ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER: An Eyewitness Account By Gary Hanley 0848 hours: “ESU lieutenant to Central! A plane Officers (PO) Steve Stefankos and Rich As Dave Brink and Mike Garcia crossed just hit the World Trade Center Tower One!” Winwood were still in quarters. POs Tom over from the Bronx into Manhattan on the nd so it begins, the deadliest day in the Langone and Paul Talty had just left to go on Westside Highway, lights flashing and sirens Ahistory of American law enforcement. patrol, as had Sgt. Paul Hargrove. Up in the screaming, they could see the smoke pouring Tuesday, September 11, 2001 in New York Bronx, POs Dave Brink and Mike Garcia of into the sky. Brink said, “Looks like we’ll get City began as a splendid late summer day ESS 3 were checking their scuba gear. There is some work today!” The highway was at a with a promised high temperature in the mid an old saying in the NYPD: “When a citizen standstill so they had to maneuver the heavy 70s, no humidity and a crystal clear, azure needs help, he calls a cop; when a cop needs ESU vehicle around hundreds of shocked blue sky. help, he calls Emergency Service.” The men motorists. Meanwhile, Stefanakos and and women of ESU are an elite team of the Winwood came across the East River from Before 0848 hours the greatest city in the New York City Police Department and, in Queens into Manhattan with light traffic and world went about its daily business. essence, the city’s last resort in time of crisis. made good time. Commuters rode their trains and buses, while They are SWAT operators capable of over- 0903 Hours motorists moved along in moderate traffic. coming virtually any tactical situation; they School children began their classes while are emergency medical technicians, who can Brink and Garcia arrived at the corner of office workers greeted each other and pre- administer life-saving treatment to the victims West Street and Vesey Street (north and west) pared their coffee. This was a day to be of any and all disasters; and they are crafts- just as the second plane hit. They heard a savored, a perfect day in the Big Apple. men, who can rescue trapped survivors from “huge boom” and saw the flames explode For those workers in the World Trade overturned vehicles or from collapsed build- from the building. They opened the storage Center in Lower Manhattan, no one knew ings with remarkable speed and resourceful- bins on the sides of their truck and grabbed they were about to embark on a trip directly ness. They are the best of the best that the city their Scott packs (self contained breathing into Dante’s Inferno. The World Trade has to protect its citizens – and its cops. Their apparatus), rescue harnesses and ropes as well Center was completed in 1974, a marvel in motto, “Any time, any where, any place.” Of as their forcible entry tools. They teamed up engineering. The intent of the buildings was the 40,000 police officers in the New York with POs Rich Hartigan, Bob Steinmann, to house international commerce in New City Police Department, 380 are assigned to Steve Lanoce and Evan Schwerner from ESS York City all in one place. This idea actually Emergency Service. 4, also in the Bronx. They figured their came from the medieval marketplace. It never assignment would be to force open doors in quite worked out that way, but instead stairwells and elevators. They put on their res- became an international financial center. A LIEUTENANT’S STORY cue helmets, threw their air bottles on their I am a lieutenant in the City of Yonkers backs and made their way towards Building 1, The World Trade Center was in reality Police Department Emergency Service Unit. the North Tower. made up of seven buildings, the most promi- Yonkers, a city of 200,000 people, borders nent being the 110-story, 1,360-foot Twin Sections of the building façade and air- NYC to the north. I was off duty and at home Towers. Each floor in a tower covered an acre plane parts were falling all around them. when I flicked on the TV at 0850 to have of space. Twelve million square feet of floor They had to run towards the towers looking noise in the house while I did some chores. I space was available to the 325 companies up to watch for falling debris to avoid being froze in my tracks as I watched Katie Couric occupying the site. The towers weighed 1.5 crushed. Then they saw the people falling. saying a small plane had accidentally collided million tons and contained 71 escalators and They could see the people in the windows, with the World Trade Center. I