File No. 9110370
WORLD TRADE CENTER
TASK FORCE INTERVIEW
SERGEANT JAMES CANHAM
Interview Date: December 18, 2001
Transcribed by Laurie A. Collins
CHIEF MALKIN: The date is December 18,
'01. The time is 1408 hours. This is
Battalion Chief Malkin of the Safety
Battalion. I'm conducting an interview with
Sergeant James Canham of Fire Patrol 3. We
are at Fire Patrol 3. There's nobody else
in the room at this time. The interview
concerns the events of September 11th, 2001,
and what follows is the interview.
A. I live in downtown Brooklyn. I saw the
smoke condition when I dropped my wife off on
Joralemon Street. I made my way back home, which
is on Sackett and Smith Street. While I entered
my dwelling, I heard my brother on the answering
machine saying the towers were just hit by an
airplane.
I closed by door, made my way back to
Fire Patrol 3, approximately eight blocks. I
went into quarters, took my turnout gear out of
my locker, which consisted of a Halligan,
flashlight, full bunker gear and PBI hood.
I made my way down Dean Street, when I
saw a captain of a fire patrol responding from
fire prevention. He said, "Are you going over there?" I said, "Yes." I jumped in the car. I
asked him what we had. He said, "I don't know.
I just heard a plane had hit the building."
As we got onto the Brooklyn Bridge and
we turned where we can get a view of the tower,
we saw that both towers were burning. So I made
the comment, "Geez, it looks like the plane must
have hit one building and careened into the
other," because tower one was hit much higher
than tower two. So it looked to me like it had
hit, dropped and hit the second tower.
Once again, I was off duty, I had no
radio, I had nothing. He dropped me off, because
of traffic, at the South Street Seaport. I made
my way from the South Street Seaport to the
corner of Church and Fulton, where I had spotted
Fire Patrol 3's rig parked out in front of tower
one.
Chief Raymond Cowa was standing in
front of the rig, and he had said that Captain
Keegan had just made his way inside. I grabbed a
mask off of the rig. I told the chief I was off
duty and that I would be going in. He said,
"Watch your back." I began to make my way into the building.
I had seen a couple of what I had
thought were body parts in front of the building.
I didn't pay it much mind. You still had a heavy
flow of people leaving the building. I made my
way into the building, down an escalator, where I
believe I was in the concourse level. I believe
that's what it's called.
Keith Roma, 27
I ran into Sergeant Sheehan and
Patrolman Keith Roma. They were escorting people
up the escalator. They were standing by it
looked like a turnstile or a revolving door; I'm
not sure. There were sprinkler heads going off
on the concourse level.
John said something bad really
happened. He said the overheads popped. There
was a lot of heat here before. There's nothing
happening now. He's going to stand fast.
I told him that the chief was looking
for him and he wanted to coordinate all the fire
patrol units, get them all together, and begin
some type of operation coinciding with the Fire
Department.
I proceeded into the building. I had told John, which is Sergeant Sheehan, that I was
going to go into the lobby area where the
elevator banks were to take a quick look, because
I saw that there were no firemen on the lower
level. I wasn't sure -- knowing that the
elevators had dropped, seeing the condition of
the hallways, the bent doors, the fascias of the
hallways were knocked into the hallways.
I started searching the elevators, when
a woman said there was another woman trapped in
an elevator. I had gone over to the elevator
with my tool and began to pop the door open. The
elevator was cantilevered, so it was very hard.
But there was an occupant inside.
I went back to where I saw Sergeant
Sheehan and Keith Roma. There were two firemen,
two truckers. One was an officer. I believe
they were from 10 Truck. I can't be sure. I
told them what I had. They came with their
tools. All three of us tried to pop the door
with the Halligans.
A member from the building maintenance
crew came up with a Port-A-Power. He said, "I've
got this. I can pop the door. I've got it." So with that we had all left. They had gone back to
where Sergeant Sheehan and Keith Roma was. I had
made my way up the stairwell.
On my way up the stairwell, I began
encountering a lot of people on their way down,
very calm, and they were filling out. It wasn't a
panic. You could see that they were from upper
floors. I had asked what floors. I believe the
first floor I heard was the 26th floor, 27th
floor. Given the time, it seemed this is how
much time it's taking to get down. Very narrow
hallway, stairwells going up.
I got up about four flights, found an
open door onto the floor. I believe it was the
fourth floor. I took a quick peek inside, saw no
occupants, started making my way back up. Once
again I was beginning to get respiratory now. I
was beginning to get winded. I had come from
South Street Seaport to this point and getting
winded.
I made my way up to the eighth floor
and did the same thing, stopped myself for a
moment, found a water cooler, doused myself with
some water, continued to make my way up.
I got up to the 13th floor, when there
was a large man blocking the stairwell, people
climbing over the top of him. I scooped him up
onto my shoulder, and I began half dragging, half
carrying him down the stairs.
I got to the 11th floor, and there was
a woman sitting on the stairwell crying. I
yelled, "Ma'am, you've got to move. You're
blocking the stair. You've got to --" She said,
"But there's a police officer laying on the
floor." I took a peek into the doorway. I saw a
police officer -- I believe it was Port
Authority -- prone on the floor.
I had taken the man that I was carrying
and passed him to two other civilians of large
size. They were on their way down. I said,
"Look, take this guy." They were very agreeable,
no problem. One guy took the woman. The other
guy grabbed this large man. They continued down.
I went over to the police officer. He
said, "I was just trying to catch my wind. I'm
very winded." I gave him my mask, get a couple
of breaths. With that, two other police officers
came, a sergeant and another officer. I'm not sure if they were Port Authority or city PD.
They said they're going to take care of their
man.
I asked them if they had a cell phone.
I want to call my wife. She works in downtown
Manhattan. She works right in the neighborhood.
He said, "No, but I saw an office down the hall
that had phones that were still operating." They
were up there making searches, popping doors,
et cetera, they had a ram through with them.
I dropped my mask there in the hallway.
Air quality was fine. Very dim as far as
lighting. But the air quality was good. So I
dropped my mask, made my way down to the far end
of the corridor, popped open an office door,
called my wife, told her this is real bad, I'm
going to be here awhile, go home, get the kids,
stay out of Manhattan, it's going to be a zoo,
not realizing what was going on.
When I came back out to the hallway, I
saw the sergeant once again, that police officer.
He looked at me and he said, "Are you aware of
what's going on?" At this time I did not. I
didn't have a radio, and I just assumed it was one plane. He said, "This was a hit. They hit
the Pentagon. They hit the White House. And we
have another inbound coming at us now."
I looked at him kind of queer and I
said, "You have another one coming at us?" He
said, "Yeah. The other tower was hit also." He
called on his radio, and his dispatcher said
that, yeah, you have another one inbound, watch
your back.
With that, they had started to go down
the stairs. I went back and called my wife
again. I figured I'm on the 11th floor of this
building. If there's a plane inbound now and
these guys were bailing out -- excuse my
language, I'm done.
So I called my wife and left a message
on her machine. I said, "Baby, I love you. I
don't think I'm going to make it home. Just take
care of the kids. I'll be back."
As I hung up the phone and started
making my way back down the hall is when the
rumble started. I thought it was our tower
starting to collapse, being the volume of fire I
saw when I had gotten there.
