Posted by Eric Brazil (64.158.5.213) on October 11, 2001 at 22:26:13:
Brooklyn firefighters give up hope
Squad lost 12 members at trade center
Eric Brazil, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, October 11, 2001
New York -- When the alarm rang in the Squad 1 station in
Brooklyn on Sept. 11, the nine firefighters on duty threw on their
bunker gear, piled into two engines and raced to be among the first
to arrive at the scene of devastation caused by the terrorist attack
on the World Trade Center.
Three others who were off duty hitched rides with other fire
department squads, aiming to do what they were trained to do --
rescue victims of fire and other calamities.
When last heard from, the elite firefighters, rigorously trained for
search and rescue, are believed to have been advancing through
thick smoke and suffocating dust toward the critically damaged
South Tower, which was in a state of imminent collapse from
flames.
One month later, the 17 remaining members of Squad 1 are
dealing with funeral arrangements for their 12 fallen comrades,
who are listed among the 343 New York City firefighters
presumed dead.
"We had hope, there was always hope, until one day we realized
that it was all over for them," said Lt. Dennis Farrell, a 20-year
veteran of the department and Squad 1's only surviving officer.
"This is a very bad time. This is an extremely tight house.
Everyone's hurting," he said. "There are 23 children who lost their
fathers. It's up to the house to make all the (funeral) arrangements.
We've had four funerals so far. It's overwhelming."
It is unlikely that Squad 1 will be up to full strength any time
soon. Special-operations firefighters are the New York Fire
Department's elite, intensively schooled and highly trained.
"The people we lost are not replaceable. The (special tactics)
schools alone take six months," Farrell said. "These guys were
handpicked."
The fire department hopes to accelerate the training of replacement
special- operations firefighters with the help of a grant from the
Federal Emergency Management Administration, but experts in
special operations and search and rescue say the process can't be
rushed.
"It takes me two years to train an experienced firefighter to be a
rescue firefighter," said Battalion Chief John Norman, acting chief
of special operations for the New York City Fire Department.
Special Operations took a disproportionate hit at the World Trade
Center.
"A hundred of my best friends are buried here," said Norman,
standing amid ashes and twisted metal at the dead center of ground
zero.
The men of Squad 1 are trained for high-angle rope work, for
working in confined spaces and collapsed buildings, for shoring
up damaged buildings and dealing with hazardous materials. Some
are mechanics. Some have medical skills,
and they are all athletically fit.
"Mike Garvey, he just summited on Mount Rainier," said Farrell,
pointing at a photograph tacked to the station wall. Garvey is
among the dead of Squad 1.
The front of the Squad 1 station has become a virtual shrine, with
fresh flowers set out, candles lit and notes of thanks written by
admiring residents of the Park Slope neighborhood, who stop by
the station to shake the firefighters' hands and express
condolences.
Squad 1's territory is half of Brooklyn plus Staten Island, and its
surviving members have been back at work, on 12-hour shifts with
24 hours off, ever since the terrorist attack.
Work has been a form of therapy for the surviving members of
Squad 1.
"I went back and worked eight straight days on 'the pile,' " said
O'Donnell,
referring to the colossal heap of smoking debris left after the
buildings' collapse.
"I've been there every day," said his friend Sean Cummins, who
became a member of Squad 1 just a year and a half ago.
The squad is also working regular fires. "There was one last
night." Farrell said. "It's a little hard, but everyone's pulling
together."
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani never tires of telling the world that New
York City's fire department conducted "the most effective rescue
mission in the history of the country," saving 25,000 lives. "I can't
walk down the street without someone telling me they were saved
by a fireman."
As a measure of the affection that the Park Slope neighborhood
holds for Squad 1, a report that the fire department intended to
close the station at 788 Union St. and distribute the squad's
surviving members among other special- operations companies
generated a torrent of community protest. The department backed
down and attributed the flap to "miscommunication."
FEMA activated 20 urban search and rescue teams -- mostly
firefighters with special operations and rescue skills -- for the
World Trade Center catastrophe,
the most in history. The last of those teams returned home on
Thursday.
The New York City Fire Department has concluded that it has
searched all of the "voids" in the rubble that might have sheltered
people as the structures fell. Rescue workers are now searching
only for body parts, which are then taken to an on-site morgue for
examination.
Fewer than 400 of the thousands who perished in the attack have
been identified. The force of the World Trade Center buildings'
collapse was so great that it pulverized all of the glass. "There isn't
a piece of glass left anywhere on this site," Norman said.
The cleanup operation continues around the clock. Nearly 180,000
tons of rubble have been hauled away to a dump site on Staten
Island. More than a million tons remain.
The front of the Squad 1 station is adorned with a spectacular
metal shield,
the image of its "company patch," featuring an eagle clutching
crossed firefighters' tools. It was a recent gift from Lt. Mike
Russo, to celebrate his promotion.
Russo died at the World Trade Center. "He bought it for us a
week before the disaster," Farrell said. "Mike did something
extra."
E-mail Eric Brazil at ebrazil@sfchronicle.com.