said to myself, 254 elevators. There were 600,000 square feet trapped above the fire floors, waving cloths, “bullsh—t.” That was no small plane and cer- of glass in the 43,600 windows. hanging on, leaping. Some people were tainly no accident. Just then, the second holding hands; some were on fire as they The World Trade Center was in fact a city tower erupted into flames and I knew the plummeted toward the earth. These people within a city, housing approximately 50,000 world had just changed. I called my wife, and disintegrated when they hit the ground. The people a day with millions of visitors a year, told her what was happening, that I was going officers, who are all veteran, qualified rescue 100,000 a day. The center had its own sub- to work and had no idea when I would be workers, felt totally helpless as they watched way station and PATH commuter trains. The home. As I sped towards my office, I joined a this horror. The team wanted to get to sublevels housed Manhattan’s largest indoor convoy of other police officers and firefighters Tower 1 by way of the underground mall shopping mall. hurtling towards the city. News radio was but they were forced back by crowds and a Out in Queens that morning, at announcing a mobilization of all NYC police security guard telling them not to go Emergency Service Squad (ESS) 10, Police officers and firefighters. through that way. 28 THE TACTICAL EDGE • SUMMER 2002 Chambers Street I was in my office when the towers began and West Street. to collapse, organizing a recall of all Yonkers They were told ESU personnel. ESU Lt. Joe Barca was on they will attempt the road with the on-duty officers handling to rope onto the bomb threats and securing key locations in top of the towers the city. Capt. Frank Messar, commanding and start an evacu- officer of ESU, was at Police Headquarters ation of people meeting with high-level city officials. As the above the fire buildings began to come down, I had visions floors. As the men of what the base of the World Trade Center were preparing to looked like during the first attack in 1993. board the helicop- My mind’s eye saw dozens of emergency ter, Tower 2 col- vehicles and rescue workers directly beneath lapsed. They sought the 110-story buildings. I knew hundreds of shelter in a con- them, including some good friends, were struction trailer. now dead. For many years NYPD has been a Stefanakos relates, good neighbor, always helping when asked. “The sound was It was now time to pay the piper and help Lt. Gary Hanley giving orders. Photo: Jim Murphy,YDP intense. Like a out NYPD. freight train times 100, floors collaps- Meanwhile, POs Stefanakos and ing into each other picking up speed.” Then TEAM 5 RESPONDS Winwood arrived at Church Street and there was a huge gray cloud rushing at them ESU Team 5 (Steinmann, Brinks, Vesey Street just north and east of the towers and suddenly, nothing. The world was gone, Hartigan, Lanoce, Schwerner, Garcia and Lt. moments after the second plane hit. On zero visibility. They donned their Scott packs John Murphy) made their way to Building 5 their way across the city, they did not know for air. Then they heard another plane roaring and moved through it to make their way if it was an accident or an attack, so they overhead. They were sure the end was coming, towards Building 6, the U.S. Customs House. began planning for both. When the second another wave in the attack. It turned out to be PO Steinmann remembers seeing luggage, plane hit, their worst fears were confirmed. an F-18 speeding in to protect the city. POs body parts, glass and aluminum, everywhere. They met with Sgt. John Coughlin, POs Langone and Talty met Team 6 and then He even saw the nose assembly to an airplane Steve Driscoll, Brian McDonnell and Joe moved off towards the collapse. As they in the street. They knew they were in danger. McCormack from ESS 4. Sgt Coughlin moved away, Langone said “Be safe, see you Hartigan said, “We are all going to make it.” ordered McCormack to run back to the later.” Langone was a nationally-recognized Steinmann had his doubts. Lanoce recalls see- truck and get his rappel harness for him, expert on technical rescue, building collapse, a ing chunks of debris as “ big as a small car” while he and the other ESS 4 men moved rappel master and a veteran of the Oklahoma crashing into the plaza. They utilized the towards Tower 2, the South Tower. City bombing. He was also a contributing small overhang on Building 5 for some pro- At West and Vesey the team encountered writer to The Tactical Edge.