9/11: One Day in America 1x6

1. Oh, shit here we go! Here we go!

2. Oh, my God!

3. Oh, my God!

4. Oh, my God!

5. Oh, man!

6. Oh, my God.

7. We have the second tower, right now, the second tower.

8. But listen, can you feel it?

9. I can feel it. I can hear it.

10. Oh, my God! Christ!

11. Oh, it's going!

12. Oh, my God! Son of a bitch.

13. Second tower is down! Second tower's down.

14. I knew it, man.

15. On September 11th,

16. I woke up late.

17. I had completely slept through Monday.

18. I was living on the west side of Manhattan and...

19. I was having a hard time, you know?

20. I was drinking, I was acting out in different ways,

21. very depressed, sleeping.

22. New York City's not a very easy place to, to be, like,

23. on your own, trying to find a place or even trying to find yourself,

24. because it's a—it's a very busy, impersonal city.

25. Then I turned on the TV, okay.

26. And then I saw that what had happened;

27. that the— that the planes had hit the towers.

28. And to tell you the truth,

29. I wasn't really connected to the city, right?

30. I wasn't really connected to anything.

31. And it really didn't, um...

32. I really didn't fully grasp what I was even looking at on the TV.

33. I didn't have any thoughts about it, okay?

34. Um...

35. But, I listened to my voicemail.

36. So, my estranged sister, her name is Joy, and, uh,

37. she had left a message on my, on my voicemail.

38. And the message said,

39. "I hope you're okay,

40. you're probably down there helping."

41. I thought to myself,

42. "She thinks I'm down there helping.

43. Why would she think that?"

44. Nothing was further from my mind

45. than to be down there helping.

46. Why would I be down there helping?

47. I'm an ex-paramedic,

48. trying to recover from drugs and alcohol, okay?

49. And she thinks I'm down there helping, you know?

50. And at that point, I was like,

51. "Well, I don't wanna let her down."

52. You know what I mean?

53. "Maybe I should go down there and help."

54. My intention was not to put myself

55. in any kind of harm's way, okay?

56. I thought maybe I would go to a triage area,

57. help bandage people, help, uh,

58. you know, give them water.

59. Things of that nature.

60. I just wanted to be able to call my sister,

61. my estranged sister, and say,

62. "Hey, guess what? I'm down here helping."

63. That was it. That was my whole motivation.

64. I knew that I should, I better respond.

65. I'd just got out of the Marine Corps, early August.

66. Served eight years.

67. I felt compelled.

68. I felt that it was my duty to respond.

69. I had all this training.

70. I remember having my military uniform in the trunk of my car.

71. I had just moved into this home,

72. and all the— all my military gear, I said,

73. "I'm gonna, I'll leave inside the trunk of my car."

74. I remember just grabbing, running to my car,

75. grabbing my uniform out, and then heading straight

76. to the crash site.

77. I remember just continuing towards the Trade Center,

78. and, uh, I had linked up with some firefighters

79. and we were searching the rubble.

80. We're digging through this pile,

81. trying to find people, and we're getting a signal from

82. Seven World Trade Center,

83. that that building is completely engulfed in flames.

84. And they felt that this was going to collapse

85. while we're digging.

86. So, we're on the pile and they blow a horn,

87. "Everybody off the pile."

88. Now we start scrambling and we get off the pile.

89. And we look back at the building,

90. they give the all clear, we go back to the pile.

91. We're digging, we're digging; a half an hour later,

92. they blow the horn, "Everybody off the pile!"

93. We have not yet heard.

94. Building number seven on fire and in danger of collapse

95. at the World Trade Center.

96. The two towers are virtually gone.

97. Nothing but rubble, basically.

98. But building number seven on fire,

99. so the troubles are far from over at that complex...

100. Now, eight hours after the first of the planes hit, uh...

101. And all we know is we gotta find people

102. and time is of the utmost importance.

103. We need to find these people fast.

104. We're all sitting there watching,

105. and this building collapses.

106. Right down onto the pile.

107. There were firefighters,

108. that knew that they had loved ones that were down there.

109. And I could see the sense of urgency to be able to find that person;

110. to be able to find their brother;

111. to be able to find their son or their father or their wife.

112. They still didn't give up on looking for them.

113. Through there.

114. I was standing across the street

115. from the World Trade Center.

