9/11 and a book recommendation

(Origionaly posted FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2009 9:52 AM)

Today is a reminder to me that the guys at St Louis Area American Red Cross disaster services know I’ll put everything else on hold when they need me.

The aftermath of 9/11 got me thinking about volunteer work. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina convinced me to volunteer at the American Red Cross. I chose to work with their Disaster Action Team (DAT) and found that I was a good fit. I dispatch for the DAT in the American Red Cross communications room at  10195 Corporate Square Dr, St. Louis, MO 63132 and doing so involves listening to several scanners tuned to area fire department frequencies.

Listening to the radio communication of area fire departments on scanners became a hobby and I am proficient at guessing how calls that fire departments are dispatched to will go. I get a kick when DAT team members give me a strange look followed by “how did you know that?”

So my work with the DAT team gave me the opportunity to focus on the jobs of police officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians and paramedics. The first conclusion I came to right away is that I’ll never understand what it is really like to do these jobs and deal with the stress that goes with it. The second conclusion I came to is that I would be honored to do their job.

Anytime I listen to the scanner during a heavily involved structure fire and it’s not under control I notice that the tone of the dispatchers and firefighters over the radio is intensely serious. As I observed this over the years I started thinking about what I did not know about the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the World Trade Center.

One book answered all my questions that the media couldn’t and never will answer. The book is Last Man Down: The Fireman’s Story. The author is Battalion 11 Commander Richard Picciotto. He was a 28 year veteran of the New York Fire Department and was the highest ranking firefighter to survive the collapse of the World Trade Center.

I recommend it to anyone who wishes to read a surviving firefighters perspective of that day. It starts from being at the firehouse before the terrorist attacks through the dispatches of firefighters to the World trade Center. It also goes into detail of the rescue operation while the firefighters tried to get as many people out of the towers and what it was like to survive the collapsing building. As well as what it was like to walk around for blocks needing medical attention and not knowing how to get it because everyone else in the immediate area was either helping someone else or was in shock.

“And I will never forget the bells we never heard on September 11, 2001, when our country was in chaos and our city was in ruin, and 343 of our brother firefighters lay dead in the rubble of the World Trade center Complex.” – Richard Picciotto

For an unofficial look at the New York Fire Department I recommend the website http://nyfd.com/

Check out the photo titled “http://knockin on Heavens door” http://nyfd.com/ladder.html

The following photo I took is of a St Louis Fire Department flag detail sometime in the summer of 2015. Their Spartan/Smeal ladder pumpers make great flag details.