# Where Were You....



## MedicPrincess (Aug 22, 2005)

The "other forum" I post in got me thinking about this.  So since I didn't find it here, Where were you on that day in September???

I was working as a temp for ENRON Downtown Houston. At the moment they were hit I was on I-10 driving to work, when all of the sudden traffic stopped moving. Then the radio said it looked like a "small" plane hit the WTC. It's horrible, but I remember getting pissed because traffic was stopped, and that meant not only would I be late, but I would have to park half the world away and walk and the heat in downtown Houston in September at 5:00 when I got off that day was going to be opressive (that was before I found out about NW Florida Heat). So I am sitting there all pissed off because traffic wouldn't move, when the radio said another plane hit the other tower.

Suddenly I was less angry, and more confused. By the time I got to ENRON that day, the Pentagon had been hit and the 4th plane had went down. There were TV"s in the elevators and they were tuned to CNN. That was my first chance to actaully see what happened. By the time I had reached the 45th floor where I was temping that day, they had received a bomb threat and we had to evacuate...and the elevators were off limits.

It was pretty scary to walk outside and see the entire area I worked is crawling with police, fire, EMS, military. They were, in no uncertain terms, telling us to get away from the buildings and evacuate the downtown area. It was later when I talked to my sister who was an upper level manager at ENRON that I found out, that whole group of businesses in that area were on a so called list of Possible Terrorist Targets.

On my way home the radio reported the towers had "fell." It wasn't until I picked up my son from daycare and got home that I actually understood what they meant by that. As heartbroken as I was about the towers falling and the loss of life there, I remember just being enraged about the hit on the Pentagon. I believe I even expressed a "How dare they" sentiment.


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## Wingnut (Aug 22, 2005)

I remember I was home sleeping in, I was pregnant with my daughter and VERY sick. Jay was sleeping too because he managed the night shift at a restaurant. My mother called and told me we were under attack (she was already "celebrating" that morning) she wasn't making much sense so I went on the internet to find out what was going on. We were dead broke and didn't have cable. I found a live feed and watched. I kind of spent the day in a mild shock. Never got off the computer. I woke up Jay and told him. He spent the day spouting off his opinions right & left, pretty angry about it for him. (he's extremely laid back). I have a lot of family up there so we made the phone calls to make sure no one was in the city, but it was just a weird day, but I remember it like it's yesterday.


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## Chimpie (Aug 22, 2005)

That day in Sept.  I had only been in Florida for 15 days (just moved from Indiana).  I woke up a little after 9am and logged on when one of my friends logged on and asked if I had the TV turned on.  Said nope.  She said two planes had flown into the World Trade Center Towers.  I'm from Indiana.  I had no clue what the WTC Towers were, but knew they were in New York somewhere.  As I walked over to the TV I was thinking it was something like some personal, homemade planes or something because just a week earlier some parachute-plane-thingy got caught up on the Statue of Liberty.  I turned on the TV to see two big holes and a lot of smoke.

I ran over to my brother's side of the house and asked if they knew what was going on.  They said no, which I figured since they never watch TV.  I turned it on and we all stood there is disbelief.

Then the Pentagon was hit.  My brother and I looked at each other and said, at the same time, "Oh shnit".   So there we were, glued to the TV when Tower 2 fell.  He thought there was just another explosion but I kept telling him that the tower was gone.  It wasn't until they switched cameras that we knew I was right.  Then Tower 1 fell.

Meanwhile, keep in mind where Pres. Bush was.  Sarasota, FL.  That's right, just 20 miles north of where I was.  That'll make you pucker.  Oh, and, I had a job interview up in Sarasota, just 3 miles from where Bush was.  Needless to say I called up the company and asked to reschedule the interview.  They said that it wouldn't be a problem.

I spent the next couple of days glued to the TV.  The only reason I stopped watching was because Tropical Storm Gabrielle decided to come ashore in Sarasota County on Sept. 14.  Joining the local Red Cross just two weeks prior, I got to drive through the eye of the storm (that was a blast) to get to the Chapter HQ's.  

I have to say that it was quite an interesting month.

