PART 8: ORAL HISTORIES NYFD FROM SEPTEMBER 11TH,2001

File No. 9110155

WORLD TRADE CENTER

TASK FORCE INTERVIEW

ROBERT BROWNE

Interview Date: October 24, 2001

Transcribed by Maureen McCormick  

MR. ECCLESTON:  Today's date is October 24, 2001. The time is 2140. I'm Christopher Eccleston of the New York City Fire Department, World Trade Center Task Force. I am conducting an interview with the following individual.

Q. Please state your name, title and assigned command area.

A. ROBERT BROWNE, deputy chief, Division 4.

MR. ECCLESTON: Also present.

MS. BASTEDENBECK: Christine Bastedenbeck of the New York City Fire Department World Trade Center Task Force. 

MR. ECCLESTON: Also present?

MR. KIMBALL: Robert Kimball, EMT, chief's aide, Fire Department.

Q. Chief Browne, were you working on the morning of September 11, 2001?

A. Yes, I was working that morning.

Q. Were you assigned to the World Trade Center disaster?

A. Yes, I was.

Q. Could you please in your own words tell me about the events of the day?

A. I had logged on at eight o'clock in the morning, and I was enroute to the division office, and I got to approximately about 164th Street and the Grand Central Parkway when I heard the first radio reports there was possibly an incident going on at the World Trade Center. 

I made a quick phone call to the Division 4 office and spoke to Sal Sangeniti and asked him what did it look like, you know, did he have anything more on it, and he said, "You better go. It sounds like it's a big one." 

So I said all right, and I started heading into the job, and as I was -- naturally, as I was heading down the Grand Central Parkway, more and more information was coming in, and it sounded like it was very serious, and the reports from citywide radio were pretty chilling, and I knew that we would be going to work and having a busy day, so just trying to put my thoughts together, thinking back to '93 of what went on in '93 when I was there, and trying to get as much information as I could.

I actually put on 1010 WINS on the radio in the car, trying to get more information, because a lot of the information was being drowned out on citywide with all the numerous units coming up and stuff, and I guess I made it down onto the FDR. I went over the Triborough, down the FDR Drive. The FDR Drive in spots was partially closed by police officers, and I started to make some good time, and I guess as I got around down by the U.N., they were reporting over the radio that a second plane had hit the second tower.

Swung around west -- I swung around the battery, and I came up on West Street out of the tunnel from the east side, and there was an officer standing blocking my way, and he was -- he was trying to direct me over out of the way because there was bodies scattered along West Street all the way back as far as the tunnel at that location, and I was in amazement. I couldn't believe it.

I pulled up a little bit further onto -- by the Downtown Athletic Club on West Street there, and I pulled over, and I parked my car at that spot.

Q. Can you indicate on the map where you parked your vehicle?

A. Yeah. Probably -- let's see. Probably somewhere in this vicinity right here, down here.

Q. Do you know what vehicle number that was?

A. 792

Q. 792? 

A. Yeah.

Q. Also chief, on that day, were you working with somebody?

A. No, I was by myself. As a matter of fact, it was my first official tour as a deputy chief with the department, and I did not have an aide at that time. 

As I pulled up, I parked my car, grabbed my gear out of the car, and at that point, Chief Carasquillo and Sal Sangeniti had pulled up alongside of me with, I believe, Jason Katz, who was Billy Day's aide, and Billy was out, so I yelled over to Pete, would it be all right if I take Jason and keep Jason with me, and he said yeah, sure, no problem. And I reported to the command post at that point.

Q. Where was the command post?

A. The command post was located on West Street, basically almost right in between Tower 1 and Tower 2 on the west side of the street over by the Winter Garden. That's where I -- when I got into the command post, Chief Gombo, and Chief Kowalczyk -- and Chief Kowalczyk appeared that he had just pulled up there himself, because he was just putting his coat.

I reported in and I asked them what they needed of me, what assignment they had for me, and they told me they wanted me to go to Liberty and West Street and run the operation at the corner of Liberty and West Street.

So with that I grabbed my aide, Jason, and we started heading back towards Liberty and West Street. We were walking back. We just left the command post. There was a lot of debris coming down off the building, and I turned around to Jason and I told Jason, "Make sure you have your chin strap on you your helmet. Don't just have it sitting on your head. Make sure you secure it to your head," and with, that a large piece of debris was coming down, sailing off the building. I remember looking up watching, because I was afraid that we were going to get hit with something, and it had to be almost the size of a Volkswagen car, a sheet of metal almost the size of a Volkswagen car, and it was -- it was burned. It was glowing red, and it just landed in the street in front of us, maybe 20 feet in front of us.

I turned around to Jason and I said, "Look, man, you got to be real careful. This is bad." I said, something -- you know, so he said, "All right," and we headed off to West Street down to West and Liberty. I got to the corner of West and Liberty, and on the east side -- on the east corner of West and Liberty, just underneath the footbridge that crosses over, there were probably about three or four ambulances parked there, and all the personnel were out of their rigs with their equipment, but they were standing more towards the corner of -- they were more towards the Liberty Street side, just off of West, and they seemed to be like all in amazement. They were all standing there, staring up, looking at what was going on, and none of them had helmets on.

