EMS SUMMARIES

LT MAGGIORE, BATTALION 50 (120): Hears of 1st plane while at health services,

being cleared for duty after medical leave; sees second plane from BQE; responds to SI
Ferry as first tower falls; triage on 2nd fl of ferry; used cell phone for communications;
Basile comes to take command; treated very few patients, mass confusion; second towers
falls; eventually responds 1 Liberty Plaza; set up triage there; tried to keep people from
the tile because of hazards; complains of volunteers interfering w/ command; not familiar
w/ emergency techniques, helpful but chaotic; gives detailed account of people/process of
post-collapse triage, treatment near ground zero;

LT HAD ALA, EMS COMMAND, BATT. 50 (119): hears of 1st plane over radio; escorts
MERV into Manhattan; arrives in area about 15 min before first; no direction,
supervision, just cries for help; gets to BMCC and treats patients there; seeks refuQe in
police during 2nd collapse; goes back to area but has to evacuate because of gas leak;
directed to Chelsea Piers; eventually to Albany & West, Chambers & West; eventually
Chiefs come; says they were really not prepared;

SAMUEL HARRIS, BUREAU OF COMMUNICATIONS (108): hears about plane,

V reports down w/ Captains D'Amato, Pinkus, (Gregory?); 2 nd plane hits while going over
Bklyn Bridge; using EMS Command frequency, not given specific locations; eventually
gets to West St and is assigned by Gombo to keep record of what's going on w/ Lt
Terrajiova: goes into 1 WTC lobby w/ Gombo and Terranova, people going upstairs,
shutting down elevators, eventually pulled back across street; Gombo instructs to go into
[WG?] to contact chief Diggs to get dedicated line for point-to-point communications;
heard over radio this had been done but went in anyway, as directed; Diggs instructs to
relay back to Gombo; as going back to Gombo, first collapse; runs into building w/
several people, down hallway; eventually able to exit by door they came in through; went
back to garage area, tries to find people he knows, runs into Captn Sickles and pulls him
towards North End Ave; saw Ganci trying to rally some firefighters to move up towards
N. End; second collapse occurs; runs w/ Terranova, Sickles into coffee shop on N End;
reunited w/ EMS chiefs Pinkus, Basile, Carrasquillo, Gombo, Pascale; sets up treatment
area; eventually goes to Chelsea Piers to set up triage, temp morgue; [discusses various
people he saw; when/how he heard different people's status;] *

CHIEF BASILE, DIV 2 COMMAND (105): Informed of 1st plane by staff; monitoring
radio when 2nd plane hits; tells Citywide Dispatch is available; decides to respond w/
paramedic Cook; eventually gets to about Albany & Carlisle and goes to command at
Winter_Garden; meets Gombo & Kowalzcyk; directed to lobby of 1 WTC (goes w/
Cook); dangerous to enter; in lobby meets Callan, Hayden, Pteifer, King, Fr Judge and
OEM, PA people; looking for exits and treatment sites; tells incident commander not safe
to exit through front of building and sends Cook to look for alt. exits; 1st collapse occurs,
seeks shelter in elevator bank/ escalators leading into concourse; takes escalator to
concourse level and gets out through shattered windows; helped move civilians patients
out; eventually approaching West & Vesey when he of 2nd collapse starting; used fence at
about West & North End for shelter w/ some civilians, firefighters; eventually gets into
 bagel store & regroups w/ other chiefs; directed to set up treatment site at Ferry terminal;
not too many patients; eventually goes to command center at Chambers & West; *

PARAMEDIC COOK, DIV 2 ALS COORD (103): Responds w/Basile to staging area
outside 2 WFC; (walking north on West, sees aircraft landing gear, body parts etc);
Kowalycyk directs them to lobby of l^WTC; start to form matching plan; Basile directed
to find safe egress; trapped on foot bridge (which he's investigating) when 1st collapse
occurs; eventually meets Pfeifer there, didn't know where command post or anybody
was; hears maydays etc; aide breaks into lobby [?] and they get out under bridge onto
street; Pfeifer reports in on his radio; goes back to 1 WTC to look for Basile (he has fire
portable and Basile has EMS portable); tells EMTs etc to move away from collapse zone;
jVsomewhere between 1 and 2 [WTC?] when 2nd collapse occurs; runs north on West St,
seeks shelter in ambulance; finds either Chief McCarthy or McNally; plan to go to water
K but has to stop by Amex building; eventually gets to collapse zone, there were people
setting up triage, tells them move from collapse zone, but goes back himself to look for
Basile; eventually finds him and other chiefs and they make plan; goes w/ Basile to Ferry
(describes operations there);

/CHIEF GAMBO (OPERATIONS) (100): At EMS Command, hears from Terranova

V aabout
t 1st plane (observed by Ganci); [from record knows that] assigned to job at 8:55; 3
cars left garage (Ganci's car in front of them); responds w/ Terranova driving; didn't
know if it was big or small plane, info was sketchy, no Manhattan chief on duty so was
first due chief coming in from Fire HQ; left car near Trinity Church, walked to WTC;
from east side, saw hundreds of people evacuating, orderly; instructs EMS units treating
patients on^Church St set up triage on back up on further side of Church; set up staging
area on West & Vesey, thinks that was communicated to citywide, sent some EMS
officers back to^ast side to Church St staging; left Pinkus to coordinate there and goes to
Fire command post in 1JWTC lobby; tells Hayden they're staging outside; talks to Chief
Gabriel about game planTbelieves they couldn't transmit over citywide frequency even
though most windows blown out (either too many units or too much interference); Callan
or Hayden instructs to pull EMS resources out of lobby because of hazards; goes
back to command post (Chief Kowalzcyk functioning as operations officer; apparently
can communicate on radio); sees Ganci, Feehan, other fire chiefs, set up a few feet from
Fire Command in driveway of 2 WFC; sees 2" plane, knows it's not accident; discussing
deployment-nf resources w/ Kowalzcyk farther down West St at time of 1st collapse; runs
into garage, tries not to leave anyone behind; eventually gets to office w/ some people; no
means of communicating outside; eventually gets to exit on marina side; heads back to
West & Vesey, finds that EMS resources pulled back a block to Vesey & North End at
time of collapse; passes triage in some lobby, and is heading dowrrVesey-aTtime of 2nd
collapse; retreats back to lobby; meets up with other chiefs and decides to set up staging
areas at Chelsea Piers and SI Ferry Terminal; goes to IPP to coordinate activities from
there (passes Callan on way back to command post); not too many patients; *
/"
.HIEF GOLDFARB, DIV 3 (145): going off duty as citywide chief when hears reports
1st plane over radio; didn't know what other chiefs were on so called citywide dispatch
supervisor to set up task forces in each borough and get everyone off radio except EMS
 officers; still thought it was an accident; eventually gets through tunnel to West St, in
retrospect should've know it would collapse; stops south of pedestrian bridge around
Cedar on the west side of the WSH facing north, couldn't geffo staging at Vesey & West;
foltowed-asual routine, gave an 84 on the KDT, gets out of car w/ gear, radios, cell
phones and goes to commandpost by2 WFC; on command frequency; a little worried
about falling debris etc; GancTthere expressing troubles w/ radio, no EMS representation
(but knows Gambo has command?; tells aide (Mary Merced) to set up command board
and get under overhang of garage to be shielded; called command on command
frequency, Terranova says to report of lobby of WTC 2 ; Mary says they can't get there
so transmits this and acts as liaison to Fire; Kowalzyck directs to take command at Vesey
& Westrhere was on I act 2 and Mary was on citywide communicating w/ MERV;
eventually decision is made to switch to Manhattan south to be clear; many EMS
providers, ambulances on West & Vesey; directs everyone to set up_triage on east side of
3 WFC; eventually calls Pinkus to see if triage can be set up inside 3 WFC, concerned
about things falling; told to clear area by cops (tactical area); Pinkus reports everyone is
under cover but no patients; 1st collapse occurs, seeks shelter in back of ambulance; goes
back to 3 WFC, stable enough, sets up on west side of lobby; about 100j>atients, hard to
get through to command post on radio; calls Pinkus to relocate triage to N End Ave,
maybe feelings building is not safe; meets w/ other chief in Embassy Suites Hotel; 2nd
collapse occurs; gets everyone inside under cover; treat patienCsJn lobby; plan w/ other
chiefs to set up at Chelsea Piers and SI Ferry; goes w/ Gambo to 1 PP to establish
citywide command; first EMS representation there; starts oh Targe-scale disaster planning
(describes plan/ people etc); trouble communicating;

EMT MERCED! DIV 3, (144): Responds w/ Goldfarb; arrives after both planes have hit,
parks on Albany and Liberty; Gombo calls them to South Tower but says there's no way
they're going in there, way too dangerous; convinces Goldfarb; they up behind Fire
Command at 2 WFC driveway; move to Vesey and West, facing south, and then cleared
from "tactical area" by ESU truck (anticipated "ground attack" ?); set up equipment in
front of Amex facing south on Vesey; Chief says to go inside building ?; then apparently
C" on West St and doesn't hear any radio transmissions; 1st collapse occurs; runs jumps in
ambulance; hears 1 transmission from Cptn Deshore heading to jersey w/ patients; helps
with triage at Embassy Suites Hotel with some chiefs; eventually finds Goldfarb there;
transport some people; when 2nd building falls, moves people in lobby; evacuated
because of gas leak; goes w/ Gambo, Goldfarb, Terranova to 1 PP since no more 7 WTC
w/ OEM;

CHIEF PASCALE (OPERATIONS) (102): Hears about 1st plane in office, then 2nd
plane; citywide sends down, hadn't heard from anyone (remember warning by
McCracken about not having all chiefs in one location); gets down around West & Vesey
as 1st collapse occurs; abandons vehicles and runs; eventually notifies citywide of huge
number of ambulances on West End St [?]; thinks was only voice on radio; set up staging
along West End Ave; treated/ transported a few patients; 2nd collapse occurs; ran, ended
up near Stuyvesant; meets up w/ other chiefs; sent to Chelsea Piers, treats patients on way
there, sets up hospital at CP, tries to keep doctors there (from going down to site); has to
leave and return when 7 comes down;
PARAMEDIC PILLA, DIV 6 (104): Reports w/ Pascale group; looking for command ctr
when 1st collapse occurs; eventually gets to WG and sets up triage, then 2nd collapse
occurs; eventually continues triage there; fire chiefs says this is a terrorist attack and that
building is next; moves w/ patient (fire chief) to Stuyvesant, but have to evacuate because
of gas leak; eventually gets to BMCC acts as gofer; no real life-threatening injuries to
patients; goes later to Chambers and West;

PARAMEDIC SWEETING, DIV 6 (101): Reports w/ Pascale group; at around West and
Barclay as 1st collapse occurs; abandon car (worried about running people over) and run;
gets back w/ group at Vesey and West, does quick triage (many patients but not much
equipment) in part of WFC; treating a fire chief, another chief comes in and says we
shouldn't be there, this is a terrorist act (first time he realizes), was moving patients, «jfif
supplies as 2nd collapse occurs; everyone ran etc, helps woman who gets hit j$~WFC,
carries her, west on Vesey towards Battery Park promenade, then hit and carried by
cloud, dives around corner of 3 WFC for shelter; flags down ambulance from St.
Vincent's for woman; walking around aimlessly, had lost radio, meets up w/ group
(except Pascale), telling people to go north; eventually directed to Stuy HS but has to
leave because of gas leak; on way to Chelsea Piers but hears PA calling for EMS at
BMCC so helps with triage there;
1.
CAHILL, DIV 6 (143): Very incoherent & unspecific; appears that got down right as
first collapse was starting; says there were about 30 chiefs assigned, no on had any idea
of what their assignments were; finds Amedegnato, and apparently Chief Pascale, tries to
set up triage, staging, track people, doesn't say where, [apparently around West St, see
above]; doesn't know what's happening, no one really has radios; begins treating people
apparently in WFC triage area, hears about it not being secure from Pilla; outside setting
up MERV when gets alarm to evacuate; this is 2nd collapse; runs, loses everyone, finds
Amadegnato; gets in trailer; eventually finds Cptn Rivera and Pascale; Pascale assigns
him, Rivera, Sweeting, Pilla to find a place to set up; fmsd Police command post at Stuy
and is setting up when has to evacuate for gas leak; they leave as a unit, dragging injured
people; definitely a breakdown in discipline, feels responsible because no chiefs around;
eventually gets to BMCC and works w/ another Lt; hard to get control, a lot of
freelancing going on; control issues; overabundance of people reporting; gets a frequency
for command at Ferry and gives it to another captn; decide to bring supplies up to
possibly Ferry staging; radio goes dead; they designate runner; things more organized
when he leaves BMCC; eventually ends up near 7 WTC;

EMT IMMACULADA GATTAS, DIV 6 (146): This appears to be the EMT female
referred to Amedegnato; part of this (Pascale's) group too; reiterates pretty much same
story; after 2nd collapse, takes refuge in trailer w/ Lt. Cahill; to Stuy HS, has to evacuate
(hears of manhole explosion); eventually picked up by an ambulance that was picking up
emergency personnel and dropped at bus terminal on WSH; taken to Chelsea Piers
command; describes hospital set up; patients mostly just walking wounded at this point;
says got 150 patients after 7pm;
 EMT MANCHERRY (BATT 49), (127): Responds as 9 Henry (a HAZTAC unit) to call
^ w/ partner Kevin Barrett; sees 2nd plane hit as going over 59th St bridge; chaos, fender
benders; reports to West & Vesey; start triage; 2 patients in vehicle; directed to clear area
u by [NTSB?] to secure for evidence; move closer to building, about 50 ft away when it
0^ i ^. falls; runs for safety helping people, find shelter in grocery store, starts going back
towards tower 1 when 2nd collapse occurs; directed to staging area and then to Chelsea
Piers;

PARAMEDIC GONZALEZ, BATT 8 (131): responds to 8:45 call to West St in front of

1 WTC, stationed there, stayed about 20 mins; after second explosion (plane) directed to
set up.Jriage in lobby of Merrill Lynch building; but then tower 2 came down and blew
^ ./ all windows out; runs across st to Amex building into park behind WG; eventually to
*\ * Stuyvesant HS; go back w/ partner Rick Perez to get MERV abandoned on south side of
ML building; proceeded slowly eastbound to West St and stationed at Vesey and West;
told to stop and treat patients coming out of area; went back to MERV and treated
patients all night;

EMT PEREZ, BATT 8 (132): Headed down independently and got to 11th & Seventh
Ave in front of St Vincent's; saw first tower fall; (partner Joe Valdivia); took WSH down
until about Bank St, couldn't go any farther, helped as many people as they could; then
2nd collapse occurred;

LT ALBUERME, BATT 8 (130): Hears report of explosion; advises citywide by cell

phone that he's going to respond; stops to assist hospital ambulance on 7th Ave w/11
WTC units; meets up w/ EMS units on Wes{ and Murray; arranging staging when one
tower comes down; took cover in Dist 37 building; eventually sets up triage at BMCC,
use cells since all radios were down; chiefs establish command; is put in charge of
transport; feels they should have more drills, haven't done so in years, they're "too
comfortable;"

EMT TORRES, BATT 8 (133): assigned to West & Vesey, at end of line and Nevins
says to pull closer to pick up patients; parks and walks to West & Vesey, treating as they
\o along; instructed by cptn to get masks give out to personnel etc; talking to Rivera,
A ^ trying to a mask for a Chief when the 1st collapse occurred; waited under outcropping of
building; directed to new staging at North End; volunteered to go get vehicles w/ other
EMTs, gets keys from a Lt, got most of them, only a couple were dead; was checking
dead vehicles and PD asks for help bringing injured people around the corner (West &
Vesey); 2nd building comes down; made it around corner; then drove ^toNKowalczyk up to
Chelsea Piers to set up staging; feels like isn't doing enough so heads back towards zone,
goes to school (maybe Stuy but probably BMCC); worked in auditorium, got on a team to
set up a forward triage in a hotel (River Terrace?); there for about 5 hrs but no patients;
*r>

EMT BLACKSBERRY, BATT 31 (134): Responds w/ paramedic unit to West & Liberty
across from 1 WTC; 2nd plane hits as approaching building on foot; back in vehicle and
parks under north pedestrian walkway; made own staging area there; reported this over
radio but doesn't know if it was heard; treating people; transported some; directed other
units there, taking down names; tells EMS chief who doesn't really care; setting up, 32
Boy comes, set up vehicles near water; heard that all bosses should go onto Citywide and
everyone else should go onto Manhattan south; rumors about 3r plane; standing, waiting
etc at time of 1st collapse; leads chain of civilians who came from 1 WTC and other
places to Battery Park and gets them on 2 city buses; goes back w/ partner to direct more
people (can't distinguish btw 1st and 2nd collapse); gets their people to come down by
water and set up w/ an EMS Chief; treated people in park, put them on boats; find out
there was staging about 1A mile away at SI Ferry; goes to staging at 1 Liberty and worked
on pile; *?

EMT PASTOR, BATT 31 (135): reports from Bklyn (w/ partner Maria Harilal) and goes
to somewhere on West St (West & Liberty, see above) where 31 David is; they're under a
walkway (debris falling, computer, had seen a torso); feels like they're too close; sees
Cptn D'Amato and says they have to get vehicles out of there; gets put in charge of that,
moves them half a block up and directed to send people back w/ equipment for staging
area; about 30-40 mins later, first building comes down, gets buried (calls wife on
Nextel); debris clears abot 45 mins later, runs to Battery Park, sees guys in some lobby in
financial district, then get them down to around Albany and South End; gets into lobby,
only EMS personnel, helps women and children, about 500, 600 people there (Gateway
Plaza); goes out to green, eventually ends up at Ferry; (doesn't actually realize when 2nd
building comes down);

ROLAND DIAZ (121): Reports w/ partner to Church and Vesey and told by commander
to head in ?; then staging changed to West and Vesey; ends up in 5 WTC at another
staging area, apparently at time of collapse; runs towards West St, approached by OEM
guy who needs help getting his Lt out of tower 1, helped, transported some people; on
way to hospital when 2nd building fell; *patients from 1 WTC?

EMT O'CARROLL: (116): sent down via Manhattan frequency (only one working) to
Vesey and Church; put a few patients in vehicle and about 11 mins later building fell;
ran, was thrown, pulled through some kind of glass door into a subway station; guesses
combo to men's room and loses consciousnesses in there; eventually gets out and taken to
hospital as patient; f < "M \" '
EMT HENDERSON, BATT 20: responds down to liberty and west, across from 2 WTC;
helps medic treat fireman w/ crushed face (thinks on Cedar St); was coming back to
staging on West, in the hotel, when 1st collapse occurs; takes shelter in ambulance; came
out, was told by a female cop that 'one of yours guys in on fire'; 2nd collapse occurs and
can outrun it because farther away; vehicle destroyed; eventually gets back to Bronx;

EMT CONSTANTINE BATT 20 (122): responded w/ other ambulances to Vesey and

West; helped people running from building; heard on radio that the "tower's gonna fall,
the tower's gonna fall" (don't know time) ran, helped people run; then took ambulance
back to help people, mostly cleaning etc, transported a couple of people; 2nd collapse
occurs about 10 mins later and they outrun it; then pushed by gas leak up to 23rd St;
stationed there then (Chelsea Piers);

EMT ROTHMUND, BATT 22 (112): Assigned w/ partner John Heer (22 Adam) to
stand by at foot of Verrazano Bridge, but then directed over to Bklyn side and could see
tower burning (didn't know what call was for); onr.Qf the first ^ ambulntif nri at Liberty
andWesJjstaging; there was no brass but felt it unsafe to be so close relocates themselves
down to South End, lining ambulances from South End up to Liberty; turns patients over
to voluntary Hazollah unit going to hospital w/ other patients; 1st collapse occurs and gets
into superette, they're the only EMS there among about 40 people, pulled some people
down who reported they were trapped upstairs; eventually went outside, treated Chief
Grant, sent people towards the water, treated as much as possible; then took ambulance
down to the esplanade figuring the other building would be coming down; apparently
brought a few more patients to the water; 2nd collapse occurs as they're on West or South
End, walking north, apparently back to the towers; ran down Albany, escorts hundreds of
people down to esplanade, help people into Chinese restaurant at South Cove Park and
tries to set up triage but w/ no real equipment; eventually puts people on boats to NJ,
mostly minor injuries; no equipment, no people in authority; hears about staging at CP
and Ferry; walks there (ambulance inoperable), stops at small staging point to help, then
eventually gets to Ferry triage until about midnight; *?

