The six-man crew on FDNY Ladder 118’s truck raced across the Brooklyn Bridge toward the twin towers of the World Trade Center as thick black smoke poured out of their upper floors on the otherwise bright, clear morning of September 11, 2001.
asserted
smoke → race → September
Less than 90 minutes later, they were among the 343 hero firefighters killed in the al Qaeda terror attack that would reduce the towers to piles of rubble, blanket lower Manhattan in an inches-thick ash of concrete, asbestos, glass and remains — and claim the lives of 2,743 innocent people.
uncertain
that → kill → people
Afterwards,an eerie silence fell over the usually bustling financial hub of New York City.
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silence → fall → City
It was “quiet as a church,” recalled Ladder 118 veteran John Sorrentino, speaking to The Independent at his Staten Island home last month.
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Sorrentino → recall → home
“The one thing that haunts me to this day is the sound of the PASS alarms,” says Sorrentino, who was off duty that day but raced to Ground Zero when he realized what was happening.
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what → haunt → Zero
The Personal Alert Safety System, or PASS, devices are automatically triggered when firefighters stop moving for more than a minute while using their oxygen tanks.
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firefighters → trigger → tanks
“It starts beeping, and then you have to shake a little bit to turn the alarm off,” Sorrentino explained.
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Sorrentino → start → alarm
“If you're in a fire, and God forbid there's a collapse, you get knocked unconscious, or you're trapped and you can't move ... it's gonna start beeping, and that's going to alert all the guys in the area, ‘Hey, somebody's in trouble,’ and you can follow the sound of the PASS alarm.
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you → forbid → alarm
“All we heard was hundreds of PASS alarms going off underneath us, and we knew what that sound was,” he mournfully recalls.
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he → hear → us
“And there was nothing we could do about it, you know ...
uncertain
you → be → it
how many tons of steel were these guys buried under?”
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guys → bury → steel
“And over the course of the next hour, two, or three, the batteries started fading in those PASS alarms and, you know, one by one, the PASS alarms just died out.”
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alarms → start → one
The feeling of helplessness that washed over him, Sorrentino says, is “the one thing that really sticks in my mind about 9/11.”
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that → wash → 9/11
Sorrentino, a former city police officer who served 16 years as a firefighter with Ladder 118, was showering in his apartment in Brooklyn’s Bergen Beach neighborhood when he got a call around 9 am from a friend who was worried about him and “told me what was going on.”
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what → serve → me
“I turned on the TV.
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I → turn → TV
I saw what everybody else saw,” he said.
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he → see → what
Sorrentino immediately got dressed and went out to his car, where he “could see the two towers burning” in the distance before driving to his firehouse on Middagh Street in Brooklyn Heights, about 10 miles due north on the opposite end of the borough
uncertain
towers → dress → borough
There, he collected his gear and got a neighborhood resident to give him a ride across the Brooklyn Bridge — the same route traveled by the Ladder 118 crew, as captured in an iconic photo that later appeared on the front page of New York's Daily News.
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that → collect → News
But leaving Brooklyn, entering Manhattan, it — it turned into a science fiction movie, you know?
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you → leave → movie
It was dark, you know.
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you → know → ?
It was dusty,” Sorrentino said.
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Sorrentino → say → ?
“You didn't hear a sound.”
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You → hear → sound
Sorrentino walked toward the World Trade Center site and was about half a block away when he ran into Richie Murray, another firefighter from the Middagh Street firehouse.
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he → walk → firehouse
“And he looks at me, he goes, ‘The whole truck is gone,’” Sorrentino recalled.
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Sorrentino → look → me
“And I — I was like, ‘What do you mean, the whole truck is gone?’
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truck → mean → What
He said, ‘They're all gone.’
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They → say → ?
Murray was holding a two-way radio and told him, “I've been calling these guys for the last 45 minutes.
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I → hold → minutes
They're not answering the radio.
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They → answer → radio
I'm telling you, they're gone.”
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they → tell → you
There was initially some confusion about which firefighters were on the Ladder 118 truck because the terrorists struck around the shift change in the firehouse, which is also home to Engine 205, Sorrentino said, but it soon became clear who they were.
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they → be → Engine
“So when he told me who was working, you know, my, my heart was broken just thinking about who these guys were, you know, who had kids,” Sorrentino said.
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Sorrentino → tell → kids
Sorrentino, who in the aftermath of 9/11 became the firehouse's de facto spokesperson, said he delivered about 20 eulogies in the next few months.
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he → become → months
During his interview with The Independent, Sorrentino easily recalled memories of his fallen comrades, who all died while evacuating people from the Marriott Hotel when the adjacent South Tower collapsed.
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Tower → recall → Hotel
Lt. Robert Regan, he said, was a father of two from Queens and a “big sports guy” and “great athlete” who coached his son's Little League team and played left field and batted clean-up for the Middagh Street firehouse’s softball team.
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who → say → team
Although he was an officer, Regan “was just another one of the guys” and a “sweetheart” who “fit right in” with the rank-and-file firefighters, Sorrentino said.
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Sorrentino → fit → firefighters
Unlike in most firehouses, Sorrentino said, everyone at Middagh Street “stayed in the kitchen — morning, noon and night.”
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everyone → say → kitchen
“Guys didn't disappear down to the TV room,” he said, adding that “even the officers would hang out in the kitchen.”
“It was constant ball-breaking and, you know, a lot of noise in our kitchen.
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you → disappear → kitchen
But Bobby was very quiet, very laid back.
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Bobby → lay → ?
He just took it all in,” he said.
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he → take → it
Firefighter Vernon Cherry was Ladder 118's “senior guy,” with nearly 30 years' experience and a side job as a court stenographer, Sorrentino said.
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Sorrentino → say → stenographer
…and 81 more, not listed.