A couple of them were Metro Care units. There was a voluntary unit there, one of our units, and we had units on the west side of Liberty, as well, standing there. Some of them had some gear on. Some of them had some helmets on, and I remember saying to Jason, "Jason, do me a favor. Let's take a piece of paper out, go over there, and identify who those people are. If they have helmets, make sure they get them on. If they don't have helmets, let me know." I said, "We need to get them out of here, you know, put them into an area that's back a way and little bit further."

Timewise, I'm not real good with the time frame, but I might have been there maybe ten minutes, and I don't know if I heard it over the radio, or if I heard it over somebody else's radio, or if somebody else just yelled, and they said, "Watch out! The building's coming down."

And with that, I can remember turning around, and I was standing right on the corner of West and Liberty, on the east corner of West and Liberty, and I can remember turning around and looking up at the building and seeing a very, very large section of the building just coming -- coming straight down at us with a sound like I have never heard before in my entire life, that it -- I had thought for a moment that another plane had come, that had hit the building. That's how loud the sound was.

I remember turning to everybody and looking and just telling them to run. I told them all just run, run, and that's pretty much what happened. I mean, I got -- it was basically a free-for-all, I think, at that point for everybody.

I ran, and I could feel the -- I could feel the air changing behind me, and I just said to myself that I was going to -- that I was going to run as far as I could until I felt something either hit me and knock me down or until -- until it knocked me down.[That just had to be terrifying that mass pervading the space around him,and then the mass blowing the space pass him,when the Tower took one last deep breath,and blew out behind the Tower.Total mindbender.  D.C] 

I probably got about 20 feet or so, because I thought I was going to be able to get pretty far, but I only managed to get from the corner of West and Liberty to underneath the foot bridge, which was probably maybe only about 20 or 30 feet. I don't even know if it's that far, and I got hit in the back of the head with a small object, which startled me a little bit, and then I got struck across my back with a larger object, which knocked me to the ground, and at that point, I said, "Well, I guess I'm just going to stay right here," and I can remember grabbing my chin strap and holding onto my chin strap on my helmet, and just hoping that it didn't come off. I was afraid I was going to have a head trauma or something. I didn't want to wind up a vegetable after this thing, and I can remember praying, asking Him not to take me, and if He was going to take me, please make it fast. 

At that point, it was like -- it got totally pitch black. I couldn't see anything. I couldn't breathe. There was a wave that was -- I don't know if you're a beach person, but if you're a beach person and you ever been in the ocean, and you have a large wave come over you, and you can just feel it keep coming and coming. It's like the debris just kept coming and piling up and piling up, and when it finally did stop, I wasn't sure if I was alive or if I was dead. 

It was pitch black. I had something very heavy across my back. I had something across my legs, because I remember trying to move my legs, because I was stuck under whatever, this debris, and I wasn't able to move. 

I can remember reaching for my radio and calling out a Mayday for the corner of Liberty and West, and nobody answered. There was no answer. It was just dead quiet, and I just assumed at that point that everybody was gone, and I wasn't -- I couldn't -- you know, I didn't call out any more.

Then as the thick black, black smoke and blackness around me started to clear a little bit, and it started to get a little bit grayer, kind of like got to a dark gray, and then it got like a lighter gray, I could hear -- as it started to get lighter, I could hear people from the distance yelling for help. I could hear people saying, "Help me, I'm over here," or "Help me, I'm over there," and I started doing the same thing.

I started calling out for help because I was unable to free myself from where I was, and I called out several times, and then finally I heard somebody answer, and they said, "Relax. We can see you. We're going to get you. Just take it easy. Just stay where you are." 

And probably a couple of minutes later they got some of this debris off me, and they managed to get whatever it was that was on my back -- I believe it was a chunk of concrete or -- I don't know what exactly, a piece of metal. I'm not sure even sure exactly what it was that was on my back, and I had a large piece of metal across my legs. That's why I couldn't move my legs, but these two guys that got me out were like amazing. I couldn't believe it.

It was a guy from a react team and a Hatzolah paramedic, and when I got up from the pile, I guess I kind of just dusted myself off a little bit and tried to regain my composure, and I started looking for Jason, who had been with me, my aide, and I couldn't find him, and I assisted this paramedic from Hatzolah and the react guy in removing a couple of other people that were trapped in some debris out of that, and then all of a sudden Jason appeared, and he was hurt. His hand was hurt. He was a mess, and we sat him down. 

I was trying to find Chief Wells. I had just prior to -- two minutes before the building going down, I had had a conversation with Chief Wells, and he had told me that he was going into the building with 18 Charlie, and he was much closer towards the tower than I was, and I was unable to find him.

Q. You need to take a break?

A. No, I'm all right.

Q. If you do, it's fine.

A. No, I'm okay.

So we tried to gather up as many people from that area as I possibly could, tried to put some sort of semblance of a team back together to see what we could do at that point, and I can remember Chief Wells coming up out of the middle of the pile over on -- over close towards the tower, and it was like I was just so relieved to see him at that point, you know, a special place in my heart. Charlie and I are good friends. It was devastating to think that he was gone at that point.