PARAMEDIC SIMON, BATT 58 (115): assigned to individual w/ trouble breathing at

Broome and Broadway w/ partner Barry Hirsch; gets there after at least 1st collapse
(maybe 2nd), chaos, 1000's of people etc, but searches area w/ partner to find this person;
calls dispatch to report that can't find him; assigned to Chambers_and West, new staging
area; finds Pinkus and Lt Fitton, coordinating reassignment of units on west side, got
quick briefing but still many unanswered questions; asked to park and walk south on
West St and give any care that was needed and/or direct people to staging area (either
walking wounded orEMS) because tactical frequencies were so busy, being used to
conveyTnformationr2nd collapse occurs wherfthey're about 2 or 3 blocks south of
Chambers, runs, hears shots (PD trying to get into building), gets to triage area at BMCC,
but has to evacuate because of gas leak; eventually gets to Chelsea Piers;

EMS COMMAND MARK MAZUR (118): responding w/ MERV, relocated to Batt 45;
1st tower collapses as they're coming over 59th st bridge, radios go dead; starts staging by
AMEX building (Lt. Hadala there) and 2nd building comes down; jumped on hood of car,
then runs until about Barclay; made it back to LSU truck, gave out oxygen, masks, for
people going back to scene; Lt comes and evacuates them from area because of gas leaks
under sewer caps; drives, w/ some people, to restaurant at Descrosses, north of
Chambers; didn't find out it was a terrorist attack until then; stages there, using his cell
phone, nothing else working; citywide deploys them to Greenwich St; sets up at
Greenwich andjvlurray using equipment from LSU and MERV (appears to be at BMCC);
3rd buildmgl:aTI, tries to control people; eventually moved back by Battery_Park
apaFta£ntswhen Amex building was going to fall; communications bad (all day) heard
people were'Erapped'tyvgivcgmrnand frequency and citywide; 800 frequencies were
shabby; you had repeatersr on in the WTC; 0 \ '
 EMTD MERREO (125): at home on day off and sees on news; goes down; told
eventually to report to Fulton and Broadway; trying to treat people; collapse occurs
(apparently 2nd one; didn't know about 1st one); gets in ambulance, head down, treat
people along the way, went south on Broadway almost to Wall, around City Hall, ends up
back on Fulton and Broadway; drives around a lot picking up people, getting them
transported, around Trinity and Cedar, then Cortlandt, Canal, then up to Harlem to get
another stretcher, then down to Liberty and Cedar, eventually goes to Ferry;

V '/ EMT BRIAN SMITH, (136): going off duty at 8:45 and hears 1st tower being hit; tell
V desk Lt need an extra unit to go back out, responds 3 1 Mary; unfamiliar w/ lower
Manhattan so follows unmarked police car over Bklyn Bridge to around Cortlandt, by
footbridge; looking for staging; on Liberty and either Trinity or Church asks Lt where to
stage but he can't get through on radio (2nd plane has hit by this time); sees wing sticking
out of building, wasn't apparent what had happened; says there are people hurt at 10 and
10 firehouse; goes there and told to pull all the way in garage because of falling debris
etc; sets up elaborate triage area there; reports this to central dispatch; tells fire cptn to
have his men direct civilians in who need treatment; goes to help firefighter find hurt
"brother", sees life jackets in street, knows it's plane, slips on a guy's head; goes down
Liberty a few blocks but apparently sees guy gets up and walk away so goes back
towards firehouse; on the way, finds 2 concession stands and is cutting into them to get
liquid etc when first collapse occurs (thinks it's plane); runs back to firehouse, everyone
had run to back except Asian guy, Fu, who was too hurt; drags him back; describes being
thrown etc; thinks they're trapped in there; partners gives mayday but says he shouldn't
because someone will come in and get killed there (didn't know what was going on
outside); thought about trying to run back to Bklyn but stayed to help people; helping to
get people out, looking for people possibly trapped in rubble in engine bays, helping Fu,
when 2nd collapse occurs; goes into corner for shelter; carries Fu out who has serious cash
in his briefcase; goes into building (10 Rector) and helps evacuate 100's of people from
building who were told to stay at their desks; gets directions from dispatch and has
someone bring them out single file; stays in building w/ partner and sends another group;
hears many rumors over radio; eventually goes out and gets Fu and another patient into
an ambulance; trying to get back to Bklyn now that everyone is gone; sees guy who they
think is Bklyn boss at 100 Wall St, but is Lt 55 who makes them wait and help even
though they're injured; eventually get back to station and find out they were presumed
dead;

EMT SANCHEZ, COMMAND 49 (128): new on job, gets down to area of towers after
both planes have hit; trying to help people, get them to a safer place when 1 st collapse
occurs; runs about 20 blocks, helps police officers direct people, not to panic; then goes
w/ paramedics to Bellevue Hospital, bringing patients in for about 2 hrs; eventually gets
to Chelsea Piers;
 SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE, LIEUTENANT DOMINIC MAGGIORE, EMS
BATTALION 50, OCTOBER 19, 2001, (120).

At Employee Health Service when first plane hit; had been cleared for full
duty after being on modified duty due to injury;
On way back to Battalion 50, saw second plane hit from the BQE;
Went to Battalion 50 and got in command car w/ Lisa Desena, a division ALS
coordinator, and Paramedic Christ Lefkadidas and responded in;
Around the time we first began to respond (to the Staten Island Ferry), the
first tower fell; there was one BLS unit at the SI Ferry; shortly after an ALS
unit showed up and we established a triage area on the 2nd fl or the Ferrv
Terminal; communication was mme, UseU cell phone to do most/all of
communication with city wide;
More resources started showing up; at some point, probably an hour or two
into it, Chief [Basilffi.came and took command of the area; established the
staging area and units started to respond to us;
Treated very few patients, was mass confusion, because it was the staging
point for the evacuation of downtown, so took some time and effort to set up;
Started get volunataries and volunteers, had about 30,40 beds set up, w. plenty
of staff, medical staff doctors and such;
A little while after established, Dr. [Chersen?] and Manny Delgado came in,
shortly after the second tower fell, because (believes) they were blown from
the force of the tower falling;
A little while later, Chief Brown came in and was treated and transported (he
was in rubble);
A couple of hours into it, it was obvious there wouldn't be too many patients;
Lieutenant Phil Soto was One Liberty Plaza screaming for help; got there a
little while later in command car w/ two medics, Lisa and Chris, and it was
just rubble on the Trinity side of One Liberty Plaza; it was starting to get dark,
either because it was dusk or from the dust;
There were a bunch of volunteers, some Jersey units, some private units,
including a girl Chris from NJ who kind of set up a triage treatment area in the
lobby of One Liberty Plaza (and did an excellent job);
I established the triage treatment when I got there; Phil Soto was more
involved up on the rubble pile; there were numerous doctors, nurses, all
volunteers, a bunch of people all over the place;
Spent a lot of time fighting with the people to keepjheni-awajf from the pile,
Gn^ because was worried about it being stable, which it later turned out not to be
when there was a secondary collapse; apparently this took the lives of a
couple of PA officers working in the rubble; *"
Had units operating close to the rubble and sometimes on top of the pile; Lt
Soto and I agreed this was not a good idea, so got attention of fire supervisors
who backed off edge of pile and proceeded more carefully;
Pulled out 2 or 3 or more victims during course of the evening;
 Dr. Gonzalez had shown up because there were a lot of problems w/ doctors
staying off the pile, narcotics being sent to the front line via anyone who said
the doctor up front needed them;
I spoke to a two star police inspector; I had concerns about the PA cops being
up, probably 30 yards into the rubble and shortly after that, there was the
collapse;
A PA sergeant, who said he was a nurse, came to station to request morphine
c because either one or two of his officers were trapped and they were going to
try to cut them out; 2 doctors at the staging area volunteered to go into rubble
and I advised the paramedic to send them to administer the narcotics; do not
think that officers ever came to our staging area;
It was mayhem, our people and the volunteers did a really good job, though a
little disorganized; I spent way too much time baby-sitting the volunteer
doctors and nurses; they were all great and willing to help but had no concept
of command; the fact that there were so few patients complicated things even
more, with people mulling around not knowing what to do;
But the people down in the trenches, cops, firemen, worked like they'd
worked together forever, like partners, listened to direction, anything you
needed, people were right there;
After secondary collapse, treated 3 or 4 patients who got trampled, just trying
to get away;
We had some problem w/ organization; there were only 2 lieutenants, Phil
Soto spent most of his time at the edge of the pile with a couple of crews; we
face-to-faced a couple of times, tried keep the number of personnel at the pile
as small as possible;
Volunteers and public were outstanding, giving out drinks etc;
Was there from daylight Tuesday until 7AM Wednesday morning; during
course of night had problem w/ an Assist ambulance crew who sneaked a
reporter in in back of ambulance;
Was there 60 out of 72 hrs between Tues morning and Friday;
Went to St. Joseph's to be treated then home for about 5 hrs, then back to
Command by about 12 noon; Captain Boyle was there and a doctor from the
fire dept involved w/ FEMA (big Hawaiin or Asian guy); there was now a
triage area_aLChurch and West atthe StuvvesanLSchool; still out of control;
narcotics being sent tolrbnt line w7 civilians w/ masking tape on shirts say
"EMT";
Dr. Gonzalez came and told me to get a grip on the situation, we set up
security to make sure supplies didn't go up with anyone we knew; had
problems w/ reporters, cameras, and had to get National Guard or some kind
-faM of military to set up at all entrances;
• Broke teams of doctors and nurses into two, sent some upstairs to rest; there
was a Dr. Rich Machette and Nurse Jo; one was the leader for day and one for
night; they pretty much took control of the medical staff w/ me; probably 2
teams of 20 to 30 doctors, mixed them up w/ our people, about 6 or 8
stretchers w/ a doctor and at least one nurse and one EMT at each one, w/ an
eye wash area; Dr. Machette and Nurse Jo were outstanding and that's when
supplies started showing up from everywhere; a guy came down on a tractor
trailer w/ 21 pallets, didn't need him, sent him to Chelsea Piers;
Main problem was the civilian medical people; doctors had no idea; one
anesthesiologist showed up w/ a black bag full of drugs and was going to
anesthetize someone before he 'tubed' them; he didn't know our paramedics
tube people all the time; had to ask him to leave; same w/ physical therapists;
had to spend a lot of time screening them etc because they're used to being in
control;
During period from Wed until Thurs morning, radio was pretty much useless;
used cell phone which was also intermittent;
There Thursday helping captain Boyle w/ logistics; then he left and was w/
Chief Perrugla and Lieutenant Mann;
Ran into Chief Smith who was frantic because had lost Scott pack w/ piece of
skull (Captain Amato, Squad 1) attached; I tracked it down; after bringing it to
the morgue he was already back to work;
Disappointed w/ in how movement of personnel went out, had an academy
staff there for about 20 hrs waiting about 4 hrs for a ride [?] and couldn't get
them out; eventually dissolved into control struggle so left and pulled out
academy staff;
After this, did 15/16 hrs shifts in morgue etc.
SUMMARY OF INT. WITH GREGG HADALA, LIEUTENANT, EMS COMMAND,
SHIELD 357, EMS BATTALION 50, OCTOBER 19, 2001, #9110119

• Was "conditions 54" that morning, covering regular area, w/ another unit on a
call; heard on Dept radios and news radios about a plane into the towers;
• Was norsent to scene but sent messages that couIcTrespond;
' • Went to 69 Grand Avenue and saw that whole tower [WTC 1] was on fire,
people pulling over in cars, everyone looking up in shock;
• Didn't have my lights on but people getting out my way;
• After an hour, they were sending the MERV-4 vehicle (big bus) outside; knew
it would be hard for it to get through, so escorted it into Manhattan, and was
then put on'jorJ; •
Took Queens Blvd, had to wait by BN 45, between LIE and Queens Blvd; told
to wait there, so escorted them to Queens Blvd and 59th St Bridge, over on
57th St, then shot over to West Side, then downtown, roads were clear for
emergency, people evacuating from lower Manhattan;
Nojiirection as to where to go or set upjjhere were supervisors, officers,
Chiefs, fire side, EMS side, calling for help, just cries for help; think that's
when first tower [WTC2?] came down; ^2-
Pulled up somewhere about 15 min before WTOr came down; came [down?]
up the West Side Highway past 23r and 14th; vehicles coming from all over,
staging, some going in, some waiting;
Wanted to get a little closer to treat patients, but not too close, ended up by
Borough of Manhattan Community College, Chambers, a little past there; not
all the way to Vesey but could clearly see the tower in flames, a lot going on;
Had to make own decision because no upper command giving directions, like
that for the rest of Ihe evening, so just sought out injuries and liuulod
wherever;
While treating injuries, [they?] said look, the second tower was coming down;
shock wave and debris came; had the big bus and the equipment truck and our
own medic; everyone else took cover; but I was away from my vehicle, was
going to dive under a police truck, but a guy was in it already (a Con Ed guy?)
who said get in here, so got inside and rolled up windows;
After a few minutes, it got light again, and we assisted people, firefighters,
police, EMS, and washed them down;
Thenjwen^back to debris area where saw injuries, but made to evacuate that
area, told there was another explosion, or a gas leakf and told to hgad up
towardsJL4th St.; tnld nther nnitfM^-go-vfp t" ?^rd Str""t Chelsea Piers;
Apparently "it" [Chelsea Piers?] became the staging area;
Bus broken down around 14th, had to clean it up, then let command know I
was back in service, told to go another location, probably near Vesey and
Trinity;
Came down Chambers and little past Chambers, maybe Barclay, got stuck in
traffic near a building where they had set up a hospital area; the person in
 charge told them to park and works with the doctors and nurses; no victims
came, just rescuers who got hurt trying to get to victims;
Remained there for several hours and that night directed to Battery Park City
side, all the streets there, across from the WTC area and the apt buildings;
around Albany and West to treat and victims or rescuers; washed down some
guys, supplied oxygen until approx SAM; told to go home, there were
firefighters, Battalion Chiefs etc needing rides;
Command post set up at Chambers and West [after this?] with EMS
Lieutenant and Captain; EMT Bobby Short had driven MERV to this site with
a medic Wilson DiBrianno (from 50), who had apparently lost his partner and
jumped on; also Mark Mazur, the 'equipment truck guy' who drove LSU-4;
Thinks they were the first to get to Chambers St (though already guys at 14th
St) and after it [WTC 1?] collapsed, all units came up, there were a couple of
ambulances, fire trucks and ambulances from towns I didn't recognize; there
were EMS officers, Lieutenant Pincus, and a guy from Battalion 8, and a
Spanish Lieutenant; at first that was all, nojupervision, but after the collapse,
_saw^2ne_of the Chiefs from our Division. Told him thelvIEKV~w3s~"down;
saw that oneUFfhe"new captains, Janice Olszewski was hurt and being taken
away in an ambulance;
In terms of preparation in general, really not prepared, but no one was; after a
while, no equipment, masks, etc; the other stations, that had no units involved,
had more stuff; not much in the way of counseling, e.g., people checking on
them and equipment; we felt that the EMS part could have been better
organized and watched out for us better [after?];
Remainder of interview concerning organization after event; chaotic and not
well organized;
SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH EMT SAMUEL D.
HARRIS, BUREAU OF COMMUNICATIONS, OCTOBER 17, 2001, (108).

• [Interview conducted in conference room within investigations and trials];

• Reported to work at 7AM; was getting coffee when I noticed that people in
operations, which is adjacent to communications, were scrambling; running
into FOC, talking about looking out the window; I was approached at my desk
by Comm Gregory who told Cap Pinkus that a plane had struck the towers;
/that was around 8:50; Gregory instructed me, Cap D'Amato and Cap Pinkus
[to what?J and1 we got in his car[Gregory's?, was he there w/ them?] and
headed towards Manhattan;
Coming across the Bklyn Bridge, you could see the tower was just engulfed;
at West and Vesey, was instructed to move car farther up Vesey toward North
End Ave but wasn't able to get up that far because ponce were cutting thar
block off; [apparently the others exited the car at West and Vesey while Harris
went to park it];
Met back up with Pinkus [where?] and went back to West St, where we met
up w/ Chief Gombo, Ass't Chief of EMS Operations, and Lt. Ross Terranova;
I was assigned to Lt Terranova to kind of keep a record of what going on;
Phikliij was-detailed to do something ilsi w/ Vehicle operations with staging;
Gombo^jrerfanDva andJ went into the operation command post at that time 1
basement area [see below]; there were all kinds of people
there, civilians from the building, OEM, PA, Fire, EMTs, the Fire Comm and
Deputy Comm, Comm Tierney, you couldn't count how many;
Believe that, after some preliminary instructions were made,j3gople were
going upstairs [presumably FD people?]; they were rhutting down elevators
and trying tojnoyg people out of the building;
Probably not even 20 mins later, the decisions was made to pull back across
the street; ~
Everyone was standing in the garage area, a two-door garage in this area at the
corner; everyone was making operations;
Gombo instructed me to go inside the building [appears to be 3 WFC, Winter
Garden; describes later as being primarily glass-doored] and contact Chief
Diggs about point-to-point operations and communications so that they can
have a whole line set up or dedicated for people to talk point to point w/o
interference; as I went into the building, I heard on the radio over the
Command Frequency that this was essentially done, but I went inside anyway
to follow the order and made the call; as I got through to Chief Diggs, saw
Comm Fitpatrick in there for a minute and then walk out; I got direction from
Chief Diggs to relay back to Chief Gombo;
As I was going to tell Chief Gombo what I'd been told, tower one started to
collapse [this is actually Tower 2, first to collapse; no mention of second plane
hitting;] grabbed the guy in front of me, the glass was shattering around us,
and we ran back inside; someone who I believe worked for that building was 1
or 7 people with us running w/ us; one was a paramedic Mike Glenn, 2 NYC
detectives, the building manager and office workers; we ran down the hallway
unable to see because it was dark and thick and the lights went right away [or
maybe just couldn't see?]; we stayed calm, stayed together and looked for
another exit; there weren't any; the building manager took us into a computer
or security room and found some flashlights; we decided to wait and probably
waited a whole hour until some of the dust settled; we formed a line, grabbed
each other's belts and shined the flashlights; two men went ahead to look for
an exit and found we could exit the front door where we had come in;
I went immediately to the garage area, where there had been hundreds of
people, but there were only about 25 firemen; ran into Chief Kowalzcyk's
aide who didn't know where his boss was; he had been w/ Gombo and several
others before I went in to make the phone call;
The Field Comm van was crushed; the guard stand in between the 2 doors in
the garage was crushed, looked almost like the 2 garage doors were blown
open; debris everywhere etc;
After about 20 mins of trying to find people I know, I ran into Cap Howard
Sickles, standing towards what would have been the curb (at West, facing
Vesey), trying to a give a progress report on the radio, and I'm trying to get
him to go up Vesey towards North End; make the 12 and make it brief and
let's go; eventually I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him;
I did see Chief Ganci, who was trying to rally some of the firefighters in the
area also to move up toward North End;
At the corner of Vesey and North End, there was a firefighter who said this is
bad; I said we should move, who knew if the other tower would come down;
police were trying to get people up Vesey towards North End;
I was walking up [presumably on North End], got to where the
Commissioners car was, and heard the rumble again; I thought about trying to
move the car, but Lt. Terranova who turned up right behind me said, forget it,
let's go, and we all started running, w/ Cap Sickles behind us; we ran into
North End Ave and at the corner off to the right was the MERV; on that
corner is a hotel or coffee shop where we all ran in; about 20 people behind us
were 2 police officers who were badly hurt, had gotten hit w/ rubble and they
rushed them up that way; a few civilians, the LSU, a couple of other EMTs
and I started trying to bandage and treat people;
At that point, I was reunited w/ Cap Pinkus and some other EMS Chiefs,
Basile, Carrasquillo, Gombo, Pascale;
Area was made into a treatment area;
About an hour or hour and a half later, Pinkus, Pascale and I went up to
Chelsea Pier where we stayed basically all night and into the morning, driving
doctors back and forth, setting up the triage and temporary morgue;
[In response to questioner:] believe second plane hit as we were going over
Bklyn Bridge, believe you felt the bridge shift as you went over, but didn't
realize it until later, just thinking about getting across;
[Reply]: Was using EMS Command Frequency while going over bridge; not
given any specific locations; still in the process of setting up staging area
when I got to Lt Terranova; staging area switched quite a few times while I
was w/ him before the first tower collapsed; try to put people in areas of
safety;
[Mentions people he saw throughout day and how/when he heard what had
happened to various people;]
SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH EMS CHIEF JAMES
BASILE, EMS OPERATIONS, EMS DIVISION 2 COMMAND, OCTOBER 17, 2001,
(105).

• First became aware from my staff who were watching the morning news; had
seen the first plane hit; at that point we started to monitor the radio activities
here, the CAD job;
• W/in a few mins, the other building was struck; I called the Citywide Dispatch
Supervisor to say we were available;
• Because of magnitude of incident, I felt I should respond, so I responded from
Division 2's office w/ paramedic Louis Cook; we traveled Pelham Parkway
onto the Hutchison River Parkway to the Whitestone Bridge, where we began
to see firsthand; we entered the Whitestone Expressway onto the Van Wyck
Expressway onto the LIE; started to get real perspective;
• By the time we got to the tunnel, there must have been 20-25 vehicles behind
us, a few cars in front; Chief Hitch and Chief Carasquillo were ahead of us;
• We had clear access into the tunnel and onto 34* and FDR; we took the FDR
through the tunnel down in lower Manhattan and out onto the West Side
Highway, I believe it was Albany to Carlisle, Carlisle to Rector or Albany;
• I exited the vehicle w/ all my gear and walked to the command, located
adjacent to the Winter Garden; met with Chief Jerry Gambo and Chief Walter
Kowalczyk and was directed to go into the lobby of 1 WTC;
• Louis Cook and I went in together; we found it was very dangerous entering
and there were numerous building and body parts falling down;
• We entered the lobby, where I met Citywide Truck Commander Joseph
Callan, Fire Div. 1 Commander Chief Hayden and Fire Battalion 1 Joe
Pfeifer, Safety Battalion Chief Stephen King, Father Judge, and OEM PA
officials in the command post;
• We were looking for an appropriate way of exit for building personnel and a
place where we could establish treatment sites; I advised the incident
commander that it was not safe to exit via the front of the building and sent
Cook w/ a PA cop to find different means of exist for civilians and public
safety personnel;
• All of a sudden we heard what sounded like the roar of a jet engine, thought it
was another plane hitting the building [actually first collapse]; went around a
wall from the command post into the elevator bank area, escalators that led
into concourse for shelter, everyone got down on the ground; within 2
seconds, debris and dust started to come in and we were shut down,
everything was dark, pitch-black; the only light we had was from hand-held
lanterns and from the video crew following one of the chiefs;
• Before the collapse, the lobby was still lit, functional; there were a lot of
people when I arrived there; the PA had set up some type of chain to help lead
people out; the bulk of the people got out w/in about the last 2 minutes before
tower 2 collapsed so it was essentially just Fire, PA and OEM personnel;
• After the collapse, all access to the lobby area was cut off; I asked a PA cop
for another way out; we took the escalator up to the concourse level; all the
glass had been shattered out and we were able to get out; I saw people coming
out from the concourse too; I met w/ Fire Battalion Chief Turner and a few
other firemen and assisted in moving civilian patients out; did some quick
treatment of a couple of patients, one man w/ a gash in his forearm; brought
about 300 civilians from the building in a matter of 12, 15 mins, channeling
them to a walkway that led to 7 WTC; when no one else was coming out, I
walked over the bridge to building 7 and went to the second level or main
lobby and went down the escalator;
As I was approaching the corner of West and Vesey, I heard over the radio
that the building was leaning; as I was crossing West, I heard that jet engine
sound again; I knew the building was coming down; I made it about to
somewhere between West and North End, there was a fence about 200 or 100
yds away; I used that as a wall to protect myself from debris, I brought a
couple of civilians down with me, a.couple of firefighters, I brought them
close to the ground and covered them w/ my turnout coat;
After the darkness cleared a little, I heard a woman screaming next to me; I
got her up and we went into a bagel store at North End an Vesey where we
took some water, got cleaned down etc
I went into a building off of River Terrace, I believe, and Vesey where a lot of
the Chiefs had regrouped, including Kowalczyk, Gambo; tried to put together
a plan of action;
I was directed at that point to set up a treatment site at the ferry terminal;
wound up finding Louis Cook; I said to him, we're not going back to the West
Side Highway, so we were walking down North End, by the yacht harbor, and
Cook saw a boatsmate who gave us a ride to the ferry terminal in a zodiac;
went down Hudson to marine input center when something jammed propeller
and we got stranded; saw some Coast Guard or NYC cops in another zodiac
who zipped by;
Eventually got to the ferry terminal where there were some EMS crews; at
some point, took over the second floor of the ferry terminal w/ Dr. Cherson
for a treatment site; many health care professionals were there, civilians from
the street; Dominic Maggiore helped set up treatment and staging;
Didn't end up treating that many patients; did about 5 transports, one being
Deputy Chief Robert Browne; was asked at 4:30 to go to the command ctr at
Chambers and West; on my way w/ Mark Steffens, Fred Villani, & Louie
Cook when, at about Washington and Chambers, we saw building 7 come
down;
SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH PARAMEDIC LOUIS
COOK, DIVISION 2, ALS COORDINATOR, OCTOBER 17, 2001, (103).

