Oral histories - EMS 1
From Debunk911myths
Oral histories
EMS
Faisel Abed
Battalion 8 and my unit is 08 David 2. Heard the commotion on the radio, asked Central, and was dispatched to the WTC. Saw Flight 175 crash into the South Tower, as they were coming to the WTC. Went to Vesey and West, where there was a staging area. Worked on triaging the patients. Was there when the South Tower collapsed, though they already had all the patients out of there, transported from the scene. He fled west, behind the WFC, and to the north after the second tower collapsed. Walked all the way up to Chelsea Piers.
Roberto Abril
Battalion 49 (Astoria). He was on duty. When the first plane hit, he received orders over the radio assigning him to the WTC. He went to park at the staging area, Washington and Vesey, while his partner Carlos Lillo when to triage. After the South Tower collapsed, he helped transport people from there up to Warren Street. After the North Tower collapsed, he couldn't get back there. (some confusion on which buildings collapsed when)
Paul Adams
Battalion 49. Was on duty, and assigned to the WTC after the first plane crash. Arrived at Church and Vesey at 9:15. Walked over to triage area at Church and Fulton. The second plane had hit, just before they arrived. A captain was there who asked him for his triage tags. He "looked at her and said are you kidding me?" Then he just grabbed a patient, who had 70 percent burns on her body, second and third degree burns, and transported her to the hospital. Along with a friend, she had walked down the 83-84 flights. He returned to the WTC, to the same triage area, and began helping an elderly woman."There was one person that sounded like she was having an MI, because she had walked -- it was an elderly woman, she had walked down 80 some flights." After five minutes, the South Tower collapsed. "we had just put her on the stretcher actually and thats when people looked up and started screaming and we looked up and that's when the first one came down. We pulled the stretcher as far as we could with her on it, you know get her out of the way. Then, we found out later, though that she was all right. She got up out of the stretcher also. She seen God, guess seen the light." He tried to hide, up against the Millenium Hilton parking garage entrance gate. After that, he transported ~8 people from the scene to St. Vincent's. Then returned to the WTC, got 6-8 more people to transport.
Eloy Albuerme
Lieutenant in Battalion 8. After the first plane hit, he responded to the WTC. He stopped at West Broadway and Murray Street to assist a unit with 11 patients there. Then he went over to West Street, and directed medics there to make that a staging area. At that point, one of the buildings collapsed. He took cover at the District 37 building. Then went down to Chambers Street, setting up triage area at the Manhattan Community College. His captain assigned him to take charge of transport at the Chambers command center, where he stayed until 2:30 in the morning.
Glenn Asaeda
Deputy Medical Director (and physician) with the Fire Department Medical Affairs. He was heading (in a marked car) to Manhattan on the Long Island Expressway, for unrelated business. He "happened to look over to his left and actually did see one of the towers, what appeared to look like one of the top floors kind of smoking." Another driver flagged him down, and asked "did you see the plane hit the World Trade Center?" The second plane hit while he was going through the Midtown Tunnel, where he lost communications. He didn't realize a second plane hit.
He arrived at the south bridge across West Street. He was directed in front of 1 WTC. He "noticed just women's shoes all over. I guess they had taken them off to run. I guess they couldn't run in the heels and whatnot." It was approximately 9:15. He "still didn't realize that a plane had hit. Again, being so close and looking up, I couldn't even see the other building really from where I was standing." He recounted seeing people jumping.
He then was directed over by WTC 7, where there was a triage area. There, he found "a gentleman in his seventies. He had said that he was on the 59th floor of the first tower that got struck. He was actually ordering some kind of food at that cafeteria, I think it's at the 59th floor, I'm pretty sure, and thought that, when he heard the explosion, that it was the kitchen oven. He heard that other people said they don't know what it is but it's time to evacuate, so he actually came down the staircase, and he as just sitting there because he was tired." At that point, he realized people were making it out alive.
Someone from the Secret Service or security from 7 World Trade Center was saying to me, did you hear that the Pentagon just got hit by another plane? Again, not knowing about the second plane still at this point, I thought, oh, my God. Then he said, and there's another plane missing. So at that point was the first point that I realized that this was a terrorist -- an intentional act, again, not knowing that the second plane had already hit.
