Nyc B6 Fdny Internal Fdr- First Responder Interview Summaries (cont)

SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH EMT PETER CACHIA, BATTALION 4, OCOTBER 15, 2001, (82). •

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Assigned to light duty status; heard radio transmission at desk that plane had crashed into WTC; conditions boss left for the scene and the desk Lt was getting things in order and then left, gave me the station keys and said I was to get anyone who came to the station to the scene w/ a radio and an ambulance; saw second plane on TV and heard Lt D'Avila transmit it over radio; At about 5 or 10 after nine, Lt Amy Monroe asked me for a ride to the scene and I said ok as long as I didn't have to do any heavy lifting; We parked the ambulance, vehicle 13, on Cortlandt and proceeded to the first triage center on Church St, in front of the WTC complex; at this point both towers had been hit; met up w/ Lt D'Avila, Melaragno, started treating patients as they came out; It was starting to get crowded so Lt Monroe asked me to check the triage center on Liberty to see if they were taking patients or needed help; on the way there, the tower started coming down; turned around and started running up the block, northeast up Liberty; ducked under an SUV; when cleared, went back to Church St triage center but everyone had left; kept going up Church and met D'Avila at Fulton and he said let's get out of here, the second one might be coming down, so we went up Fulton and it did come down but we were far enough away and just ran; went into a store and saw the cloud of dust go by and hear it come down, separated from D'Avila at this point; my back was hurting, could hardly walk, and 2 cops helped me to Beekman Hospital, it was overrun w/ patients, said take care of everyone else, I just have to rest, heard about the Pentagon; walked back down South St, saw D'Avila at triage center set up in apt complex across from hospital; flagged down a police car to take me to the station; sent home at end of shift, didn't want to go but I was useless;

SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH EMT THOMAS J. BENDICK, DIVISIONl, OCTOBER 15, 2001, (83). • • •

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Arrived at work about 9:45; responded to WTC w/ Duane Walker, from the division; Parked our vehicle (empty ambulance full or supplies) around Fulton and Trinity, near St. Pauls Cemetery, where Lt. Melarango was triaging patients; Exited the car and went to the command post to meet up w/ the chiefs since I'm a chiefs aide; took my bag of supplies, extra batteries etc and proceeded down Vesey towards the West Side Highway to 7 WTC, where I saw another triage location w/ Cptn Nahmod and Chief Peruggia, and a little past that point, about 5 mins on scene, I heard a loud roar; thought it was another plane, didn't see anything, ran towards WSH, where I saw MERV 1, got to the corner of 140 West, the phone co building, and ducked into little indent, w/ a FF, police cptn and a couple of civilians; roar stopped, pure black; we had to leave; I got a flashlight out; we all held hands, about 5 or 6 of us and started walking toward the WSH, couldn't breathe, see etc; started to clear up about Murray and West by the college; there was a citywide ambulance with its passenger door open so I got in and cleaned up; everyone scattered once we got to the light; met up w/ Cptn Nahmod and some FD EMS guys, got a mask; somewhere on the WSH a cop had a hydrant going so everyone washed off; met up w/ Lt Albuerme, Batt 8; trying to make a plan w/ him, Joe Cahill and some others, looking south and saw north tower come down; hadn't known south tower came down; Was at BMCC, right past Chambers, and started running, in road that goes under the college; then a plainclothes cop or someone fire shots into the glass doors of the college to get everyone in to safety, but people were panicking not knowing what it was; eventually went back out, met up at north corner of the college and made arrangements to use the gym as a triage center; figured we could take people who weren't in need of getting to the hospital; a Lt was telling us to take our clothes, gear off before we went in (so as not to contaminate); got a hydrant going outside to wash people down before they went in; eventually heard on radio about Chelsea Piers staging, don't think they even knew we were there, but figured we'd stay, until we got evacuated because of the gas leak; piled people in ambulance and drove to Chelsea Piers; [describes some people, operations etc]

SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH OEM CAPTAIN JOHN KEVIN CULLEY, OCTOBER 17, 2001, (107). •

