close to the corner of
Vesey. We were just looking at the turn of
events and we said, you know what, let's go over
to the other side of the West Side Highway, just
to be safe, because our first move is scene
safety.
So we crossed over to the other side of
the West Side Highway, and we parked the bus at
the corner of Vesey and West.
Q. Can you just indicate on the map with a
number 1 where you parked the vehicle?
A. So we parked the unit there. We
unloaded it. We threw everything we could onto
the stretcher. I immediately ran to the corner.
My partner said he was going to move the bus back
even more to get the bus out of harm's way. At
that point I didn't know where he had put the bus.
I immediately jumped into action. I
started just rounding up people, because people
were running with second degree, third degree
burns, half their hair burned down to the scalp.
People had broken arms. They were holding limbs.
It was a bad scene. I saw a couple bodies
falling out of the building.
I just gathered myself within a split
second, and I started gathering people to the
corner. I had them all sit down, and I started
triage tagging people. I was trying to listen to
the radio, as I was doing all of this, to find
out where a staging area could have been. I
already had people -- I just started tagging
people. I kind of lost track of time.
My partner came back shortly after
that. My partner came back. The bus wasn't too
far away. It was like a hundred yards away from
us. He just jumped into action too. He started
tagging people and just trying to gather people
towards us.
Shortly after that nurses started
arriving on the scene. I guess they had come out of the building -- it looked like they were
coming out of the World Financial Center.
Anyway, there were nurses and other medical staff
that were starting to arrive on the scene. Other
units were starting to arrive. Everybody was
trying to lend a hand.
I figure about a half hour later after
we arrived we had a good 20 to 30 people on that
corner we were trying to treat. We were just
trying to treat them.
We then hear this explosion. We hear
this explosion, and our first reaction is the
plane was lodged in the building and it exploded
or parts of it were still in the building and
that exploded.
Then people were screaming that another
plane hit. I'm like, no way, there's no way.
From where I was, I couldn't see the other tower.
I saw the one tower. I couldn't see the other
tower. They said another plane hit. So I'm
like, there's no way. More people were starting
to say it. Then it came over the radio.
That's when I knew it was deliberate.
I knew it was deliberate. At first I was thinking maybe it was an accident, human error of
the worst kind. But the second plane, I knew it
was deliberate. I knew this was an attack. I
wasn't even concentrating on that at the moment.
I was just trying to gather the people.
Then the scene became even more hectic. We were just trying
to do what we can. Now there were news people on
the scene, more units, more hands. It was
becoming a more hectic scene.
I'm not sure how much time passed after
that. I lost track of time. You start to hear
this rumble. You hear this rumble. Everything
is shaking. Now I'm like, what the hell could
that be. I'm thinking we're going to get bombed.
This is an air raid.
You hear this thunder, this rumbling.
Then you see the building start to come down.
Everybody's like, "Run for your lives! The
building is coming down!"
At that moment when that building was
coming down, I was strapping a patient onto a
stair chair. The thing about it was the patient
was stable, but she was in a bit of hysteria. I couldn't blame her. It was a female. She was
very nervous.
So I had her sit in the chair and I put
some oxygen on her, because she wasn't breathing
right, she was hyperventilating. I was just
trying to calm her down. I was strapping her
onto the stair chair, and that's when the
building comes down. So I strapped her on.
As this tidal wave, it's like a tidal
wave of soot and ash coming in my direction, my
life flashed before my eyes. I made a U turn,
and I started to run -- I took about ten steps,
and the lady started screaming, "Don't leave me!
Don't leave me!" That's when I gathered myself.
I got a hold of myself, wait, what the hell am I
doing?
I turned back around. I got her out of
the chair. I said, "Ma'am, can you run?" She
said, "Yes." She took off. I immediately made a
U turn, and I've never moved so fast in my life.
I don't think my feet were touching the ground.
My feet weren't touching the ground.
Then shortly after that -- the building
came down. It's like snow fall. The cars are covered. The streets are covered. I'm covered
and breathing in mouthfuls. You couldn't see.
The scene was totally blacked out. You're just
running in the direction that you think is away.
I knew I was running -- this would be
westbound. I was running westbound down Vesey.
I ran about a block to North End Avenue. That's
when the building -- you could hear the sound.
The building came down. The building finished
collapsing.
So I immediately made a U turn and just
ran back, because I got separated from my
partner. My partner Mike, who I rode with, I had
bumped into him -- between all of that I bumped
into him somewhere. When other units started
arriving, he had finally arrived.
So I immediately made a U turn. I ran
back. Now everybody's running back: firemen,
policemen, EMTs, paramedics. Everybody's running
back because we've got men in there, we had
equipment in there, and the people. We were just
running back. That was everybody's first -- not
even hesitating, just made a U turn and started
heading back.