116. Everyone, you know, was trying to formulate a plan on how to

117. go about conducting a search and rescue.

118. And I just knew that... we have to act.

119. You know, I can only imagine being trapped

120. and not being able to help myself, um,

121. and no one is coming to rescue me.

122. I ran into another Marine.

123. He had his uniform on as well and he introduced himself.

124. And I knew at that time that, that he was going to be, you know,

125. that he was going to see this through with me.

126. We started crawling across the debris.

127. And it was so hot.

128. My boots would sink into the rebar because it was hot.

129. And I remember turning around and looking up and seeing that

130. this firefighter,

131. and he's yelling at us, telling us to,

132. "Come back! Come back! Get off the—the, get off the pile of rubble."

133. And I remember yelling back at him, saying,

134. "We're Marines. We do not go backwards,

135. we go forward."

136. I knew that we continue to move forward,

137. digging and searching,

138. we'll find someone.

139. Think of, you know, the worst nightmare you have

140. and multiply it by a million.

141. And we found ourselves literally buried alive.

142. And it was black.

143. I mean, I found myself in a black cavern,

144. if you will, and, uh, I couldn't see.

145. Then all of a sudden, about 30 feet up above me,

146. there was a hole and light started coming through this little hole.

147. And it was a very dust-filled environment,

148. and when I could finally see, I remember looking at myself

149. and just seeing this wall of concrete on top of me.

150. You know, at that point,

151. the pain really started, uh, taking over on me.

152. I was just in a lot of pain.

153. My fellow officer, Dominick,

154. was buried to my left, uh, in the debris,

155. and our team leader, Sergeant McLoughlin,

156. he was about 15 feet beyond my feet.

157. And Sergeant McLoughlin being the professional he is said,

158. "Alright, what's everybody's condition?"

159. I said, "I can't move. I'm stuck.

160. I'm actually being crushed."

161. Dominick said, "I think I can get outta here."

162. And there wasn't much room, I mean,

163. there was concrete right above me;

164. there wasn't too much room, um.

165. But he was able to shimmy out and literally crawled over

166. my face into this very small space to my right.

167. And at that point, he started to attempt to try to get me

168. out of what this concrete cocoon looked like, really.

169. He had been working on me for, I'd say,

170. about ten, maybe 20 minutes, uh, trying to get me out,

171. and that's when we heard a humongous boom.

172. An earthquake-type of event where everything's shaking around me.

173. Debris just kept coming down on us, um.

174. I kept getting hit.

175. I remember thinking to myself, "I'm not gonna make it."

176. And something I've always done to my wife, Alison,

177. and my little girl, Bianca,

178. was always say the "I love you" sign in sign language.

179. "I love you."

180. And all I could do is take my hands,

181. make the "I love you" signs and cross 'em over my chest,

182. because I figured I was gonna die,

183. and if they found me, they could tell Alison,

184. "This is the way we found him."

185. And she would know that in my last moments on this Earth,

186. I was thinking of them.

187. And that's when I kinda glanced over

188. and I saw something come through the hole above us,

189. and hit Dominick really, really hard.

190. But then it stopped.

191. And when everything cleared up again,

192. at this point I could hear Sergeant McLoughlin yelling,

193. I was yelling more.

194. But then I looked over and I could see Dominick,

195. and Dominick was now bleeding outta his mouth, pretty bad.

196. And Dominick said, "Willie, I'm hurt bad."

197. I said, "Hold on."

198. You know, I kept trying to give him encouraging words.

199. We talked a little bit more and he actually said,

200. "Sarge, can I get a three-eight?"

201. Which means a break.

202. He cracks a joke in the middle of this.

203. And Sergeant McLoughlin stopped yelling and said,

204. "Yeah, you can have a three-eight."

205. And I said, "Dom, hold on."

206. And he goes, "Willie, I'm dying."

207. And he goes, "Just don't forget that I died trying to save you guys."

208. And I said, "Dominick, I will never let anybody forget this."

209. You know, at that point, he took his side arm out,

210. he pointed it up into that hole that I told you where the light was coming in,

211. he fired one round in a last-ditch effort

212. to let somebody know we were down there.