I ran down the hallway. As I ran down
the hallway, I pass two other police officers.
They were also, I believe, making searches on
that floor. They must have been with the team.
We passed each other in flight.
The sound became horrific. I was about
maybe five feet from the mask. I just dove for
my mask, scooped up my mask with one arm and I
grabbed the stairwell doorway. I had half my
body on the floor and the other half was in the
stairwell. I figured if the stairs go, I'll roll
onto the floor. If the floor goes, I can
maybe -- it was a grasp at nothing.
This is what I thought the best way
maybe out of this, because at the time with the
sound of the wind blowing through the elevator
banks, because it was air pressure coming in, I
had believed at the time it was air pressure
coming down. I thought the floors were coming
down. But it was tower two falling, which once
again I didn't -- it didn't register. I thought
it was my building.
It must have rumbled for almost what
seemed like an eternity, but it must have been only five minutes or so, between the sound of it
and the dying down. The entire floor was
enveloped in dust, smoke, minimal heat, and a
very eerie silence.
Had thrown my mask on, took a couple of
breaths. You could breathe it. Then I had gone
right into the stairwell. There had to be 20
people piled up, I mean actually in a pile.
So I started peeling them off. I said,
"Can you stand?" "Yes, I can stand." I'd stop
them. I'd tell them to hold the railing. I
grabbed the victim behind them, told them to grab
the belt loop of the person in front of them. If
it was a woman, I grabbed the bra strap. I
actually grabbed the bra and told them, "Hold the
bra, the other hand hold the railing," and make
your way down. I started a train.
The people, once again, even as
panicking and crying as they were, they were
listening and they were making their move. They
were on their way down. They were coughing and
disoriented. I said, "Hold onto the railing and
hold onto the person in front of you and just
keep moving, just keep moving down the stairs."
After I cleared those people out -- it
had to account for maybe 30, 35 people by the
time the last one had gone by me. Once again I
felt very comfortable on the floor now. The
shaking had stopped. The ground was very solid.
The wall seemed solid. The sound was gone. It
was just a matter of people coming down the
stairs.
I heard clanking from tools and masks
banging against the wall, so I figured the
brothers were on their way down.
I began to make my way down the hallway
to look where the other police officers were that
had passed me in flight. I got to the end of the
hallway. I found no one. I went back to the
phone and called my wife's office again. Each
time I was just leaving a message. As I picked
up to use the phone, the phone was dead. I
wasn't able to use the phone.
I took out a window, about four
windows, because now the quality of the air in
the room I was in is in question. It was
starting to get charged. So I started taking out
windows. When I looked down, I saw ladders that were twisted and cantilevered. I saw light bars
that were just -- it looked as if you had a
blinking light under a thin layer of dust is what
it looked like. It was the top of rigs.
Now I assumed that's where the tower --
I believed that the fascia or the upper floors
had slipped from the building and dropped off,
not realizing at all that the tower had fallen.
I began to make my way back into the
hallway, when people started to come up out of
the stairwells. They were coming up from the
lower floors, saying that the second and third
floors were gone, you can't get out that way,
what are we going to do, in a panic.
Other firefighters had also now entered
the floor. They were coming from above, and a
couple were coming from down below. A battalion
chief, a large man -- I don't know who he was --
he came in. I asked him if he was aware of what
was happening. He said, "No."
I brought him over to the window where
I was, and I showed him out of the window. I
said, "Look, this is what we're up against." We
both looked at one another like "We're screwed."
There were some firemen that were
yelling "Bail out." They gave a bail out,
everybody bail out, and they were making their
way out of the building, down the stairs. Some
civilians were panicking when they heard that,
because they saw firemen leaving and saying bail.
The chief and I and two other firemen
stayed with the civilians. We didn't go down the
stairwell that they were coming up, we moved
halfway down the hallway. We found another
stairwell and started filing people down that.
We did almost a leap frog. I went down
to a landing. I held my light until all the
people came by. The chief and this other fireman
had passed me. When the last person went by me,
I made my way down the next level, relieving that
fireman, and it was a leap frog to just try to
keep the people moving and just make our way
down.
I got down to what I believe is the
lobby level. I believe it was the lobby level.
It was a gray level, so if that's the lobby, it
was the gray level. There were filing all the
civilians to the left, which would have been south.
I was exhausted at this time,
physically drained, trying to (inaudible). I was
really wiped at the time.
Oh, excuse me, let me go back to the
11th floor. I have to do this. I'm sorry.
Q. Go ahead.
A. I had passed a Lieutenant Ed D'Atri
from Squad 1. He saw me. He said, "Jimmy, where
are my guys?" This is on the 11th floor after
the tower had fallen. He had made his way up.
He had said, "Jimmy, did you see our guys?" I
said, "No, Eddie. Some bad shit just happened."
He said, "Yeah, I know. I don't know where my
guys are." He had gone up, and I had made my way
back down the hallway.
- Capt. James M. Amato, 43
- Lt. Edward A. D'Atri, 38
- Lt. Michael Esposito, 41
- Lt. Michael N. Fodor, 53
- Brian Bilcher, 37
- Gary Box, 37
- Thomas M. Butler, 37
- Peter Carroll, 42
- Robert Cordice, 28
- David J. Fontana, 37
- Matthew David Garvey, 37
- Stephen Gerard Siller, 34
This is after the last civilians had
gone by, just prior to me going back to look for
the cops. I believe Eddie stayed on the floor
with me for a minute. We gave a quick search.
Then he made his way up. After that I didn't see
Ed anymore.
Going back down to the lobby level. I
got down to the lobby level. There had to be six to what I believe were maybe ten companies in a
staged area. They were standing there. They
were talking with one another. Once again, a
very relaxed mode.
The civilians were minimal at this
time. There was a dark haze in the lobby, I
guess from the settling dust from the prior
collapse.
I had made my way out on the West
Street side. Once again, I passed these
companies, and even a couple of the guys joked.
They said, "Hey, Patrol, what are you doing?" I
said, "Yeah, we're going to be here a while." We
all snickered and laughed, and then I had exited
the building.
As I entered the building, a body fell
maybe three or four feet from me and hit the
ground. I got my back up against the wall and
scooched along the building going north up tower
one, going along. Two or three more bodies had
impacted.
I ran over to what I believe is
Eight --
Q. Yes, that's Eight.
A. Eight World Trade Center. I made my
way along that wall and up and to the first bend.
When I saw I had a pretty clear area, I made it
over to this side. It's an L shape going on -- I
don't know how to describe that area.
I ran into Patrolman Paul Curran. He
saw that I was pretty taxed. Paulie looked wiped
out. I said, "Paulie, what are you doing?" I
said, "Where are the guys?" He said, "I really
don't know. I'm going to go up and take a look
for them." I said, "All right, look, I'm going
to try to find out where our guys are, and we'll
regroup back in front of the building." He said,
"Okay."
He had left and gone north. I began to
go up north and I said, let me turn around and go
back the other way, because I was thinking to
scoot down which would have been Vesey Street.
So I ended up here. I started to make my way
back down Vesey, and the building began to
rumble. It was a very quick time between when I
saw Paul.
As it started to coming down, I darted
right back to the building which was eight World Trade Center, dove next to a concrete traffic
barrier and a truck and just covered up, because
at the speed it was coming down, I saw that there
was no way to run.
