Manhattan Box 8087

8:47am

Battalion 1: Battalion 1 to Manhattan.

Dispatch: Battalion 1.

Battalion 1: We just had a plane crash into upper floors of the World Trade Center. Transmit a second alarm and
start relocating companies into the area.

D: 10-4 Battalion 1.

Engine 10: Engine 1-0, World Trade Center 10-60. Send every available ambulance, everything you’ve got, to the
World Trade Center now.

D: Ten-four, 10-60 has been transmitted for the World Trade Center, 10-60 for the World Trade Center.

A 10-60 is a disaster emergency code. At this time, Manhattan and Brooklyn companies were being called to the area for a major response.

9:03am

Firefighter: You have a second plane into the other tower of the Trade Center, major fire.

Marine 6: Marine 6, that’s the other tower.

Firefighter: This is mayday, mayday. Engine – another place hit the second tower, K.

K was the dispatch zone and where many, including my father’s lieutenant, Robert Nagel, would set up command. Most would not survive within this collapse zone.

9:07am

Firefighter: Division 1 to Manhattan. All incoming units into World 1 and World 2 Trade Center are to bring
additional cylinders.

9:12am

New Hyde Park, New York. A 33 minute drive in normal conditions from position K: One World Trade Center. I answered the phone, late for school. A nervous captain from Engine 58 on the other line spoke in a hurried manner, “Mary Kate is your dad there, it’s urgent.” My dad normally did his usual 24 hour shift on Tuesdays. Had my grandmother not passed away a few weeks earlier allowing him leave, he would have been in the firehouse. More startlingly, my uncle, a salesman for BEA electronics, would frequently take the early shuttle flight from Newark to San Francisco. On September 11th, 2001 he was also on bereavement leave. The flight he was scheduled to take that day was United 93. His coworker took his place. His name was Edward Felt, he left behind two daughters and a wife and I am so very sorry for their loss, I am so sorry I have no words (I am crying as I type this). In some way I think my grandmother went when she did to keep her two boys safe. Because I have not a doubt in my mind that if fate were different, I wouldn’t have my uncle and I might not have my dad.

When my dad took the phone in his hand, he turned sheet-white. “Turn on the TV.” We put on CNN. The second plane had hit the North Tower. We were both silent, my dad went into the closet to grab his spare gear. “I have to go in. They recalled the entire department.” It would be the first time in department history that the entire force would be recalled. He would later recall driving over the Triboro Bridge to his firehouse. Traffic into the City was halted to civilians. The only other person on the bridge was a photographer from the Associated Press hanging off the rafters to capture the buildings on fire in the backdrop of the world’s most iconic skyline.

9:19am

Harlem, New York: The Fire Factory was the name of this 98 year old house. A fifth alarm. Firefighters know this will be the fight of a lifetime as they put on their gear and enter the Engine 58 Mack Truck I played on at Christmas parties.

Firefighter: Give me the company identifications that are coming to 2 World Trade Center. Just read them down.

Dispatch: All right, 10-4: Engine 2-1-1, Ladder [interference], Engine 2-2, Engine 5-3, Engine 4-0, Division 3,
Battalion 1-0, Battalion 1-2, Ladder 1-6, Ladder 2, Ladder 1-3, Engine 2-2-1, Engine 2-3, Engine 2-0-9,
Engine 2-1-2, Engine 2-7-9, Engine 2-3-0, Engine 2-2-9, Engine 2-3-5, Engine 2-2-0, Engine 2-1-6, Engine
2-1-7, Engine 2-3-8, Engine 2-1-4, Ladder 12, Ladder 1-1-8, Ladder 7, Ladder 2-4, High Rise 1 and
Battalion 1-1, Engine 7-4, Engine 7-6, Engine 4-7, Engine 5-8, Engine 9-1, Ladder 2-2, Ladder 2-5, Ladder
3-5, Four Truck and Ladder 2-1.

9:32am

Engine 58: Engine 5-8. We’re on – as far as we can get to the scene. We’re going to walk down.

9:41am (less than 20 minutes to collapse)
Engine 58 has set up in zone K.

Dispatch: Engine 8-3, what’s your present assignment?

Engine 83: We’re reporting to station … Third Avenue. What’s the cross street there?

Dispatch: All right, Engine 8-3 standby now. Engine 8-2.

Engine 82: Engine 8-2, … Engine 5-8’s response area.

