[Ladder7]

Very nice shot. Thankyou Jersey


A couple of us were out of town at a HazMat drill that AM. Ironically, we were by the Pilgrim Nuke plant conducting a mass-decontamination drill with Plymouth Fire when we'd finally got through to the senior station LT down on Manhattan. He asked us to please get a crew down here asap. We screamed home and threw as much gear as we could, into a dept. pickup, were gratefully given a donated minibus and provisions for the week, then hit I95 south. We breezed through all the checkpoints, but eventually had to ditch the van on 29th.

The Station was empty except for a dispatcher and a retired guy that came in to help out. We were told the South Tower was where we should find the duty crew. We met up with another company from western Mass on foot, heading south down 3rd Ave. We had a lot of equip, so we snagged an idle city bus that had been assigned to stage there to evacuate the anticipated hundreds of injured. The driver said to Hell with that and got us all swiftly through many obstacles and shortcuts to as close as possible by Wall St (I sure hope he kept his job).

When the Massholes arrived on scene around 1700hrs, we found TL-7's sister company (E-16) fatigued, but positive. We tried to direct them out to rehab. Of course, they never took break until early the next day, when they could barely breath. It wasn't chaotic as we expected. They were in rescue mode, stoic, controlled and determined. Gratefully, it was contagious and helped carry us for the week.

Thanks for remembering those murdered and especially the remarkable men and women of NYC. And can't forget our military protectors over there.

photo; TL-7's crew... On perpetual watch