I didn't want to run north, because I
just didn't think I could outrun it, as taxed as
I was, equipment I was wearing. I just didn't
think I was going to make any time. So I ran
maybe six to eight feet, dove, and I just ended
up between this barrier and this parked truck,
covered up.
After this it gets a little gray. I
have no recollection of time. I remember making
my way back down West Street, and I came upon an
engine. There was a chauffeur and another guy
next to the rig. He couldn't get his breath. I
had gone through the same thing as Patrolman
Curran, puking up the dry dust, trying to clear
your throat, nothing was happening.
I gave the chauffeur my mask. He used
it for a bit. I made my way over to the hydrant
and started splashing my face, trying to drink
down some water to clear this debris out of
my throat, the dust was -- visibility was maybe five, ten feet.
I got back to the chauffeur. He said
he was doing better. I splashed him with some
water. We steam at the hydrant. I said maybe we
can get the stang open or set up a fog pattern
and try to knock down some of this dust to make a
path for anybody that might have been this way.
We tried that. We got no -- the pump didn't
engage. I believe that we lost water pressure
somehow. The chauffeur believed the same.
I told the chauffeur I'm going back
over to the tower. I made my way back down north
again. I remember hearing all pass alarms.
Visibility was nil. There was heavy smoke.
There was a lot of fire, a lot of car fires.
I realized at that time I had no
strength. I physically just couldn't do
anything. I saw no one. I saw no firemen. I
felt I was alone. I had just lost Paul, who was
my chauffeur when I worked with him. I figured
he's gone. I remember turning and walking away.
An off-duty member from 105 Truck
grabbed me and dragged me to a diner. There were
other members from the Fire Patrol there. They cleaned me up. It was air-conditioned. They
took my stuff off, flushed my face, my eyes,
washed me down. I began to recollect what was
going on now.
I immediately went to a phone. The
proprietor gave me a phone, and I called the
house watch here in Brooklyn. I gave them a head
count of who was in the diner with me. There
were Fire Patrolmen, and I believe there was one
firemen.
I gave everybody's name. I told the
guy on house watch, "Take the names down, mark
the time. This is who is alive right now. I'm
very unaware of who else is around."
I had commandeered a radio from one of
the members from Fire Patrol who was in the diner
at this time. When I had gotten the radio, I
turned it on. It was futile. There were a lot
of maydays. There were a lot of searching for
people. The radio was useless as far as any kind
of command. There was none.
I made my way back towards West Street,
where I ran into Captain Greco, another member of
the Fire Patrol, a couple of firemen that were wandering around aimlessly. Everybody was in
shock. Anybody that was in that area was just
mentally, physically gone.
After that it's really gray. I
remember we made our way back. We tried to make
a sortie back into the building. Physically
nobody had anything. We started seeing a lot of
incoming companies now, inbound companies.
Our supervisor had ordered us back to
40 Fulton, and we made our way back to 40 Fulton
Street, where we regrouped, came back to
Brooklyn, got cleaned up, got a little something
to eat and made our way back to the towers to
search. And that went on for days after.
Q. You thought about going back into the
building. About a minute ago you said that.
Which building were you going to go back into?
A. Tower one.
Q. Did you get a good view of it? It was
just a pile of rubble.
A. It was a pile of rubble. All you heard
were pass alarms.
Q. You heard pass alarms.
A. There were no firemen. All the guys that I had left -- there were ten companies in
there, I'm sure, as far as the number goes. They
were all in that lobby area. This lobby swung
around. There were guys down this end. There
were guys over there.
Once again, they were escorting the
people -- when I came down, it was -- it was just
a small doorway. It was an access doorway that
we had come out, and they had filed everybody to
the left. I had gone to the right. After that
it's just gray.
I had believed at first, looking at the
map, that I was here, which would have been 40
feet from Vesey Street, 20 feet from the
building. It was six of one, half dozen of the
other, because either way I was in front of this
building, either here or here. I really can't
remember.
I believe it was here because I
remember there was a truck parked into it. There
was a truck parked into it. I remember going
back days later. I saw West Street directly in
front of tower one was buried. Vesey Street and
the top of this building, some debris had fallen this way. I remember I was right in this one
little void, which the command center I believe
was set up here.
Q. Right.
A. So that's --
Q. You're talking about adjacent to number
eight World Trade Center, just west of the
building called number eight.
When you went into the lower level of
One World Trade Center, the sprinkler heads were
going off.
A. Right, they were heads off.
Q. There was no fire; there was no heat.
Their heads were off from a pressure surge like
from the pressure created by the falling of
building two or what do you think?
A. What I believe set those heads off is
when those elevators had dropped --
Q. Why did the elevators drop?
A. They were sheered.
Q. They were sheered. We didn't cover
that. People told me, yeah, I think the
elevators dropped and the doors were blown out
and all that.
A. Right.
Q. The elevators were sheered?
A. They were sheered.
Q. What did the elevator doors look like?
A. They were buckled, cantilevered. The
one woman was -- how she was standing up, I
didn't know.
Q. She was standing up? She was alive?
A. She was standing up and alive, as I
popped it with my tool. I had a converted
officers tool. I made my own little. It's very
good as far as leverage and so on and so forth.
I got the door open maybe six to eight inches.
That's when the guys from -- once
again, I believe they were 10 Truck. He had put
his officer's tool, my tool and the Halligan. We
had both Halligans. But the door was so warped
that we really couldn't get the strength to pop
it open.
But when the guy pulled up with the
Port-A-Power, he was very confident. He was
like, "Don't worry. I've got her." It seemed
almost like he had done this before, like he was
here working. Once again, I had come off duty. So this maintenance man had enough muster to get
that tool and begin to work on the doors right
away. It just led me to believe that he had
things under control.
So myself and the lieutenant from
whatever company that was were confident he could
do it, and we had moved on.
Q. I wonder where he is now.
A. Exactly. He was ten feet from Sergeant
Sheehan and Keith Roma.
Q. You're the first guy that told me that
they saw D'Atri. I know D'Atri. Nobody else
told me that they saw him.
A. When you speak to the others from
Squad, they should tell you, because I had spoken
to them immediately after that.
Once again, I'm doing this 23 years.
You always think, yeah, if you give a location,
you have a good idea where they can be. This
changed all the rules. This changed all the
rules. This went from a structure to a wafer in
seconds, in seconds.
I couldn't believe the speed of that
tower coming down. I heard the rumble, I looked up, debris was already 50 feet from the ground,
on its way down. You looked and you ran. You
just didn't --
Q. You reacted or you didn't survive.
A. You just moved. You just ran. You
knew you were dead. I knew I was dead. As I
thought of my children, life flashing before your
eyes, true. You see it, you see it, you see it.
I saw my boys, I saw --
Q. That's about it?
A. Yeah.
Q. Good.
CHIEF MALKIN: I thank Sergeant Canham
for this interview. The time is now 1633
hours, and this concludes the interview.