Then he "heard what he thought was a jet engine plane. In retrospect, it turns out that it was the first tower coming down." He ducked into the loading dock area, along with ~30 other people... It was so dark that I actually thought they had closed the loading bay doors as a security measure for us, but it turns out it was just the debris and the smoke and whatnot that made it pitch black
At that point we realized that the building we were in was still up, we needed to get out, but just didn't know where to go, a little disoriented...The decision was either to go left or right and we ended up going right, between the two buildings, in the alleyway [between the Verizon Building and WTC 7] on the north, which turned out to be the right direction because apparently there was a lot of debris and part of 7 down already. Also, I did notice as I was making my exit the sound of the firefighters' alarms indicating that they were down.
They went up to Murray or Park Place. When the North Tower collapsed, he was on West Street. He then set up a triage area just south of Chambers. Someone said "there's suspicious packages around," so they evacuated further north up to the Borough of Manhattan Community College. He was again "told that there's suspicious packages again, and this time people were running towards north again saying that there's a gas leak." He then made it up to Chelsea, where he helped coordinate operations.
Phillip Ashby
Paramedic, Division 1. Responded to the WTC after the first plane crash. Arrived at Broadway, between Fulton and Dey. Went to a triage area at Fulton and Church, where they were treating 40-50 patients, mostly with burn injuries. After a while, he heard people screaming and went running up Fulton. He looked up and saw the building collapsing, and ducked by the subway station. He was over by Pace University when the second tower collapsed.
Christopher Attanasio
Battalion 20, Division 2. Right after the first plane crashed, dispatchers were calling for help and he headed to the scene. By the time he arrived, the second tower had been hit.
Both towers were totally engulfed. People were jumping out of the buildings. There was airplane fuselage and landing gear around the site. Body parts, victims' remains on the floor. There were some injuries on the street. Some cars were on fire.
He was directed to a staging area at Liberty and West. He was told to get his gear on and prepare to head into the towers, as they were getting reports of casualties. As he was getting gear out of the ambulance, the first tower began to collapse. He ran over to West Street, but after the dust settled, he was able to retrieve the ambulance, which had some damage. He went to stage over at Battery Park City, but then back over to where the tower was to provide assistance.
When we pulled up, we saw burnt vehicles, fire balls, smoke, debris, dust, bodies. When we went in front of the tower, I remember a Chief saying on his bull horn, all Fire Department personnel, abandon your vehicles. I looked up, tower one was still burning, but tower two was already down... He transported 13 patients in the back of the ambulance, ranging from cuts and burns and scrapes and bruises, to some lady having -- she was having an MI, blunt trauma, a lot of people with difficulty breathing.
While at the hospital, the second tower collapsed. After transporting the patients, he returned to the WTC to transport more patients. After that, he went to Chelsea Piers.
Benjamin Badillo
Battalion 17 in the Bronx. After the first plane hit, he got the assignment to go down to the WTC. He arrived on West Street, just north of Liberty, near the pedestrian bridge. He went over to the triage area.
I am looking around and see cars, just a couple cars, not much at this point destroyed and could see some bodies right before we parked between the two buildings, laying around in the street and right near our vehicle you could see -- I didn't know what it was at first, then I'm looking at it and it was just body parts, just chunks of flesh you know just spread out here and there. That was a little freaky. I have never seen anything like that.
After five minutes or so there, the first tower began to collapse.
I Hear this really bad thundering sound. I didn't know what it was, it just sounded like thunder but it was like different. When I look up into the sky out of curiosity, I don't know what made me look. I could see the top of the building coming down.
He briefly paused, but then saw people running. He ducked into the Marriott and tried to hide under a security desk. He then proceeded south towards Battery Park. A chief and lieutenant picked him up. Once inside the vehicle, that's when the second tower collapsed. He got out and ran down to Battery Park. He stayed there, helping people evacuate on boats to Jersey, and then over to the Staten Island Ferry terminal to help out. After two hours, he couldn't breathe well and left. He walked back up by the WTC site.
Walking around, we came out to Rector Street. We saw one of the landing gears from the airplane.
He also saw a lot of body parts [gruesome description], and started tagging them. A chief told him to get back to the ferry. He stayed there until approximately 11 p.m.
Kevin Barrett
Battalion 49 (Astoria). At approximately 9:15, he was told to go to the 59 Street Bridge and await further instructions. At 9:20-9:25, he was told to report to the WTC, going there as a HAZMAT unit. He helped with triaging, answering questions from civilians, and assisting the police, by helping cordon off the area.