That's when over the radio you hear,
"Stand fast. The north tower is leaning." I'm
like, how is the north tower leaning? See, once
I heard the second plane hit, I was thinking the
second plane hit one building, both planes hit
that one building, and that building had kind of
come straight down. So all I saw was smoke
coming at me and everything else, and I just ran.
I still got bombarded with all of that stuff.
When I came back this time, not only
was it snowing but I could see the tower, and the
tower was starting to break off. It was kind of
looking like it was going to tip, and there was a
piece of the building coming down right on top of
me and Mike. We were holding each other's hands
and we were like, "Whoa, look at that."
We sat there like for a split second
and we just watched it in amazement that this
building was coming down, the second building was
coming down. The building was hitting other
buildings. It was hitting buildings over here.
It was crazy.
Then we made another U turn, and
everything started rumbling again. Another tidal wave blacked out the whole scene. This time it
was worse. We were just running. This time we
ran all the way back as far as we could to the
railing. I was damn near ready to jump in the
river. I swear to God, I was holding the
railing, looking back, as this thing's coming
towards us. I was ready to jump in the water.
We were all gathered there.
The debris went well into the Hudson.
It almost went to Jersey. There was debris
almost to Jersey. It was over our heads. It was
just blowing. There were papers -- the amount of
paper, it was like a ticker tape parade. There
were like a billion times more paper. We were
swatting paper out of our face, on top of the
soot and the ash and everything else.
So then we stayed there. More people
were coming. I started cutting up sheets. I had
sheets. There was a stretcher like to the side.
I started cutting up sheets and started making
masks for everybody, because everybody's
coughing, breathing in mouthfuls of shit. We
were all covered from head to toe. I just
started cutting up sheets and whatever.
Then we stayed in that one area. I
think there was a fire chief in the area. He
said to stand fast until further notice. We
stood there. A boat was in the Hudson, and they
called that boat in. It had beverages and
reinforcements on the boat, water and everything.
They pulled that boat in and docked it, and we
unloaded it.
As people were coming down Vesey,
coming down to the scene, we were just handing
out water, tagging them, treating them.
Everybody wants to go back, but we're told we
can't go back. Now we smell fumes. You smell
gas in the air. You can damn near see fire. You
could see fires blazing.
That's when they say -- I don't know
how much time passed since then. Now they're
like, "Gather anything you can, anything you can
retrieve, and head north to Chelsea Piers.
That's where the staging is going to be."
So I grabbed the stretcher, and I ran
back about halfway between West and North End on
Vesey, and I was trying to gather my equipment.
All of my equipment was right there on that corner. I didn't have anything. All I had on me
was my helmet I was wearing and my turnout coat.
My tech bag, all of my equipment was at that
corner. I think the unit was at that corner, or
my partner had got out -- the guy I was with,
Garfield Grey, he was out of there.
I was going to go back for the
ambulance, but I was told not to, because there
were ambulances on fire. There were fire trucks
crushed. So I went about halfway. There was
nothing there to gather. Then I came back up to
North End.
Inside the lobby of this building
here -- I guess that's just an apartment
building -- they had a lot of equipment in there.
So we just gathered all of that equipment and
loaded up the stretcher about a good six feet
high and just walked that thing all the way up to
Chelsea Piers. I walked behind along River
Terrace back onto West Street and then up to
Chelsea.
We stayed up there a good -- I'd say a
good five hours. By that time me and Mike had
hooked back up. Now we were in unit 240. The unit was totally stripped. We unloaded the unit.
Now it was totally stripped. We were sitting up
there waiting for the word, just waiting for the
word when we could go back down.
Now it's afternoon. Now it's like
there's thousands of units. You see units
rolling in from Baltimore, Philly, Jersey.
Everybody was out there, just lining up along
West Street on both sides of the street. I'm
talking from about Chambers -- yeah, I would say
from Chambers all the way up to like 28th Street
you could see units lined up with no space in
between, bumper to bumper, all the way up West
Street. That's as far as I could see. I was
about at -- that's like 23rd. I was at about
20th, 20th and West Street.
We noticed around like, I guess, 4:00,
4 or 5:00 that we were running low on fuel, so we
asked for permission to refuel at Battalion 8, at
Bellevue Hospital. So we were given permission.
We went that way --
Oh, wait, another major thing. When
that second building came down, as we were
running, you hear this thunder in the air. This was a scary part. We hear thunder. That's when
I'm like, oh, no, now they're going to bomb us.
You hear this thunder. You know it's in the air,
but you don't see anything. You just hear this
loud sound. It's just getting bigger and bigger.
Then you see our fighters in the air,
F-14s, whatever they were, F-18s. Everybody just
got a new sense of hope. We were all just
cheering, like "USA" and "shoot those mother
fuckers down." We knew we were at war.