 :blink:


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## TTLWHKR (Aug 22, 2005)

Every morning after I checked my truck for supplies, I sat down for breakfast (I had pizza every morning). I always watched CNN to see what was going on in the world, since the firehouse only had fifteen channels, this was better than cartoons. They stopped "Morning Report" to advise of breaking news from NYC. From tour change to noon we had no calls, so the whole crew just sat and watched. And then around 5ish we watched that other building fall. And the crash of 93 wasn't that far away, so we were put on 'unconditional standby' until all incoming aircraft landed, and all outgoing had returned, as we are the closest major metro area to the crash site, at least in Pennsylvania. Fortunatly there was no incident with that, but there was military presence at some key locations. Somerset was S. East of us,  only Westmoreland Co. separated us. Unfortunatly, due to the Terrain of South Western, PA; we were unable to tune into direct (unit to unit) radio traffic, but we could hear the state police and Somerset Co. fire dispatchers talking. As late as Feb. 2005, we could hear unit to unit. 911 Communications greatly inproved in those areas, b/c they were able to get grants for what ever they wanted from DHS.


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## DT4EMS (Aug 22, 2005)

I was sleeping at the ambulance base. There was a knock on my bedroom door and one of the oncoming crew was telling me to get up. I was kinda hacked because I worked two jobs and I tried to sleep a little (we were running most of the night before).

I walked into the day room to express my opinion on being woke up, when I noticed everyone glued to the TV.

It was on CNN and the first plane had hit. I sat down and asked if anyone knew what happened yet. All we knew was a plane hit. Then the second hit.

I can remember feeling helpless.........  

I had an appointment to get some new wheels and tires on my truck. I left the base and went to my appointment and I turned their TV to the news. When I got home that's all I did for a while was watch the news.

The more I watched the more I was pissed. :angry:


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## rescuecpt (Aug 22, 2005)

I was driving to work in NY then heading upstate for a recruiting event for work.  I stopped in my office for a while then went home to standby at the firehouse.  We ended up going in with an engine, and of course having a fire back home since the engine was out.


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## ECC (Aug 22, 2005)

I was working as the XO of the 31 Battalion (EMS) in Brooklyn. My story is told by Brian Smith and Brian Gordon scroll down to find their names.

I sent them to Manhattan that AM.   

The only reason I am here today is that my partner was on vacation that morning, otherwise it would have been my day out as C31. That unit is second/third (depending on your orientation...I say second) due to the WTC.


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## MedicPrincess (Aug 22, 2005)

> _Originally posted by ECC_@Aug 22 2005, 07:36 PM
> * My story is told by Brian Smith and Brian Gordon I sent them to Manhattan that AM.
> 
> *


 AHHH!!! I can't view it on this computer!!!!!  Any chance someone can save it as a .doc and email me.  My email addy is in my profile.


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## Cap'nPanic (Aug 22, 2005)

Well I was only senior in high school and I remember sleeping in a little late that day, as I had already received all necessary credits for graduation, I was just spinning my wheels that last year. Anyhow, I walked into 2nd period just in time (this was about 9 am), and everyones face was white as a ghost. I didnt say much until one of my classmates asked me if I had seen the news, and I was uhh no, then they said that WTC had been hit. Not long after that there was an announcement over the PA for all students to return to our homerooms for "couseling" and "mourning", also they said that any student who is able to drive themselves and their siblings home, may do so if the parents are notified. Any tardies and abscences would not be counted for that day. Well I decided to hang around to see what all was going on, so I went to my buisness teachers room and discussed the events with her. Pretty soon alot of the younger ones were crying so I ended up comforting as best I could for the circumstances. I left at lunch, and went to my afterschool job at the local paper. As soon as I walked in the door my boss was bombarding me for any new information I might've had. Well I went into the break room with my co-workers and took notes as supporting editor for the school paper I would likely br assigned the story, while the head editor would share her comments. I was also sent on a photo assignment to cover the madness around town. I took some pictures of scared children and adults. There was also a long gasline from the gas station all the way around the block. It was crazy that day and I really didnt have time to sit and take it all in until about 2-3 weeks afterward. I never shed a tear, but I was angry that Middle Eastern radicals would want to kill so many innocent people, but thats exactly what they wanted to kill a mass amount people, cause mass amounts of damage, getting the end result of mass fear. As it was stated, this is our generations Pearl Harbor. Will our generation become better for it? I dont know, but we could always try. We should remember what happened, but we also shouldnt dwell on it. We can learn and move on.