A bit later, he heard "this loud noise. I looked up and it sounded like another airplane was coming in. That's what it sounded. It sounded like a large engine, like you are sitting on the wing of the plane. That's the best way I can describe what it sounded like. We look up and saw tower two coming down. We just all ran."
He ducked under a police car. After that, he tried to regroup, and find his partner. Then the north tower began to collapse. They ran again.
Anthony Bartolomey
Battalion 4. He was sent to the WTC at approximately 8:55, and arrived (at Church and Fulton) at 8:58.
Numerous civilians were telling him that a plane had hit the building. There were discrepancies as to the type of plane. Some were saying it was a Cessna or Leer jet type, a small jet plane. Some said it was a large passenger plane. One person actually said that it was like a military style plane that actually shot missiles into the building.
He started triaging patients there at Vesey and Church.
As he was treating patients, he "heard rumbling. We thought maybe it was debris falling from the tower. You look up and you see the flame of the plane hitting the second building... We actually saw the fireball shot out from the north side of the building. Everybody got behind the vehicle to brace themselves against any debris that was coming down. Debris came down. There was glass and metal hitting the ground around us.
He sought cover by the subway station, but after some time was dealing with patients. He had no equipment, but the police were able to assist them and get the patients out. At about 9:55, police officers were there, saying the tower was in danger of collapse, and that they were evacuating the immediate area. He headed up Church, to Barclay, and started setting up triage by St. Peter's Church. That's when he "heard the rumbling of the tower starting to collapse and they started to get people inside the church."
After that, he came out of the church and was having trouble breathing, the throat burning. He was sent to Roosevelt Hospital, as a patient.
James Basile
Chief EMS Division 2. His staff, who were watching television, informed him of what happened. Not long and the second plane hit the other tower. He then responded with EMTs from Queens to the WTC, arriving at West near Albany. He went over to the command post, near the WFC Winter Garden.
He was then directed to the lobby of 1 WTC. He and his EMT went over there, found it "very dangerous entering the premise, that there were numerous parts of the building and other foreign bodies being thrown around from the higher floors... He entered the lobby, where he met the Citywide Truck Commander Joseph Callan, Fire Division 1 Commander Chief Hayden and Fire Batallion 1 Joe Pfeifer, Safety Battalion Chief Stephen King, Father Judge, and OEM Port Authority officials."
Basile helped to coordinate civilian evacuation, advising that having people exit at the front of the building was inappropriate and advising other exits be used.
They were "operating in the lobby, and all of the sudden we heard the roar of a jet engine, is what it sounded like. We thought there was another plane coming into the building. We went from the lobby area into an elevator bank area -- escalators that led into the concourse area... Not two seconds later, debris and dust started to come in and essentially we were just shut down. Everything was dark, pitch black."
He then continued to help civilians out of the building. He brought them to a walkway, which took people over to 7 World Trade Center. After some more minutes, nobody else was coming out. He had a gut feeling that it was time to leave, and he went over to 7 World Trade Center, and down the escalator there.
As he approached the corner of West and Vesey, he heard over the radio that the building was leaning. As he was crossing the street, that's when he heard "that jet sound again. I knew that the building was coming down. I made it about -- somewhere between West and North End, there was a fence... I decided to use that as a wall to protect myself from any debris.
He was able to then duck into a Bagel shop and clean himself off. He then met up with chiefs in Battery Park City. Later, he got a ride on a boat over to the ferry terminal where a triage center was established. He spent most of the remainder of the day there.
At 4:30, he was asked to go over to the command post at Chambers and West.
He had gotten to Washington and Chambers when he "saw number seven come down. That was about 5:20. We watched that come down. We watched this plume of smoke coming at us."
He finally made it over to the command post, but had difficulties breathing and went home.
Jody Bell
Battalion 4. He was coming into Manhattan for work (due in at 9:00 am), on the Staten Island Ferry (with his car). By 8:30, he reached the city. Coming off the ferry, he was traveling with his partner. They encountered very heavy traffic and saw police cars responding. Getting close to the station, they saw the building on fire. Once at the station, he learned that a plane hit and was sent over to the WTC. They parked at West and Vesey. He started dealing with patients who had burn injuries, broken arms, and other injuries. He helped triage-tagging people. Bell and other personnel were working on 20-30 people.
