The staff of Fire Engineering dedicates this special coverage to members of FDNY lost or missing in the World Trade Center disaster, in memory of their supreme courage and self-sacrifice. Fire Engineering will dedicate continuing coverage of this tragic event, culminating in a full-scale and detailed analysis and report as information becomes available.
OUR MOST TRAGIC DAY: INITIAL REPORT
BY BILL MANNING
 Photo: Ron Jeffers |
It was the most tragic, horrific day in the 250-year history of the American fire service. Never before have so many firefighters fallen in one event.
At 0845 hours on September 11, 2001, the first of four hijacked planes, American Airlines Flight 11, carrying 92 passengers and crew members, slammed into Tower 1 (North Tower) of the World Trade Center, a symbol of American freedom and capitalism.
The Fire Department of New York immediately dispatched a five-alarm assignment, bringing more than 200 personnel to the scene.
At 0903 hours, the second hijacked plane, United Airlines Flight 175, carrying 65 passengers and crew, smashed into Tower 2 (South Tower). FDNY dispatched a second five-alarm assignment, bringing many more firefighters to the World Trade Center.
As all Americans know through the extensive media coverage of the incident, the effects of the crashes were unimaginably devastatingenough to bring a great city and a great nation at least temporarily to our knees.
 Photo: Ron Jeffers |
The planes, Boeing 767s, carried approximately 24,000 gallons of jet fuel each. The impact of the collisions resulted in huge explosions and fireballs. Occupants on floors near the impact are presumed to have been incinerated. Subsequent fires, burning at an estimated 1,700°F or more, were enough to bring the already weakened steel of the exterior-wall-supported structures to the point of total and catastrophic collapse. Windows on upper floors were shattered from the impact of the planes, though some may have been broken by occupants; either way, as the upper floors quickly became contaminated with smoke from the fires, many occupants fled to the windows in search of fresh air. Many people (some perhaps pushed out in the panic but others clearly choosing to jump to escape certain death on the fire floors) fell to their deaths. For the occupants who could flee down stairwells, as well as for the firefighters assisting that effort, it was a race against timethough no one knew how much time they had.
It appears that FDNY units responding to the first plane collision in Tower 1 operated initially with the intention of attacking the fireor operating handlines off the standpipe to protect the stairwells and limit vertical extensionand evacuating occupants from at least some of the floors. It also appears that chief officers established a command post somewhere on the south side of the complex, south of Tower 2, though that has not yet been confirmed.
 Photo: Ron Jeffers |
It is known that shortly after the first plane hit, occupants began self-evacuating not just Tower 1 but Tower 2 as well. Many had lived through and remembered the first attack on the World Trade Center in February 1993. And it is believed that this rapid and widespread self-evacuation, while not the “recommended” occupant behavior in a “typical” high-rise fire, saved many lives on September 11. Surely, occupants realized from the incredible impact of the planes that this was an extraordinary event.
With the collision of Flight 175 into Tower 2, firefighters inside the buildings undoubtedly were operating in rapid evacuation mode. The elevators were not operational, so firefighters climbed the stairs to upper floors. It is impossible to know how many occupants within the WTC towers were saved that day by the firefightersprobably thousands. However, it is certain that firefighters operated with extreme courage and a steadfast sense of duty despite very difficult conditionsthe hallmark of the fire service.
 Photo: Ron Jeffers |
Likewise, without the benefit of communications traffic and company reports from that day, it is impossible to provide an analysis of strategic, tactical, and other critical factors within this enormous event (and that surely is not the purpose of this article). But it is certain that the incident command team understood the severity of the incident and operated with the type of courage and leadership beyond expectation.
No one could have anticipated the collapse window for the Towers, given that, in the past, similarly constructed high-rise structures have withstood days’ worth of heavy fire without total failure. Of course, this event was without precedent. But even if such a collapse window could have been predicted, occupants were still evacuating at the time of collapse. Any second-guessing, in addition to being a grievous insult to the memory of firefighters who perished that day, would suggest that commanders had a choice. Having been rightly committed to interior operations, there was no choice but only one strategy: Get the people out and move to safe locations. And again, that irreversible strategy was carried out with unimpeachable courage, honor, and sheer heroism.