File No. 9110419
WORLD TRADE CENTER
TASK FORCE INTERVIEW
FIREFIGHTER RICHARD CARLETTI
Interview Date: January 2, 2002
Transcribed by Nancy Francis
LIEUTENANT CHIAFARI: Today's date is January
the 2nd, 2002, the time is now 7:35 p.m., and this is
Lieutenant Joseph Chiafari of the Safety Command of the
New York City Fire Department. I am conducting an
interview with the following individual, Richard
Carletti of Engine Company No. 5, about the events of
September the 11th, 2001.
Q. If you can for the record state your name and
location of where you were working at the day of the
incident.
A. Richard Carletti, Firefighter 1. I was
working at Engine 5. I was assigned for a 24-hour tour
assigned at 9:00 a.m. that morning.
Well, here's how my morning starts. I
usually come in around 8:00 like everyone does, but I
went to vote, so I was late. I was coming up Allen,
which turns into First. When I was crossing Delancey
Street, I saw a jet in front of me, which was the first
jet. He was pretty low. He was probably about 30
stories. Now I'm heading north and crossing Delancey
Street on Allen and I see the jet make a move toward
the Trade Center. It made a southwesterly turn from
that point. [Here is another eye witness account of the 1st plane for you no planes nutters out there making fools of yourselves with your doctored video's D.C]
I proceeded up First Avenue, left on 14th, parked in front of the firehouse. Fireman Lynn was
there. He said they were out on a box, they wouldn't
let him on because they thought they had a good job,
and right then he told me a plane just crashed into the
Trade Center. It was the same exact plane I just saw.
I proceeded upstairs. I got dressed. We
left here about five to 9:00. We made a left going
west on 14th Street, left on Second Avenue. I was in
my personal car. We started taking the lights on First
Avenue. We got to about 2nd Street and Second Avenue
and we saw Ladder 7 was on a gas leak. We asked them
if they were going to the Trade Center. They said no,
they weren't assigned yet. We were on the east side of
the street. We went to make a right on Houston, and
right when we were making the right on Houston, we saw
a fireball in the sky, which at this point was the
second impact, so that puts it 9:06, turning right onto
Houston.
We went down -- I figured I was in my
personal car, we wouldn't make it down Broadway. We
thought it would be backed up. I made a left on
Lafayette, which is a one-way north. I was going
south. I stopped in front of 20 Truck. There was one
guy there. He said everybody already left. We proceeded down. We went on the side of I guess
Lafayette, right down by City Hall, we made a left and
we parked over by 6 Engine on Beekman, parked the car
on the sidewalk, grabbed our gear and proceeded to walk
up Beekman to Park Row, down Park Row to Broadway. We
stopped in front of a building, left our boots inside
the building on Broadway, got dressed and proceeded
west on Liberty.
When we turned the corner west on Liberty,
figure it was probably about 9:15 at this time, there
was a good 20 floors of fire in the south tower. I
mean, it was pushing red on at least 20 floors from
what we could see. I turned to Tommy and I said,
Tommy, this building is in danger of collapse. In my
opinion, I didn't think there was going to be a
catastrophic collapse, but from the fire load, there
was no way.
When we passed 10 and 10, there's a bridge
that runs I guess into one of the buildings directly
south of Trade Center No. 2. There's a pedestrian
walkway. As we passed that, we came into the debris
field. It was jet parts and body parts. I distinctly
remember seeing a woman's hand. It was cut off at the
wrist. She had wedding ring, so it had to be a left hand, and then I looked to the left and I just saw the
rib cage with nothing in it and there was just debris.
At that point we stopped for a second and we
heard impacts, which I guess was jumpers hitting the
pavement. To our right, there was a parking lot right
on West and Liberty. There were about seven cars on
fire. We just walked -- there was a line there just
dropped. We walked across West Street, found an engine
company, and they said the command post is just north
of here in front of World Financial Center.
We walked up there and we told a Chief we
were two from 5 Engine. He told us go in the street,
secure masks, irons, whatever tools you can get, and he
ordered us to not go into the buildings, to come back
to the command post. So most of the rigs were stripped
in front of the Trade Center. There was nothing in
them. The equipment was already taken.
We walked up West Street, past the Verizon,
one block north of Vesey, and we found our engine, 5
Engine, parked there. I guess the chauffeur's radio
was on step. I guess when he changed, he forgot to put
it back on. I took his radio. We looked in the rig.
There was nothing in there. All the doors were open.
It was pretty much empty. I found a mask on 91 Engine. We looked for about another five minutes. We
didn't find any other equipment. So all we had was one
mask between the two of us.
We went back to the command post. We met a
captain from 91 Engine, told him who we were. He
walked over to the command post, told them who we were,
and that's when we saw Paul Mitchell. He just got made
out of Ladder 110. He was a covering officer here,
covering lieutenant. I figure at this point that was
probably about quarter to, ten to 10:00. So I saw all
the Chiefs there. The officer from 91 took our names,
told us to stand over there.
- Lt. Paul Thomas Mitchell, 46
There was a driveway there that went into, I
guess, one of the World Financial buildings. We went
over and we stood on the burn in front of the Winter
Garden room. We were just south of the north bridge
standing on the grass area. I think EMS was setting up
their command post behind us. When I saw Paul
Mitchell, I was joking because he had a firefighter's
helmet on instead of a lieutenant's, so I guess he
grabbed equipment from 110. He got off that morning.
We were standing there. The officer from 91
says stay here, we're going to get two more guys and
get teamed up, and what went through my mind was – the only thing I was annoyed at was that we were going to
have to hike 80 floors. We stood there for about ten
minutes and I just heard a loud groan by everyone in
the street. I guess the south tower started to lean.
The top 30 floors leaned over. I was looking up at the
north tower. I was trying to monitor more what was
going on in the north tower with the radio, and they
were on three different channels at this point.
I looked up and about the 70th floor I saw
the western wall of the south tower start to belly
out. Tommy turned, said run. He started running and I
turned around behind him and we ran into the revolving
door of the Winter Garden room, which is a glass
atrium, I guess about ten stories high. As I went
through the revolving door, I was in with an EMS guy
and I either tripped her up or knocked her over. I
remember picking her up. We went back around to the
back. Everybody started going into the Winter Garden
room. I remember the floor rumbling and the lights
went out at this point in that hallway. Everybody
started to go into the Winter Garden room. It's got a
glass roof, so I told them to move north.
We went to the American Express Building. We
ran north. So this was about five after 10:00. We proceed to go back out on the north side of the
building. The dust was just too intense. You couldn't
see more than five feet at this point. So we went back
in. We waited about another five minutes. We went
out. The Captain from 91 Engine was covered in dust.
We looked in two more rigs for any equipment. There
was nothing. We went to the corner. We saw Tom
Manley, sergeant at arms of the union.
We stood on that corner. A Chief came over
and ordered us to go north. He wanted everyone to go
north. I said, Tommy, let's go back to 5 Engine. When
we walked back to 5 Engine, we found Lieutenant Bohack,
Firefighter Jim Andruzzi, Firefighter Eddie Mecner
backing the rig up and Eddie was all over the road with
the rig. They came out of the seat and I got in the
seat. We backed into a side street, turned the rig
around and proceeded north and we parked on Warren
Street one block south of Chambers. I guess now this
was about 10:25. We stood there for another four
minutes and the south tower collapsed -- I mean the
north tower collapsed.
