Its 8 Years Later...And I Still Can't Go To Work

Sweet Lou 4 2 · Sep 11, 2009

conquistador#11 said:

Just between us, when jorge w. delivered the opening pitch in the world series, I was proud of him. I admired him.
Click to expand...

what ever happened to TJ?

rimrocker · Sep 11, 2009

Oral history of the last guy out of WTC 1...

I made sure there was nobody from EMS still in the lobby because we were moving our entire operation. I was the last one out of 1 World Trade Center.

I made it about halfway across West Street and I was just stepping into the street off the center median when I heard what is going to be instilled in my memory forever; a sound that combines a railroad car, an airplane, a fighter jet and thunder. I looked up and I saw the World Trade Center falling down. Number 1 World Trade Center was coming down. Number 2, I couldn't even really be sure at that point. One of the buildings was falling on my head. I said oh, my god.

You really only had a split second to make a decision. I could have ran left, I could have ran right, which would have been north or south on West Street, but I looked right in front of me and I was looking at the command post where I saw all the senior Chiefs. I saw Chief Kowalczyk. I saw Chief Gombo and there was, in the American Express building, in the World Financial Center, there was actually an underground garage and I don't know why I chose that garage, but I chose to run straight ahead for the garage. I must have made it in --I don't know whether I was in 10, 20, 30, 50, 100 feet. I know I wasn't in far, but all of a sudden just a woosh and a thrush, just, I started getting hit by debris. I got picked up and started being thrown. We were tripping over each other; firemen, Chiefs, Captains, Lieutenants, EMTs. I don't know if there were any EMTs, I should not say that.

We just got thrown, and everything went black and it was almost silent. Right at that moment I saw
my two kids. I saw my father who passed away. I was actually in the air flying along and it was only, I guess, maybe a second, and I said to myself my god, that's it, it's over, because it was black and it was silent.

Then I hit the ground. Then stuff was just piling on top of me. As soon as I hit, I fell on my shoulder. I got an excruciating pain. So I said to myself --this is all within a second this is going on through my mind. I said to myself, I said, you are not dead because there is no pain in heaven. I feel this excruciating pain running down my arm. Now I'm getting hit in the back of my head and everything and thank god I had my helmet on.

Another interesting thing was that I wore my turnout coat that day. I don't wear my turnout coat
too often. Forever I will wear my turnout coat every day. I wore my turnout coat, so everything was just hitting me in the back. I said all right I'm not dead, because I'm not in heaven. Then I said wait a second. Maybe I'm in hell. Right at that moment I just decided there's no way I'm staying in hell. I don't belong here. I just stayed down for a another few seconds. I know that was a conscious decision I made just to stay down and try and let things subside a little bit.

It was still pitch black. Dust was flying. I couldn't breathe at that point. I couldn't see anything. I couldn't hear anybody else around me, so I'm just assuming that there really is nobody else around me, that, you know, the worst has come. I didn't want to come to that realization yet. While I'm thinking it, I didn't want to believe it.

I waited another few seconds and then I --it was sort of like it subsided a little bit, because I didn't hear any more rumble, but it was still quiet. I managed to get up, clean some stuff off me and start figuring that I had to search my way out of here. I think of a few things really quick. Back to years and years and years ago when I went to basic fire training in Suffolk County Fire Academy, I said you know what I got to do.The first thing I got to do is I got to breathe, otherwise I will be dead in no time. So I actually took my head and I took my turnout coat and I disengaged. I pulled the snaps off and I disengaged my liner and everybody always made fun of me because I always left my full liner in the coat even in the
summer. I disengaged the liner and I actually used
that to shield me to breathe. Probably one of the two things that saved my life.

The other was after we started going I remembered that coming from SOD, you always had Nomex hoods, because when we suited up we had to wear hoods. I said, well, I got my hood in my pocket. I pulled my hood out and I used that also. So I had at that point, which was a double filter, to allow me to breathe. So it had to be like --I'm estimating, probably another 10 minutes, that I couldn't find anybody. I was just--I guess sort of just wandering around in there, just trying to find my way out.

Then I saw a light and it was a fireman. He was calling out to people. I said yes, I'm over here. Now it's just the two of us. We started moving down. We made a pact that we were both getting out of there alive. I don't know who this guy was. I believe that he saved my life, because without that light, without the two of us reassuring each other, I'm not quite sure I would have made it out of there. I would love to know who he was. The two of us together, we said we stay together no matter what happens.

Another few minutes later we found another firefighter, another firefighter. Nobody was injured.
My shoulder wasn't really a concern at that point. I had sprained my knee, I had hurt my shoulder, but that wasn't like a concern. We found a few more guys. I don't know how long it was. It was a while, but everything was still pitch black. Nobody could breathe down there. A few firefighters had masks. They were passing them off to help some people out. Some firemen didn't have masks. There was a real spirit of --this was at the time like 5 or 6 guys, that we were just fighting for our lives.

