File No. 9110011
WORLD TRADE CENTER
TASK FORCE INTERVIEW
CHIEF SALVATORE CASSANO
Interview Date: October 4, 2001
Transcribed by Elisabeth F. Nason
MR. TAMBASCO: This is the interview of - I'm
here with Salvatore Cassano. We are in his office
on the 7th floor at 9 Metrotech. My name is Mike
Tambasco. I'm the investigator assigned to the
World Trade Center Task Force. Present in the
room with me is Assistant Commissioner James
Drury, Fire Marshal Michael Starace, Peter
Campbell, Fire Marshal.
Chief, if you would - we are going to be
starting this interview at 1350 hours. Just take
your time.
Q. I'm going to ask you some questions, Chief.
Could you start from when you initially heard about a
plane crash on September 11, 2001?
A. Okay, fine. We were in the command center.
I was in the command center at the time the first plane
hit. We were sitting around the table and at the table
was Chief of the Department Pete Ganci, Citywide Tour
Commander Donald Burns, Citywide Tour Commander Jerry
Barbara and Citywide Tour Commander Joe Callan. There
may have been some other people there. I don't
remember, but I know at least we were there.
Q. Where was this command center, Chief?
A. The command center was in the back. It was the citywide tour command center. It's right behind
the fire operations center. There is a room back there
where we have our offices.
Q. On the 7th floor?
A. Right, on the 7th floor. We were just
talking about the day's events, the previous day's
events, when on the Department radio, there was a
message blurted out that - something to the effect that
the outside of the World Trade Center was on fire. So
that sort of perked up our ears, and not knowing what
was going on, everybody naturally did what they do.
They got up and started to move out, and I stayed there
a little longer just to see what the transmission was,
and I remember hearing something about a plane hitting
the World Trade Center, so now I really got my gear and
my motor in gear.
I came out of the office, came down to look
for Chief Ganci. Pete was already on the road. I
looked out the window and in the office with me was
Mike Canty, Battalion Chief. We looked out the window
and we saw that the plane had hit the tower. We
actually saw a lot of smoke coming from the World Trade
Center. I said wow. With that I turned around and I
left. I went down to my car. My aide was actually driving Donald Burns the day before. So he had to stay
with Donald Burns and had driven Donald Burns, so I
drove myself.
I got in my car, drove out of the building
and was naturally listening to the reports and all the
reports we heard, you know, including a transmittal of
a fifth alarm. I came out and over the Brooklyn
Bridge. All I could see - being that I was driving, I
really couldn't get a good look, but I did see a heavy
column of smoke in the sky. I drove over the Brooklyn
Bridge.
I went down and actually had 2 EMTs in my
car. One was a black man. I don't know who the other
fellow was. They asked me for a ride over to the Trade
Center. I took Brad with me and Brad could tell you
who the other fellow was, because I don't remember.
And they were in the back seat. That's what I was
doing. And we drove down, we came actually onto West
Broadway. I parked right by - I was trying to park by
7 World Trade Center, so I ended up on West Broadway
and Vesey, right on the corner, right adjacent to the
Federal Office Building.
Then as we were getting out of the car, the
second plane hit the south tower, just as we were stepping out of the car. We had some debris come
flying down on us. Brad and the other fellow took
off. I ran into a garage, waited till everything
cleared up and then when it calmed down, I got back
into my car and we went --
Q. You were going to go pick up your car?
A. We went down. I got back in the car after
the smoke and all had cleared from the second hit and I
ended up going down, possibly Murray Street to West
Street. I parked my car on West Street, probably
somewhere near Barclay, probably a little further north
of that. I got my bunker gear out of the car. I
suited up and I looked up and I could see the heavy
smoke condition.
I started to walk down West Street and I got
in front of tower two and saw where the command post
was set up. It was set up on West Street. I looked up
and I knew this was not the right place for the command
post, so I told the field communications unit, I said
this is too close to the building. We have to move
this out of here and get it back.
So they took the command post and moved it
further across the street, further west. I'm not
exactly sure where the garage is, but it's probably in front of the Millennium. Not the Millennium. Sorry.
It's probably in front of the Two World Financial
Center and Winter Garden. There is a garage down there
where we set up. You will know, if you have been down
there. You will see it. It was there.
So what we did was we set up the command post
there across the street, further away from the
building. At the command post we had Chief of
Department Ganci, myself, field communications and
numerous companies. I don't remember. I remember
seeing the 101 truck, 202 engine, I think it was 105;
companies like that.
Then Chief Galvin reported into that command
post, and he had been given an assignment to go to work
with either Chief Burns in the south tower or go to the
Millennium. Again, I'm not exactly sure what the
instructions were that he was given by Chief of
Department Ganci and before Tom went to the command
post, he was getting all the channels right. He said
one was going to be the tactical and either 5 was going
to be the command in the south tower or 6 was going to
be the command for the north tower and he was trying to
get everything down pat before he left. With that he
took off and he went on his way.
After looking over the command board and
helping communications with the command board, talking
to Chief Ganci, he asked me to go in there and
rendezvous with Chief Galvin to see what was going on.
So from the command post I walked across the street. I
went into the Millennium, into the lobby, where I saw
Chief Galvin, who was kind of overwhelmed. He was the
only one there. His aide had gone someplace and he was
very busy.
But inside the lobby of the Millennium it was
very quiet. Very few civilians. In fact, I didn't see
a civilian. All I saw were building employees. They
were very calm. So I went into the lobby of the
hotel. We saw 13 truck with Captain Walter Hynes, who
I knew, and Captain Dave Wooley, who is usually with
engine 54. I saw 11 truck in the lobby. Actually they
were up on the mezzanine.
- Paul John Gill, 34
- Jose Guadalupe, 37
- Leonard Ragaglia, 36
- Christopher Santora, 23
I saw 23 engine and I assigned 23 engine to
be the command post company for the Millennium to help
out Chief Galvin. We were getting overwhelmed with
phone numbers and elevators and all that and keeping a
record of the companies. So I gave 23 engine that
assignment. Stay in the lobby and be the command post
company for Chief Galvin. You are his aide.
- Robert McPadden, 30
- James Nicholas Pappageorge, 29
- Hector Luis Tirado, Jr., 30
- Mark P. Whitford, 31
After conversing with Chief Galvin for a
while, taking his numbers on the desk, security desk,
so we could converse with them if we needed to get in
touch with them, I took the phone number. I took the
companies that were in the lobby and went towards the
restaurant. There is a restaurant, Tall Ships, in that
building. Went in there, went to the bathroom. Came
out. There were some people in the restaurant. They
looked kind of confused. I told them stay here, it's
safe right now. There's people jumping and stuff like
that. I was afraid of them walking across the street
and getting hurt by falling debris.
I left the lobby. I left the restaurant by
way of Liberty. I came out that exit, started to walk
up Liberty to West, where I met Commissioner Feehan and
Commissioner Tierney. I talked to them. I actually
showed them where the command post was. I told them to
walk away from the building because there were jumpers
and get close to a fence. There was like a chain link
fence across the street. We walked along the chain
link fence and walked close to the building. When we
got to the building, I brought them to the command
post.
William M. Feehan 72
We stayed at the command post for a while, helping out Chief Ganci, and then the south tower
collapsed. When the south tower collapsed, what we did
was we either ran, got blown or fell down that garage,
into that garage. That's where we all went. And after
the dust and smoke cleared, someone showed us an exit.
I went up an exit stairway and came out the lobby of
the building. Some people, I guess, just stayed there
until it really cleared and came up out of the garage,
the ramp itself.
So they had told us there was an exit out the
rear of that building to - actually further towards the
water. So we started telling people to go back into
that building, go out the rear exit and go towards the
water. Chief Ganci told me to set up a command post
further north towards Chambers Street. And that's what
I started to do. I started to walk north to try to get
people to set up a command post further north and I
believe that's when Pete and I got separated. Pete
started to go further south.
At the corner of West and Vesey, I met Chief
Turi. He had a bull horn. He had full bunker gear on
and he wanted people to get further north. I told him
I was setting up a command post on Chambers and let's
move north, get out of here.
Then I met Chief Pete Hayden and Chief Joe
Pfeifer. Deputy Hayden, DC Pfeifer. They were in the
lobby of the north tower. And they got from - when the
south tower collapsed, the lobby got pretty crappy.