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Arrived at 6 AM at 7 WTC (work area is on 23rd floor); was on the "thirdfloor lobby" of that floor when the 1st plane hit; could not see actual impact but could see debris falling; when that stopped, ran onto the street and saw "fire showing out of two, three floors, on two sides of the building, the north fact and the east face"; no sign it was a plane, at least not to me; Ran to my car on Barclay, picked up radios, and crossed over to the plaza into the concourse; Assisted people coming off trains (PATH trains); PA Police directing everyone out of the building; no memory of any apparatus on Vesey yet; Passed the concourse and grouped with others at the lobby of 1 WTC (north wall), the Fire command station; was told by someone who witnessed it that it was a plane that hit (had thought it was a bomb); as OEM Coordinator, I reported to the incident commander, at that time Chief Hay den and my function was to liaison between him and other agencies; at the scene, there were PA people, federal agencies (including FBI), WTC Fire Safety Director and his staff, and the Chief starting to set up for high-rise operations in that lobby; there was the 1st Division, 1st Battalion, reporting in units, people on the building staff, people particularly involved w/ helping us read the elevator panels; saw at least 3 chaplains; Our first thought was normal high-rise operations, get people up to the fire floors; that's normally done by elevator but we had no elevators in operation and, even worse, all the elevators were shut down with people in them; once I had staff that operate the panels, they could speak to each individual elevators, ask how many people were inside, what floor they were on, if there's anyone injured; then I passed that info to the incident commander; Once the plane hit, there was no debris, or it fell [presumably not continually coming down]; people coming out of the building; a lot of the glass was out so you could hear thumps and crashes of bodies outside; Continuing operations was going to be difficult; we had no elevators; the only report I remember was that someone (I believe in the FBI) had a phone conversation w/ someone on the 51st floor reporting jet fuel on that floor; it wasn't clear to us what floor the impact was on but I knew it was higher than that; we were trying to find freight elevators maybe; didn't know if all the elevators were out due to the incident or whether some were just maintenance problems we could get moving; [Responds that] not a lot of civilians in the lobby, coming out of the building; does not recall a lot of chaos/confusion w/ civilians trying to exit; had no problem coming in from the concourse level; there were people exiting but no masses of people that were clogging things; mostly just people responding, Fire, emergency personnel; found out later it was a 3rd alarm right away; I told the PA police this was likely a terrorist event, and to look for a secondary event; I was concerned about the safety of people at the command post and wanted to provide security in front of the lobby so that something

wouldn't happen to us; don't know if any of that took place but I made a note of it; [Response to question about communications]: I carry an 800 megahertz radio connected to OEM channels; I was transmitting and receiving; all FD radios I was aware of were transmitting, you could hear all the conversations going on; [we did hear the jumpers jumping]; Next key point: second plane; I heard the engines of the plane, then you heard this thump and the rain of debris coming down; then it became clear to anyone who may have had a question that these weren't accidents; also clear then there wasn't any control of the building, no elevators, no communications above, except for that 1 conversation w/ the 51st fl; we did have conversations w/ people on elevators and that was it; [a bit inconsistent on reporting re communications]; Before the second plane hit (I was told later) some command people had left the north tower for the south tower; also, there was talk of moving the command post out of the lobby; a lot of personnel were moving out onto West St; certainly after the second plane hit, this was being done; but I stayed in the tower; Sometime between the second plane hitting and the first collapse, we heard that Giuliani would be arriving; he never did come into the north tower; I spoke w/ him later, I know that he got to West St; think he said he spoke to Ganci then left, and was 2 blocks away when the tower came down; I was still in the north tower [btw 2nd plane and 1st collapse?]; had a lot of high Chiefs, staff Chiefs, some w/ us and some on West St or in other [south] tower; I'm not really logging who's going where, my concentration is w/ the staff of the building and the 1st Division; think there were elevators stuck right on the first floor, and people were assigned to take care of that; Re the first collapse: we saw/heard all the debris falling, like when the plane hit, debris coming through the windows on the south side of the tower, then started hearing this roaring noise; the group that I was w/ on the north wall [questioner inserts "northwest wall"] found an opening and ran I think directly down a set of stairs; found out later we were in a hallway for a while and then ducked into some stairs; my belief is that we ran out of the building and the stairwell we were in was probably inside 6 WTC; didn't know the building was coming down; reacted to the noise, getting louder and louder, like a jet engine or train coming at you, so we just ran and ducked; we were w/ Chaplain Judge; When the debris cleared, we were covered w/ dust, couldn't see, it was black; flashlights pop out, everyone saying they're all right, but if you're not and can't talk, couldn't indicate that; we stumbled on Father Judge and he had no pulse; we picked him up and went up the stairs we came down; can't tell you how we got outside, still dark; ended up on the west face of 6 WTC, on the pedestrian walkway, w/ no way to get down; still carrying Father Judge; come around the Vesey side of the walkway, couldn't see more than about 60 ft in front of you; I ran ahead of the group to see if we could get over any obstructions, if it became a dead end etc;

