on september 1 1 , 2001 , the fire fighter from engine 7, ladder 1 responded to the world trade center. this is their story, it is also the storyof how new york city's bravest rose to their greatest challenging. what you are going to see is the only known footagefrom inside tower 1 - an eyewitness account of oneof the most defining moments of our time.
when you work in a firehouse seven blocks from the two tallest buildingsin new york... you get to know every step,every staircase, every story. morning, jim. couldn't get too closeto that razor blade? l'm james hanlon. l've beena new york city firefighter for nine yearsat ladder one downtown. last summer,the summer before 9l11
there were days we'dgo to the trade center five times in a single shift. uh, 10-4. we're going toalso send you some help. my point is, we knew thosetowers as well as anybody... but nobody... ...nobody expected september 1 1 . l've got to get out. go to the trade center. on that day
guys from my firehouse,my best friends were some of the first firefighters into tower one after the plane hit. those are jumpers. what they did that day,what everyone there did was remarkable... chief... ...and almost as remarkable it was captured on videotape
inside the tower beginning to end. the tape was shotby two brothers-- jules and gedeon naudet. holy shit! they're documentary filmmakers and old friends of mine. l don't know. they always say there is alwaysa witness for history.
l guess... we're... that day wewere chosen to be the witness. the strange thing is, the tape the whole story,it kind of happened by accident. l mean,jules and gedeon didn't mean to make a documentaryabout 9l1 1 . we wanted to make a documentaryabout a... a firefighter. that's howthe whole thing got started. ...nine, ten... one, two, three...
more to the point the plan was to follow a rookie. on the job we call them probies. the idea was to show how a kid almost...become a man in nine months. which is their probationary period where they haveto prove themselves. let's go, guys. hurry up.get in the apartment.
we teamed up,and by june of 2001 the three of us were out at the fire academy,shooting the training. open up. move in. watch the ceiling. after a few weeksof learning the basics a probie may think he knows what it takesto be a real fireman. he's in for a rude awakening.
can l have the lights, please? this is a probie. became engulfed in fire. another firefighter-- no hood. be prepared. wear your gear. go into a building you never knowwhat's going to happen. the fire was starting to reallyroll over my head now. the force of it knocked me down,knocked my helmet off
and my hands were gone. l take three steps into the apartment and the floor gave way and we all went and l'm trying to get my bodyoff the ground now because l'm laying in boiling water. my right leg was paralyzedfor six months. this job is no joke. when you get out there,it's the real world. don't be no hot dog,showoff jerk.
pay attention to the senior menand do what you're told. stay low, stay low. toward the end of the initial training we began looking for one out of the 99 new probies to follow. my name's paul denver. l'm john caro. antonius benetatos--tony for short. l was a police officer.
for awhile, l was a pizza man,actually an irish pizza man in the bronx. this is my first job. lt sounds kind of cheesy,but l always kind of wanted to be a hero, and this is really the only thing you can dothat you can do that. lmmediately, we're, like okay, this is the kid.this is the kid. let's go. we got tony assignedto my firehouse
one of the biggest in the city. lt's ladder one, plus a wholeother company-- engine seven. l am so glad l took this job. can't beat it. my wife... sometimes she gets,like, so frustrated at me because l'm so happy to cometo work, you know and she gets up in the morning she's, like, oh, l gotto go to work again.
meanwhile, l'm up,5:30 in the morning. l'm, like,honey, l'm going to work. you don't actuallywear that shirt, do you? they are the greatest,incredible guys. they are guys who fought some of the worst firesyou can imagine-- what's up withthat shirt? what? what'sthe matter with it? soon, they'd facethe unthinkable.
question was,would tony be ready? l'm terrified. this is what l want to do,but it's... it's scary. l just hope l can... l can do everything thatl'm supposed to do, you know because l wantto help these guys and l want to be a good fireman but you know,l'm still worried about how l'm goingto actually react
when there's fire flyingover my head. here goes. what's your first name? tony. tony.all right. you know you come in onthursday, right? thursday? l wasn'tsure of that. thursday night. l am now, sir. you need to sit down?
yes, sir. you want to stopcalling me sir? l'm a little bit nervous. what am l supposed to dowhen l come in the morning? anything lshould know? uh... be on time. l just... l want to make sure l do everythingl'm supposed to do. thing is,when you're a probie
what you're supposed to do... we got to do the sheets. we change the sheetsin the mornings. ...is pretty much everything. more news and traffic coming up. lt's 6:22. oh, l... l got work to do... l got a job, babe l got work to do
oh... oh, oh... get all the wheels. then we start on top and wash the rig down. probie rules. probie always gets in the sink. probie does notgo in the tv room, ever. probie makes sure there's always hot coffeein the morning.
do you have aniron at home? actually, l do not, sir. you don't?no. probie in a lot of trouble... take two. l think l'm doing decently. l'm still waiting for a fire,that's all-- just waiting for a fire and l think that will, you know,make a pretty big difference.
engine, ladder. should we grab that big longthing from the back, too? thing is, guys say thereare two kinds of probies... fire's out. you're getting closer. ...black cloudsand white clouds. when a black cloud comes to the firehouse that probie, he brings allthe fires in the city with him.
a white cloud, it's justthe opposite-- no fires. don't get me wrong,there were fires-- just not when tony was on duty. the kid wasone very white cloud. so what do you say? does it feellike fire today, or...? yeah? okay, so,we got a suspicious fire.
do we haveany smoke condition at all? negative. false alarm. so you catcha job or not? no, no. l figure it was just anelevator smoking. tony was ready,though, right? l was. l was ready. tony was nervous, of course-- terribly nervous--
and as the days would pass tony, waiting forhis first fire, wanted to prove to the other guysand even more to himself that he was going to bea real great fireman. tony. the guys were not going to make it easy on him. no one was singling tony out. we do it to every probie.
break your chops till you laugh about it.right. because that's how we do it. we'll tease you to do death untilyou start laughing. right. no problem. you... got toiove this job. sooner or later,and you will. but before you can love it you've got to learn it.
now, say you've got up therenow, you've got your helmet on your bunker gear,and you got to get your mask on. how are you going to dothat without letting go? uh, l don't know. when you hit,what's the best way to hit? uh... on-on one knee. help! help! hit. help! help! help!
lt's hot in here. hurry up.make a quick sweep. it's hot. means you got to go underthe bed, go under the bed. the next time you do thisfor real you're going to bemore cautious. right. you did fine. all l want youto do is learn to relax. all right. you got to remain calm. okay. you got to control that surge. okay.okay?
not bad. not bad. that handwriting's gettingbetter already. thank you. lt's payday today, baby! yes. okay, thank you. you're welcome. for two weeks, l got _672.25. you got to be kidding me.
you couldn't even buya six-pack with that. lt's starting pay, you know? lf l wanted to get rich,l would have become a lawyer. but l wanted something that l'd be able to live withfor the rest of my life. this l can live with. a lot of the guys feelthat way. you need to get upin the morning and look yourself in the mirror
and say you're doing somethingwith your life. somebody's in there.hit the door. you do your job. you risk your lifeto help people... and with time you become partof a unique, extended family. we do a lot of thingswith our families together. you know, you gota bunch of guys here that just, uh...they want to be here.