-Cap'nPanic


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## Wingnut (Aug 22, 2005)

> _Originally posted by EMTPrincess+Aug 22 2005, 07:55 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>*QUOTE* (EMTPrincess @ Aug 22 2005, 07:55 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-ECC_@Aug 22 2005, 07:36 PM
> * My story is told by Brian Smith and Brian Gordon I sent them to Manhattan that AM.
> 
> *


AHHH!!! I can't view it on this computer!!!!!  Any chance someone can save it as a .doc and email me.  My email addy is in my profile. [/b][/quote]
 I can't either


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## emtbass (Aug 22, 2005)

I was a freshmen in high school.  I was in mrs. smiths spanish class.  The principal came on the PA system and told us that the school was on "lock-down" and told us to turn on our TVs.  So we did, and we watched the TV all day.

I got very scared when the plane hit the pentagon because my uncle works there.  I called my parents, and nobody could get ahold of him or his wife.  It turns out that his office was hit dead on and destroyed.  Luckily, he had taken the day off because he was closing on a new house.  But we weren't able to find this out for a few days because of communication problems.  That was a very scary day for my family, but obviouslly even worse for other families.  We are just thankful that he was buying the new house that day !!!   Could have been much worse.


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## Phridae (Aug 22, 2005)

I was a sophmore in high school. I was in orchestra when everything happened. Later I noticed teachers and other students began plugging in TVs in the rooms, and in the halls. Then the principal made an announcement of what had happened. I didn't think it was a big deal at the time. Later that day in my large group class (3 classes of one subject combine once a week) all we did was watch the news. Then I started to realize what a big deal this actually was.

I remeber teachers say this was the stuff thats going to go in history books. I just couldnt believe that what was happening right now, was going to be something that everyone after me is going to learn about.


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## SafetyPro2 (Aug 23, 2005)

I was driving through the middle of downtown Los Angeles. I was still working for the oil company back then, and our local safety guy was up in the Bay Area for training, so I was covering a pipeline relocation project for him and was on the road early to get to the job site. I literally heard the newscaster break into the normal program to announce that a plane had crashed into the WTC. My first thought was thinking it was an accident like the bomber that hit the Empire State Building back at the end of WWII. I called my dad and told him, then called and woke up my wife...she turned the news on and was watching when the second plane hit.

I went down to the job site, and we pretty much went on with our work. Every so often, someone would show up with news (some accurate, some not). I left around 11 AM, and it wasn't until I was driving to the office that I heard about the collapses. I got to the office, and everyone was in the conference room across from my office. That's when it finally sunk in what had happened.

Shortly after that, the VP decided to send everyone except the "essential" personnel home (senior operations folks, safety staff, etc.). We basically made sure our operations were as secure as possible. We did a conference call with all sites...some reported having police cruisers parked outside their gates (we were a major petro pipeline after all).

On a related note, I had a whole slew of live-fire fire extinguisher training classes scheduled that week...we cancelled the first couple since we didn't think it would be good having smoke showing from our facilities.

I was also scheduled to fly to Savannah, GA the next week. That trip got postponed due to the lockdown and a company travel ban that went a week longer. When I finally did get to Savannah the next month, I walked out to my rental car, and looked down to see a NY plate on the car. Was a somewhat disconcerting feeling. I also spent the 1 year anniversery in Savannah (at the same facility), so I tend to have mixed feelings about that city.


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## Jon (Aug 23, 2005)

I was a junior in high School. I was in gym class when it happened.... didn't find out until after class was over, and I went to my teacher to get a late pass, because we ran a little late outside and I still had to go to my locker on the other side of school before my next class.... I was in his office, and his TV was on CNN... I wasn't sure if it was real or not... like a fake thing for a TV show (Like JAG or something else)... I saw it JUST AFTER the 1st tower fell... I went to my next class nad heard a little talk about a plane hitting the towers, but didn't get the whole story... the next class... the teacher tried to teach a little, but none of us paid attention, and eventually the TV went on.... by then, the 2nd tower had fallen...

The rest of the day, we did our normal classes, but usualy just watched the TV and talked a bit.... some of the teachers tried to teach, some didn't.  Worst time for me was sitting in social studies' class, with one of the other firefighters' from my department in front of me, and one from another dept. 2 seats away, watching the video from the one ER doctor who went over with his video camera..... seeing what used to be tower 1 and 2, and hearing all the PASS alarms..... I looked over at my friend form my sqaud, and asked him if he knew what the noise was.... he didn't.... I said "PASS Alarms" and he and I both knew we'd lost a lot of brothers in NYC...