When the north tower collapsed, I remember
seeing the antenna do a little rock back and forth and
I could just hear the floors pancaking. I heard it for about 30 pancakes, just boom, boom, boom, boom, and the
dust blew up to us.
We ran about one block north. The dust
settled. We went back to the rig, threw the equipment
back on the rig, what was on the sidewalk, our jackets
and radios. We took the rig. We went east. We made a
left on Greenwich and we proceeded north. We came back
around in front of Stuyvesant High School. They were
setting up a command post there. I mean, you could
listen to the monitors. Basically they wanted engines
was booster tanks to come down and extinguish the car
fires then going.
We stood there for about another 20 minutes.
That's when we figured out who we were missing. We
were missing Manny Delvalle, Gerard Gorman and Brogan
were now missing at this point, and Eddie Mecner
confirmed that Brogan was put in an ambulance, and
about ten minutes later Gerard Gorman came walking up.
He was covered in dust and pretty shocked. So he
proceeded to get in an ambulance and go to the hospital
at that point.
Manuel Del Valle, Jr, 32
We got the rig cleaned up and we proceeded
from -- when we were on Chambers Street, we were
blocked out. We went over, down to Chambers Street, we went across behind City Hall, made a right. We made a
U-turn past City Hall along the Brooklyn Bridge. We
went over to the east side, completely around
Manhattan. We came up Broadway from the south, made a
left on Exchange and a right on Broadway, and we came
up to Thames and we shut the rig down and there was
absolute silence. There were only six firefighters at
this point over there. It was about 15 minutes after
the collapse, the second collapse.
We checked the hydrants. We only found
hydrants working on the east side of the street. The
west side were all shut down, were all dead. At this
point it was Bohack, Lieutenant Bohack, Andruzzi,
Mecner, Lynn. They proceeded to walk north up
Broadway. I stayed with the rig. I eventually moved
the rig forward where I ran into my brother's
Lieutenant and he had a spare rig. He was going to go
down Dey Street and I was going to augment him, but
another engine decided to augment. I came back
around. I parked on Liberty and Broadway and I
proceeded to augment 247, which was on Church and
Liberty, and we stayed there until about 6:00 o'clock
that night.
We went back to the house, we got our eyes washed, we went back down at 11:00 p.m. with 3 Truck,
with the rest of the battalion. We went to 10 and 10
command post. We went to about the middle of the pile,
but we were just -- at this point we extinguished fires
most of the night almost in the center of the complex
and just west of what was left of building No. 4. We
were on the pile just with three hand lines putting out
fires until 9:00 o'clock in the morning.
Q. So that was during the nighttime, then, you
were putting fires out on the pile?
A. Yes. And that was it.
Q. So you had mentioned about repositioning your
rig just prior to the second collapse?
A. Our rig was parked -- I don't know the name
of the street. It's one block north of Vesey. It was
on the northbound side facing south. They came and
they were parked on the hydrant. When I got there,
Eddie was backing the rig up and he was having a hard
time with it and so I got in the seat. We backed into
a street and then we proceeded to go north.
Q. Had any of the guys that were working with
the rig, had they returned back to the -- the guys who
were working in Engine 5 that day, had they returned
back to the rig?
A. Yes. At that point it was Lieutenant Bohack,
Firefighter Andruzzi, Firefighter Mecner, and at that
point we were missing Firefighter Brogan, Firefighter
Delvalle and Firefighter Gorman. That's when we went
up to Warren Street and we parked. Then when the
second collapse happened, that's when we brought the
rig --
Q. Around?
A. We went up to Greenwich, made a left.
Greenwich is a southbound street. We went up, came
past I think it was Manhattan Community College. We
made a left. We came back down Stuyvesant. From this
point we just went like a complete circle back down to
Stuyvesant High School. Then they told us there was a
bomb scare and we had to move the rig north from there.
Q. You said you were wearing a handy-talky.
Were there any significant handy-talky transmissions
that you did hear at any point prior to, during, or
after any of the collapses?
A. About 10:15, 10:20, I finally heard the
Maydays for the north tower, to evacuate the north
tower. Prior to that I didn't hear any Maydays. I
mean, I heard a lot of chatter, nothing of really any
significance. I didn't hear any Maydays or anything. It was mostly command post instructions of the Chiefs
being moved around. I didn't hear anything else.
That's the first time I heard the Mayday.
Q. About 10:15?
A. Yes. We also started repeating the Maydays
on our radios because we were on the corner of Vesey
and West Street. We were on the southwest side, that's
when we were standing with Manley, and they were also
blowing the air horns.
Q. Besides Lieutenant Mitchell that you had
seen, any other individuals that you had seen that
you're aware of that did not make it out of the
collapse debris?
A. No, he's the only one I can remember. I
don't think I saw anyone else at the command post. I
remember seeing Hayden and I saw Ganci.
Q. At the command post you saw Chief Ganci?
A. Yes. I saw Von Essen there.
Q. This is the command post that was on West
Street?
A. West Street. It was on the garage ramp in
front of I guess that's -- I think it's 2 World
Financial Center. There's a south building in the
World Financial Center complex.
Q. Right. On the same side as the Winter
Garden?
A. Yes.
Q. So you never entered any of the tower
buildings?
A. No.
Q. So, primarily, when you came around from the
Liberty Street side, you walked on West Street?
A. Yes. We were across the street.
Q. Oh, on the west side of West Street?
A. Yes.
Q. Okay.
A. Because when we stood in front of -- right
past 10 and 10, past that north -- we were really
underneath the bridge. There's a pedestrian bridge
that used to cross Liberty just south of 10 and 10. Is
that a Bankers Trust building there? I don't know what
the name of it is.
Q. I'm not sure of the name of the building.
A. Blockbuster.
Q. There's a south walkway, though, that goes
across West Street.
A. When we got past there, that's when we
entered the debris field and you heard shotgun blasts, and when I looked -- I don't know if Tommy looked, but
I could see what was lying on the ground. It was just
a pile of meat, red. So I said to Tommy, let's get out
of here. There's too many humans coming down from the
building. I figured that had to be about 9:15, 9:20,
and there was a good 20 to 25 floors of fire.
But, see, there were no Chiefs on that east
side of that building. When we walked down Liberty, we
were the only two firefighters on Liberty. There was
no observation on that side.
Q. Nobody was on the Liberty Street side or
the --
A. No. 10 and 10 was empty. The doors were
open and there wasn't a soul in the building. I don't
know if they were open. I think they were open. We
looked and there was no one in there.
Q. So, actually, on the Liberty Street side
there was no apparatus that was parked there?
A. There was apparatus parked on the corner of I
think it was -- or it probably might have been Ladder
10 that was parked on -- Liberty's got two lanes in
each direction. It's got an island in the middle of
it. They blocked off -- there used to be two ways in
each direction. I think it was Ladder 10 that was parked there. I'm not sure. I don't really remember.
I remember when I seen the body hit the ground, I
thought I saw Ladder 10 parked there. I mean, I don't
remember.
There were engines parked across the street.
I don't remember who they were. They were across on
Liberty, across West Street. I don't remember seeing
any other -- in truth, I don't remember seeing any
apparatus but that one on the corner.
Q. Otherwise everything else was in the middle
of Liberty or on West Street?
A. West Street, yes.
Q. Okay, Rich. Anything else of significance
that you'd like to add to this interview that you feel
it's important?