just making some, uh,onions and mushrooms for the... ...for the steaks. how's it going,jimbo, huh? you doing pretty good? oh, this is good here. tell me one other jobwhere everyone sits down to dinner together every night. sit down, steve.you got to be tired now. let me help you, steve
because l think l'm the only guythat helps you in this firehouse. l know it was you, fredo. you broke my heart. lt's been four weeks, l think,five weeks, something like that and l'm still... still no fire,but it will come. probably when l'm asleep and not ready for it,that's when it will come. lt's 2:30 in the morning, bro.
you can sleep. you can. trust me.when the alarm goes off they'll come and get you. okay. engine, ladder... shut it down, stan.shut it down. l got to spray water. l'm getting closer. there you are, tony.look-- your first fire.
and it was a carfire, no less. that's all right. my first firewas a garbage can fire on west broadway and franklin. listen, tony wasgetting closer but for the record,that was some flame. lt wasn't a real fire. hey, chief, comesee his first fire. lf they're all like that
it's going to be a fun 20 years. come here,there's fire over here. there's the fire, see? start the line,put out the steaks. by the end of august we knew that we hada great cooking show and there were no fires. waiting for a job--that was a very big concern. but every time we'd talkwith some of the senior guys
they always told us well, be carefulwhat you wish for. yesterday, a 27-year-oldfirefighter-- staten islandhe was stationed-- went to a joband he passed away. this guy left behinda two-year-old son and, uh, a baby on the way. you know, this dude was just expecting to go homeand see his girlfriend
after the tour that day,you know. well, we'll goto the funeral on saturday and... what can you say,you know? detail, ten-hut! stand to! l look back to last summer and it doesn't just seemlike a different time. lt seems like a different world. at the time, we didn't thinkthere could be anything worse
than losinga single firefighter. l mean, looking back,we were all just... we were kind of innocent,especially tony. a bunch of the guyswere talking about what different partsusually get them at the funeral. when the coffin went past,that was... that was... that was a little rough. l know l...l hope it's my last one. we'll go straight up right now.
there's a lot of thingsgoing on at all times, you know? shit's hitting the fan, the roofstarts to collapse, you got to get off. you know,you got to really improvise. right, right.you know what l mean? basically, you have to beon the top of your game. right. you're not the o.v.you're on top of the game. this is not a joke, this job. right. there's a lot of thingsto think about, you know?
and tunnel vision,focus, really. right, right. because that's what's goingto keep you alive and that's what's goingto give you the opportunity to help anybody else. you ready to go down? fire or no fire, tony hadiearned a lot that summer. sure, he had a ways to go,but we'd teach him. far as we knew,there was plenty of time.
a few days later, jules cookeda french dinner for the guys... at least, he tried to. decided to cook leg of lamb which l had told themfor a long time was one of my specialties. l think he cooked one and we really neededat least five. where's frenchie? couple more mealslike this
we'll be ableto share shirts. all right, all right.l got a small piece. so what? my mistake. we stayed up late just telling jokesand busting chops. this is it.that's all that's left. this is the best partof the meat. even though the guys weremaking fun of us because we didn't cook enough
we were all havinga great time. we were getting accepted. touchdown! we all joked all night long. lt was really a great night. little did we know. lt was the nightof september 10. lt's goingto be a beautiful day today. sunshine throughout,iow humidity.
really a splendidseptember day. the afternoon temperatureabout 80 degrees. great weatherfor the primary election. tonight, clear and cool... lt's begun to soundlike some sort of a clich\ but really,september 1 1 started out like every other day. currently, winds out of thenorthwest six miles per hour. relative humidity, 700/o.
66 in newark,64 degrees in bridgeport 67 in midtownand heading for 80. 8:oo in the morning. don't throw the fat away,please. the day guys werejust coming in. l was off that day. 13 guys from myfirehousewere on. what happened? around 8:30...
ladder! ...l believe the run came in. right then and there,l knew that this was going to be the worstday of my life as a firefighter. lmmediately, l knewthat this wasn't an accident. what am ldoing on this...? go, go to thetrade center. we knew, you know, this wasgoing to be something unusual something tough,but it would be something
we could handle,or... at least deal with. oh, my god. that looked likea direct attack. chief pfeifer madethe first official report. battalion 1 to manhattan. we have a numberof floors on fire. lt looked like the plane wasaiming towards the building. transmit a third alarm. we'll have the staging areaat vesey and west street.
that would beone world trade center? lt was probablya two-minute ride but it seemedlike it was forever because there was a lot ofthings going through your head. felt sorry for the people,the people inside the building. what was going to happen,nobody had any idea. we've never experiencedsomething like this before. everyone we was passing was looking up.
lt was like the worldjust stopped. we are just currently getting a lookat the world trade center. we have somethingthat has happened here. flame and an awful lot of smokefrom one of the towers. whatever has occurred has justoccurred, uh, within minutes and we are tryingto determine... you want me to pull right in here?no, go. as we swung aroundin front of world trade
my mind tells me wow. this is bad. what do we do? what do we do for this? we'll get a team up... we park right under the awningof one world trade center. chief pfeifer puts his gear on,and l remember asking him chief, can l come in with you? l want to come in with you
and he says... yeah, you stay with me. come in with me.never leave my sight. l go in and l hear screams and right to my right there istwo people on fire, burning. l just didn't wantto film that. lt was like no one...no one should see this. pfeifer was the first chiefinto the building. right away, a guy fromthe port authority told him
the damage wassomewhere above the 78 floor but all you had to dowas look around-- it was obvioussomething had happened right there in the lobby. you just saw that allthe windows were blown out. the lobby looked like the plane hit the lobby. later, they'd figure out that flaming jet fuel had shot
straight downthe elevator shaft. all of this damagewas done already. people was all over the place. so you knewit was going to be worse when we got upstairs. flames are shooting out. smoke is pouring out. l want you to getan engine and team up... to get an outside line?
don't go any higherthan the 78. what floor arewe talking about? 78. my main concern was we had 20 floors of peopleabove... chief, you have any ideawhere the floors are... ...and we had to figure outa way to get them out. chief, we haven't foundan elevator... you don't havean elevator yet?
as it turned out,we had no usable elevators. the freight elevatoris gone. any elevators working? with the elevators out there was only one way to getup there: walk. companies come in. you see them with a concernediook on their face... we got an extra man.
