Det. David Brink, Emergency Service Unit, Truck 3, NYPD: I wanted to go. I had just survived the first collapse, and I was like, All right. I really don’t want to go through that again. The South Tower was on fire, obviously, and in ruins on the ground. We saw a lot of civilians. I thought to myself: Well, these are the people that we’re here to help. We can’t abandon them now.
David Norman: We felt that we were no longer part of the solution. We were now part of the problem.
Lt. Gregg Hansson, Engine 24, FDNY: I remember turning to the lieutenant in Ladder 5, Mike Warchola, and telling him, “Just heard a Mayday to get out of the building. We’re all leaving.” None of us were really in a hurried state at that point because on the 35th floor everything was as calm as could be.
Sharon Miller: I had a bunch of firemen behind me. You could hear their radios crackling. “Holy this!” and “Holy that!” And “Two just came down—One’s comin’ down next. Mayday, Mayday!” When PAPD Chief [James] Romito heard “Mayday!” that’s when he said, “All right, let’s go. We gotta get outta here.” We were at the 31st floor, 32nd floor, and we all turned around and started coming down.
John Abruzzo: We made it out to the West Street entrance. There was glass all over the place. They had to lift the chair physically off the ground to carry me out into the street. They put me down to rest. It took an hour and a half to get from the 69th floor down to street level. If it weren’t for the evacuation chair and the 10 people who brought me down, I would not have made it.
* * *
Pasquale Buzzelli, engineer, Port Authority, North Tower, 64th floor: We were the only people on the 64th floor of the North Tower. It wasn’t until we felt the building shake and vibrate that we started questioning, “Okay. Now this is getting more serious.”
Louise Buzzelli, Riverdale, New Jersey, wife of Pasquale Buzzelli, Port Authority, North Tower, 64th floor: The second building to get hit started to crumble and come down. I kept thinking: That building is just like his building.
Pasquale Buzzelli: Steve and I looked at each other and he said, “What the fuck are we still doing here? Let’s get the fuck out.” We gathered up rags that we wet, flashlights, whatever we could find, not knowing what we’d encounter on the way down. We formed a line and got ready to leave. We took a head count: 16. I was in the front, not because I was leading or anything. It happened to be where I was standing. Then Pat said, “All right. Let’s go.”
Genelle Guzman, office assistant, Port Authority, North Tower, 64th floor: Finally we decided to go down the staircase. My friend Pasquale was leading the way. I held on to [my coworker] Rosa’s hand. She was holding on to me. She was crying. I didn’t cry for some reason. I was trying to comfort her.
Pasquale Buzzelli: We encountered some firemen sitting on the stairs. They were tired and sweaty with their gear. They said, “Keep going straight down. Keep moving.” I don’t think their radios were working. If they had known themselves that Tower Two had collapsed, they would have been going down the stairs with us too. Instead they were going up.
Louise Buzzelli: I’m praying that I hear the phone ring and it’s him, and he’s going to tell me that he’s out and he’s somewhere on his way across the river or somewhere away.
Genelle Guzman: Pasquale kept making a couple of stops to ask, “Are you guys OK?” We kept saying, “Yes, we’re doing fine.” We kept walking and walking and kept counting the staircases because they had the number written on the columns. I was trying to tell Rosa, “We’re almost there.” I was wearing high-heeled shoes, so she was telling me, “Do you want to take your shoes off?” I’m like, “No, I’ll be all right. I’m doing OK.” My feet were killing me going down the stairs, and I wanted to stop but didn’t want to lose a minute.
“Tower Two is gone”
* * *
After the Collapse
Those who survived the collapse of the South Tower emerged into an unrecognizable landscape. Lost and traumatized, some fled, while others searched the wreckage for signs of hope.
Gregory Fried, executive chief surgeon, NYPD: I can’t tell you how long I was down, but then it stopped. I wasn’t dead, but I was really hurting a lot. I squirmed to my feet, and I guess the rubble was about shoulder-high in certain areas. My head was fairly well out of it, but I felt my right buttock, my right cheek. That was where all the pain really was. It was swelling, so I knew I was bleeding. I took my belt, wrapped it around, and started heading to the Hudson.