We then hear this explosion. We hear this explosion, and our first reaction is the plane was lodged in the building and it exploded or parts of it were still in the building and that exploded. Then people were screaming that another plane hit.
After that, he kept working with patients.
I'm not sure how much time passed after that. I lost track of time. You start to hear this rumble. You hear this rumble. Everything is shaking. Now I'm like, what the hell could that be. I'm thinking we're going to get bombed. This is an air raid. You hear this thunder, this rumbling. Then you see the building start to come down. Everyone's like, "Run for your lives! The building is coming down!"
He ran up to North End. But, after things settled, he went back to the WTC, as there were still people down there.
That's when over the radio you hear, "Stand fast. The north tower is leaning." I'm like, how is the north tower leaning?
This time, not only was it snowing but I could see the tower, and the tower was starting to break off. It was kind of looking like it was going to tip, and there was a piece of the building coming down right on top of me and Mike. [his partner]
After the collapse, he remained at Battery Park City, unloading supplies brought in by boat, handing out water to people, tagging them, and triaging. A bit later, Bell was told to go to Chelsea Piers, where he stayed for five hours.
Thomas J. Bendick
Division 1. Around 9:45, he responded to the WTC and arrived near St. Paul's cemetery. Their ambulance was full of supplies and not used for transporting patients. He headed down Vesey Street, towards West. He got to 7 World Trade Center, and that's when there was a "load roar."
I figured another plane was coming. I stopped for a second, looked around and I didn't see anything and then I began to run towards the West Side Highway, where I saw MERV 1, figuring to get as far away from buildings, not knowing what was going on. I got to the corner of 140 West [Verizon Building]... saw a little- like a little indent into the building. It was a construction barrier or wall that was built. I went behind the wall with I guess another firefighter, police captain, and a couple civilians. We put our backs against the wall because of not knowing what the heck was going on. Then in a couple of seconds, the roar stopped and I guess like in a split second it was just pure black.
He was able to go wash his eyes out, and then came back over by 7 World Trade Center, and then over by BMCC. From there, he could see the north tower beginning to collapse.
At that point, I could actually visually see the top floors of the north tower starting to give way and that began to collapse. At that point, we all began to run north.
After that, he helped set-up in a gymnasium, to start treating people there. Though most of the units and patients were being taken up to Chelsea Piers. With reports of gas leaks and possibly more explosions, they were told to evacuate the building, and went to Chelsea Piers.
David Blacksberg
Battalion 31. He was driving by the base of the Brooklyn Bridge...
We looked up and all of a sudden we heard something, and we looked up because we were right across the water, and we had seen Tower 1 at that time was already on fire.
He went over to the WTC, arriving at West and Liberty.
We approached the building, and we heard some loud noise. We felt some rumbling, so we looked up, and there was another plane coming in. Went behind, I guess it banked around another building, so at that time we didn't really see it hit the building, but we heard it, and we felt it, and we saw it approaching.
Blacksberg set-up a staging area near the WFC Winter Garden.
Once the vehicles were all set up for, I guess, a new staging area that we had set up over there, it was all set up. We just sat and watched, had people coming to us, and next thing you know, we started hearing -- just actually, there was a lot of rumors that a third plane was going to come in, so we were standing by looking up, listening. There was no third plane. The building started coming down. ...we started hearing the building, and we saw it tipping. It was just leaning... well, I looked up, and I thought I saw it leaning. Later on it was confirmed that it was leaning, and it was starting to come down, and so we started just booking. We ran as fast as we could, wherever we could. Everybody scattered all over the place. Nobody knew where anybody else went.
He went over to Battery Park City and found two city buses there. He was getting people on there, before the North Tower collapsed.
When the second building was coming down, it sounded like one big rumble, and then it just sounded like it just continued.
After that, he went over to the Staten Island Ferry terminal and helped people get on the boats, which took people to Staten Island, Ellis Island, and Jersey City. "We were putting people on the boats. I told them it didn't matter where it was going. You'll always find a way home, and people were saying, "I just live a block away." I told them, "I guarantee you, you are not going to be allowed to go back in your apartment at least for a day, two days. If you are lucky, it will be two days. Finally, we started kicking everybody -- not really kicking them, but telling them, pushing them on to the boat and telling them to go. I told them they had no choice. There really was no choice for them...Finally, people started getting onto the boats."
