Newspaper article on NYC Authority clean air projects in Queens,

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ioseph Pfeifer happen. It didn’t fully happen. Battaliwi Chief. BatlaRon 1 I’m not too sure who hei^ Sometime about 8:15 or so in that or how many people cyme the morning we got a call to down. There was no way of Lfcpenard Church for a really telling at that point gas leak in tbj street We were But right before the south ttere for a wble checking on the gas leak, and theai we . ■ beaM the loud roar of the tower collapsed,J noticed a lot of'people jiist left tbe lobby, ■ and 1 heard we had a o’ew of liiiiiiiii plane come over, and we all different people, high-level: HH turned around and we looked . people In'Rowrnmeih. eTCfy-, J and w€ saw the plane coming' body 'was gone, almost like •; M down, heading south toward they had information that we

i'l a the Trade Center, and made, a didn’t have. Some of them direct hit on the Trade Center. were moved across the street g I saw it hit. Within about 10 to the command post. g seconds after that or so I gave At one point the Rre Safety S the first report on the radio Director, Mike Hurley, asked a and transmitted a second us if we wanted the building abnu for a plane into the s Trade Center... evacuated, rm not too sure u he meant both buildings or he OS ■Xb.;

I went into the lobby. There I were people Injured... 1 tried I to gather irdoraiatioa where the plane hit, what floor, and : the best wc could get is some- was just talking about this. In either case. I believe he was talking about both buildings. I turned to Chief Hayden and said do you want to evacuate ■ f where around 80. As the units the buildings? He said yes. j were coming in, we checked I turned to Mike and l told : for the elevators to see if we him evacuate the buildings. had any elevator service. So there were defiaite com­ There wasn’t any... I started munications back and forth to send people up to perform a that we wanted the buildings rescue because we knew there evacuated, J forget what stage were people trapped above the that was at that dme. Again, I fire and we were getting re- can't put that on a time fine. ports in the lobby people were But It was before the second trapped in the elevators... building collapsed for sure.,, 1 bdjeve we started sending As things were collapsing units up... I told engines, half Into the lobby of the north the group to .take hose, .the ' towerif pushed everybody other half not to, at least early around the. corner. I knew on, and started theh way up. . where Twas, so I pushed peo- • Also, I saw my brother, who . ple'ajround'the comer. : was a lieuteoant in 33, and we They were just fmshed •.4 spoke a little bit, and then he ■ around a wall Ub^aJiy and went up also. then the whole area went Tlien the plane hit the sec­ black Wc heard things col­ ond cower, the south tower... lapse; There was debris falling Right before that wro discussed to and everything was black. the operation of the radio. Any Ar (hat time I went ;uround g X X 29^ X : I J . 1 time in a high-rise buildiog, to Chief Hayden and said Tin • communications Is dilucuk. ^ing to evacuate the building.’ 2 We iricwtried to repeaters to get rcpv«icri> 4V ijvi iv 1 got on the radio and I called ; J: g work. The Trade Center had a up to the battalion chief up­ I * repeater... Thist did not work for some reason, and there stairs, which I got an acknowl­ edgment to evacuate the build­ ri^= fl cr j.5 4 • « were probtenK with the repeat­ ing for a number of rhaes. i.l 4 .'U .fts ’ er in the car also. I don’t know what chief But ’tv : So communications from the I did get ackoowledgment, like onto scaffolding, a firefighter lakes a moment during a search on Sept. 21,2001. onset was difficult... We tried I said, a number of times fire- <.. I it numerous times and we couldn’t get the repeaters to fightcfs said they heard me and that’s why they got out. loud, thunderou-s, rumWe sound, and that’s when people And that’s the story. could make any spot rescues, if anyone was alive. 1 : I operate properly, so we had to And that was just in the black­ really were saying run. run. I Deputy Chief Charles ft. At tbe same time we were rely just on handie-talkie com­ ness where at that point we munication. which E at best hit or miss in any high-rise. didn’t even know our way out. must have had my back to the building or was talking to one Then Father Judge was there of the chiefi> because I never Blaich, was offdriy and ainved on the Staten Island ferry after the secofKl tower fell Informed that there was no water in the hydrant system and what taigine companies Oi w At one point I was asked tn and he was lying on the saw’ it, 1 just heard the sound 1 got my volunteers togeth­ we had that were still remain- get the operadoas with