They came out of there and they were all full of dust
and all that and I saw Pete Hayden and I looked at Pete
and said where were you? He said I was in the lobby of
two and he said Father Judge is dead. I had just been
with Father Judge. I had seen Father Judge on Church -
sorry - West Street. I realized - I said Pete we have
people up there, the building is loaded with our guys.
We got to get them out of there.
Mychal Judge, 68
I tried to call Chief Ganci on the handy
talky. I was calling car 3. For some reason we
couldn't touch base. So I told Pete Hayden and Joe
Pfeifer, we got to move the command post further north,
start moving north. Get them out of here. I'm going
to go look for Pete and tell him what we got. They
started to move, I turned around and started walking
down West Street to find Chief Ganci.
Q. Going south?
A. I was going south. I was trying to find him,
to let him know we still got a lot of people in the
north building. We got to get them out of there and that's when tower one came down, so I was on West
Street. I looked up. There was a jet plane. It
sounded - I mean it sounded like another plane coming
over and I said holy god, I hope it's one of ours. I
looked up. It wasn't ours. There was a building
coming down.
I turned around and started running north on
West and I looked up. I knew I wasn't going to make it
any further. There was a rig on the corner of West and
Vesey. I dove under the rig and waited out there. I
got hit in the back with some concrete or something
like that. As soon as everything cleared up - I don't
know where it came from, but coming down - I met Pete
Hayden again after that. He had gone up Rector. I met
him. He gave me a hug and said are you all right? I'm
fine, I thought, I was all right. I couldn't walk. I
had gotten hit in the back.
A couple of EMTs with their stretcher put me
on it and wheeled me up into a building. I guess there
was a triage center there in the building on - right by
the water. From there they took me to St. Vincent's
Hospital. I got out of there about 3. I came back
here and I started working here. That's pretty much
what happened.
Q. Let me start with a couple of questions,
Chief. Going back to the command center on West
Street, you said when the south tower came down, you
ran down the driveway?
A. Uh-huh.
Q. Did you see Chief Ganci at that point --
A. I saw him afterwards. We all took off, but I
met him back on the apron afterwards. That's when he
told me, he said, we got to get people up north. We
are going to set up another command post. Send
everybody up north. That's when I talked to Pete and
that's what I was in the process of doing. Pete turned
around and went south. I think he heard that we had
people trapped and that's when he went south. I did
see him after the first collapse. We were talking. He
had given me instructions, and I was trying to carry
them out.
Q. What about Commissioner Feehan, did you see
him running to the collapse?
A. I can't recollect, but I believe I saw him
afterwards. I believe I saw him afterwards with Pete.
I believe everybody that was on that apron made it into
the garage, because when we came back out we looked
around. There was rubble, but nothing where we couldn't see somebody if they were trapped under there.
Q. Now you said when you came around and you saw
Chief Turi with a bull horn, you started heading south
again, because you wanted to talk to Chief Ganci about
possibly -- our guys in the north tower.
A. North tower, yes.
Q. How far down did you get in relation to where
the command post on West Street was when the north
tower started coming down?
A. I really don't know. I thought I got -- I
didn't get down too far, but I think I got down further
than I thought I did because I -- people that were on
the corner that were with me made it all the way around
on Vesey. I couldn't. I made it just to the corner of
West and Vesey. So I don't really know. I got down a
little further than I thought.
Q. Okay. Then you said they had the command
center outside the north tower early on and then you
said it's too close, we got to move it?
A. Right.
Q. Where had it been in relation to the north
tower when you decided it had to be moved?
A. It was right in the middle of West Street.
They might have had it on the island. On West Street there is an island. They might have had it right on
the island. Much too close. We moved it across the
street and right against the building in that driveway,
yes.
Q. You say you parked your car originally at
West Broadway and Vesey?
A. Right by 7 World Trade Center.
Q. Is there any particular reason you moved it
again after that?
A. No, I wanted to get closer -- I knew that
that was too far away. So I wanted to get closer to
where I thought the command post would be or get into
the north tower and I didn't want to walk all the way
around to there, so I drove my car, parked it on West
Street with the intention of not being caught in all
the other stuff that was there, get it out of the way.
Q. Other than the ladder companies or engine
companies you already delineated inside of the
Millennium Hotel, other than the workers, how many
civilians did you see in that restaurant?
A. I would say probably six or seven civilians
in the restaurant.
Q. On Vesey Street when you first arrived there,
what was the scene like? That was where the first plane that hit. Was there any debris on that street?
A. No, there was no debris on that street at all
from the first plane. I drove right up there and then
like I said, I had just opened my door and the second
-- I thought it was the secondary explosion. I didn't
know it was another plane in the south tower, because
when I heard it, I looked up and I saw debris. It had
to be debris flying over from the south tower. Not
much, but there was enough coming down in the street
where I took off and I ducked into a garage until it
cleared up.
After the secondary explosion in the north
tower, I didn't know what the hell - I didn't know it
was another plane that had hit until I got around to
the command post.
Q. Do you know now that rig you dived under?
A. Yes, I believe it was Rescue's collapse rig.
I remember seeing rescue - they told me -- on that
corner, it was Rescue's collapse rig.
Q. It withstood the blast?
A. Yes, thank god.
Q. Was it the high rise unit?
A. No, not the high rise unit. I think they
told me the windows were blown out or something like that, but nothing heavy fell on me.
Q. What time do you think it was that you
actually left this building that day, that morning?
A. Probably 5 to 9. I ran right out. I was a
little behind everybody else.
Q. And the last time you saw Chief Burns was?
- Chief Donald J. Burns‚ 61
A. Last time I saw Chief Burns was at the
command center and when he left the command center, I
never saw him at the scene.
Q. Did you hear him on the radio at all?
A. No, in fact I was asking where they were
working, because they told me that Chief Barbara had
set up outside and I couldn't find him. I was looking
for him too. I couldn't find him. That's where I met
Commissioner Feehan and Commissioner Tierney and they
asked me where was the command post. I said probably
you just got to walk around the outside and get out of
the way of anything that's coming out of the building.
Q. Did you ever hear later on that the initial
command post was inside one of the towers?
A. No. I knew that there had to be a lobby
command post, but we set up outside with Chief Ganci.
He was the incident commander at that time and I knew
exactly where he was going to stage, so that's where I staged.
Q. When you left the restaurant in the
Millennium, did you see Chief Galvin still inside the
lobby there?
A. Yes.
Q. What block did you come down when you met
Commissioner Feehan and Commissioner Tierney?
A. I came out on Liberty and I met them right
there, in fact, where the south walkway still is. I
met them right around there, in that vicinity, and they
wanted to know where, so I walked them that way across
and came down on West Street.
Q. On what street, West and Liberty?
A. Yes, yes.
Q. You actually walked north with them to bring
them up to the command post?
A. Absolutely right.
Q. West across and then up?
A. I don't know where. I think Lynn went into
the lobby somewhere. I don't know. I don't know. I
think they told me she was in the lobby and then Bill
went to the lobby too. I stayed at the command board
with Pete Ganci. I stayed there.
Q. You mentioned jumpers before. Did you see them?
A. Yes.
Q. Both towers?
A. I didn't see jumpers from the south tower. I
saw jumpers from the north tower and it sounded like
concrete falling, hitting the pavement. That's what I
was concerned with, those people in the restaurant, to
get them out and getting hit with either the jumpers or
something falling, windows. I was worried about
glass.
Q. You mentioned Father Judge. Where did you
last see him?
A. I saw Father Judge as I was walking to the
Millennium. He was on West Street. And I saw him come
out and I walked up to him, gave him a smile. I told
him Father Judge, we are going to need a lot of help
here. You better get some more chaplains. He smiled
and said something. I forget what he said. I don't
remember what he said. That was the last time I saw
him.
Q. Anything else?
A. No.
ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: Chief, thank
you very much. Mike, you can conclude it.
MR. TAMBASCO: The interview is now concluded
at 1410 hours. Thank you, Chief.
File No. 9110366
WORLD TRADE CENTER
TASK FORCE INTERVIEW
FIREFIGHTER JOHN CERIELLO
Interview Date: December 17, 2001
Transcribed by Laurie A. Collins
CHIEF KEMLY: Today is December 17th,
2001. The time is 1540 hours. This is
Battalion Chief Ronald Kemly of the Fire
Department of the City of New York. I'm
conducting an interview with John Ceriello
of Squad 18 of the Fire Department of the
City of New York. The interview is taking
place in the quarters of Ladder 20 regarding
the events of September 11th, 2001.
