Firefighters Reflect on 9/11 | 9/11: One Day in America

[Music] Thanks. [Applause] Stay together, stay together. Let me know what's going on. Um, we knew at that moment that our problem just doubled in size. [Music] So at that point, we met in the football huddle. I'm going to send him out. Deputy Chief, the Division Chief Pete Hayden, gave us an order. [Music] Half of us would stay in the North Tower. The other half will proceed to the South Tower. [Music] Then it was my turn. It's my turn to go stand in front of Chief Hayden. Our orders were to go upstairs in the North Tower for search and rescue.

And one of the firemen from Rescue One looked up. He said, “We may not live through today,” and we stopped and we thought about what he said. So you're right, we may not. And we stopped and we took the time to shake each other's hands and wish each other good luck.

And it's great knowing you and hope I see you later. And of all those guys I was surrounded by, I'm the only one that's alive. They all died. [Music] So I walked over to where my guys were standing, my guys from Line of Six [Music] and I say to him, “It's all right guys, here's the deal. It's a raw deal but this is what we have to do. We have to go upstairs for search and rescue in this building.” [Music]

And the last thing I told him was, “They're trying to kill us, boys. Let's go.” [Music] You