story9513.xml
Title
story9513.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2003-09-09
911DA Story: Story
I was in mid town that day, after the towers collapsed I left the city and went home to New Jersey. The next morning I was back at the Javis Center ready to volunteer my time and services. At 10:00 AM I was riding on a bus full of iron workers to the WTC site. When we arrived I was shocked.. It was like a battlefield... WTC 7 was still burning..firefighters were on their ladders trying to put out the blaze. I met up with another volunteer named Craig and we picked up cases of water to hand out to the firemen.
As we walked to WTC 7 passing in front of the Bank of New York I handed out the water to some firemen near WTC 7. On the way back Craigs eyes were about a mile wide. He said that a pane of glass had fallen from the top of Bank of New York and missed me by a second. It then dawned on me that this was dangerous. I walked around that day passing water bottles out, shoveling debris, unloading supplies from boats, putting ice on the victims remains. I left the site at about 10:30 that night. The next morning I was back at it..this time to work in the bucket brigade.I will never forget the feeling of joy as the men deep inside the rubble shouted out WE FOUND SOMEONE !! we cheered.. we sent up saws, water and everything they asked for.. however, the joy turned to sadness as a victim was carried out.. I helped carry this person with 5 firefighters to Brooks Brothers. As we laid the victim down the person in charge asked if it was a firefighter, they replied no... a civilian.. We left and headed back to the ruins... passing buckets.. when they blew an alarm.. and people shouted RUN !!! its coming down.. we took off running, it was difficult to run over and thru debris,but as we ran people warned others of what to watch out for (amazing). I had no idea what building was coming down, all I knew was I wanted to live and I was so upset at myself for not being a fast runner.. We ran to a little park off of Trinity Place.. where we gathered ourselves.. I had enough. I was mentally drained after all this. I felt very guilty because I couldnt take it mentally anymore. I had seen enough and I still dream of those sites.
Thanks for reading
Al Nardi
As we walked to WTC 7 passing in front of the Bank of New York I handed out the water to some firemen near WTC 7. On the way back Craigs eyes were about a mile wide. He said that a pane of glass had fallen from the top of Bank of New York and missed me by a second. It then dawned on me that this was dangerous. I walked around that day passing water bottles out, shoveling debris, unloading supplies from boats, putting ice on the victims remains. I left the site at about 10:30 that night. The next morning I was back at it..this time to work in the bucket brigade.I will never forget the feeling of joy as the men deep inside the rubble shouted out WE FOUND SOMEONE !! we cheered.. we sent up saws, water and everything they asked for.. however, the joy turned to sadness as a victim was carried out.. I helped carry this person with 5 firefighters to Brooks Brothers. As we laid the victim down the person in charge asked if it was a firefighter, they replied no... a civilian.. We left and headed back to the ruins... passing buckets.. when they blew an alarm.. and people shouted RUN !!! its coming down.. we took off running, it was difficult to run over and thru debris,but as we ran people warned others of what to watch out for (amazing). I had no idea what building was coming down, all I knew was I wanted to live and I was so upset at myself for not being a fast runner.. We ran to a little park off of Trinity Place.. where we gathered ourselves.. I had enough. I was mentally drained after all this. I felt very guilty because I couldnt take it mentally anymore. I had seen enough and I still dream of those sites.
Thanks for reading
Al Nardi
Collection
Citation
“story9513.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed April 13, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/5031.