Q. John, could you please tell me what
happened to you on September 11th.
A. I first saw on TV, I believe CNN, that
the north tower was on fire. I was not aware of
a plane hitting it at that point. Just looking
like a high-rise fire, I decided that even though
I was off duty that it would be a good idea for
me to at least go into the firehouse and see if
there was going to be any need of my assistance
there.
So thinking that it was just prior to
9:00 there would be a ton of traffic, I jumped on
my bicycle. I live in Carroll Gardens. I rode
over the Brooklyn Bridge. When I was roughly in
the middle of the span, there was a massive explosion on the south tower.
Again I didn't see a plane or anything,
so I didn't know it was a plane that hit the
tower. I think in my mind I just thought there
was a massive explosion on one of the upper
floors and now you had a real bad fire.
Obviously I figured I would be needed.
So I continued to Lafayette Street
where Ladder 20 and Squad 18 are housed right now
while our building is under construction. When I
arrived, at the apparatus door was Howie Scott,
another fireman from Squad 18, who was waiting
for me. There were two fire marshals. I do not
remember their names. They had a car fired up
and waiting to take us down there.
So I quickly grabbed my gear. I
remember grabbing a bottle of water, jumped in
the back of their car and off we went. I believe
we shot down to Canal, over to West Street, and
down West Street.
En route you obviously could hear and I
was informed that a small plane had hit the north
tower and that a second plane had hit the south
tower. At that point I think, knowing that it was a clear blue sky, we knew something was up.
I can't say that I thought it was terrorists
right off the bat, but you knew something was
going on that shouldn't be going on.
I didn't have my bunker gear on at that
point, I remember, because I was just thinking of
a high-rise fire, we're going to climb a lot of
stairs, keep cool and try to save your energy in
a sense.
So we quickly went down West Street and
asked where the command post was. The command
post was set up in the parking entrance to the
American Express building across the street from
the north tower, just south of the north walkway.
As we approached the command post, I
noticed Chief Ray Downey at the command post.
Being the SOC chief, I then asked him, "Chief,
what do you want to do?" He told me and Howie to
hook up with the next SOC units that came in and
go to work.
So we donned all our equipment, and
within seconds I believe 288 with Lieutenant
Kerwin and Rescue 4 with Lieutenant Dowdell
arrived at that command post.
- Capt. Brian Hickey, 47
- Lt. Kevin Dowdell, 46
- Terrence Patrick Farrell, 45
- William J. Mahoney, 37
- Peter Allen Nelson, 42
- Durrell V. Pearsall, 34
We then all proceeded to go into the
lobby of the American Express building, again
right across the street from the north tower and
just adjacent to the command post, and just did a
little staging area.
The reason I believe we went into the
lobby is there was debris falling around
everywhere and swirling. I think just as a
second form of protection if -- I guess the
possibility of maybe a third plane or something
coming in, the officer thought that was a good
idea.
So we went into that lobby, and
everybody was calm and cool. A couple guys I
remember went to the bathroom and got some water.
We just discussed the fact that we were going to
go in through the south tower, try to go to the
upper floors and help extinguish the fire or
evacuate the people.
At that point Lieutenant Kerwin wrote
my name on his BF4 as well as Howie Scott's name.
I informed him that we did not have masks, and he
asked me to get masks and come back to the lobby.
If they were not in the lobby of the American Express building, then they would be in the lobby
of the south tower to meet us there. 10-4.
Howie and I left the American Express
building and then proceeded to check rigs that
were all in front of the north tower on West
Street, moving north until we got to Vesey and
West.
We found Hazmat 1 there, and Tony -- I
cannot pronounce -- it starts with a C. I think
it's Castagna or something to that effect. He
was a member of Hazmat 1. He was there. I asked
him if they had masks. He said yes.
- Lt. John A. Crisci, 48
- Dennis M. Carey, 51
- Martin N. DeMeo, 47
- Thomas Gardner, 39
- Jonathan R. Hohmann, 48
- Dennis Scauso, 46
- Kevin Joseph Smith, 47
At that point we donned half our
cylinders. It was myself, Howie Scott, a
firefighter from Ladder 8 and then a proby who
originally was in 35 Truck who now I think is in
hazmat, Phil Latimer. We donned half our
cylinders.
At that point Tony from Hazmat 1
mentioned that he has our bottles and asked if we
would like to switch over to our bottles, which
we thought would be a good idea. So we took a
minute and a half to two minutes to switch our
cylinders.
We got all that, grabbed some tools and
headed up West Street in the northbound lanes of
West Street. We walked underneath the north
walkway. When we got about 50 feet past that,
Howie Scott looked up and said, "Oh, shit." I
then looked up and saw the whole top of the
building beginning to come down.
Then at that point we all ran north. I
got underneath the north walkway, got behind a
blue van, and everything went to hell, went to
darkness.
Howie -- I didn't know where he was. I
tried to locate him quickly and could not find
him. Then I donned my face piece, because you
couldn't breathe. I began to walk north and fell
over something. I don't know what it was. I
began to crawl, and what ended up happening was I
crawled in a circle back towards the south tower,
thinking I was heading north.
When the dust settled, I saw Ray Downey
standing on West Street. I believe at that point
we were in between the north and the south tower.
The south tower was down. You really couldn't
tell it was completely down, but you could tell most of it wasn't there. I again approached him
and asked him what he wanted to do. He said at
this point you've got to do what you can do. He
was trying to get the command post to move north.
Chief Feehan was with him and Chief
Ganci. Chief Ganci -- actually Chief Feehan
asked me to go with I believe it was Chief
Fuentes, Al Fuentes. Is he is captain or a
chief? I'm not sure.
Q. I think he's a chief.
A. Anyway, he asked us to do a primary
search of the parking garage because everyone at
the command post dove into the parking garage
when the south tower came down.
So we went in there. We did a quick
primary. We went in through the building. You
couldn't get down there through where the
driveways were; you had to go in through the
building. We got down there, did a quick
primary, we came back out onto West Street.
At that point Chief Ganci told us that
we have a mayday of a fireman down at Liberty and
West. Then Chief Feehan told me to take that
proby, Phil Latimer, who I was with earlier but I had gotten separated from and was with again. He
said to do that assignment.
At that point we took off climbing over
debris and whatnot on West Street. We passed a
black woman with a broken leg with a firefighter
on the sidewalk. We told them to stay put, that
someone would come get them. We proceeded to
Liberty and West, trying to ascertain from some
of the firemen that were there if they had seen
anybody or heard anyone. They said no.
We started up onto the pile when we
just heard a horrific rumbling coming, and we
knew the north tower was coming down. I then
proceeded to run under the south walkway and dove
into an ambulance. Again the same thing
happened. Everything went to nighttime. The
dust cleared. I donned my face piece, climbed
out and headed to the water.
So basically that's who and what I
remember. Some of the members that I saw from
288 and Rescue 4 were Joey Hunter, Ronnie Gies,
Bronco Pearsall and John Ielpi. We all just
briefly talked.
When we were in the American Express building, we did see some people jumping and
whatnot. We knew we had a bad scene on our
hands.
For the most part that's who I remember
seeing, in that particular order. After that,
the rest of the day was spent in lousy attempts
at trying to locate victims. That's basically
all I can really say. It was just a lot of mass
confusion. We just tried to do the best we
could.
I basically operated on West and
Liberty until about 1:00 in the morning. I never
really went much up Liberty, and I never really
went much north on West Street. I stayed in that
quadrant right by what was the Marriott Hotel,
making entrances and then running out because the
buildings were collapsing and going back in, all
that stuff.
That's basically the members I saw
prior to the buildings coming down.
Q. Okay. First if that's all you have, I
have a couple quick questions.
When you first reported in to the
command post, you saw Chief Downey. Was anybody else there, companies?
A. Yes. There were a lot of firemen
staged, standing there. I cannot say that I
actually recognized anyone.
Q. So you wouldn't know if Chief Downey or
whoever was there was sending them any particular
places?
A. No, no. I never even looked at our
coffee table and clipboard at the command post.
Q. When you saw the apparatus, any
apparatus numbers you can remember and where they
were parked?
A. Yeah, I remember Rescue 1, obviously,
right under the north walkway, the high-rise unit
3 from Engine 3, the high-rise unit. I remember
rifling through that truck looking for tools and
cylinders; a number of different engine
companies, thinking the chauffeur's mask would be
available.