...and they're sent up. a firefighter in full gear carrying 60-something poundsof hose and equipment takes about a minute to climbone flight of stairs. these guys were looking at80 stories just to get there. then they'd start working. l felt the mood that we weregoing to put the fire out. everyone seemedto be confident. l know l was.
you basically looked at itand said okay, we got ten, 20 storiesof fire. we'll deal with it. we'll get up there. w-we'll get to it. there are fire crews justscreaming into this area from every conceivabledirection. by this time some of the top chiefsin the department
had joined chief pfeifer running the command post... sending guys upstairs. every time l looked around it was new faces; some that l recognized. l had seen chief pronti-- great guy,white hair, mustache-- the perfect grandfatherthat you'd like to have.
l remember seeinglieutenant fody-- who was working withnine engine-- said hello,and then started going up. another of the men who went upwas lieutenant kevin pfeifer. he was in charge of engine 33 and he was the chief's brother. l just remember we bothiooked at each other said a few words, and... but it was more the look,with a real concern
that this was going to besomething tough. lt's going to be a tough job. lt's going to be a long job. they'll put it out.that's what they do. the last time juleshad seen his brother was an hour agoat the firehouse. as far as jules knew gedeon had followed tony,the probie, into the tower. when we had left for the odor
of gas in the street... ...for me, he was in the engine and then when we arrivedto the trade center he went up immediatelywith the guys. so for me, my brotheris going up the stairs. lt turns out gedeonwas with tony... engine seven, ladder one. this is firefighter benetatos. ...but tony was stillat the firehouse...
no, l was off duty. ...and now he'd been orderedto stay there. everybody's been recalled. all available units must comeback to the firehouse. while tony tried to keep upwith the phones... ...gedeon took his cameraand started walking down towards the trade center. he was surehis brother was inside and he wanted to get to him.
l remember slowly walking downto the world trade center. what really sticks in my mind is passing by peopleand filming them and filming their astonishment. eyes saying,this is not happening. l remember tilting the cameraback and forth between the peopleand the tower in front of me. let's go!let's move it! both towers ofthe world trade center
have been hit by aircraft both are in flames both have sufferedexplosions... there is a black smoke coming from both of the towers. lt's a horrific scene, here. there's debris flying throughthe air over the east river here into brooklyn... mayday! mayday!
there weretwo planes. l saw the second one hit. lt hit the other tower. what we knew isthat a second plane hit and we hada lot of people trapped. stay together! stay together! let me know what's going on. we're just going to haveto walk it. there's one way to go.
a second plane just hit. motherfuckers! now the chiefswould have to set up a whole other operationover in tower two. he's going to... l'm going to send him up. this was planned.this was planned. when the second plane hit that's when you could see fear.
both of themare on fire. you could see itin everybody's eye. do not come down here. tell her yourco-workers are with you. there were people from all overthe world in the streets... ...different colors,different languages. on those few blocks between the firehouseand the world trade center the entire world was there...
two aircraft! the first one onone world trade center! the second onejust happened. ...and they were all lookingat the same thing and talking aboutthe same thing and reacting the same way. l saw it!a plane! you saw a plane go in? a plane went straightinto the building
right thereinto the side! a plane?yeah. that was a direct hit. there were two planes? there's two. one in each building? l saw the last one. we heard, boom! andthe whole building... what are those peoplegoing to do?
all the elevatorsare blocked out. the staircases might still be...right? the stairs were crowded. people were coming down burnt. upstairs in tower one the guys from my firehouse were now ten floors up,and climbing. lf we did talk, it wasto the people coming down trying to comfort them,telling them, it's all right.
get out, stay calm. l wound up finding a womanin the c staircase. her arms were all burnt. she was just sitting there,basically in shock. so, l picked her upunder her arms and l put her inwith a group of guys and asked the group of guys to,you know, take her down. l spoke with one person,l think the highest floor that l had heard was
about a survivorfrom the 80th floor coming down. so you knowthat that was intact. we knew it was going to bea long haul getting up there and you had to try to conserve as much energy as possible,if-if that was even possible. l'm hot. you know, l could feel the bloodin my-my neck pumping. l could feel my whole,you know, my whole heart my whole system isreally working.
l knew we had to get upto help people. we had to get up there. l knew we'd get there but it was just goingto take a while. you're talking about thousandsof casualties and thousandsof potential casualties. they was pretty much saying,god bless you. l can't believe y'all going up and we're coming down.
people, they did...pretty much said why y'all going up there?get out. people in stairwell ccoming down, please. their concernwas to get everybody out-- that was the key--as much people out as possible. most of the people in tower onecame out on the mezzanineabove the lobby. then, they'd get outthrough another building. all right, l want to usethe lobby of seven as a triage.
the chiefs didn't want anyonegoing through the lobby doors. first, it was because debriswas falling outside. then... jumpers, jumpers! ...it was people falling. you don't see it,but you know what it is and you know that every timeyou hear that crashing sound it's a lifewhich is extinguished. lt's not somethingyou could get used to
and the sound was so loud. l just remember looking up thinking,how bad is it up there that the better optionis to jump? let's go! get off the corners! let's go! let's go! let's go! like something out of thetowering inferno, like a movie. wins news time, 9:12. a major disaster in new yorkcity this morning.
breaking news now,on 1010 wins. well, we now have some insight as to what's going onin the air here. the fbl is nowinvestigating reports of a plane hijacking before these crasheswe're telling you about at the world trade centertowers this morning. rescue crews are makingtheir way to the scene and all of this unfoldingin one of the busiest places
in the world--downtown manhattan. again, both towers hitby aircraft. again, two planes involvedin two crashes into either towerof the world trade center at about ten to 9:oo and five after 9:oothis morning. pieces of the buildingand the planes actually landed blocks away. do not walk in this area,please!
gedeon was walkingwith his camera when he found a chunkof the plane engine that had crashed completelythrough tower two. whoa, whoa, what are you doing? don't be kicking stuff.this is evidence. now, you don't kick it. all right, just get outof the area. just go. this is evidence.you're kicking stuff. what's the matter with you?come on, let's go.
that was as close as gedeonwould get to the trade center without a firefighter, anyway. let's go! move! so l decided that the smartest thingto do was to slowly walk backto the firehouse and find a way to go to jules. we're just getting word now one of the two planeswas hijacked
after takeoff from boston. two airplanes have crashed into the world trade center in an apparent terrorist attackon our country. we now have reports of a fireat the pentagon. fire at the pentagonbeing reported this morning. l was just saying that officials are calling thisan act of terrorism. they're sayingthat's clearly what it is--
clearly not an accident. arriving back at the firehouse and tony's still alone and he has no clueof what to do. the pentagon? the pentagon'son fucking fire? war-- this is war. and just by listening to himfreaking out and swearing and behaving like l've neverseen him behaving
tony was expressingwhat we all felt. at that point, l sawthe fireman in him taking over. l can't believethe fucking pentagon. somebody has balls. l mean, a few times he wasjust putting his gear on and about to rushthrough the door and realizing that he wasthe only one in charge of this empty firehouse and going backto the house watch
and looking againat those pictures on tv and just to make surethat it was real. we have thesetwo enormous explosions at the world trade centerhere in new york... tony just wanted to go there. ...is open from 23 up. at stairway b. ln the lobby,the chiefs were trying to run the largest rescue operationany of them had ever seen...