When the Feds arrived, like the Secret
Service agent was near me, a couple Secret
Service agents, and they were just telling us
about the Pentagon. That's when we found out
about the Pentagon and some of the other things
transpired down there. Now that I think about
it, there's a lot I forget.
Basically we waited up there for the
word to go back down. Once we got to Bellevue,
the National Guard was already mobilized. They
had check points along 23rd Street. Once we got
to Bellevue, instead of heading back to -- since
we knew the bus was stripped, we called Battalion 4, which is our station. We called from
Battalion 8 to ask if they wanted us to reload
the bus, restock the equipment. So we were told
to restock the equipment at Battalion 4.
So we drove down to our battalion, and
we restocked the bus. Then we proceeded to the
ferry, which was another staging area. They said
any injuries that were north of the site would go
to Chelsea; anything south would go to the ferry.
Since we're more south from the site, we headed
to the ferry after we stocked the bus, which was
around I guess 6, 7:00. It was starting to get
dark.
They were like, all pass days are
canceled. You're going to work 12-hour shifts or
16-hour shifts or something like that. All pass
days are canceled until further notice.
So we went down to the ferry, and we
just sat there and waited for a while for
patients. Everybody was really anxious to go
back. Nobody wanted to sit there. Nobody wanted
to sit there like that. We were all getting
frustrated, truthfully.
A few firefighters with minor injuries came in.
Between the ferry and Chelsea Piers, they had
these units set up where they were ready to
perform major surgery. They had surgery that was
really impressive, the organization of the whole
thing.
It was really organized and really -- I
mean, in the middle of a disaster, we were really
prepared and we wanted to treat a lot of people,
but unfortunately we kind of knew there wasn't
going to be a lot of patients. We knew, but we
were in denial.
Then we sat at the ferry. Me and Mike,
we stayed together. We stayed until about 4:00
that morning, and then we were finally relieved.
We were both pretty exhausted, so we drove home.
I dropped him off at home. Did he stay? No, I
dropped him off. We drove back to Staten Island
together. I dropped him off at home.
I finally went home, and the first
thing I did was turn the television on. I was
exhausted. I turned the TV, and I saw things
happen -- I saw the replay of the planes hitting and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It did not register. It didn't look real. It looked
like toy planes. I'm like, that's what happened
out there?
I think I watched TV for about six
hours straight. I didn't go to sleep until well
into -- they told me to come back when I could on
Thursday -- I mean on Wednesday, Wednesday day.
I didn't get home until Wednesday morning. I
watched TV until a good 12 or 1 in the afternoon.
I slept about two hours, and then I came back to
work. I stayed another 16.
When I got home I think it was around
Thursday night, and I woke up Friday morning and
I fell apart. That's when I fell apart. It
really hit me. I was in shambles. I was in bad
shape. My wife was trying to console me.
Once the buildings fell, cell phones
were out. Everything was out. I didn't even get
in contact with my family until I got to
Battalion 8, which was that afternoon. Everybody
was hysterical. My family was calling from all
over the country. It was really -- it was
insane. It was insane.
I feel like a part of me is still out there. A part of me is out there with the people
(inaudible). The whole situation has really
changed my life. It's humbled me. It's made me
real humble that every day is not guaranteed,
which I already knew but that even brought it
more, just in the business that we do.
But a situation like that, that was --
in my imagination I can't think of devastation to
that magnitude. Just -- every day I come back to
work it's like a nightmare that I can't wake up
from. Every day I come back to work it's like,
no, they did not take those buildings down,
because I'm right downtown. The unit I work sits
right downtown.
Just as a kid I've always been amazed
by those buildings. I was always amazed by those
buildings. It's a part of our identity as New
Yorkers. To see the skyline without those
buildings, especially the first few weeks coming
back to work with the smoke -- that smoke didn't
stop for a good month and a half after -- it was
totally unreal, totally unreal.
My words don't even begin to touch the
surface of what happened that day. I'm just trying to put into some kind of perspective. My
words don't even begin to touch the surface.
That's about it.
Q. Is there anything else you would like
to add to this interview?
A. I would just like to give my -- I don't
know if it's proper, but I just want to -- all
the guys that responded, fire, police, EMS,
private, just everybody all across the country,
it was a really heroic effort.
Speaking for the guys at Battalion 4,
we all -- I'm very appreciative that we're all
accounted for. Some guys were missing for a
little while, but for the most part we're all
accounted for. That's more than we can say for a
lot of guys. I just feel sorry for everybody
that was out there. I dedicate my career, the
rest of my career in the Fire Department to the
people that died that day.
That's about it.
Q. Thank you very much for doing this
interview with me.
MR. ECCLESTON: The time is 1:31, and
the counter reads 390.
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