- Capt. Terence S. Hatton, 41
- Lt. Dennis Mojica, 50
- Joseph Angelini, Sr., 63
- Gary Geidel, 44
- William Henry, 49
- Kenneth Joseph Marino, 40
- Michael Montesi, 39
- Gerard Terence Nevins, 46
- Patrick J. O'Keefe, 44
- Brian Edward Sweeney, 29
- David M. Weiss, 41
But I cannot say exactly which engine
companies. I believe Ladder 3 was right there.
I think 18 was right there. Ladder 18 was right
there. That's about it. I know the information
on the buildings said West Street, so I think a lot of units came down that way.
Q. When you say 288 and Rescue 4, they
were basically at the staging area that you saw
them? They weren't on any particular assignment
in the building?
A. No, when I asked Chief Downey what to
do, he said hook up with the next SOC units.
Within a short period of time, 30 seconds, maybe
to a minute, they walked up across West Street.
I did forget one thing. So they walked across
West Street. Then we all, as a group, went into
that American Express building to stage.
What I do remember and I forgot to tell
you is as we were checking the high-rise unit
from Engine 3, I remember every maybe 30 seconds
I would turn around and look towards the American
Express building, trying to see if Rescue 4 and
288 were leaving that building.
At some time as I was making my way
north on West Street, I did see them leave that
lobby and do a single file and heading straight
towards I would say it was the Marriott Hotel,
heading towards the south tower.
Where they entered the building to get into the lobby, say, that I can't answer. I didn't see at that point where they went in. But I do remember them walking in a single file across West Street on a diagonal, heading right
towards the south tower.
Q. And that's who you were supposed to
hook up with?
A. Yes.
Q. They were probably going to tower two?
A. Yes, I would say definitely. They're
finding those guys there now. Absolutely.
Q. That's good. If you don't have
anything else, that concludes the interview.
A. I don't think so. Any information that
I can think of now, that's it.
Q. Okay. Thanks for your time.
A. Thanks, Chief
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CHIEF CONGIUSTA: Today's date is January 18, 2002. The time is 1345 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 CHELSEN: Roy Chelsen.
CHIEF CONGIUSTA: Roy is firefighter first grade in Engine 28 of the New York City Fire Department. We're at the quarters of Engine 28. This interview is regarding the events of September 11th, 2001.
Q. Roy, would you please tell your story in your own words about what happened that day from when you received the alarm.
A. We were actually sitting in the kitchen, the lieutenant and I, and we actually heard the first explosion. We both looked at each other, and we were like, "Oh, what was that?" It seemed like right after that the alarm came in and we were on our way downtown.
We took the FDR Drive down, and you could actually see the building pretty much the whole way down. The whole three-quarters of the way up was engulfed in fire. We went down underneath the Battery Tunnel. We came up. It was still like flags falling. It seemed like it was very quiet. I noticed that Bob, the chauffeur, was kind of swerving around. Later on I heard he was going around bodies.
He dropped us off underneath the second bridge.
Q. The north bridge?
A. The north bridge up by the north tower. He dropped us off there. We looked up to make sure nothing was coming down, and we proceeded in. I think the revolving doors were kind of busted up, so I think we went through a window.
We reported to the command desk, the command post there, and we immediately started going up. They just said, "28, start heading up."
Q. Do you know what stairway you went up?
A. We went up stairway B. I believe it was stairway B.
From there on we really didn't hear too much transmission going on that I can remember hearing. I had the nozzle position. I had no radio. But I don't remember the lieutenant telling me anything. Later on I heard that there were a lot of maydays and a lot of transmissions going on, but we didn't hear any of it.
One of the only transmissions I do remember hearing, because we were sitting on approximately the 20th floor, that there was another plane on its way. At that point we were still not sure that it was a plane that had hit the tower. There was some talk from the civilians coming down that a plane hit. The consensus was that it was a small plane; Never thinking it was a 737, whatever it was, 767, whatever it was.
We made our way up to 29 or 30. We were again resting again. All of a sudden just -- I don't know if the sequence is right, but everything went black, and all the power went out. There was just this rumbling. I felt like it went on forever.
I believe 4 Engine was with us, there was 28, and I believe 8 Truck was with us. We all just huddled into the staircase. We were holding on thinking -- I'm a big person. I'm thinking the floor's going to collapse or the ceiling's coming down, but I thought that was it.
When the rumbling finally stopped, all of a sudden we felt this gush of air coming from everywhere. Just from every direction there was like wind blowing. What I heard later on, that was just the concussion of the air coming back up from tower two.
From there I believe we heard -- there was a chief that came down with a bullhorn, telling everybody to get out. I think he was from the 11th Battalion. That's what I'm hearing.
Q. He came down the stairs?
A. I think he was up a couple floors ahead of us. I don't know if he was with us the whole time. I know we were paired up with 4 Engine. 5 Engine was with us, but I heard later on that somebody in their company had a heart attack or chest pains.
A. They took him down. So I don't know who was with us the whole time. But he did come down and tell us to evacuate. From there it was just asses and elbows. We all just started running. I didn't even have my mask on anymore. We just dropped everything. Actually between 20 and 30, 4 Engine and ourselves kind of joined together there. So we dropped everything and started running down on 30. We got down to 19 or 20, and I know there were some cops down there. We found some civilians down there.
Q. Port Authority cops?
A. Port Authority cops. I saw city cops. They had their masks on, but they had ESU uniforms on.
Q. Right.
A. They were all huddling about. Everybody was still coming down. We were kind of waiting, getting everybody together again. A friend of mine in 8 Truck told me, he said, "Look out the window. Tower two is gone." At that point nobody knew what was going on. At that point we were coming down stairway C, I think.
Q. You went across?
A. We went across, yeah.
Q. Was stairway B clogged?
A. Stairway C, I heard -- stairway B didn't go all the way up or -- for some reason from 20 over, we switched.
Q. Okay.
A. Then I heard coming down they said stairway C is pretty well wiped out down there, so it doesn't go down. I think that's what I heard, because from there on we went B. From 20 down to 1 we went on stairway B.
Q. Okay.
A. We kind of formed a line for the civilians, and we led them down the stairs because it was pitch-black and it started to get smoky. We led them down, 4 Engine, ourselves and I believe 8 Truck again.
Q. Did the cops come down with you?
A. I don't know. I don't know. At this point it was just like I want to get out. I heard that tower two is gone. I said, let's just get these people and let's get out of here. We all grouped together again, like I said, and we started going down. We got down to the lobby. The lobby is like gone. There were probably 20 or 30 guys down in the lobby mulling around.
Q. They weren't trying to get out?
A. They were just -- no, no. We went to where the command post was. We were standing there. Our officer was like, "Well, let's stay here." I kept saying, "Lou, I'm going to get out. I want to get out of this building." I said, "We can go out where we came in." There was a brick wall outside tower --
Q. The north tower.
A. The north tower. There was a brick wall. I said we can run along the wall and go underneath the bridge there and then shoot up West Street. He said, "Is everybody here?" I said, "Yeah, the company's all right here." With that we -- I think 18 Truck ran out with us, and we just hauled ass.
We got out and we got under the bridge. A couple bodies came down, flying down, just in front of our guys. We just got under the bridge and like, okay, it's safe, it's good. All of a sudden we heard this huge explosion, and that's when the tower started coming down. We all started running.
We lost everybody there again. I don't know what happened. I saw my cousin. We gave each other a big hug. That's when everything started hitting the fan again. I heard some guys dove behind cars. I just kept running up West Street.
As soon as that thing hit us, I think it knocked -- I'm not sure what knocked me over, but I ended up on the ground. Like Sal said, it was completely black. Now I can't breathe. You start running. I'm out of breath, and I didn't have my mask. It was on the 30th floor. I just started choking. I couldn't breathe because I'm sucking all that shit in. Somehow I happened to see a fireman walking to my right. He had a mask, and I grabbed it. He helped me with it until we walked out.
Then two guys from an ambulance grabbed me. They started giving me water. They had me hooked up to an IV. But then everybody started running again, something about a major gas leak.
Q. That's what I heard. A chief said they thought there was a major gas leak.
A. I said get this thing out of me. I'm running again. I can't sit here. So they took it out. I'm running with my hand on my arm, and I'm running north again. We finally met up with the rest of the crew on West Street. I've just got to say, on our way down we saw 9 Engine with that woman.