Time simply ran out for so many.
The deadly, catastrophic collapses of the towersfirst Tower 2, under an hour after impact; then Tower 1, about 1½ hours after impactshook the country and the world. Undoubtedly, it was the worst disaster ever on mainland U.S. soil.
As of press time, the count of dead or missing in the disaster had risen to 6,453 people. Fewer than 300 of that number were confirmed dead.
Three hundred forty-three FDNY firefighters were caught in the collapse. As of this writing, only 35 have been confirmed dead, including Chief of Department Peter Ganci, Deputy Commissioner William Feehan, and Fire Department Chaplain Father Mychal Judge. But about two dozen chief officersand possibly moreare believed to have been on the scene at the time of collapse. And entire companies from all city boroughs have been decimated. As the incident occurred during shift change, some companies responded with twice the usual number of personnel.
The immediate disaster area encompasses about seven square blocks of downtown Manhattan. Three large buildings completely collapsed1, 2, and 7 World Trade Center. 3 World Trade Center (the Marriott Hotel) and 6 World Trade Center nearly completely collapsed. Five others are believed to have sustained significant structural damage.
Prior to debris removal, the area contained 1.25 million tons of debris from the WTC alone. The window glass in the Towers alone, it is estimated, would cover 15 acres and the crushed steel from them is enough to build 20 Eiffel Towers. Engineers estimate the concrete from the towers would be enough to lay a five-foot-wide sidewalk for about a 450-mile stretch.
The towers collapsed in pancake fashion. If they had not, it is possible the death toll in this incident would have been even higher. Even so, the collapse fashion of the mammoth buildingssome 1,200 feet into about 120 feet (several stories above grade and several below)created an extremely difficult and hazardous search and rescue operation.
 Photo by Steve Spak. |
Search and rescue operations began almost immediately following the collapse, and FDNY began an immediate call-back procedure of off-duty personnel. A cloud of dust and thick smoke covered the disaster area and beyond. Fires were burning, including a nearby 10-story building that was fully involved. Debris was everywhere. Secondary collapse, both in and around the site, was a serious threat. Gas lines were thought to be in danger of rupturing. Fires burnedas they would for dayswithin the debris piles. Wounded littered the street. Lower Manhattan was a war zone.
 Photo by Richard Smulczeski/FdnyPhotography.com. |
After possibly being moved once or more in the hours following the collapse, the command post was positioned at the north corner of West and Vesey streetsjust beyond the northwest corner of what had been the World Trade Center complex. This would serve as the operations command from that point until at least the time of this writing. The city’s Office of Emergency Management, housed in the World Trade Center, evacuated successfully and set up its interagency command at Pier 92 along the Hudson River.
The governors of New York and New Jersey declared a state of emergency. And the federal government’s presence was felt even prior to collapse, as fighter jets patrolled the air space. Within hours, National Guard troops were sent to New York. City police and National Guardsmen attempted to secure the entire area of Lower Manhattan below 14th Street, with increasing security levels closer to Ground Zero.
President George W. Bush officially declared a National State of Emergency on September 14.
 Photo by Steven C. Wilson. |
Initial search and rescue efforts were conducted by the fire department, police department, Port Authority police, emergency medical service agencies, and other agencies and individuals. The extent of successful surface debris victim removal has not been quantified at this point. It is known that city hospitals and hospitals across the Hudson River in New Jersey anticipated and mobilized for the treatment of large numbers of injured from the collapse site, but after the first few hours following the collapse, few live victims were found in the rubble who could be treated. Many thousands of people in Manhattan and beyond responded to calls for blood for banks that are now overstocked.
As of this writing, the last known survivor was taken alive from the rubble on Wednesday, September 12.
New York City firefightersstunned by the possible loss of so many brothers in this senseless act of violenceset about ferociously to find the missing. During the first days of the incident, many worked day and night, uninterrupted.
