A brilliant and terrible Tuesday morning
Fourteen months into retirement I am teaching a Fire Officer II class at the Reagan National Airport fire station. The classroom is also their kitchen. The kitchen has a television.
The acting battalion chief steps in, apologizes for the interruption, and turns the television on.
Good Morning America (ABC) is covering the breaking news of a plane that has hit the World Trade Center.
As the news camera focuses on the entry hole, many of the experienced air-crash-rescue guys are speculating on what type of plane hit the tower and the issues facing FDNY.
After a dozen minutes I try to restart the class. Agree to leave the television on with the sound turned down. I get one or two sentences out when we see the second plane hitting the tower.
Class over!
You do not need a Formal Announcement to Mobilize
As FDNY Firefighter James Hanlon (Ladder 1) points out in the opening of the Naudet Brothers documentary 9|11:
… there were days we would go to the Trade Center five times in a single shift. My point is, we knew those towers as well as anybody. But nobody, nobody, expected September 11th.
When the civilian editors of Fire-Rescue Magazine and Journal of EMS were vetting my article, Attack on the Pentagon: The Initial Fire and EMS Response (April 2002 issue), they struggled with the concept that hundreds of emergency responders initiated action without receiving a formal notification.
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Fire Department never expected a 757 to be used as an assault weapon against the Pentagon. When the second plane struck in New York, the dozen off-duty members attending the Fire Officer class joined the 16 on-duty members preparing for the unknown.
They were not alone.
Most of the senior staff and urban search and rescue commanders in my department started purposeful action when they heard of the second plane in New York City. The information came through radio and television, informal digital networks and word-of-mouth.
Rapidly deploying 72 USAR members and 75 tons of equipment
It takes dedicated action by dozens of staff, support and non-USAR firefighters to make a deployment happen.
A point of pride is the ability to assemble the team well within the response deadline for domestic and international response. A deployment represents an administrative five alarm event.
A small role I had while assigned as a company officer at the Fire and Rescue Academy was to respond from home to get the facility unlocked on evenings, weekends and holidays. The Academy, with six classrooms and a large training bay, is the point of staging and assembly for the team.
Far from high tech. The tasks included moving apparatus out of the bay, properly configuring the "quad" – a large space with movable walls to create smaller class spaces, and powering up the facility.
Have to do Something
Ten years ago I also had a part-time job as a civilian Fire Instructor III at the Fire and Rescue Academy.
American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon shortly after I left the airport.
I was stunned. What could I do? No fire gear in the car, not in uniform, my "retired" fire department ID card did not provide KardKey access to headquarters or communications.
Headed for the Academy. Maybe they are assembling a fire crew with Engine 407. I was at the Academy in 1982 when we loaded up a Suburban with EMS gear and responded in near-blizzard conditions to the Air Florida 90 crash at the 14th Street bridge.
Not this time. All of the on-duty uniformed staff are away, either responding to the Pentagon or the anticipated USAR deployment. None of the remaining staff experienced a USAR deployment.
I looked up in time to see the South Tower collapse on live TV.
Purposeful Action – Setting the Academy for USAR deployment
No more wondering what to do.
Without asking for authorization, started moving academy apparatus out of the high bay building and up the hill. Configured the quad. Tried to set up the communications equipment, but no one had the key to the cabinet.
Before the 11 am official federal mobilization notice, the academy was ready …
… and I was on my way home, satisfied that I did something worthwhile in reaction to the unthinkable.
An Inherent Orientation to Action
Emergency service folks are hard-wired to take action.
To validate the impact of our Citizen CPR program we tried to identify the background of every person who performed CPR prior to the arrival of the department. More than half of the citizen responders were off-duty or former police, fire, ems and health care staff.
The same orientation that motivated Jeff Simpson, a Dumfries-Triangle Rescue Squad volunteer EMT who was near the World Trade Center.
From the National EMS Memorial:
"I have no doubt whatsoever that, while I was stricken with disbelief and inaction, Jeff was figuring how he could help.
It was clear in the few minutes we were in the plaza that thousands of people had and would continue to be injured. There were many police, fire and EMS squads arriving at the scene and it was toward these and the injured that Jeff was headed the last time I saw him.
Frankly, there was no other reason for him to go towards the World Trade Center. His hotel, work site and safety were in the opposite direction.
With the second plane hitting the tower, Jeff would have been thinking about the increased number of casualties. I believe Jeff was caught in the collapse of the towers.