He also helped triage people before putting them on the boats. Later in the day, people stopped coming there. At 3 p.m., he went back over to "ground zero" and stayed there until the next morning.
Greg Brady
Battalion 4. He was "sitting in our office speaking with the ALS coordinator of Division 1, Esther Coarse"
We heard a loud bang, we both thought it was a sanitation truck, either dropped something or they crashed. Never thinking it was a plane.
He got a call from his captain and they went down to the WTC.
As they came out of the Battery Park tunnel "we saw the second plane hit the south tower."
When he arrived, he was sent into the North Tower lobby to set-up triage there.
At the time, as we were going through, it was very chaotic. A lot of jumpers. Had a body laying about 20 feet to my right.
As they started setting up the triage area, plans changed and they were sent over to 7 World Trade Center to set-up triage there in the lobby. He went with Captain Stone over to the South Tower to meet up with Chief Gombo. They proceeded outside.
At that time, as they were speaking we heard a loud rumble and we look up and we saw that the south tower was coming down. We all turned around to go run and all we saw was a building. I pretty much thought I was dead. I didn't see anywhere else to run. Although we saw a bunch of firemen running into an underground parking garage, so seeing that, I followed them into the underground parking garage and huddled against the wall waiting for the debris to come in.
They went through underground and came out in front of 2 WFC and over to 3 WFC (American Express building). They began to set up triage in the lobby there. Plans then changed, and they moved up to a building at North End Avenue.
As they headed over there, they "proceeded into the middle of West Street directly under the north tower. At that time, I had a very tight feeling in my stomach, just experiencing what I went through with 2 World Trade Center, being that close. I didn't feel at ease at all. We were standing underneath and Captain Stone was speaking again. We heard -- I heard 3 loud explosions. I look up and the north tower is coming down, 1 World Trade Center...At that time, when I heard the 3 loud explosions, I started running west on Vesey Street towards the water. At that time, I couldn't run fast enough. The debris caught up with me, knocked my helmet off. I tumbled and then eventually started running again.
After that, he made it into the North End building and started triaging patients there. After some time, he went up to Chelsea Piers. Captain Stone was injured in the collapse and was at Bellevue for x-rays, so Brady went up to Bellevue. The captain was released, they briefly returned to Batallion 8, and then back to Ground Zero. At some point, he went back to Chelsea Piers and returned to Ground Zero (Chambers and West) to begin setting plans for long-term operations.
Richard Broderick
Battalion 10. He was at St. Luke's Hospital, when he heard the call over the radio. They said a plane had crashed into the tower, but didn't know what type. He headed to the WTC, coming down the West Side Highway. They arrived at West and Vesey. There, they got five burn victims and took them to Bellevue. They turned around and headed up West Street.
Soon, they headed back to the WTC.
They "flew down to the FDR Drive, and I got off at Pearl Street. We came up the ramp right by One Police Plaza. I couldn't believe the scenery. It was like -- I don't know how to explain it. People were just full of dust. It was like snow. It was all over the place. People were in a daze. They were just -- they looked like zombies. The word was zombies. They were walking. They were confused. I had to go really slow through the streets or I would hit them. You couldn't see anything anyway, it was so full of dust."
They arrived back, stopping at Greenwich and Harrison. There, they helped an elderly woman with chest pains, and another woman having an asthma attack. He also had 25 people come up to him, wanting to volunteer and help out. Broderick gave them small tasks to keep them occupied. He took patients up to Bellevue, and then came back to Ground Zero, arriving at Pearl Street. Soon thereafter, there were fears of a gas leak and explosion. They left and went to Chelsea Piers for two hours, but then returned to Ground Zero.
He was at Greenwich and North Moore, when he saw building seven go down.
Broderick stayed there at Greenwich and North Moore until 10:30 p.m.
Robert Browne
Deputy Chief, Division 4. Browne was en route to the division office, got approximately to 164th Street and the Grand Central Parkway when he first heard radio reports of an incident at the WTC. He was traveling by the U.N., when he heard reports of the second plane crash. He then cut over under the Battery Park tunnel to West Street.
When he got down to the WTC, a police officer was standing in the street, "blocking my way, and he was -- he was trying to direct me over out of the way because there was bodies scattered along West Street all the way back as far as the tunnel at that location, and I was in amazement. I couldn't believe it."