Q. Right.
A. We saw her.
Q. 6 Truck.
A. 6 Truck, I'm sorry. We saw 6 Truck. We also saw 18 Truck. I think they were on their way up to. We said to them, "They told everybody out of the building," and then they came with us.
Q. That's it?
A. Yeah.
Q. Wow, that's pretty good. Well, thank you, Roy.
CHIEF CONGIUSTA: The time is 1455, and that's the end of this interview.
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CHIEF BURNS: Today's date is December 10th, 2001. The time is 10:20 a.m. I am Battalion Chief Robert Burns, Safety Battalion, New York City Fire Department, conducting an interview with --
FIREFIGHTER CHESNEY: Firefighter First Grade William Chesney assigned to Engine Company 309.
CHIEF BURNS: This is in regards to the events of September 11th, 2001.
Q. Bill, if you would, just tell me in your own words what happened that day.
A. Okay. We were assigned to relocate Engine 309 to 33 Engine in Manhattan. That would be after the first tower had fallen. After coming over the Manhattan Bridge into Manhattan, we were notified by the dispatcher to I believe the Deutsche Bank, which had I believe been set afire or there was a collapse there. I'm not sure what the assignment was. I'm fuzzy on that.
We proceeded to the West Side Highway. We made it up to Liberty next to the second World Trade Center before it fell. We didn't exit the engine. It was still running at the time. We heard popping, people, crowd, screaming. The first tower had already fallen, so everything was very unclear due to visibility, bad visibility, because of smoke and ash.
We visually saw the beginning of the first tower crumble, so the engine turned off on Liberty and made its way over to Albany Street. The tower had fallen. Our engine company then exited the engine and proceeded over and attempted to help out in any way they could with civilians or Fire Department personnel who needed assistance. Then we had other companies join us that were scattered.
There was no water pressure downtown at the time. It took a while for water to get to the fires, Marine 2. We were down by Liberty close to the water by Gateway Plaza. We were assigned to put a fire out on the eighth or ninth floor of Gateway at the time. We went up there with hoses. We were drafting water from Marine 2 from a three and a half.
After that fire was out, we then proceeded to put out additional pockets of fire close to second World Trade. I believe it was adjacent to the Vista Hotel and three World Trade. For the rest of the day all we did was assist rescue operations, basically. That's basically the fundamentals of what happened.
Q. Did your unit get there prior to the second tower collapsing?
A. Yes, we did, yes.
Q. Where were you when the second tower collapsed?
A. I'm believing that we actually made it over towards the pedestrian bridge close to Liberty off the West Side Highway, because I believe the Deutsche Bank is adjacent to the second world tower or a block off. I'm not positive. That's where our assignment was.
Q. When you guys got there, did you see anyone or any companies that you can identify?
A. No. Due to the poor visibility, it was very tough to see in front of your face. With the smoke down there, the ash, it was very difficult to see anything. Basically I just saw through the fog on my end -- I'm not speaking for anybody else -- was first and last of the clouds there were people running here and there. There was no sense of direction. There was no way to know what anybody else was doing, so we just kept ourselves together and kept a level head and just tried to make the best of the situation, help out any way we could. That was it.
Q. Okay. Great.
CHIEF BURNS: That concludes the interview. It's 10:25 a.m.
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CHRISTINE BASTEDENBECK: Today’s date is October 10, 2001. The time is 1712
hours. My name is Christine Bastedenbeck, I work with the New York City Fire
Department. Today I’m conducting and interview with the following individual,
ANDRE CHERRINGTON: Paramedic Andre Cherrington, from battalion 31, unit 31 Victor, tour 2
Q: Okay, I’m just gonna ask you to tell me about the events of the morning of September 11th, 2001
A: Okay.
Q: In your words.
A: Alright, what happened was, I logged on. I started work at 8:30, and I was working with a gentleman who was doing overtime, so we were on our way to get some breakfast, and we looked to our left as we were pulling out of the garage, and we saw like a blast. But it didn’t seem like anything major. But then we saw the World Trade Center like, catch on fire. So I turned on 1010 W.I.N.S. to see if there was any news and they said that a plane hit. So we were thinking maybe a small plane ran out of gas and hit the building. So we were like okay, let’s call the dispatcher. The dispatcher had already started sending units. So we said well listen, 31 Victor, we are able to go. Can you send us? So they sent us over there. So we went on the Brooklyn Bridge, I was driving, we went on the Brooklyn bridge and I’m seeing people already coming across. So we got across over there, I’d say by city hall park and I saw a Lieutenant, Brynes from Battalion 57.
So we stopped by each patient and pulled out the triage tags. Everyone was basically a green tag, so we just kept triaging people en route to the World Trade Center. When we got there, we got there, I guess 9:00, 9:05, whatever, and I seen Phil Ashby there and he was doing triage from inside the building. We started triaging right away. I was taking care of a patient who was having a hard time breathing and my Partner was taking care of another patient. That patient jumped on, Metropolitan actually took that patient to the hospital. While Metropolitan took that person to the hospital, somebody came to my partner and said we have another person who’s burnt up in the building.
Q: At this point, had the second plane crashed into the second building?
A: In all honesty, everything happened so fast, and it was so hectic that I wasn’t really paying attention to it. It seemed like, you know, all the ashes were falling, it was just a big mess. Everybody was screaming, so I don’t really know. I just know what was going on as far as me and my partner were concerned. So, when we went to the second building, I think it was the second building, and we seen a guy burnt up, downstairs in the lobby. So we carried him, and we brought him on our stretcher, it was parked by the ambulance. We put him in the stretcher, while we’re taking care of him we’re seeing everybody running out of the second building and it was just like everybody running, everybody trying to just get outta there.
So it’s like, okay, fine, we’re taking care of this guy. We had to just cool down his wounds. He was burnt up, he had like 90% burns over his body. Like first, second degree burns. A couple third degree burns also. So we took care of him, got an IV in him, and were ready to transport him. The Lieutenant on the scene said don’t take him yet cause there’s more patients coming down. I waited for a few minutes, maybe five minutes. And it was like a cluster, so -- I just decided, you know, let me take this guy, cause he started having shortness of breath. I couldn’t call for anything to stabilize him, cause there was a mess there, you know, before I intubated him. So I said, let me take him to the hospital.
So as I was pulling off, I’d say about half a block away, we heard a big boom, and we seen a whole bunch of ashes, everything just started coming towards us. So I actually stopped the ambulance for thirty seconds and I looked. My partner was in the back he said stop the ambulance. So I stopped and I looked, and I seen all the debris coming. So I said close the bus. Cause at this point everyone started running towards the ambulance, I mean, you know, we had one critical patient there, so I said let me just get this guy to the hospital.
So he closed the ambulance. And as I’m driving, people are running and debris is coming down. Debris is coming down and hitting the bus. I’m just driving, driving, I drove up a one-way, I think it was Second Avenue. One of those major avenues. And I drove halfway up to Cornell, and then I got on the right way, and I drove the rest of the way up to Cornell. When we got to Cornell, I think I gave a notification, when I got to Cornell, they immediately took the patient in and they intubated the patient.
As I was leaving they said the second building fell. When the second building fell, I said well, we gotta get back there. So we went back there, where they told us to go to Battery Park triage. So we went to Battery Park. When we went there now, they said that there was a gas leak. So I had the ambulance parked, and I was actually on the other side of the street, they said that there’s a gas leak, get outta there. I didn’t have enough time to jump into the ambulance, so I just started going towards--with the crowd, running more or less until there was a bus that me and my partner jumped in and we went to Pier 94. When we got to Pier 94, it seemed like it was a false alarm.
Q: Do you know whos vehicle it was you jumped into?
A: My partner knew who it was, but I think they were from Manhattan. I’d never seen the guy before.
Q: Was it a Fire Department vehicle?
A: It was EMS, yeah, EMS vehicle.
Q: Who was your partner that day?
A: Suarez, he’s a new paramedic. And we jumped in that ambulance, and whoever the guy was drove all the way to Pier 94. All three of us were in the front. When we got there, we found out that it was more or less a false alarm, so I walked back towards my vehicle, but they wouldn’t let us over there. By the time I got over there the vehicle was already gone. So I said, oh well, you know. So I jumped in with 31 Young, who is Paramedic Smiley and Paramedic Rivera. And basically I stayed with them all day, and 5 what we did is we went back towards City Hall Park to see if anyone was needing triage, if anybody needed us.