A. No. Just that when we walked down Liberty, I
found that we were the only ones there and that was odd
to me. There was no observation on that side of the
building.
Q. Okay.
A. When I got to the command post, what was I
going to say? I mean, I've got seven years on the
job. I remember telling the Chief I think this
building is in dire need, it's going to collapse. There was one point at the command post, I mean, I
don't know about the battalion, but I felt I could have
just walked away and no one would have known, but I
didn't.
Q. You did what you thought was right.
A. Yes. I mean, I ran ten minutes later, but
that was self preservation.
Q. The intentions were well at that time to do
what you had to do to go down there. Okay. So if
there's nothing further?
A. No.
LIEUTENANT CHIAFARI: This now concludes the
interview with Firefighter Carletti. The time is now
7:54 p.m
File No. 9110237
WORLD TRADE CENTER
TASK FORCE INTERVIEW
FIREFIGHTER OWEN CARLOCK
Interview Date: December 5th, 2001
Transcribed by Laurie A. Collins
CHIEF BURNS: Today's date is December
5th, 2001. The time is 4:17 p.m. I am
Battalion Chief Robert Burns, Safety
Battalion, FDNY. I'm conducting an
interview with Firefighter Owen Carlock,
Ladder 122, detailed on the day of the
incident to Engine 220. This is in
reference to the events that occurred on
September 11th, 2001.
Q. Owen, if you would, just tell us in
your own words exactly what happened that day.
A. We took the Brooklyn Bridge, which was
closed. We had trouble getting there from here
with all the traffic. We took the Brooklyn
Bridge, which was emptied at Chambers Street, a
lot of traffic, obviously, in Manhattan.
We went to West Street, turned left on
West. We picked up a straggler, John Jermyn,
from the -- he used to be here in 122. He works
in the Fire Department Museum. We picked him up
and drove around to -- as near as I can figure
out, I think it was between Murray and Barclay
Street, where we left the rig on the southbound
lanes.
We walked down the southbound lanes to
I guess it was the command post. Captain Grabher
went over there, and they told him to go to the
south tower. So he said he wasn't going to take
Liberty because of the jumpers.
So we went to some building on the
corner of Albany and West Street that's under
construction. It's being renovated. We went
that way. We took Albany past Washington, and
then we were on our way to Greenwich? No, it was
at Washington when the tower came down on us.
Somebody yelled "Oh, shit, here it comes." It
was coming towards us.
So we dove behind the Deutsche Bank,
and the five of us -- three went back, four went
ahead, the seven of us. Four of us laid behind
that building, waiting. We thought we were going
to die.
After that we tried to take a window in
the back of the bank. We did take a window, but
behind it was a steel wall, corrugated tin or
whatever. We couldn't get into the window.
They followed me. I had the light.
They followed me, and we went into Deutsche Bank into the side entrance, got our wits about us,
and we went across the street to get Eddie and
George and Mike Schroeck.
Then we were going to make our way back
to the command center when the north tower came
down. We ducked into some hotel. I don't know
what hotel it was. It was on West Street south
of Albany.
After that came down and the stuff
cleared, the officer said, "Listen, we're not
going to go back to that area. We're going to
come around, because we don't know what else is
going to come down, what else could come tumbling
down."
So we went over to the water, and from
there we helped Marine 6 put it into -- I think
it was Captain Fuentes. They dug him out. He
was banged up pretty good. We helped put him on
the boat.
At that time Captain Grabher told Eddie
Plunkett and myself, "Go find a rig and back it
up to the fire boat, Marine 9, which is already
there." He said, "We're going to at least get
water as best as we can to the towers."
Eddie and I found I don't know whose
rig it was. We backed it up to the fire hose,
took the three and a half off of there and went
as far as we could. Then another rig came, and
they stretched their three and a half off the rig
we were on, and then they left.
I went back to find Captain Grabher,
Mike Schroeck, George and Dean. They were
nowhere to be found. Later on I found out they
were on the ninth floor of one of the apartment
buildings on the west side of West Street,
fighting the fire on the ninth floor. That's why
I couldn't find them. I had no radio. I had no
clue where they were.
So I hooked up after a while with Chief
Congiusta of 48. He and I went down with a
couple other guys from 240 into the parking lot
of the Vista to look for 6 Truck, which was
missing at the time. We were standing there and
waited for him to come out, and he never came
out. He took an underground passageway and came
out on Barclay Street.
After that I hooked up with four guys,
recall guys. I hooked up with 220 and stayed the rest of the night until 11:30 and went to the
hospital. I had my eyes cleaned out.
As far as the companies, somebody said
205 was right in front of us, and I don't
remember seeing them. That's the best I can tell
you where we were, where everybody is, that's
what we did the day of the attack.
CHIEF BURNS: That concludes our
interview. The time is 4:22 p.m.
File No. 9110505
WORLD TRADE CENTER
TASK FORCE INTERVIEW
FIREFIGHTER CRAIG CARLSEN
Interview Date: January 25, 2002
Transcribed by Laurie A. Collins
CHIEF KENAHAN: Today is January 25th,
2002. The time is 1:50 p.m. This is
Battalion Chief Dennis Kenahan from the
Safety Battalion of the Fire Department of
the City of New York. I'm conducting an
interview with Firefighter Craig Carlsen
from Ladder 8 in the quarters of Ladder 8.
Q. Craig, just tell us the events as you
recall them from September 11th.
A. We were down at the medical office
going for our annual medical. We got into the
medical office. We heard that a plane had hit
One World Trade Center, the north tower. When we
got into the medical office, of course the TVs
were on and everybody was focused on it.
It was approximately five minutes to 9.
As we were watching the events unfold, we
realized our company was down there for it.
That's when we saw the second plane hit. At that
point we decided to find out from -- we had our
medicals, and find out if we were supposed to
leave or stay for our medicals, which we got
permission to leave, and we left the medical
office.
We went out into the street and
commandeered a couple of cars. Some people went
in one car, and another person and myself had
gotten into an ambulance along with another
lieutenant that was down at the medical office,
and we proceeded over to my firehouse to pick up
gear, we realized we had to pick up the gear to
go down to the job.
We pretty much got over into quarters
of Ladder 8 at approximately 10 after 9 or so.
We picked up our gear and proceeded down to the
Trade Center. We almost caught a ride from
Engine 235, and they had no room on their rig.
They proceeded down, and we caught the next --
just a van that was going downtown.
Lt. Vincent Gerard Halloran, 43
As we got down to the location, we got
dropped off a couple of blocks away. I don't
really recall what street we got dropped off on,
but I think it was Barclay and West. The
lieutenant and I traveled down to where Ladder
8's rig was to find out, see if we could hook up
with Ladder, looking for the command post.
I proceeded into One World Trade Center
into the front lobby. Just making it into the door, I ran into 3 Truck, members of 3 Truck,
which told us that there were numerous people
trapped in elevator cars and that they needed
forcible entry saws.
So the lieutenant and I went out to
look for forcible entry saws. Of course most of
the rigs that were around the area, the first few
rigs, there was really no tools even left on the
rig at that point. So we had to go to -- I
couldn't even tell you how many rigs we looked in
before we actually found the saws.
