NYC-WTC_000152373

Public Portal Document

jrajiiu..... Behind the assembled chairs, on South End Drive, was a stack of perhaps 10 “Anyone,” he said, “who would use the smashed police cars and fire trucks. Their name of Ged” — he paused — “to kill inno­ windows were shattered. Their frames cent women and children” — he paused — were bent A few still had flashing lights “does not deserve to live among us in a and working radios, which called out world of laws and just people.” ghostly traffic to anyone walking by. Already there were pockets of smart Already there were pockets of order. At management, led by men who resisted the the command post, three volunteers — urge to push on and decided instead to re­ Tommy Sullivan, his brother John and Pe­ group. Companies of firefighters moved ter Dusenberry — handed out fresh fruit into the Platypus furniture store. One by and bottled water and insisted on introduc­ tions. The message was implicit in the eye one, the men dropped into posh beds. The entrance was a crunching carpet of shat­ a 5^*0 contact; We are here. What do you need? tered glass. The air smelled like perfumed The taste of an apple, even one gritty candles and potpourri. The showroom was I with ash. noisy with snores. Others had assigned themselves to A few stayed up and smoked cigars. One chores no one else had thought of yet. said a friend since high school was among Behind the exploded windows of 3 World the first firefighters to die. He had been on Financial Center, Dennis Castellano, a the plaza before the collapses. People Standard & Poor’s manager who was on trapped by flames hundreds of feet over­ the PATH platform under the trade center head were leaping clear. A jumper came when the first plane hit, had returned. He down on his back. was making sandwiches with lunchmeat There was silence. Then the firefighters salvaged from restaurant kitchens. spoke, going back, way back, to autumn af­ At Liberty and West Streets, Dr. Brad ternoons when they played football togeth­ Tyler Kicks for The New York Times Kaufman, an emergency room doctor er as teenagers. Curses were muttered in Workers sifting through debris, search­ from Jacobi Medical Center, in the Bronx, the dark. ing for bodies and possible survivors. sat with his legs crossed, as calm as if he On a wall, someone had traced a mes­ were taking in the opera. He nodded to a sage in the dust; “Dad, I came looking for building’s shell. “My wife works there,’’ he said. you. Matt.” His tale, likeimcountable others: She Sunrise came, turning billowing smoke had made it out on foot and run along the -pink______ river all the way to Midtown. It took half From the New York MercantileEx- the first day for the two to contact each change, a man in a parka jogged up and other. Why not go home to her? “I’m hop­ made an offer to any takers. “I got a boat ing for survivors,” Dr. Kaufman said. if you need a ride out of here,” he said. “I “There could be patients to treat.’ ’ can get you to Jersey.” Already there were pockets of grief. In a A fresh shift of police officers arrived. market near the command post, doctors Their uniforms were clean. Their faces had gone through, seeking supplies. Be­ were shaven. Their eyes were bloodshot. reaved firefighters followed, looking for They had black bands over their badges. beer. Three of them gathered in the danc­ They formed a ring of security that tight­ ing shadows, their faces alternately or­ ened each day. ange and black, and began the first of the I walked out, threw away my suit, slept, wakes. put on jeans, walked back, found a shovel, They had been off duty when the planes started to work. struck and had dashed from private lives A rhythm had settled in, the life of the to rubble, stopping at firehouses along the zone. Ironworkers would cut through the I- way and grabbing anything that had been beams in the piles. Men with buckets or left behind. They wore other men’s gear. shovels would come through. Then the One had boots several sizes too big. An­ ironworkers again. Now and then a body, other was in street shoes. or some part of a body, would emerge, and Their fire companies had been devastat­ the firefighters would bag it and begin the ed. They could find no one familiar to re­ long march to the morgue tent. port to and little equipment to use. They The walk took them through the food drank beer and watched the Deutsche stations. Bank building bum. “I think all my guys Sometimes hard hats came off for rs- are dead,” one said. Another firefighter, reclining in a pud­ dle, said he had approached a Special Op­ eration Command chief who seemed to be in charge. He didn’t recognize the man. “I looked him over and was like, ‘Who the hell are you?’ ” he said. “He looked me back and said. ‘I’m the SOC chief. I’m the only SOC chief left.’ ” Already there were pockets of rage. Ai Sapienza, the actor who played the gang­ ster Mikey Palmice on “The Sopranos,” had pedaled to ground zero on his bicycle. Now he took a brief break from hauling body bags.

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