He went over to the command post on West Street, near the Winter Garden, meeting up with Chief Gombo and Chief Kowalczyk. They was him [and his partner, Jason] to go to Liberty and West Street to run triage operations there.
When they walked back over there... "There was a lot of debris coming down off the building, and I turned around to Jason and I told Jason, "Make sure you have your chin strap on you your helmet. Don't just have it sitting on your head. Make sure you secure it to your head," and with, that a large piece of debris was coming down, sailing off the building. I remember looking up watching, because I was afraid that we were going to get hit with something, and it had to be almost the size of a Volkswagen car, a sheet of metal almost the size of a Volkswagen car, and it was -- it was burned. It was glowing red, and it just landed in the street in front of us, maybe 20 feet in front of us."
They made it over to Liberty and West, where there were a number of units on the scene, including a voluntary unit. Not everyone there was wearing a helmet, so he tried to have them get back further from the scene.
After about ten minutes, a message came over the radio, "Watch out! The building is coming down." And with that, I can remember turning around, and I was standing right on the corner of West and Liberty, on the east corner of West and Liberty, and I can remember turning around and looking up at the building and seeing a very, very large section of the building just coming -- coming straight down at us with a sound like I have never heard before in my entire life, that it -- I had thought for a moment that another plane had come, that had hit the building. That's how loud the sound was. I remember turning to everybody and looking and just telling them to run. I told them all just run, run, and that's pretty much what happened. I mean, I got -- it was basically a free-for-all, I think, at that point for everybody. I probably got about 20 feet or so, because I thought I was going to be able to get pretty far, but I only managed to get from the corner of West and Liberty to underneath the foot bridge, which was probably maybe only about 20 or 30 feet. I don't even know if it's that far, and I got hit in the back of the head with a small object, which startled me a little bit, and then I got struck across my back with a larger object, which knocked me to the ground, and at that point, I said "Well, I guess I'm just going to stay right here," and I can remember grabbing my chin strap and holding onto my chin strap on my helmet, and just hoping it didn't come off. I was afraid I was going to have a head trauma or something. I didn't want to wind up a vegetable after this thing, and I can remember praying, asking Him not to take me, and if He was going to take me, please make it fast."
...when it finally did stop, I wasn't sure if I was alive or if I was dead. It was pitch black. I had something very heavy across my back. I had something across my legs, because I remember trying to move my legs, because I was stuck under whatever, this debris, and I wasn't able to move. I can remember reaching for my radio and calling out a Mayday for the corner of Liberty and West, and nobody answered. There was no answer. It was just dead quiet, and I just assumed at that point that everybody was gone, and I wasn't -- I couldn't -- you know, I didn't call out any more. When as the thick black, black smoke and blackness around me started to clear a little bit, and it started to get a little bit grayer, kind of like got to a dark gray, and then it got like a lighter gray, and I could hear -- as it started to get lighter, I could hear people from the distance yelling for help. I could hear people saying, "Help me, I'm over here," or "Help me, I'm over there," and I started doing the same thing. I started calling out for help, because I was unable to free myself from where I was, and I called out several times, and then finally I heard somebody answer, and they said, "Relax. We can see you. We're going to get you. Just take it easy. Just stay where you are." And probably a couple of minutes later they got some of this debris off me, and they managed to get whatever it was that was on my back -- I believe it was a chunk of concrete or -- I don't know what exactly, a piece of metal. I'm not sure even exactly what it was that was on my back, and I had a large piece of metal across my legs. That's why I couldn't move my legs, but these two guys that got me out were like amazing. I couldn't believe it. It was a guy from a react team and a Hatzolah paramedic.
- Hear clip - Mayday from EMS Deputy Chief Robert Browne (reported by NPR - August 13, 2005)
Once out from under the debris, he also assisted with digging people out from under the debris. His partner Jason, who was injured, found Browne. They were also looking for Chief Wells, who they had spoken to earlier. Wells had said he was heading into the building. They were able to find him, coming out of a pile of debris closer to the tower. Then, they started working with some of the injured people, bringing them over by the WFC foot bridge.
Soon after that, the north tower began to collapse. This time , he was able to run and get inside the World Financial Center building, and hide inside a bakery there. After the smoke started to clear, he came out onto South End Avenue. They went down to the water, where fire boats and other boats were coming up. They stayed there a couple hours, helping triaging people there and getting them onto boats, to be transported over to New Jersey. Then, he was sent over to the Staten Island Ferry terminal.