On my way back in towards coming back
to Ladder 8's rig, coming around the rig, I had
found a saw. I don't remember exactly what rig
was from. I came to a complete halt because
something came down and hit the street, and I
didn't realize what it was until I looked up
further and saw that there were bodies coming
down, quite a few of them, which had to stop me
in my place because I couldn't really get back
into the building because of it.
At that point the other officer that I
was with, the lieutenant, decided -- we hooked up
together, and we decided that we found where the command post was now I guess relocated across the
street on West, straight across from One World
Trade Center.
We decided that before we went back in
the building let's see if we could pick up some
masks and a radio before we got into the radio,
and also check in with the command post. By this
time I guess it was probably 20 to 10 or so.
So we went over to the command post,
which at that point my company that was at the
medical office had just gotten there also. We
all decided that we should just team up as a team
before we went in to keep as a unit. Of course
we checked in with the command post, and we were
told to stand by. We checked in with Chief Ganci
and a few other officers at the scene.
As we were waiting around, they told us
to just stand by. They were doing something with
the eight track system. They were trying to find
out if they can figure out how they can control
it. So they just us to stand by.
We waited around I guess 10, 15
minutes. As we were standing there looking up,
we were getting an idea of -- doing like a size-up and you could see there were numerous
people hanging out of the windows. Of course
other parts of bodies dropping.
I guess about three minutes later you
just heard explosions coming from building two,
the south tower. It seemed like it took forever,
but there were about ten explosions. At the time
I didn't realize what it was. We realized later
after talking and finding out that it was the
floors collapsing to where the plane had hit.
We then realized the building started
to come down. At that point everybody at the
command post took off into -- there were two
garages across. I guess it was by Two World
Financial Center next to the Winter Garden, just
a little bit south of the north bridge.
Everybody took off into an underground garage.
I made it in about 20 feet inside the
door, and I tripped over an EMT who I guess broke
his leg and was disabled. I pretty much just
stayed there and tried to comfort him. Before I
had gone into the garage, I grabbed a mask.
At that point, that's when the building
started to come down. It was already coming down, and you could see the force of air coming
towards you. I was just trying to drag the EMT
down the ramp. That's when the blast came, and
now you're just trying to don the mask.
I don't remember -- time is now -- I
don't have a clue with it. It seems like when it
finished collapsing I heard somebody scream that
we were trapped. We figured that the whole
building came down on top of us and that we were
trapped inside underneath the garage.
I decided to just crawl out to see how
far, if anything was actually up against the
building and what-have-you. I just crawled out
and did a search of the area of the command post
and whatever else as far as you could go. At
that point, that's when we realized that we
actually weren't trapped into the building.
We just waited for the dust to clear
and did a search. I found a police officer
lieutenant that needed help and took her out. I
took her through the building and just her off on
Vesey and West Street to other police officers,
making my way through the building.
I started heading back down towards number One World Trade Center just from Vesey and
West, going towards the north bridge. On my way
back down, I was just looking, and I saw my
company coming out of the building or actually
from underneath the north bridge, 8 Truck coming
out. One, two, three, four, five guys. I was
happy to see them, that they got out. I knew
they were in the building, but I wasn't
absolutely sure what building they actually went
into.
As I ran into them, we just started
heading back up north on West Street. We made it
to approximately Vesey and West, which is just
north of the bridge. Then the second building
started to come down.
At that point everybody just took off
in all different directions. As far as I know,
we just went north up West Street. I would guess
we made it up to Barclay, maybe, and whatever it
was knocked us down, the force of the wind or
maybe pieces -- I had a Scott pack on. It
knocked me down. I had lost the face piece. I
just crawled underneath a DOT truck, one of the
trucks, and just waited it out. This time I thought we were so close that I was not going to
make it.
Pretty much the same thing, when it all
started to clear a little bit -- you had a hard
time just worrying about breathing. Same thing,
when it started to clear, you did your searches,
you picked up who you could, and just traveled
northward.
Of course everything was covered up and
you didn't really -- I don't recall what members
that you picked up because it was pretty chaos.
You did what you could, and that was about it.
Q. When the north tower was coming down,
did you have any indication? Did you hear the
explosions again? Did anybody warn you like they
heard on the radio or anything like that?
A. I didn't have a radio, because we were
coming from the medical office. So I never did
get a radio. So I wouldn't have heard that, if
somebody had said it.
You did hear the explosions. Of course
after the first one -- the first one was pretty
much looking at it like in awe. You didn't
realize that this was really happening because you kind of just stood there and you didn't
really react as fast as you thought you were
going to.
The second one coming down, you knew
the explosions. Now you're very familiar with
it. Of course when I looked up, all I could see
was the antenna coming down. You pretty much
just pick up and take off. Everybody was on
their own, I guess.
Q. All right. Thank you, Craig.
CHIEF KENAHAN: The time now is 2:04
p.m., and this concludes the interview.
File No. 9110430
WORLD TRADE CENTER
TASK FORCE INTERVIEW
FIREFIGHTER JOSEPH CASALIGGI
Interview Date: January 9, 2002
Transcribed by Laurie A. Collins
CHIEF CONGIUSTA: Today's is January
9th, 2002. The time is 1430 hours. This is
Battalion Chief Frank Congiusta of the
Safety Battalion of the New York City Fire
Department. I'm conducting an interview
with the following individual.
Please state your name.
FIREFIGHTER CASALIGGI: Joseph
Cassaliggi, firefighter third grade, Engine
7.
CHIEF CONGIUSTA: Who is assigned to
the New York City Fire Department. We're
conducting an interview at the quarters of
Engine 7 regarding the events of September
11th, 2001.
Q. Joe, if you would please state what
happened.
A. On the morning of September 11th we
were operating a box up on Church Street Near
Canal. There was an odor of gas in the area.
While we were out operating, we heard the first
plane coming in. I turned around and I watched
the plane crash into the north tower.[Another eyewitness for you batshit crazy no planes trolls DC]
I got back on the rig. We raced down there. We were actually one of the first
companies on the scene. We pulled up right in
front of One World Trade Center, right into the
cul-de-sac right in front of the canopy.
So we got off the rig. I noticed there
were several people sitting in the grass in front
of the building burned head to toe, gray, just
staring at us. The captain ordered us to grab
four rollups. We went into the building. We
went into the lobby.
The lobby actually looked like the
plane hit the lobby. From what I understand, I
was told afterwards, that a fireball shot down
the elevator shaft and blew out all the windows
in the lobby and blew out the elevator doors.
We searched for an elevator to see if
there was one operating. There was none. The
captain said we were going to walk up the stairs.
At that point my mask had started leaking air
from the high pressure coupling, and I had to go
out and change my cylinder.
I left my rollup and my standpipe kit
in the lobby. I went outside to the rig, changed
the cylinder. While I was changing the cylinder, I was keeping an eye because the chauffeur was
hooking up to the standpipe. I was keeping an
eye, making sure he didn't get hit with anything.
It was at that time when I saw the
second plane hit the building. I called a
mayday. I told them the second plane hit the
south tower of the building. I wasn't sure which
floors it was, but I knew it hit the upper floors
of the south tower.
Debris was falling, body parts were
falling. We ducked for cover inside Engine 7,
but the rig was getting bombarded with debris
from the building, debris from the plane. We saw
bodies crash landing right next to the rig. So
we couldn't stay there.