• Started tour at 6AM; in my office w/ Chief Basile when he announced that a

plane had struck the WTC; got this info over his beeper; didn't think much
then turned on TV and it looked like it was going to be a big job, so Chief
Basile and I loaded our equipment into the car and started responding to the
location;
• Went through Queens into Manhattan, down the FDR to the WTC; parked
somewhere around West St, I think between Albany and Cedar; saw Chief
Carrasquillo and his aide in front of us parking; saw Roger Moore of
Operations, Chief Hirth and his aide, in the car together; [all of them?]
• We parked, geared up, took our equipment and started towards the initial
interagency command post, across West St, I believe between number 1 and 2
WTC (good view of #1, saw 2 and 3 also); walking north on West St, saw
aircraft landing gear, bodies et; at the command post, saw Chief Kowalczyk, I
believe he was major response chief for the evening and some other EMS
Chiefs;
• Before we even got w/in 10 ft of the command post, he [Chief K?] said
Jimmy, take tower 1, so we turned around and started across West St to Tower
1; a lot of debris was falling from the southwest side, fire coming down, parts,
bodies, body parts;
• Went into lobby to establish a forward command in the lobby command post,
ran into Pfeifer; we started to formulate matching plans w/ another fire chief, a
deputy, a PA cop of high rank, a Sgt and a NYC Police officer (I believe a
Sgt); we all decided what was going to happen;
• Basile asked me to find another egress from 1 WTC, a safe way to get
civilians out, preferably covered; I asked a PA Sgt who got a cop to show me
where to go; I was making a circle of the lobby to check entrances and exits in
the lobby area; noticed an elevated portion of stairs that went up to a landing
and asked the copy where it went; he told me it was the north bridge to the
WFC, it's covered and it goes over West St, and comes out to number 1 [?]
and you can get out through one to Vesey St [?]; I went to investigate this
route; made it up to the concourse/ mezzanine level and onto the foot bridge
when I started to hear an explosion of some sort; figured it was just something
burning upstairs; I'm the only one on the bridge, and I feel a rumble and hear
this intense rumbling sound; the cop was gone; started running across bridge
and about halfway over, major debris was hitting the ground; everything went
black, the windows on both sides of the walkway started to implode and the
ceiling tiles started falling, so I decided to lean against the column and just
hold on;
• When the rumbling stopped I kept going across the bridge by hugging the wall
that I was next to (couldn't see); at the end where the WFC was everything
was locked; everything was intact; went back the other way, found some
painters rag to cover my face and water; met Pfeifer and his aide about
halfway back to where I had started [though previously says got back to
number 1 and met him there];
My radio was the fire portable and at first it was quiet, then a lot of may days; I
didn't want to come on and come up as a mayday because I wasn't trapped; I
knew there was a collapse of some sort but had no idea what was down;
He didn't know what happened to the command post or where everybody was,
so I turned around and tagged along w/ him, back to the WFC; his aide broke
the window out on one of the doors w/ a tool and we got into the lobby; on the
side of the lobby, there were 2 escape stairs that had a panic button door at the
bottom, so he broke it and we went out underneath the pedestrian bridge
where you could see tower two was totally down;
Pfeifer got on his radio [apparently it was working], I guess there was another
fire command post, reported his position, that he was w/ me, I told him to
report me as 62 alpha;
I don't know where he went; I went back into number one across West St to
reorient myself, there was a problem getting in because of debris; I saw 2
civilians on an EMS stretcher and some EMS equipment, a guy asked me
what to do with the stuff and said I put it right here, there's nothing you can
do; I told him just to go away from the collapse zone, north up West St; they
had no masks, so gave them my shears and cut the stretcher sheet for masks
and they took off;
I couldn't get into building one; I went around, going back towards the
collapse zone, to try to find another way to get into one and get Basile; I
couldn't get him on the radio because I have fire portable and he has EMS
portable;
I'm trying to get in and people are running up to me looking for directions,
EMTs I've never seen; told them not to go into the collapse zone, go back to
Vesey and West and wait for orders;
Was somewhere between one and two when I started hearing the noise again;
started running north on West St, passed one of the tactical trucks, the fire
side, Tac 1 or 2; not a lot of people, I felt like I was alone; stuff coming down,
fire coming down, could feel the heat; I grabbed a firefighter's turnout coat
that just seemed to be in front of me, threw it over my shoulders, didn't make
it much farther, ended up diving down next to some kind of truck, I think a
van ambulance; waited there, somewhere shy of Vesey, for everything to stop;
once everything stopped, it was quiet; I'm trying to figure out which way to
go etc; start crawling and doing sweeps in front of me when I hear someone
yells, is anybody out there?; I said this is Cook, and the response was this
Chief McCarthy or McNally; so I told him to keep yelling and I'd find him; I
crawled to him, we latched each other's arms and stood up;
We plan to head towards the water; we get to about Vesey, past the Amex
building on the north side of the street where there's a bunch of shops and I
kind of fell across the wall where it was out and waited; someone ran up with
pitchers of water; I didn't see anyone I knew;
I went back towards the collapse zone, past the AMEX building and there
were a bunch of EMS people there, our guys, Lenox Hill guys, other people,
setting up some kind of triage area; a crew was loading up a stretcher w/
equipment; they wanted to treat me as a patient but I was I was fine; one of
them knew me, I think Raoul Perez; they were about to march towards the
collapse zone, they said their people were dying in there, and I told them not
to go, everyone's dead who was over there, it's unsafe; they kind of just kept
formulating a plan so I said, if you're going to go, send 2 guys w/ a tech bag
and that's it, one guy stand by the corner to watch and you guys stay here,
don't go past the line of sight; they thought that was a better idea;
I left Raoul in charge and went back to the collapse looking for Basile; there
was nothing there; I came back to find those EMS guys and ran into Marc
[Stone?]; I saw Richie Zarillo; he told me, just stay here and did that; saw Sal
Sargeniti, Pete Carrasquillo's aide, leaning against the wall, he said, I'm done
but he didn't want help; I think Mark Stone went off, because I remember
saying the MERV is close by because I thought I hear the generator;
Eventually Basile turns up; they get back to work in this hotel on North End
Ave where there was a triage set up, EMS chiefs, Carrasquillo, Pascale,
Gombo; formulated a plan; two casualty collection points; Gombo tells Basile
to set up at the South Ferry so we started walking from North End Ave; we
were outside this harbor, the North Cove and knew we couldn't make it
walking; there are these large, sight-seeing boats; he put us on a coast guard
type boat and took us to the South Ferry; at the South Ferry the boat dies, they
get me onto the dock and while I'm getting Basile a dock line, they drift out
into the harbor, a Coast Guard boat eventually helps and they set up there w/
off-duty EMS people, John Hill Gardner, Bill Haighey; the Coast Guard was
there; a lot of EMS people; ferry coming back and forth; ... continues to
describe operations there, wanted armed guard protection, but they weren't
armed, made a plan w/ the ferry, planned for triage, didn't get many patients,
list many people he saw...exodus of civilians; eventually goes to an
interagency meeting, so had to get to Basile's car (doesn't remember how),
found the car, went back to south ferry, picked up mark stiffens, and the car
was packed (doesn't remember who else); we get up by Chambers and
Greenwich and see the OEM bunker, 7 WTC burning, then over the fire
portable we hear, everyone evacuate the site, it's going to collapse, we stayed
in car and were fine; then eventually had meeting, Pfeifer was there, then went
home and came back the next morning, stayed for days
SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH ASSISTANT CHIEF
JERRY GAMBO, EMS OPERATIONS, OCTOBER 17, 2001, (100).

• Interview conducted in Chief Gambo's office on the 7th floor at EMS

Command;
• Logged on my usual early time prior to 5:30 AM and arrived at headquarters
around 6 AM;
• Going on normal activities when somewhere prior to 9 AM, Lt. Ross
Terrnova, who was situated down at 5 operations, ran into my office and told
me a plane hit the WTC and it was observed by Chief Ganci from his office; I
ran down to see and saw flames, smoke etc;
• Gave Ross the keys to my car, came back here to secure my radio, which was
charging, and went down to the garage to start responding the assignment; I
know from looking at the job history record that they assigned me to that job
at about 8:55 AM;
• At that time 3 cars left from the garage heading in that direction; Chief Ganci
[redacted] followed by myself, Terranova was driving, just the 2 of us in the
car; we went over the Bklyn Bridge towards the Towers;
• We were there quickly; the entrance ramp to the Bklyn Bridge was already
shut down by PD except for emergency vehicles; listening to units getting
assigned to the WTC; didn't know if it was a small plane or a large plane;
initial information was extremely sketchy, and I believe there was no
Manhattan Chief on duty at that time (think Chief Hart was in refresher), so I
knew I was basically the first due Chief in coming from Fire HQ;
• On our way down, traffic started getting a little congested; we ended up
leaving the car in close proximity to Trinity Church, where there's a cemetery
(off of Church St; will identify later); close enough but not too close to
interfere w/ any responding vehicles; then we walked to the WTC which was
down the block;
• As we approached the towers from the east side heading west, we saw
hundreds of people evacuating; it seemed to be fairly quickly but in an orderly
fashion as well;
• Saw several EMS units, I believe FD units; spoke to a few who were treating
patients laying on the floor on Church; everyone was wearing their helmets
which was good because of all the debris coming down;
• Told crews to cross back up to the further side of Church and set up triage
there; don't believe there were any Officers, but 2 or 3 units operating; I
wanted to head to the other side of the tower where our planned staging area
was; I walked around on foot and on the south side of the tower which was
West St [presumably north tower], I encountered several other EMS unit;
people were exiting the towers, it appeared in orderly fashion, but didn't
appear to be any patients; so we set up a staging area on West and Vesey and I
think that was communicated to citywide; at that point I did come across
several EMS officers, Cap Olszewski and [a Lt; redacted], who I sent back to
the east side where there were no supervisors, to Church St, to set up a staging
and treatment sector;
I ran into Cap Stone, Cap Pinkus, Ross was still w/ me; he had the radio etc,
and I believe Chief Basile and Cap Sickles; left Cap Pinkus to coordinate
staging there [West and Vesey?] and asked where Fire command post was; I
was told it was in the lobby of the north tower, so I went there w/1 believe
Capn Stone and a crew on foot; ambulances staging outside;
Approaching the lobby, saw many body parts;
Inside the command post, informed Chief Hayden, the incident commander,
that we're here and were setting up EMS operations staging outside; he was
involved w/ coordinating a significant number of Fire resources; I told him I'll
remain within eyeshot;
There were still not many patients and few civilians in the lobby; mostly
building security, Fire, PD;
I ran into Chief Gabriel who was assigned to OEM and talked to him about a
game plan; I believe we couldn't transmit over the radio, the citywide
frequency, at that point, even though most of the windows were blown out;
don't know whether it was too much interference or too many units on the
frequency;
After a few minutes, either Chief Callan or Chief Hayden said they were
going to be secure the command post from the tower lobby and move it
directly across West Street, and that I should pull the EMS resources out of
the tower, as it was deemed not safe;
I believe I left Chief Basile and Cap Stone there to make sure all EMS
resources were pulled out (we didn't have protective clothing); then walked
w/ Ross to the command post; Chief Kowalzcyik was there, he was the major
that day, so he functioned as operations officer; I recall Chief Ganci, Comm
Feehan and several other Chief officers from Fire; we set up a few feet from
Fire's command post; this was in the driveway of 2 WFC;
I asked Chief Kowalczyk to continue functioning as operations officer
because was apparently able to communicate w/ the radio at that point;
Maybe a few minutes later, saw the second plane out of the corner of my eye;
knew it wasn't an accident; was able to feel the heat at the command post and
debris was showering down there;
It appeared that the pace of civilians exiting increased, but still mostly an
orderly evacuation;
Was discussing operation/deployment of resources farther down West St w/
Chief Kowalczyk when I felt like an earthquake; sky darkened and you heard
this thunderous roar, like a volcano;
We were at on the incline of the driveway, where the street meets the
driveway, with no cover and the first tower came down; everyone took cover
or ran; we went into the garage of 2 WFC; Ross was w/ me about maybe
about 20 other emergency service personnel there; we ran in and dove behind
this white van parked at the base of the driveway, and the whole place became
dark; it appeared some people ran in the opposite direction; couldn't see even
w/ flashlight; the entrance we came in was blocked by rubble; before we went
to the back of the garage, we wanted to make sure no one was trapped there;
to the best of our ability we moved forward not leaving anyone behind; we
made out way a small staircase might have been the security office of the
garage and saw many people rinsing, cleaning off by a big water cooler; there
were a few Fire personnel, OEM Harry Winters;
Since they had their Scott packs etc, we asked them to find us an exit; there
was s phone on the desk near the cooler but it was dead; so we had no type of
radio communication, cell phones, hard lines didn't work, no lights; closed the
door to the office area with everyone inside and put something by the door to
keep it as clean as possible;
After maybe a few minutes, it seemed like an eternity, they told us there was
an exit onto the marina side, the North Cove Yacht Harbor; so we exited from
the back through a staircase (had to come up from the basement); there it was
a sunny beautiful day;
We decided to go back to the command post; there was a driveway that led to
North End, we were going to go back down Vesey to West; at Vesey and
North End, there was a number of EMS resources staging there; on this side it
was like through a snowstorm, papers etc; there were quite a few ambulances,
not only Fire, and the MERV was there; were told that the initial set up on
West and Vesey had been pulled back one block at the time of the collapse; a
bunch of EMS personnel had set up a treatment sector in a large lobby (don't
know which building) that seemed safe; there were mostly civilian patients;
saw Chief Carrasquillo; seemed they were able to deal with the patient load,
so I went on to get to the command post;
Several yards down Vesey, heading east to west [?], the second tower came
down; a huge mushroom cloud coming towards us; there was a rush of mostly
uniformed personnel; so once again we retreated back to this lobby area;
There were several EMS Chiefs there, Goldfarb, Villani, Pascale,
Carrasquillo, Kowalczyk, myself; we went into the stairwell of the building to
come up with a strategy; still have no communications with the outside world
beyond what we were able to see on this block;
Decided it was not safe to try to get back to Vesey and West; decided to send
resources to 2 staging areas, e.g., on the north Chelsea Piers, and on the south,
the SI Ferry Terminal, after they finished treating patients; I divvied up the
Chiefs; all this had to be done on foot; I left Chief Carrasquillo behind to
evacuate that location;
Knowing we wouldn't have access to OEM at 7 WTC, I took Goldfarb,
Terranova, and Goldfarb's aide to One Police Plaza, to try to coordinate
activities there; had to walk around from the north; saw Chief Callan on the
way there, at about Murray or Park, on North End; I invited him to come and
set up some type of operation there and coordinate w/ other agencies but
wanted to try to get back to the command post; I asked him to let Chief
McCracken or any other EMS Chiefs know our plan; then we got a ride to 1
PP w/ a police officer from the Chief of Dept's office in a golf cart; went up to
command and control on the 8th floor; told there were no other FD personnel
there; w/in a few mins, got some table space and phones; called FOP and
EMD to coordinate whatever info we could; were there until about 10 PM;
called Cap Connelly to come down and man control; by that time, other Fire
personnel had arrived; walked back to EMS command post; then retrieved car
up past Trinity Church;
In general: a complex situation, not so much from a patient perspective, but
there was absolutely no communication, other than face-to-face, no cells, no
radio; believe we made the best decisions we could given the situation;
WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH EMS DEPUTY CHIEF ZACHARY
GOLDFARB, DIVISION 3, OCTOBER 23, 2001 (145).

