Determination and Pride

"The air at Ground Zero is OK to breathe!"

EPA Director, Christy Todd Whitman 9/13/01

September 13, 2001 – very early morning

Very little accurate information about the rescue effort here is reaching the American people. Mayor Gulliani has ordered a press blackout and the city’s emergency personnel have been issued a gag order. The nearest camera crews are perhaps 15 blocks North on the West Side Highway. Camera crews? There must be 100 newsvans and satellite trucks lining the southbound shoulder, producers grabbing at anyone who walks by for an interview. Perhaps the worst reprecussion of the press blackout is the crap being posted online. The internet is buzzing with rumors and fabricated information about the rescue mission.

My partner and I accept an invitation from CNN and CBS to be interviewed. We figure that it’s OK to provide Americans, and the rest of the World, with an accurate description of the rescue and recovery operation. We go off site during the early morning to appear on several morning news shows.

Making our way up West Side Highway we begin at 4am with a BBC TV interview, a live shot with Nippon TV, countless local stations, then over to CNN’s studio and a live interview with Paula Zahn.

The elevator doors open to CNN's New York newsroom and what is best described as pandemonium. There are 30 or more producers on phones, shouting into walki-talkis and typing on any PC that their fingers can find. We're met by an assignment editor, who quickly makes his pitch.

"Like I said on the phone, there's no news coming from the collapse site. And it's not just us." He points to the bank of monitors on the wall. " None of the networks are reporting..."

"So what!" I say. He's quick to respond. "...so we just keep showing the collapses...over and over." That's when he suggests we report as imbedded journalists."

"Christ Ty, you know the deal." I am emphatic. "We're here to shoot a training film -- not cover the news!" His response, however, is very convincing. "That's exactly what you'll be doing...only you'll be training millions...not just five firemen sitting around a VCR. "

Ty handles us both by the shoulder and walks us over to a monitor. On screen a crying child is holding up a picture with a phone number. Ty boosts the audio level. "Please, if someone sees my Dad, please call us at..." He turns the audio down. On the screen the camera pulls back to reveal dozens of similar family members holding photos. The assignment editor, an old friend gets closer. "Think of it as the most important training film you've ever done."

After a cup of coffee and a trip to makeup, we're in the studio. A floor director sneaks us on to the set during a report from Washington regarding the attack on the Pentagon. For my partner and me, these are the first images that we've seen of the attack near DC. Paula Zahn introduces herself and tries to engage us in conversation, but there's way to much going on in the studio.

"Stand by, Paula -- Coming back in 4, 3, 2..."

The interview starts off as expected. Discussion of what's going on at the rescue site. The control room rolls clips from our footage as we narrate.

ZAHN: "Look at that. It's got to be incredibly dangerous for anyone to crawl through that. Did you go beyond that opening?" ANGELI: "We went down through the opening into the promenade level" We continue to discuss the video clips.

Then Paula throws me the zinger. She says that EPA Director Christy Todd Whitman reported earler in the morning that the air at Ground Zero is OK to breathe. I almost choke, and the one of the studio crew tells me later that the tips of my ears went cherry red.

I repsond to the former Governor of New Jersey not with words -- but video. I ask the control room to roll the footage marked EPA test.

SOUND BITE (EPA tech): "These are the worst levels of asbestos that we've recorded. Four times the highest level I've ever seen!" We both listen, then I turn to Ms Zahn. "Paula, that's the Ms Whitman's front line technican speaking. I'm not sure I need to say more."

Leaving CNN, we're rushed to CBS where we report on conditions at Ground Zero to Bryant Gumbel and Jane Clayson. The producer has agreed to allow us to make our pitch for safety equipment like cartridge respirators, boots, gloves and tiny spades. As quickly as I list the items, they appear full frame on the screen.

"Please, drop your contributions of equipment at 14th Street, along the West Side Highway." I plead with the audience. Then I explain to Mr. Gumbel that a volunteer group working there has managed to start a water shuttle that carries tools and supplies directly to Ground Zero and the workers who need them. I add, "No one will see the equipment if it ends up at the Javitts Center."

After the show, CBS security escorts us across 5th Avenue to The Plaza. We grab showers and a brief nap courtesy of CBS, and for the first time in 50 hours, we’re in fresh clothing and socks. What bliss.

Cheerleaders on the West Side Highway

At about 3pm, the CBS driver picks us up and drives us back to lower Manhattan. Midtown is a ghosttown – empty except for a few street people and police recruits standing on every corner. Our driver drops us at the first checkpoint at 14th Street and West Side Highway. That’s a far as he can go. At the Canal Street checkpoint we hitch a ride aboard a rescue vehicle from Long Island for the 20 block trip to Chambers Street.

Both sides of West Side Highway are lined with well wishers. They applaud, cheer, shout their support and offer us food and drink. My eye catches one, a young woman – perhaps a college student -- holding up a hand written poster. “We love you!” I can’t speak – I simply soak it all in. Not because I deserve their recognition, but rather being part of a moment in American history that will be recalled long after I’m gone.

Shifting Steel, shifting mood

The mood here in New York is changing. There is clearly a shift from shock and complete disbelief -- to a sense of determination and pride. New Yorkers are resilient and they are determined to overcome this tragedy. Flags hang from almost every building and every window. It is an incredible sight!

The emergency crews and vollies working at Ground Zero are determined as well. Out on the pile we speak to rescue people who have been working for 20 hours or longer without a break. Young yellow shirted volunteers literally walk out onto the steel and debris and force feed these emergency crews. I feel guilty that we showered and slept at The Plaza.

The focus of attention has been on the FDNY, but I recognize the important role of volunteers who have responded from as far away as Florida. FEMA, which has just a few workers on site, refers to volunteers who self responded as SCUVs (Spontaneous, Convergent, Unaffiliated, Volunteers). The acronym sounds ugly, but the work SCUVS do with so few resources is amazing.

Their efforts here at the WTC make me proud to be a volunteer – and for the first time in my career I realize that my past 22 years as a firefighter have been productive and meaningful. But many rescuers are reluctant to admit that they are volunteers. Some say that they’re concerned that they’ll be kicked off the disaster scene. Somehow, they feel inferior to their professional brothers and sisters. But believe me, the New York fire officers and firefighters, as well as the PAPD and NYPD, all appreciate their very special contribution.

Still, no talk of terrorism or revenge, that is until I meet Father Hayes from St. Andrews, a face known to many members of law enforcement in New York City.

“The people who did this, well they are evil and if nothing is done they are sure to act again,” he tells me as he searches through his pockets. He adds that action against these terrorists must come quickly. Then the good father snaps the match and puffs away on a day old cigar. “The cigar smoke,’ he says, ‘is much better than the crap in the air.” You said it Padre!

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