We abandoned Engine 7, and we headed
north. We couldn't make it back into the
building at that point. We headed north. We got
up to Vesey Street. We stayed on Vesey for a
little while. Another firefighter had come over
asking us if we had a radio. So the Engine 7
chauffeur gave him his radio, and I was control
so I had mine.
I radioed the Engine 7 captain, did he want me to stay with the chauffeur or did he want
me to meet him in the building, because the
Engine 7 chauffeur didn't have a radio. His
response came in broken up. I thought he said
give him my radio and meet him on the 15th floor.
I found out later he said don't give him the
radio and meet him on the 15th floor.
So I gave the chauffeur my radio, and I
went into the building. I saw Chief Pfeifer. I
told him, "I don't have a radio. I'm going up to
meet Engine 7 on the 15th floor." He told me I
wasn't going up if I didn't have a radio and I
didn't have a partner.
I stayed in the lobby. I didn't know
at that point if he was getting me a partner or
if he was getting -- I thought I was going to
stay there, I wasn't going up. I didn't know
what I was doing at that point.
So I stayed around, waiting to be told
what to do. I was in the lobby for about 40
minutes. Finally I took Chief Pfeifer aside
again and I said, "Chief, if you're not going to
send me up, I'm going to go out by the rig and
I'm going to help the chauffeur." He told me a good idea, go out and stay with the chauffeur.
I stood by the blown out windows. I
was looking for clearance, trying to get
somebody's attention to tell me that I wasn't
going to get hit with something as I was running
out. I couldn't get anybody's attention in the
street.
I saw another body crash down through
the canopy. At that I just said screw this and I
just ran. I ran to the street, just hoping I
wasn't getting hit.
I met up with the Engine 7 chauffeur.
We stayed together at least for a few minutes
more. They were trying to clear the area. So we
were getting pushed back up to Vesey. I think we
got as far as almost Barclay.
As I was leaving the building, I heard
them at the command post talking about moving the
command post to the other side of West Street. I
suggested to the chauffeur we make our way back
to the command post, let somebody know who we are
and where we are and that we're okay.
So we started making our way back.
When we were about -- we were on the opposite side of West Street now on the west side, making
our way down. As we were standing underneath the
foot bridge that connects Three World Financial
Center to the World Trade Center. We were
standing under there, and we watched --
throughout the whole time being outside, we must
have watched 50, 60 people jump.
I was watching one guy hang onto the
outside of the building, the outside of the north
tower while I was standing under the bridge.
Then there were police officers talking about a
third plane coming into the area.
Then a few minutes passed. I was
standing under the bridge. We had heard a loud
rumble, and people just started running in our
direction from the Trade Center toward us. I
never even looked up. We just turned around and
started running. It was me, the chauffeur, and
there were two plain clothes cops running next to
us.
We just started running for the
Financial Center. I saw a Fire Department
lieutenant in the Financial Center. He was
holding the door open for us. He yelled to us to get down, we weren't going to make. I guess I
don't know what I was running from.
We grabbed the two cops, threw them on
the ground behind one of the support columns for
the pedestrian bridge and just dove on top of
them. We got hit with the debris from the
building. It felt like I got hit by a car. It
knocked the wind out of me.
Gasping for air, I got a mouth full of
dirt. I spit that out. I gasped again and got
another mouthful of dirt. My mask was on. I had
it turned on. My face piece was swinging behind
me. It was an effort to reach back to grab my
face piece. I held it up to my face and purged
it.
After that I got a little bit of air
from that. I couldn't even give any of it to the
chauffeur or to the two cops. I just kind of
held it in front of my face.
Everything just got deadly silent. I
opened my eyes, I couldn't see a thing. I leaned
up. I kind of sat up, so I knew I wasn't pinned
under anything. I didn't know what happened. I
thought a plane hit the Financial Center and part of the building came down. I really didn't know
what happened at this point.
I sat up, and I thought to myself,
okay, I'm not pinned. We're just underneath
something and they have to find us. I made sure
the other three guys that were with me were okay.
The officer that had seen us duck yelled to us,
"Is everybody okay?" We yelled back, "Yeah. How
do we get out of here?" He came in and got us,
took us out through the back of the Financial
Center.
At that point somebody handed me a
bottle of water, gave me some oxygen. My chest
was killing me. I was having difficulty
breathing. I found an ambulance, got into an
ambulance. They were going to take me to the
hospital.
We tried radioing Engine 7. We
couldn't get them on the radio. We weren't
getting any transmissions on the radio at that
point. We couldn't hear anything. So we didn't
know what happened. We tried raising Engine 7.
Nothing.
I got into an ambulance. I told the chauffeur I was going the hospital. I suggested
he come with me, but he stayed. We got separated
at that point. I was in the ambulance. We got a
few blocks, and the ambulance got stuck in
gridlock. We sat there for a few minutes.
Finally the driver of the ambulance
turned around in this little window and just
yelled to the back and told everybody to get out
and start running. I popped open the back door
of the ambulance, and there was a crowd of people
running in the direction the ambulance was
facing.
I jumped out, and I just ran with the
pack. I didn't know where I was running. We
ended up by the water a block north of Chambers,
at Stuyvesant High School and the elementary
school there. I ended up by the water. Then
everything calmed down again.
I figured, okay, let me figure out
where I am. Now I have no radio. I have to
figure out where I am, where I've got to be, just
get my bearings. So I looked up, because when
you're in downtown Manhattan and need to get your
bearings you look for the Trade Center.
I looked up and I'm looking around and
saying where am I, but I can't even see the
towers. I didn't know what happened at this
point. A person was walking past me talking to
somebody else. I just overheard him say, "I
can't believe they fell."
As he was saying that, I'm looking at
the spot where the towers should have been, and I
realized I saw the outlines of the other
buildings. That's when I realized and I thought
everybody in my company was dead. I'm the only
one. I don't know where the chauffeur is, but
we're the only ones that made it.
I wandered around West Street for a
while trying to find a radio. I was jumping in
rigs and trying to find a fireman, and I couldn't
find anybody. Finally I found a fireman from I
think it was Engine 5. He said he thought he had
a heart attack and had just came out. He was
sitting on the curb. He didn't have a radio
either. I figured the two of us will stay
together, and we'll find an ambulance, we'll get
to the hospital.
I must have passed 50 people and said, "Will you let somebody downtown know" -- I gave
them my name and my company and said, "Let
somebody downtown know where I am and that I'm
okay and that I was taken to the hospital." I
got into an ambulance and ended up at Cabrini
Medical Center. I stayed there for about six
hours, maybe a little less than six hours.
I got back to the firehouse. A police
sergeant offered to give me a ride back down to
the firehouse after I was released from Cabrini.
I got back to the firehouse about 3:00 in the
afternoon. They told me that they were looking
for me and the chauffeur, that we were the only
two from the company not accounted for.
Q. All the other guys got out?
A. Yeah, everybody from our company -- I
don't know how. That's when I heard that Engine
7 got up to the 30th, 35th floor, somewhere in
there, and they had gotten out just before the
building came down, before the north tower came
down.
Basically --
Q. That's it?
A. Basically that's it. That's what I remember.
Q. Anything you want to add?
A. Just that I've had a cough since then.
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