• Had worked previous night shift starting at 2200 as car 6 Charlie EMS
Citywide Chief; at about 8:30 AM was heading home from office in Division
3, going off duty, monitoring police special operations frequency, when we
heard someone scream over the police radio: Central a commercial aircraft
just hit the WTC; picked up the EMS Citywide radio and told dispatcher to
assign us to the job; don't even think they knew there was a job at that point
because it was instantaneous, we spun around and started heading out Linden
Blvd;
• Headed west on Linden Blvd from Pennsylvania Ave; anticipating traffic,
suggested to aide, Mary Meade, that we take the streets down to the Battery
Tunnel and stay off the highway; we hit the traffic circle by Prospect Park, got
onto the Prospect Expressway for about two exits, then got off because of
traffic; as we got to the Expressway, that was our first sight of the towers; my
impression is that only the first plane had hit at that time, there was one tower
burning and a huge volume of fire and damage, and our immediate assessment
was that it was going to be a major event; we then worked the streets down to
Hamilton Ave into the mouth of the tunnel;
• I was still logged on as the Citywide chief; I didn't know what other chiefs
might have been on duty in the morning, but clearly this needed some heads-
up activity; I got on the phone w/ the Citywide dispatch supervisor (I think
Larry Tobin) giving him some direction, including to set up task forces in
each borough consisting, I believe, of 10 ambulances and an officer in each
borough (a total of 50) and to mobilize them at 2 crossing points but hold
them fast because I didn't know what we were going to need; at this time,
despite training and a high level of consciousness about terrorism, it didn't
occur to me that this was anything more than an accident;
• I broke off with [unclear whether hung up or disconnected] the supervisor,
then called him back; told him to activate our regional mutual aid agreement
with the OEM and our agreement w/ the Private Ambulance Association and
mobilize all our units, obviously that this would be a very large patient-
producing event;
• Also told him to get everyone off the radio, except EMS officers;
• At the tunnel, there was a whole procession of emergency vehicles lined up
trying to get in; my aide wove us around and drove right into the tunnel; we
got stopped about halfway through w/ traffic; tried to go around in the
oncoming lane but no wiggle room; everyone had their sirens on so very
noisy; we were stopped dead and police officers out on foot in front of us,
realized we were close to Manhattan;
• Got out to try to help traffic (and had no communications because radio was
down in the tunnels) and told by police officer about blockage on West St, and
realized we weren't going anywhere soon; on way back to car, I was stopped
by an off-duty medic (either Kevin or Jim Darnowski) who said his wife was
in the building; then, a woman runs up to me and says her son can't breathe;
but just then traffic opens up, so I tell the lady to exit tunnel and make a left to
the hospital;
Told Darnowski to get in his car and follow us; we pull out on West St; it was
real bad; a lot of apparatus; at this point the second tower "is going"
[apparently been hit at this point], huge fire; in retrospect should have known
they would collapse, but it was so far away, hard to a get a measure of it; lot
of fire, debris in the street, body parts, people all over the place;
Going northbound on West St, the cops/traffic folks are doing a good job of
moving traffic along; around Albany St, we cross over, there's a break in the
median, so now we're going northbound on the south side; there's stuff
coming off the building, so we stopped, finally, I think south of the pedestrian
bridge, maybe somewhere around Cedar St, on the west side of the West Side
Highway parked up against the curb facing north; couldn't get to the
designated staging area at Vesey and West;
We followed our usual routine, which is what you should do in a crisis, we
gave an 84 on the KDT; we got out of the vehicle (I was a little fearful of
being hit by debris and falling people/ body parts) and I said we're going to
take the command board and the vests; ironically, had just directed an
inspection of the MERV's and LSU's; we start to gear up in safety coats,
helmets etc, take our radios; we each happened to take our personal cell
phones as well as the Dept cell phone and standard radio equipment; we went
straight to the Fire Command Post (though don't remember how we knew
where it was) which was in a parking garage I think just south of the north
pedestrian bridge, between the Winter Garden entrance and 3 WFC, a divided
driveway to an underground garage; it was either there or [? Shows place on
map, not identified?], one of those 2 places; we picked up another off-duty
member;
Chief Ganci was at the command post; there was no EMS representation at
all; A Field Com was there, they had set up the table; I knew at this point that
Chief Gambo was on the scene and I think I was under the impression that
he'd taken command [doesn't indicate how??]; told Mary, as per standard
procedure, to set up command board, start documenting who's here; I knew
there was command on the scene, and wasn't trying to take over, but just to
help support command;
In the meantime, I said a couple of words to Chief Ganci; he was very
frustrated about his radio; he was like "what's that? What channel is this? Am
I on the right channel? Goddamn it, the radios aren't working." **
Spoke to Chief Bob Ingram briefly; Chief Burns and the Field Com crew and
a bunch of other people were there;
Told Mary and the other two guys to get in under the mouth of the garage,
under the overhang of the building to be shielded;
I called on the command frequency to command and I think Ross Tomanora
answered the radio; think he was working w/ Chief Gambo; told him we were
on the scene, he said stand by and then came back and said to report to the
lobby of building 2***; so I told Mary, let's go, and she said we can't cross
over because of the shower of stuff coming down, and I realized she was
right; did not get same perspective being that close, and believe the personnel
in command might have been better able to assess the damage from Bklyn or
Jersey City (farther away); so I called command and told them we're not able
to make it across the street; since there was no EMS representation, I asked if
I could take a liaison role, "he" [? Ganci ?] said ok, ten four, so I did that; I
went to I guess a deputy of from Division 1 and said tell me what you need,
and in the meantime my team was working on the command board, which is
still downstairs written up;
After about 5 or 10 mins, Chief Kowalzcyk reports to the command post; I
had called him as we were leaving Bklyn in the office to tell him to come, but
he was already moving, think he heard the second alarm; I briefed him and he
said to go to Vesey and West and take command of operations there;
I'm thinking okay, I've done this before (in '93) so I take my team and walk
north on the southbound lanes of travel on West St to the corner of Vesey; we
encounter about 40 or 50 EMS providers w/ stretchers and equipment etc just
standing by waiting for instructions right in the southbound lanes just along
the median; J. Pinkus and Howie Hahn (a Lt) are there; these streets were kind
of clear because of the stuff falling down; there were lines of ambulances and
apparatus north of Vesey on West parked or staged or trying to get through
and all these members on the street but no patients;
I called all the officers together (I think Pinkus and Hahn), there were EMS
guys and voluntary guys and Hatzolah guys and numerous other people that
looked like part of ambulance team; told them I was taking command of
Vesey and West and wanted them to set up a triage treatment on the east side
of 3 WFC, a large open kind of climate there; told them to clear the street and
be aware of falling debris, hug the building (3 WFC) as close as possible; told
Pinkus to keep track of people in this area, did not think it was safe to go to
lobby of WTC 1 or operate on West St (as I didn't think 2 WTC was safe);
Charlie Wells came in and wasn't reporting to me, asked him if he had a
mission and he said he was reporting to the command post or something like
that and kept going; Von Essen passed by and went on to command post;
[? Redacted] came down and said he's got a number of ambulances staged
north on Vesey & West, so I said to have them report here;
Next Chief Villante reported to me; I asked him if we could stage on Vesey
off of West heading west, if there's a way to get our rigs out of there w/o
having to recommit to West St which was getting blocked; he said yes, we
could go out North End Ave, there were already some rigs there;
At some point, I called Pinkus on the radio; concerned about things falling
from building, so asked him to see if we could set up triage in 3 WFC; he says
yes, so tell him to get everyone in the lobby and let me know when they're
starting to establish accountability for the people;
I'm on the corner w/ some cops and fireman, and a cop in heavy tactical gear
starts shouting to clear the area, says this is a tactical area, (found out later it
was Sergeant Sullivan on 6 Truck and they had determined that this was a
terrorist attack; thought there might be ground troops);
We moved onto Vesey, right at the corner of Vesey and West; Pinkus calls
back and says everyone is under cover, they have no patients, all people
accounted for, we're waiting for patients etc;
Then Mary says "oh my god chief, it's coming down" and I see a big cloud;
we start running west on Vesey St, it's dark; I see an ambulance, backs doors
open, no stretcher, kind of saying hop in, so I did; Mary kept going; so I take
shelter in ambulance w/ gear on, and it's quiet, nothing going on on the radio;
then it gets light enough to see and I walk out; Mary was contacting me on the
radio and I called her, told her I was ok, she's ok, she's up the block;
Tell her I'm going to try and get our treatment area back up in 3WFC and we
find out that the building (Tower 1) had collapsed; go into 3 WFC and find
Pinkus; think I talked to him on the radio first; and he says everyone is ok,
we're all accounted for (interviewer compliments command decision;
Goldfarb says it was lucky); found out that I think Quinn had been with us but
he went out to find his wife who works in 1 WTC so didn't have
accountability for him;
There's windows broken and debris on the east side, the structure seemed
stable so we decide to pull everything over to the west side of the lobby
around the corner; there were tables lined with bottled water (maybe for a
reception); good to wash up and for people who need a drink;
Tell Pinkus to get his people and start moving them to the west side of the
lobby;
Then Mark Stone comes in completely covered w/ debris, he says
Kowalzcyk's trapped under there; he wanted to take a couple of guys to dig
him out but I told him we need to get to the command post and get a team to
do this; I told him to take another guy and go to the command post to get help;
It was sort of like a wartime situation, where you don't have all the
information and what you do have is hard to process; my first priority was to
make sure my men were okay, then to carry out my mission of casualty
collection at that place; I was thinking the command post was where we left it,
luckily it turned out Kowalzcyk wasn't trapped after all;
Decided to recon for an alternative exit from building, toward the water, out
through the back warrens or back lobby; we find an exit corridor that leads us
to an exit door right out onto the promenade; so at about 10:05 or 10:10 were
in the lobby looking for this exit, I think Stone was back w/ me; Chief
Carasquilto came in and we gave him some water; about 100 patients;
A lot of trouble getting through to the command post on the radio ***
previously there had been a couple of frequencies in use; when we got to the
scene, we were on command, then we were trying to use tactical 2; when I set
up Vesey and West, I had Pinkus go to tact 2, to communicate and it would be
clear; we routinely do that; I was on tact 2 and Mary was on citywide talking
to the MERV;
Then at some point, a decision was made to switch to Manhattan south, so it
would be its own frequency, clear from everything, that was a great decision;
I call Pinkus on the radio and said to get everybody out and relocate the triage
to North End Avenue, North End and Vesey; don't know why I gave order but
maybe felt building wasn't safe; on that corner, I see Chief Gambo, Basile,
Pascale, Kowalczyk, my aide, their aides, a bunch of people; we move the
treatment area into the lobby of the Embassy Suites Hotel; made sure we were
under covered part of the lobby (not atrium); now patients are starting to
come;
Then Mary says the second building is coming down; we get everyone inside
and under cover;
Then we're in the lobby treating patients, and the Chiefs brainstorm to plan a
strategy;
We decided we should clear the scene; we knew there were other
people/resources out there working okay, we could hear them, but we couldn't
get through by radio or cell phone; we had very little info and didn't know
what was going to happen, so we decided to clear the scene;
We decided to set up two mobilization points, one north and one south, e.g., at
Chelsea Piers, where Kowalczyk and Pascale went, and on the Manhattan side
of the SI Ferry; don't know if we got anyone to go there (but later agrees in
response to questioner that Basile went there);
We knew we had to set up a citywide command, we knew OEM at 7 WTC
wouldn't be accessible; Chief Gambo suggested Police Plaza, so he and I went
there; turned out to be right place;
As we're leaving, there were all kinds of patients in lobby, some of our own,
some ESU cops come in and tell everyone to leave because there's a major
gas leak in the building;
Gambo, Terranova and I catch up with Mary and walk north on North End
Ave; like a war zone; we get up to Murry St and met some crews and patients
on the way; we walk up to Chambers, cross over by the school then head north
on West St; Mary still has these two guys with us, and Darnowski who's
worried about his wife; I tell her we've got to leave Darnwoski w/ someone
who can help because we have another mission; a lot of this was like wartime
decision-making; having to leave people, abandon equipment for greater
mission; then Mary finds a cop with a golf cart to drive us all to Police Plaza;
this is around 11:15;
We were the first fire or EMS representation in PP; Gambo tells us first to
inform our families we're ok, then we set about the big picture, coordination,
large-scale disaster stuff (ordering federal resources, US AR teams, EMAT
teams, planning how to deploy them); we planned 3 casualty collection points,
1 at the Jacob Javitz Center, 1 in the Bklyn Navy Yard; 1 in the SI Ferry
terminal at the Yankee Stadium; we got some extra resources because EMS
didn't have any;
We had a tremendous problem communicating, the phones weren't working;
intermittent reception, the cells weren't working; the radios weren't working;
(apparently Nextel phones were working but we didn't have them);
We set up a separate emergency operational center for Emergency Support
Function Aid (ESFA) from the federal response plan, health and medical
assets [...redacted];
Bill Connelly, the State Dept regional disaster planning guy was there; we got
space from the PD and set up the ESFA operations center; briefed him on the
info we had and what we anticipated (at that point anticipated thousands of
patients); got reps from Health and Hospitals, Greater NY Hospital Assoc,
Nassau, Suffolk Hospital Council, Nassau Health Dept (don't know if they
came), City Health Dept, State Health Dept, and later a FEMA rep joined us
to plan for deploying EMAT teams; coordinated mutual aid w/ NJ (mentions
specific people); told NJ to keep their resources for their thousands of patients
(which they said they had) and we'll get resources from somewhere else;
Told SEMA we wanted to activate the mutual aid plan; ordered 5 task forces
of 10 ambulances and an officer at each point; about 100 ambulances, 50 to a
staging area on Randalls Island and 50 to a staging area at Shea Stadium; were
able to communicate to get highway patrol and an EMS supervisor at each
site;
Spent the next 8 hrs running the command center, fielding decisions; ran the
Fire side at first too because we were the only reps there; tried to sort out the
leadership so some people could go home and be fresh in the morning;
developed an incident action plan (has copy);
 bo7V>
C ' S-

SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH MARY MERCED, EMT

DIVISION 3, OCTOBER 23, 2001 (144).

• Was at meeting at 7AM w/ Deputy Chief Goldfarb (had worked 6 Charlie the
night before and meeting time was past usual end of tour);
Once we left the meeting, I was monitoring SOD and I heard a police office
yell there was an explosion in the WTC; it came in broken up, but I made it
out; got back on and said something about an airplane, but didn't complete the
word (but surmised hat airplane had crashed into WTC);
Quickly lit up the vehicle and headed towards Manhattan from the Division 3
office; heading towards the Battery I unnel, hearing it over EMS citywide and
the PD radio and fire radio being confirmed; could see smoke on one of the
towers; *
Second plane must have hit while in tunnel in heavy traffic because, when
came out, both buildings on fire;
I always said we're not prepared, that hazmat doesn't have enough training,
I've got other training outside of here (a WMB technician); ironically the
Saturday before he [? Redacted] said let's check all MERVs and LSU trucks;
We got to the scene; a bunch of fire trucks and police, fire equipment; got out
of the vehicle, grabbed the command board, something we seldom use (used it
one other time on a job); parked on the West Side Highway between Albany
and Liberty St;
Proceeded up WSH towards south tower; Chief Goldfarh on the raHin w/
(believes) Chief Gambo who is in the soutlrtower; Goldfarb tells me we're
going into trie south tower; it's customary to set up treatment and triage in the
Q^j^cjfts/v) cm ^^ building with the fire; I said "chief we're not going into this building ... the
*AJ\o fucking shits going to fall", not anticipating whole thing, just the floors up
icre; I said "this is not an ordinary fire"; Chief Goldfarb was talking on the
'radio to [? Gambo?]; He said "come on,", I said "I'm not going in that
M#AA ^Sd-oP "^ building and neither are you, they should get the fuck out... we have off-duty
, - r^fY]f^/^^ people here, we have units here, they need supervision, they're running
' ^ around." He looked at me, I don't know what he told [person on radio]; we
collected people, I took this off-duty guy so he could help w/ the command
board; we also had Kevin Darnowski, off-duty but in uniform, on his way
home;
All the time we saw debris falling, people jumping;
Set up the command board where fire had a command post, across the street,
" ' ' >- "\f the West Side Highway (questioner posits near 2 WFC); set command
f-iV~C. oti 2^*" ) board right behind Fire's; there was an underground driveway right behind
them; the chiefs were there so that can see what's what; after a while, Chief
C:Goldfarb said to move everybody back to the entranceway to the underground
"/driveway; I'm over here trying to get units down (we had some units down on
the command board that are still not erased);
Chief didn't like the way things looked and decided everybody should go;
 Went up to Vesey and West and saw a lot of supervisors and units; I'm
to holding Kevin Darnowski's hand, knew if I let him go into the building, he
would be gone;
Saw people fall; had to watch out for people and debris;
Were about 10 yds from [?] and the fire apparatus that was there, firemen and
the ESU truck was there; we had set up a staging area with the buses on Vesey
St facing soutlK_ESU threw us_outof the intersection; said it was a "tactical
area;" didn't Icnowwhat it meant at theTime bul since found out they"
anticipated some kind of ground attack;
Chief told us to set up equipment in front of Amex building in case any
patientscamejwe'were facing south on Vesey, for egress;
ChieTtEentold^everyone to go inside building; and I took it [?] to Captain
(who works atMetrotech), who was w/ a group of supervisors;
The Chief and I were on West St.all this time I didn't hear any radio
transmissions;
Heard rumblings and told to run, so turned around and ran north on the West
Side Highway; the buses were facing west; we got around the corner on Vesey
St and there was an ambulance, like the last one in the staging area, w/ the
doors open; the chief jumped in and I was in front of the bus; had to keep
running;
Buildings fell and everything was silent; police officers telling me and other
people we can't go back; I went back to find the chief; the first person I saw
was Danny Rivera from Battalion 31; at this point (later remembers) there was
an airplane overhead; didn't know whether it was going to hit; also during that
time, the only radio transmission I heard was Captain Deshore's, heading over
to jersey w/ other injured . I heardr
e" rytmngjlse was dead;
Everyone trying to find their partners; I'm trying to call the chief on the radio,
worrying about secondary devices, chemical or biological; Danny and I got
masks from a Hazollah bus, started handing them out;
I had made it up towards the North End, I believe the Embassy Hotel Suites;
Chief Kowalczyk was ther, Mike Ober (EMT at Bart 39), Chief Villani, the
guy in the MERV, police officers, firemen; chief Goldfarb finally came;
We started taking care of patients, turned the lobby into a treatment triage
transport area; had (thinks) a fire chief w/ a dislocated shoulder, we had burns,
people in shock, minor injuries; they brought Gary Smiley from Batt 31;
Chief Crambo and other chiefs were at the Embassy Hotel Suites; don't know
what's going on, what's going to happen next, so we had some people
transported off the scene to hospitals and the chief met and discussed what to
do next; eventually other building fell; we ran and went back inside the
building here [?] and you couldn't go past the ESH because you could see the
WTC from there too, it's a big open area on the other side, so we ran back in
there and moved everyone to the left of the lobby sine there was an atrium on
the right (in case it topples on top of that building);
We were there and it [?] fell; more smoke, papers etc; got a few more patients,
and I'm helping people along with other medics, EMT's; then some of the
chiefs disappeared;
Then we heard there was a gas leak in the hotel andjwe hadto evacuate, so we
headed north m North End, when Chief GanjhQ_aad Goldfarb decided they
would go to^TPJMsecause there was no more^7 WTC, no more OEM there; so
we went with Lt Ross Terranova; couldn't call family until that night because
the phones were down, cells were down;
(Went back down to site later that night while there was an EMS operation at
Chambers and West; went back every day; was reported missing and so was
chief; frustration not knowing who's missing, who's here, who's not).
SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH CHIEF FRAN PASCALS,
DIVISION COMMANDER OF DIVISION 6, EMS OPERATIONS, OCTOBER 17,
2001, (102).

• In my office and my staff yelled to me that a plane had hit the WTC; called
either Citywide or RCC to see if they had any add'l info; then we turned on
the radio and I knew quiet a few chiefs were heading down;
• Right after that, were told another plane hit; I called citywide and they
indicated maybe I'd better go, they hadn't heard from anybody; had on my
mind one of the things Chief McCracken always stresses, that he doesn't want
all the chiefs to respond to one particular incident because then the resources
are tied up in one location;
• With that, I told my staff, let's go down to the WTC; told paramedics to bring
ALS equipment for triage; we stocked up the car w/ equipment, a Lt, an ALS
coordinator, a light duty person; my plan was to go down there as additional
resources;
• Hard to get down because of traffic; finally managed to get onto West St and
it started to move; at West and Vesey, there was a police officer yelling at us
to get out of the way, pull the car and run, the building was coming down;
• You could see this big cloud; we pulled over, left the vehicle on Vesey btw
West End and North End, didn't grab any equipment and ran; was concerned
about where my personnel ran (couldn't see); continued to run and ended up
on West End St; as the cloud started to clear, I a huge number of ambulances
coming my way; I notified citywide of this; think I was the only voice at that
point because I was standing right on the corner; I stopped the vehicles and a
saw I think Lt Cahill and a few other people/ambulances I knew;
• We decided to set up a secondary staging; (didn't even know where the first
one was); separated ALS from BLS units; saw Hazollah and some voluntary
units, FD units; did not see any of my peers; saw a few other Lts, and I think
Cap Stone; had them put face masks on and treat patients; actually transported
a couple of people from there; this was all along West End Avenue; most of
the units came from the north side, behind the Merrill Lynch building; a few
stragglers from Vesey;
• Then we heard a rumbling; ESU had shown up w/ their vehicle and said we
have to get everyone out of the area before they collapse; wasn't sure which
way the building was going to fall, so I told the EMTs and paramedics
standing outside w/ their vehicles to get in them and start moving, just get out
of the area;
• I ran; total darkness, debris; I couldn't see; later I realized I was somewhere
around the school; I was alone, most of the units left, I didn't know where to
take cover; then I realized I was in the street when I heard one of our vehicles
behind me, they were lost; I think it was the medic unit from Coney Island; I
told them to keep straight and go very slow because we couldn't see; ran into
probably TV newswoman coming from Vesey, came in and out of cloud; then
as the cloud cleared up, I was in a round circle, I think where the school is, I
think Stuyvesant;
I started to make my way back, saw other units and asked if they saw any
chiefs; was directed towards building where there would be triage area; inside
I saw Carrasquillo, Grambo, Steve Pilke, my ALS coordinator; they didn't
have any radios on them; I was told one group ran in the building and a couple
of my other employees piled into a trailer; I saw Chief Kowalczyk (see
below); no one had an answer about McCraken; said they saw Chief Basile
around; I know Chief Goldfarb was down there; didn't even know Chief
Villani was;
Chief Gambo asked all the chiefs to gather outside the building (maybe 4
WTC, w/ an atrium); Gambo wanted to get the sectors and starts some kind of
plan; Carrasquillo asked me to go to Chelsea w/ a supervisor; Pinkus and I
couldn't even tell where it was so we grabbed a volunteer unit and told them
to take us there; they said they couldn't take and the Cap Pinkus told them,
this is chief, just listen to what she says;
We finally managed to get to West St again, and as we were traveling (don't
even remember what st) a group of people flagged us down, said there was a
pedestrian struck; we had no equipment; got out with Pinkus to treat him
(turned out to be cardiac-related), the crew brought oxygen; we told the crew
to take him to the hospital;
From there we jumped out of the vehicle, not sure how far we were, on a
major roadway, maybe Broadway; tried to stop other vehicles; one private
contractor passed them by and didn't stop; eventually got a lift to Chelsea St.
By then, Kowalczyk was already there; in retrospect, I may not have seen him
at that original briefing, he may have already been at the Chelsea location, he
was in charge of that location; Gambo had wanted me to assist him;
We then got word they wanted Kowalczyk back down at that site; I stayed and
tried to organize about 75 vehicles on the WSH; then 2 bus loads of doctors
arrived and wanted to go downtown to help; didn't think they should go down
there and at least they should be called in, set up; they had just finished a
convention; I told Dr. Asada and Dr. Richmond; so we got permission from
the director of Pier (I think) 36 to open it up and we set up a hospital and an
area for family members; the doctors had all kinds of equipment; broke them
into teams re their specialties w/ team leaders who were familiar w/ triage;
Around 4 or 5,1 got a message to report back downtown for a meeting;
actually asked help from the police to stop people from bypassing and just
going down to West ST; it was understandable, but I wanted to be able to
keep track of where people were, because after the first collapse, didn't know
where people were and where the chiefs were; down at the site, I finally saw
Chief McCracken, Charlie Wells, Chief Villani; we were working on a plan
but building 7 came down; [describes leaving scene w/ other people in a
vehicle]; then everyone walked back; [talks about how it didn't really hit him
at first, dangers, that it was a terrorist act;
General: "most disorganized feeling I ever felt;" people coming in, people w/o
uniforms, people you thought were on light duty; you just did not have the
control for quite some time; talks about how appreciative and supportive
civilians were;
SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH PARAMEDIC STEVEN
PILLA, AN ALS COORDINATOR FOR DIVISION 6, EMS, OCTOBER 17, 2001,
(104).