I don't know, it could have been two minutes, it could have been two hours. It could have been 20
minutes. Best guess that I can imagine was like 20
minutes. We searched our way and we had an orderly search that we all just held on to each other and we found a wall and we essentially just searched our way out of the building.

...

At that point I said out loud, I said, okay, let me get my thoughts together. We got to go back to
work. One of the firemen looked at me and he said are you stupid. I said yes. In this case I must be. I
remembered clearly at that point --I mean some people were jumping on boats at that point, because there were boats lined up along the Hudson. People were just jumping on boats and I thought of doing that at a point.

But I remember specifically that I remembered
Chief Kowalczyk, that I left --that he was the last
person that I really physically saw. I ended up making my way back to Vesey Street. I was actually over at West End Avenue. Is that West End?

Q. North End?

A. North End, right. I was at North End Avenue and Vesey Street, where I met with Chief Goldfarb. At
that point we didn't know really what the outcome of this whole thing was going to be, but we decided real quick that we needed to put together a plan because there is still a monumental incident ahead of us. I was just trying to keep my composure at that point, because I still had a job to do. Being a Captain, there are still many people that are under me who are going to look to me for guidance and support. There is also Chiefs that really need me to function.

...

We were standing in the corner of West Street and Vesey Street, and I heard that rumble again, that
roar, that thunder, and I said dear god, I almost died once. God can't be letting this happen to me again. I looked up. This is how I know 2 fell first. I looked up and it was happening again. 1 World Trade Center was falling on my head now.

I said holy cow, this really can't be happening. Again you have that decision, do I run north on West Street or do I run to the water. I said screw this, I'm just --I'm going for a swim in the Hudson. That's where I'm going to run. It hit this time, but the difference was when it hit was because we were outside, it was just a deep dark gray rather than pitch black. Things were hitting us, but it was more dust, just more of the construction dust at this point.

I was still running but I couldn't see and we were tripping and while we were running, I thought I lost Chief Basile this time because we were running side by side. I later found out that he actually ducked into a doorway, but I just kept running until I hit North End Avenue again and then all I did was I just took a sharp right and it all just sort of just passed me. I was standing there almost in the clear. Everything was much thinner, the dust and you could breathe over there.

I walked up towards Murray Street and then I walked up to the West Side Highway and I just turned around and looked back at the Trade Center and I said oh, my god, because I'm sure that everybody has heard a million times, whoever in their right mind would have thought that the World Trade Center would ever fall down.

I was at the first one, the first incident in '93. I think we were all lulled into really a false sense of security that they couldn't take it down with a bomb, that this would never happen. A lot of emotion hit me at that point. I saw Rabbi Birnhack at that point. He said a prayer for me.

I started walking north on West Street. I didn't know how far I was going to go, but I was --I just didn't know what I was going to do at that point. I didn't know what my thoughts were. I was just sort of in a daze. Two 110 story buildings fell on my head so to speak. I was trapped before. I don't like using the word trapped because the fallen firefighters, police officers, they are trapped, and they are dead.

That's not a good word. I was just entangled for a
little while. Then I was able to thank god extricate
myself from, you know. I mean I lost a lot of friends, a lot of people I worked with over the years, coming from SOD. I worked with a lot of guys in specialty units. Being in Manhattan I worked with a lot of guys. The names of --you work with all the Battalion Chiefs and all the first line Battalion Chiefs who got killed. Terry Hatton, from Rescue 1 who I know for many years, he got killed. There were many other guys, Dennis Mojica, all the rest from Rescue 1 who we deal with on a regular basis, because being a Captain, a lot of first line supervisors deal with Engine companies, but I knew these guys.

I know a lot of these guys. Couple of guys I grew up with. One happens to be a police officer, Joe
Viggiano, who was in truck 2. His brother John
Viggiano was a Firefighter in Ladder 132. They are
both still missing. Just a tremendous amount of people that I would find out about later.

...

Then I met with Chief Hirth, who is Division 1 commander and Grace Cacciola, Lieutenant in the
Division, were in the Academy or so I thought, in
refresher. Right at that moment they appeared. I just grabbed Grace and I hugged him. We both cried. I didn't know they were there, they thought I was dead.

Because just my personality and where I have been in SOD, they assumed that I was in the building. The only reason I got out was God has determined that it's not my time yet.

We just held onto each other for a few minutes. Then we said okay. What are we going to do. It was time to head up to the piers. We started
regrouping. We head up to the piers and they started putting things together. At that point I was pretty well limping because my knee was hurting me and my shoulder. I was still in a lot of pain. So Chief Hirth actually ended up driving me in a command car.