I called my family, told them I was going to the firehouse after school...... I went.... we all sat around, in shock, trying to figure out what to do.... some of the guys wanted to go up, and we started hearing that they were turning EVERYONE away, not letting firefighters /emt's in either...

we all waited.... the county all-call tone was hit announcing an emergency chief's association meeting that night at 1900.... the chief went, came back at 2130 with orders from the chief's association to get a list together of "who can stay" and one of "who can go" for several days.... the plan was for my county to put together groups to send up to assist with covering the city or the outlying region while all their guys were working at ground zero....

The next few days, we all stayed pretty close to the station..... lots of folks started to bring by food.... just walking in a dropping off a batch of cookies, sandwiches, or other edibles... a lot of it got thrown out, but soem of the cookies were good    . Anyway, it is the thought that counts, right??? it was a way for people to feel like they did "something"

Jon


Jon


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## Cap'nPanic (Aug 23, 2005)

A friend of mine from a neighboring school was 18 and he had just passed his EMT while he was still a senior in high school, he ended up going out with the AR-1 DMAT team, his instructor had made a bargain with his family and the the school did not count his abscences against him. He was gone for 30 days, when he came back he was a completely different person. He was one of the few kids in that class he was in that had great potential. After that experience he told me that he still wanted to become a paramedic but he was also willing to take a year off from his EMT studies to just work as a basic and be a kid. He's now a 22 y/o paramedic that works for the largest ambulance service in the state and he's supposedly getting married in the next year or so. He's got a good future ahead of him.

-Cap'nPanic


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## ipscscott (Aug 23, 2005)

Heading out the door to go catch a flight out of LAX back to work.... 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





Had just driven across country (PA to CA) to help my best friend move for grad school.  We went up to Long Beach to visit my college roommate and his wife and were staying with them the night before.  I had a 9-something flight out of LAX into ATL where I was going to be working for 3 weeks. 

My old roommie and his wife were at class, and my B/F and I were walking out the door to head to the airport when her mother called to ask if we were watching the TV. Told her that we were just leaving for the airport when she said "you need to see this."  Turned on the TV right after the first plane hit. Watched the second one come in live. Obviously didn't go anywhere for about 5 days IIRC.

Fortunately, I'm not a morning person; I almost scheduled myself for the 6:30am flight.  I found out later that flight I would have been on had been diverted to Dallas, where coincidentally most of the guys from the company were, setting up for the Texas State Fair.  Probably would have wound up working anyway.

I got 5 more days of vacation in San Diego, but but that is NOT how I wanted to do it. I just remember feeling so helpless and scared.  I was on the other side of the country where I only knew 3 people in the whole state.


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## rescuejew (Aug 23, 2005)

I was in my second year of college and had just gone into an 0800 class for medical/legal interpreting or something and a classmate of mine had an aunt that worked in Tower 1.  She told me a plane had hit the first tower and she couldnt reach her aunt by phone.  Our room didnt have a TV so we walked down to another room, incredibly filled with a bunch of Volunteer FFs and watched the news.  We were all so shell-shocked that we skipped our class and went to the cafeteria and spent most of the morning glued to the TV.  My sister, a Raleigh cop, had called me and told me to go home, a lot of the cities and businesses had activated their emergency systems in Raleigh, RTP and southern Durham because we have several pharmacuetical companies with nuclear reactors.  They had gone on red alert and curfews were instilled in the major cities.  I started the 2 hour drive home from school and called everyone I knew to tell them I loved them.  

I was heartbroken.  And though I will never condone or understand the attacks of that day, because of them, I reaffirmed my patriotism.  I reestablished my deep-rooted love for this country and I began delving into the wonderful career that we all share.  Because of the selfless acts and senseless loss on that day, I became a true American and a believer in our system.  G-d bless all those we lost.