But by then they already had a major triage center set up, so nobody needed us. We were trying to go where we were needed. Cause you know, we didn’t really have anybody really telling us what to do over the airway so, we finally wound up on the backside of BMCC where we set up a triage center, us and a couple BLS.
Finally some lieutenants came over and they said okay, you guys stay over here, just in case, cause one of the buildings was on fire. The last building to fall was on fire. He said it might drop. So we waited there to see if anything was going to happen. The only thing that happened was that the building dropped. We waited to see if anybody was hurt, but everybody seemed to be evacuated, everything was fine. So from there, we stayed there for a few hours. You know, just triaging, waiting.
And after that, it seemed like it was okay. So another lieutenant came there and said well, they might need some paramedics at Ground Zero. They were saying something about there were amputated patients there who, once they get them out of the rubble, they’re gonna need us to start lines, whatever and get them to the nearest hospital. So we went back to Ground Zero.
There we reported to another Lieutenant who I really, I really didn’t keep any names. But I know that it was really hectic over there. So we reported there, all four paramedics, and we were like, okay, we’re here and we’re ready to help if anybody needs any help from us. And we basically just stood there, and what we did there was, if anybody got cut…it was minor triage more or less. The seemed to have everything under control there. So basically, we just stayed there waiting, just on stand-by.
We pulled our ambulance into their little bay, into their bay, and we just waited there. But around 2:30, you know, I realized there’s nothing we can really do here. There’s nothing going on here, it was more like a BLS thing, you know, minor cuts, abrasions, whatever. By then, my partner already worked over 30 hours so he was really tired. So I talked to the lieutenant, I said, you know, we’re really not needed here. I’ve been here since 8:30 this morning, you know, can you release us? So basically…
Q: This is 2:30 in the morning?
A: 2:30 in the morning, yeah. So basically after that, we seen that there’s nothing that we could do, so he released us and we came back to Brooklyn. That was it. So you know, that day I thank my lucky stars. Cause you know, I think that if I would have actually waited around for more patients, I think instead of seeing the rubble coming towards me and I’m booking, I think the rubble would’ve actually hit the bus with the guy in there. I think it would have been a very bad situation.
So for some reason I said, you know, I’m not staying, I’m leaving. It was kind of like a free-for-all, because, you know, what happened was, when we got there, we thought everything was okay, everything is calm. Maybe the little plane hit and it’s causing all this. But I guess when the second plane hit, that’s when all hell broke loose.
And that’s when everybody realized, you know, nothing’s calm. Everything just went crazy after that. I mean, I did what I had to do, I took one patient, we took care of it and got him to the hospital. And you know, I did say, well I saved one person. I know I did save one person, and that’s all that matters. I was there for X Amount of hours and I did one good thing. And my partner too.
Q: Everything you did was good.
A: Well, yeah. I mean, you know, everything I did was good. But I feel good that I did get that guy to the hospital. As a matter of fact, I looked at the ACR and the guy lived not far from where I lived. So I think that two days later I went over to the address and I thought his wife was there, but it was his mother. And his mother happens to be a nurse at Methodist Hospital.
I approached her. Because I heard on the news that they said, well we don’t know what’s going on. A lot of family members, they don’t know what’s going on with the people in the building. So I said, let me go over there and let her know where her son is, where her husband is (I thought it was his wife.)
When I got there, it was the mother. I told her, this is where your son is, this is the condition that he was in. And she was very happy about it, you know she was real happy. And I felt good too, you know, I felt good. Everything worked out. He was pretty bad though, he was real bad. But you know, I never really contacted them again. Maybe one day when everything calms down, hopefully I’ll hear that he’s still alive and that he’s coming out of the hospital, you know?
But it was a situation, and at the time, you know, you’re not really thinking about it, you know you’re just like okay, let me just do what I have to do. And you know, I’m pretty much like, I was in the Army, so I pretty much know how to keep my cool. And the triage also helped a lot. Cause I think if I didn’t know that, I probably would have had everybody on my bus. Because everybody had the M.I. or seizures, but it was just, everyone was in shock. They couldn’t believe it, you know?
So it’s like, let me just triage this one, triage, this one, you have an M.I.? Have you had a history before? You take any medicine? No, okay, you get a green tag. And that’s all it was. But as we started getting more towards it, it started getting more serious. Then when we got that guy, that guy saved my life too. That’s the main thing I tell everybody. I might have saved his life, but he definitely saved me and my partners’ life. That’s what me and my partner say. It was just a blessing, you know? You know, that’s it. That’s all I got to say. Yeah, that’s it.
Q: This concludes my interview with Paramedic Andre Cherrington. The time now is 1725 hours.
https://static01.nyt.com/packages/pdf/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110036.PDF
File No. 9110475
WORLD TRADE CENTER
TASK FORCE INTERVIEW
FIREFIGHTER ROY CHELSEN
Interview Date: January 18, 2002
Transcribed by Laurie A. Collins
CHIEF CONGIUSTA: Today's date is January 18, 2002. The time is 1345 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 CHELSEN: Roy Chelsen.
CHIEF CONGIUSTA: Roy is firefighter first grade in Engine 28 of the New York City Fire Department. We're at the quarters of Engine 28. This interview is regarding the events of September 11th, 2001.
Q. Roy, would you please tell your story in your own words about what happened that day from when you received the alarm.
A. We were actually sitting in the kitchen, the lieutenant and I, and we actually heard the first explosion. We both looked at each other, and we were like, "Oh, what was that?" It seemed like right after that the alarm came in and we were on our way downtown.
We took the FDR Drive down, and you could actually see the building pretty much the whole way down. The whole three-quarters of the way up was engulfed in fire. We went down underneath the Battery Tunnel. We came up. It was still like flags falling. It seemed like it was very quiet. I noticed that Bob, the chauffeur, was kind of swerving around. Later on I heard he was going around bodies.
He dropped us off underneath the second bridge.
Q. The north bridge?
A. The north bridge up by the north tower. He dropped us off there. We looked up to make sure nothing was coming down, and we proceeded in. I think the revolving doors were kind of busted up, so I think we went through a window.
We reported to the command desk, the command post there, and we immediately started going up. They just said, "28, start heading up."
Q. Do you know what stairway you went up?
A. We went up stairway B. I believe it was stairway B.
From there on we really didn't hear too much transmission going on that I can remember hearing. I had the nozzle position. I had no radio. But I don't remember the lieutenant telling me anything. Later on I heard that there were a lot of maydays and a lot of transmissions going on, but we didn't hear any of it.
One of the only transmissions I do remember hearing, because we were sitting on approximately the 20th floor, that there was another plane on its way. At that point we were still not sure that it was a plane that had hit the tower. There was some talk from the civilians coming down that a plane hit. The consensus was that it was a small plane; Never thinking it was a 737, whatever it was, 767, whatever it was.
We made our way up to 29 or 30. We were again resting again. All of a sudden just -- I don't know if the sequence is right, but everything went black, and all the power went out. There was just this rumbling. I felt like it went on forever.
I believe 4 Engine was with us, there was 28, and I believe 8 Truck was with us. We all just huddled into the staircase. We were holding on thinking -- I'm a big person. I'm thinking the floor's going to collapse or the ceiling's coming down, but I thought that was it.
4 Engine
- Calixto Anaya, Jr, 35
- James C. Riches, 29
- Thomas G. Schoales, 27
- Paul A. Tegtmeier, 41
When the rumbling finally stopped, all of a sudden we felt this gush of air coming from everywhere. Just from every direction there was like wind blowing. What I heard later on, that was just the concussion of the air coming back up from tower two.
From there I believe we heard -- there was a chief that came down with a bullhorn, telling everybody to get out. I think he was from the 11th Battalion. That's what I'm hearing.
Q. He came down the stairs?
A. I think he was up a couple floors ahead of us. I don't know if he was with us the whole time. I know we were paired up with 4 Engine. 5 Engine was with us, but I heard later on that somebody in their company had a heart attack or chest pains.
5 Engine
Manuel Del Valle, Jr, 32
Q. Yes.A. They took him down. So I don't know who was with us the whole time. But he did come down and tell us to evacuate. From there it was just asses and elbows. We all just started running. I didn't even have my mask on anymore. We just dropped everything. Actually between 20 and 30, 4 Engine and ourselves kind of joined together there. So we dropped everything and started running down on 30. We got down to 19 or 20, and I know there were some cops down there. We found some civilians down there.
