WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:11.011 --> 00:00:13.646
I was in the lobby
 of seven World Trade Center

00:00:13.646 --> 00:00:18.351
when the South Tower came down
 and you could hear it and it was just

00:00:18.918 --> 00:00:22.389
the sound of like a railroad engine.

00:00:22.422 --> 00:00:24.758
It was just something
 it's just indescribable.

00:00:24.791 --> 00:00:26.559
Not something you've heard before. 

00:00:26.559 --> 00:00:30.096
But the antenna for the top of the World
 Trade Center for the North Tower

00:00:30.296 --> 00:00:31.231
was starting to move. 

00:00:31.231 --> 00:00:34.801
And I watched it
 come down and I thought, wow, this is

00:00:35.235 --> 00:00:38.471
this is the buildings coming down. 

00:00:44.277 --> 00:00:46.846
Later on, I was at the police academy

00:00:47.047 --> 00:00:51.451
and waiting for word from my friends
 and my colleagues in the fire department,

00:00:51.751 --> 00:00:54.687
and I started hearing from my friends
 that we hadn't heard

00:00:54.687 --> 00:00:57.257
from this chief and this chief
 and this commissioner

00:00:57.690 --> 00:01:01.327
when I was told that my mentor,
 his body was found

00:01:01.761 --> 00:01:07.133
and that his remains were at a hospital,
 that it finally came together.

00:01:07.133 --> 00:01:12.405
And I started to realize the just the
 extent of loss for the fire department.

00:01:19.846 --> 00:01:22.882
That was when I was able
 to go back to the site after the attack

00:01:23.016 --> 00:01:26.920
and just see the devastation firsthand,
 and it was just amazing

00:01:26.920 --> 00:01:30.824
seeing pieces of the Trade Center
 that were still standing intact

00:01:30.824 --> 00:01:32.258
and you find debris pile. 

00:01:32.258 --> 00:01:35.628
And so I came down to the site fairly
 frequently because I was setting up

00:01:35.628 --> 00:01:38.031
those sites for first responders.

00:01:39.132 --> 00:01:41.234
I think of us as
 we worked every single day

00:01:41.234 --> 00:01:44.704
because I could think about is my friends
 are down there working every single day.

00:01:45.004 --> 00:01:47.207
And I this is a way I can support them.

00:01:47.707 --> 00:01:51.578
So we realize that we're working 24/7.

00:01:51.578 --> 00:01:54.514
And it was a large, I think, 14 acre site.

00:01:55.315 --> 00:01:58.284
And then how do we make sure
 that we were able to see people

00:01:58.284 --> 00:02:00.019
who are working on the pile? 

00:02:00.019 --> 00:02:03.456
So we devised a plan to have a feeding

00:02:03.456 --> 00:02:07.427
and respite center site on the north side
 and the south side of the site.

00:02:07.894 --> 00:02:12.132
It was basically, you know,
 as we would respond to anything in terms

00:02:12.132 --> 00:02:16.202
of the emergency, I think all your focus
 and your energy is to help other people.

00:02:16.469 --> 00:02:18.438
And so for me, that was the adrenaline. 

00:02:18.438 --> 00:02:21.307
That was the thing
 that got me going to it.

00:02:21.341 --> 00:02:22.642
So I didn't count the days. 

00:02:22.642 --> 00:02:24.210
I just wanted to make sure that 

00:02:24.210 --> 00:02:27.547
every point I was meeting my objectives
 and trying to get help

00:02:27.814 --> 00:02:31.117
and trying to provide as directly as an
 impact as I possibly could.

00:02:32.185 --> 00:02:34.420
So the statue behind me, 

00:02:34.420 --> 00:02:37.891
it was recovered and the statute had been
 at the Trade Center Plaza,

00:02:38.258 --> 00:02:40.827
and we thought it had been destroyed
 and it was recovered.

00:02:40.827 --> 00:02:42.929
And you can see it's relatively intact.

00:02:43.196 --> 00:02:45.999
And I thought it spoke
 to the resiliency of New Yorkers.

00:02:45.999 --> 00:02:48.201
It speaks to the resiliency of people. 

00:02:48.201 --> 00:02:51.104
And we took that and basically

00:02:51.404 --> 00:02:54.507
put it in a memorial area
 in the Battery Park City.

00:02:54.507 --> 00:02:58.811
And that was part of my responsibility to
 move that and to find a new site for it.

00:03:06.653 --> 00:03:08.821
Some wrestling matches my passion. 

00:03:08.821 --> 00:03:12.292
It's the way that we actually have
 an impact on survivors,

00:03:12.492 --> 00:03:16.896
and that's something that FEMA has
 is so unique to from the federal agency

00:03:17.096 --> 00:03:20.667
that we actually can go out and touch
 people's lives during that time period.

00:03:20.667 --> 00:03:22.535
You saw the best in people, 

00:03:22.535 --> 00:03:26.339
and that's why I was so struck by during,
 you know, terrible times.

00:03:26.573 --> 00:03:28.741
Ordinary people do extraordinary things.

00:03:29.008 --> 00:03:32.812
And for all the folks we work with,
 they have all said how rewarding it was

00:03:33.046 --> 00:03:33.713
that they were able 

00:03:33.713 --> 00:03:36.683
to have a direct impact on people
 and that we were saving lives.

00:03:37.183 --> 00:03:42.155
And so I think that's I mean, it's
 the most rewarding career I can think of.