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## ECC (Aug 23, 2005)

WORLD TRADE CENTER TASK FORCE INTERVIEW
EMT BRIAN GORDON
Interview Date: October 30, 2001
Transcribed by Nancy Francis
2
B. GORDON
LIEUTENANT DUN: Today's date is October 30,
2001. The time is 0820 hours. I'm Richard Dun of the
New York City Fire Department working with Murray
Murad. We're here interviewing Brian Gordon.
Q. Please state your title and your shield.
A. EMT, xxxx.
Q. Can you give us the story or your account of
what happened on the day of September 11th, 2001?
A. Me and Brian Smith had just gotten back from
a late job and we were -- we had come in and dropped
off the vehicle, changed over vehicles because we were
31 Henry, Tour 1. We had come into the station, did a
few things, dropped off our equipment, and Brian -- we
were leaving and we were walking up the ramp out here.
We got into the parking lot and Brian said did you hear
that boom? We had heard just a boom and we looked over
and we saw a big ball of fire coming out of the tower.
So we ran back down here and we said somebody
just bombed the tower. So Lieutenant McCarthy gave us
ambulance 217 and he told us be careful and go over,
sign on, but be careful.
Q. So your lieutenant told you you were going to
be an extra unit?
A. Yes.
...

BRIAM SMITH
MR. DUN: Today i s October 23, 2001. The
time i s 813 hours.
I am Richard Dun, New York City F i r e
Department, working with Marisa Abbriano, a l s o New
York City F i r e Department. We a r e conducting an
interview with --
MR. SMITH: BRIAM SMITH, EMT, XXXX.
Q. Brian, can you d e s c r i b e t h e events or t h i n g s
t h a t happened on September l l ?
A. Yes. T e l l you t h e s t o r y now?
Q. Right.
A. You want me t o follow t h i s thing?
Q. You know, j u s t go through it, and i f you
remember t h i n g s , you know.
A. I n i t i a l l y , we -- l i k e I s a i d it before, we
had g o t t e n off of duty a t q u a r t e r of nine. I was going
out t o my v e h i c l e t o d r i v e home, and we -- my p a r t n e r
and I saw t h e -- r i g h t a f t e r t h e f i r s t tower had been
h i t , and so we came back i n s i d e , and we t o l d them. It
h a d n ' t even gone over t h e r a d i o s y e t , because i n i t i a l l y
he d i d n ' t -- he thought t h a t we j u s t --
Q. So you a c t u a l l y saw t h e f i r s t plane go in?
A. I heard t h e explosion and looked up, and then
I saw it s t a r t t o b i l l o w o u t .
BRIAN SMITH
So I came back inside, and I told my
lieutenant, Lieutenant McCarthy -- he was the desk
lieutenant -- and I told him I was going to go inside
and get changed, put my uniform back on, because I was
in my civilian clothes, and that we needed an extra
unit, and we need to go back out, and, like I said, he
initially didn't believe us, but then a couple of
seconds later they came over the air with the
announcement, you know, "Units, an MCI has been
announced the Borough of Manhattan," so on and so
forth.
So I went inside. I got changed into my
uniform real quick, very quickly and very sloppily, I
might add, but we went back into the office. I grabbed
keys. My partner was outside. He was checking the
back of the ambulance, because he was going to be
teching, he's not evoced, so he was in the back, and he
was going through all the stuff to make sure that we
