story237.xml

story237.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-03-12

Local 94 Operating Engineers

In Memory of:
Local 94's HEROS

Charlie McGee
John Griffin Jr
Dave Williams
Veto DeLeo

I worked with Charlie McGee for seven years, he was a great
co worker and a great friend.I didn't know the other guys too
well, but the stories I heard about what these four
men went through on that day was simply "HEROIC".

OUR STORY

My self and part of the crew were trapped in the lobby of
7 wtc when the 1st tower collapsed. We had no idea that a
plane let alone two planes had crashed into the towers.
We knew there were explosions but we had made it through
the 93 blast so we thought it was the same thing, just
bigger. We had already assisted in evacuating the building,
Thank god every body started evacuating on there own, and
then we made the final evacuation announcement on the PA
system and like I said all got out safe, the crew and myself
stayed to man the building because of all the important
equipment running, not knowing we were In any danger (again
because of our experience with the 93 blast) and then it
got dark and this tremendous screeching, thundering, and
Rumbling started!!!And all I can see was the face of one
of the crew who happened to being looking out the window of
the lobby when this all started. For about 2 minutes I
thought we were all going to DIE! We ran behind a wall laid
on the floor and covered our heads and Prayed. I tell you it
sounded like a missile and an earthquake was coming right at
us at the same time. Well thank god it was neither.
Well this eventually passed and we did not die. Now we all
get up, look at each other, which was kind of difficult
because of all the smoke, darkness and dust. We all panicked
but we kept our heads, we were scrambling to get out of the
building. Half of them went out thru the rumbled lobby, which
they have a story of there own. Three others and myself went
up one floor because we could not breathe and we knew
exactly where the fire exits were on that floor which happen
ed to be the Cafeteria. We went to one exit and there was no
handle and the door was locked. We ran across the floor to
the other side where the kitchen was, opened that door and
smoke just poured out of the staircase so we closed that door.
Now were running back to the other side of the floor to look
out the window too see what was going on and that was useless,
all you can see is all this smoke and dust. Now we are starting
to get panicky and all we keep saying is we don't want to die!!
We just made the decision to run out the smoke filled staircase,
we wrapped our faces with wet towels and made a mad dash to the
Street. We flew down the stairs literally. When we got out we
went about a block behind the building, we all met up and
started hugging and I mean hugging and happy to see each
other. A few minutes go by and all of a sudden the floor
starts shaking and you hear this rumbling and thundering
again. We just took off running as fast as we can holding
our heads again, but I had to look over my shoulder too see
what was happening, I tell you it looked like the devil was
coming, a big ball of smoke with huge hands and debris
flying everywhere.

Well we made it and I just had to share this story.

The Crew:

Mike Catalano
Ron Friedman
Joe Gregori
Vinny Lanzetta
Billy Rogers
Roy Fischetto
Larry Galladay
Frank Farrugia
Doug Popola
Ron Galeota
Steve Brady
Mike Enders
Andre Bien-aime
Doug Mazzone


P.S. I have a tribute that can be downloaded from a web site
if you are interested its free.

Also you can read this story and see some photos from 9/11
go to: www.catman98.com

Please sign in.

E-Mail:
mcatalan@optonline.net