My cousin, Glenn, was a fireman in an engine company in the theater district in midtown Manhattan. He drove the Hook and Ladder. As fate would have it, his house was one of the first to respond when disaster hit the World Trade Center.
At age 50, Glenn was a senior member of his company. Not too long before 9-11, my husband and were down to Manhattan to see a show on Broadway and we decided to take a short walk over to Glenn’s house to say hello. Typically the doors are left wide open and the men stand around joking among themselves and checking out the ladies who happen to be passing by. Glenn wasn’t there that day but the younger guys on duty were more than happy to laugh and socialize with the family of one of their brothers. They teasingly asked us “So, you’re looking for the old man? When I answered, “wait a minute, he’s not that old, I use to babysit for this guy”, they took this bit of information and squirreled it away as ammunition for later. It was obvious to us that they were a close knit bunch of guys who loved to taunt and mess with each other. “Don’t worry”, they said, “we’ll be sure to tell him you stopped by to see the old man.”
We left the firehouse with a smile on our faces and a bounce in our step. These young, handsome, cheerful and robust bunch of guys had that kind of effect on you
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On September 11th Glenn was on his last day of vacation. Shortly after the planes hit the World Trade Center, he and all the other off-duty firemen from his house were called into work. Assembled and waiting for their assignment, one of the men got up the courage to ask the question that was on everyone’s mind, “Was anyone from our house lost?”
The answer came in one simple, previously innocuous word, “everyone.” Yes, everyone from Engine Company 54 who happened to be on duty the morning of September 11th 2001 was gone -15 men in all.
Then they started to ask about the men in surrounding firehouses. What about the guys from this Company and that Company? How did they make out? All at once, the innocent word “everyone” became a horrifying sound. This word which they heard over and over again was a reality too painful to believe. Almost all the houses in the nearby communities had lost all the men who were at work that morning. Glenn readily admits the information they were hearing was too shocking to fully comprehend.
At 1AM that night, Glenn and the other men from his fire station were down at “Ground Zero” digging through the rubble, desperately hoping to find some of their brothers alive. As dawn approached the full impact of the devastation came into focus. 50, 000 desks, chairs, file cabinets, and computers, as well as the steel and concrete of the world’s most majestic pair of skyscrapers were reduced to white ash and unrecognizable rubble. Surrounding buildings had massive gapping holes containing fires that were still burning furiously. The area was promptly labeled, “Ground Zero” - terminology previously used to describe the devastating destruction caused at the very center of a nuclear attack. Throughout that night and the days that followed, the firemen went through their motions in shock and disbelief, trying desperately to deny the reality of death.
(to be continued......)