had what we needed just to get out on the road. Went
in and logged on the computer right away.
Before I left, my lieutenant told me that we
were going to be 31 Mary, and if they needed us, they'd
call us, so we got on. I logged on right away and told
them that we were the next unit available if they
BRIANSMITH
needed us, and they t o l d us t o proceed t o t h e MCI i n
Manhattan.
So we l e f t t h e parking l o t , and we s t a r t e d
going over t h e Brooklyn Bridge, and we made it down
t h a t -- it was heavy t r a f f i c , but normal Tuesday
morning t r a f f i c , but r i g h t by t h e foot of t h e bridge,
it was p r e t t y congested, but with v e h i c l e t r a f f i c . I
guess because they -- t h e p o l i c e had shut down a l l t h e
v e h i c l e t r a f f i c going over -- t o allow p e d e s t r i a n
t r a f f i c t h e r e , I guess going over t h e bridge, so
everybody was b o t t l e d up, but I was a b l e t o d r i v e up on
t h e sidewalk a l i t t l e b i t and make my way t o t h e
bridge, and they j u s t waved us r i g h t through, so we
were going over t h e bridge, and when we were -- when we
i n i t i a l l y l e f t out of t h e s t a t i o n , c e n t r a l gave us a
cross s t r e e t t o s t a g e . They gave us a spot where they
s a i d they were going t o have EMS s t a g i n g , but again,
l i k e I s a i d e a r l i e r , I ' m not very f a m i l i a r with lower
Manhattan. I d o n ' t know t h e s t r e e t names or, you know,
i t ' s not l i k e upper Manhattan where t h e r e a r e numbers,
and t h a t ' s easy. I t ' s a l i t t l e tougher down on t h e low
s i d e i f you d o n ' t r e a l l y know your way around.
So my p a r t n e r was t r y i n g t o look a t t h e
Hagstrom's and t r y i n g t o f i g u r e out, you know, where we
BRIAM SMITH
were going, and, l i k e I s a i d , going over t h e bridge
t h e r e was no o t h e r t r a f f i c besides us, and t h e both of
us were, l i k e , looking out enroute t o t h e alarm. We
see t h e -- a t t h i s point only t h e one tower was h i t ,
and t h e r e was a l l kinds of s t u f f coming out of it.
Looks l i k e paper, and i t ' s smoking, and we were going
over t h e bridge, and again, l i k e I s a i d , my p a r t n e r , he
c o u l d n ' t -- we c o u l d n ' t f i g u r e out e x a c t l y where we had
t o go once we got off t h e bridge, so t h e r e was an
unmarked p o l i c e c a r coming up behind us. He had t h e
l i g h t going, and I s a i d , you know, j u s t follow t h i s
guy. He's got t o be heading t o t h e same p l a c e .
So we -- so I s a i d a l l r i g h t I ' l l j u s t follow
him i n . I followed him i n . I got off t h e b r i d g e . We
c i r c l e d around, and we s t a r t e d heading i n t h i s
d i r e c t i o n , I guess west. I d o n ' t know what s t r e e t we
ended up on, because I d o n ' t r e a l l y know where it drops
you off when you g e t o f f t h e bridge, but a l l I know we
ended up somewhere down, l i k e , I guess, i n t h i s
v i c i n i t y because where we i n i t i a l l y stopped when we
were heading south, you could see down here.
I mean, it was -- you know, t h e r e must have
been a crossing somewhere, because you could see t h e r e
i s , l i k e , a foot bridge or something somewhere around...