the ground and I went over to him, and ran about 5(1 yards west up er. Wc had a contractor giving it^ were reporting they bad helicopter into motion. Unfor- took off his collar, I opened up Vesey < toward the river us an assortment of shovels no water. hinately.w fonunately. I.:'' his shirt, checked for a pulse, ut half a block at and picks and whatever and At some point durii^ this, could not^f-a hold of the and I knew at that point that >ve behind a car or we proceeded further up lo the difficult part was people ^spatcher to do that. One of he didn’t have any... »is the street. the west. I bumped into Dr. were trying to make rescues of the citywide radios got moved We wound up waJkii^ out Everything wus coming at l>rezant, who looked like he victims that they could see in iiround and I couldn’t grab that into the street on Vesey and UB, and as it started to turn had lust been put to a bag of the pile and we had to force Lln«s of firefighters and rescue personnel'work at the base of the World Trade Center a few days attar the attacks. . The phone lines were out, ' •. ■ West pretty much standi^ in flour and shaken up and down them away because people had and nobxiy was picking up or front of One. the north tower, car, and then the whole street several times..'. I beams through them and ing location at that area. realized I was in the north ... someone starts yelling: the lines were busy to the Of hopefully the north tower, went black and al that point I One of the volunteer ambu­ things like that. For' approximately 10 to 15 tower. I just said something's “There’s an explosion!” AU of dispatcher, so 1 couldn’t get lust north of the bridge.,. thought that was It. When the lances that were there, gaveros We just didn't have the time minutea we continued to do wrong here. It just doesn't a sudden you could hear some through to them on a landline It was all smoke. It Joote like whole street goes black in the some face masks to wear at to invest In brm^ng out desd tliai until we were told that — seem right. I remember com­ weird sound like crumbling. or a cell line. a fire. But it was the buiidr middle of the day, that's not a that point. We grabbed a pile bodies. We were trying to fmd I believe at the direction of the directly interconnects even ing back and there was more All of a sudden everybody We weren't string good So still 1 didn’t know the whole ^x)d thing. Al that point it was of those and prettecded further live bodies. police, that that area was prob­ this picture doesn’t give It to debris that's falling down into of i^pfe. , <■ ' : starts running. reports from the police at all thingcollapscd. Iknew welwla real difficult to breatbe. You north. Wc attempted to estab­ ably unsafe due to the impend­ you. U-direetly inrecconnects the atrium. I’m calling H an - So 1 went to the corner of ... big collapse but i had no idea. couldn’t .see anything now lish a command post. We were EMTCbrbtin* ing collapse in number One into tte iwch tower. 1 remem­ atrium but it’s just an open " Marshal Ve.sey and West, and there At one poiflt after the sec- Vita people saw on TV I didn't with the debris being under a aucrapring to establish it on Sastedenbeck, wrote down World Trade Center. ber sayl^ TO somebodyhow area. ' was the ESU truck. 1 went oikI plane hit. I think. I’m not see and nobody told me that’s lotoffjxce. top of the roof of the van. infwmatw? wtterts - tbeif do get Into the tower not I would say from that time, Was in Queens when he got against the ESU truck, and all positive of the time line, 1 what had occurred aiKl I didn’t after a while it started There werenumerous fires nanw, Wie were bemg treated Deputy Chief Thomes GaSvln that this toterconni^- maybe one minute later, two the call for aid: of a sudden everything got know Chief Callen asked over . the radio to come down to the bear any radio communications of that either. to clear. burning through the pile. We (Pfeifer E asked if his bii^h- were tentatively dUeedng the — after fa'S! H I remember gou^ isside tins Division 3, lixkM CixnrnaRder tsM South Twer ed with both. And the guy actually sends me to the north mlnufcs later, is when the hotel just started shaking. The radio wasn’t working properly, and we never made black. The wind blew by. Material flew by. About two ; I l^by. But with difficulty' with ) But staisdihg'out there, at ermafeitouL} volunteers to start fanni^ our buildi^... and Iwas track- Ushered out several people tower. Everything came down. 1 ran contactwi&^ylxWy.? t, minutes later it cleared up that communicatioas, that didn’t one point, we just heard a Nd. That’s the toughest part. on top of the pile to see if we this patient information, using a safety rope: 1 don’t think at chat time I south down the lobby and (On a pedestrian bridge] I was able to see.