213. And then he passed, right in front of my eyes.

214. Finally.

215. Finally.

216. Alright, you guys, get back.

217. Everybody was just waiting.

218. And now it's getting pretty dark.

219. There was nobody searching the rubble because they—

220. they deemed it too dangerous to search.

221. And then I was, I was right at the edge of the rubble,

222. and I saw— I saw looking up the rubble,

223. that there was a few people searching.

224. But you could look down into the cracks in the rubble

225. and you see the fire coming up.

226. I'm extremely scared of fire.

227. I'm extremely scared of smoke.

228. I'm extremely scared of heights. Okay?

229. I have no plans to crawl in any rubble to try to

230. rescue any person, right?

231. My plans were...

232. to be able to call my sister Joy...

233. Okay? And tell her that I'm down there helping.

234. And I remember taking the first step onto the rubble.

235. I don't remember why I did it. Okay?

236. I just remember taking that step.

237. Hello!

238. We were searching for hours.

239. Every area that we get to we would yell down inside,

240. "Is there anyone down there?

241. This is the, this is the United States Marines."

242. And we would listen for voices

243. and we would get nothing.

244. As I'm looking around,

245. it felt like we were not going to find anyone.

246. As we get about three quarters of the way,

247. the way across the debris,

248. I see this hole to the right, and I yelled into this hole,

249. "This is the United States Marines.

250. Is there anyone down there?"

251. And I heard a voice.

252. I was physically, mentally exhausted.

253. So tired I wanted to die.

254. And then I heard voices in the distance.

255. And what I heard was, "United States Marine Corps.

256. Can anybody hear us?"

257. And I started yelling at the top of my lungs.

258. It was faint, but I heard this voice.

259. But we were searching all day and for hours,

260. and here it is.

261. I'm saying is that wishful, is that just wishful thinking?

262. And it was almost like a dream to me.

263. I, I actually asked myself,

264. "Am I hallucinating? Am I dreaming this?"

265. Uh, but they answered me.

266. And this voice is panicky,

267. and it seems like the voice is trembling.

268. And I said, "Hey, Port Authority Police.

269. We got men down here.

270. Me and my sergeant are hurt bad."

271. You know, "Don't leave us."

272. And they said, "We're not gonna leave you."

273. And I was like, "Thank God."

274. But he was buried, buried beneath the, the earth.

275. He wasn't easy to get to.

276. I continue to crawl and walk over the rubble.

277. And then I saw there's a Marine,

278. standing in a hole in the rubble,

279. with smoke and fire coming out,

280. with people down in that hole who need to be rescued.

281. I don't know what he was thinking,

282. but I was thinking, you know,

283. "Where are all the— where are all the men

284. and where's this rescue happening?"

285. You know, and he's looking at me like,

286. "Hooray! The rescuers have arrived."

287. He introduced himself to me, um,

288. that he was a paramedic,

289. and I knew that that's exactly what we needed in that hole.

290. He pointed, down into the hole.

291. And he said, "Look. Look at that hand."

292. And finally I saw this dirty hand popping up from the rubble,

293. maybe 50 feet down into the rubble, and waving.

294. And I thought to myself,

295. I don't know what I thought to myself, you know?

296. I just, maybe just...

297. you know, my training, my training of, um, you know,

298. I guess every reason I ever became a paramedic, uh, uh, kicked in.

299. I thought to myself,

300. "Maybe his life's worth more than my life."

301. You know, my life wasn't going very well, um.

302. So, I started to crawl down into this hole,

303. this fiery, smoky, 50-foot hole, into the rubble.

304. As we're crawling into the hole,

305. there's debris everywhere.

306. We can't get to that voice that's in need.

307. I remember yelling for this voice, asking him,

308. "Where are you at?"

309. And, um, he's yelling back,

310. and the hole is so hot, and there's so much smoke,

311. you could— couldn't even breathe.

312. I reach a point where I come upon the man

313. who had stuck his hand out, and he said his name was Will.

314. He obviously needs help, okay?

315. He's beside himself.

316. He's, um, he's trapped.

317. He's in a very bad situation.

318. He's in the center of the rubble,

319. 50 feet down, trapped.

320. As they got to me, I remember just wanting to

321. give myself up because I was so exhausted.

322. I remember starting to hyperventilate to the point

323. I thought I was gonna give myself a heart attack.

324. And I remember Chuck saying,

325. "Hey, buddy, you gotta hold it together.