William Jimeno, officer, PAPD, buried under the rubble of the South Tower: Sergeant McLoughlin said, “What’s everybody’s condition?” Dominick said, “I’m trapped, I think I can shimmy out of here.” I told Sarge, “I’m in a lot of pain, my whole left side, I’ve got concrete on me, and I’m being crushed.” At this point, Sergeant McLoughlin was more stuck. He was in a fetal position, about 15 feet back. I could hear him, but I couldn’t see him. This hallway somehow collapsed and had separated us. He was very calm.
After about seven, eight minutes, Dominick shimmied himself up. We were in a very tight compartment, and I was lying on my back at a 45-degree angle. Sarge said, “Are you free?” Dominick said, “Sarge, I can go out this hole.” The hole was about 30 feet up—it looked dangerous. Sergeant McLoughlin said, “No, if you leave, you’ll never find us. You need to get Jimeno out, and you and Jimeno get me out.” It went on for a couple minutes. We’re human beings—and here you’re presented with a situation where you can go out for help, go for freedom and come back, or you stay in—literally—a hellhole, with your team. Sergeant McLoughlin, myself, Dominick Pezzulo, Antonio Rodrigues, and Christopher were all fathers—we all had kids. There’s no superheroes here—we’re regular human beings. Dominick had a real tough decision.
In the end, he said, “I’m going to get Will out.” He worked on me for about 15 minutes. At that point, he stopped. He said, “I can’t get you out.” This was about 20, 30 minutes after the initial collapse.
Chief Joseph Pfeifer, Battalion 1, FDNY: I remember walking north on West Street, walking through the blackness of downtown. I realized my brother was gone, and hundreds of firefighters were gone. All I could think of was how much we really used to love working downtown, and all the times we used to talk on the phone, or at the house, or at parties about the job. I realized all that was gone.
Al Kim, vice president of operations, TransCare Ambulance: I looked around and there were firefighters’ jackets everywhere. They were everywhere. I remember climbing over debris, and someone yelled, “There’s someone alive here.” Ran over. There was a guy who looked pretty messed up. We had no equipment. There was an ambulance burning, and all those vehicles I lined up, they were all on fire. Every last one of them. I went in one of those, grabbed some stuff. I grabbed the longboard, and whatever we did, we did. I don’t remember doing any of it, but we did it.
Al Kim, center, helps a firefighter amid the rubble.
Jean Potter, Bank of America, North Tower: I started walking in the gray dust. I was soaked because in the Concourse water had been pouring from the ceiling. People were yelling at me to cover my mouth, but I said, “Which way are the Towers? Are they behind me?” I didn’t want to be walking toward them. I made my way to Chinatown and tried to use the phone. I wanted to get as far away from the Towers as possible.
Steven Bienkowski, Aviation Unit, NYPD: All of Lower Manhattan was covered in a giant white dust cloud. As we came around in our helicopter to the North Tower again, you could still see people falling and jumping, except it didn’t look so violent anymore because you weren’t watching them hit the ground. It almost looked peaceful because they were falling into a white cloud.
Andrew Kirtzman, reporter, NY1: My taxi headed toward Chambers Street near City Hall and the taxi driver slammed on the brakes. He said, “I’m not going any further. Get out of here.” I fumbled for my money and this woman outside opened up the cab and climbed in next to me. She yelled, “Get me out of here!” I said, “Give me a second. I’m lea
ving.” “You’re leaving?” I said, “I’m a reporter. I’ve got to go cover the story.” She looked incredulous. He dumped me out on the street, and I was alone on Chambers Street, which on a daytime on a weekday is normally packed. The street was covered with white soot. It was eerily quiet and it was incredibly disorienting.
Lila Speciner, paralegal, Port Authority, North Tower, 88th floor: It looked almost like a snow globe, only it was flying papers and dust from the falling building. We still didn’t realize what had happened. We are soaking wet and I had debris in my hair, my ripped stockings, whatever. There were emergency people wandering around. “Are you hurt? Go here. If you’re not hurt, walk north. Go away from this building. We don’t know what’s going to happen next. Walk away.”