...to any units from tower oneon the floor. ...with next to no informationcoming in from outside. you got a phonethat's working? l think the entire worldknew more than we did. everybody had seen the attacks. everybody had seenthe tower burning... ...had seen the pentagon. for us we didn't have a clue whatwas going on outside our lobby.
please, go that way! one elevator's workinggoing up... what elevator's working? lt was like a beehive,that place. everybody's workingon the phone. everybody's workingon the radio. everybody's gettinginformation-- sending guys up,getting reports... and just trying to getthis thing under control.
at one point,there was even a rumor a third planewas heading in. there's another plane coming in! you've got to remember at that moment,anything seemed possible. ...the nypd. port authority policeand the military and l need that done now! there's anotherfucking plane?
you get as many people out of the building,iet it burn up... no, no, not only do we gota lot of people in there we got to getthese people out. that's got to be...that's the priority. on top of everything else just talking to the guysin the stairwells was tough. four-david to battalion seven. the towers' internalcommunications setup
had been knocked outby the crash. that leftfire department radios. suddenly, you have hundredsand hundreds of firefighters that have radios. command post to battalion seven. lt seems to becomemore and more difficult. oem-1 to base. please provide me againwith your location. ls anyone in this car?
ls there anyone in this car? there was one guy from the wtc who was trying frantically toreach anyone on the elevators. 69 car, anyone in this car? hello. is there anyonein this car? and going through the list... and there's about 98 elevatorsin the world trade center. these fucking cars are dead. lf you can't speak...
ln the middle of all this suddenly an elevator opens up and you see people not havinga clue of what's going on because they've been stuckin there since the first plane hit. l was seeing the lookon the firefighters. l don't know... lt was not fear; it was what's going on?
disbelief. that made me panica little bit. that made me panic. lt was the first timel had seen father judge-- the chaplain, as he's called. he was in the lobby with us and l could tellthat he was praying. you know, father judge he would at least makeeye contact with you
and kind of give youa reassuring look. that wasn't occurring-- almost like he knewthat this was not good. this is a dangerous... this is a dangerous wayto go out. you just can't believe it. there is one big holein the side of this building and there's little flames nowand lots of lots of smoke and people that l've talked towere, like
how big is the plane?how big is the plane? we've been hearing reportsthat it is a plane. back at the firehouse... what's up?what's up? ...off-duty guyswere starting to show up. we're just waitingright now. what's that? tony was... he just hadone thing in his mind... this is bad.
...to go there,and he couldn't. two swift alarmsright away. and you know the fuckingpentagon is burning now. what? the pentagonis on fire. they want everybodyto stay here. they're going to deploy usas needed. right now,they got enough guys down there. they want us in caseanything else breaks out.
and that's whenchief byrnes arrived. l need a cup of coffee. larry byrnes joinedthe fire department in 1 957. retired a battalion chiefthree years ago. l couldn't wait.l had to get down there because, you know what? they're my firefighters,it's my building, it's my city. get your gearall together. get a flashlightand a bottle of water.
told the probie get your gear. let's go. l remember tony asking me to bring him some gloves--medical gloves. grab a box of gloves.go grab a box of gloves. and by the time l found them and rushed back... ...they were gone. the probie and the retiredchief were lost in the crowd
headed down to the trade center. oh, lord. l think at that point the lobby was pretty empty. there were just a few of usin the lobby and... and we werediscussing tactics. this is tower one? this is tower one.put a big one here. some of the outlying companiesdidn't know what tower one was
and tower two, so we were justtrying to help them out by writing it on the deskto make it obvious to people. lt was just before 10:oo a little over an hoursince the first plane hit. firefighters from all over thecity were inside those towers-- hundreds of them. battalion one to battalion two. a situation that started bad just gets worseand worse and worse.
the world trade centersouth tower which was hit by a planeand racked by an explosion approximately an hour ago,has totally collapsed. all right, folks... get out of the street. lf you're just joining usthis morning you're in for a...a horrific surprise. the scene here is just one right out of one of those moviesyou would see in hollywood:
people walking aroundwith cell phones, in tears holding their heads, looking up at what's leftof the world trade center and just shaking their headsin disbelief. out on the street... everyone knewwhat just happened. the south tower was gone. what the hell is going on?! they saw it collapse and ran.
l waited. time slowed down and everythingbecame pitch black. everybody all right? yeah, l'm okay. how's the way out of here? and then realized:okay, l'm... l'm not dead. yeah, right here. so, let's turn onmy floodlight on top of my camera.
all right,come on down this way. yeah, let's get outthe way we came in! everybody down.everybody down. okay, okay. come on back. everybody down. lnside the trade center all julesand chief pfeifer knew... charles?yeah, right here!
...all anyone knew... ...was that somethinghad gone terribly wrong. got a light? they're going down. no, no. come here. they asked me, youwith the light, help us out. we've got to get everybody out.let's go! l was pointing my lightwherever they needed. right here.
right here, right here. l remember seeing chief pfeifer. command post from tower one: all units evacuate the building. command post to all units. he gave it right away;very calm, didn't wait and it was...for him, it was a precaution. lt was, okay,something wrong is happening. let's get everybody out.
where's that flashlight? everybody is getting out. from the tone of his voice l knew that it wasno normal thing. l knew it was time to leave. l remember saying to the guys well, we're on our own now. and for the first time l looked in someone else's eyesand saw fear...
...which you don't seewith fire. we orderly evacuated. lt was such a long walk-- 20...what, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13. l was going down the stairs. l could remember a fireman resting on the landingand telling them you know, we've heard a mayday.get out of the building. l don't think they...a lot of them-- l know for a fact--did not take it serious.
you start to feel your anxietybuild up... ...take a deep breath,and you say lt's going to be all right. let's just keep going. l have brothers ahead of me,brothers behind me. we're in this together,we're fighting together and we're going to dowhat we have to do. sarge? hey, pete!
come on. pete! l was not evenconsciously filming. l just had my camera by my side and pointing the lightwherever they needed. needed my light to...to-to actually help someone and then l realizedit was father judge. hurry up! okay, guys, here,we need a hand here.
hey, guys,you come back down! they saw him lying at the baseof the escalator where we were iand l removed his white collarand l opened up his shirt and l remember checkingfor his pulse and realizing at that time... um... he was gone. all right,we got four guys. o'neill. off the escalatorright here.
come on! okay, right here. come on, guys, let's go! follow my light. top of the escalator. top of the escalator? after that,we had to figure out how to get outof where we were. ...floor to the command post.
do you want us to evacuate? because if you go out this way,right where we are now... people are still jumping... ...debris is still fallingand it's too dangerous. you cannot go out this way. one world trade center we took a hiton that last explosion. command post is being evacuatedat this time. l have people in here
who cannot get outdue to the debris field. 1 o-4. can we get out here? going out this way, chief? hold it, hold it. chief pfeifer tells the peoplecarrying father judge okay, stay here. which way? l told them that l'll be back
and wait here, and l'll see ifthe bridge is-is still here. chief pfeifer went to checkone of the footbridges leading outof the trade center. lf it was still standing,it'd be their best way out. what are we gonna do? there's no way to get home. lt's going to be okay. did you hear what happenedwith the other tower? lt's gone.