326. You gotta control yourself."

327. And I remember thinking to myself,

328. "Alright, calm yourself down."

329. I did calm myself down, and they started to dig me out.

330. We had to remove chunks of concrete.

331. I remember taking these huge boulders and lifting them up

332. and, and, uh, walking them back.

333. It's, once again, it is so hot that we had to

334. remove ourself from the hole.

335. And we did that multiple times,

336. we did that multiple times,

337. dig as hard as we can and move debris.

338. And, um, and every time we went topside,

339. we would yell out for help and yell for help and wave our hands

340. and do everything we possibly can, uh,

341. to alert people.

342. And no one was around.

343. We were, like, smack in the middle of the debris.

344. No one could hear us.

345. Then there was basically a point where

346. the room filled with smoke, okay?

347. And at the point the room filled with smoke,

348. I got a little scared.

349. Fire was, fire was coming through in certain places.

350. It was, you know, it was obvious

351. that we were in grave danger.

352. And everything, every, like, every cell in my body said,

353. "Get out of here." You know?

354. And Will was, uh, Will was also scared,

355. and he's telling me to cut his leg off.

356. These fireballs,

357. you know, started falling into the hole.

358. And, um, they worked on me for a long time,

359. and at one point, they couldn't get my left leg out.

360. And I remember saying, "Just cut my left leg off.

361. I can see the hole. Cut my left leg off."

362. I don't know how to cut somebody's leg off.

363. It wasn't, like, an option.

364. What do I do?

365. Do I pull myself out of this hole?

366. That fire was starting to become larger.

367. You knew that the hole was about to collapse.

368. It just felt like it was going to collapse.

369. It was just a matter of time.

370. I didn't know if I was strong enough to achieve that mission.

371. Will shares that his wife is pregnant.

372. She's six months pregnant.

373. They're expecting a baby girl.

374. My mother raised me to...

375. respond when you see someone in need.

376. She would always tell us,

377. "You are your brother's keeper.

378. Never leave your brother behind."

379. And for years, she would say that.

380. I had promised this— this—this Port Authority police officer, Will Jimeno,

381. I had promised him, I said,

382. "I am going to— I promise I'm gonna see this through."

383. At one point, I remember them saying,

384. you know, just saying, you know,

385. "We're not leaving these guys."

386. You know?

387. "If we die, we die with them."

388. And, uh, that meant a lot to me.

389. They all wanted to help, you know,

390. and that—that meant a great deal to me.

391. We had all just made that decision that no one was

392. gonna leave that hole without him.

393. "Nobody's leaving you.

394. If you die, we're all gonna die."

395. I said to myself, you know,

396. "How do you tell your family?

397. How do they know what you were going to do,

398. what you were doing?"

399. I remember reaching over to my pocket

400. and I had a—a camera, a disposable camera,

401. and I took a couple pictures of myself.

402. If I died, hopefully God would allow someone to find this camera

403. and hopefully it would answer some questions.

404. And I took that camera and I put it,

405. and it was just the hardest thing for me to do.

406. And I remember taking that camera and putting it on

407. a high point of the debris,

408. and I went back into the hole.

409. But before I go back down,

410. I see a light.

411. Like these lights appeared to be either

412. flashlights or head-mounted lamps,

413. and, um, they're every bit of 100 to 200 yards away.

414. And I'm yelling for these lights and waving my hands.

415. They started making their way directly towards me.

416. Before you knew it,

417. I could hear more people up above us.

418. And two NYPD ESU officers, Scott Strauss, Paddy McGee,

419. put their lives on the line and they get into this hole.

420. I remember them saying,

421. "We got the cavalry on the way. Hold on."

422. Chuck's saying, "I'll put an IV in."

423. And if I recall right, I think he used duct tape or some,

424. some other tape than medical tape to put an IV into me.

425. It's years and years and years since I've started an IV,

426. I don't even know.

427. It's, like, it's been so many years since I started an IV

428. that the catheters have changed, okay?

429. And they are...

430. And I'm like, "How do I use this catheter?"

431. Started the IV right away.

432. It was, it was one stick, it was like a perfect IV.

433. But his legs were trapped.

434. And they called down for a Hurst tool.

435. A Hurst tool is what they'll use in a car accident

436. to pry a door open,

437. where it's like, has this— the jaws of life.

