I was amazed to come across this video tonight after having spent some time with the ESUs on Thursday night 13 Sept. and Friday 14 Sept. 2001. Officer Winkler's face is one of the few I remember. His interview is so humble and understated. I know just how truly courageous these men are. I was living in Southern NJ when 9/11 happened. Formerly a steel fabricator and welder, I believed I could help cut up girders so cranes could lift them. I went to the City by train and walked 2 miles to the site during a thunderstorm on Thursday night. Work had ceased due to lightning and the heavy rain. An officer at a barricade directed me into a building where the ESUs were sheltering. I was issued rain gear and a pair of size 13 rubber to wear over my size 10 work boots. Since I was drinking their coffee, I volunteered to help them do whatever. Friday morning I overheard a conversation I was not meant to hear. Other construction workers were there and another ESU Officer asked one if he knew any engineers. The hard hat asked why they needed engineers. The ESU replied that two more 50 story towers on the perimeter of the site were believed to be in imminent danger of collapse. Fires were still burning, gas mains were broken, and there were pockets of jet fuel vapors. Turning on a flashlight underground could cause an explosion, so all they used for light were chemical lightsticks. The uncollapsed parts of the underground were around the perimeter. Down into the blackness they descended with the knowledge that at any moment a 50 story building might collapse on them. I asked another hard hat what we were supposed to be doing. He replied that if something "bad happened" we were supposed to come quick and start digging. When all the Police, Firefighters, EMS first went into the Towers there was no doubt thousands of people needed to be rescued. After the collapses, first responders like the ESUs again risked their lives on the outside chance that someone, anyone, might still be alive. My story is unimportant except as a witness to the bravery I saw from everyone down there. I ended up getting separated at an ID checkpoint when President Bush was arriving. Trying to catch up, I took a "shortcut." I ended up getting hit with poison gas and burning both my feet through two pairs of boots getting away from it. I will never forget the bravery and dedication of heroes I never got to know. My only contribution follows: Go ye traveler to the whole world tell Twas here in loyal service so many Heroes fell
Ill tell you as a trauma nurse i tried to get up there but they said we weren’t needed but if i did this is the guy id want to follow and take orders from . Bless him
I served in both capacities ..NYPD FDNY…I was a young cop in my 20s but till this day I remember every face, name and smile of my bothers and sisters in the NYPD Manhattan. What a crew. Class all the way thru. Two wonderful organizations to be part of. I’m a lucky SOB.
I remember this day and I will never forget the depth of sadness I felt and have never felt again since 💔 I'm so sorry for your loss ... 14 brothers lost in 1 day
This is the first time I've heard anyone talk about the two Port Authority cops outside of the movie. John and Willy were 18 and 19 of the 22 found alive. They should get as much recognition for their survival, just like those in Stairwell B.
Listen to Scott Strauss’ interview in this series. His account of helping Will get out is almost exactly as portrayed in the film. He was played by Stephen Dorff in the film. They left Paddy McGee out
God bless you and all of your brothers and sisters. I’m not a New Yorker but I am an American and this day and all the days after are burned on my memories. Prayers to all who courageously lost their lives and to those who survived. Thank you for all y’all do for all of us.
I was talking about 9-11 with someone and was thinking about Kenny and his story so I googled him and came across this. Great guy, great soccer dad to have around
22:10: Absolutely 100% wrong. And we know this is wrong because of the testimony of firemen in the North Tower who were told to evacuate after the South Tower fell and did so, even though they were UNAWARE that the South Tower had fell but were following orders and realized that they might never see their loved ones again if they didn't leave right then. They didn't have death wishes, and sure, some of them would have stayed with victims that were having trouble evacuating, but 95% of the firefighters who died would have lived. #reality
Some groups of firemen were unable to hear the order to abandon tower 1. That is known, because they were not responding and one or two were contacted in person by other teams.
24:18: Yes, the firefighters were having trouble making it up the staircase because of all the victims trying to use the same staircase to evacuate. Another way of saying that is that the victims were being delayed passage out of the building that was about to collapse by firefighters going up into a building that other senior firefighters have said they knew they had ZERO chance in putting out the fire therein. More lives would have been saved had they never gone up, including theirs. Not that I blame them, but this is why having leadership on the ground that can make the difficult calls and not put more lives at risk is needed in a crisis like this.