We had a command car. He drove me over to Bellevue Hospital where I was evaluated. We found out nothing was broken. It was some just sprains and stuff. They took a chest x-ray because I must have eaten 50 or a hundred pounds of construction dust, asbestos, and everything else that was in the air that day.

They said --Bellevue signed me off from work. I said that's great, but there is still a monumental job to do. I mean we weren't even close to getting a hand on anything at that point.

So I took a few minutes. I washed my face. I cleaned myself up. I put my turnout coat and helmet on. Back to the Trade Center I went.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110076.PDF
Click to expand...

Many more stories here:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packag...12_WTC_GRAPHIC/met_WTC_histories_full_01.html

pippendagimp · Sep 11, 2009

i lost a friend, my next door neighbor, and twenty-three colleagues 8 years ago today

Deckard · Sep 11, 2009

Will never forget watching CNN. My wife had called from work and said a plane had hit the trade center, so I turn on the 24 hour news channel and was watching the coverage, thinking it was some kind of accident. No one thought the ultimate ending would be so horrific. So I'm watching and the second jet hits. Instantly, you realized everything happening was on purpose and that it was an attack. Spent the rest of the day (and night) watching events unfold in disbelief. How we could have created a world at once capable of so much beauty and, at the same time, so much madness will forever remain a mystery to me.

What a ****ed up species we are..

Fyreball · Sep 11, 2009

CaseyH said:

I am glad I am not one. Also I remember a guy here with the name New Yorker who was a jerk.
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So you had to get that out in THIS thread, at THIS time?? Real classy.

I have a feeling that this is going to be one of those days in history that will get more and more exposure the farther we get from it. Right now, we're in that period where people are just now starting to get OVER the whole ordeal, so the memorials and such are kind of low key. But I feel like once OUR generation has children, and we start to retell the story to them, there will be a lot of events planned around it. That's my opinion, anyways.

durvasa · Sep 11, 2009

My sincere condolences to all those who lost friends/family in the 9/11 attack.

DonnyMost · Sep 11, 2009

Since this is the D&D version of the thread, I can safely talk about how flipping pissed off I am that 8 years later all we have is a hole in the ground still.

We could have rebuilt the towers by now with an awe inspiring memorial to boot 3 times over if we didn't have a bunch of politically corrupt dipwads running the LMDC.

Red Chocolate · Sep 11, 2009

conquistador#11 said:

Just between us, when jorge w. delivered the opening pitch in the world series, I was proud of him. I admired him.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that moment right there really justified taking away personal freedoms and starting a senseless war that's killed hundreds of thousands+ over something less likely to kill you than a lightning strike. Go USA!

right1 · Sep 11, 2009

Red Chocolate said:

Yeah, that moment right there really justified taking away personal freedoms and starting a senseless war that's killed hundreds of thousands+ over something less likely to kill you than a lightning strike. Go USA!
Click to expand...

Either Atta caught lightning in a bottle or the war was started b/c of a shark attack can't figure out which one?

rudan · Sep 11, 2009

Red Chocolate said:

Yeah, that moment right there really justified taking away personal freedoms and starting a senseless war that's killed hundreds of thousands+ over something less likely to kill you than a lightning strike. Go USA!
Click to expand...

Sorry you lost your job Van. Heard that Acorn just fired someone in their DC office, maybe you should try putting in an application there.

Fatty FatBastard · Sep 12, 2009

DonnyMost said:

Since this is the D&D version of the thread, I can safely talk about how flipping pissed off I am that 8 years later all we have is a hole in the ground still.

We could have rebuilt the towers by now with an awe inspiring memorial to boot 3 times over if we didn't have a bunch of politically corrupt dipwads running the LMDC.
Click to expand...

To be fair, I'm more pissed off at their new "idea."

I wanted this one.

Red Chocolate · Sep 12, 2009

rudan said:

Sorry you lost your job Van. Heard that Acorn just fired someone in their DC office, maybe you should try putting in an application there.
Click to expand...

Go Obama! He loves us all!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuASoVK8f9c

DonnyMost · Sep 12, 2009

Fatty FatBastard said:

To be fair, I'm more pissed off at their new "idea."
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That idea got scraped back in 2005...

SamFisher · Sep 12, 2009

DonnyMost said:

Since this is the D&D version of the thread, I can safely talk about how flipping pissed off I am that 8 years later all we have is a hole in the ground still.

We could have rebuilt the towers by now with an awe inspiring memorial to boot 3 times over if we didn't have a bunch of politically corrupt dipwads running the LMDC.
Click to expand...

But then we'd have a bunch of completely empty, very expensive taxpayer funded office space down in lower manhattan.

Just turn the whole thing into a park/memorial or some sort of public space is my current view.

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