Q. Port Authority cops?
A. Port Authority cops. I saw city cops. They had their masks on, but they had ESU uniforms on.
Q. Right.
A. They were all huddling about. Everybody was still coming down. We were kind of waiting, getting everybody together again. A friend of mine in 8 Truck told me, he said, "Look out the window. Tower two is gone." At that point nobody knew what was going on. At that point we were coming down stairway C, I think.
Q. You went across?
A. We went across, yeah.
Q. Was stairway B clogged?
A. Stairway C, I heard -- stairway B didn't go all the way up or -- for some reason from 20 over, we switched.
Q. Okay.
A. Then I heard coming down they said stairway C is pretty well wiped out down there, so it doesn't go down. I think that's what I heard, because from there on we went B. From 20 down to 1 we went on stairway B.
Q. Okay.
A. We kind of formed a line for the civilians, and we led them down the stairs because it was pitch-black and it started to get smoky. We led them down, 4 Engine, ourselves and I believe 8 Truck again.
Q. Did the cops come down with you?
A. I don't know. I don't know. At this point it was just like I want to get out. I heard that tower two is gone. I said, let's just get these people and let's get out of here. We all grouped together again, like I said, and we started going down. We got down to the lobby. The lobby is like gone. There were probably 20 or 30 guys down in the lobby mulling around.
Q. They weren't trying to get out?
A. They were just -- no, no. We went to where the command post was. We were standing there. Our officer was like, "Well, let's stay here." I kept saying, "Lou, I'm going to get out. I want to get out of this building." I said, "We can go out where we came in." There was a brick wall outside tower --
Q. The north tower.
A. The north tower. There was a brick wall. I said we can run along the wall and go underneath the bridge there and then shoot up West Street. He said, "Is everybody here?" I said, "Yeah, the company's all right here." With that we -- I think 18 Truck ran out with us, and we just hauled ass.
We got out and we got under the bridge. A couple bodies came down, flying down, just in front of our guys. We just got under the bridge and like, okay, it's safe, it's good. All of a sudden we heard this huge explosion, and that's when the tower started coming down. We all started running.
We lost everybody there again. I don't know what happened. I saw my cousin. We gave each other a big hug. That's when everything started hitting the fan again. I heard some guys dove behind cars. I just kept running up West Street.
As soon as that thing hit us, I think it knocked -- I'm not sure what knocked me over, but I ended up on the ground. Like Sal said, it was completely black. Now I can't breathe. You start running. I'm out of breath, and I didn't have my mask. It was on the 30th floor. I just started choking. I couldn't breathe because I'm sucking all that shit in. Somehow I happened to see a fireman walking to my right. He had a mask, and I grabbed it. He helped me with it until we walked out.
Then two guys from an ambulance grabbed me. They started giving me water. They had me hooked up to an IV. But then everybody started running again, something about a major gas leak.
Q. That's what I heard. A chief said they thought there was a major gas leak.
A. I said get this thing out of me. I'm running again. I can't sit here. So they took it out. I'm running with my hand on my arm, and I'm running north again. We finally met up with the rest of the crew on West Street. I've just got to say, on our way down we saw 9 Engine with that woman.
Q. Right.
A. We saw her.
Q. 6 Truck.
A. 6 Truck, I'm sorry. We saw 6 Truck. We also saw 18 Truck. I think they were on their way up to. We said to them, "They told everybody out of the building," and then they came with us.
Q. That's it?
A. Yeah.
Q. Wow, that's pretty good. Well, thank you, Roy.
CHIEF CONGIUSTA: The time is 1455, and that's the end of this interview.
https://static01.nyt.com/packages/pdf/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110475.PDF
File No. 9110280
WORLD TRADE CENTER
TASK FORCE INTERVIEW
FIREFIGHTER WILLIAM CHESNEY
Interview Date: December 10, 2001
Transcribed by Laurie A. Collins
CHIEF BURNS: Today's date is December 10th, 2001. The time is 10:20 a.m. I am Battalion Chief Robert Burns, Safety Battalion, New York City Fire Department, conducting an interview with --
FIREFIGHTER CHESNEY: Firefighter First Grade William Chesney assigned to Engine Company 309.
CHIEF BURNS: This is in regards to the events of September 11th, 2001.
Q. Bill, if you would, just tell me in your own words what happened that day.
A. Okay. We were assigned to relocate Engine 309 to 33 Engine in Manhattan. That would be after the first tower had fallen. After coming over the Manhattan Bridge into Manhattan, we were notified by the dispatcher to I believe the Deutsche Bank, which had I believe been set afire or there was a collapse there. I'm not sure what the assignment was. I'm fuzzy on that.
We proceeded to the West Side Highway. We made it up to Liberty next to the second World Trade Center before it fell. We didn't exit the engine. It was still running at the time. We heard popping, people, crowd, screaming. The first tower had already fallen, so everything was very unclear due to visibility, bad visibility, because of smoke and ash.
We visually saw the beginning of the first tower crumble, so the engine turned off on Liberty and made its way over to Albany Street. The tower had fallen. Our engine company then exited the engine and proceeded over and attempted to help out in any way they could with civilians or Fire Department personnel who needed assistance. Then we had other companies join us that were scattered.
There was no water pressure downtown at the time. It took a while for water to get to the fires, Marine 2. We were down by Liberty close to the water by Gateway Plaza. We were assigned to put a fire out on the eighth or ninth floor of Gateway at the time. We went up there with hoses. We were drafting water from Marine 2 from a three and a half.
After that fire was out, we then proceeded to put out additional pockets of fire close to second World Trade. I believe it was adjacent to the Vista Hotel and three World Trade. For the rest of the day all we did was assist rescue operations, basically. That's basically the fundamentals of what happened.
Q. Did your unit get there prior to the second tower collapsing?
A. Yes, we did, yes.
Q. Where were you when the second tower collapsed?
A. I'm believing that we actually made it over towards the pedestrian bridge close to Liberty off the West Side Highway, because I believe the Deutsche Bank is adjacent to the second world tower or a block off. I'm not positive. That's where our assignment was.
Q. When you guys got there, did you see anyone or any companies that you can identify?
A. No. Due to the poor visibility, it was very tough to see in front of your face. With the smoke down there, the ash, it was very difficult to see anything. Basically I just saw through the fog on my end -- I'm not speaking for anybody else -- was first and last of the clouds there were people running here and there. There was no sense of direction. There was no way to know what anybody else was doing, so we just kept ourselves together and kept a level head and just tried to make the best of the situation, help out any way we could. That was it.
Q. Okay. Great.
CHIEF BURNS: That concludes the interview. It's 10:25 a.m.
https://static01.nyt.com/packages/pdf/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110280.PDF
File No. 9110036
WORLD TRADE CENTER
TASK FORCE INTERVIEW
EMT-P ANDRE CHERRINGTON
Interview Date: October 10, 2001
ANDRE CHERRINGTON: Paramedic Andre Cherrington, from battalion 31, unit 31 Victor, tour 2
Q: Okay, I’m just gonna ask you to tell me about the events of the morning of September 11th, 2001
A: Okay.
Q: In your words.
A: Alright, what happened was, I logged on. I started work at 8:30, and I was working with a gentleman who was doing overtime, so we were on our way to get some breakfast, and we looked to our left as we were pulling out of the garage, and we saw like a blast. But it didn’t seem like anything major. But then we saw the World Trade Center like, catch on fire. So I turned on 1010 W.I.N.S. to see if there was any news and they said that a plane hit. So we were thinking maybe a small plane ran out of gas and hit the building. So we were like okay, let’s call the dispatcher. The dispatcher had already started sending units. So we said well listen, 31 Victor, we are able to go. Can you send us? So they sent us over there. So we went on the Brooklyn Bridge, I was driving, we went on the Brooklyn bridge and I’m seeing people already coming across. So we got across over there, I’d say by city hall park and I saw a Lieutenant, Brynes from Battalion 57.
Battalion 57.