 Photo by Richard Smulczeski/FdnyPhotography.com. |
Thousands of firefighters from the Tri-State metropolitan area and all over the country converged on New York to offer their assistance, forming, along with thousands of other workers at the site, long bucket removal and debris-passing lines. Numerous times in these first days of the incident, work was stopped temporarily for a variety of reasons, most notably for the threat of secondary collapse, removal of large structural members, and fires in the debris that hampered void search. On at least two occasions, on-scene reports of imminent secondary collapse sent hundreds of people on the site running for their lives. Those were false alarms.
By Thursday afternoon, September 13, the shell-shocked incident command team, which had lost so many of its leaders and was carrying so many burdens, had to take additional steps to ensure site control, accountability, and scene safety by limiting access to only those firefighters and departments officially deployed. Over a period of a week or so, participation in the rescue effort at Ground Zero, from a fire service perspective, was scaled back primarily to FDNY, FEMA USAR teams, two state USAR teams, and a few assemblages of fire department teams from New Jersey and Long Island.
 Photo by Richard Smulczeski/FdnyPhotography.com. |
Over the two-week period following the disaster, FEMA deployed and rotated more than a dozen 62-member USAR teams to New York. These included teams from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maryland, Indiana, Utah, Washington, Arizona, Missouri, California, Florida, and Texas. FEMA also sent its USAR Incident Support Team. A state team from New Jersey and a team from Puerto Rico were requested early on. These teams, with search dog capabilities in addition to extensive technical rescue skills, were detailed to FDNY sector commanders in each of four rescue operations sectors on the site for void search and other duties. As the search efforts became more well-defined, USAR teams were released. As of September 21, approximately five FEMA USAR teams were working at the site.
 Photo by Steve Spak. |
FDNY, in response to its crisis of personnel, made numerous temporary and permanent changes to account for the great losses to many companies, including promotions, reassignments, temporary station closures, and shift modifications. Some on-duty shifts were split to cover both the site and normal response areas simultaneously. More than a dozen New Jersey fire companies were and, of this writing, continue to be stationed in the borough of Staten Island to help staff fire stations there. Fire departments from across Long Island sent companies to help cover FDNY fire stations in Queens and Brooklyn.
 Photo by Steve Spak. |
On September 15, Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen, in a tearful ceremony, appointed Chief Daniel Nigro as the new FDNY chief of department and promoted 168 FDNY members, some of whom were missing in the collapse.
The trade unions, with their heavy equipment and special expertise, played a vital role in the rescue effortand continue to do so. By accounts from the scene, as initial debris strata and voids were searched, the operation began to rely even more on the riggers and crane operators. Equipment at the site includes a high-reach (125-foot) excavator, probably the largest in the country. Thousands of tons of debris have been removed from the site, though some officials estimate that it will take several months for all debris to be removed.
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As the debris removal process goes forward into the sublevel areas, there are concerns about the integrity of the basement retaining wall around what was the entire complex. This wall keeps out the surrounding 23 acres of landfill from the complexand behind it, the Hudson River.
Late in the second week of the operation, units from the New York-New Jersey Port Authority, assisted by the Jersey City Fire Department, attempted to access the site from the PATH (train) tunnel from the New Jersey side. This tunnel was flooded, presumably from water main breaks or firefighting water, and 6,000-gpm pumps were deployed. Rescuers had hoped to find survivable voids at the B6 sublevel, the train level, of the WTC. However, according to reports, a huge pile of condensed debris had collapsed down to that level, preventing access. That, plus the skyrocketing CO levels in the tunnel, forced units to return to the other side of the river.
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Structural engineers continue to monitor involved buildings, and the city has begun a schedule by which nearby buildings that sustained minor damage can be repaired and reoccupied.
More than a week into the operation, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani began expressing doubts about the chances of finding live victims. The hope grows fainter with each day. Very few bodies have been recovered intact. The site is littered with body parts, bones, and fragments. It appears from the horrific impact of collapse that many people may never be found. For some families, the only hope of positive victim identification may be through DNA sampling.
