Joseph W. Pfeifer | |
---|---|
Born | 1956 (age 67–68) [1] New York City, New York, U.S. |
Nationality | American |
Education | Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception (1974-1978) [2] : 139, 143 Harvard Kennedy School (M.P.A.) Naval Postgraduate School [3] |
Notable work | Ordinary Heroes: A Memoir of 9/11 (2021) |
Awards | Knight of the Ordre national du Mérite [4] |
Known for | First senior fire chief on-site during September 11 attacks [5] [6] |
Firefighter career | |
Department | New York City Fire Department Battalion 1 Center for Terrorism and Disaster Preparedness |
Service years | 1981–2018; 2023–2024 [7] [5] |
Rank | (Acting) Fire Commissioner First Deputy Commissioner Assistant Chief |
Joseph W. Pfeifer (born 1956) [1] is a retired American firefighter who served with the New York City Fire Department (FDNY). Pfeifer served as First Deputy Commissioner of the FDNY from February 2023 until September 2024, and as Acting Fire Commissioner of the FDNY in August 2024. Prior to his civilian work in the FDNY, Pfeifer was an Assistant Chief. He retired in 2018. [7]
He was the first fire chief to respond to the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks in 2001. [5] [6]
A native of Boston, MA, Pfeifer enrolled in the Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception in 1974 with a major in psychology and a minor in philosophy, and graduated in 1978.[ according to whom? ]
Pfeifer holds a Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.) from Harvard Kennedy School, a Master in Security Studies from the Naval Postgraduate School, and a Master in Theology from Immaculate Conception. [3]
On September 11, 2001, Pfeifer was Chief of Battalion 1 and therefore responsible for the southern tip of Manhattan, including the World Trade Center. [7] [8] He had celebrated his 20th anniversary with the FDNY six days earlier and was therefore eligible for retirement. [7] [8]
At 8:46 a.m., while Pfeifer led the response to reports of a possible gas leak at the intersection of Church Street and Lispenard Street, American Airlines Flight 11 flew over the firefighters' heads and struck the North Tower. [7] [8] Franco-American filmmaker Jules Naudet, who with his brother Gédéon had been filming a documentary about Pfeifer's firehouse, captured one of two known videos of the North Tower impact. [7] [8]
En route to the World Trade Center, Pfeifer radioed that he had identified the airliner as an "American Airlines plane" and observed it "aiming" for the North Tower. [7] [8] Arriving minutes later, he established an Incident Command Post in the lobby of the North Tower and coordinated the FDNY's response with other chiefs as they arrived on site. [7] [6] [8] When Jules Naudet asked if he could stay, Pfeifer responded, "I want you right next to me. Never leave my side." [7]
Although the South Tower had not yet been hit, Pfeifer ordered civilian evacuations of both towers out of an abundance of caution. [7] [8] He personally ordered hundreds of firefighters – including his brother Kevin, a lieutenant with Engine 33 – to ascend the stairs in the North Tower to rescue people trapped at and above the impact zone. [7] [8] [9] He continued to manage the unprecedented crisis after the crash of United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower at 9:03 a.m. As people began jumping to escape the intense fire and smoke in the towers, Pfeifer tried in vain to ask them to wait to be rescued over the building's public address system. [10] [8]
When the South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m., causing an avalanche of dust and debris, without knowing the extent of the damage, he called for all firefighters to leave the North Tower and left the command post, escaping via a pedestrian bridge to the World Financial Center, [7] [2] [11] [12] bringing with him a number of survivors as well as the body of his friend and FDNY Chaplain, Father Mychal Judge. [7] [6] [11] [12] Although Pfeifer did not immediately comprehend that the South Tower had collapsed, he ordered all firefighters to evacuate the North Tower. [7] [12] At 10:28 a.m., he witnessed the collapse of the North Tower from across the street and covered Jules Naudet with his body to protect him from the flying concrete and steel. [7] [12] [13]
Coated in dust, the battalion chief regrouped with Deputy Chief Peter Hayden to coordinate the first rescue efforts. [7] Without the infrastructure to fight the fires that had started in WTC-7 during the attacks, Pfeifer and the surviving firefighters could only watch as the other skyscraper burned out of control before collapsing at 5:20 p.m. [7]
In recent years, Pfeifer has publicly discussed his experience on September 11 in detail, including in his 2021 book, Ordinary Heroes: A Memoir of 9/11 [7] , and in an interview for the 2021 National Geographic documentary series 9/11: One Day in America . [8] His decision to allow the Naudet brothers to stay and film the crisis as it unfolded both confirmed his account of events and resulted in the only record of the World Trade Center attacks from start to finish. [7]