- Chief Dennis Cross, 60
- Chief Joseph Ross Marchbanks, Jr, 47
So we stopped by each patient and pulled out the triage tags. Everyone was basically a green tag, so we just kept triaging people en route to the World Trade Center. When we got there, we got there, I guess 9:00, 9:05, whatever, and I seen Phil Ashby there and he was doing triage from inside the building. We started triaging right away. I was taking care of a patient who was having a hard time breathing and my Partner was taking care of another patient. That patient jumped on, Metropolitan actually took that patient to the hospital. While Metropolitan took that person to the hospital, somebody came to my partner and said we have another person who’s burnt up in the building.
Q: At this point, had the second plane crashed into the second building?
A: In all honesty, everything happened so fast, and it was so hectic that I wasn’t really paying attention to it. It seemed like, you know, all the ashes were falling, it was just a big mess. Everybody was screaming, so I don’t really know. I just know what was going on as far as me and my partner were concerned. So, when we went to the second building, I think it was the second building, and we seen a guy burnt up, downstairs in the lobby. So we carried him, and we brought him on our stretcher, it was parked by the ambulance. We put him in the stretcher, while we’re taking care of him we’re seeing everybody running out of the second building and it was just like everybody running, everybody trying to just get outta there.
So it’s like, okay, fine, we’re taking care of this guy. We had to just cool down his wounds. He was burnt up, he had like 90% burns over his body. Like first, second degree burns. A couple third degree burns also. So we took care of him, got an IV in him, and were ready to transport him. The Lieutenant on the scene said don’t take him yet cause there’s more patients coming down. I waited for a few minutes, maybe five minutes. And it was like a cluster, so -- I just decided, you know, let me take this guy, cause he started having shortness of breath. I couldn’t call for anything to stabilize him, cause there was a mess there, you know, before I intubated him. So I said, let me take him to the hospital.
So as I was pulling off, I’d say about half a block away, we heard a big boom, and we seen a whole bunch of ashes, everything just started coming towards us. So I actually stopped the ambulance for thirty seconds and I looked. My partner was in the back he said stop the ambulance. So I stopped and I looked, and I seen all the debris coming. So I said close the bus. Cause at this point everyone started running towards the ambulance, I mean, you know, we had one critical patient there, so I said let me just get this guy to the hospital.
So he closed the ambulance. And as I’m driving, people are running and debris is coming down. Debris is coming down and hitting the bus. I’m just driving, driving, I drove up a one-way, I think it was Second Avenue. One of those major avenues. And I drove halfway up to Cornell, and then I got on the right way, and I drove the rest of the way up to Cornell. When we got to Cornell, I think I gave a notification, when I got to Cornell, they immediately took the patient in and they intubated the patient.
As I was leaving they said the second building fell. When the second building fell, I said well, we gotta get back there. So we went back there, where they told us to go to Battery Park triage. So we went to Battery Park. When we went there now, they said that there was a gas leak. So I had the ambulance parked, and I was actually on the other side of the street, they said that there’s a gas leak, get outta there. I didn’t have enough time to jump into the ambulance, so I just started going towards--with the crowd, running more or less until there was a bus that me and my partner jumped in and we went to Pier 94. When we got to Pier 94, it seemed like it was a false alarm.
Q: Do you know whos vehicle it was you jumped into?
A: My partner knew who it was, but I think they were from Manhattan. I’d never seen the guy before.
Q: Was it a Fire Department vehicle?
A: It was EMS, yeah, EMS vehicle.
Q: Who was your partner that day?
A: Suarez, he’s a new paramedic. And we jumped in that ambulance, and whoever the guy was drove all the way to Pier 94. All three of us were in the front. When we got there, we found out that it was more or less a false alarm, so I walked back towards my vehicle, but they wouldn’t let us over there. By the time I got over there the vehicle was already gone. So I said, oh well, you know. So I jumped in with 31 Young, who is Paramedic Smiley and Paramedic Rivera. And basically I stayed with them all day, and 5 what we did is we went back towards City Hall Park to see if anyone was needing triage, if anybody needed us.
But by then they already had a major triage center set up, so nobody needed us. We were trying to go where we were needed. Cause you know, we didn’t really have anybody really telling us what to do over the airway so, we finally wound up on the backside of BMCC where we set up a triage center, us and a couple BLS.
Finally some lieutenants came over and they said okay, you guys stay over here, just in case, cause one of the buildings was on fire. The last building to fall was on fire. He said it might drop. So we waited there to see if anything was going to happen. The only thing that happened was that the building dropped. We waited to see if anybody was hurt, but everybody seemed to be evacuated, everything was fine. So from there, we stayed there for a few hours. You know, just triaging, waiting.
And after that, it seemed like it was okay. So another lieutenant came there and said well, they might need some paramedics at Ground Zero. They were saying something about there were amputated patients there who, once they get them out of the rubble, they’re gonna need us to start lines, whatever and get them to the nearest hospital. So we went back to Ground Zero.
There we reported to another Lieutenant who I really, I really didn’t keep any names. But I know that it was really hectic over there. So we reported there, all four paramedics, and we were like, okay, we’re here and we’re ready to help if anybody needs any help from us. And we basically just stood there, and what we did there was, if anybody got cut…it was minor triage more or less. The seemed to have everything under control there. So basically, we just stayed there waiting, just on stand-by.
We pulled our ambulance into their little bay, into their bay, and we just waited there. But around 2:30, you know, I realized there’s nothing we can really do here. There’s nothing going on here, it was more like a BLS thing, you know, minor cuts, abrasions, whatever. By then, my partner already worked over 30 hours so he was really tired. So I talked to the lieutenant, I said, you know, we’re really not needed here. I’ve been here since 8:30 this morning, you know, can you release us? So basically…
Q: This is 2:30 in the morning?
A: 2:30 in the morning, yeah. So basically after that, we seen that there’s nothing that we could do, so he released us and we came back to Brooklyn. That was it. So you know, that day I thank my lucky stars. Cause you know, I think that if I would have actually waited around for more patients, I think instead of seeing the rubble coming towards me and I’m booking, I think the rubble would’ve actually hit the bus with the guy in there. I think it would have been a very bad situation.
So for some reason I said, you know, I’m not staying, I’m leaving. It was kind of like a free-for-all, because, you know, what happened was, when we got there, we thought everything was okay, everything is calm. Maybe the little plane hit and it’s causing all this. But I guess when the second plane hit, that’s when all hell broke loose.
And that’s when everybody realized, you know, nothing’s calm. Everything just went crazy after that. I mean, I did what I had to do, I took one patient, we took care of it and got him to the hospital. And you know, I did say, well I saved one person. I know I did save one person, and that’s all that matters. I was there for X Amount of hours and I did one good thing. And my partner too.
Q: Everything you did was good.
A: Well, yeah. I mean, you know, everything I did was good. But I feel good that I did get that guy to the hospital. As a matter of fact, I looked at the ACR and the guy lived not far from where I lived. So I think that two days later I went over to the address and I thought his wife was there, but it was his mother. And his mother happens to be a nurse at Methodist Hospital.
I approached her. Because I heard on the news that they said, well we don’t know what’s going on. A lot of family members, they don’t know what’s going on with the people in the building. So I said, let me go over there and let her know where her son is, where her husband is (I thought it was his wife.)
When I got there, it was the mother. I told her, this is where your son is, this is the condition that he was in. And she was very happy about it, you know she was real happy. And I felt good too, you know, I felt good. Everything worked out. He was pretty bad though, he was real bad. But you know, I never really contacted them again. Maybe one day when everything calms down, hopefully I’ll hear that he’s still alive and that he’s coming out of the hospital, you know?
But it was a situation, and at the time, you know, you’re not really thinking about it, you know you’re just like okay, let me just do what I have to do. And you know, I’m pretty much like, I was in the Army, so I pretty much know how to keep my cool. And the triage also helped a lot. Cause I think if I didn’t know that, I probably would have had everybody on my bus. Because everybody had the M.I. or seizures, but it was just, everyone was in shock. They couldn’t believe it, you know?
So it’s like, let me just triage this one, triage, this one, you have an M.I.? Have you had a history before? You take any medicine? No, okay, you get a green tag. And that’s all it was. But as we started getting more towards it, it started getting more serious. Then when we got that guy, that guy saved my life too. That’s the main thing I tell everybody. I might have saved his life, but he definitely saved me and my partners’ life. That’s what me and my partner say. It was just a blessing, you know? You know, that’s it. That’s all I got to say. Yeah, that’s it.
Q: This concludes my interview with Paramedic Andre Cherrington. The time now is 1725 hours.
https://static01.nyt.com/packages/pdf/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110036.PDF
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