They were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t. Remember a few years back the “scandal” when a woman in her 80s keeled over in a care home, and another resident called 911? Then a nurse came on and said they were not doing CPR. This as a place where residents signed a DNR. Resuscitation is brutal. The public had visions of “ER” resus with 90% success, and were outraged. But CPR of a sick &/or elderly person is almost always unsuccessful. It results at best in a few days or weeks immobilised and drastically incapacitated, before death. It is unrealistic, an act of psychological denial, to try to resuscitate someone elderly who already has such chronic ill health they need residential care. Why WAS it left to an ESU guy to be making policy decisions in firefighting? There were plenty of experienced firefighters, surely, who could have nixed the firefighters entering the buildings. Then the fire service would have been excoriated, disgraced, they would have had internal recriminations, resignations, suicides, mass exodus, they would have had funding withdrawn - a “national disgrace” - collapse of the service. And how successful could the evacuation of tower 2 have been? In 1993, evacuation took SIX HOURS, with most of the stairwells and the plaza exit available. On 9/11, the fire service had to assume maximum occupation. On 9/11, neither tower could evacuate across the plaza by their main entrance because of the rain of debris and bodies from tower 1. Some tried and got killed. Sad to say, very many of those who died in the south building (in both) if they had got evacuated, would still have died in the collapse, only the plaza and in the small streets around, rather than inside. Just like a couple of hundred firefighters did, and pretty much where they did. They would also have held up the tower 1 evacuation. More from tower 1 might have died. Several survivors did not understand the danger of the tremors they felt. Survivors in internal rooms say they were unaware of the strike on their own building for up to five minutes. The emergency electricity generation unfortunately reassured people that nothing serious had happened. The alternative was the mall underneath. All seven buildings were linked by the subterranean maze of malls, parking, subway etc. It was hard to navigate. It would be easy to come up in a very bad spot like Fulton street.) This underground complex had also got smoke pumped down into it immediately by both impacts. I can tell you from personal experience that when you are heading downstairs and nobody knows what is happening, and eye-watering, breath catching hot smoke suddenly comes up, people nope out of it without a second thought. It is a great credit to the people who had drilled their colleagues that they got so many people out these ways - but when the collapse happened, many en route were caught and others were falling over each other in the streets, racing ahead of the collapse debris. The more people, the more impossible for any to run. As well, very, very few people (other than the British man who had drilled Morgan Stanley Dean Witter staff so successfully) thought that there would be a second plane: tower 2 was believed to be safe. Even with 29/29 hindsight, who can say how many more people may *not* have made it out of tower 1 and away from the collapse zone in time - if they had got logjammed with people also exiting tower 2. There was so little time with tower 2 and so many people above the fire, that many would never have made it out, and if they did, would have been crowded into the basement area and those tiny streets around, when tower 2 fell.As well, very, very few people (other than the guy who had drilled Morgan Stanley Dean Witter staff so successfully) thought there would be a second plane in tower 2. Many more people would not have made it out of tower 1 and away from the collapse zone in time, if they were logjammed with people also exiting tower 2. As well, very, very few people (other than the guy who had drilled Morgan Stanley Dean Witter staff so successfully) thought there would be a second plane in tower 2. Many more people would not have made it out of tower 1 and away from the collapse zone in time, if they were logjammed with people also exiting tower 2. Those tiny streets like Church and Vesey, as this interviewee says, were the staging area for rescue and triage: many, perhaps most, of the firemen killed were killed there. Imagine 30k people trying to evacuate. From exits of the linked buildings, into those two streets? In the end, nobody knew quite how many people were in each tower - it could have been 50-60k. The protocols needed to be drawn up for that. In the end, most of the occupants below the fire did make it out of tower 1.
@@eh1702most people don't realise, that during CPR, the depth that you must push down on the sternum, is equivalent to the length of a matchbox. The force needed will break ribs from the sternum. Anyone who has ever broken ribs, knows how bad it is.
@@deathbycheese850 Yes. My mother, a nurse, made sure DNR was on her medical records when she reached 70. She used to joke that she would get it tattooed in her chest. It wasn’t exactly a joke. She was considering it.
The monsters responsible for detonating these lives should be so ashamed. When they die, I bet their hell will be to die each death they are responsible for causing
I've always wondered if some guys were sent out of the towers to spare their families more heartache. Thank you for talking about that. From the many accounts I've heard the FDNY family would do something like that. RIP to the Heros and victims ❤🤍💙
Yes,yes,yes.NEW YORK.NEW YORK.what a wonderful city. I met so many wonderful people in the early 70s.i did go up to the top restaurant ,TRADE CENTER. I WAS IN AWE OF THE CARPET. WHAT A CRAZY ,AMAZING ,THRILLING,FASCINATING, TRULY A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE to be there.scary but exhilarating.
19:05: Well, you are just plain wrong. The pilots can say no, but so can someone on the ground who may know a helluva lot more about why they shouldn't try. With hoist wires everwhere on the top of the North Tower, not to mention the antennae themselves, plus the incredible turbulence caused by the heat rising from the fires as well as the winds that day, landing on the North Tower was impossible. The South Tower roof was usually covered that day with smoke from the North Tower, so that was out too. Nor did even ONE person make it to the roof! Imagine if some "hero" pilot landed on the South Tower in defiance of a direct order right before it collapsed when there was zero chance of rescuing anyone? Or lost control and crashed into victims on the street below? No, the pilots and rescuers on the helicopters should NOT be the *only* ones who can call off such a rescue!
I think it's horrible how people treat police in today's world. These brave men and women see horrible things and are there some bad apples or people who should t be officers? Yes there are, but 90% of these people are good brave honest people. I am so thankful that there are people like that watching over us. I'm thankful for them, and others should be too. This whole defund the police idea is nonsense. You think it's bad now, wait until you drive all the good police out and see how great your utopia is now. Thank God for our police, EMS, fire fighters, military personnel.
Is he saying they were going to try rescuing victims by rappelling from the roof? Wow. If only that could have happened. I'm probably misunderstanding him. I need to read more about this.
I believe what he was saying was that for Co exercises or drills.... 'they' (he and the guys) were repelling down the tower... from the roof... to B6. He was amazed that they were higher than a small plane going by below them. Just an observation. That's my guess. (Edit added) Further in this video he speaks of how he asked authorities if 🚁 air support might put them on the roof, for any survivors who aren't up. They answered him by stating too much smoke (mostly going up) gave no visibility to do that. Besides, they said, no one could've been on the roof of the 2nd tower hit... cuz the roof doors were locked! 😳
Quite insensitive, and perhaps the words of a bully? You like making fun of someone who's a lil diff? He was prolly born with a deep voice. (later in life of course) You should count your blessings you're so perfect. This guy could be the perfect bass singer for a Lrg professional choir. Russia has many choral singers with special voices like his.