So we gathered up, started to take care of some of the people that were injured. We collected the people, and we kept them underneath that foot bridge there on the very west section by the World Financial Center there, and we bandaged up a few people, tried to get them together. There was no radio contact.

I didn't know where anybody else was, and then I don't know how much time actually transpired between the time that we took care of some of our members that were injured, and the next thing I know, the north tower collapsed, and again, that horrible sound, and we all just ran. We all ran again. 

I didn't want to take my chance out on the street again that time. The financial center was there. A large window on the ground floor had been blown out from the first collapse. I was able to jump through that window with Jason and Chief Wells, and I didn't know if I should go completely through the building or if I should stay in there and whatever. Like I said, it was a coin toss.

I went in the building. I ran to the left as I entered the building. I found a bakery that was there. At that point, I lost Jason, because I think Jason went straight through. He ran straight through the building. I lost Chief Wells.

I ran into the bakery, and when I got into the bakery, there was a back room. I ran behind the counter and went to the back room, and there were two large freezers in there, and I went in there and I knelt -- I knelt in the corner facing the freezer as the debris was hitting the building, and the windows blew out in the place, and all that -- all over again. Relived the whole thing over again, with all that black, thick, choking smoke, unable to see, the fear that -- whether or not that building was going to hold up, and, again, I don't know how long I was in there, but I was in there with -- there were three other gentlemen in the room with me when it started to clear. One guy was a photographer for the Daily News. The other guy was a transit worker or something, and I think the other guy was just a regular Joe, just a civilian who followed us, you know.

I hope he didn't follow me because I thought I knew where I was going, because he'd be shit out of luck if he did, but we all stayed in there.

I can remember it starting to clear a little bit once again, checked with them to make sure that they were all all right, and I remember telling them, "Come on guys. We got to get out of here. I don't know if this building is going to hold up," because so much debris hit the building, I didn't know what kind of shape it was in, and I certainly didn't want to get caught in there, because nobody would have known we were ever in there. We could have been in there forever.

So we tried to make it out on the -- tried to exit out of the West side of the building to South End Avenue, and there was a whole bunch of debris blocking the doorway for our exit out, so the four of us stood there and grappled through the debris enough so we could climb up over some of the stuff and exit out onto the avenue.

When I got out onto south end avenue, there was an ambulance sitting right there, perfect shape, no problem. It was running. I said, oh, troops. Somebody else is here. That's so good, and I went running up to the truck, and naturally it was locked, just running, sitting there, but I was -- I was pretty stunned at that point, and I think that's the first time when I heard what appeared to be or what I thought in my mind was that we were going to be bombed, because I heard a fighter jet overhead, and when I heard the fighter jet overhead, Jason had come out of a store across the street on South End Avenue, and we looked at each other, and I said, "You all right?" He said, "Yeah, I'm okay. I can keep going."

I said, "Okay, good. Come on, we got to get away from here." I said, "I don't know what's going on yet." I said, "We got to get away from here. I have no communication with anybody." I said, "Let's just move away from here." 

So I gathered anybody that was on the street there at that point, because people were starting to straggle out of the stores and stuff, and I told them, "Come on. You got to keep moving, keep moving." And I made it to the -- again, I heard that jet and I thought we were going to be bombed, and I started to run, and there was a cop that appeared on the corner, and he says, "Don't run. It's one of  ours." He says, "It's one of ours. Don't worry." 

And that was quite a -- quite a moment of relief, knowing that it wasn't, you know, whoever had done this horrible thing to us, that they weren't now going to just be bombing us.

I got to the corner of Albany and South End, and I encountered four firefighters carrying a firefighter with Commissioner Gregory and Dr. Kelly, and they needed an ambulance, and I looked down -- I looked down the block at the river promenade that runs along the Hudson River on Albany Street, and there were four ambulances down there, so Jason ran down there, got one of the ambulances, brought it back up.

We loaded the firefighter in the ambulance, and they took him off to the hospital. So with those three ambulances  that were down there, I said, "Come on, let's go down to the water." And Commissioner Gregory had mentioned that the fire boat was going to be coming up to that location, so I went down there, and there were probably five or six, seven EMS personnel. I couldn't tell you who they are, what the names were, who they worked for, but they were there, and I think one crew was from Flushing Hospital, and there were hundreds and hundreds of people just running down that promenade.

All kinds of boats were pulling up. The fire boat had pulled up and docked. Several other boats -- a police boat. There was a tug boat there. There were civilian boats pulling up, willing just to take people, hand them off over onto the boat, and they were going to take them off on over to Jersey for us.

I got together the crews there, and we kind of put a little makeshift triage area together, and we would evaluate people before we put them on the boat to see which ones -- because we wanted to put all the non injured people on one boat, and we wanted to put the  injured people on another boat, and, again, I can't tell you how long I operated at that location. It must have been an hour and a half, maybe two hours. I'm not even sure. But we loaded hundreds and hundreds of people onto those boats that were there.

At one point Charlie Wells just appeared again out of the blue, and it was a great moment. I was so happy to see him, because I had lost him in the second collapse again. I remember we hugged each other, and we said, you know, to each other, "You all right? You all right?" And he said "Yeah," and he says, "I'm going back. I'm going to do some stuff. You stay here, do what you got to do," and he took off. 