We got to the end of 6 WTC, the gap btw 5 and 6; really didn't know what happened; you really couldn't see through where the south tower was; I figured it was a dangerous area, we'd have to run the gap between 6 and 5; it didn't seem like anything was happening; We ran w/ Judge's body across that gap, went down the escalator stairs which gets us onto the street; [in response to question about radios, says does not recall transmitting anything over radio]; we get to the corner of West and Vesey and turn over Judge's body to some EMTs; ran into 2 federal officers, maybe FBI, who said they were setting up/or someone had notice there was going to be a command center on either Park Place or Murray, just north of the area; that's where I'd normally be assigned so I start walking north up Church St when the other tower fell; [indicates later, in response to question, that was w/ a group at the time of the 2nd collapse, including the 1st Division, a couple of PA cops, one of the aides, one of the firemen, another OEM person (and EMT who works w/ OEM)]; I didn't know what happened; thought it was the south tower and it might fall right down Church St, so I ducked down Murray I think and, when the debris cloud came, I broke into an OTB thing and ducked out of the way; [In response to question]: people were helping other people [while he was running], didn't see bodies, parts etc, either blocked it out or didn't see; but I know people were scurrying inside [where?] and looking under things; I leave the building [? Where he broke in?]; start waking east and notice I was coming to City Hall and finally realized we just got hit w/ 2 planes, I'm not going in City Hall; I turned west, still looking for this command post that never got set up; Got about halfway down, past Church toward West Broadway and couldn't see anymore; went into a bar to get my eyes washed out; made a phone call to a friend, left and found myself back on West and Vesey, where I ran into the 1st Div and we just started going to work and now it was rescue and recovery; ran into Chief Hayden, who had decided to go to work at Liberty and West, (which meant we had to get around the WFC and come up from behind and walk) probably because he has FD radios and there were calls made in that area; one call I remember was that Captn Al Fuentes, who was working in the Marine Company, was trapped on West St because we ended up right in front of that area; still don't see any bodies or body parts, just people coming out from cover; helped the Chief get on top of a squad apparatus vehicle to direct crew going out to recover; a lot of apparatus on West St that looked terrible; the rig we were on was half buried; Continued directing people doing digging; one of the Rescue 1 firemen knew I was OEM and told me that there's a USAR cache from the NYC team [?] located in Queens and I transmitted a request for that through our people (found out 2 wks later that the call did deliver the material); Vehicle (still parked on Barclay) was recovered later;

SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW WITH MAUREEN MCCARDLESCHULMAN, FIREFIGHTER FIRST GRADE, ENGINE 35, OCTOBER 17, 2001 (110). •