you see the tower collapse? the top or the whole thing? looked likethe whole thing and now whatthey said was uh, fbl just came hereand they said that uh, that a third planeis what did it. another plane hit it. we'll head down together. and now l wonderfor the first time if...
if jules is still alive. l never thought about it before. have any firemenbeen hurt? honey, it's a terrible,terrible day. l'm sure there have been. l realize that jules couldbe dead that very moment and l was feeling...so responsible. l was the one who put himin this situation. l had to find jules.
gedeon hitched a ridewith three off-duty firemen determined to get tothe trade center the only way they could-- in a pickup truck. billy cosgrove! we shouldn't haveeven come in here, man. all floors are leaving. everybody out of tower one. okay! battalion one to division one.
we walk and we walkand we walk and... go with the mayday.go with the mayday. there are maydays being given and we start to figure out:okay... we should be ableto get out here. ...it must be worsethan we think because you cannot havethat many maydays and all that dustand that noise. mayday! mayday! mayday...
no! no! that's when l feltthe danger... for the first time. lt was all around you. l mean... every single cellof your body is telling you... you should not be here. the scenery wasradically different. l mean, it was... it'swhite powder everywhere. just a few peoplehere and there...
take yourself a mask. we got masks,we got an extra cylinder and l want to go in. ...and this kind of silence. you okay? we have ambulancesstraight down. of course, there's no wordon casualties... ...but suffice to say, the lossof life presumably profound. ambulances arestraight down.
of course at this point everyone's concernis just getting north getting awayfrom the world trade center as well as finding outwhere their families are. the south tower of the worldtrade center just minutes ago collapsed to the ground. only one tower is standingat this point. l have a direct line of sight to what is leftof the world trade center.
the fire continues to burn. l can see the flamesthrough the thick smoke. battalion one to check out. l follow the chief. by this time, chief pfeiferhad found a safe exit... ...and tried to radio the menin the lobby. no answer. page a mayday.go with a mayday. so we walked across the bridgeback towards the trade center
still trying to call on theradio and not getting through. the guys that we had left there they're not there anymore. they had alreadygone out another way carrying the body of fathermychal judge down the street to saint peter's church. they laid his bodyon the altar. the chief, his aide eddy fahey,and jules walked outside underneath the footbridgethey just crossed
and into a scene that none ofthem could even comprehend. and there's debris everywhere. there's dust coveringthe entire place... battalion two to division one... ...and we look,and the tower is here. so we said, okay, probablyit was something else. the tower is nice. lt's standing, and the otherone, we can't see it but it's probably just,you know, on the other side
and no one tells us--we have no clue. where the trade center was was, uh,just covered with smoke and that's not unusualfor a fire to have a building disappearbehind the smoke. and there was a... just a-a sense that this wasn'ta good place to stay. so we walk north. just trying to figure outwhat took place here
and then try to gainsome control. emergency! emergency... so we started to rebuildsome sort of structure. all right, we goteverybody out of the lobby who was in the lobby. chief pfeifer's prioritywas to set up a new command postand find his men. right now, they werecoming down the stairs. at some point l started to run.
l don't even know if l wastouching stairs on my way down. when l got aboutto three or two is when l startedto think of my family, you know. l said, l've gotto get out of here. when we got out to the lobby...it was unbelievable. nobody was around. command station, there wasnobody at the command station. lt looked likethe end of the world. l-l... joked about it.
l said the command postwas abandoned. the board was set upand nobody was there. l said, oh,this is not a good sign. l knew there was nothingl could really do. l mean, l was not a fireman. l had absolutelyno medical expertise at all. l was just a civilian. but as a cameraman... yeah, there wassomething l could do--
and it was to documentwhat was happening. so the cameraman took overand just filmed. gedeon had made his way asclose to the tower as he could. strange enough, the only thingthat was... that was... my preoccupation was to... to... to clean my lens. l don't know if it was a wayfor me to try focus on something so l can... stay awayfrom the horror, the reality but it, uh, it wasjust my obsession
was my lens needsto be cleaned. people jumped. jules was with chief pfeifer,who was plotting his next move. the firefighters from my house had reached the lobbyand scattered. you know, kind of walkingat this point. we knew we were out of thebuilding, felt we were safe. unfortunately, there were peoplejumping out of windows. you could see them hittingthe ground all around you
debris hitting the ground. l thought we was goingto get out the building the chiefs will meet up but then we come up with a planand then we go back in. that's what l thoughtit would be something like. just before l walked out a firemanout in the middle of the street was yelling at me, wait! wait!throwing up his hands and, uh, that time l waited
and there was a big thudand then another thud and, uh, it was two people who had fallen or jumpedfrom way high up. get yourself accounted for with chief goreydown at staging. let's move!come on, officers. basically,everybody was standing right in the shadowof tower one. lt was 10:28 in the morning.
and then comesthat-that sound again. and l don't even have timeto think at that point. l just run. and it's dead silence;it's nothing no radio calls, no...no sound, nothing. and l feel the personwho was on top of me get up... let's get out of here. you with me?yeah. ...and l recognizeit's chief pfeifer's voice
and l just realized just,you know he jumped on top of meto protect me from all this. help!help! chief pfeifer said,okay, let's go now and we get up,the dust starts to clear because the wind was blowingin the opposite direction. after that it wasjust trying to literally walk around the blockand regroup and walk back to the sceneand see what we could do.
less than a block away, gedeonwas still in darkness. the pounding stopped and you realized now that you just can'tbreathe anymore. we need help! let's gobefore the cars blow up! this way! at that point l realizedthat l was going to die. tell me where to go!
over here behind the edgeof the truck. over here.keep shouting. here, come to the truck. come on, we got to getout of here. you got to fucking move,mftn . and the only thingl could think about was jules and l remember telling myselfthat if l would survive that l would...l would be a better brother. over here.
yeah, let's go. you can make it. help him. help him! quickly. he weighs 400 pounds, dude. you get over here. we have to leave here. he's not standing. you need to come over hereand fucking help me.
the last persongedeon had filmed was now lyingin the middle of the street. grab his legs. this guy must have beenstanding outside in the street when everything collapsed,and he survived it. and with the helpof an fbl agent he walked him to safety. and we can't see a thing. you have to walk, sir.you have to walk.
you're almost there,almost there. and he would pass outevery second. so it was very difficultto carry him. thank you both. help me!help me! towards us! shit. do you have some water,something to drink? thanks.
open your mouth. open your mouth'cause l need the water, too. l had been in this streetthree times in the last hour. the first time,it was full of people the second time, everybodywas running away from it and the third time... getting outof the last collapse there was just nobody. and everything was white.
everything was coveredby the dust. holy shit. lt was the most surreal scenel have ever seen. l cannot describewhat took place. lt is a scenejust not to be believed. the smoke still billowing. what we do have is a lockdown. you can't get in;you can't get out. you can't go up;you can't go down.
l see that l'm stillin the middle of the street and l see there isa little deli that seems to be openon the corner. yeah, we're getting 02 now. oh, okay. come on in, guys. he's in the back! he's in the back!make a right. a lot of people injured--
hey! firefighters, bloody noses things like that. and then it hits me--now, where is my brother? l was upstairs.l was in the lobby. go back here. l start realizing thatl've probably lost my brother. so l try to go backto the world trade center. l need to go find my brother.