Probably about 15 or 20 minutes later, Chief Villani walked up the promenade and told me that they were setting up a major area down at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, and that I should make my way down there with whatever resources that I had, so that's what we did. 

We gathered up the people that I could gather. We confiscated one of these little golf carts that somebody was using up and down the promenade. We took that from them, and I loaded all these people on that, and we started heading down towards the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. 

I got probably about two blocks away, and I encountered a paramedic from Battalion 57 -- I don't know the kid's name -- running in the opposite direction that we were going, towards us, and he was screaming at the top of his lungs. He was in a panic, and he was yelling, "There's a gas leak! There's a gas leak! There's going to be an explosion. You have to get out of here. You have to get out of here."

And he was really -- he was wild. He was real wild, and I jumped off the cart, because he ran right by me, and I jumped off the cart, and I chased him down, and I grabbed him, and I put him against the wall, and I kind of shook him, and I told him, "Look, relax. You're going to be okay. Everything is fine."

I told him who I was. I said, "Come on, you're coming with me," and he was like in this panic, and I told him again, "You're going to be fine. You're coming with us. You're going to be okay," and I convinced him. He calmed down a little bit. He was shaken. He started crying.

I put him on the cart, and we headed down. We got around the vicinity of the North Cove Marina, and they were doing major evacuations into Jersey out of the North Cove Marina, and there was a police lieutenant and a police sergeant standing in the middle of the roadway, not allowing anybody to proceed past there, because he said there is a gas leak or there is a report of a gas leak. He says everybody has to evacuate lower Manhattan. 

So at that point, we got on a police launch and went to Jersey. As I hopped on the police launch, this buddy of mine that I fish with all the time, who works for harbor, he said, "Are you all right? Is Chief McCracken okay? You know, what's the deal? Did everybody make it from Rockaway?" I said, "Look, I don't know." I said, "I couldn't tell you anything," and we made it over to the dock in Jersey in a matter of minutes, maybe five minutes or so. Scooted us right over there.

I got off the launch. One of the EMTs that was rushing with us from Flushing Hospital, she started having like an asthma attack or something. She was having some sort of reaction. I don't know what it was, and I made sure that all of them stayed there and went up to the medical treatment area up there to get seen.

At that point, I turned around with Jason. I  said, "Jason, I got to go back. I can't stay here." I said, "I can't stay here and just receive victims here." I said "I need to go back."

Jason said, "Okay, I'm going with you." He says, "I'm still all right," and I yelled to my buddy, and he told me -- he says, "I'll be back in five minutes." He said, "I'll take you back with me next trip."

And in the interim, another police boat pulled in, and when the police boat was getting ready to pull out, I just hopped on that boat and got back, and I made it down to -- I got back into the North Cove Marina, and I made it down into the spot in Battery Park where the Indian Museum is. It's right by the launch for the Liberty Island thing, and there was probably maybe five or six ambulances parked there, and Chief Mark Stefans was there in charge of that operation. He was told to go there, and that's where he was, and he had several EMTs there.

They weren't seeing any patients. It was that same frustration that I think that everybody felt that whole time after the first initial patients prior to the building going down. Everybody was just kind of just standing around in wonderment, wondering where are all the victims, and he was there, and they took care of me there. 

I was having a lot of trouble with my eyes. I couldn't see really well. I could hardly open my eyes at that point from all the stuff that was in my eyes, and I don't really think that I was feeling anything yet as far as injuries or anything like that, because I was kind of just running on adrenaline, and all I could remember was that I wanted to call home to let them know I was alive. I was unable to get out. I couldn't reach anybody.

I probably stayed there with Mark Stefans probably about 25 or 30 minutes. Again, I don't know. It could have been and hour and a half, it could have been two hours. My time line is horrible. I'm sorry, but we were there for awhile, and I turned around to Mark and I said, "Mark, we're not doing anything here." I said, "Everybody is just, you know, maybe a half a mile away at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. Maybe that is where we should take all these resources. Let's pack them up. Let's go down there, and we'll shut this thing down and go down here. We are not seeing anybody here."

So that was what we did. We talked about it and he decided yeah, okay, we'll do that, and we got everybody together, packed up all our stuff, got the ambulances and all, and sent them down there, and Chief Stefans and I walked from that location down to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, and as I walked into the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, I guess I had reached my point where I could probably no longer function, and I walked in, and I can remember seeing Dr. Richman's face, and Dr. Richman took one look at me, and he says, "Bobby," he says, "You got to lie down." So I said, "I'm all right. I'm all right."

He says, "No, you're done. You are not working any more." He said, "Lie down. Let us take care of your eyes." He says -- you know, and that's when I tried to lay down, I couldn't lay down. I realized that my back was injured, that I had something wrong with my back, and I couldn't lay down at that point, and they flushed my eyes. They took some vital signs, and the next thing I know, I was getting in the back of an ambulance and going off to the hospital, and I believe I went to the hospital sometime in the vicinity around three o'clock or 3:30 in the afternoon, so, again, my time -- what areas where I thought I was only for like 15, 20 minutes, it could have been a lot longer, and so somewhere along there all that time transpired, but that's pretty much my story of that day.