• Got to work as usual; heard the radio on citywide in the office that there was
an explosion; heard the lieutenant on the scene screaming that he needs every
available ambulance**; thought at first it was a tape of '93 because the same
conversation then from the Lt on citywide, but we turned on the TV and the
tower was on fire;
• We saw the second plane hit on TV; knew no longer an accident;
• Chief Pascale rounded us all up and we started heading down; me, Neil
Sweeney, vacation relief for the other coordinator who was out on refresher;
one of the Chiefs aides, EMT Amedegnato, Lt Cahill, the officer in charge in
the division and Chief Pascale herself; we took the Henry Hudson Parkway
from Jacobi, hit a lot of traffic; think they already realized it was an attack,
had put up different barricades;
• As we turned off the West Side Highway, we could see both towers on fire;
reminded me of '93; no idea what we were going to face;
• Passed one of the walkway bridges just past Stuyvesant High School, got to
Vesey; the Chief was saying we have to find [the Chief? Filled in, redacted],
find the command center at West and Vesey, when we see this plume [this
was the first tower, Tower 2, coming down];
• I thought it was the fa9ade coming down; Neil's driving, they're looking for a
place to park and going, keep going, don't stop; finally we couldn't see where
we were driving anymore; we parked the car, got out, got out helmets, were
getting ash etc all over us; a fireman who now works as a medic for a private
hospital sees and says he couldn't find his partner; then the Lt and Neil went
to get someone out of the plume and came back; then we all had to leave
because it was getting darker and darker etc; so we all took off in what I find
out is different directions, we couldn't find each other for a while; we found
an ambulance and got some masks and waited until the stuff went over;
• Eventually could see the sun and walked around close to the water, towards
American Express building or the Merrill Lynch building; the ambulances
started coming around from the side, filled with debris; the MERV took off w/
its doors open, the steps on it, bouncing down the street;
• We [unclear who he is with at this point] managed to set up some triage and
get ALS up in [believes] the Winter Garden; No one hurt badly, just choking,
respiratory problems; then found the chief, the It, Amedegnato and Neil and
tried to get the ambulances staged around the corner; there was a hysterical
EMT looking for her partner Patrick; she wanted to go back but we held her,
and about 10 mins later he showed up;
• Then they said the other tower was coming down; got faster and faster, like a
freight train; ambulances were taking off and one told me to get in, so I
jumped in and we waited there until it settled; no real debris came at us, only
dirt and dust;
When that settled and you could see the light again, I popped out and went
back into the same building, which wasn't as damaged and did triage there;
there were more and more people in there, a girl w/ a broken leg; an injured
Fire Chief;
A Fire chief came over and said, this was a terrorist attack, this building's
next, because they know they're going to start attacking other buildings; he
had a good point, so I took my chief [the injured one presumably] and decided
to go to Stuyvesant High School; I was getting the chief in ambulance and PA
cop crashed, no blood pressure all of a sudden, so we got him out to an
ambulance (no obvious injuries, maybe shock or something internal);
As we're getting ready to move to Stuy HS, someone says there's a gas leak,
there's explosions going on, we have to evacuate;
So we're all running out of the building again, the 20 people I'm treating beat
me to the door; could hear explosions in background, things blowing up
(vehicles on fire or gas leaks) getting closer; just get settled in Stuy HS when
someone comes in yelling there are gas explosions comings towards the
school, we need to evacuate; hundreds of people running in who have to
evacuate;
We stayed on the corner for the longest time [does not identify where]; people
were still coming out of that portion [?] w/ ash on them, problems breathing; I
took my oxygen tank w/ me and gave oxygen to people everywhere I was
going, 20 people just stopping, giving each one oxygen; A PA cop came out
covered w/ dust, they set up their own triage area in one of the colleges; they
needed supplies, ambulances, the radios weren't working; we had a radio; I
knew of another triage and transport area 2 blocks from there and one down
the other road [?] w/ MERVs and ambulances; was acting as gofer, going back
and forth;
Upstairs in an auditorium or gym, they had doctors from all over, some EMTs
from Hazollah, a lot of walking wounded (none real life-threatening); had a
tugboat set to go to Jersey w/ doctors at another triage area, but no real
patients;
At about 5PM, we walked back but had to wait to building 7 to come down at
about 5:30; finally got to ground zero, Chambers and West; not really much
you could do; finally located the Chief at about 7 or 7:30 PM and went back to
the car, which was covered in ash;
SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH NEIL SWEETING 5274,
PARAMEDIC COORDINATOR FOR DIVISION 6, OCTOBER 17, 2001, (101).

• In the division office in the north Bronx at Jacobi Hospital when we started
hearing reports of a plane crash in one of the WTC towers; Chief Pascale of
the Division had been paged and came and told us about this; started hearing
reports over the citywide radio frequency; turned the TV on; thought it was an
accident, a small plane;
• We were chomping at the bit to go down but the Chief held us back until she
was assigned;
• Hearing over the citywide frequency that all these units were being assigned
and supervisors calling for more help and trying to set up different treatment
areas, when we saw the second plane hit; told the other coordinator Steven
Pilla; thought maybe the second plane was blinded by the smoke;
• At this point Chief Pascale said, let's go; we all ran out of the office and
jumped in the car and started heading downtown; me, Chief Pascale, Lt Mike
Cahill, Steve Pilla, and EMT Amedegnato; I was driving;
• Cut across Bronx, down West Side Highway, and got caught in traffic around
125th-15 8th St; the PD was turning all vehicles off the highway but were
ushering emergency vehicles through; but we got tied up, which may have had
a tremendous outcome [that they lived];
• At around the 80's/ 90's could see the towers burning; heard radio reports of
seeing people jump; had been at the WTC in '93 and thought that would be
the biggest thing in my career; said to other people, there are going to be a lot
of people dead, also the kind of fire you're going to lose firemen in; we got
stuck in a little more traffic around 57th and 12th Ave; got down to about West
and Barclay when the first tower started falling; didn't hear it at first with the
radios and sirens going, but once I looked up I started hearing it;
• Hundreds of people are running at us; we looked for a place to park but too
many people, was worried about running someone over, so we just abandoned
the car on the corner of West and Barclay; grabbed our helmets from the trunk
and started running and got enveloped by the cloud;
• Didn't really understand magnitude of what happened; we kind of went west
towards the Hudson River; you couldn't see, was choking etc;
• Calmed down after about 10 mins; people stopped running; we headed back to
see what we could do and got down to Vesey; we didn't walk back as a group
but ended up together;
• At Vesey and West, I believe part of the WFC, started helping some people
who were looking for a triage area; Villani said to start setting up a triage area
in this building [WFC?]; we had a lot of patients coming in, but not much
equipment; even the units that were there had abandoned their equipment etc;
people started getting stuff and we brought a lot of oxygen in, just quick
triage, and trying to move some people out;
• We were treating a chief who was badly injured (head was split, bleeding, in a
daze), staring ahead like he had no idea what had happened; then another chief
came in and told the first chief, we shouldn't be here; a second chief [unclear
whether this is same "second" chief, originally indicates only 2 chiefs] came
in and said, we need to move, this is a terrorist act; that's the first time I
thought about it that way; they were both fire suppression chiefs;
We started loading people up, moving out, brought a bunch of stretchers,
putting people on them, etc; some people were pretty seriously hurt, one man
was unconscious, a lot of people w/ respiratory problems; the maintenance
guys from the building brought big jugs of water and a cart full of towels, to
wipe people down, flush out eyes etc; I started pushing this cart w/ us but got
stuck in the doorway, when we started hearing this rumble, like twisting
metal; we were about half a block away from the complex at this point; you
heard a big boom, then quiet for about 10 seconds, then another boom, floors
stacking on top of each other; spaced apart in the beginning then turned into a
tremendous roar;
We started running; people dove into the back of ambulances and on hoods;
trying to get on anything that was moving; one ambulance w/ about 25 people
piled into back, firemen, policemen, civilians, EMS; the MERV was driving
down the st dragging the ramp, thought someone might get run over by it; we
were running when a woman on Vesey btw the WFC and the complex [WTC]
got hit by something; she went down, got up and tried to run and collapsed
again, she had broken her foot; picked her up w/ a paramedic from Cabrini
Hospital and ran west on Vesey towards Battery Park and the promenade,
towards the water, when the wave came down on us; the wind knocked me
down (6'4", 240 Ibs) like a rag doll 10 ft down the st, on top of the woman;
we picked her up and ran to the corner of the FC building and I guess the
promenade, the walkway there; [confirms that that they dove around the
corner of 3 WFC (AMEX Building) into a courtyard there] and used that a
shield to cover us; [explains that didn't have helmet, gear, but had grabbed
someone's helmet; though before said had grabbed his from trunk];
The concussion and the wave stopped, but you were still encompassed in this,
stuck in this cloud for about 20, 30 mins; the cloud went blocks and blocks up
the street; I flagged down an ambulance from St. Vincent's, had them wash
my eyes out and grabbed a mask, put the woman on the bench [inside
ambulance] w/ other people in there, and it started heading north;
I was walking in a daze; next 10, 15 mins was eerily quiet, no one knew what
to do etc; a lot of people walking around but not a lot of walking wounded;
you could hear people calling out, a lot of firemen's alarms going off on their
air packs; my radio got thrown out of a my holster when I got tumbled so I
couldn't talk to anybody; had no idea where the other four were; eventually
found them walking north, but didn't find Chief Pascale until about 5 hrs later;
We tried to see what we could do; people asking for help; first 45 mins just
telling people to go north; eventually ran into people w/ radios advising
people to go Stuyvesant High School on Chambers and West; was there for
about a minute when people start screaming, run; people stormed out and ran
up WSH; someone said it was a bomb but turned out Con Ed said there was a
gas leak;
Heard we should go to Chelsea Piers and, at about North Moore and the WSH,
saw that PA had taken over MBCC as their meeting point; they were calling
for EMS, so we went in; I had no radio, no equipment, not even an oxygen
tank; mostly walking wounded but a few people pretty banged up; eventually
equipment started coming in; PA starting bringing in truckloads of equipment
maybe from contingency facilities at airports, bridges; stayed there for about
4, 5 hrs, doing whatever we could to help; doctors showed up w/ some of their
own equipment; this wasn't one of the established EMS/Fire triage area;
pretty much one of the hospitals set up;
[Describes trying to get wife on phone, finding out from PA cop what exactly
had happened; heard rumors that the military had shot down planes; that the
Pentagon and other sites had been attacked; eventually was relieved at about
10 or 11pm and back at 4AM for another 20 hrs, spent time in the morgue;
another building fell the second day, one that had already partially collapsed
(7 WTC fell the day before); discusses how extraordinary people were, pulling
it together, and that he might change careers];
SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH LIEUTENANT MICHAEL
CAHILL, EMS DIVISION 6, OCTOBER 17, 2001 (143).

• We made a point to see we weren't stuck in the office under paper that day;
made a point to kidnap whoever we had to and get everybody in the Division
office down to his job [presumably WTC]; [no real lead-in];
• We [doesn't indicate who? how they found out etc] were driven down by a
vacation relief ALS coordinator, who didn't know Manhattan; think it was the
first time he had chauffered the Chief around; driving very carefully, not like
usual with sirens etc; we didn't get there as fast as we would have liked to (but
probably would have died if we did);
• Just around the time we pulled up [doesn't indicate where] and were getting
out, a police officer screamed for everybody to leave; there were a few
thousand civilians evacuating, going past us; a piece of fa9ade (about 2 or 3
stories) was about 30 feet from the command car; it hit the street about 30 ft
from Chief Stone; it just missed the cop [apparently he saw this fall; may have
been part of collapse of north tower];
• We got back in the car to be mobile; had no idea what was going on; we got
about 10 ft, but blocked by civilians, some rescue workers and some cops
running in front of the vehicles; couldn't go farther so abandoned the vehicle;
pulled over as close as we could [to what?] and tried to organize getting
helmets etc;
• A cloud at least 3 stories high rolled in on us, Steve was anxious to get us
away from it, you couldn't see through it and it was moving faster than we
could run; we got maybe half a block before it covered all of us;
• A few ambulances were already parked there [where??] with confused and
frightened people inside; we ducked behind one; there were about 30 chiefs
assigned, no one had any idea of their assignments;
• We were still surveying the scene when bricks started falling around us,
everything got black, no one could breathe; after a while, when everything got
gray and you could sort of see, we mustered up our forces; [this seems to be
when first building fell];
• I found Amedegnato [?], the L.O.D.I. Limited person in our office; we didn't
know of any other command post, and hadn't seen any other supervisors or
Chiefs; wanted to do a head count, find out where my medics, AP's and Chief
were;
• The Chief popped up [doesn't say name but indicates a female]; people were
getting out of ambulances, I told them to stay where they were so we could do
a head count; we had a handful of ambulances and we thought a MERV down
the block; didn't know that one tower had collapsed and that second one
would; so we set up an ALS on one side of the street, a BLS on the other side,
I gave Amedegnato a clipboard, told her to run up and down, and start
tracking people to determine what units there were, their shield numbers, who
was doing what; we were going to set up a staging, triage, whatever else we
had; a few people wandered up, a few EMS, one very upset female EMT;
Once things settled a bit, we found the MERV and saw there was activity
farther up the block, people already triaging, working on transporting people;
we got back up, tried to find masks, there weren't enough for everybody, only
what was in the back of the ambulances;
We treated a couple of cops, a couple of firemen, we were getting things
organized, there was in interior triage in one of the buildings (don't know
address); a lot of EMS people were confused about the triage procedures,
though there was a relatively large number of patients in one place at one
time; a lot of well meaning EMT's messing up the triage; we put a relatively
badly injured lady on oxygen; they were trying to find a bathroom to wash up;
I came across Capt Rivera, a senior guy;
There was a fire Chief with a fracture in I believe one of his arms; took a ? in
head; was concerned about where we were; at this point I believe that Steve,
Chief Villani, Capt Rivera and Chief Pascale were in the area;
Steve was concerned about what the fire chief was saying; that this was not a
secure area;
As I was outside giving an assist, trying to set the tracks up on the back of the
MERV to roll stuff, somebody gave an alarm to evacuate asap; ambulances
peeled out, MERV peeled out, people took off on foot; didn't know where to
go or where to report; that's when the second collapse started; everyone took
it seriously when the firefighters started running;
Lost my medics, my chief; found Amedegnato; think we eventually ended up
at 3WTC;
Questioner asks if ever entered any buildings: says yes, the interior triage
building (not sure which was it was, though it's one still standing he thinks);
there was enough to do outside, thought we would eventually wander over
there [unclear if before or after collapse]; I did sign out a radio over there but
at that point it was lost, I was waylaid by an ATF guy, who knocked me off
my feet running;
Everyone was running off, including the crew that was supposed to be helping
(the hysterical EMT female); I turned around and started heading off after her;
absolute panic, everyone running, vehicles flying down street;
I found Amedegnato, who was following 2 police officers and some ATF
guys and some non-uniformed personnel; I was going to tell her to stop
because I didn't know where my little group was;
Everyone trying to get away from the cloud, you couldn't outrun it;
I headed towards a trailer, looked like a construction trailer, maybe a police
trailer, to at least get behind it; only person I could find was Amedegnato and
a couple of cops and fireman and the occupants of the trailer;
Eventually left trailer and found Capt Rivera; had to find EMS people because
none floating around; asked her (Amedegnato) to hang out to find out what to
do but then she was gone (located later that night); Capt Rivera was not aware
of any sort of command post;
Found Chief Pascale, who ordered me to find out who ambulances belong to,
if they're still running etc, so Neil, Steve, Capt Rivera and I, w/ an operations
officer of a chief (wearing white with a white helmet) looked for a place to set
up; most of us didn't have radios anymore; we walked a block farther up,
grabbed some bottled water from the rubble, and dragged it up the block;
Found Police Dept in Stuyvesant High School; had set up sort of a command
post; seemed a practical place to set up, so I got a hold of [redacted] and said
this is where we should do it; was setting up for injured people, when cops ran
in and said there was a gas main leak; we left as a unit, the injured people had
to be dragged; we evacuated at the rear of the building; we were taking off
down by the water; I told one of my medics to get the EMS people here and
stay in one spot or move as a unit; that didn't really work out; ran into
Danowski (apparently couldn't contact wife); a lot of people couldn't find
their partners, disoriented, not in a position to follow orders; definitely a
breakdown in discipline sort of; I sort of felt responsible because there were
no chiefs around;
I ended up I think at North (End) and West, Manhattan College; there were a
few EMS people; a Red Cross truck had shown up; confused fire and EMS
people; I bumped into a Lt who I'd never met (first name Pinky?) who was
giving orders; w/ him for about half an hour and then he wandered off; a lot of
freelancing going on; really hard to get control; we were trying to set up an
infirmary in Manhattan College; Lt Jerry Santiago was there; he, Pinky and I
were the only Lts there and a few EMTs;
Jerry Doyle, former Chiefs aide from Manhattan showed up and recognized
me; we decided every Lt would take one EMT as his partner, since only one
Lt had a radio; didn't know if there was a command post; one of the chiefs
heard there was one at one of the Piers; an Academy bus showed up with
people who were students in refresher and they wanted to take command, ran
into a little problem;
At some point a chief [redacted] shows up, says he'll find out what's going
on, a few people with radios at this point; a lot done by word of mouth;
Set up a hospital in Manhattan College;
(At some point), a fireman who had come over on the ferry gave me a
business card w/ a radio frequency, he said that Captain [redacted] was over
there, we were a block away from the ferry, ready to take people to Jersey; I
said absolutely and did a head count [unclear whether he sent people/patients
to Jersey;]
I walked up to what turned out to be a command post about a block away; saw
a Captn (Captain Musto) who I didn't know at the time; told him there is a
ferry parked over there waiting; I gave him the frequency, and so he's on the
radio; he gets my shield number and Neil's and Steve's and I told him I'm
from Division 6; eventually all these people got organized, there was an
overabundance of people reporting in that area; I got a radio, we designed a
medic from the Academy our runner because the one radio we had went dead;
They established another command post at one of the piers; another farther up
the block, we decided to take some of our resources; Lt Trainer, I think,
showed up firm Bklyn;
Things got more and more organized, by the time I left there had to be 30 or
40 doctors at Manhattan College, food had been delivered, we'd transported
20, 30 patients, tracking was being done; guys were sent to set up temporary
morgue so they [command?] knew we were there; suddenly the patient count
stopped and more and more freelancers arrived on the scene;
I reported over there [doesn't indicate where] to Capt Nahmal, he was setting
up [inaudible... redacted] Capt Rivera, he head set up a MERV and some
triage close to Building 7; as close as they could because there were still
people working in the area; Building 7 came down; set up five stations under
direction of Nahmal; stayed until Chief Pascale took us off the line;
SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH IMMACULADA GATTAS,
EMT-DIVISION 6, SHIELD NUMBER 1442, OCTOBER 17, 2001, (146).

• That morning, someone from the Division came in and told us to turn on the
TV; we watched the news that an airplane had hit one of the towers and then
another one hit the other tower;
• After the second plane, knew it was terrorism; husband called from One
Police Plaza where he works
• Chief Pascale told us to stand by, we couldn't just rush into the scene, we
needed to be requested;
• Then she was called in and she told us to get our gear and radios and stuff and
get ready and go to the vehicle;
• Took about 15 to 20 minutes to get downtown; we took the West Side
Highway, which was packed with cars and a lot of roads were blocked by the
NYPD;
• I was riding with Chief Pascale, Lt. Michael Cahill, Steve Pilla, paramedic,
ALS Coordinator, Neil Sweeting, ALS Coordinator; I'm an emergency
medical technician;
• We were supposed to go w/ Chief Pascale to the command center but got there
a little late because of traffic; as soon as we got there and started to park, very
close to West and Vesey, people were running and telling us to get out of the
way and run for our lives;
• We would try to drive away from that area until we could no more; it was
close to 20 feet, those 20 feet, then we just parked and his until everything
subsided; we hid in the buildings and vehicles and stuff like that; we got out
of the car and ran;
• We did not get separated at this time; we were not running together but
towards the same area; we were running along Vesey after the first building
collapsed; then I think it was heading south from West St where we finally
found each other and then we went inside one of the buildings;
• Don't know the name of the building but we were doing patient care there; I
was also doing patient tracking, writing down their names, where the patients
were taken, the name of the unit numbers, and whether they were coming
from private ambulances or EMS ambulances or municipal ambulances,
tracking all that information;
• I remember going inside this building again and as I was tracking this patient
information, they told us to run away, to evacuate immediately, because the
second building was going to collapse; (didn't realize at the time how close
we were but saw on the map later that were just a block away, around the
corner);
• Patients were already hooked into their oxygen lines and masks, strapped into
long boards and there were too many of them, so we had to unstrap them,
remove their face masks and just assist them as best we could, because there
were too many for us; otherwise, we would have just let them die there;
• They ran; as soon as we let them go, they just disappeared, as we did;
We started running and running, I think Lt Cahill was next to me; I remember
one second or moment looking back and seeing the cloud; there was a
thundering sound and silence after that until the cloud caught up and you
couldn't see anymore; thousands and millions of particles hitting our skin;
running followed by firefighters, EMTs, police officers, members of the
media, like a stampede;
Suddenly this crowd split, one went to the right and one went to the left; I
went towards the left, following this group of people;
Ended up in a construction trailer where eventually helped some people to
clean off etc; eventually opened the door and helped some people outside clea
up;
Was in trailer w/ Lt Cahill; got separated from him but met again in another
place; walking in circles;
Was cleaning up, checking my injuries, when we were told run again, because
there was going to be a manhole explosion;
Kept running and was eventually picked up by an ambulance that was picking
up emergency personnel, and dropped us at the bus terminal, somewhere on
the West Side Highway;
EMS people taken to Chelsea Piers from there because they didn't want us to
stay in the area; told CP would be used as a hospital, with different sections,
one an operating room, one a critical area, the other for first aid etc; we had
also had an ice ring and an area set up as a temporary morgue;
Got buses with hundreds of doctors, nurses, clergy members, fully staffed and
ready for patients, but hardly got any; got approximately 150 patients but not
until after 7PM;
Think some of the doctors managed to get authorization from EMS command
to go to the Ground Zero area with equipment;
After the first collapse, we were able to help people with chest pains,
difficulty breathing, broken bones etc, but after the second collapse the only
people that got were the ones that were able to run;
SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH ALVISH MANCHERRY,
EMT W/ FDNY, BATTALION 49, ASTORIA, OCTOBER 22, 2001 (127).