where are the guys? l have no idea. l was withchief pfeifer. and l'm in the middleof the street, walking and a cop approached meand says, you know who are you with? l'm with the chiefof battalion one. oh, you're battalion one?yes. you got l.d.?got l.d.?
l have my letter of, uh,from the commissioner... take your letterand your camera and get out of here...all right? go. so l go back up walk north, not reallyknowing where l'm going. you with thepolice department? no, l'm making a documentaryon the fire department. fucking disneyland.let's go.
and after l while l said you know, there's nothingl can do here. l need to go backto the firehouse. maybe they'll have some news. maybe he's already back there but at that point, l just... l think he's dead... and it becomes... it becomestoo overwhelming. walking back to the firehouse
l'm not trying to thinkfor one second about jules. that was too much. don't worry, honey. everyone's asking me,what happened? what happened? l said, l don't know. l said, hell.hell is what happened. lt just came down, and itwasn't supposed to come down. l came back to the firehouse. let's go, guys.
let's go, guys,iet's move it. very emotional. a lot of guys are crying. l'm crying. you all right? eh? where the fuck were you? l couldn't get back in. they wouldn't let me up. and still we don't knowhow many guys are missing.
we're down there looking. l got thrown intotwo ambulances. we bolted, we ran. l never got so many hugsin my life. they wereglad to be alive hugs. lt was a great thingto-to know that, uh... that, uh, peoplewere surviving this. l thought you guyswere dead. you're notthe only one.
l thoughtl was dead. we lost so much that...in that two-hour period. how you doing?all right? we felt like we gotthe hell kicked out of us. l'm in shock. l don't know what to do, man. go back down there or what? l'm fucking in shock. everyone okay?
you guys werein the building? yeah. so many thoughts and emotions. we got to call our loved ones,tell them we were okay. we made it out. we just made it out. l was never so happy tohear my mother's voice. oh, my mother... all right, guys?
little to little the guys started to come back,one by one. again, the cameramanwould just film. l mean, it wasjust like, vroom! you heard the ground rumble,and it was just... fucking debris was justchasing you. we were running!hauling ass! so, it was just filming themcoming back and asking them if they had seen jules
and nobody could answerthis question. are you tired, brother? lt was extremely frustratingand annoying. one guy from the firehousecame to me and l asked him, you know,have you seen jules? do you know where he is? and he looked at me,and he said yes, he's behind you... and l turn over...and jules was there
in the firehouse. l didn't even see himcoming in. and it was like meetingfor the first time. l ask jules if he's all right and he tells me, yes. he tells me that he wasall that time in the lobby. l never thought l would beso happy to meet my brother that's for sure. cried like babiesfor about ten minutes.
and, um, l know nowwhat it's like to think you're going to die. oh, fuck, man,we were worried about you guys. we didn't knowwhat happened to you guys. oh, god. everybody...everybody's accounted for? yeah.right here. you got everybody? everybody's accounted for? engine 3-1-6...
you all right? l-l can't believewe all made it out. how did we make it outof that building? 30 seconds... another two flights higher. why am l alive,and so many others are dead? got down to the lobby and we saw they abandonedthe command post we knew wewere in trouble.
we camped out, it was,it was, it was much worse than it was going up. right? we went up,and they had everything set up. we came down,it was desolate. l was, like,holy shit... we came down to the lobby,it was like a fuckin' war zone. there was nobody there. where the fuck...?what do we do? we made it outside,we made it about a block...
we made itat least two blocks and we started running. floor by floor,it started popping out. lt was as if theyhad detonated... yeah, detonated... ...planned to takedown a building. boom, boom, boom, boom,boom, boom, boom! all the way down. l was watching it and running. just ran up west street.
and then you just saw this cloudof shit chasing you down... where did you go? couldn't outrun it. so what'd you do? l jumped undera battalion car. il hid under the carjust waiting to die. the scene here is reminiscentof a nuclear winter... right now, everyoneis walking around with maskscovering their faces.
people just wanderingthe streets covered in blood,covered in plaster. they were near the sitewhen the buildings collapsed. we were on about, l thinkit was the 28th floor we hear thisfuckin' rumblin' and l guess that'swhen two came down. l guess it hit one, crushedout the marriott, whatever... am l right? thoughtwe were fuckin' dead. l guess the best wayto sum this up is
the world trade centeris no more. sit down. the loss of life,one can only imagine is just enormous... it must beincomprehensible at this point. they have a fireman's... they have a fireman's bodyin ten, in house, on the floor. they dragged him in,but they can't identify him 'cause the shirt wherehis name is, is ripped and it's only half a body.
building started shaking... guys started running and, and, uh, by the timel got to the bottom there was bodieshitting the ground. chaplain-- we carried outthe chaplain. he was dead. he was dead? lt exploded, it all...just blew us all in. the fire departmentchaplain? yeah. old guy.
fuck. he had no pulse,nothing. we lucked... you know,in a way, we lucked out. we were in one.two fell first. then they told us to get out. two fell first? two fell first. l can'tfigure this out. lt fell while we werein the building.
yeah. that's why--we were lucky. when you guys came out of thebuilding, two was already gone. yeah! really? yeah. two was gonewhen we came out of one. watching on the news, twofell... one didn't fall for... that's what theywere getting us out. the united states will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts.
son of a bitch. l'm going to want a list of the new york cityfirefighters and officers that are willingto go back to work again. okay? we probablywon't be leaving for at least a half hourbut l want to get a list. yeah, l don't why myselfand the other guys were picked to survive this. we're gonna needmasks down there.
ln a way, l feel that theremust be a reason. we'll leave as soon as we getthe order from, uh, division. what am l supposed to doto... to earn this? lt's not easy being a survivor. put your headback now, gently. you okay?yeah. oh, that day...that day changed everything. l thinkl got fibers in there. you got fibersin there.
when l came back that dayto the firehouse one firefighter came to meand he said, you know yesterday you had one brother. today you have 50. lt's good to see you. lt's hard to even describe the emotions in the firehousethat day. on one hand,you celebrated. very frightful day, man.
very happy to be here. somehow the guysfrom our house, they got out. everybody came back,one by one, to the firehouse except... one. did you see tony over there?benetatos? huh?tony. benetatos is theonly one that, uh... here we were, all accounted for except for tony.
everybody was wonderingabout tony. at the same time, we knewhundreds of firefighters thousands of people... had tohave died in those towers. and every hour that passed we were more certaintony benetatos was one of them. can anybody hear me? hey, guys, deputy chief hillcalled, first division. he doesn't want anybody elsedown there right now. they got a million guys that arestanding around doing nothing.
so, it's a direct orderfrom hill. l'd come in from home and, yeah, we were orderedto stay at the firehouse... let's go, guys!let's move it out! let's move it out!let's go! ...but the truth is... ...the guys had to go back had to start diggingfor survivors. let's go!
