THE TRIBECA TRIB SEPTEMBER 2011
THE 9/11 DECADE
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FIVE STORIES OF 9/11 No recounting of experiences on Sept. 11 can do justice to the thousands of extraordinary personal stories of that day. Below are just a few, as told to the Trib during the week of Sept. 11.
ROBERT STOLARIK
FIREFIGHTERS’ STORY
Pandemonium at West Broadway and Reade Street as the south tower comes down.
CARL GLASSMAN / TRIBECA TRIB (3)
September 11, 2001
Engine 7 and Ladder 1 on Duane Street were among the first responders to the World Trade Center. Miraculously, they did not lose a man. This is their story, told to the Trib three days later. At 9 a.m., Engine 7 and Ladder 1 from Duane Street sped down to the World Trade Center. Engine 7’s captain, Peter Tardio, was confident. After the initial fireball, the blaze looked manageable, he thought. It would be a tough job, but they would walk up 80 flights, if necessary, and tackle it. Riding in the Ladder 1 truck, Damian Van Cleaf also believed they could put out the skyscraper blaze. His buddy, Nicky, yelled to him: “This is terrorism. They’re attacking us.” “Would you relax?” Van Cleaf told him. “It’s an accident.” The two rigs were among the first to reach the World Trade Center; black smoke billowed from the tower. As they made their way up the stairs, workers trying to escape passed them. “I kept asking people, ‘Is there any fire on your floor?’” Tardio recalled. “We didn’t know what floor the fire was on.” Big chunks of aluminum and steel were crashing onto the street. When the second plane hit Tower 2, more wreckage rained down. Then people began to jump from the upper floors. Inside the tower, it was slow going. Each man carried 75 to 100 pounds of equipment. It took an hour to reach the 30th floor. As they went, they checked every floor; all were vacant. Then Tower 1 shook. “It was a rumbling like I had never heard before,” Van Cleaf said. “We heard, ‘Urgent, urgent, urgent! Vacate! Vacate!’” They would have about 12 minutes to get out. Most of the men still didn’t know that Tower 2 had fallen. But when they got outside, they saw the rubble—and their rigs flattened. Thinking that his two comrades had been crushed, Van Cleaf said a prayer and ran. The others did the same. Seconds later, Tower 1 disintegrated. “Why am I here?” asked Tardio of Engine 7, three nights later. “Luck? Fate? Why am I alive? We all have feelings of guilt. I think about it a lot.”
‘TO: MOM, FROM: 1 WTC’
Clockwise, from top left: It is Primary Day, and outside the polling place at 310 Greenwich Street, people react to the burning towers; as the north tower collapses, a stunned couple rushes up Hudson Street; near 310 Greenwich Street, Ann Coleman and Sam Hao recoil at the sight of the explosion at the south tower.
M.J. Bettenhausen, a Tribeca resident, began volunteering at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. An injury she later sustained while volunteering prevented her from continuing. In the afternoon and through the night, M. J. Bettenhausen gave eyewashes to firefighters and police affected by the thick dust, and she helped treat minor injuries among rescue workers. On day two, she joined volunteers CONTINUED ON PAGE
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