My Ground Zero by James A Drohan Jr. at World Fire Departments.com

The following pictures are from Engine 81, Ladder 4 FDNY. All the people in front of the firehouse are volunteers that came down from Westchester county to help out the city. Over 50 units came to the aid of the city that day!

Picture taken out of the third floor window of the above firehouse. Volunteer rigs as far as the eye can see.

Can you guess who the firefighter is with the orange shirt on? My rig is behind the lime green fire engine. Engine 98 Ossining Fire department.

While on the subject of Orange Tee shirts. It was amazing to see how many of them there were in the city. A very important reminder of how much the Municipal workers help out the fire service!

Another view out the same window.

If you can look closely the last truck is a White truck from Briarcliff Manor (photo below). Right next door there is a Grocery store where we bought every bottle of water, throw away camera and just about all the soda they had.

Previous

My take on the day

This was a very painful day that I am sure will be remembered by all for the rest of our lives. I can not forget waiting on line to pay for my coffee when I heard that a plane had hit the world trade center. I quickly paid and got in my work truck and started to head for the firehouse to see the plane that had hit the twin towers. Thinking that it was a small plane I was in no real rush to see what had happened.

I was about a block away from the firehouse when the radio said that another plane had hit the second tower! I drove up the driveway in total disbelief that this had happened. As I entered the firehouse there was one other member sitting there in total disbelief of what had happened. The both of us watched in horror as both towers were on fire.

The scene where the plane hit the second tower played over and over. Each time it was hard to believe that this really had happened.

While we were watching the question kept coming up. When are they going to show a picture from the ground? Well after a while they finally had a picture on the ground a reporter was doing an interview. The interview didn't last two minutes ad there was a blood curdling scream and one of the towers fell right on live TV! The most unimaginable had just happened! We were now sure that we had on the wrong channel and we were watching an HBO special or something. I believe I even asked him to turn the movie off and put the news backs on. How could this be happening?

A few minutes later terror struck again. The second tower fell. All I could think of was what was next?

Five minutes later the Pager goes off. County control was dispatching FAST teams to go down to the city to help with this horrible disaster. Down the stairs we went. ready to go.

Our team was assembled in record time and we were heading south to the fire training grounds in Valhalla. We were the third team to arrive and were told to stay with our rig and await further instructions.

While we were sitting waiting to go to the Bronx everyone was on their cell phone trying to contact loved ones to let them know what was happening. I received a call on my Nextel from a guy at work. He said "your father was in the city today at world trade center" then there was a silent part that seemed like forever. My heart fell to my feet thinking the worst. Then came "but he is alright". I can not even explain the relief I felt. next came another hard blow for everyone. The chief wanted everyone's name, where they lived and phone number. This was for next of kin because the original plan was to go to the World Trade Center. At this point everyone knew this was for real and made everyone think just what the task at had was.

It had seemed like an eternity had passed before we were told we were going to regroup in the Bronx and then head straight for ground zero. Before Heading to the Bronx a team leader was picked and we were off to the city.

Down route 9A and onto 287 to 87. We were on our way. I rode the officers seat and kept my ear glued to the radio waiting to hear an update or something. All the traffic was heading North while our convoy of 40 or so fire engines headed south. We were the third rig in the line and I kept looking back. PROUD TO BE A VOLUNTEER! It was amazing to see so many rigs heading to this disastrous event. Volunteerism was alive!

We arrived at Engine 81 Ladder 4 in no time at all and within minutes the Police department had the road closed with nothing but fire trucks as far as the eye could see. It was very impressive to see.

Now was the long part. we were told that we would be dispatched to certain stations across the city. So all we could do now was wait. A few of the guys went down to the store and bought disposable cameras ready to take that picture they remember for the rest of their lives. As we sat and waited we could see the smoke rise from where the World Trade centers once stood. It was a reminder all day that this was real.

At about 3:00 PM my father arrived. It was unbelievable to see him standing their covered in dust. He started to tell of what had happened. As he spoke a crowd started to gather everyone sitting there in total disbelief. a hundred questions were asked and answered. while people were running away he had ducked into a small store and bought three camera's. His photos are all posted here for you all to see.

As night came all the rigs with lights were told to shine there lights on the buildings. Apparently a resident threw something out of a window on an ambulance earlier in the year.

Right around 11:00 PM we were sent back to Yonkers raceway for the night. Also at this time the original driver went home and the chief brought down some new guys. I was now assigned to be the Driver. We were now faced with where are we going to sleep? MY spot for the night along with four other firefighters was the hose bed. I was lucky to be the first one on top of the rig and had claimed The spot where the 2 1/2 was stored. The next up grabbed the other bed that the 2 1/2 was stored. next came the unlucky. The only spots left was the two beds for 1 3/4. we all know that these are not as wide as the 2 1/2 and these two were squished into there "slot". The temperature dropped into the low 50's and was a little breezy. Sometime in the middle of the night I was awoken because I was so cold I could not sleep anymore. I needed another turnout coat for my legs. I grabbed an extra incase someone else got cold as I did. Turned out the guy right next to me was shaking so he was the lucky person to get the coat.

Finally the sun came up and it started to warm up. uncertain of what was to come of this day the troops started to stir. A NY POST truck came in and dropped off a load of newspapers. This was very welcome as most of us had already been sitting there for almost 24 hours with nothing to do but look at each other.

We sent out a guy to get us something to eat. After returning we then tried to figure out what was to be next. County control then started dispatching Ladders to cover houses in the Bronx. After all the Ladders were dispatched then came the Engines. The engines were dispatched every 15 minutes and after a long wait we were not one of the engines to be relocated. At approximately 3:00PM we were on our way home. WE WERE PROUD TO HAVE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO HELP.

Driving the engine home was also an experience. I have never seen so many people in cars waving and honking horns at us. Almost every car that passed was giving the thumbs up sign to us. The only other time you can experience this kind of a feeling is at a parade. I spent most of thee time driving home waving to motorists and blowing the air horn.

They Knew what we had done and were proud of us!

Our assignment was over 30 hours long. Sleeping out in the cold but true to being a volunteer we did it. Oh yeah eating prison food as well. Our department had guys waiting at home eager to come down and help. I believe this was the case all over the county.

I was recently at a Westchester county board meeting. A guy stood up and said this that could not be truer.

" Volunteer firefighters are the minute men of this century, we come when we are called". Charlie Faillace Past Chief Somers VFD. There have never been truer words spoke.

I am Proud to be a volunteer firefighter!

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