Q. Is there anything else you'd like to add to this interview? Anything at all?

A. No.

MR. ECCLESTON: This interview is concluded at 2212 hours.  

File No. 9110092

WORLD TRADE CENTER

TASK FORCE INTERVIEW

EMS LIEUTENANT ADAM BRYNES

Interview Date: October 16th,2001

Transcribed by Nancy Francis  

MR. RADENBERG: Today's date is October 16th, 2001. The time is 1244 hours. This is Paul Radenberg of the Fire Department of the City of New York. I am conducting an interview with Lieutenant Adam -- 

LIEUTENANT BRYNES: Brynes, B-r-y-n-e-s, Shield No. 0109.

MR. RADENBERG: -- assigned to EMS Battalion 57 of the Fire Department, City of New York. We are conducting the interview at EMS Battalion 57 regarding the events of September 11th, 2001.

A. I was assigned as conditions 572 on 9-11-01. I received a call from the Brooklyn North dispatcher to switch over to Citywide and respond to Manhattan for a report of a signal 1040.

I responded over the Brooklyn Bridge, came around by City Hall, noticed an ambulance treating approximately five people. At this point Tower 1 was engulfed in flames and heavy smoke condition, and the ambulance turned out to be 10 William, Tour 2. They were treating some soft tissue injuries and some burns and some respiratory distress patients, and their location was in front of City Hall by -- what street is that? Between Park Place and Barclay Street off of Centre Street there. 

I was trying to receive additional resources for transport of these patients to the nearest facility. I had difficulties -- I couldn't raise anyone on any of the tactical channels to have any further ambulances deployed to me. So I assisted in treating these patients with 10 William when we heard a loud explosion and noticed Tower No. 2 engulfed in flames.

At that point further attempts to get in touch with Citywide or any operations officer at the MCI were unsuccessful, at which point I remember Tower 1 collapsing. I assisted 10 William in getting everybody in their ambulance and I directed them to transport to the nearest 911 facility.

At that point I continued down Broadway. I reached about Dey Street. I was attempting to get to the command post to assist in this incident when I was engulfed by tremendous amounts of debris and smoke and dust, making any further travel impossible.

During this time I had numerous people banging on my command car for help. I decided that, in the best interests of my personal safety, that I would egress from that location. Prior to doing so, I exited my vehicle and grabbed as many people as I could into my command car and then I proceeded to turn around and I drove from the location with approximately six people in my command car that were all suffering from severe trauma. I advised the Citywide dispatcher that I needed a place to transport the personnel. The dispatcher did not know if any of the treatment areas still existed, so at that point I concluded that the nearest place I could get to was Beth Israel Hospital, and I started transporting those six individuals to the hospital.

At that point I noticed another command car, a Fire command car, behind me, trying to get through the traffic, and that command car followed me up until about 14th Street and Park Avenue, at which point that command car died. I went up to the command car and found Lieutenant Monroe, who was suffering from acute stress regarding this incident, like all of us. She had about five people in her command car that were suffering from trauma and associated injuries from this event.

I got back on the Citywide frequency and requested two ambulances to my location to take care of all these people, but after a few minutes I realized that the likelihood of receiving an ambulance at that time was not going to be expeditious, and in an effort to provide the best care I could to these approximate eight to ten people, I decided to take Lieutenant Monroe and all of the people in her command car in my command car, where I transported everyone to Beth Israel Hospital. After getting everyone into the hospital, I land lined Citywide advising them that I had brought Lieutenant Monroe into the hospital and about eight civilians and requested further instruction.

At that point I was directed to respond to -- what they had at that time was a Battery Park command center. I traveled across town from Beth Israel down to the West Side Highway. En route down the West Side Highway, I noticed a group of EMS personnel and ambulances and a Chief and I mistakenly took that to be the command center. When I approached the Chief, whose name I cannot recall at this time, he told me that he would need my assistance gathering the personnel to set up a staging area.

I assisted in that for about 20 minutes, when I heard reports of a massive gas leak and there was a massive evacuation. I saw numerous people in vehicles driving north up the West Side Highway to evacuate the immediate area. I was told that there was a massive gas leak and that we needed to evacuate. So we evacuated all personnel to Chelsea Piers, where a new staging area was set up. I assisted in logistics at that staging area, at which point I met up with Chief Kowalczyk, who requested that I transport him down to the command center that was established on West Street and Chambers Street at that time. 

I responded down to West Street and Chambers Street with Chief Kowalczyk and his aide. I was given direction at that point to become a staging officer for all extra resource personnel that were sent in, and we established a treatment command center at Stuyvesant High School auditorium, at which point, sometime later, I was directed then to become the transport officer for the operation, where I responded to, again, West Street and Chambers.

I assumed transport operations for some period of time, several hours. Then I was directed to the command post, where I became the recording officer for Chief Kowalczyk and Chief McCracken, until about 2000 hours, at which point I was relieved and I retrieved my command car and responded back to Battalion 57, where I signed out at 2100 hours on 09-11-01. That basically is my recollection of my operations on that date and time. 