So I s a i d , "All r i g h t , w e ' l l go down t h e r e . "
So we went down. We went up t o t h e 10-10 house. As
soon as we got t h e r e , we backed i n t h e engine bay, l i k e
you guys have seen where it i s , so i f you a r e looking
a t t h e f r o n t of t h e b u i l d i n g i t ' s t h e engine bay on t h e
l e f t , and t h e r e was a c a p t a i n t h e r e , one of t h e f i r e
c a p t a i n s . He wasn't i n t u r n o u t , but I s a i d t o him,
"Cap, l i s t e n , you know --" because, l i k e , he was
c a p t a i n a t t h e house t h e r e . I d o n ' t know i f he was
from Ladder 10 or from Engine 10, but we backed it i n ,
and t h e guy s a i d , "Yeah, we got a bunch of people
i n j u r e d i n here, seven or e i g h t people, some of them
h u r t p r e t t y bad. I f you guys want t o grab a couple of
people and run."...

I s a i d , "All r i g h t . Let me get out a take a
look," and t h e guy s a i d , " J u s t make sure you back it
a l l t h e way i n , because t h e r e was a l o t of d e b r i s , and
t h e r e i s a l o t of s t u f f going over t h e b u i l d i n g . "
Like I s a i d , by t h i s p o i n t , Two World Trade
Center i s on f i r e . You know, l i k e you can look a l l t h e
ways up t o t h e top, you know, I mean, t h e r e ' s q u i t e a
b i t of damage up t h e r e . Like I s a i d , t h e second plane
had already h i t it.
Q. People jumping a t t h a t point?
A. Not when I f i r s t g o t o u t of t h e ambulance.
They were p l e n t y of jumpers t o come, but not a t t h a t
p o i n t . I f t h e r e had been, you know, l i k e I s a i d , I
d i d n ' t n o t i c e .
Q. Was t h e r e a l o t of d e b r i s when you were
p u l l i n g up i n t o t h e firehouse?
A. Yes.
Q. You saw a l o t of d e b r i s ?
A. A l o t of d e b r i s on t h e s t r e e t . A l l t h e ways
over here.
Q. A l l t h e way up t o Church?
A. Yeah. I mean, I wasn't crazy. It wasn't
l i k e I had -- I mean, I could d r i v e through it, but, I
mean, I had, you know, t o kind of go around a couple of bigger pieces of debris.
So we backed into the firehouse, and we got
out, you know, after a quick assessment of how many
patients were in there. I kind of guesstimated by how
much time had passed from the initial incident. I
mean, again, like I said, coming over, only because I'm
not really familiar with the way the things are set up,
I thought that this tower right here is the tower that
I saw burning on the way in. I don't know that it's
this tower burning, because when you look at the bottom
and you look up, it's tough to get a sense of where it
is in proportion to the top of the tower.
So I figure maybe 20 minutes went by, 15
minutes. Like I said, it's kind of hard to tell,
because time is kind of like -- it was like in slow
motion, but we got out. I got a quick assessment of
the amount of patients in there, you know, immediately,
and, like I said, some of them were pretty bad, so I
said to the captain -- I said, "Cap, listen. I haven't
seen any ambulances over here either, and what we are
going to do is, being that everyone is going to be
familiar with the firehouse over here, you know, we are
just -- we will take this station over, and we are
going to -- my partner and I are going the set thestation up as a triage station, and I'm going to radio
out to dispatch, and we'll let them know what we are
doing, but I need a few guys to give us a hand," and
the guy's -- you know, he was, like, whatever you need,
you just let us know. We will do whatever we got to
do. And I said -- I asked him if he had anybody there
that was medically trained. I figured there was an
engine company there that maybe they have some CFR
guys. He said, "I don't have anybody, no CFR,
nothing." He's like, you know, whatever you got, you
got.
There was a volunteer firefighter from
Commack on Long Island. He worked in the trade
center. He came over, and he's, like, you know, trying
to offer his services, I guess, and, you know, so the
captain gave this guy to us to help out. He said the
saying thing, like he wasn't medical or anything. Like
he knew CPR or something. ...

That is enough for now...go to the website and download Adobe PDF...


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## MMiz (Aug 23, 2005)

I was sitting in my car getting ready to go to Physics 106 - some geology course.  During the course in a HUGE lecture hall one lady got up, said "Excuse me, but the pentagon is being attacked," and walked out.

It wasn't until I got home in the afternoon that I really understood what was going on.  That was also the first time I ever read a Galls catalog.


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## emtbuff (Aug 23, 2005)

I was a junior in high school.  We hadn't started classes yet they had an instant messaging system that connect all three schools.  I was in visiting with one of the gals off our ambulance squad (as I wasn't on the squad yet but knew most of the squad throught my mother) as she works as a resource teacher.  She read the message and told me that the message said a plane had hit a WTC tower.  The first bell rang she proceeded to plug in her TV in her room and I left for band which no one really knew a whole lot about it we went out and marched came back in and went to our 2nd period class which was at 9:00 thats when I found out more of what happened and for the rest of the day in all of our classes our teachers pretty much didn't even try to teach they just left the TV's on.  All was pretty quite in the halls.  The week after that was homecoming for foot ball and on the Friday of the game we use to take the whole day and just play and have a good time but that year we had classes in the morning in the after noon we did our skits, pep ralleys  were dismissed.  The one thing I remember most was the ending of the skits part of the choir got up on the stage and sang God bless the USA I for one couldn't make it through the song with out tears in my eyes and it was really emotional in the room.  Our english teacher was also a history teacher so she decided that we should do a project so we can remember what all happened so we collected cartoons, articles, timelines, pictures, and everything else we could find to make a book for our selves.  Needless to say mine ended up being a three ring binder full of stuff, one of the projects that we could do was childrens book so I took that on and got to say it turned out fairly well.  Our class also put to gether a newspaper type work for all of us to remember each other and what everyone else thought of that day.

The year after that the sunday falling around that day one of the churches I attend had asked my mother and I to sing for the church service.  Well we agreed little did I know that the pastor's sermon was going to involve events from that day (remeber now I was on the ambulance squad) and alot of the music from then.  There weren't many dry eyes again and now it was time for mom and I to sing I got up we start sing God bless the USA I don't think I even made it through one verse.


