911 FDNY witness Tower explosions

World Trade Center Reports---Lieutenant Bill Wall

This interview is getting much harder to find, but it can be located for the time being at archive.org

WTC: This Is Their Story
Firefighters Elevated to Almost Mythic Status
From the April 2002 Firehouse Magazine

We were additional units on the fifth alarm for the south tower. We went right down. We went down West End Avenue and we ran into West Street and just went straight down West Street. We parked about a block up from Vesey.

We saw a lot of smoke and flames in the upper floors. You really couldn’t see the south tower from where we were. We walked down the west side of West Street and we were keeping close to the buildings. And when we got to the Customs House, there was a policeman behind one of the pillars. He jumped out and said we got to get in because they’re tracking another inbound meaning another plane, but we ignored him. We kept going.

We went under the north pedestrian to the west side of West Street. And we made our way down to the south pedestrian bridge, crossed under that and we made our way into the Marriott Hotel. Chief Galvin was behind the desk and he was forming companies into groups. We eventually hooked up with 22 Engine, 13 Truck and, I believe, 21 Engine. And Chief Galvin told us to go to the 40th floor because that’s the lowest report they had a fire. The south tower. We were supposed to follow this guy who worked in the buildings. He was going to lead us to an elevator that still worked. But luckily, the guy who took us to the working elevator took us to the wrong tower. We went to the north tower. Saved our lives. Wrong place at the right time. We never got into the south tower. He took us right to the north tower.

We get into the lobby of the north tower and the first elevator bank, there was one elevator out of the six that still had the lights on, but they couldn’t get it to work. Meanwhile, all the other elevators were blown off their doors. So we tried the next elevator bank of six and they finally got one that worked to the 24th floor. I think it was captain of 21 he went up to check. He went up and he came back down. He went up with his guys and someone from the truck took the elevator. And then the other engine went up in the next load, 22, and on the load after that, the truck was going up. They wanted one of our guys to run the elevators since there was only one truck, so I gave the control radio to Fireman Louie Cacchioli.

It seemed like just as soon as the doors closed, the panel went out. But he had actually gotten to the top floor and the rest of the truck got off. And the last guy getting off was the irons guy, and Louie grabbed him back and says you got to stay with me because I need the tools. And as soon as the doors closed, the power went out and they were stuck in the elevator. It hadn’t moved yet. It was still on the 24th floor. They were able to force their way out pretty easy. They just popped the doors open because the elevator didn’t move yet.

The guy from the truck thought his company went to the right and Louie went to the left. And Louie found the staircase and I think he said he got down about six floors, but the staircase was blocked, so he crossed over and found another staircase and he made it to the lobby. And he had to force the door open at the lobby because it was jammed. He made his way out into the street and he hooked up with the chauffeur just before the second tower came down.

Meanwhile, in the lobby, it seemed like just as soon as the elevator doors closed, the power went out. They just went black. We couldn’t see a damn thing. It turned black and then it started rumbling and the wind and dirt was unbelievable. It was just like a hurricane. It threw me against the wall. Steve Viola said he was hurt and Keith Murphy said he was hurt. Steve lost his helmet, it got blown off his head.

After everything stopped, I looked down and I says count off, you’re supposed to take like a roll call, shout out your name. Everyone shouted out their name and said they were all right. We just like locked arms together and started walking out. There was a building worker there that was going to stay, but Tommy Terilli convinced him to come with us. We still don’t know who he was. He was worried about his job. Tommy Terilli says they don’t pay you enough, come on. When we got out of the elevator lobby, we made the right past the turnstiles and there was also people at the bottom of the escalator coming down. They were looking for a way out, so they grabbed on the line too. The visibility was zero. We got this whole line.

On the way in, I noticed that all the windows in the lobby were blown out, and that it would be a good way out if we needed to – and it was. We had to make a right out of the elevator corridor and then another right. But it was so dark that I bumped into a wall. That’s how bad the visibility was.

We started walking that way and it gradually got lighter, lighter and lighter to where we could see the windows. We went out the windows. We went straight across West Street straight out and then we got across the street and we went up north.

Debris was still falling. You couldn’t see the sky. Maybe you could see like 30 or 40 feet up. And the weirdest thing, you could hear these booms above you. It sounded like bombs going off above you, but it was actually the military jets flying overhead. It was like an eerie feeling. You couldn’t see anything, but you could hear these things going back and forth. It was like a real heavy fog.

We started heading north up West Street looking for ambulances for Murphy and Viola. We found a pumper and our eyes were burning, so we pulled the booster tank, opened the gate and washed our faces down.

Then we made our way north and we saw all the ambulances lined up on Vesey Street. We found an EMS worker and he promised to take good care of Steve and Keith – until he ran away on us. As the other one was coming down, he opened the back door and he took off.