• At about 8:30AM, received the call at my 89; heard over radio that the towers
had been hit;
• About five or ten seconds later, call for 9 Henry to respond to WTC;
• Immediately picked up and went w/ partner Kevin Barrett; didn't have time to
write anything down;
• Down 21st St, we reached the 59th St Bridge; told by Central to stand by there
on the Queens side until further notice;
• We're the first ones there; 49 Charlie, 45 Adam and 49 Victor were also
called;
• We were at the front of the line, waiting for conditions 49 to show up and tell
us where to go; everything happening really fast;
• From the 59th St Bridge, you can see the towers and smoke; buildings look
like a big cigarette;
• Get the call to go over the bridge, plenty of traffic, and see the second plane
hit;
• Everyone trying to get there as fast as possible no matter what; a lot of fender
benders, other cars hitting; a lot of chaos on the highway and bridge;
• Finally we get over and head to staging area and told by a Lieutenant or
captain to go to Vesey and West, guess wanted us at a certain place because 9
Henry is a HAZTAC.
• Vehicle parked originally on Vesey and West; see people rush out of building,
most appeared burned and it was hell; people pouring out, thousands and
thousands; everyone injured;
• Triaged patients, that's all they could do; didn't have enough triage tags for
everybody;
• Before first tower collapsed, heard popping sounds, saw the people falling and
exploding on the ground about 100 -150 ft away; people coming out of
buildings half burned;
• Had 2 patients on my ambulance vehicle 111;
• FBI agents directing to move vehicle from Vesey and West because of debris
from airplane which they needed for evidence; guess it was the NTSB; wanted
the area secured;
• Nowhere to move because of debris but managed to move closer to building;
• About 50 ft from building prior to it falling;
• Was triaging patients (had helped 2 victims and was assisting other unit put
patient on long board) when building started to fall;
• Turned around the start running for safety, helping some people along the way
who could run with me.
• Dead silence and then black smoke enveloping streets, can't see anything,
everyone screaming for help; no masks, helmet flew off, found radios and
another helmet, helped asthma victim run away; ran towards light, another
EMT, don't know who (had dreads), couldn't breathe; grabbed him, and heard
someone yell 'shelter, shelter' followed voice to bodega grocery store; treated
people as best they could inside store;
After a little while, smoke started to subside and heard police officers,
(believes Chiefs) telling all EMS units and fire to come out to get the rest of
the people out;
After helping as many people as I could in the store, put my gear back on, put
whatever gear I had left back on, and ran back out (only a t-shirt to cover
airway); went back towards Tower One, don't know where because still dark;
started helping people out any way we could; helped African-American
woman w/ young child and baby in stroller, took baby and police officer took
child and got them into building, believes one of the court houses;
Ran back out to get more people and bumped into partner, and then came
upon another partner at the station, Louis Diaz; cried for a few minutes and
then had to get back out there to help;
Second tower now beginning to come down, we're about 300 - 400 ft away;
everyone started running, we were stuck there for a while (w/ Kevin Barrett
and Louis Diaz); started finding people and co-workers along the way; later
found a captain, think she's a Lt, works out of Battalion 50 in Jamaica; she
told us where the next staging area was and there, don't recall where but know
we walked a long way;
(Identifies staging area at point indicated on map)
Knew staging area couldn't be where Lt indicated because it was too close to
buildings;
While en route, third building collapsed (7 WTC, at 5:25);
Directed to Chelsia Piers later that night, where the make-shift ER was; tried
to figure out who was missing (we were missing too); formed a group of 10 to
15 EMT's to go back for guys not accounted for, like Carlos, and Louis'
partner Paul Adams, heard Paul over radio, couldn't find Carols but tried
(apparently never found him?); released 20 hours later;
SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW W/ AURTURO GONZALEZ,
BATTALION 8, PARAMEDIC 3675, OCTOBER 23, 2001 (131).

• At approximately 8:40, 8:45, received a call to go down to WTC;

• When we responded, we went down West Street;
• From 34th St, we saw building one had fire on top floor;
• Parked at West St in front of 1 WTC; stationed there; did not see any Fire
Dept personnel, there were some FD vehicles there; there were about 4 or 5
EMS units, 1 city unit, the rest voluntaries; think the city unit was 7 Charlie,
recognized both crew members; recognized EMS Captain Stone, Chief
Carrasquillo, Chief Rowalnyak; took equipment; stayed there at least 24
minutes give or take;
• Later, states that stayed here [apparently at this location] about 20 minutes
watching people jump, 18 to 20 people, landing on West St or in front of the
WTC, on the concourse; then all the glass exploded in that building too;
• The second explosion came in building number two; we didn't actually see it;
• Were told to go set up triage in the lobby of the Merrill Lynch building;
• As soon as we set up triage, tower 2 came down and all the windows in the
ML lobby were out;
• Ran out of the building and went to the building across the street, believe the
American Express building; can't remember if everyone else went there too,
so much panic and running; think some people went up West St and some
went out in other direction;
• Went out of that building and ran into the park behind the Winter Garden; too
much smoke coming out of the area;
• Ran to Stuyvesant High School, stayed there a few minutes;
• People started running up West St;
• Decided w/ partner Rick Perez (had switched partners) to go back and get
MERV; picked it up on the south side of the Merrill Lynch building, where it
had been abandoned because of the collapse;
• One of the officers had taken all the keys (usually you park somewhere and
the officer takes the keys) and that officer was never found, which is why
most of the vehicles were left on the scene;
• Luckily Rick had a copy [of the keys] to the MERV; we wanted to move slow
but we had to stop because we were the only ambulance active at that
moment;
• Proceeded eastbound to West Street and stationed at Vesey and West; told to
stop and treat patients coming out of the area;
• Then by mistake, I took a walk up to this building here [not identified]; there
were "154 elderly trapped in the basement—not trapped but they wanted to
get out," had to relocate it back to my commander to see how we could get
them out; decided it was safer to stay "there" [unclear where];
• Then we went back to the MERV and kept on treating patients all night;
• In the evening, remember seeing other chiefs, like Chief McCracken, the
captains and all that stuff, Pinky, Lt Albuerme was there too;
Stayed at that location until 5:45 to 6:00 AM treating patients and members of
the service and all departments; saw no more than 2 or 3 patients;
SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW W/ JOSE PEREZ, EMT,
BATTALION 8, OCTOBER 23, 2001, (132).

At approx 48th & Lex when we heard it come over the radio that a plan hit one
of the WTC towers;
Because of all the excitement, we just started to head down, we kind of
UCA'd ourselves and ended up at 11th and Seventh in front of St. Vincent's;
we could see the towers which were both engulfed in flames;
At some point, we saw the first tower fall; I was w/ my partner Joe Valdivia;
we decided to go down; we took the West Side Highway and at some point
couldn't go any farther (farther down than Bank Street) because people were
starting to come up, so we just helped as much as we could w/ everyone who
was coming out;
Then the second building fell;
The problem was with people who were coming out, some of us were missing,
we really didn't know what was going on with certain people; agrees (in
response to question) that there was a lot of misinformation, especially after
the first building fell because everyone was calling a mayday, and we didn't'
know who was actually close enough to be involved.
 SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW W/ LIEUTENANT EOY
ALBUERME, SHIELD 108, EMS BATTALION 8, OCTOBER 23, 2001,(130).

\ On way to responding to assignment, heard report of explosion at WTC;

IP0/ fl called co so that co could respond; ' ~~
\ ^r^\' ^^x At end of assignment, called citywide by cell phone to advise tour commander
I was going to respond to WTC;
• TooFT* Avenue~south to West Broadway—W. Broadway and Murray St.—
,— __, where stopped to assist unit w/11 WTC victims; the unit was a vollie unit
(j>tD p 3 "TO "and then i had a 911 unit", I think [the vollie unit?]was ten charlie from
V}(?s<? - Lenox Hill and I think the one unit [911 unit?] was from St. Vincent's;
'• \r that, went down to Barclay St, made a right onto West St, then another
right, where encountered a few units sitting on West and Murray Street; all
EMS units; didn't recognize any personnel, so asked who the senior man was;
• Asked one of the medics to turn all vehicles to face north to have a clear
.— 0 avenue to transport and to collect a key and make that into a staging area;
|s (01 l^p *^~~ • At this time, one of the towers collapsed; I turned right, turned left on Murray
St and used the "District 37 building as cover, screaming to everyone to come
my way and use the building as cover too;
• I was by myself; all unitswentnorth on the Westside Highway w/ the
collapse;
• Then assisted ['inaudible'] for the people to be evacuated;
r7" r<fl~^- n * Don't know how but got to Chambers St and started setting up a triage area at
V./' rC i theJVIanhattan Community College; there, encountered a couple of EMIS"
fifr V i^ -* personnel wA;eii phone's which I used for communication, since all radio
"""" communication was down at that time;
• On my way to the EMS command center [presumably this location, at
Chambers St], I went "over there" and tried to speak to an EMS chief to tell
him I started communication, I had 2 different staging areas set up for
ambulances to respond if necessary;
• There were a whole bunch of EMS chiefs there^nd^hey_established
command; don't remember captain's name;
• Was told to go see the captain who told me to go see the chief; the chief told
me to go back to the captain who told me I would be in charge of transport
right at the Chambers St command center; ~ " — _______
• Stayed there~untir^:3^-A-M-4h©n went home;
• We should have more drills for incidents like this, haven't done so in many
years because "they're too comfortable."
SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH EMT NORBERTO J.
TORRES, BATTALION 8, OCTOBER 23, 2001 (133).

• We were on a job w/ a GYN going into Bellevue when I heard over the radio
that an airplane hit the WTC; we dropped off the patient and I continued to
listen to the radio as I de-conned the bus; while we were still 81 I heard
someone scream over the radio that another plan had hit;
• On hearing this, my partner and I decided let's go buff the job, head down
there, see what's up;
• We got assigned to the call and headed down there; as we approached we saw
the towers engulfed in flame; we proceeded to where they assigned us, e.g.
West and Vesey; originally we parked at the end of the line on Vesey, farther,
in front of the Tex-Mex place on the right-hand side; but Lt Nevins told me to
move the bus closer to be ready to pick up patients and head to the hospital;
• As we got closer to the zone, you saw people jumping, debris everywhere,
many injured personnel running towards us, covered in ash and soot;
• We parked the vehicle, got all our equipment off and started heading towards
the corner of West and Vesey; they were just throwing all the patients towards
us, trying to get everyone out of the building;
• We treated as we went, numerous patients, putting them in the back [of
what?], carried the ones who couldn't walk, got them whatever help we could
and got them far back;
• I ran back to get some masks (the dust was intense) and met chiefs etc on the
scene; one of the captains asked me to get all the masks from my vehicle and
bring them to the personnel, the PD, and I did that; also got masks from other
vehicles and gave them to other people;
• I was talking to J.R. Rivera trying to get one of the chiefs a mask when the
first building started to come down; we heard a loud, thunderous roar and
thought it was a plane; there were all kinds of reports that numerous planes
were head towards the financial district; you looked up and saw a wall of
debris coming at you; we ran; I ended up in an outcropping of one of the
buildings, waiting for everything to pass (maybe less than a minute);
• We were redirected to where they had set up the new staging for West and
Vesey (determines this is North End); they brought the MERV; a Lt asked for
volunteers to get the vehicles and I volunteered; he described the car where he
had left the keys, I dug them out and handed some keys to fellow EMTs and
started bringing the buses back around the corner, we got the majority of them
back, only one or two that were dead;
• As I was checking one of the dead vehicles (I think vehicle 470), PD called
my attention that were a couple of injured people, bleeding everywhere and
they wanted some help bringing them around the corner;
• I headed towards the corner of West and Vesey and we started to help bring
people around the corner, numerous injured; at that point I believe the second
building came down; everyone running, scurrying;
• We made it around the corner, we stood there; then Chief Kowalczyk came
and said they were setting up a staging at Chelsea Piers and he needed me to
drive him up there; I jumped in an ambulance w/ him and took him up there;
there we set up a staging area w/ the ambulances that had been dispatched to
that area;
Thinking I wasn't doing enough there, I jumped on the back of the U.S.A.R.
gator heading back towards the zone, went over to the school where they had
a command post [Stuyvesant High School]; we had everything on Chambers
and West; I informed the Lts that I was back because I had been presumed
dead; was sent to the auditorium with the other EMTs to prepare for whatever
the scenario was;
At Stuyvesant for 8-10 hrs; they started sending out teams, to the wreckage, to
help with the morgue, to search etc; I got on one to set up a forward triage in
one of the hotels along North End Avenue back there, River Terrace, (maybe
one of those hotels, apt buildings?); set up a treatment area under the
command of Lt. Eppinger; waited for maybe 5 hrs but no patients;
WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH EMT DAVID BLACKSBERY,
BATTALION 31, OCTOBER 23, 2001, (134).

• At about SAM, was sitting w/ my partner at the base of the Bklyn Bridge, and
an ALS vehicle approached us; we looked up and saw Tower 1 on fire;
• The paramedic unit that we work w/ approached us and said let's go; we were
able to cross the Bklyn Bridge and got to an intersection of I guess West and
Liberty, a little bit north of that, so we were right across from 1 WTC;
• We parked our vehicles across the street, got out of the ALS vehicle, put on
our helmets and turnout coats; when we approached the building, we heard
some loud noise, we looked up and there was another plane coming in, it
banked around another building so we didn't actually see it hit, but we saw it
approaching and we heard it and felt it;
• We got back in our vehicle and I went half a block (though it felt like a mile
away); we first stopped the vehicle right on West St and the Westside
Highway, across from 1 WTC, we were right at the walkway that goes in
between the highway, that glass thing (e.g. the Winter Garden) and we ended
up parking [after half block?] underneath the pedestrian walkway going from
the Winter Garden to I guess 2 WFC; we made our own staging area there
because everybody was split it;
• There were a lot of people running all over the place, running away; about 4
people and then a 5* person approached us to say there was someone who was
badly burned; I got the ALS unit ready (32 Victor, Ellen and her partner-
don't know name- from LI College Hospital) and told them to get back onto
the paramedic truck and they took care of him; meanwhile we were handling
everybody else, I called over the radio to say we formed a new staging area
but I don't know if they heard me because there was a lot of chaos; this was
w/in 2 minutes of Tower 2 being hit;
• 32 took the burn victim to Cornell and my partner and I were by ourselves,
trying to stabilize people as much as we could; people were coming w/ minor
bruises, asking if they should go to the hospital; I told them 'if you're walking
and can tell what's going on, you can ... just keep walking away. There is
nothing much I can do for you right now, because I have a whole lot of
people;"
• A whole lot of commotion, everyone saying there's people coming out or
there's somebody in front of the building; so I'm approaching the building but
there's a lot of debris coming down so I decide not to approach, get as close as
I can; there were bodies everywhere; we heard them coming down, everybody
screaming, a lot of debris, metal, papers, computers etc; someone said that
there was somebody still alive, and I saw a dog tied up in front of the building,
I approached by got hit w/ debris so I decided not to go; I had a lot of people
who were walking so I said let me take care of them because I know I can
help them;
• W/in a couple of minutes, a couple of units started approaching and I told
them where we had set up staging because they were lost too; I was on the
corner of West, of Westside Highway and I guess just over by 2 WFC;
We got people to come down to the park and stand by the water, it was a little
clearer down there; we flagged down a fire chief, who actually ended up being
an EMS Chief and we just set up; there were carts inside the park w/ water,
food etc; we washed people as much as we could because we had no
equipment, and there was no ambulance except the command vehicle which
didn't have much either;
A couple of boats showed up and we put people on, injured and non-injured,
everybody was worried about where they were going; they were going to
either Ellis Island, Jersey City or Staten Island; some people were saying they
just lived a block away, but I told them I can guarantee they wouldn't be
allowed back in their apts for at least a day or two; we pushed everyone onto
the boats, I told them they had no choice; I asked them where they lived and
determined which boat would get them closest;
I went [apparently w/ another FD EMS person] to find a fire truck; we took
the fire hose and a wrench because we thought we'd seen a hydrant but there
was none; at that time, there was a Fire Chief, no lieutenants, and about 6
EMTs from the FD;
We tried to go over our radios to see if there was a staging area near us;
probably a couple of hours later, found out that there was staging right at the
SI Ferry Terminal, half a block away; [Questioner corrects that it was in fact
half a mile away]; it was set up like a makeshift hospital; people were triaged
there then put on the Ferry to SI where there were more EMTs to meet them I
guess;
Eventually people stopped coming; my partner and I gave our names to the
EMS Lt making a list so somebody knew we were all right; we started
walking up and found EMTs handing out masks; we started handing out
masks; then we hopped on an ambulance from Midwood that was going to
ground zero and found a staging at One Liberty; my partner walked back and I
stayed, I had a radio; called people to say I was ok on cell phones etc, then
stayed there and dug through rubble for Fire and Police people etc; this was at
about 3pm and I stayed until the next morning, a total of about 25 hrs;
eventually found another EMT and we found my vehicles and managed to
drive it back; I found out I had been missing for 9 hrs;
 NA

Did not see any officers, captains, chiefs for a while; then a chief came, I
believe a fire chief; I told him what we had and he just took off, he said 'okay,
I'll notify whoever'; then an EMS Chief came (don't know name); I told him
what I had done, what was going on, I had already taken down all the names
of the vehicles that approached, and he didn't' really seem to care what was
going on; he wasn't functioning; finally we parked our vehicles [?] and got
some water;
That's when 32 Boy showed up [apparently Questioner is part of this unit],
right when we started to get our vehicles set up; we were still there watching,
hearing people jump, patients were still approaching; we had staged our
vehicles by the water so if an emergency took place we could take off or could
take as many patients as possible; really all we could do is watch and listen to
out radios; I heard them say that all bosses would go onto Citywide and
everyone else should go onto Manhattan South, but they didn't hear me, or
didn't want to hear it, about where I said I was setting up staging; we were
overcome w/ so many people;
There were a lot of rumors that a 3rd plane was coming in, we were standing
by, looking up and the building started coming down; (the vehicle was half a
block up from the pedestrian walkway at this point);
We saw the building tipping, it was just leaning, well I thought I saw it
leaning, later it was confirmed that it was leaning, so we started booking, as
fast as we could, wherever we could; everybody scattered; no one knew where
anyone else went; it was like an avalanche tumbling at you etc; you couldn't
outrun it and it overtook us and finally I found my partner, Juan Rios; we
grabbed hands and ran; then people were grabbing my arm, and his arms and
said "where are we going"; [indicates that he and partner were split up, but
seems to have remained together];
Everyone panicking, babies crying, kids crying, adults not knowing what to
do, people walking in circles; my partner and I were the only EMS or Fire
people, even PD; tried calling over the radio but everyone is over the radio so
you couldn't do anything;
Told people to cover their mouths, keep their heads down, etc, people were
closing their eyes and grabbing onto us, we had a whole chain link of people,
all civilians besides us, quite a few of them from 1 WTC; one girl said she
was from the 63rd floor; another said she was from the 84th; they told me that
they ran down, they were still wearing high heels;
We ran all the way down to Battery Park and saw 2 city buses and I told them
to get on; everyone was worried about where the buses were going but didn't
look like they were going anywhere, just cleaner air in there; we still didn't
have masks;
My partner and I went back to find more people and direct them where to go;
finally we found 2 more EMS people who worked for a private company, I
think Cabrini; not sure if building 2 had come down because I lost track, it
sounded like on big rumble, like it just continued; w/ all the screaming etc, I
didn't really hear another building coming down;
SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH EMT FRANK PASTOR,
BATTALION 31, OCTOBER 23, 2001, (135).