More than a week into the operation, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani began expressing doubts about the chances of finding live victims. The hope grows fainter with each day. Very few bodies have been recovered intact. The site is littered with body parts, bones, and fragments. It appears from the horrific impact of collapse that many people may never be found. For some families, the only hope of positive victim identification may be through DNA sampling.
Two weeks to the day of the disaster, firefighters and other rescue workers continue to dig and haul and search with determination, courage, and excellence. All searchable voids have been searched several times, and it is expected that further removal of heavy structural members will reveal new search opportunities. Although each day brings firefighters closer to an official declaration of the strategic switch to a “recovery” operationone source indicated this may happen about Day 16the arduous task continues and will continue for a long time.
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Now, the city and the entire New York Metropolitan area are awash in tears, funerals, and memorial services. The loss of loved ones is staggering. The impact on thousands and thousands of fatherless and motherless children, staggering.
Night after night, empty cars sit in railroad stations and park-and-ride lots in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, symbolizing in quiet horror thousands who may never come home.
Walls in the city filled with photos and descriptions of the missing have become memorial sites adorned with flowers and love notes.
Smoke rises still in Lower Manhattan in the great hole where the towers once stood.
And yet, for all the stories recounting the day of terror, for all that was destroyed, and for all the lives lostfor all the heartbreaking lossthere are a million tender stories of undying courage and enduring love, stories of resolve and hope and giving, stories of the miracle of human hearts becoming one against all odds. And the goodness rises higher than the tallest skyscraper imaginable. It cannot be torn down by any evil.
And to anyone requiring proof of our miracles or a symbol of what we Americans are all about, I offer the miracle of the fire service. I offer the firefighters, who by their hearts and minds and actions reflect back to America what we are and what we can become as a nation and a people.
We proudly salute our fallen brothers and all firefighters throughout the country who carry on in their name.
President George Bush: “Today our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature, and we responded with the best of America, with the daring of our rescue workers.”
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani: “In the last great attack on America, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the first casualties of that war were the members of our United States Navy,” Mr. Giuliani said during the promotion ceremony at the MetroTech Center in Brooklyn. “They wore a uniform, like you do. In this war, the first large casualties are being experienced by the Fire Department of New York City.”
Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen: “We are shaken, but we are not defeated. We stare adversity in the eye, and we move on.”
John Lewis, firefighter, Passaic (NJ) Fire Department, and FDIC West Conference Coordinator: “When we first drove in, it was daylight. As soon as we turned the corner and parked the car, it was night. There was no light, just generators to light the fireground. We saw vehicles twisted and thrown all over the placepolice and fire vehicles and ambulances. The piles of steel and bricks in the street were as high as 20 to 30 feet. Only emergency workers were on the streets. The city looked like it had a foot of snow on the ground; there was so much dust.”
Deputy Commissioner William Feehan: “We are only passing through … We are the guardians and custodians of a 100-year tradition.”
Raymond Kiernan, fire chief/commissioner, City of New Rochelle (NY) Fire Department: “Fire trucks were squashed to the size of a desk. Firefighters were climbing piles, trying to listen, trying to find voids. Finding fatalities. When they carried out a firefighter, everyone stopped and took off their helmets.”
Jim King, firefighter, North Arlington (NJ) Fire Department: “A lot of colors of faces, a lot of colors of turnouts, a lot of shields on helmets, but underneath you’re a firefighter, and now is the time firefighters have to pull together and keep the tradition of family alive, and no matter where in the country you are, prayers and support are needed, whether you’re in Hawaii or New York.”
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani: “We have met the worst of humanity with the best of humanity. Our skyline will rise again.”
“You just knew the FDNY rescuers would not leave that pile. They had more than 300 brothers under that mess, and nobody was going to get them to leave the pile.“a firefighter
“People engrossed by the tragedies in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania are looking for heroes and are finding them in firefighters. These are people who have a real commitment to saving lives, and we feel so threatened and so vulnerable that we’re now sort of perceiving them in a way that we hadn’t quite in the past.” Jill Stein, sociologist, University of California at Los Angeles
“You can’t sit back and say, ‘Poor me. Poor me.’ You have to learn from this incident and move forward.” Jim Ellson, FDNY
