NYC-WTC_000230672

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

THE daily NEWS, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2001

Ladder 118’s final run Sia:from firehouse lost I in T^ade Center disaster i '11 By MKHEir Mens f BUUTCWSSIWFMmOl I . i- resonated through the Brooklyn Heights firehouse ■HI — in the instant after the second plane crashed into the World ■ ■ Trade Center.— the members of Ladder 118 were ready. Five of their housemates had already responded, aboard Engine 205, within moments of the first plane hitting.the north tower. During the next 14 minutes, the men windows broken, its cab filled with twist­ of Ladder I IS watched the black, acrid ed steel from the blast. smoke billow across the water, waiting The vehide has been restored and put for their call to action. bach in service. But its members are still At 9:02 the morning of Sept. 11, with missing. the unthinkable having happened a sec­ A grim twist of fate saved the lives of ond time, it was their turn. the five firefighters riding on Engine 205. . Leon (Express) Smith jumped behind 3 the wheel. Lt. Robert (Dizzy Dean) Aided failed comrade I Regan sat in the adjacent officer's seat. Scott (The Dog) Davidson took the posi­ tion behind the driver- Joey (Bells) Agnello sat They had stopped to help Danny Suhr, a firefighter who was fatally injured after someone fell or jumped from one of the towers ■ (, f

It =^2 behind the boss. Vernon' and landed on him. (Mo) Cheny was behind 1 “It's terrible to think him. about, but this guy [Suhr] nie tiller man, Pete getting killed saved all (Big Head) Vega, con­ these guys from Engine ! « t trolled the rear of the rig, 205," said Ladder 118 steering out of the fire­ Firefighter Jimmy McAlevy. .3 house, down Middagh st., With the days turning then a tight left onto to weeks, the survivors Cadman Plaza, a fast right 1 from the firehouse nick­ at Prospect St. and onto ) the Brooklyn Bridge. named “Fire Under the ■ Bridge" allowed their 1: As the truck sped j hope to turn to sari reality, mourning the loss of the fpSS.! SS91 g across the span, a man , named Aaron McLamb six who were aboard Ladder 118, along with

£3 snapped a photograph of the rig from the rooftop of the Jehovah's Iwo others from their firehouse — Lb Witness watchtower building — six ftre- Robert uailace and Capt. Manin Egan. fighters headed to their deaths. Then McLamb, the man with the cam­ "1 look at this picture, and it makes me era on the Watchtower roof, appeared at think those guys were driving straight the Middagh St. station with blown-up into the gates of hell," said the Rev. copies of the photograph he had snapped Michael Carrano, the pastor at that terrible morning. Assumption Church, located around the Firefighters studied the picture with a comer from the Engine 205,'Ladder 118 magnifying glass to make sure the truck firehouse. on the bridge was Ladder 118. & “rve learned a lot about these men They concluded the evidence was con­ since Sept. 11." Carrano said. "They vincing. '’J must have had hearts of gold that you The rig's orange stokes basket was ■ can't find at the end of any rainbow.” upside down, a Ladder 118 trademark Its saw box jutted out. And the dings and They never hesitated scratches were the same ones firefight- missing men, the surviving members of truck at every fire. When they arrived on the scene, the ets had stand at on the tiller truck — one Engine 205/Ladder 118 have tried to bring Regan. 45, a quiet guy wit h a perma- six f refighters from Ladder 118 parked of six in the FDNY fleet in Brooklyn — cheer into Ihe house by trading stories nent smile, always looked like 'he their rig at West and Vesey Sts., then van­ lor years, about each of their fallen brothers. combed his hair with a shoe;" Scott (The ished into the thick, cloudy smoke and “Oh, my God, we're looking at their Dog) Davidson, 33. had earned his soot. last run, literally. That's the first thing 1 A SeCfCt redpe moniker because he frequenily wore "we don't know what tower they were ihoughT when I saw it,* said Ladder I IB •, They talk about Cherry, 49, a 28-year everyone else's clothes, reputedly nof in, or on what floor," said Ladder 118 Firefighter John Sorremino, who was off FDNY veteran who was the departmeni's buying a single pair of toots during his Firefighter Eddie Greene. “What we do from work that day but had rushed to the official singer. He had a secret lasagna eight years on the job. know IS that every guy in that truck was scene in his car anyway, recipe called “Vernon Mo Lasagmo" that Agnello, 35, was known for brag- going to go in no matter what. If there “Imagine what was going through was the envy of other firehouse cooks. ging about his toddler boys — Sal, 3. had been more guys on the rig, there their heads, going over the bridge, look' Smith, 48, the neighborhood mechan- and Vincent, 1. He had been the larzei would have been more deaths." ing out the window and seeing Ihai," ic who spent all 19 years of FDNY serv- of good-natured ribbing about ihe way The Ladder 118 truck was recovered Sorrentino said. ice at Ladder 118. earned his nickname, he rang the wrong bells in his jrsu___ within days of the terrorist attack — its ■ As they wait for^any news about their Express, by making sure his was the firs! days at the house — hence hii nick*

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NYC-WTC_000230674