438. At a certain point, it just caught right.

439. It just caught, you know, it just caught perfectly.

440. And, um, it released his legs.

441. And his leg was released.

442. They put me, finally, on a Stokes basket,

443. and they started bringing me up.

444. And at that point, they started passing me down this

445. long line of rescue workers from all over;

446. from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut.

447. You know, I remember just grabbing patches and thanking people.

448. I didn't know anybody till I hit one person.

449. There was one person that grabbed me

450. and was actually looking down at me and

451. I was looking up at him.

452. It was some classmate of mine.

453. But I heard him say, "Jimeno?"

454. And his nickname in the academy was 'Devil Dog.'

455. So, right away I knew who it was, and I'm like,

456. "Devil Dog?" He's like, "Yeah, it's Grant."

457. And I remember.

458. I don't mean to get choked up,

459. but I remember just that I said,

460. "Devil Dog," and he said, "Yeah, Jimeno, it's me."

461. I felt like it's somebody I know,

462. and, uh, that meant a lot to me.

463. Just him saying, "Hold on, buddy,

464. you're gonna make it out."

465. But then I looked up and I didn't see the buildings.

466. And I asked, "Where is everything?"

467. And a firefighter said, "It's all gone, kid."

468. They took me down to the ambulance.

469. They put me in the ambulance.

470. They took me to the hospital.

471. When we got there I'm thinking,

472. "Okay, I'm a police officer, I'm hurt.

473. I'm sure there's probably of hundreds,

474. if not thousands of people they're working on.

475. I'm hoping someone can take a peek at my injuries." You know?

476. And when they get me off the ambulance,

477. all I see is these doctors and nurses standing around.

478. And I was like, "Where is everybody?"

479. And they're like, "You're it."

480. This is now, I don't know,

481. 11:30 at night, quarter to 12,

482. and they're telling me that I'm it.

483. For the first day,

484. there was hope that people would survive.

485. And I was hoping my brother would survive.

486. In the back of my mind,

487. I was hoping that I would see him

488. or he'd just walk up and tap me on the shoulder.

489. And then we would, uh, talk about it for weeks to come.

490. Until the evening of September 12th,

491. there was still dust and smoke coming from the pile,

492. and the tip of Manhattan was in total blackness.

493. And I'm walking back to the firehouse,

494. and knowing that my brother was gone.

495. It was an— it was a very eerie feeling of,

496. of loss.

497. Certainly, being part of the fire department,

498. I've seen many things and—and, um,

499. and people dying.

500. I just never thought that I would have to deliver the same message

501. to my family about my brother.

502. I went over to my parents' house,

503. pulled into the little driveway and walked in

504. the back door, and, uh,

505. and told 'em, um,

506. that there was, um,

507. there was no hope.

508. It's not part of nature

509. for your kids to die before you.

510. The only thing that's important in my life right now

511. is to stay focused on how do I find my daughter,

512. how do get to where she is?

513. I'm gonna find my daughter no matter what it takes,

514. no matter what I have to do.

515. There's only one thing in my life right now

516. and that's to bring her home.

517. Ma'am, tell me, you were Yvonne's best friend. Tell me about Yvonne.

518. We're all her best friends over here. We're looking for Yvonne.

519. She was on the 94th floor.

520. She was an Amex employee who worked at Marsh McLennan.

521. Please, somebody from any floors, from 88 and up,

522. please call our number, 917364, and tell us...

523. What happened over there and if anybody got out.

524. And if anyone made it, please call us.

525. Joey, as you can tell,

526. it is just an endless sea of people who are looking for their loved ones,

527. who are doing anything they can to find some sign, any sign.

528. Joey.

529. Thank you, Mayor.

530. Everybody, thank you for your help.

531. I give myself no credit for any part of that rescue.

532. God uses the weak to confound the wise.

533. So, God uses the low, the low people of the world,

534. to confound the wise.

535. There's no way that I...

536. That I could ever turn around and say it was me.

537. I had no desire, no will, no strength, no training,

538. no power to— to have accomplished

539. what the Lord used me to do that night.

540. It was Super Bowl Sunday,

541. and I was working that day.

542. Uh, I remember being called to the site

543. and they wouldn't tell me why.