• Reported to work at the station, going about normal routine, were working 32
boy in Red Hook so had view of the city, when my partner, Maria Harilal,
says to me "Frankie, that plane seems to be low;" (had said I thought we'd
have a busy day because it was 9-11); then she yells out "Frank, that plane just
hit the building;"
• Got on the radio and said we're available; was dialing the phone to call my
wife, when Maria says "that other plane is low", maybe 10,15 minutes later,
and we saw the other plane hit;
• We're still in Bklyn; then, they say "32 boy, you're going;"
• I back up the vehicle and head towards the tunnel; there we get stuck and I can
feel the tunnel vibrating; I'm aware it's already chaotic;
• There are big ESU trucks in front of me and behind me; they're blowing their
horns;
• As soon as I get on the other side of the west side [unclear where] I come out
of the tunnel and see someone's torso on the floor, just split open on the
driver's side [where?];
• I go through [traffic? To site?], emergency vehicles flying by, I see 31
David's ambulance towards the west side; I pull over, believing this would be
the first staging area;
• I saw they they're [who?] underneath this walkway, good idea because of the
debris etc falling; saw a computer coming out of the window and hitting the
ground, breaking the windows; I pulled up behind them and look up, but have
a gut feeling we're too close;
• There were flames everywhere so told Maria let's get suited up and we gotta
go; got our equipment, turnout coats, everything; I remember putting on my
bulletproof, my helmet;
• I saw 31 David, treating someone in that first area underneath the walkway;
there's stuff hitting the overpass and I run over to them; I said I'll be right
back, we're going to have to move these vehicles, we got to get out of here;
• Ran back to where we think they're parked, underneath this walkway,
[possibly Liberty Street walkway]; there's debris falling, windows shattering;
went to find a commanding officer;
• Saw a lot of Haztolah ambulances, a couple of EMS ambulances, private
ambulances gathered in that corner, so I turned around and ran over; saw
Captain Frank D'Amato and told him we had to get these vehicles out of here
and put me in charge of that; there had to be 10, 15 vehicles and we had to put
all the equipment back in;
• We moved the buses another half block up and he says, make sure everyone
comes back with the equipment, we're going to start a staging area; thought
they would start detouring us closer towards the WTC;
• After about 30-40 mins moving the vehicles, we hear "it's coming down;"
• Didn't even have a chance to turn around and got buried, in the dark on the
floor; got my Nextel, called my wife back;
Debris didn't clear for about half an hour, 45 min.; I remember running into
Battery Park, everyone running, falling, I lost my helmet, didn't know where I
was; ran into a lobby in the financial district somewhere; these guys were
here, then we finally got them down another block and a half away, I think
Albany St and South End, somewhere in there; in there somewhere I
remember going to a lobby; I was the only EMS personnel in there w/ a bunch
of women and children calling for help, they couldn't breathe; I had no
equipment; had a bottle of water w/ me, I found a bathroom with a slop sink
and clothes hanging, and I started soaking the clothes, cutting out strips and
giving it to kids, and mothers; I found a watering can; they're fighting for
water, lining up, I'm cleaning them off; there had to be 500, 600 people in the
lobby, you couldn't fit anyone else in there; (establishes that this is Gateway
Plaza);
Was there for about half an hour, an hour; people gathering around me
because the radio is still on; told them I have to try to get out, but they don't
want me to leave; finally I go back out and walk back towards the green,
everyone is coming; I don't see any EMS personnel still; when we started
going, I lost my partner; I remember running into three fire zebra, a unit,
which had Scott packs, the HAZ-TAC unit, remember seeing Joe and Eric;
Joe gave me some oxygen and as I'm walking back I see Chief Grant on the
floor stumbling, he's got no O-2, and I grab him and he says to me "What do I
tell these people?"; people are still running, flames still coming around the
bend; he said "keep them going" etc, but it seemed we were walking back
towards the area and I told him we can't go that way, we're going to have to
stay here, we were in a grassy area;
Then I look over and there's a fire boat w/ the lights on coming, and these
Liberty shuttle, the ferries; they're yelling out, I can take 75,1 can take 200;
we started putting people on the boat; I lost my partner, Chief Grant, his aide,
when I walked back towards the building, I ran into more EMS personnel; this
was after Hoth buildings had come down but we didn't know it was two; we
realized it when we walked down to the area; got together with other EMS
people, equipment and spent the day on the ferry;
WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH ROLAND DIAZ, JR., OCTOBER 22, 2001,
(121).

• I was going to post when I got a call for a plane that hit the WTC; my partner,
Chris Attasio, and I started heading down there towards Manhattan; we were
at the Bruckner Interchange when I saw the 2nd plane hit; so we're rushing
down there, fighting traffic, we go on the FD, we get off, we get down there in
about 10 or 15 mins;
• We start pulling up on Church and Vesey; that was the staging when we first
got there; we saw bodies on the floor [the ground?]; the commander told us to
start setting up, start heading in [to where?];
• As we're getting our gear on, the Lt tells us they're changing staging to West
and Vesey, so we pull there, get our stretcher out, getting our gear; we start
walking towards the building [doesn't indicate which]; so many people,
everyone running around;
• [Portion redacted]; Questioner clarifies that the North building is 1 and the
South Building is 2;
• I was in Building 5; they had another triage set up there;
• People started running, yelling that another plane hit the building; one side of
the building was all glass; my first instinct was to run to the basement but I
realized I'd get stuck down there, so I started running towards West St, within
the building and found an exit; when I stepped outside, a cloud of smoke w/
debris overtook me, couldn't see your hand in front of your face; my partner
and I are still trying to get away, to West Street;
• A gentleman from OEM comes up to us and says my Lt [his It?] is still in
there, I need somebody to take us [?]; so we go to the ambulance, which is full
of debris; luckily the bus starts, the guy from OEM jumped in and we headed
back toward Tower 1; we opened the doors and got as close as possible; a
fireman came up to us w/ burns and lacerations, respiratory problems; also a
man w/ a pacemaker who had chest pains, a handicapped woman (mentioned
her on TV); my partner and I put in an ambulance; everybody ran to us; we
put on our masks; we transported at least 6 or 7 people; took them to I think
Cabrini Hospital; on the way to the hospital when the second building hit;
SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH EMT RENE O'CARROLL,
29 MARY 2, OCTOBER 18, 2001, (116).

• Partner, Eddie Rodriguez, and I logged on at SAM; went down to first call
about 8:35 in downtown Bklyn, call was a dupe to another unit's (think 31
unit) job; we gave our position to the dispatcher that we were 98;
• We looked up and saw this big mound of smoke; turned the radio on and there
was a lot of screaming and noise; pulled over into a laudromat w/ people
crowded around a TV; called the dispatcher, hard to get through; we went on
Manhattan frequency because that was the only one that was working; they
sent us over there;
• We went down Atlantic Ave towards the Manhattan Bridge and the heat was
so intense you could feel it on the bridge; they assigned us to Church and
Vesey to stage; people running the other way; we were the third vehicle in
line; one of the first units actually down there; the Lt said feel around and pick
up whoever you can; don't remember who the Lt was; it was mass hysteria;
picked up an elderly lady who looked like she was burnt; really no triaging,
just pulling people out who looked viable; we had three ladies (including the
elderly one); 1 was ambulatory, the other 2 weren't; we put them into the
vehicle and my partner said let's go;
• We were down there for about 11 minutes before the building fell; I had my
back turned towards the building directly in front of it at Church and Vesey,
the transportation officer had waved me over to tell me which hospital to go
to; he was facing the building, he looked up and had the look of fear on his
face; heard what sounded like marbles crashing down; I heard everyone say
run, I looked behind me and it was a gigantic blob of ash and molt and fire
and everything just behind you and I ran;
• Everyone was running; I tried to grab people; people were grabbing onto me;
then at the corner, another blob of stuff came around, picked me up from front
and back and threw me on the ground; everything was pitch-black, could feel
heat, couldn't see or breathe;
• Got back off the ground and heard people screaming and begging for help; got
knocked down, lay on the ground, couldn't breathe, couldn't get up; [much of
this portion is redacted]; I was praying and I saw a red light to my left, I put
my hand to the left to see what it was and I felt glass; it was a miracle, the
glass door opened up, and it felt like someone put their hands under me,
picked me up and pulled me; I rolled down some stairs and the doors closed
behind me; it was a basement to somewhere; I ran past a subway station; saw
a bucket of mop water and cleaned my eyes; found men's room and ladies'
room and couldn't get open; tried station combo, 325, and it opened; blocked
door w/ paper towels, lay down and went to sleep or lost consciousness;
missing 7 or 8 hrs; then went out, leaving door propped open w/ trail of tissue
paper, found out was a boiler room, electrical rm, work area on the side of the
subway station; went up 3 flights of stairs to an office that was locked; went
back down and slept again; then got up and walked the opposite direction and
made it to the street; a police lady grabbed me and I said help, I can't breathe
and we were pretty much holding each other up; she threw me in an
ambulance, and said she had to stay; the ambulance was riding one man w/ the
doors open, no real equipment; picked up a few more people including Officer
Pakna from Dist 1; taken to Beekman Hospital and treated; had lost track of
partner, don't know what happened to him;
SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH JOSEPH HENDERSON,
EMT, BATTALION 20, OCTOBER 22, 2001, (126).

• I was assigned to the job at approximately at 8:30AM (must be right after

plane hit); we took the Bruckner to the FDR; heavy traffic, police cards, FBI
cars; used vehicle 265;
• Parked right across the street from 2WTC on the West Side Highway, just
south of Liberty; this was after the 2nd plane hit; body parts all over etc, people
screaming, running in and out of the buildings; Jefferson, a medic, was there
(not from Battalion 20, think he's from Boston outpost), he was there before
me;
• We went to help 2 other medics (Jefferson was one of them)—they had a
fireman w/ a crushed face (think they were treating him on Cedar)—and we
were coming back out, to build the staging area (the staging we were directed
to was on West in the hotel) when someone screamed that the building was
falling; [does not recount circumstances of 2nd plane hitting]; we got to about
the middle of the street when we heard the rumble and it started falling; don't
know which was my partner, Lonnie Perm, ran [heard he ran to the water and
got on a boat to Jersey];
• I took off, felt a bunch of debris etc hitting, people screaming, couldn't see
where you were going, a few of the ambulances were exploding; finally I was
able to get inside an ambulance with lights on; stayed there for a few minutes,
but stuff crashing around the bus so we were able to get out; there was a
building on that side that we were able to go into [determined that building
was somewhere between Albany and Carlisle]; we stayed there for a certain
amount of time, then a female cop came in and said 'one of your guys is on
fire', believe he was in am ambulance; [never got to him];
• When we came back out, the second building collapsed; we were able to run
from that one because we weren't too close; I stayed there, couldn't get
anywhere, we had no radios; after that, we were able to get a bus to take to
Berkeley Hospital and then back to the Bronx;
• Vehicle *165 was totally destroyed; there were about 8 other ambulances [not
sure where?];
SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH PETER CONSTANTINE,
EMT, BATTALION 20, OCTOBER 22, 2001, (122).

• I usually get off at SAM but that day we had a late call; after that we came
back to the battalion and saw that the trade center was hit by a plane; we were
assigned to go down;
• We saw the second plane hit as we were heading down the West Side
Highway, we saw both towers on fire; after the 2nd plane hit, there was no one
on the WSH but us and the police following each other down;
• We parked w/ a lot of other ambulances on Vesey and West and started
grabbing equipment and helping people who were running from the building;
• It was chaos, everybody going everywhere; a lot of people wanted to help; at
that time, we heard across the radio that the tower's gonna fall, the tower's
gonna fall** (don't know what time it was);
• Started to run, help people run, the cloud chasing you, engulfing people;
• We had to have run a couple of blocks; then, when it was over, we all went
back in; we took the ambulance back and started helping people; everyone
covered in dust, breathing it in, so we cleaned them off etc; just a whole mess
of people, a lot of EMS, Fire, Police, everybody helping everybody; most
cleaning dust; a couple of people needed to be transported, so we designated
buses to do that; it was chaotic;
• Then, it felt like 10 minutes later, the other building fell and everyone ran
again; we were close but we ran fast enough;
• Then there was a gas leak [doesn't indicate where?] and they pushed
everybody back to 23rd St; so all these units, rescue people were stationed at
23rd St and you couldn't do anything; those were our orders, to just sit there; it
was frustrating; but it was smart because it was an unsafe scene;
• Sat there for a couple of hours, then began getting assignments, then they sent
us home—they set up quarters at the hospital because you couldn't go home;
cars blocking you in; slept w/ partner in the dialysis unit of the hospital and
went back down and did a couple more tours;
SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH JOHN ROTHMUND, EMT
BATTALION 22, OCTOBER 17, 2001, (112).

• Was working at 22 Adam with John Heer, my partner; got assigned to a job w/
about 5 other units to respond to the foot of the Verrazano Bridge and standy
by; we went and were 63; by the time we got there they had called us through
to the Bklyn side; weren't told what was going on, but when we got to Bklyn,
we could see one tower burning; they called again and told us to take the VZ
bridge to the Bklyn side of the Battery Tunnel and stand by;
• Over the bridge there was a chain of emergency vehicles, got to the foot of the
tunnel and kept going, came out of the tunnel into Manhattan, went up West
and to staging area at Liberty and West; still hadn't heard; thought it was a
small plane;
• We were one of the first 3 ambulances at that location; [description of who
was there partially redacted;] there were volunteer units there, from [it
appears] Staten Island Hospital; one guy's name was Mitch and I saw
Vinnie's unit [?]; there were a few Hazollah, a couple of Richmond Cty, some
Metro people; I think a bravo ambulance; none of these ambulances were
EMS; at this point both towers were in flames [still didn't know what
happened]; no brass [later confirms there was either a Fire or EMS Lt and
numerous PD telling them where to go; we felt it was unsafe to be so close so
tried to find authority figures but there were none around; ended up just
relocating ourselves and a voluntary unit down to South End; started to line
ambulances from South End up to Liberty; so you came from South End and
Albany I guess; moved about 20, 30 ambulances there;
• Stood by w/ equipment etc on Liberty; turned one patient w/ head injury over
to voluntary Hazollah unit (they were going to hospital w/ other patients); saw
people jumping, thought it was just a really bad fire; no authority figures
whatsoever; then heard what sounded like another plane, or missile, a slow
/ shake; told everyone to run into a building;
• We ran off Liberty but couldn't get too far, got into a superette and threw as
many people in as possible; only EMS people there among about 40 people;
thought we were penned in by debris; got report of women and children stuck
in top of building [apparently building they were in] so we went up and pulled
about 10, 20 women, children, pets whatever down;
• Found a back door;
• When things cleared up a bit, went outside and saw Chief Grant; kind of
dazed, made him a patient; we turned around and he was heading towards the
water and we let him go because it he was going in a good direction; that was
the only place that had any kind of air; we sent as many people down there as
we could; anyone who could walk and we splinted up fractures etc as quickly
as possible; saw McCracken but couldn't catch up to him; we were on our
own; then we packed up ambulance and took it down the esplanade figuring
other building would be coming down;
• As we were pulling down I think Albany, another captain (heavyset, black
hair, white helmet, blue shirt) asked us for a ride, kind of in shock, told him
we're just going down to the corner but let him into the empty seat and
brought him down to there [?] told him here, get out, parked the truck, turned
the battery off, got another patient [him?]; walked him back up again [?] and
got another patient, minor injuries;
As we made our way back into it [presumably back towards towers] the other
tower came down; we were probably on West walking north to get help from
where bus was parked, on either West or South End, coming from Albany;
couldn't see anything etc;
We ran down Albany to the esplanade, escorted hundreds of people down
there, got to a point that seemed like it had a dock; was with a few firemen
and police officers; didn't know what the hell was going on, planes dropping
from the sky, missiles hitting;
A police officer took out a door to a Chinese restaurant and we started lifting
people up into the restaurant over some kind of railing; saw Mark Harris and
Kathy Zarr, started to make up triage with zero equipment; this was at South
Cove Park;
Boats started coming in on the corner over the water, put women and children
on boats to NJ; still mostly minor injuries; we had no equipment for triage and
no brass; then mostly just men who could take care of themselves, police, fire
etc; walked down along esplanade and informed by EMS guy that there were
triage staging points and South Ferry and Chelsea Piers; SF was closer; got
ambulance on Albany and the esplanade, windows all blown out and it was
dead; so we walked down to I guess First Avenue, First Place and met an
EMS chief who was setting up a small staging spot with one ambulance, I
gave him the oxygen I had; stayed there and treated people and/or sent people
off Manhattan onto boats w/ the FD and PD until about 1 or 2 PM; eventually
got to Ferry terminal with regular triage set up and treated patients until about
midnight;
SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH PARAMEDIC WILLIAM
SIMON, BATTALION 58, BROOKLYN, OCTOBER 19, 2001, (115).

• We were in Canarsie, not far from the station, when we heard a report of the
WTC being struck; we proceeded closer to 1089 and were assigned to the city
for an individual w/ trouble breathing (imagined there were many more) at
Broorne and Broadway; that was about 9:50;
• We knew at this point that tower one had been struck and was on fire; my first
impression was that it was a terrorist act; don't think the second building had
been hit at this point [? It had]; my partner, Barry Hirsch, was driving; we
arrived in the city about 10 or 12 mins after we were assigned; we came over
the Manhattan Bridge, took a few turns over to Allen St to Delancy, then
crossed Bowery and then Lafayette and dropped down to Broome &
Broadway; I believe the second tower had been hit;
• On Broadway there was a tremendous amount of dust, pulverized masonry,
office materials, about 10,000 people walking north, some wearing makeshift
masks, some w/ real masks from ambulances; even there looked like ticker
tape parade or nuclear winter; we parked the vehicles and asked a traffic cop if
anyone approached her w/ trouble breathing; I went south on Broome St and
canvassed on the east and west side of the street and my partner went north, to
all the store owners, and amazingly nobody had trouble breathing; everyone
seemed to just want to get home, not to want treatment; called dispatcher and
reported that had no one requiring assistance;
• Assigned to respond to Chambers and West, the new staging area following
the collapse of WTC 1; took us about 5 mins to get there; encountered EMS
officer Lt Fitton and Lt Pinkus on West St; they were coordinating
reassignment of EMS units on the west side; we identified ourselves,
acknowledged each other; we parked our vehicle, got a quick briefing; still
many questions about magnitude and what rescue efforts were actually going
on and the conflicting stories about our people involved and how many
firefighters and police were injured;
• They asked us to park our vehicle and walk south on West St and give any
care needed to people who were ambulatory and direct them to the staging
area; also direct any lost of confused EMS units there because the tactical
frequencies were so busy that there was a lot of miscommunication; we were
used not only as rescuers but means of conveying info to other units re where
to regroup; so my partner and I walked down West St and told people to walk
north;
• About 2 or 3 blocks south of Chambers, (probably around Barclay and Murray
or down around Warren St) we hear a rumble see a blast of smoke and slight
ball of flame coming from the silhouette of the building and watched the
antenna collapse; looked at first like the antenna was falling towards us;
transfixed for about 5 mins, then turned and ran and told everyone to run;
• After about 2 mins, knew the bulk of it was over, got to about Chambers St, a
lot of noise and heard shots (told later it was officers trying to get into locked
buildings);
Things were unbelievably quiet for about 10 mins, people regrouping; then we
made contact w/ the EMS supervisors who were there and set up an additional
triage area, I think in Borough of Manhattan Community College on the north
side of the building; set up a makeshift triage area on the upper mezzanine; I
started to man the location w/1 believe some voluntary EMTs; treated 1 or 2
police officers for dust inhalation and exhaustion, a young girl in shock w/
minor injuries;
About 15 mins later, instructed to evacuate the area and move farther north by
Chelsea Pier because there was a report of a gas leak; there were 2 or 3 EMTs
on my truck; my partner had gone w/ Lt Santiago because of his training in
special ops; we transported civilians as far north as we could w/o jeopardizing
their well-being and let them exit at Chelsea Piers; our unit basically
remained there until later that afternoon; stayed w/ Tommy Maher, a medic I
knew from the academy, until about 5 or 5:30 when we were released
 COMMAND, SHIELD 3613 (118).

• Logged in at 6AM and was monitoring citywide radio at around SAM; one of
the officers heard all the commotion going on on citywide;
• I called my counterparty, specialist Bobby Short, who was on the road w/ the
LSU truck so we could man the MERV van; when we came in, we went
downstairs and found out from the TV that a plane hit the WTC; we loaded up
the MERV w/ ALS equipment etc and I threw my equipment in the LSU
truck;
• We met Ass't Chief Pete Carrasquillo at the division; he loaded up his car
with the duty captain and his aides, they were going down to the event and
they told us to relocate to battalion 45, Woodside, wait for Lt Hadala and any
responding personnel;
Pretty much all you could hear on the radio was commotion; couldn't get
. through to the dispatcher; we finally got through to them that LSU 4 and
MERV van 4 for responding in;
j \Y OF WTC TASK FORCE Coming over the 59WITH
INTERVIEW th St bridge, you couldEMS
MARK MAZUR, see people jumping; as we were
f A\&P ^~ J> leavm§tne bridge, the first tower collapsed; the radio pretty much went dead;
1^ ^ t^ ^^^ what helped us out the most was the traffic dept; they had everything shut
AfJ(J\l down etc so we could get through;
/•/•-, (fr S* * When we gqTto the West Side Highway, we saw a lot of people walking
6 i JfA down; when we arrived 84 at the scene,"where the first staging area was
<JO \ • (somewhere on the WSH, not sure of cross street, maybe Warren St), a lot of
firemen there; everybody was packing up and walking down;
i ^u • We crossed over the other side of the WSH, came down the opposite side
^. A C\^,i ^ > facing out, then crossed over by Vesey, wViprpj-hpjVjERV wac qnH stg^p^
?. V^ * stagingthere; Lt Hj-Hgla and his rorrnn^nH ^qr came on the other side of the
fn <Ui "4 highway w/ me and then I parked iust on the other side of that foot bridge by
N rt, J,^fippeafsto~5e determined] the Amex building; had a lot of fire apparatus that
"V k S TP^ was on trie soum side-tjftfte street; I nosed my truck in between them; don't
J remember any other EMS personnel there; I started taking my equipment out
^v\0'f* - 1 ({/\( and I hear this sound, like a jet, a rumble behind it, like a locomotive; I heard
0 u ,x (II °*1 J people screaming; the firemen who were behind me were thro wing their hose
^ packs down; when I came out of the back of the truck, I saw the 2nd tower
coming down;
• Everyone started to run down the WSH; I jumped out of the truck and onto the
hood of a police car which I rode for about 100 ft; when he nit a car, 1 rolled"
off the hood andjcept rnnn ir> 3J [pgtahlighpH that cop car was going up north[;
• I stopped running maybe at Barclay; I made it back to the LSU truck; there
were about 10 or 15 firemen in the back of the truck; I hooked them up to O2,
pulled my masks out, and gave them to guys who were still trying to get up to
the scene to rescue people; it was pandemonium; I'm a volunteer fireman, you
could hear the pass alarms going off all over the place; when I finished
running, I saw Tony Dimac, Mike Felice from MTD deputy director,
 • A Hazollah truck was right across from me, giving care to everybody; I was
yL/) working w/ a guy from there and you hear these explosions going off; a Lt
\J- (either Fire or EMS) came and asked if the truck ran; he said to take it if it ran
U- or else abandon it and leave; there were gas leaks under the sewer caps in the
area;
I took out everything I had and threw it in the back of the truck; I put a Port
Authority female in the front (a patient encrusted w/ dust), got my truck
started, backed out and pulled down the WSH until we hit a safe area; by the
restaurant Ponte's at Desbrosses, north of Chambers; didn't find out it was a
terrorist attack until then; they had a fire house hooked up on a stanchion like
a shower; I took her out and hosed her off; we ran into my friend Bobby from
our MERV van; both of us moved our trucks all the way down until we ran
into 2 Lts and Comm Claire who said to wait there and then just kept walking;
nobody knew what was going on, we had no real command stations;
At the staging area at Desbrosses St we used my cell phone; it was the only
thing working; communications were screwed; wje_goUn touch w/ citywide,
and they deployed us to Greenwich St; we reported there and set up a
- ^ { v\t area utilizing the equipment from the LSU and MERV van, at
Greenwich and Murray; I think there was some kind of school or office
building ;^we had a bunch of doctors from around the country who were here
for a seminar;
Then the 3l^building fell, number 7; when the people started stampeding
(from Greenwich and Murray), a Lt who I didn't know said go out there and
slow them down; stayed there until 8:30 or 9, then moved to the Battery Park
side; eventually had to move because the Amex building was going to
collapse; moved back up by the water, by the BafterjTPark CTity buildings;
Questioner asks who duty captain and aides were: duty captain was Rivera,
aides were Jason Katz, Chief Day's and Sal Sargentini, Carrasquillo's aide;
Everybody did what they had to do, communications were bad, all you were
heard waspeople were trapped, oveftEe command frequency and cilywide;
the~j$yyjfec[uency radios were working very shabby; you had the repeaters
on the in the WTC *** [unclear whether had any actuaTEnTTwtedge of this or
just surmised or heard it]; the cell phones weren't working, only AT&T was
working;
SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH FERMIN MERREO,
EMTD, OCTOBER 22, 2001 (125).