We were on our own. We got them into the ambulance. Tommy Terilli and I started making our way back because now all the Maydays were starting. It was broken up a lot, but you could hear Mayday, Mayday and they were giving locations. So Tommy Terilli and I got some tools. We put our masks on and we headed back down, and we made it to Vesey and West Street. There was a chief directing everybody north saying they were going to regroup and go back in. I went over to him and kind of stressed the Maydays were here and now, and we were talking and that’s when the north tower came down. You heard it, a big snap and a crack. And we looked up and it looked like the whole top just exploded.

Everyone just started heading north. Everyone just ran. We got hit by the wind and the dust and I was running with Jack Ginty. He was running. I caught up to him and we were talking as we were running, what the hell are we doing here, Jack? The dust cloud overtook us and there was a big white Suburban. There was about seven of us behind it huddled. Jerry Riley was there from 22 Truck, me, Jack and a couple of other guys. And it was getting tough to breathe. I had my mask, so we were passing the mask around. You couldn’t see, so whoever was yelling for it, I would like feel their face and just like slap it on their face for a little while. Then feel the next guy’s face and then pass it to him and then take some for myself. My other guy, Tommy Terilli, he dove under a tow truck.

After like the wind and stuff subsided and we realized, all right, there’s nothing to do here, we just got to walk out of it. So we started walking north on West Street and walking and walking and we bumped into something and it turned out to be an apparatus. If you stick your face real close to it, you could see the light flashing. There was just no visibility.

I don’t know how far we got. A water truck showed up, somebody delivered the bottled water, like the five gallons of water, so we started grabbing them off the rigs and started washing our eyes out again. I tried making contact with my control man, but he had dropped his radio. I was trying to make contact with my chauffeur, but I forgot we were on Channel 3 and he was still on Channel 1. After a while, I switched back over to Channel 1 and I was able to contact the chauffeur, and the control man was with him.

They were pushing us up north, up West Street. And we all regrouped by Stuyvesant High School.

As soon as we sat down, I got all the gear off and we’re taking a blow, someone came running out of the high school saying there was a bomb in the building, so we ran further north. That’s pretty much it for the rest of the day. They wouldn’t let us back in.

Obama to reopen 9/11 victims compensation fund

Pool photo by Chad Rachman/New York Post

Barack Obama spoke with 9/11 family members and first responders last Sept. 11 at the World Trade Center site. The president met with family members last week and spoke about closing Guantanamo Bay and answered a question about people suffering from health problems caused by 9/11.

Obama says he’ll ‘never forget’ those sick from 9/11

By Julie Shapiro

President Barack Obama last week renewed his pledge to help 9/11 first responders who are sick, a campaign promise his staff first made to Downtown Express in October.

Obama’s words came Friday during a meeting with about 40 family members of those killed on 9/11 and in the U.S.S. Cole attack. Obama spoke, took questions and greeted each of the attendees individually.

When Obama reached Jim Riches, a deputy chief in the F.D.N.Y. whose firefighter son was killed on 9/11, Riches handed Obama his son’s mass card.

“I said, ‘Don’t forget them,’” Riches recalled afterward. “I said, ‘Remember the firemen who died and the sick firemen.’ He said, ‘I’ll never forget them.’”

Obama’s support could be helpful as the U.S. House of Representatives weighs a new 9/11 health bill recently introduced by New York’s Congressional delegation, which would reopen the 9/11 victims’ compensation fund and provide free healthcare to first responders, residents, students and office workers who can demonstrate health problems caused by the toxic fallout of the attack. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also supports the measure.

The Senate does not have a similar bill pending, but Rachel McEneny Spencer, spokesperson for newly appointed Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, said in an e-mail that Gillibrand “is planning to take up [former Sen. Hillary Clinton’s] work on the 9/11 healthbill. But we need to get to know the parties and speak with our colleagues before we introduce a bill.”

Obama’s New York campaign office told Downtown Express last year that he supported the House bill. Clinton’s office said then that she was working to build Senate consensus on a similar measure that could pass.

Last Friday, Obama was only supposed to spend half an hour with the victims’ family members, but he spoke with them in the Executive Office Building, next to the White House, for more than an hour, Riches said.

“He was very compassionate,” Riches said. “He hugged the widows and mothers who were crying…. He said as a parent he doesn’t know how he would be able to handle the loss of a child.”

The topic of the meeting was Obama’s decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, where former President George W. Bush sent terror suspects after 9/11. Some family members of terror victims initially objected to the closure, including Riches, who spent two weeks visiting Guantanamo in January.

“I was a little upset at first,” said Riches, who did not want the trials he saw to be interrupted by the closure. “It’s eight years, and we’ve had no justice.”