After the September 11 attacks, Pfeifer left Battalion 1 and served as the Chief of Planning & Strategy of the FDNY Bureau of Operations. [14] He also made his effort to create the CTDP, [5] (Center for Terrorism and Disaster Preparedness) which was formally opened in 2004. [15] On November 7, 2009, Pfeifer was promoted from Deputy Assistant Chief to Assistant Chief. [16] During his tenure as the Chief of CTDP, Pfeifer played a vital role on the effects of Hurricane Sandy in New York in 2012, served as an Incident Commander at the Metro North commuter train derailment at Spuyten Duyvil in 2013, and assisted in developing the Ebola response in NYC in 2014. [3]
On 12th July 2018, Pfeifer retired from FDNY after 37 years of service, [11] making him the last fire chief on site of the September 11 attacks to leave the FDNY. [5] On September 12, 2021, he was awarded Knight of the Ordre national du Mérite at the Consulate General of France, New York City by Philippe Étienne, Ambassador of France to the United States. [4]
On February 18, 2023, FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh appointed Pfeifer as First Deputy Commissioner – the second highest rank in the FDNY. [7]
On July 26, 2023, Pfeifer provided remarks at a media press briefing regarding a fire and crane collapse in Manhattan. [17]
On August 7th, 2024, Pfeifer was appointed to acting Fire Commissioner after FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh stepped down from her role. [18] He served as Fire Commissioner until August 12, 2024, when Robert S. Tucker was appointed by Mayor Eric Adams. [19]
In an ABC Interview on September 9th, 2024, Pfeifer announced he would be retiring again from the FDNY. Pfeifer stated his last day would be September 11th, 2024. Pfeifer told ABC that he chose September 11th to be his last day because "that was the day I worked the hardest". Pfeifer told ABC he plans to write another book and teach at Columbia University. [20]
Pfeifer married his wife Ginny on June 3, 1984. [2] : 86 They have two children. [2] : 9 Pfeifer's brother, Kevin J. Pfeifer, was also a FDNY firefighter, who died at the North Tower on the day of September 11, [9] and had once reached the 32nd floor with Engine 33. Kevin was last seen by survivor FDNY Captain Dennis Tardio on the 9th floor of the North Tower, helping people evacuate. [2] : 104–105
Mychal Fallon Judge, OFM, was an American Franciscan friar and Catholic priest who served as a chaplain to the New York City Fire Department. While serving in that capacity, he was killed, becoming the first certified fatality of the September 11 attacks.
The September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center elicited a large response of local emergency and rescue personnel to assist in the evacuation of the two towers, resulting in a large loss of the same personnel when the towers collapsed. After the attacks, the media termed the World Trade Center site "Ground Zero", while rescue personnel referred to it as "the Pile".
Communication problems and successes played an important role during the September 11 attacks in 2001 and their aftermath. Systems were variously destroyed or overwhelmed by loads greater than they were designed to carry, or failed to operate as intended or desired.
The September 11 attacks of 2001, in addition to being a unique act of terrorism, constituted a media event on a scale not seen since the advent of civilian global satellite links. Instant worldwide reaction and debate were made possible by round-the-clock television news organizations and by the internet. As a result, most of the events listed below were known by a large portion of the world's population as they occurred.
9/11 is a 2002 documentary film about the September 11 attacks in New York City, in which two planes were flown into the buildings of the World Trade Center, resulting in their destruction and the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. The film is from the point of view of the New York City Fire Department. The film was directed by brothers Jules and Gédéon Naudet and FDNY firefighter James Hanlon and produced by Susan Zirinsky of CBS News.
The New York City Fire Department, officially the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) is the full-service fire department of New York City, serving all five boroughs. The FDNY is responsible for providing Fire Suppression Services,Specialized Hazardous Materials Response Services,Emergency Medical Response Services and Specialized Technical Rescue Services in the entire city.
Ronald Paul Bucca was a New York City Fire Department Marshal killed during the September 11 attacks during the collapse of the World Trade Center. He was the only fire marshal in the history of the New York City Fire Department to be killed in the line of duty.