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Came into work for a roster staff tour; was in our quarters when the fist plane hit; didn't know if it was big or small; I had the detail out of the house to 91 Engine so I got in my car and went over there; walking in w/ my gear in my hand and an announcement came over the loudspeaker that it was a fifth alarm and 91 engine was responding (unusual because it usually conies over the computer); put my cell phone in the pocket of my turnout coat, got on rig and responded to the WTC; Went through 112th St down to Central Park South; outside parked joined caravan of police cars, unmarked cars etc responding; We parked on West St, all in line, on the wrong side of the street, facing the towers; got our stuff and started huffing down West St towards the towers; at this point the second plane had hit; Went to the command center and the Lt reported in; already 75 to 100 firefighters at the entrance of the parking garage waiting for assignments; companies were coming out, companies were going in for relief; saw the jumpers etc; The Lt told us we were going in, so got our gloves, Scotts on, went to the command ctr and they said they needed forcible entry tools; in an engine, we only carry our hose, standpipe kits; they were sending us to Tower 2, subbasement 6; saw my captain who I thought was on medical leave, but he said everyone's at the scene today; he and the chauffeur from 91 went back to get the tools to let us in, they went to the left; we're standing the at command center hearing everyone give their position, what stairway they're using, escape stairway, rescue stairway, what floor they're on etc; someone runs and said a firefighter was hit by a jumper, he needs last rites, so a couple of guys went to the right to give him last rites w/ Father Judge I guess; Standing there, trying not to watch jumpers, a red ring of fire around the building, when someone yells "run"; we ran back into the garage; people who went left were okay; people who went right were killed; [next portion redacted]; ..And ran back into the garage, I didn't run because I was ahead of the pack; by the time I turned around, it was assess and elbows and I have a really bad sense of direction; I moved all the way to the right and there was a curb and I ran my foot along it, still had my roll-up on my shoulder; so just walking, trying to stay away from the pack, stuck inside the garage; kept thinking this is the garage they blew up the last time [in WTC now?] thinking about secondary events; So we got in there [?] and some guy said he knows how to get out; my eyes were on fire, asbestos in my face piece; so he leads us out, holding onto each other's shirts and the guy next to starts having an asthma attack and needs my mask; we pulled in a police van w/ air conditioning on; were outside but didn't even know, completely black;

I went back into the garage to look for the company I was w/; the Lt and a one of the guys from 91 found me; we were still missing 1 member; they took me into the garage, through the building and we ended up half a block away and they said go to the rig and stay there; so I went back with the other guy and I said I got to find our other guy; He backed up the rig a little and we're standing there, no one is coming; we all kind of started going towards ground zero because people were missing and felt like we weren't doing anything standing there; started hearing rumors about a guy in army fatigues shooting people w/ automatic weapons, that there are 4 more planes missing; there was a civilian w/ a tv he hooked up to a building outlet; saying there are 8 planes altogether, 4 are missing, bomb scares etc; he said to go by the water; [Goes to call husband]; Gets back to rig, still don't have Lt, missing 1 member, then second tower comes down; w/ someone [unclear; redacted portion] and we moved the rig with him; moved the rig 2 blocks away, facing away from the towers; Then building 7 is on fire and I ran into one of the guys from my company and told me where the rest of them were, in the parking garage (didn't know if it was the one I was in earlier); found a search rope for him that he needed; don't really know what the situation was; 35 engine had lines on Tower 2; on Tower 1 they were doing some searching and then pulled everyone out to get away from the scene; finally found Lt and the missing guy; told the Lt I'm staying w/ own company, a company that stays together; stayed out rig rest of day; finds out her brothers are okay etc;

SUMMARY OF WTC TASK FORCE INTERVIEW W/ LT GEORGE DESIMONE, ENGINE CO 224, OCTOBER 22, 2001, (129). • • •

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At 8:45, in the firehouse watching the morning news, saw photos the first plane hit the Trade Center; At about 8:54 got ticket to leave; As we opened the front door of the quarters, already papers and debris falling outside on Hicks St.; we mounted the rig, went down Columbia St; the guys were looking north saw the 2nd plane hit; we were en route to the staging area at Hamilton Avenue; when we got there, told within about 2 minutes to head into Manhattan; at the staging area, saw either 202 or 204's apparatus, there was a truck company there; looking north and seeing volumes of flame coming out of multiple stories; Went through Battery tunnel and came out on West Street very close to WTC, which was one my problems w/ the set up initially; as we pulled close the tower, we saw airplane parts, bodies, body parts; Decided to move a little farther west on West St to farthest point possible; [determined later that pulled up to the west side of West St and then went north maybe to Barclay]; Appeared pretty quiet in the street, a few rigs, couldn't tell what the numbers of the rigs were; don't recollect seeing any civilians at that time; After going west and a bit north, ran into a lieutenant in a white shirt, presumably from Metrotech, who said "Go up the street north and find a hydrant. You're going to relay water"; don't recall what company the water was intended to be for; also instructed us to maintain a passageway for emergency vehicles to get in and out; At the first hydrant there were too many vehicles so we went to the second one; there we noticed there was transmission fluid leaking from our apparatus; wanted to keep our apparatus that was parked out of aisle way so had to jockey through a few other vehicles to put it near the hydrant to hook up; Meanwhile, firefighter Saville went underneath w/ a wedge to try to put a chock in leak and did stop most of the leak; After this, I took my extra riding list and went down back in front of the towers, not sure if it was north or south tower, but went to what appeared to be a Command post; There saw Chief Ganci and Chief Downey and a bunch of other Fire Dept bigwigs and gave them my riding list; we were on the apron of a building opposite the tower on the west side of the street; then left as soon as I could because the building was decaying, fire dropping down, and then noticed bodies dropping down; during that time-frame (anywhere from 20 min to 2 hrs) we saw multiple bodies, probably 20 that had jumped from windows; As we got back up the street, told from command post to just wait and they would tell us what to do; Next, heard rumbling and white powder came from the first collapsed building; thought it was an explosion; we got hit with powder, tried to run, took a few minutes to clear;