My father’s entire company is now in the collapse zone. The time is 9:43am.

Firefighter from E58 in response zone: Got a report of a [man] hanging antenna on the roof of building one?

Dispatch: All right. Male hanging from a window near the antennae in building one.

9:46am

Field Command: By orders of Chief Ganci, transmit an additional fifth alarm, have the additional fifth alarm
units respond into West and Vescey, West and Vescey, K.

First Collapse 9:59am

Around this time my father had arrived at Engine 58 in Harlem New York. Immediately, he got into a chief’s car and they headed down the FDR drive, sirens blaring the entire way. Several cars made it hard to pass, pulled over, people got out and watched…

The above notam would include my father’s company. At the time of the collapse of the South Tower at 9:59am, the men of Engine 58 were inside the collapse zone on the West Side Highway. When the South Tower gave way with several reports of people trapped, the implosion shook the ground, many fell to their feet before running for a parking garage. Fate dictated which way you ran, and whether you lived or died.

My father looked out the window of the chief’s car, the South Tower was gone. He picked up the radio and tried to reach their crew, they could not be reached. Under several stories of debris beneath a parking garage, the men of Engine 58 were alive but wounded and struggling to breath. The command center in the Marriott Hotel lobby would not be as fortunate. Engine 58’s Lieutenant Nagel along with most of FDNY command would die on impact in the first collapse.

All my father recalled that all he could do was scream into the radio “get them all out, get them out now, the other one is going too!”

At this time, all emergency response was on different frequencies. Several of the FDNY comms were now switched to Queens, and of course the command center was wiped out. They tried to send evacuation orders, but many were not received. The companies closest to the response, including 10 House saw their entire firehouse killed in action. Response, including my father’s vehicle, were re-routed to triage centers to assist in the collapse zone.

Firefighter: There’s been a major collapse to the tower. The command center … everybody … There was a major
collapse. I’m in my– ****

Firefigher: Everybody in the area had to run. 1 don’t know if Field Comm. is available.

Silence. Motion sensors for motionless firefighters sounding by the hundreds.

Firefighter: Can anybody hear me? ****

Firefighter: I can’t breathe much longer. Save me! I’m in the cab … I can barely breath. Please, send somebody.

10:03am

Firefighter: George [W. Bush], have them mobilize the Army. We need the Army in Manhattan.

Second Collapse

My father is now stuck in a jam on the FDR.

Firefighter: This is … 4 Alpha. We have dozens and dozens of firemen. We’re at the bulkhead on
the Hudson River side of the World Trade Center. We have medical emergencies. We
have E.M.S. on the scene treating possible heart attacks. We’re in the process of getting
some kind of a roll call. We’re going to try to keep the units together here, K.

Firefighter: We need oxygen!

Firefighter from the FDR, possibly my own father: We’re on the Manhattan side on the F.D.R. if you need us.

My father and other FDNY soon abandoned their vehicles and started walking to the collapse zone.

Firefighter: Have all incoming Fire Department units report to this location and stage on Park
Row.

Dispatch: Attention all units responding in to the World Trade Center, be advised we are now
receiving, we are now setting up a new command post, Park Row, south of City Hall by
Vescey Street. All units are responding to the new staging area on Park Row.
Repeating, all units not presently committed, respond over the staging area, Park Row,
south of City Hall on Vescey Street. Be advised the F.D.R. Drive is now clear. You are to
use extreme caution proceeding downtown in Manhattan. Time 10:45.416.

I am not sure what my father’s thoughts were, walking in his heavy gear towards a cloud of toxic smoke and motionless firefighter’s alarms. It is not something he speaks about. He spent about a week on the pile, welcoming the president to raise the flag before the ghostly cross of rebar. When he came across a partially severed hand in the debris with a wedding ring attached, he couldn’t take it any more. He volunteered for family liaison service and took care of the lieutenants family.

Many men who survived that day would also go on to perish years later. Steve Brickman was a big burly guy with a great sense of humor. He played Santa at the firehouse Christmas party, and would always give me my first presents of the season. When he died of lung cancer due to chemical exposure, he weighed only 120 pounds. My own father has suffered his fair share of health issues too, albeit less serious thankfully. I don’t know what my family’s future holds. I just know that every day I get to have with him beyond that day is a blessing.

All I can say to him is thank you. For everything. Rest in peace to all 343 firemen who made the ultimate sacrifice at Manhattan Box 8087.