Q. The people that you had in your car and that Lieutenant Monroe had in her car, as far as you know, they were all civilians? 

A. Yes. As far as I knew, they were all civilians. I didn't see anyone in any uniform and no one at that time identified themselves as being a uniformed member of any service. 

Q. When you came down from Beth Israel, you said you were coming down the West Side Highway?

A. Correct.

Q. Do you remember how far, about how close you got to the incident when you came across the Chief and -- 

A. I believe that I stopped somewhere maybe 20 blocks south of Chelsea Piers. If they were named streets, I didn't see a name on them. But it was about 15 blocks south of the Chelsea Piers, about 15 blocks south of that.

Q. What is Lieutenant Monroe's first name?

A. Amy Monroe.

Q. Do you know what battalion she's at?    

A. She is Chief McCracken's aide.

Q. Do you remember the collapse of the second tower?

A. No. All I remember is that I found out about the collapse of the second tower when I got to Beth Israel Hospital.

Q. So immediately after the collapses, the collapse of the second tower, you didn't actually make it down to the Trade Center complex?

A. During the collapse of the second tower?

Q. Yes.

A. No.

Q. In that period?

A. No. Because I got stopped, you know, I was coming down West Side Highway and I got stopped there before I got down any further. By the time I got back to the command center with Chief Kowalczyk, No. 2 building had collapsed. There were massive fires everywhere, so we weren't allowed to go south of Chambers Street at that time.

I do remember seeing the collapse of 6 World Trade Center. Was it 6 or -- I think it was 6. Did 6 drop? It was one of them, 6 or 3 or 7. I just remember watching the collapse of another building at 9 A. BRYNES that time and that got us pretty nervous because there was, again, a big smoke-like cloud coming towards us and I just remember everyone at the command center running for cover until after that blew over. But that's the only other building I saw collapse. I think it was No. 6. I think, I'm not sure, but I think it was No. 6. Somebody told me it was No. 6 that had collapsed.

That's the best I can remember it. It was without a doubt a very hectic and totally uncontrolled environment. But that's what I can recollect.

Q. When you first got into Manhattan, you met up with 10 Willie?

A. Correct.

Q. Are they a Fire unit or voluntary?

A. They're a private, voluntary unit.

Q. Do you remember what hospital they're from?

A. I'd like to say New York Hospital, but I can't be sure.

Q. Okay.

A. Tony Brooks was one of the paramedics. I remember him because I used to work with him as a medic before he left EMS.

Q. From the time that you were with 10 Willie until you started to transport up to Beth Israel and found that Lieutenant Monroe was behind you, did you see any other Department personnel?

A. No, not that I can recall.

Q. Any other thoughts or comments that you'd like to add?

A. No. I'd just be interested in going over the post-MCI critique about the incident. I've had some concerns regarding communication ability during something like this. I felt that something can be done in the future to allow us a better communication capability when something this big happens. I'm not saying that anything necessarily failed in this case, but I think that something could definitely be improved on to probably help our ability to perform our job. That's about it.

MR. RADENBERG: Okay. The time is now 1301 hours and the interview is concluded. 

File No. 9110067

WORLD TRADE CENTER

TASK FORCE INTERVIEW

FIREFIGHTER VINCENT BUONOCORE

Interview Date: October 12, 2001

Transcribed by Laurie A. Collins

MR. CASTORINA: This is Ron Castorina conducting an interview with Vincent Buonocore, firefighter two, assigned to Engine 278. The time now is 1325 hours. Conducting the interview with me is --

MR. McCOURT: Tom McCourt.

MR. CASTORINA: And your name, SIR?

FIREFIGHTER BUONOCORE: Firefighter Vincent Buonocore, grade two. I had the nozzle that day, assigned to 278.[Engine 278 was one of the fortunate ones that day as all personal survived the attack and aftermath D.C]

MR. CASTORINA: The day of September 11th?

FIREFIGHTER BUONOCORE: Yes. 

Q. Can you tell me what your assignment was for that day and whatever you can remember?

A. Yeah. I was assigned the nozzle that day. I remember walking into the kitchen and seeing one of the twin towers, smoke bellowing out of the upper floors. They said there was an airplane crash. I said to myself, it was such a beautiful day, I said, how the hell could someone not see that and avoid the twin towers.

A few minutes later I was watching the TV, and I saw the airplane coming from the right side of the television screen, and one second later I saw the big explosion. All the guys were in the kitchen, and everybody was going, "Oh." Everybody was screaming.

There were two guys outside, Firefighter Jackson and Firefighter Zechewytz. They were outside looking at the sky. Firefighter Jackson said, "Wow, look at this airplane. It's flying so low." Maybe a minute after that they heard us screaming in the kitchen. They ran back, and sure enough, that was probably the plane that crashed into the twin towers.

Once that second plane hit, pretty much I knew we were going. I remember calling my wife, just letting her know that I was going to the twin towers, because I knew at that point it was terrorism. I didn't know the outcome of the day for anybody, so I just wanted to call my wife anyway just to let her know. 

We responded. I remember going down Fourth Avenue, heading towards the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, and I remember seeing papers flying in the air. Pretty much we went onto Third Avenue. We were lining up on the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, waiting for orders from I guess the dispatcher or whatever. 