After that, started triaging as many firefighters and civilians as we could, mainly cuts scratches, irritated eyes; In the area about 200 ft north of that first footbridge, there were maybe 20 or 30 firefighters, including us, and maybe 20 or 30 civilians; Many disoriented civilians walking around, holding their noses or heads, not from any injuries, presumably concerned about what they were inhaling; Concerned that most forces were massed in and around here, between the two towers; worried that this very tall building on the north side was going to come down too, trapping any secondary forces that were still alive; After treating them for about half an hour or more, heard rumbling and saw black cloud; told everyone to run as far north as we could; got separated at this point; I got knocked down and put my mask on and it was full of debris; turned completely black; After maybe 5 to 15 or 20 minutes, it began to life; took 40 to 45 minutes to regroup with my firefighters and find all of them; found them someplace north of Stuyvesant High School but on the east side of Vesey Street; sat around for a while to assess who was hurt etc, then they wanted to do something; I found a command post that appeared to be north of that first footbridge and checked in with whomever; it was a quasi command post at best; The radios were working; at one point they were very, very silent and at another point there was so much chatter that you couldn't decipher any kind of message clearly; Did not hear a lot of may days on the radio; was on frequency 1. Checked in at the command post, said we're available, and told to just take it easy, sit there, and basically did that for next couple of hours until noon; Confirms that white smoke after first collapse (visibility reduced) but black smoke after second collapse, no visibility at all; More members of the unit showed up with the recall [does not indicate when]; Don't think we understood the magnitude of the situation; fearful there were bombs in the building; Confirms that knew it was a terrorist attack as soon as second plane hit; Later, around noon or 1pm heard call "224, give me more water"; our apparatus had been hooked up on Vesey and West and our pumper was pumping; we thought they were calling us, the numbers of our apparatus, so we made our way back to Vesey and manned our pump pretty much the rest of the day and our pumper operated here for the next 2 days;

Summary of FDNY Hayden Interview (139) Chief Peter Hayden • • • • • • • • • • • •

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At 8:46 AM was the on-duty deputy chief, first division and in quarters Heard a plane passing over head extremely low; saw tome type of impact in lower Manhattan; very quickly alarms sound and reports of plane hitting WTC Responded from quarters with aide, driving down Broadway to Canal, then west on Canal to West St, to WTC 1 En route heard Pfeifer's 3rd alarm with staging at West + Vesey, following SOP Pfeifer had transmitted a 10-60, which is for major mishap, such as plane crash We brought collapse units and additional units over for mobile third alarm assignment and asked for additional rescue units as well [where and when did he do this?] many burned people outside bid in need of assistance; people jumping - chaotic when we entered lobby, observed significant damage - broken glass, wall tiles dislodged and on floor, but it was rather calm in lobby Pfeifer was in control; we tried to gain control of building systems, but all building communications and elevator service out We told Jim Coorigan, fire safety director of 1 [note, this is not accurate; Corrgian was head of WTC Security] that we needed to get elevators working, and he put his engineers on that task We set up command board and command post We were advised of distress calls received by dispatcher and there were distress calls received directly to lobby of people trapped in elevators, of people burned in different areas of building, people needing wheelchairs and unable to get downstairs; one report of a blind woman As companies coming in, we gave them assignments based on distress calls and they began to ascend In the lobby I saw Chiefs Ryan of 4th Battalion, Chief Palmer from 7th Battalion, Chief McGovern of 2d Battalion, and they were all given assignments [to ascend?], as were the company officers and the firefighers. Saw Chief Cassano [?], Chief Burns, and Chief Barbara Downey was there early and then again late. I think he was out outside command post in the interim In initial stages it was calm and not chaotic; certainly we were calm Shortly thereafter uniformed and civilian brass arrived - Commissioners Von Essen, Fitzpatrick, Feehan, Deputy Commiss Tierney, their exec Ray Goldbach OEM rep Kevin Cully was alive and there; Richie Schirer was there In retrospect, way too many people in lobby; shouldn't have all eggs in 1 basket Tour Commander Callan arrived and I spoke with him very briefly, keeping him apprised of what was happening Callan, myself, Pfeifer, Palmer, and Burns conferred re what radio frequencies to use so that two lobby command posts wouldn't interfere with each other, because Burns mentioned that in the '93 attack there were communication problems.