Frederick Terna, Holocaust survivor and Brooklyn resident: As ashes were falling, I was back in Auschwitz, with ashes coming down. In Auschwitz, I knew what the ashes were. Here, I assumed I knew what the ashes were—it was a building and human remains.
Det. Sgt. Joe Blozis, crime scene investigator, NYPD: Maybe I’m exaggerating, but it looked like maybe 18 inches of paper were covering the streets. Just tons and tons of paper from all those office buildings. The paper was catching on fire, which caused our emergency vehicles to catch on fire. We needed equipment before it was burnt up, so we were emptying out the trucks, taking the oxygen out, tools, ropes, and everything.
Dan Potter, firefighter, Ladder 10, FDNY: I started to see people coming out of wherever they took shelter. I rearranged myself, get myself focused again. I said, “That was the South Tower. I’m pretty sure it was the South Tower.” Now I said, “I got to get to my wife.”
Lila Speciner: As we got further and further away, there were some office buildings. People called us in and said, “Do you want to wash up? Our phones are working. Do you need to call family?” We got T-shirts from some company that had a picnic and had extra T-shirts. Everything we were wearing was soaking wet and dirty.
Lt. Joseph Torrillo, director of fire education safety, FDNY: All the screams around me were turning to cries, and the cries turned into whimpers, and the whimpers turned to silence. I didn’t hear anybody else anymore.
Across New York Harbor, in New Jersey, a junior Coast Guard officer, Lt. Michael Day, put in motion a massive boatlift to help evacuate people from the tip of Lower Manhattan.
Lt. Michael Day, U.S. Coast Guard: We were all in the Command Center, riveted, because we had these large-screen TVs and CNN reports, and when the first tower collapsed we lost one of the means of communication with the small boats; our 41-foot utility boats were on their way over there. We lost the radar image after the first tower collapsed because of all of the debris. We got reports there were people congregating on the lower tip of Manhattan. That’s when it really kicked in, when the first tower collapsed—the havoc.
Rick Schoenlank, president, United New Jersey Sandy Hook Pilots Benevolent Association: There was a call that was put out by the Coast Guard for all boats to render assistance to Lower Manhattan. Our boat—the 184-foot New York—got underway and went steaming full ahead up to the Battery. We sent a number of launches that we had to go up and assist as well.
Lt. Michael Day: The marina was filled with firefighters, police officers, rescue workers, and they were jumping onto the boats that were there, all on the sides, and they were getting overloaded again. Firefighters were throwing off their gear and leaping onto the tugs as they were leaving. We probably had 25 to 30 firefighters in the water floundering because this building had come down.
Edward Aswad Jr., officer, NYPD: We came across the marina. We got on a boat, or we were trying to get on a boat. [My NYPD colleague] Sean keeps saying he needs water, and I’m rummaging through this boat—there was this silver cabinet, like a cooler, and I opened it and there was water and beer. We start getting bottles of water and we’re pouring it all over our faces, our heads, taking our jackets off.
* * *
A few blocks from the World Trade Center, the city’s leaders, who had been forced into makeshift command posts because New York’s emergency management center in Seven World Trade Center had been damaged, found themselves on the run again following the collapse of the South Tower.
Rudy Giuliani, mayor, New York City: We walked out into the lobby of 100 Church Street, and within seconds, I had the feeling we had gone from bad to worse. What I saw outside on Church Street was a big cloud going through the street.
Sunny Mindel, communications director for the mayor of the City of New York, Rudy Giuliani: Everything was gray—a color world went monochromatic from all the soot and the ash. In this monochromatic world, the first bit of color came in the form of a guy named Tibor Kerekes, who was on the mayor’s security detail. He came into the building and was completely gray except for the blood.
Rudy Giuliani: Tibor Kerekes was all beaten up, blood coming down his face, and looking like he was somewhat in shock. Now, he was a black belt karate, in the military—you don’t get tougher than Tibor. To see him shook up, from pain, heightened just how bad this was.