We were hanging out there for about 15 minutes. I was talking to Firefighter Zechewytz. The next thing you know, I saw what I imagine the south tower coming down. Right then and there I pretty much knew it was going to be devastating to the department and to a lot of people.

At that point pretty much we started gathering up -- we lined up then. We took the rig from there, and we were going over the Brooklyn Bridge. We stopped on the bridge for about five or ten minutes, and we were watching all the people coming off from the Manhattan side, thousands of people, walking calmly. Pretty much a few minutes after that we went into Manhattan.

I was pretty happy we didn't go through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel because the only thing that was running through my mind is they're going to hit the tunnel. I didn't want to get caught in there. I was just happy we took the bridge, not knowing that, who knows, if another airplane was going to be coming crashing into the bridge or what.

We ended up going into Manhattan. It was just ash all over the place. I don't remember which street exactly we were on. Pretty much we parked our rig, and we went to the command center. We stood there for a little while waiting for orders.

Q. Where were you when the second building collapsed?

A. We were, I believe, on --

Q. You were in Manhattan at that time?

A. Yeah, we were in Manhattan. Again, we were by the command center, waiting for instructions.

Q. So you were in the staging area?

A. We were in the staging area. Then I remember just seeing a whole bunch of dust going up again in smoke, not realizing that that was the second tower coming down. That's the recollections that I have.

Q. Anything you want to add?

A. Basically it was a tragic day for our nation and our department, and hopefully something like this never goes on again.

Q. Okay. Thank you.

MR. CASTORINA: The time now is 1330 hours. That concludes the interview. 

File No. 9110056

WORLD TRADE CENTER

TASK FORCE INTERVIEW

PARAMEDIC GEORGE BURBANO

Interview Date: October 11,2001

Transcribed by Elisabeth F. Nason 

MR. TAMBASCO: Today is October 11. The time is 1449 hours. My name is Mike Tambasco assigned to the World Trade Center Task Force. I'm here conducting an interview with Paramedic George Burbano in regards to the events of September 11 at the World Trade Center.

Q. Mr. Burbano, I just ask you to give me your name, rank and then tell me your story.

A. My name is George Burbano. I'm a Paramedic, Battalion 22 on Staten Island.

❣Lt. Charles Joseph Margiotta, 44❣

Q. Just feel free to tell me what happened from the beginning to the end.

A. That morning I left BHS, I left headquarters at sometime around 8:20, 8:30 in the morning. I was going into Manhattan.

Q. You weren't on duty, right?

A. I wasn't on duty initially, no. I was going into Manhattan to meet a friend of mine at the World Trade Center. We were going into midtown. I hopped on the 2 train some time around quarter to nine and within minutes after that, we went one stop to Chambers Street and they stopped the train and they asked everybody to get out of the train and we left at Chambers Street. We walked out and when I came out at Chambers Street, I  saw the one building on fire. Actually we saw mostly just smoke.

Then within -- we are watching it and I started walking down towards the Center, and then within minutes after that, I heard a second explosion. At that point I literally ran down to the Center and when I got to -- I came down Chambers Street. I came down Church.

Q. Church?

A. Yes, I came down this way, I came down Barclay Street. I came across West, came by the two buildings down Vesey Street and went in front of the Trade Center. When I came down here there was a lot of debris all around this area.

Q. That's all along Vesey Street?

A. That's right, all along Vesey Street. There was a lot of debris. There was a lot of people that were injured. There were a lot of people running away from the buildings. I went past most of those people and I went to the front of the World Trade Center.

Q. That would be on West Street?

A. That's right. I was on West Street and at the front of the World Trade Center I saw numerous fire trucks and there was already a few ambulances there. I found somewhere around Vesey Street and West Street I ran into Joe Cahill. I told Joe, I said, do you guys need help. I said you know I'm here. I was dressed in regular clothes. I didn't have anything on me. Joe Cahill gave me his sweat shirt that said Cahill on it, which to this day is plowed.

He said, you know, he said I need you to grab some of these guys that are coming in and see if you can set up a triage unit somewhere nearby. He said there are units set up all over the place. We have tons of patients. So myself and about 4 or 5 EMTs, I don't know any of these guys --

Q. Were they Fire Department EMTs?

A. They were no, they were our unit, EMS EMTs. There was numerous trucks parked all along this -- like from below the pedestrians street all the way up. This way they had parked the ambulances on the left side.

Q. On West Street?

A. That's right. And then he told me to take that ambulance with a few EMTs and if I can go around to the front of the building, to the front of the Trade Center, which would probably -- he led me to believe from the map that it would have been like by 5 World Trade Center, where there were patients all along  here.

I grabbed a couple of them. I put them in the ambulance, on to vehicle 307, which was there. I took one of them -- the guy in front of me with me in the front was -- I believe it was a new EMT. He was only on the job a few months and as soon as we pulled away, we heard a large fall of something. It looked to me like it was just like a large chunk of the Center from this side fell on top of this area. 

At that point I was going to turn the vehicle around, but there was like a huge cloud of dirt and debris that was just coming to us, and I pulled away. I went up West Street with a few of the EMTs in there. As we went up West Street there was numerous EMS personnel. Of course we were all running up the street now.

