#9 11 FIREFIGHTER REMEMBRANCE QUOTES SKIN#

Essential tools and supplies like leather gloves and masks were in short supply - we had to scavenge them from destroyed emergency vehicles.Īlthough the towers had pancaked, the rubble formed uneven peaks and valleys, making it impossible to see very far across the 16-acre site. Smoke from the fires made it hard to breathe. Fire trucks, police cars, and ambulances were flattened. The smoke and the scale of the devastation were overwhelming. After being there for a few minutes, it was clear this was more hope than reality, so I went back to the World Trade Center. I washed off the dust and was directed to staff a triage center that supposedly was about to receive 500 survivors. A friend who saw me just after this said I was completely covered in gray dust from head to toe, with two glowing eyes. I don’t think I walked for more than a minute before the north tower came down. Of course, when I hung up the phone, I looked to my right and my left and saw that everybody I had been with was gone. I was relieved to be able to tell him I was safe.

I was in such a state of shock, I actually stopped and answered it. My phone rang just as we got out of the vestibule. There was a small group of people there with us, and we ended up having to call for help to get the door open. We made it inside just as the last floor of the south tower collapsed. I ran toward a piece of fire apparatus hoping to find cover underneath it, but thankfully an NYPD sergeant ran out into the street and pulled me into a vestibule.

#9 11 FIREFIGHTER REMEMBRANCE QUOTES SKIN#

Sheets of pulverized concrete and glass made exposed skin sting. People were screaming and large chunks of rubble were crashing down. I was walking toward the south tower when the ground shook and there was a deep rumble. Like everyone else who knew someone who worked there, I took a moment to count down from the 110th floor to the fire. In the background, a firefighter screamed at us to keep looking up to avoid being hit by people who were jumping. Above me, there was a deafening roar from the fireball. But at my feet were pieces of an aircraft engine and horrifically burned body parts of passengers. It was such a beautiful day - a perfect blue sky, and warm. What I had seen from a distance, and planned for in the car, didn’t prepare me for what I saw. We ended up at the base of the north tower. A police car with two officers stopped for me and on the ride there I made a mental checklist of things to do when we arrived. I went out into the street and saw a long line of emergency vehicles headed to the towers. I repaid this amazing, selfless act by promptly lying and assuring him I wasn’t going anywhere - I didn’t want him staying there. Mark delayed leaving because he wanted me to promise that I wasn’t going to go down there. He told me people were jumping from the towers right in front of him and that his colleagues were evacuating the building. Mark Smith ’91, one of my College roommates, was at the World Financial Center, directly across the street from the Trade Center. As I grabbed my turnout gear and helmet, the phone rang again. The first was from my mom, who told me a plane had crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center and that I should go down and help.

11, I was living and working in downtown Manhattan. I became a volunteer firefighter at 16, and I’ve been involved in disaster response since then. Battat, a 1991 graduate of Harvard College, spent the next four days searching the site for survivors. Minutes after David Battat responded to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center as a volunteer firefighter, the north and south towers collapsed around him.

9 11 firefighter remembrance quotes