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## TJC (Aug 24, 2005)

It was my hubby's first day of vacation so we decided to let him sleep late and wait until he woke up to have breakfast.  We had just started Joshua's home-school lessons for the day, and Mike's hand was on the front doorknob, as he was going to pick up some chocolate donuts, when the morning news sounded for a special report.  I sent Joshua from the room not wanting him to see what had just happened and canceled all his classes that day.  Something inside me just told me it was no accident, and I couldn't believe we had been attacked on our on soil.  I was one of a generation brought up to believe we were invincible.  My delusion as well as my heart broke that day.


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## ffemt8978 (Aug 24, 2005)

It was my first day working as a security officer in a hospital.  We noticed some TV coverage during our tours, and when we learned what happened the entire hospital went into lockdown.  We called in every officer we had and stationed people at the entrances.  I ended up spending 14 hours at the main entrance checking people's bags and having them move their vehicles out from under the building.

Most people were very tolerant of the added security measures, primarily because they were still in shock.  The ones that were less tolerant were the ones that hadn't heard abuot the attacks yet.


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## Jon (Aug 24, 2005)

> _Originally posted by ffemt8978_@Aug 24 2005, 01:55 PM
> * It was my first day working as a security officer in a hospital.  We noticed some TV coverage during our tours, and when we learned what happened the entire hospital went into lockdown.  We called in every officer we had and stationed people at the entrances.  I ended up spending 14 hours at the main entrance checking people's bags and having them move their vehicles out from under the building.
> 
> Most people were very tolerant of the added security measures, primarily because they were still in shock.  The ones that were less tolerant were the ones that hadn't heard abuot the attacks yet. *


 As for security... at my Co... when the "Terror Alert" goes up to Orange, we have extra officers and inspect more "things"..... for me, Orange is good..... More Money!!


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## Ian (Aug 25, 2005)

I was 16 years old; I woke up that morning with a sinking feeling. I didn't feel good, I kept getting sick and I pleaded with my mom to stay home with me because I was afraid she was going to get into a car wreck or something. I was watching the today show when Katie Coruch(sp) said that the WTC was hit with a plane. I was confused at first, but I knew this had been what I was feeling sick about. I watched it all, sobbing at times knowing that my cousin Jen worked in one of the buildings, (turns out building 7, not WTC towers) I got a call from her saying she was alright later that day.

That was the day I decided I would follow my dreams and become an EMT; and a firefighter. Here I am four years later following that dream. It forced me to realize that the world wasn't a personal playground, and wasn't all "peachy". I wanted to help people, be it a sick little lady who couldn't breathe right, or a MVA patient. So; now I'm here, four years later, doing what I think is right. It's kind of odd, that day shaped my life in many ways, and made me realize that this was my goal in life, to help people to any extent possible.


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## SafetyPro2 (Aug 27, 2005)

Heard an interesting 9/11 story today. I've been at a county disaster preparedness conference the past two days (through my DMAT) and our keynote speaker today was Ed Buikema, who's the head of the response division of FEMA, and shared this with us.

I didn't realize this, but FEMA was having a big conference in Montana the week of 9/11. Mr. Buikema had been the emergency manager for the State of Michigan at the time and was actually given his new job with FEMA the afternoon of Sept. 10 (talk about jumping into the fire). Most of the state's EMs along with most of the FEMA brass were at this meeting, and when news of the attack came, obviously they either wanted to get to NY or back to their home states. Of course, given the airplane grounding, that was difficult. For the head of FEMA, the Air National Guard was able to arrange for a military transport plane to take the FEMA guys back to D.C. and/or to NYC. For the EM from NY, they did the same...only his transport was a fighter and he got back in about 3 hours.


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## Jon (Aug 27, 2005)

> _Originally posted by SafetyPro_@Aug 27 2005, 01:16 AM
> * For the EM from NY, they did the same...only his transport was a fighter and he got back in about 3 hours. *


 Wow... that is an intresting job perk.... if they blow up YOUR state, and you are at a meeting on the other side of the country... you get to go Mach 2 home.


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## Rangat (Aug 27, 2005)

I was at home, and saw it on CNN, and then a called everyone i know, and all were talking about it for a week- witch is a lot for the South Africans to talk about something overseas. But, it sucked. I wanted to be there. :angry:


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## Cap'nPanic (Aug 28, 2005)

Yep,
didnt you love Jimmy Lee Witt (fmr. FEMA Director)?? (He's from my home county by the way.)

-Cap'nPanic


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