When we got like somewhere around Murray Street, I ran into a supervisor there who I used to work with, actually, a couple of years ago, Marty Miller and a couple of other supervisors. There was a Chief also there, but I don't remember his name.

At that point I opened up the back of the truck. A lot of that cloud of dust had settled in and they had pulled out a police officer who was with a  Scott packing and everything. He couldn't breathe and we put him in the back of the ambulance right there on that corner. 

We met up with some St. Vincent's ambulances there also. One of the girl -- I know her by first name. I don't know her last name. Her name is Ernestine. She is a medic out of St. Vinny's. She used to work here on Staten Island with us as BLS out of St. Vincent Staten Island. Now she is a medic in Manhattan. I ran into her there and we took that cop and carried him over to the ambulance. We put him in the back of the ambulance. I started him on a treatment. The BLS crew was there. 

Then within sometime after that, there was more debris that was falling. There was like another cloud, so we moved up further. We went up further with the ambulance. That police officer -- we actually got into a little bit of a verbal thing, because he wanted to go back and we told him you should not go back. He couldn't breathe. We had to literally carry him up to begin with. He started running back and then soon after that, he -- I was -- the radio -- the ambulance was open and all we heard on the radio was that the building was collapsing. The building was collapsing. 

Q. You didn't happen to get a name on the police officer, did you? 

A. I didn't get his name. He was one of the ESU guys. He was in his 40s. You know, we started him on a treatment and then he took off out of the ambulance and he started running down West Street and we actually followed him. I actually grabbed him. I tried to put him back in the truck and we couldn't do that. The guy couldn't breathe. Actually I saw that. That was -- they actually caught that on videotape. It was on the one of the news shows when I was there. We saw that on video.

We started sort of making our way back because a lot of that dust settled.

Q. Going back south?

A. Going back south towards the Center. There was patients that were in that area that were covered in smoke and dust and all that other stuff that was on them. There was another ambulance that was left there and it was left wide open, so I hopped on that vehicle and moved that vehicle on forward.

Q. Went north with that.

A. That's right. Went north with that, and met with them somewhere around, I guess like Warren Street, where there is that -- a parking lot outside. Then as soon as that happened, we saw the second building go down.

At that point when the second building went down, we moved further, everybody hopped in the ambulances and we moved further -- there was a police chief who was actually running towards the Center and we actually almost tackled this guy, because he was running towards the building when that second building collapsed and we grabbed him and we put him in the ambulance with us and we ended up down by Canal Street, so we went all the way up north to Canal Street.

After the two buildings were down, we -- I took those EMTs that were with me initially. I hopped in the back of the ambulance along with a whole bunch of others. We had about 12 people in the ambulance at that point, and cut across the east side, trying to get down Church. We couldn't get down Church, so we just kept -- crossed behind City Hall over to the east side because we were told to report to the ferry terminal at that point.

We came down to the ferry terminal. At the ferry terminal I ran into some people that I knew from actually, you know, Staten Island, Mark Cohen and  Katherine Zarr, who was having trouble breathing and we started treating her at the ferry terminal. Her partner was initially missing, Mark Harris. We didn't know where he was because apparently they were like somewhere near the building when the first building started coming down. We started treating her and then for the rest of the day we just started treating people that were coming down to the ferry. That was it.

But as far as the time line goes, I know that I got on the subway sometime like around 25 to 9, somewhere around that time, and it was just a few minutes. I mean I figured I waited for the subway for a few minutes, then I got on the 2 train and then went one stop and they kicked us out.

By the time I ran down, it was when -- pretty much when I got -- I must have been a few blocks away, so I was probably like somewhere around Barclay Street when the second building got hit. I didn't see the building get hit. We just heard the building got hit. Then I came across this way and I came to -- towards the front of the World Trade Center.

I mean I saw -- when I got in front there was tons of fire units, EMS personnel, a lot of voluntary personnel were there. There was a couple of  Metropolitan ambulances that I noticed as I walked by. The EMS ambulances were parked basically from the front of the World Trade Center here all the way under the pedestrian bridge that way.

Q. So from the north tower basically going north on West Street?

A. Yes. They were all parked from the north tower right in front, because I ended up going behind what's 6 World Trade Center, which I never knew what number that was, but I ended up going behind the 6 World Trade Center, came in front of the building here where the old hotel was and that's where they had set up a lot of those command centers right there.

When that first wall collapsed, I just pulled away from there. I mean I just pulled away from there when that wall collapsed, and at that point, one of the EMTs who was with me in the front who was very upset, you know, he said, you know, should we go back, should we go back. I said we can't go back at this point. We didn't know what the damage was, but we knew that a lot of those people were probably injured or at least (inaudible), but that's basically it.

After that we made our way to the ferry terminal. I don't remember what time after that to be  honest with you. I lost complete track of time after that until 1:30, 2:00, I think it was, when I finally got through to my wife, but that's basically it.

Q. Okay, George. Is there anything else you might want to add to this?

A. No, that's basically it.

MR. TAMBASCO: I thank you for your interview and the interview will be concluded at 1459 hours.