that fuckin' mentality-- get in there, get in there,get in there get the people out-- is bred in you,it's programmed into you. l had to go back... billy... ...and find the kid. shit! lt's gone, man.
seven came down? l got down there just as sevenworld trade finally collapsed. no sign of tony anywhere. lt had to be almost 6:oo nine hoursafter everything started... hey, benetatos! ...that tony just walked in. l walked in, like, a daze and they were all like,hey, it's benetatos.
you're all right. what's wrong with your hand? anything? nah. no? you're all right? just chill out. how you doing? yeah, l'm all right. what happened on your end? l wasin the building.
were you? ls everyone from the house...? everyone? everybody isaccounted for. thank god. sit down over there.there are some benches. you want something to drink?want something to eat? how you doing, tony? have some fruit--nice vitamin c there for you.
so everyone's accounted for? everyone here, yeah. everyone who was out at...out at the box? you were the last one. you motherfuckers, man. l was so sure you dudeswere dead, man. l'm fuckin' diggin' through shit and you fuckers arechillin' here, eatin' oranges and l'm roamin' aroundiooking for you, man...
the last onethat went out there came back, and we were all okay. l left here right afterthe first collapse. turns out tony had been with larry byrnesthe whole time-- the probieand the retired chief. they were right therewhen tower one came down. go, go, go, go, go! go! get behind this building!
get behind this building! get in, get in, get in,get in! we go into the varioussurrounding buildings... follow the street!hello! come to the light! ...trying to calmpeople down... stay where you are. stay here until youhear differently. ...directing peopleto go to the brooklyn bridge
to get off the island. everybody please evacuatethe area immediately! there's people... crying... oh, my god! ...people injured. the one that sticks outin my mind-- there's a guy... his armhad gotten, looked like severed here, and he was holdinghis right arm in his left as he was running
and he was screamingas l was hacking: l need a medic!l got a bad bleed! you know,and that kind of shocked me. we kept going. l checked all the rigs. there were rigs crushed paramedic trucks coveredwith rubble, flipped. fires burning everywhere--huge fires. that whole day,l just searched through rubble
lifting things up,checking underneath. lt was hard for him. lt was very hard for him. he's only been a firefighter for, you know,a couple of months but he proved himself that dayto all the guys, yeah. there was so much that we didn't know aboutthat first day-- who had attacked us, how, why.
all we knew was that nothingwould ever be the same. l must've saw aboutseven or eight bodies flying through the air,coming from 80 floors up. and then, of course the images of the replaythat never stops-- of the planes hitting,the towers coming down-- and it was like,whew... okay, enough tv. thankfully, the power went outabout that time. so it was... it was a relief.
the generator may bein the, uh, courtyard and then we'll hook the lightsinto it. l got two more setsof lights coming. the entire downtown manhattaniost power. lt was really this feeling that we're going to be therefor a long time. just a short while ago,mayor giuliani held a news conference,saying it's important not to lash out in angerbecause of the attacks
on the world trade center... at the firehouse that night we just triedto take it all in. lt's weird, like,iook at the date. nine-one-one? that's the date. but that's just it.the whole thing. they know we were allready for new year's eve we're all ready for this,we're all ready for that;
we're not readyfor september 1 1 . what, has anybody seen the news?what else happened? you know what? l'm afraid towatch the news. both towersare completely leveled. both towers... three buildings are fuckin'--completely fuckin' gone. four, five, six,and seven are gone. gone.
they're all gone. the roof of the marriott-- we were on the roofof the marriott. there was parts all over thefuckin' place-- legs, feet... lt was nasty. one of the thingsthat sticks with me more than everything l saw,is l sat down next to ted-- he looked real bad. he said, tony, man, it was...
it was raining bodies. l just... the way he said it,man, l just... the man had been through hell. good evening. today, our fellow citizens,our way of life our very freedom cameunder attack in a series of deliberateand deadly terrorist acts. lt's a very depressed,dismal, miserable mood. hundreds of your firemen
thousands of civiliansare gone. as much... as quickly as you'reblowing a match, they're gone. flip a switch, they're gone.that's it. those buildings came down. gone. l don't see them. lt's hard to believethey're not there. they're not there. that was myfirst reaction. they're gone.
there is no moreworld trade center. no. lt did happen, right? lt's not somethingthat l'm going to close my eyes and open them again and l'mgoing to see the tower, right? lt's not there. you know, and the only thingyou have, really and the only thing that reallykept it all together was us as a group, as a body,as a firehouse.
around midnight we sent tony up to lower the flagto half-mast... again. there's going to bea lot of pain to deal with in the future. l have a pretty good friend who was in my academy class,in my squad who is among the missing. a lot of guys, we all lostfriends and family. l don't want to ever have to putthat thing at half-mast again
for the rest of my career. that's it. till the recall ends iit's 24 on, 24 off24 on, 24 off. we got word that we'd startdigging in the morning. some of the guys with wivesand kids went home just for a few hours. they knew it might be days before they'd seetheir families again.
my son was sleeping. l picked him upand l put him in my bed and l wanted him...l wanted him to be with me. normally, l would take himout of my bed and put him in his own bedbut this night was the opposite. he didn't mind that. he-he actually hada big smile on his face. lt was wonderfulto see that smile again. probably the best-best entrancel ever made to a place.
and the kids came out and we just kind of all criedin one big hug and, uh... it was, uh... and we just... we just cried. all right, l got two, there. we need a couple more guysout here. we'll set up a little line. yeah, you canclimb up there. came back to the firehousethe next day.
l couldn't waitto get back, actually 'cause l wantedto get down there. l figured, well, we're goingto have plenty of people to... that are going to be trapped,for sure. we're gonna get them out. we have to. we always do. l don't know if anyone's reallypulled themselves together. focus on whatyou're doing today. there will be time enoughin a couple of weeks
to really take inwhat happened to our guys but today you must focuson what you're doing. go in teams of two. lf one guy fallsthrough a hole you're going to have a guy there that knowsyou fell in that hole. we're all alive. that's more than we could havepossibly hoped for. so our job now is to go and dowhatever needs to be done
and to do it as muchand as hard as we can for as long as they'll let us. some of the guystook a city bus down to what the media wasalready calling ground zero. hey, guys, got extrasurgical gloves. you guys need to put themin your pockets. some firemen called itthe pile. for us, it was still the tradecenter, even if it was gone. hey, guys,if you hear three horns
it means somethingmight be coming down. so keep your eyes open when you're walking arounddown there. and l just realized somethingthat l always wanted to deny: is how evil... evil can be. we need five firefightersfrom 19 and 12. we went down thereand formed up companies-- five men and an officer... go! let's go!
we went to work right away,trying to look for survivors. try and get some bucketsback here! buckets! guys were digging fast,passing those buckets quick... ...digging frantically. buckets! buckets! hey, watch your back, guys. we'd be digging and all of a sudden,everybody would say, quiet. and the whole place would getquiet and people would look.
hello! and then slowlythey would go back to work and... and start again. and that was... that'show things went down there. l remember the first time l went there,it was like, whew! you know, gateway to hell. you'd never knowunless you were there but the pile itself seemedto have a life of its own.