Andrew Kirtzman, reporter, NY1: A police officer came up to me and said, “Get off this street.” I said, “I’m sorry. I’m a journalist,” as though this press pass were like a magic device. I said, “I’ve got to find Giuliani.” He said, “Oh, Giuliani is right over there.” Sure enough, about 10 feet away from me was Giuliani, surrounded with all of his aides: Bernie Kerik, the police commissioner, Tommy Von Essen, the fire commissioner, Tony Carbonetti, and a whole bunch of his aides. They emerged, and that’s when I ran into them.
Rudy Giuliani: I said, “Okay, we’re going out. We’ll go up Church and we’ll look for a new command center and we’ll make the decision as we’re walking along, but let’s get out of this building.” I grabbed Kirtzman’s arm and said, “Come on, Andrew, you’re coming with me.”
Andrew Kirtzman: Relations between Giuliani and me had not been particularly warm. In the year preceding that moment I’d written a book about him called Rudy Giuliani, Emperor of the City. Giuliani vowed never to read it. When he waved me over, suddenly everything changed. He said, “We’re going to walk north. We’ve got to get out of here.” Because the Office of Emergency Management had been destroyed, City Hall was evacuated, One Police Plaza had lost contact with the world, there was no place for him to take command.
Rudy Giuliani: We started walking north. People started following us, and we kept encouraging people to come with us.
Sunny Mindel: As we travel up Broadway, like a bunch of pied pipers, people are gathering with us.
Rudy Giuliani: As we were walking we were conferring, like, Where should we put the command post?
Andrew Kirtzman: It was pretty weird that here was the mayor and the entire leadership of the city, and they were as helpless as anyone walking down the street. As a citizen, it was pretty frightening that no one was in charge—or the person who is supposed to be in charge had no way of operating.
Sunny Mindel: I remember coming upon one older woman, who was seated in a park. She was drinking a Starbucks, she wasn’t moving—she was sitting there drinking her coffee. I didn’t want to frighten her, but I thought, She needs to get outta here. I went up to her, and I said, “Ma’am, you need to go north,” and she says, “No, I’m fine here.” I said, “You really have to get outta here.” But she wasn’t frightened. I think she maybe had that same reaction I had when I looked at the TV and went, “This is not my life, this is something I’m watching.”
* * *
Having just survived the collapse of the South Tower, siblings John and Michele Cartier formulated a plan to escape the devastation of Lower Manhattan, even as they worried about their brother James, not knowing whether he too had escaped.
John Cartier, brother of James Cartier, electrician, who was working in the South Tower: We made it not that far and went into a deli. The deli owner was like, “Take everything. Take water. Take whatever you want.”
Michele Cartier, Lehma
n Brothers, North Tower: At that point John had his water, I grabbed mine, and I remember grabbing one for my brother James, and throwing it into the briefcase I had. We started talking about John’s motorcycle, and where it was, and how far away.
John Cartier: I walked back toward my bike. It was on the sidewalk, completely covered in soot. I was like, “I hope this damn thing starts. Please God, start.” It fired right up. I pulled up, Michele got on the bike, and we slowly left. People were taking pictures of us, covered in this soot, leaving.
Michele Cartier: I’m in this blue skirt and on my brother’s motorcycle. I was completely disoriented. I had no idea which way we were going.
John Cartier: We only had one goal: Make it home. She kept on asking me about James. I said, “He probably got out on the west side.” That’s what I thought.
Michele Cartier: Then he said, “Just pray. Just pray.”
“You were hoping you would find something”
* * *
The Rescue at Shanksville
Just like their colleagues in New York and Washington, the first responders and officials around Shanksville were forced to improvise a response to a worst-case scenario.
James Clark, first assistant chief, Somerset Volunteer Fire Department: It was ten o’clock or so when our pagers tripped for a large aircraft down.
Alan Baumgardner, Somerset County 911 coordinator: It seemed like immediately every phone line in the center was lit up. Everybody grabbed for a phone and they were all the same call: A plane has gone down out near Lambertsville.
The Only Plane in the Sky Page 20
