Related Research Articles
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 fire suppression and fire prevention, and is a major provider of EMS services in New York City. Beyond fire suppression and EMS, the FDNY is responsible for a broad range of services, including technical rescue, CBRN defense, and structural collapse response and analysis. The FDNY is equipped with a wide variety of general-purpose and specialized fire apparatus to serve its varied missions.
The collapse of the World Trade Center occurred on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, after two commercial airliners hijacked by Al-Qaeda terrorists were deliberately flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center complex in New York City as part of the September 11 attacks. The North Tower was the first building to be hit when American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into it at 8:46 a.m., causing it to collapse at 10:28 after burning for one hour and 41 minutes. At 9:03 a.m., the South Tower was struck by United Airlines Flight 175; it collapsed at 9:58 a.m. after burning for 55 minutes. The towers' destruction caused major devastation throughout Lower Manhattan, and more than a dozen adjacent and nearby structures were damaged or destroyed by debris from the plane impacts or the collapses. Four of the five remaining World Trade Center structures were immediately crushed or damaged beyond repair as the towers fell, while 7 World Trade Center remained standing for another six hours until fires ignited by raining debris from the North Tower brought it down at 5:21 that afternoon. The hijackings, crashes, fires and subsequent collapses killed an initial total of 2,760 people. Toxic powder from the demolished high-rises was dispersed throughout the city and gave rise to numerous long-term health effects that continue to plague many who were in the towers' vicinity, with at least three additional deaths reported. The 110-story towers are the tallest freestanding structures ever to be destroyed, and the death toll from the attack on the North Tower represents the deadliest terrorist act in world history.
A PASS device, also known as a Distress Signal Unit (DSU) or ADSU, is a personal safety device used primarily by firefighters entering a hazardous or Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health (IDLH) environment such as a burning building. The PASS device sounds a loud (95 decibel) audible alert to notify others in the area that the firefighter is in distress. On a fireground, the sound of an activated PASS device indicates a true emergency and results in an immediate response to rescue the firefighter(s) in distress. In the United States, the National Fire Protection Association sets standards for PASS devices in NFPA 1982.
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 29th 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 Rudolph 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.
Within seconds of the collapse of the World Trade Center in the September 11 attacks, building materials, electronic equipment, and furniture were pulverized and spread over the area of the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. In the five months following the attacks, dust from the pulverized buildings continued to fill the air of the World Trade Center site. Increasing numbers of New York residents are reporting symptoms of Ground Zero respiratory illnesses.
As Mayor of New York City on September 11, 2001, Rudy Giuliani played a major role in the response to the terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center towers in the city.
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.
"The Real Rudy" is a series of four viral videos by documentary film director and activist Robert Greenwald.
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.
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.
Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001, and a candidate for President of the United States in 2008, Rudy Giuliani was both glorified and criticized in the public sphere for his past actions. Many credited him with reducing crime and improving the city's economy and lauded his leadership during the September 11, 2001 attacks and his coordination of the emergency response in the immediate aftermath. Others disapproved of his policies and political positions as Mayor and candidate and criticized the perceived glorification of his role in the aftermath of 9/11 during the 2008 campaign.
Vincent Joseph Dunn is a retired firefighter who served the New York Fire Department for 42 years, rising in rank to Commander of Division 3. A longtime contributing editor to Firehouse Magazine, he is the author of eight books on firefighting and one memoir. He published two of his books before his 1999 retirement from New York City Fire Department: "Collapse of Burning Buildings: A Guide to Fireground Safety," 1988; and "Safety and Survival on the Fireground,"1992. His later books are "Command and Control of Fires and Emergencies," 2000; "Strategy of Firefighting," 2007; "Building Construction the Firefighters Battlespace," 2018; "Fire the Battlespace Enemy," 2020; Battlespace Combat," 2020; and "Skyscraper Battlespace High-Rise Firefighting," completed 2022, publication pending. All of Chief Dunn's books are available at vincentdunn.com.
Joseph W. Pfeifer is a retired Assistant Chief of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY), the current first deputy commissioner of the department, and the founder of the department's Center for Terrorism and Disaster Preparedness (CTDP). He was also a first responder to and survivor of the September 11 attacks, and the first senior fire chief to respond to the World Trade Center that day.
References
- ↑ "Emergency-Response Center Honors the Spirit of 9/11 Hero Firefighter" from Scribd retrieved August 9, 2011
- ↑ The REAL Rudy Credits
- ↑ Kyra Phillips, CNN Anchor (March 10, 2002) Interview with Christine Papasso, Sally Regenhard, Richard Saracelli". CNN Sunday Morning , CNN. Retrieved March 10, 2002
- ↑ Ben Smith (September 18, 2006). "Rudy's Black Cloud: WTC Health Risks may hurt Prez Bid". New York Daily News . p. 14. Retrieved March 11, 2014.
- ↑ Planned Sign of Tolerance Bringing Division Instead from the New York Times July 13, 2010