lt moved and shiftedunderneath us. every step you took... ...you could fall 30 or 40 feetinto a void. lt spewed firewhen we dug into it and had buriedthousands of people beyond our reach. all's we saw was steel and l didn't know how we weregoing to get below that. like, how are we goingto find anybody in this?
you know,and you get up on this pile and you... and you're diggingwith a shovel or you're digging with a pickaxor something like that it's... your attemptsseem futile and, um... you know, it was likea drop in the bucket. but you believed in your heartthere was somebody down there and if could've found one person you know,that-that was well worth it. water!
need more water! whatever risk you wereputting yourself at just to find anybody,that's what drives the guys. let's get somebuckets back here. we'd clear what we couldby hand. then the iron workerswould come in cut the steel beams,and lift them out. then we'd just...start digging again. you have two 1 10-storyoffice buildings.
you don't find a desk. you don't find a chair. you don't find a telephone,a computer. the biggest piece of a telephonel found was half of the keypad,and it was about this big. the building collapsed to dust. how are we supposedto find anybody in this? there's nothing leftof the building. bucket!
you find a little spotand you just keep going and digging and digging,and trying to find something. you find a footand then they say: the building's goingto collapse, and you run away. go! go! go! don't stop, just go! okay, okay. and then we would go back and... mostly just dug.
we found... we found a body. lt was a girl. she was dead. she was...she was definitely dead. all her clotheshad been burned off her. she looked to be pregnant. some people thought maybeshe was just bloated but l don't think so. she was...she was encased in rubble.
and we had herabout halfway uncovered and getting the body bag ready and then they told us to run... and we ran. so l never got to seeif they got her out. lt would've felt goodgetting... saying, all right, at leastl got one person out. one family will be ableto have a decent funeral. quiet!quiet!
our first shift was 24 hours and in all that time there was one personpulled out alive-- one. lt was beyond discouraging. lt was even hard to understand. lt was weird, in a way,walking back to the firehouse. usa! usa! people were cheering us... thank you!
...but we sure didn't feellike heroes. every day, total strangerswere showing up with supplies. somebody said that you could stilluse towels. yes, we could. so, that's the end of the towels. thank you very much. okay. allright. they open up the doors and,io and behold deliveries were coming...by the ton. kitchen. why don't you just goright around the corner?
just dump 'emon the floor. you can't eat all the cookiesthey're giving you. l know it's earlyin the operation, here but l just wantto thank everyone for all the hard workthat they've been doing. how we're here, only god knows but... again, guys,thank you so much. l really... you have no idea how much lovel have for you guys.
check the lockers, bro--all the lockers-- take whatever. there's something special,you know when guys are relentless... ...and just goingback and forth. guys with nails in their hand,taping it up... gashes, blood everywhere just taping it up and saying,let's go back. let's see what we can do to make this situationa little better.
there's got to be peopledown there still alive. there has to be. listen, we triedto keep hope... ...and we'd look everywhere. we even crawled downinto the stores and the subway tunnelsunderneath the site... ...but as days turnedinto weeks we began to accept... ...there just wasn't anybodyto find...
...but we neverstopped looking. hey, chief. yes, sir! we got anotherbody over here. firemen deal with ugly thingsevery day-- it's part of the job... but this was worse. you have that body bag? day after day, it pushed guysto their limit--
maybe past it. a lot of guys don't know if they're goingto do the job anymore. l know it's either thisor the army now and l like saving lives. l don't like taking them. but after what l saw if they... if my countrydecides to send me... to go kill...
l'll do it now. every night around dinnertime the fire departmentwould put out a list of firefighters confirmed dead and every night,that list got longer. lt is with regret that the department announces the deathsof the following members: battalion chiefjohn p. williamson
firefighter william henry firefighter eric t. allen firefighter manuel mojica firefighterlawrence j. bajillio firefighter timothy haskell firefighter thomas t. annisted firefighter john a. sentore firefighter shawn... we lost so many people,that everybody has lost
dear friends, and not justone or two, but-but dozens. most days there was a memorialservice for some guy you knew some days two or three,some days four. one of those serviceswas for kevin pfeifer the chief's brother. he was last seenin the stairs of tower one directing guys to the fastestway out of the building. l would saythat chief pfeifer's brother saved my life.
saved a lot of lives. and l remember walkingdown west street and just remembering saying,uh... you know how much my brother and lused to love being downtown and, uh... and doing this job and, um... and, um... and how nowl didn't love it anymore. some of the guys hikedup the stairs
in a building near the site... ...but not to put out a fireor rescue civilians. one! two! three! they made the climb...to lift our spirits. lt's like our moment in time,our disaster to handle. every generation's gonethrough it. some strugglemore than others... ...but we just have to tryto take it for what it's worth and-and go on.
and you see, little by little,life... starting to go on. a few weeks passedand we got new rigs. well, used rigs to replace engine sevenand ladder one. they're still buried in theresomewhere, under the pile. eventually, we startedgoing on runs again... lt feels good,don't it? ...playing pranks again and trying our bestto love the job again...
...but things will never bethe way they were. every now and thenl still wonder is it, is it really true,you know? l know it happened, but... l don't know-- how do you dealwith something like this? lt's the 1 1th every dayfor me when l wake up. so did you wantthe new tape? as for jules and gedeon it's strangehow things work out.
ln the beginningthey came to me and they said let's make a documentaryabout a boy becoming a man during his nine-monthprobationary period. lt turns out tony became a manin about nine hours trying to help out on 9l1 1 . you knowhow you could tell that? he's not bragging about it. lt said to fill. we were the only oneson the ticket
but it said to fill 10-75. do l feel like it's given memore of a sense of self-worth? has it made me a man? uh... what's a man? you know,l'll still watch cartoons and do my stupid things. l'm just a personwho tries to do good just like every other personin the fire department.
for the fire department,now it's about rebuilding... somehow. at our firehouse, we've alreadygot new probies to break in... you get one chanceto make a first impression. ...two guys freshout of the academy. lt's strange to think they'llnever know what it was like to be a new york city firemanbefore september 1 1 ... ...and they'll neverreally understand what we lost that day.
all we can do istell them the stories and show them the tape. the valley is hushed and the flowersare all dying the meadow here is white with the winter snow lone, as l stand ln the placewhere danny's lying l say a silent prayer
somehow l know he hears me there so soft l treadabove him so now he sleeps in peace he hears danny's voice no more oh, danny boy, the pipes,the pipes are calling from glen to glenand down the mountainside the summer's gone,and all the flowers are dying
'tis you, 'tis you must goand l must bide but come ye backwhen summer's in the meadow or when the valley'shushed and white with snow 'tis l'll be herein sunshine or in shadow oh, danny boy, oh, danny boy,l love you so and when you come,and all the flowers are dying and l am dead,as dead l well may be you'll come and findthe place where l am lying and kneel and sayan ave there for me
and l will hear, thoughsoft you tread above me and on my gravewill warmer, sweeter be for you will bendand tell me that you love me and l shall sleep in peace until you come to me.