On the way over there, a paramedic (from Battalion 57) came running and screaming in a panic, "There's a gas leak! There's a gas leak! There's going to be an explosion. You have to get out of here. You have to get out of here." They picked him up, onto the golf cart they were riding in and took him. They got over to the North Cove Marina, where the police were having everybody evacuate Lower Manhattan. They got on a police boat and went to Jersey. After some time there, he hopped on a police boat and was back at the North Cove Marina, and went down to Battery Park, and then to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. At that point, he was having trouble, with his injuries and was transported to the hospital.
Adam Brynes
Battalion 57. He responded from Brooklyn, coming over the Brooklyn Bridge and encountered EMTs treating five people near City Hall. At that point, Tower 1 was engulfed in flames and heavy smoke conditions.
He was helping to treat the patients, when "we heard a loud explosion and noticed Tower 2 engulfed in flames."
The other EMT crew was able to transport them, so he continued down Broadway to Dey. He was trying to get to the command post to assist, when he was "engulfed by tremendous amount of debris and smoke and dust, making any further travel impossible." Numerous people at that point were "banging on my command car for help." He decided to retreat from that location, but grabbed "as many people as he could" into his vehicle and headed toward Beth Israel Hospital.
After that, he was directed to a command center at Battery Park. He came down the West Side Highway and saw a group of EMS personnel and ambulances. He thought that was the command center, and stopped there. He assisted there for approximately 20 minutes, when he heard reports of a massive gas leak and there was a massive evacuation.
At that point, they evacuated up to Chelsea Piers. At Chelsea Piers, he met up with Chief Kowalczyk who needed to be transported back to the command center at West and Chambers. There, he served as a staging officer, managing the extra personnel that were sent in. They set up a treatment command center at Stuyvesant High School. Then, assumed transport operations at West and Chambers, for several hours.
He did "remember seeing the collapse of 6 World Trade Center. Was it 6 or -- I think it was 6. Did 6 drop? It was one of them, 6 or 3 or 7. I just remember watching the collapse of another building at that time and that got us pretty nervous because there was, again, a big smoke-like cloud coming towards us and I just remember everyone at the command center running for cover until after that blew over."
George Burbano
Battalion 22, Staten Island. He was off-duty, but was going into Manhattan to meet a friend at the WTC. We were going into midtown. I hopped on the 2 train some time around quarter to nine and within minutes after that, we went one stop to Chambers Street and they stopped the train and asked everybody to get out of the train and we left at Chambers Street. We walked out and when I came out at Chambers Street, I saw the one building on fire. Actually we saw mostly just smoke. Then within -- we are watching it and I started walking down towards the Center, and then within minutes after that, I heard a second explosion. At that point, I literally ran down to the Center ... he got down there and there "was a lot of debris all around this area".
He ran into Joe Cahill on West Street, who gave him his sweat shirt. Joe asked him to set up triage somewhere nearby. He was told to take an ambulance and go over in front of 5 WTC where there were patients.
As soon as they pulled away, "we heard a large fall of something. It looked to me like it was just like a large chunk of the Center from this side fell on top of this area. At this point, I was going to turn the vehicle around, but there was like a huge cloud of dirt and debris that was just coming to us, and I pulled away. I went up West Street with a few of the EMTs in there."
They got up to Murray Street, where he ran into a supervisor, Marty Miller, who he worked with in the past and started helping out there. "Then within sometime after that, there was more debris that was falling. There was like another cloud, so we moved up further." After the second collapse, they went down to the ferry terminal.
Freddy Burgos
Battalion 14, the Bronx. At the time, he was working overtime. As they came down the FDR Highway, he could see both buildings on fire. As they got downtown, they went through traffic to try and find the staging.
We finally get to arrive at our staging area and we pull up. To my right I see one of the towers, I believe it's the first one that came down. In front of me on the other side of the street, there is numerous ambulances there. So I decided I didn't want to put myself right in the middle of it, so I backed up my ambulance to the opposite corner. Just then a rumble was heard, and then after it goes black and pieces of metal and so forth started falling on the ambulance. It goes completely black.
Once the dust cleared, they got out of the vehicle.