Jules Clément Naudet and brother Thomas Gédéon Naudet are French-American filmmakers. The brothers, residents of the United States since 1989 and citizens since 1999, were in New York City at the time of the September 11 attacks to film a documentary on members of the Engine 7, Ladder 1 firehouse in Lower Manhattan.
Peter James Ganci Jr. was a career firefighter in the New York City Fire Department killed in the September 11 attacks. At the time of the attacks, he held the rank of Chief of Department, the highest ranking uniformed fire officer in the department.
Thomas Von Essen was appointed the 30th FDNY Commissioner of the City of New York by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani on April 15, 1996, and served in that position until the end of the Giuliani Administration on December 31, 2001, nearly four months after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
William Michael Feehan was a member of the Fire Department of New York who died during the collapse of the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks. He was the second-highest official in the department.
Stephen Cassidy was the longest serving President of the Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York (UFA) in its 100-year history. He was first elected to the position in August 2002 and is the only UFA President in the union's history to be elected directly out of a firehouse. In 2016, Cassidy resigned his position as UFA President to serve as the executive director of the New York City Fire Pension Fund. In 2018, following his arrest for driving while intoxicated, New York City Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro removed Cassidy from his position as executive director of the New York City Fire Pension Fund.
Rudy Giuliani: Urban Legend is a video produced by the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF). On July 11, 2007, the IAFF released the 13-minute video in DVD format to fire departments across the U.S. The DVD outlines its complaints against Rudy Giuliani. It is critical of the 2008 Republican Party presidential candidate and former New York City mayor. As the video has been issued on a website, and not just DVD, it is classifiable as a viral video.
The 23rd Street Fire was an incident that took place in the Flatiron District neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on October 17, 1966. A group of firefighters from the New York City Fire Department responding to a fire at 7 East 22nd Street entered a building at 6 East 23rd Street as part of an effort to fight the fire. Twelve firefighters were killed after the floor collapsed, the largest loss of life in the department's history until the collapse of the World Trade Center in the September 11 attacks of 2001.
Orio Joseph Palmer was a Battalion Chief of the New York City Fire Department who died while rescuing civilians trapped inside the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Palmer led the team of firefighters that reached the 78th floor of the South Tower, the floor where the plane had struck the building. As of 2024, his remains have never been identified.
The September 11 attacks were the deadliest terrorist attacks in human history, causing the deaths of 2,996 people, including 2,977 victims and 19 hijackers who committed murder–suicide. Thousands more were injured, and long-term health effects have arisen as a consequence of the attacks. New York City took the brunt of the death toll when the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan were attacked, with an estimated 1,600 victims from the North Tower and around a thousand from the South Tower. Two hundred miles southwest in Arlington County, Virginia, another 125 were killed in the Pentagon. The remaining 265 fatalities included the ninety-two passengers and crew of American Airlines Flight 11, the sixty-five aboard United Airlines Flight 175, the sixty-four on American Airlines Flight 77 and the forty-four who boarded United Airlines Flight 93. The attack on the World Trade Center's North Tower alone made the September 11 attacks the deadliest act of terrorism in human history.
Salvatore Joseph "Sal" Cassano served as the 32nd New York City Fire Commissioner from 2010 to 2014.
New York City Fire Department Ladder Company 3, also known as Ladder 3, is a fire company and one of two ladder companies in the New York City Fire Department's (FDNY) 6th Battalion, 1st Division. It is housed at 108 E. 13th St., along with Battalion Chief 6, and has firefighting stewardship over a several square block area of Manhattan’s East Village. The company was created on September 11, 1865, and is one of New York’s oldest ladder companies.
Daniel A. Nigro is the former New York City Fire Commissioner of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY). He served this position from 2014 until his retirement in 2022. Nigro's appointment was announced on May 9, 2014, and he was sworn in on June 9.
William Francis Burke Jr. was a Fire Captain with the Fire Department of New York, who was killed in the September 11 attacks. Burke died when he chose to stay with stranded civilians in the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Burke was the only member of Engine 21 who died in the attacks.
As the numbers grew, said Joseph Pfeifer, a fire battalion chief in the north tower lobby, he tried to make an announcement over the building's public address system, not realizing it had been destroyed.
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