story7030.xml

story7030.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-13

I am a New York City Firefighter. On Sept. 11, 2001 I, like all other able New York City Fireman, was at the World Trade Center. I was not present when the collapses occurred, but arrived shortly there after. To this day I still find it impossible to describe to others the complete and utter destruction that had taken place. Upon arriving at the site, two things stood out, the absolute quiet, and thickness of the air. It was as if you walked through a door and into a completely different dimension. There were no sirens, no horns, no screaming, no one talking, it really was a very thick quiet, that's the best way I can describe it. Amazingly, the first emotions that I felt were not of anger, that came later. My first emotions were of sadness, because I could see right away that there were going to be hundreds of people that had died. Our job is to save people, to help them, and I knew that we were to late. The rest of the day physically was exhausting, we searched and dug through the night, emotionally it was just as exhausting. When you saw someone you knew you'd shake their hand and give them a hug, just glad to know their alive. But on the other hand you knew of whole company's, places where other friends worked, were missing. I had to go to Cornell Medical center later that day to have my eyes flushed out. All the lye and dust from the glass and concrete had turned my eyes cherry red and they burned like hell. The following day, when I woke up, I went downstairs to see my kids, I started to cry like a baby, I just broke down. I remember my wife holding me like she holds our son when he cries. My wife has been my rock. Without her this whole past year would have been impossible to handle. In this past year I've come to realize how very much I love my family, and the men I work with. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to describe what I saw and how I felt on that day. God bless America.