I do not know if he was inside the towers or working at one of the triage stations that had been set up close to the towers. In either case, he was doing what he was trained to do and spent his final hours helping the victims," stated Joseph T. Finnegan.
Mike "FossilMedic" Ward
Earlier 9/11 essays:
2011: Remembering 41 EMS responders who died at WTC, including a hero from Prince William County, Virginia
2010: A Terrible and Brilliant Blue Sky Morning
2008: Reprint "The Anger Never Dies"
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Shock … followed by purposeful action
Comments OffA brilliant and terrible Tuesday morning
Fourteen months into retirement I am teaching a Fire Officer II class at the Reagan National Airport fire station. The classroom is also their kitchen. The kitchen has a television.
The acting battalion chief steps in, apologizes for the interruption, and turns the television on.
As the news camera focuses on the entry hole, many of the experienced air-crash-rescue guys are speculating on what type of plane hit the tower and the issues facing FDNY.
After a dozen minutes I try to restart the class. Agree to leave the television on with the sound turned down. I get one or two sentences out when we see the second plane hitting the tower.
Class over!
You do not need a Formal Announcement to Mobilize
As FDNY Firefighter James Hanlon (Ladder 1) points out in the opening of the Naudet Brothers documentary 9|11:
When the civilian editors of Fire-Rescue Magazine and Journal of EMS were vetting my article, Attack on the Pentagon: The Initial Fire and EMS Response (April 2002 issue), they struggled with the concept that hundreds of emergency responders initiated action without receiving a formal notification.
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Fire Department never expected a 757 to be used as an assault weapon against the Pentagon. When the second plane struck in New York, the dozen off-duty members attending the Fire Officer class joined the 16 on-duty members preparing for the unknown.
Most of the senior staff and urban search and rescue commanders in my department started purposeful action when they heard of the second plane in New York City. The information came through radio and television, informal digital networks and word-of-mouth.
Rapidly deploying 72 USAR members and 75 tons of equipment
It takes dedicated action by dozens of staff, support and non-USAR firefighters to make a deployment happen.
A point of pride is the ability to assemble the team well within the response deadline for domestic and international response. A deployment represents an administrative five alarm event.
A small role I had while assigned as a company officer at the Fire and Rescue Academy was to respond from home to get the facility unlocked on evenings, weekends and holidays. The Academy, with six classrooms and a large training bay, is the point of staging and assembly for the team.
Far from high tech. The tasks included moving apparatus out of the bay, properly configuring the "quad" – a large space with movable walls to create smaller class spaces, and powering up the facility.
Have to do Something
Ten years ago I also had a part-time job as a civilian Fire Instructor III at the Fire and Rescue Academy.
American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon shortly after I left the airport.
I was stunned. What could I do? No fire gear in the car, not in uniform, my "retired" fire department ID card did not provide KardKey access to headquarters or communications.
Headed for the Academy. Maybe they are assembling a fire crew with Engine 407. I was at the Academy in 1982 when we loaded up a Suburban with EMS gear and responded in near-blizzard conditions to the Air Florida 90 crash at the 14th Street bridge.
Not this time. All of the on-duty uniformed staff are away, either responding to the Pentagon or the anticipated USAR deployment. None of the remaining staff experienced a USAR deployment.
I looked up in time to see the South Tower collapse on live TV.
Purposeful Action – Setting the Academy for USAR deployment
No more wondering what to do.
Without asking for authorization, started moving academy apparatus out of the high bay building and up the hill. Configured the quad. Tried to set up the communications equipment, but no one had the key to the cabinet.
Before the 11 am official federal mobilization notice, the academy was ready …
… and I was on my way home, satisfied that I did something worthwhile in reaction to the unthinkable.
An Inherent Orientation to Action
Emergency service folks are hard-wired to take action.
To validate the impact of our Citizen CPR program we tried to identify the background of every person who performed CPR prior to the arrival of the department. More than half of the citizen responders were off-duty or former police, fire, ems and health care staff.
The same orientation that motivated Jeff Simpson, a Dumfries-Triangle Rescue Squad volunteer EMT who was near the World Trade Center.
From the National EMS Memorial:
Mike "FossilMedic" Ward
Earlier 9/11 essays:
2011: Remembering 41 EMS responders who died at WTC, including a hero from Prince William County, Virginia
2010: A Terrible and Brilliant Blue Sky Morning
2008: Reprint "The Anger Never Dies"