But after hearing Obama’s stern promises, Riches said, “I can wait a little longer. Let’s do it the right way.”

Another local activist who attended Obama’s meeting was Sally Regenhard, who founded the Skyscraper Safety Campaign after her son, a probationary firefighter, was killed on 9/11.

Regenhard brought a picture of her son with her to show Obama, and when Obama greeted her, he thanked her and offered his condolences.

“It was really just a moment in time, but it was an honor,” Regenhard said, choking up. “He treated us with such dignity and respect.”

Regenhard often finds doors slammed in her face at the local and state level when she tries to advocate for building safety and other 9/11-related causes, so she was particularly gratified to get a kind reception on the national level. Obama pledged to keep an open line of communication with the family members and to convene future meetings between them and his staff.

“It only took eight years, but it’s better late than never,” Regenhard said. “Good things do come to those who wait.”

Shields Gets 8 Months For 9/11 Hero Fraud

Scott Shields, a former Westport and Greenwich man who credited himself and his golden retriever Bear with recovering bodies at the World Trade Center after Sept. 11, 2001, has been sentenced to eight months in federal prison after his conviction for fraudulently obtaining thousands of dollars in government relief funds, according to court records.

Shields pleaded guilty earlier this year to illegally obtaining government money from two agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and American Red Cross, according to documents on file in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

He was arrested, along with his sister, Patricia Shields, in March 2007 and init­ially pleaded not guilty, records show. In March 2008, Scott Shields changed his plea to guilty, according to court records.

"Mr. Shields has pleaded guilty to defrauding the American Red Cross and FEMA, in an attempt to exploit programs that were providing financial assistance to people affected by one of this country's greatest tragedies," read the sentencing opinion handed down by District Judge Robert Sweet on Oct. 14.

The sentence opinion said that Shields had a previous conviction for bank fraud 18 years ago involving a "significant sum."

After his release from prison, Shields will enter into three years of supervised release. He also was ordered pay back $49,439 to the government. His sister received an identical sentence.

According to court records, Scott and Patricia Shields applied for mortgage and rental assistance from FEMA after Sept. 11, 2001, claiming they lived in Manhattan at the time. However, government records show they were living and working in Greenwich and not eligible for FEMA assistance.

The aid only was meant for people who lived near the World Trade Center, those who had been injured by the events and businesses that were damaged.

Scott and Patricia Shields were evicted from their rental unit in Greenwich in October 2001 for nonpayment of rent, court documents show.

While they did move to lower Manhattan after their eviction, they were not eligible for the funds they received and did not use them to pay rent owned on their city apartment, according to court records.

They were evicted for nonpayment of rent at the Manhattan location, according to court records.

Scott Shields' sentencing comes after six years of making claims about his search and rescue exploits, which were detailed in a book titled Bear: Heart of a Hero, credited to Capt. Scott Shields and co-author Nancy West.

The book was pulled from shelves in 2006, according to a spokesman from the publisher, Hero Dog Publications, after the firm realized Shields was not a captain.

Shields' main claim was that he and his dog Bear aided in the rescue of victims at ground zero. Roy Gross, chief of the Department at the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, whose organization maintained logs of every dog who assisted in the rescue effort, said Shields and Bear were never documented in its records.

"He was a fraud, unfortunately," Gross said.

Shields claimed in a Greenwich Time article in 2001 that he was a marine safety specialist who consulted with the New York City parks department.

Phil Abramson, a spokesman for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, said the department was aware of Shields' claim, but that it was not true.

"Scott Shields was never employed by the parks department and he was never connected to the parks department," Abramson said.

Shields' Manhattan-based attorney, Joel Mark Stein, said he had no comment about the case.

Shields is scheduled to begin serving his term on Wednesday, according to the clerk's office for the United States District Court in the Southern District of New York.

Super Challenge: A Journey for 9/11 Web Site

http://ajourneyfor911.info/

GLENDALE, AZ -- Eyewitness News is in Arizona for you to cover Super Bowl XLII. And we had the opportunity Friday to speak with one of the few Giants players who has a Super Bowl ring.

George Martin was a defensive end and captain for the Giants and helped them win Super Bowl XXI.

He is now working toward an even greater cause. He is walking across the country, all 3,200 miles, to raise money for hundreds of ailing 9/11 rescue workers.

He calls them the true heros of our time.

Martin has been walking since September when he crossed over the George Washington Bridge. After the Super Bowl he will fly back to Oklahoma City and resume his cross-country trek.

His goal is to raise $10 million to help defray medical costs for those ailing rescue workers.

If you would like to monitor Martin's progress or donate money you can log on AJourneyfor9/11.info