They went into an open building with their equipment and began setting up triage. Not much thereafter, prior to the second building coming down... they were evacuated from that building and moved further from the incident. He went back to the ambulance to pick up some more O2 tanks. At that point, his partner [Karen Lamanna] went another direction -- south on West Street.
Just prior to getting to the bus, I hear the rumble and I drop everything and I run out. As I'm running, I take a look back, see the cloud of dust coming at me and I go into one of the buildings with a little walkway type of deal and ducked in there and see everything come by, it goes completely black.
He came out of the building and started walking towards the water. "I figured if anything else came down, I'd go in the water." He headed up to Chambers and ran into Captain Rivera. Later, he ended up at Chelsea Piers.
Grace Cacciola
Division 1. She was at bureau training, there for a refresher. They were on break when Chief Hirth came in at approximately 8:50 and said a plane had hit the towers or one of the towers.
The chief called the citywide dispatch and "said they didn't need his response as of yet, but to stand by." But, they went anyway. As they were heading over to Manhattan, the second plane hit. They parked at the entrance to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel.
When they got out of the car, "first thing we saw was a severed torso, like 10 feet in front of us. There was a cop guarding the torso. As we were walking up to the command post, people were still jumping out of the towers. There were body parts and fragments and blood all over the place. Mass chaos."
Chief Gombo asked Chief Hirth to respond to the north side of the north tower. There were numerous patients there.
As we are walking, debris and people were still coming out of the towers so we were hugging the wall on West Street, but across the street from the towers, so we got -- I believe it was 2 Financial Plaza. I was very confused. It had to be 2 Financial Plaza when I look at this. They went in to cut through the building and come out up by Vesey Street, to avoid debris.
While inside, they heard the rumble... we started running and we had to stop at one point because now the whole area filled with black smoke and the Winter Garden atrium collapsed in front of us, because we were going to go into the Winter Garden to cut outside but we couldn't do it, because we had the collapse of the front of 2 Financial Plaza on to us and the atrium coming at us from the other side.
After the collapse, they climbed over the debris and made it out of the building. Once outside, she started treating people.
The police started screaming at them, telling them they need to move from there. They went into a park administrative trailer and cleaned off. The police came again screaming, they need to move, due to threat of a gas leak.
She started moving from there, when the north tower collapsed. "Everyone started running again." They went up to Stuyvesant High School. At that point, the police confirmed the gas leak and were screaming frantically for people to evacuate, including the students. She helped direct them out of the school and north, up West Street. Then, she went over to the piers and helped people evacuate there onto the ferries.
Around 4-5 p.m., she was back at Ground Zero, but told to go home so that she could be back by 4-5 a.m. the next morning.
Peter Cachia
Battalion 4. Soon after the first plane crash, he heard the radio transmission reporting the incident. He was charged with getting things in order at the station, assigning them to ambulances to go to the scene.
At about 9:05 or 9:10, Lieutenant Amy Monroe came in and asked him to take her to the scene. He was on "light duty" (due to injury), but was able to drive and said okay, "as long as I didn't have to do any heavy lifting."
The proceeded to the WTC and parked on Cortland Street. They came over to the triage area on Church Street. They were there helping out for 25 minutes or so, but things were getting crowded there. Monroe asked if there was another triage area, and he said there was one on Liberty, so she asked him to go over there and see if they needed help there.
As he was going over there, that's when the first tower started coming down.
When that started coming down, I basically turned around and like everyone else, I started running up the block (up Liberty), but due to my injury... I was very close. I was like a little too close to the tower when it started coming down, because when I started running, I knew I was too close and I really didn't think I was going to get out of there. So about halfway up Liberty Street I saw a truck, I guess an SUV. It wasn't a police or fire vehicle. It was just a car that was parked there. I went under the truck while the tower came down and the ground was shaking and the truck was shaking and I thought that was it for me. I thought I was done. I stayed under there until I guess everything was over. I remember opening my eyes and looking out and it was just pitch black.
After a few minutes, the dust cleared. He headed back up Liberty (which was just a pile of rubble) and went back to the triage area on Church, but everyone there was gone. He continued up Church to Fulton.
There, he met up with Lieutenant D'Avila who said "let's get out of here, the second one might be coming down." So they went back up Fulton Street and the second tower had come down, but we were far enough away from it, but again, like everybody else, we just ran. After that, I remembered running down Fulton Street and going into a store, seeing the cloud of dust going by from the second tower and then hearing it coming down.