544. But I knew why.

545. My brother, he was found after digging for months.

546. Placed him on a stretcher

547. and carried him to a waiting ambulance.

548. And I got in the back.

549. And it was one of the saddest moments or

550. the saddest moment of my life.

551. I, um, was sitting on the, uh, bench,

552. next to the stretcher,

553. in tears.

554. The lights of the fire truck behind, flashing,

555. um, with the number 33 on it.

556. And then I could remember moving from an intense sadness

557. to thinking about the times we sailed.

558. And the sadness disappeared

559. into wonderful memories.

560. One of the captains told me

561. that he met my brother on the ninth floor

562. and he said that if it wasn't for my brother directing him and his unit,

563. he woulda never got out alive.

564. He could've got out.

565. Not just him, but his unit.

566. Engine 33 made a commitment

567. to help other firefighters,

568. so they stopped, and they redirected not only

569. the firefighters but other civilians to the safest stairs.

570. Um...

571. And that's probably what we're most proud of.

572. To me, it's still a cemetery.

573. I know it's a memorial, some people think it's a park,

574. but to me it's a cemetery.

575. Over 1,100 people are still missing that have never been found.

576. I work at the 9/11 Memorial Museum.

577. We take care of the pools; we keep the place clean;

578. we take care of the grass; we take care of the trees.

579. I wanna keep that place pristine,

580. so when the family members come there they're proud

581. of how we remember their— their loved ones.

582. Still around, guys, still around.

583. I made it.

584. What's your name?

585. Tom Canavan. Tom, what happened, man?

586. Uh, big boom.

587. Come down the steps,

588. everything fine till we got to the basement,

589. and then everything just fell in.

590. I got trapped in there with another guy.

591. It's hard sometimes to go

592. just through everyday life without

593. thinking about that day.

594. And I know a lotta people go,

595. "Well, you're alive. Get over it."

596. There is no getting over it.

597. There is no...

598. There's dealing with it and moving on with your life,

599. but it's always gonna be there.

600. And it's a big part of my life because now I chose to make it

601. as a part of my life.

602. And that's, I think that's my legacy now.

603. When I bring people through sometimes, who visit,

604. we go to the memorial exhibit

605. where we have pictures of the victims.

606. I asked the people that I'm bringing through,

607. "Do you notice anything similar with them?"

608. They'll look at them.

609. Some people get it, some don't.

610. And they'll say, "They're smiling."

611. Ruth Clifford McCourt

612. and her daughter Juliana Valentine McCourt.

613. Jennieann Maffeo.

614. Andy Fredericks.

615. Orio Palmer.

616. Billy McGann.

617. Tommy Swift.

618. Steve Strauss.

619. Lindsay Herkness.

620. Rick Rescorla.

621. It was Mark Schwartz,

622. Carlos Lilo, James Pappageorge.

623. Kevin Cleary.

624. Steven Chucknick.

625. Jose Marrero.

626. And part of our job here is to show you

627. this is how these people lived.

628. They were just everyday people;

629. they got up, they went to work;

630. feed their kids, put clothes on their back,

631. get 'em through school, make their life good.

632. Antoinette Sherman.

633. Mark Bingham.

634. Joe Hunter.

635. Richie Allen.

636. David Marc Sullins.

637. Tommy Langone.

638. John Bergin.

639. Detective Joseph Vigiano.

640. Lieutenant Greg Atlas.

641. Dominick Pezzulo.

642. Abdu Malahi.

643. Don DiFranco.

644. Manny Gomez.

645. LeRoy Homer.

646. My brother, Lieutenant Kevin Pfeifer.

647. my best friend.

648. Your memory shouldn't be your name on a wall somewhere.

649. That's not you.

650. You are the person in that photo album.

651. You are the smiling person, living your life.

652. That's how you want people to remember you.

653. Vinnie Danz.

654. Walter Weaver.

655. Lieutenant Stephen Harrell.

656. Toyena Skinner.

657. Tom Burnett.

658. Dan Bergstein.

659. Ronald Kloepfer.

660. Bernard Curtis Brown II.

661. Carmen Alicia Rivera.

662. Jack Punches. Pat Cody.

663. Bobby Coll. Vernon Richard.

664. Kathy Robinson.

665. Captioned by Cotter Media Group.