• At my girlfriend's house waiting for her to come back from taking my

stepdaughter to school; usually I get up at 5:30AM but slept a little late
because I had a 3-day swing; turned on the news [apparently before the
events]; when the 1st plane hit, I thought it could be some kind of accident, but
when the 2nd one hit you knew what's going on; even though it was my day
off, I jumped up; told my girlfriend honey, I've got to go;
I reported here [location of interview; not identified]; it was a madhouse; I
said I know what we're going to do, they're going to send me down there; one
of my boys, Vinnie Marquez, came in and we picked up my bulletproof vest
(at my house) and were gone;
From the Bklyn Blvd, you could see tlje-WTC burning; we started praying;
When wg_gflt.therertfeey-toidus to report to Fulton and Broadway; we parked
vehicle and ran into a Lt, Karen, sirensan-ffis&ueter^ pUnrmedic; [seems to
determine this was actually Janet Oslzewski]; she said just get oxygen out and
water;
People were askirig for masks; we didn^thave any, so we took sheets and tore
them into pieces; Vinnie went down the block to bring back anyone who
needed help;
About ten minutes later, I hear this rumbling, everyone is looking up at the
sky, everyone starts running; then the smoke came zooming, like an
avalanche; [appears to be collapse of 2nd tower]; I said, oh my god, my
partner; there was no visibility; so I'm running towards my ambulance and he
comes, I grab him and said, get in the ambulance, let's move further up; I
turned on my lights, sirens, high beams; after moving a foot, another
ambulance comes out of nowhere, it says something like Valley Hudson, a
volunteer;
Then a guy said the second tower is down; I didn't know the first tower was
down; I said, let's bring the bus down as far as we can, and the stretcher etc,
put all the oxygen on it; we did a favor we shouldn't have (inaudible) the Port
Authority;
We started going down the block and ran into an old man w/ a laceration on
his arm; we took care of that; we hardly did anything; we went south on
Broadway, almost to Wall St, right around 140 Broadway, right around City
Hall because they told us a fireman or policeman was hurt there so we went to
take care of him; we went all the way back up then came down; we had found
this lady in a bank who was hysterical but she was breathing, so I told Vinnie
we had to leave her and go back down;
So we came back down and I found the police, 2 guys over here w/ some
badges, I said take them, put them in the back [apparently patients; part
missed because inaudible]; then we come out with the stretcher and these
people were carrying this fireman; [establishes that they were on Fulton and
BjoadwayJ; ~~"~~
 • Then we ran into some of our boys, Charlie from Station 50, a medic; he was
on Kings Bridge and Reservoir so we took him w/ us; then we decided we had
to go back to the ferry; there we ran into Juan Burgo, Mike Negron and
Charlie, the medic; [chronology is unclear];
• Then we decided to go back out, went north on Trinity, and they stopped us
because of a man w/ a pacemaker having chest pains; everybody worked as a
team, it was nothing about ego; I asked Charlie to take 02 and stay w/ the old
man; said we're going up to Trinity and we'll come back down w/ whatever
we find and pick you up and take him to the ferry; so he jumped out;
• When we got right around Trinity and Cedar Street we found this fireman, in
shock, looking really bad; wTwalkeoTunr back up to the ambulance and went
straight back down as far as we could go, asked if anybody needed help; we
went hack to Cedar, we got up tA ab^nt Cortlandt St;
• Then we stood there and looked at it [doesn't identify what?]; I was going to
walk in but Vinnie said it looks like it's gonna fall; I said to get the fireman
[^ \d the old man out of here; so we picked up Charlie and the old man and
. J?0 V/J came up by the exchange, came across the exchange, and ran into a Lt who
&• j_ Q/V* told us we could take them to Metropolitan;
/>$• • There was so much madness that we went up Broadway, then got across to
\l St, where found an African-American lady on the ground; I think she
was (inaudible); they stopped us and I said let's go on in there [where?]; then
they brought an Asian man and we threw him in too;
• We let the other guys off to go back and help and zoomed all the way to
Metropolitan; then we swept the ambulance, got another stretcher from
Harlem (that was a mistake) and went back to Liberty and Cedar where we
picked up Juan and Charlie and Mike Negron, found more patients and took
them to the hospital; we ran into this Lt w/ a whole bunch of people, so we
went back to the Ferry terminal but couldn't find the Lt when we got back;
Chief Basile was there [where? Ground zero?];
EMTD MERREO (125): at home on day off and sees on news; goes down; told
eventually to report to Fultnn and Broadway: trying to treat people; collapse occurs
(apparently 2nd one; didn't know about 1st one); gets in ambulance, head down, treat
people along the way, went south on Broadway almost to Wall, around City Hall, ends up
back on Fulton and Broadway; drives around a lot picking up people, getting them
transported, around Trinity and Cedar, then Cortlandt, Canal, then up to Harlem to get
another stretcher, then down to Liberty and Cedar, eventually goes to Ferry;
 SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE WITH EMT BRIAN SMITH, 5480, OCTOBER
23, 2001, (136).

• My partner, Brian Gordan (Shield No. 5548), and I had just gotten off duty at
8:45; I was going to my vehicle to drive home and my partner and 1 heard the
"first tower being hit then looked up and saw it; it hadn't even come over the
radios yet;
Came back inside and told Lt McCarthy, the desk Lt; I told him was going to
get changed and we needed an extra unit and need to go back out;
He didn't believe me at first then heard the announcement "Units, an MCI has
been announced the Borough of Manhattan" come over the air;
I went back into the office, changed, grabbed my keys (my partner was
outside preparing the ambulance); I logged into the computer right away;
before I left, my Lt told me we were going to be 3 1 Mary and if they needed
[V Ylf ^ us, they'd call us, so we got on; I told them we were the next unit available if
they needed us and they told us to proceed to the MCI in Manhattan;
We left the parking lot, went over the Bklyn Bridge, normal Tues morning
traffic, pretty congested by the foot of the bridge w/ vehicle traffic, I guess
because the police had shut down all the vehicle traffic going over, to allow
pedestrian traffic there; I was able to drive up on the sidewalk and make my
way to the bridge and they waved us right through; we had been given a street
name to stage on but I'm not familiar w/ lower Manhattan streets; my partner
was trying to look at the Hagstrom's and figure out where to go, so decided to
follow unmarked police car w/ light on; we followed him in, got off the
bridge, circled around I guess west and initially stopped I think it was
Cortlandt or one of these streets, you could see a foot bridge or something
around there; there were thousands of people in the street;
Were trying to determine where to stage when flagged by a Metrocare unit
asking for help w/ a man having a heart attack; they thought we were an ALS
unit, but I told them we were a BLS unit and couldn't do anything more than
they could;
The second plane must have hit either while we were getting off the Bridge or
just as we were meeting the throng of people because it was down by the time
we got to Liberty St;
We ended up a couple of blocks away from the trade center, there was a court
building or something on the right-hand side as you're going down Liberty,
there was some police and a fire truck there; (aggress w/ questioner that may
have been Liberty Plaza);
So basically on Liberty and Trinity or Church, and there was a sergeant or
lieutenant (w/ a helmet on) directing traffic; we asked him where the staging
s /^ was a°d he tried to call on the radio but there was too radio traffic; it was
c \\
bedlam; on the radio going over the bridge, we heard reports saying that a
plane had hit the tower, that two planes hit at the same time; we didn't know if
a bomb went off; we could see a wing sticking out of the buildjng, it wasn't
obvious what happetTec
 He didn't know where staging was but said there were people hurt at the 10-
10 house so we went there; we were backing into the engine bay (on the left if
you're looking at the front of the building) and there was a Fire Captn, he
wasn't in turnout, I don't know if he was from Ladder ifror Engine 10, and he
said there were 7_orJUiadly hurt people if we want to take some and run; he
said to make sure to back it in all the way because of the falling debris; didn't
notice any people but a lot of debris, all the way up to Church, I could drive it,
but had to go around a few bigger pieces;
I told the Captn that my partner and I would set up triage there at the station,
but I needed a few guys to give me a hand; he said, sure, whatever you need,
but there was no one medically trained;
A volunteer firefighter who worked in the WTC came over (named Rob) to
help, he wasn't medically trained but maybe knew CPR;
I told the Captn we need every chair in the station lined »p behind the
ambulance for the walking wounded; we need every pillow-^vemrRlanket.
and any of the mattresses, from the bunks upstairs, no metajjrartie^ and we're
going to take rhe"~erTtire other engine bay and lay them on the ground; it's got
to be nice"and neat for critical patients; we're going to start MCIing these
• people;
A^/PSome were walking wounded, some worse; one lady was burnt up pretty bad,
all the skin off her shoulder, parts of her arm, leg, her hair was all burnt, and
her fingers; I showed Rob how to use a ring cutter to cut her rings off; she was
in shock; treated people w/ my partner and Rob; I showed my partner how to
immobilize w/ a KED the broken hip of an Asian guy named [?]; he
immobilized the fracture of a fireman; the other fireman started getting things
set up;
• There were a lot of civilians in front of the firehouse that weren't triaged yet;
we got 6,7 or 8 triage tags written out; turned into a pretty nice triage station;
• That's when I started seeing jumpers outside, civilians were screaming 'look'
and the jumpers were hitting the ground maybe 20 feet away;
• I said I got to get inside and told the captain to tell his men and anyone who
A walks by that the firehouse was being used a triage station and to direct
\0 dmtfr l~>*rC» everyone inside;
Shortly after, some firefighters came in to report that a brother was hurt pretty
10 bad on the street; down Liberty to the west; so I grabbed 2 firefighters and
told them to bring the Stokes, I grabbed my tech bag and told my partner I
fa was going out to get this guy; my partner was frantic about leaving me, but I
was going to bring the guy right back I said;
[In response to questioner], I had let the central dispatcher know that we set
up a triage at the 10-10 house; so I'm walking there and the first indication
that it was a plane crash was that in front of a bank, there's a fountain in front
of it, and there were vellow in-flight lifi jarV Q tf; rvpiTVi i 1r t r f " went down
f f Liberty St not sure how far, maybe a couple of blocks; I asked a Lt where this
guy was and he told me down a ways but to stay under the awnings; then I
started walked and I slipped, and I looked to see what I slipped on and it was a
guy's head; there were a lot of body parts, it literally carpeted the sidewalk; I
 saw down where the guy was, maybe 100 ft away, 4 firefighters picked him
up on a long board; [presumably other firefighters] and his head was in bad
^ shape, it didn't look too good for him, but he started running [the injured
^Sj~^ . firefighter?] down the other way, heading down towards the Westside
0 ~_\\y on Liberty; so I told my 2 guys, I don't where he's going, if they
y- * A.- have something set up down there but let's get back inside the firehouse,
we're going to get killed out here;
We started making our way back downLiberty to the 10-10 House; stopped at
^ the corner where there were 2"Concessiori stands to get all the liquidjput to set
5 UP a rehab station back at the firehouse; I was expecting this to be a long-term
' operation; [Next section redacted]; used bolt-cutters to cut the lock off the
concession cart gave crates of drinks, water etc to a guy to bring back to the
firehouse; then as I'm doing the same w/ the other stand, hear this sound like a .r
J et en§me' anc^ we started running towards thefirehouse;mostly firefighters
on ^e street> not that many civilians; when we got to the 10-10 house, they
ays were completely clear, everyone had run to the back of the building, the
hen area, except the Asian guy because he couldn't walk andyso he was
crawling and a fireman ran past him; this was actually the_secoM4^1ding
^V^riS down, but all I knew of was that 1 plane had crashed and I thought v/
this was another one (didn't learn what it was until later on news); I stoppsd, l-V '
grabbed Fu (the Asian man) by the KED we had on his waist and started ^K ^-Q \
dragging him and looked behind me, and it was just like "bam", like a bomb ^ ' /T\f/^ / *
went °^' ^ n^ me so suc^^enly an(i picked me up of my feet andtthrew me_a^__ ' KV
good 30 ft through the air, sent me closer to where the gear rackswere (have
since been moved; on the left-hand side behind where I'd set up the chairs; hit
face first, was barraged by debris etc, then everything was black, followed by
a silence; remembered from being a volunteer firefighter that I had to.geXa_
Scott pack to breathe; run out to grab a pack from my unit (a Haz-tac unit) but
remembered 1 was in a firehouse; pulled my shirt over my face;
Lots of havoc and chaos in firehouse. people screaming, trying to push past
<- each other, grabbing on to you, can't see anything; I followed a guy in a white
' shirt who looked like a PA cop who was looking for an exit; didn't know at
r ^at Pomt ^at tne back of the building is blown out and the street is right
T^ ' behind it and it's just as dark out there; followed this guy into a corner of the
kitchen; [next portion redacted];
MV^ • Found my partner, but we got separated again, he went out towards the engine
" C&U I ^ay and I was in the kitchen; remember hearing him screaming on the radio,
l i • l\^ Mary, yelling a Mayday, that we were trapped in a building, we couldn't
(fj\, we were injured, we took heavy casualties; (I think we'd switched to
- i r O ^ r Ufi^ 1 Bjdyn NorjJLagam, initially we were on citywide, but"yoU couldn t get a
0 * \^ citywide frequency tosave your life, it was so congested going OVeTthe
r pfi V |(j' bridge); I told Brian you can't give a message like that because someone's
w ( ^- going to come in to help and get killed;
"-* • We thought about trying to salvage what there was of the ambulance, find our
way out and just run to Bklyn, swim if we had to, to get back to the battalion,
but decided we had to stay and help the injured people that were there; things
 had started to settle a bit; firefighters
assigned people to help peopTe who couldn't walk and assist walking
wounded to get out; told Fu we wouldn't leave him; got most people out of
the building, a few firefighters left, including a guy who was supposedly a
Captain; we went into the bays to see if anyone was buried there under the
rubblebut got no response, so said let's get the hell out ofheje, and that's
When tEe second tower started coming down; I think it's a 3rd plane; (didn't
tnmK the LuvVeis cuukTve LUIIIC down because imagined bigger collapse zone,
e.g., if they had fallen over instead of imploded); we ran into the bathroom
just behind the apparatus bay, got in the corner of the floor and were praying;
(w/ the firefighter and mjTparlner); same kind ot scene, then eventually it
subsides and we got back into the mode to do our next thing;
We made another sweep of the firehouse, no one was left in there, went to the
back of the building and Fu was there and some firefighters, they were
worried about putting him on a back board, and I said you're crazy, let's just
get him out of here or he'll die; we took turns carrying him on our shoulders;
[next section redacted]; he had serious cash in his briefcase???;
We come out I guess onto Cedar, and everything's blocked but eventually we
make it through to I guess Tfiarhes, we were heading in the direction of
Rector; get down in the direction of Greenwich and Trinity, wherever 10
Rector is; we stopped in a building where there was clean air (was womed
because^it was a highrise, 27 firs); there was a big lobby w/ a security desk;
we put Fu down; there were maybe 20, 30 people in there; the guys at the
security desk said therewere hundreds of people in the buildings and they had
told them to stay at Jheirdesks^?; I said we got to get them out of here, we
got to get out Manhattan, soTradioed to Dispatch, told them where we were.
and_asked for_direction to tell the people where to go; I said I can't see the
f \! r ((J<^^i street name, dolmake a lell or right?, aild they said-J-6-4ojne Mary, we'll call., u
^ ' you back w/ directions; it was a Bklyn North dispatcher; I was hurt but didn't
_ - > p)C\\Q 'n\Vv even feel it, on adrenaline; we were making announcements over the PA
y 7 * •" system; my partner went upstairs to start clearing out the floors; I was
V^\a o ^ downstairs trying to get a handle on things and eventually Bklyn dispatch calls
'"^ ' - I me w/ directions; I was with "Rob" [unclear who he is] who worked in the
center and was familiar w/ the area; I didn't understand the directions but he
did; I got up and announced to the people to follow me if they wanted to get
out; toldjhem to walk out single file staying w/in arm's lepgth distinro nf the
i person in front of you, no running, pushing or shoving; told them if they
didn't follow my directions they would be hurt; told them to keep a mask of
their face, breathe through their nose, out their mouths, try to squint, to let
them know I knew what I was talking about; so they all followed Brian out
and got to a clearer place;
My partner and I stayed in the building, because there were more people there
and Fu; 1 went lo Clear the resfof the building and some people were hesitant,
saying they had been told to stay at their desks**?, but they came; we filled up
the lobby again, bigger crowd (100-150 people); gave the same speech but we
didn't have any paper masks; Gordon started taking off his button-down
unifbrmand cutting it into strips for people to put over their jaces; this time
they"followed an off-duty police officer who got the direction from central and
knew the area; [questioner believes they were sent to the ferry];
My partner and I stayed in the building w/ Fu and an older guy whose foot
was mangled and couldn't walk; we couldn't carry both of them; thought a
vehicle would eventually come; my impulse was to run like hell, thinking
more planes would hit (hjijArdfighter jets but didn't know that that's what they
were);
Listened to a clock radio by the security desk; it was staticky but we could
hear reports of planes hitting Manhattan, Pittsburgh, that they were trying to
do something at Chicago, that they attempted something at Camp David, that
they hit the Pentagon;
Eventually I heard emergency vehicles outside and I flagged down an RMP,
just a regular police unit, and they agreed to take the two patients to the
hospital, so we irarried Ihem out ana put mem in the back of the car;
At that point, there was no one left so my partner and I decided to try to get
home to Bklyn; we started walking down towards Wall St, we reached the
bull, where we met up with Murray again; he went to get his car because my
partner had a sprained ankle and I was starting to feel pain; I had to sit on my
helmet because all the windows were blown in and it was full of debris, the
windshield was gone; told him I wanted to get out of the city, so we're driving
down, and made a stop at 100 Wall St where there was a conditions truck and
I said let'sliook up w/ this guy because maybe he's a Bklvn bnss1 because I
wanted to get back to Bklyn no matter what; we went into the building and
find out he's a Lt out of Battalion 55; [redacted... the guy was an idiot]; he
tells us to come inside and wait w/ a patient who's dizzy, lightheaded etc, he
says he has to leave for a few calls, and says he can't leave his oxygen (which
we asked for); I said we have no equipment etc, technically we are offline
became, we're injured; says just to hang out and keep an eye on things;
ed];
Someone [redacted] eventually get a police van and said we're going to take
her (the patient) to Beekman, he wants us to go with her [presumably this
sameLt];
[Next portions redacted]; eventually the NYPD harbor patrol gets them (him
and the partner) to the Bklyn Navy Yard, close the station, and a security
guard drove them to the station; everyone had thought they were dead;
eventually receive (bad) medical treatment; his father was killed in the
collapse of building 2;
 SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW, LUIS SANCHEZ, EMT
COMMAND 49, OCTOBER 22, 2001, (128).

• Was working w/ a new partner (Brandon?) that morning; started at 7am; after
-p* \g cleared from a call for a cardiac arrest, got a cajlthat plane crashed in
' & the twin towers (not sure what time);
• Partner told me it's an MCI so we had to go to the command post and go
along over the bridge;
Started heading up to the towers and there were about 20 units right behind
and police officers and firefighters; chaos.
Don't know where we were when-we got there, one of the towers-don't know
if it was front, back or side; a lot of people outside, hurt, yelling, screarnti
we were right in front, about a block away from it;
Only second week on the job, so no real experience; partner tells to follow
patients and help whoever needs help; as patients came out the building,
starting taking them to a safer place; had a patient w/ asthma, one w/ a
laceration on the forehead, was" sitting him down, giving him oxygen;
Was treating a patient w/ a friend (also new EMT), patient was vomiting etc,
when heard loud noise, like earthquake; nothing going on, saw building come
down floor by floor;
Screamed 'the building's collapsing', dropped everything (radio) and ran; saw
a firefighter treating a patient who didn't seem to know what was going on;
pushed to the side and told him to run;
I ran for approx 20 blocks until it was clear (of smoke);
Once I got there 'for about ten blocks' started helping out police officers, one
was a friend, heard that plane hit DC; this was about 10AM;
l~^P?d offi rer direct ppnple, not to panic; was there for 2 hrs, then hooked up
w/ paramedics and went to Bellevue Hospital, where helped bring patients in
from the streets for approx HITS.
Then went south w/ [?redacted] to get more patients to bring to the hospital,
but couldn't find them [people he went with?]; so hooked up w/ units from
Bklyn I knew and they brought me to Chelsea Piers, all stationed there doing
triage; stayed there until about/AM