Watching the Dead Fall

A fireman involved with 9/11.

I can still remember it; every time the day falls down on the calendar; the smoke, the towers, the terror and shock, and watching the dead fall.

            When I get a call down at the station and have to hose down the flames, I still remember that day.

            I’ve seen people lose their families from the burning embers, I’ve seen men and women miss the trampoline. Sometimes the elderly don’t make it out, but nothing was as devastating as September 11, 2001.

           

When I was called down, I didn’t know what to expect but I was scared. Terrorists in this country and crashing a plane into the twin towers, I had never heard of such an event.

            There are many terrible things that happen in this world but I never thought I’d be witnessing one.

            I still remember kneeling in the small water tank that was attached to the aerial ladder and hanging a hundred feet in the air. Everything was going so well as my firefighting friend Jeffrey Yates and I sprayed into the billowing black smoked North Tower, until the second plane struck the South Tower. That’s when our ladder violently shook and Jeff went over the edge of the platform. His dark green eyes stared at me in horror as he clung onto the white gated box. I tried to pull him back up but his air tank made it impossible. Just at that moment, our chief decided to bring the ladder down and this made the rocking sensation even more unbearable and caused Jeff to swing into one of the nozzles that was spraying highly pressurized water. The pressure was so strong that it caused Jeff to fly into the burning building and disappear out of sight. The ladder was still rocking madly as it descended and the only thing I could think of doing was turn off the small nozzles that had sent Jeff to his death. At about ten feet the tank rocked so badly that I was also sent flying off the platform but crashed into the hard concrete ground below.

            Paramedics rushed towards me and as I was placed onto the stretcher I heard a man dressed in a full black suit cry, “THEY’RE JUMPING!”

            I looked up at the burning buildings that were blanketed with coal black billowing smoke and from some of the destroyed windows; small blurred-out faces were poking their heads out. Then I saw one person throw himself out of the window and begin his descent towards the ground below. He didn’t wave his hands or try to grip the air, as if he could climb back up, he just let the weight of his body carry him to the ground and looked so peaceful as he sailed down as if he wasn’t afraid of death. I couldn’t see where he landed but didn’t want to. Then there were more that followed and before my eyes, ten or more people at a time were flying out of the windows awaiting their death. There were still some firefighters up spraying the blaze and others were already in the building trying to rescue civilians and bring them down to the ground. But some knew that there was no hope and so decided to not wait for them to come. Bodies were everywhere in the air and I felt like I should have been amongst the dead falling. People were still falling when I heard the creaking of metal against metal and someone cry, “IT’S COMING DOWN!”

            That’s when the paramedics decided to rush me into the ambulance.

            I never saw the World Trade Centre come down and all I ended up with was a broken leg and the terrible memories.

            To this day, I still remember September 11 and the devastation that was caused. Everyone says that I’m lucky to be alive but I can’t agree. What I endured, I shouldn’t have lived through. Everyone can say how devastating the event was, even I can say that. But seeing, witnessing, and remembering is different than dying; the smoke attacking their lungs, the wind rushing past as they fell, and the feeling as all life was sucked out of them. You can think or maybe you can remember, but you’ll never know or feel the way the dead did when they fell away from life on September 11, 2001.

Reviews

[Tim]

A very compelling story with a lot of tension which draws the reader in and makes him want to continue. I'm a little confused on why a ladder rig would be doing well when the fire was so high up. I lost two friends that were fireman there and as far as I know they were all forced to walk up the stairs with heavy gear. In any case, a good story.

[Andy Ruffett]

Did you check the new version?

[Christina May Shanaberg]

This is a beautiful tribute to those civilians, whom died on September 11, 2001!

I think that I, if I had been there, would have chosen to jump to my death, too!!

The memory of it all is engraved upon my heart!!!

[Andy Ruffett]

It was a tragedy.