I believe I was on channels 1 and 6, 1 being the primary tactical channel, and 6 being the command channel, but I can't be sure what they went to, but they went to other channels as tactical or primary Callan did ask me if we were concerned of possible collapse, and I said that we had to be, as a plane just hit bid. In what probably a terrorist attack When Commissioners arrived, we discussed strategy and tactics. I told Von Essen that we were not attempting to extinguish the fire -just a search and rescue operation At one point there were numerous bodies coming down stairs [?], and there was a discussion that we had to get out of the lobby; it was decided to send some people up escalators to 6, across bridge (in order to avoid falling bodies) to set up new command post Heard Chief Ganci on the radio at one point When Commissioners left the bid, that was last I saw of them, though we did have radio contact with their car 3. Many conversations in lobby re safety of building; Chief of Safety came in stated concern of collapse; his advise was to let bid burn and get the people down and out. We said we were planning on doing that. He then asked if we wanted to get some of the fire apparatus moved back, but I don't think that ever was accomplished Early on we realized that a number of companies were coming in and not reporting to any staging areas we had established; so we were losing control of companies coming in. Also some units came in who were supposed to respond to Tower 2; they weren't sure which tower was which; so that was confusing Off-duty personnel also self-reporting and they were reporting directly upstairs; A chief (I think McGovern) and I tried to deal with this and account for everyone going upstairs We discussed with Chief Downey the operations; we made a concerted effort to get elevators working, and worked to answer as many distress calls as we could We were working the intercom in the lobby to the elevators, trying to get an idea of what floors they were on. The engineers told us people were stuck in elevators on 66th floor, 71st floor, etc. We had attempted to use repeater system, but it was not in service, not working Handie-talkies don't work well in high-rises, but that's all we had At some point, we were told that there was another event, that plane had hit 2. Then Callen, Pfeifer and I had a conference [not true, as Callen not yet in lobby when 2 hit by flight 175] and we decided to evacuate; so we told everyone to come down; this was repeated a number of times, but we didn't get a lot of acknowledgement The latest report we heard was that some of our men were on 48th floor, and that was several minutes prior to this [1?] collapse; so we had people as high as 50, probably. I think that is as high up as we got. We were calling people down on a number of occasions, but we weren't getting people coming down, except on the lower floors. They were directed north [?]

In the lobby at that time were a number of PA civilians and a couple of PA cops, as well as Ladder Company 20 and remnants of the hazmat unit and off-duty members. My aide and Battalion 18 were there. Chief Karletta was there, as was Judge; so at one point at least a dozen people in the lobby. Some left Then 2 came down, although I didn't know it at time, and we gave order to evacuate bid. Everyone in north tower was ordered out. We went up escalator to concourse level, worked our way through 6, around the outer part of 6. Then we proceed down stairway and escalator onto Vesey Street, at West Broadway. We turned Judge over to EMS Proceeded on Vesey to West to find command post and met up with a number of chiefs, including Stack (who is deceased), O'Flaherty and Cassono, the latter of whom I discussed some issues with We directed everyone north; Cassano and I headed south, looking for command post. We were just north of north bridge overpass when 1 came down, a crawled under fire truck, fire pumper