OWASCO - Two years ago, four members from the Owasco Fire Department were asked to go down to ground zero to aid the many workers excavating rubble from the remains of the World Trade Center.
The Owasco Fire Department was commended for its efforts with a plaque and letter from the New York City Fire Department.
The plaque, actually a shadow box, has a stencil of the Manhattan skyline with the twin towers, and a drop box behind glass with a piece of the building sitting inside of the box.
Members from the town of Throop and Four Town Ambulance went down as well.
Owasco Fire Capt. Jeff Hutchinson, along with firefighter Patrick Donnelly, then-Lieutenant Todd Kelly, and then-firefighter Kristen Fischer, drove down to ground zero on Sept. 24, 2001. Their job was to assist workers who may have been injured while on the site, and transport the injured workers to hospitals, if needed.
The team met in Moravia with the two other emergency medical crews and caravaned down with Four Town leading the way.
At 11:45 that night, they arrived at Chelsea Piers, where they were stationed on the USMS Comfort, a ship that housed the out-of-town rescue workers.
Donnelly noted that there were several ambulances lined up along the pier waiting for the word to go down to ground zero.
At 1 a.m., Donnelly and Fischer were escorted to ground zero and given a tour of the remains. From there, they watched the workers cutting the steel beams, and finding bodies.
About 6:45 a.m. the sun began to rise, and it was cloudy, smoky and smelly. "The smell was worse than any landfill you can imagine," Donnelly said.
He said since they went down about two weeks after the initial attack, the sunny days that ensued only intensified the funk that was the decomposed bodies, burnt rubber and plastic, and diesel fumes from generators. "The World Trade Center site looked totally different in the daytime," he said.
After receiving the tour, the team returned to the USMS Comfort to await their calling to move in and lend a hand at ground zero.
For more than 10 hours, they sat at the ship waiting for the call to go in.
At 11:40 p.m., they got that call.
At 1:25 a.m., Sept. 25, Donnelly and Fischer were positioned on the southwest corner of ground zero at Liberty, Trinity, and Church streets.
"The wreckage was awesome. To see buildings that used to tower the city reduced to a pile of rubble ... it's indescribable," Donnelly said.
Donnelly said one of the things he will never forget was the air horns that were blown throughout their stay. Air horns signified that another body, or fragment of one, had been discovered and everyone present would stop working - there was absolute silence.
Some time was given to pay respects and then work resumed. "We heard the air horn several times while working down there," Donnelly said.
Donnelly and Fischer did their work until about 3 p.m.
Donnelly said he was wide awake. He was up for about 36 hours during the episode.
During the time that Donnelly and Fischer were at the southeast corner of the site, Hutchinson and Kelly were waiting for their call to go in. The teams of two operated on 12 hour shifts, and Hutchinson jokingly lamented that Donnelly and Fischer went over their shift by two hours.
So basically, for 14 hours, Hutchinson and Kelly sat at the pier and got friendly with the other rescue workers. "We weren't going anywhere because we didn't want to miss the call to finally get in there," Hutchinson said.
When they finally got the call to go in, it was the middle of the night, Hutchinson said. It took them about 30 minutes to weave through the detours and get down to the site. Several security checkpoints slowed their arrival, along with the fact they wanted to peer down the side streets on the way to see the impact of the blast.
"It was like a volcano had erupted; everything was covered in ash and debris," he said.
Hutchinson said one of the things that stuck out the most in his mind was how focused all the workers were.
"It was incredible. Everyone there was determined to find bodies and help families out. It was very well organized," he said.
Hutchinson also noted how appreciative all the city workers were for their efforts.
The impact the felled towers had on area surrounding buildings was amazing, Hutchinson said. "It was like a nuclear blast. All the windows were shattered and beams from the World Trade Center were thrown right in to the other buildings," he said.
He said the images that were portrayed on television were 20 times worse in real life.
Not too long after reaching ground zero, Hutchinson got a call that someone needed to be transported to a hospital. "I was really nervous because I didn't know what kind of condition this person was going to be in," he said. It turned out that the patient was asthmatic and needed to have his lungs checked out at St. Vincent's Hospital.
Furthermore, another concern for Hutchinson was actually getting to the hospital. He said that he didn't really know the city - having only been there once before as a kid - and the map provided was less than adequate. Fortunately, he was able to get a police officer to give them an escort to the hospital.
The patient was all right and the team returned to the site to finish out their shift.
Hutchinson said he was also able to get an "up close and personal" tour of the premises, since they were stationed a block away.
"We could see ground zero from where we were, but to be right up in it ... it was incredible," he said, noting the size of the piled debris, which was about 40 feet high.
After finishing their shift, the teams returned to the pier and started packing up for the ride home.
The team left at about 10 a.m. Sept. 26, and returned to Owasco around 3 p.m. that day.
The award that was given to the department makes the Owasco Fire Department very proud. "If another disaster happens, we would go in a heartbeat," Donnelly said.
Hutchinson agreed but said while the effort is rewarding, it doesn't "compare to the workers who were there for months digging in the rubble. But it's rewarding nonetheless. It's neat they did this for us - like we are heroes."
The plaque, actually a shadow box, has a stencil of the Manhattan skyline with the twin towers, and a drop box behind glass with a piece of the building sitting inside of the box.
Members from the town of Throop and Four Town Ambulance went down as well.
Owasco Fire Capt. Jeff Hutchinson, along with firefighter Patrick Donnelly, then-Lieutenant Todd Kelly, and then-firefighter Kristen Fischer, drove down to ground zero on Sept. 24, 2001. Their job was to assist workers who may have been injured while on the site, and transport the injured workers to hospitals, if needed.
The team met in Moravia with the two other emergency medical crews and caravaned down with Four Town leading the way.
At 11:45 that night, they arrived at Chelsea Piers, where they were stationed on the USMS Comfort, a ship that housed the out-of-town rescue workers.
Donnelly noted that there were several ambulances lined up along the pier waiting for the word to go down to ground zero.
At 1 a.m., Donnelly and Fischer were escorted to ground zero and given a tour of the remains. From there, they watched the workers cutting the steel beams, and finding bodies.
About 6:45 a.m. the sun began to rise, and it was cloudy, smoky and smelly. "The smell was worse than any landfill you can imagine," Donnelly said.
He said since they went down about two weeks after the initial attack, the sunny days that ensued only intensified the funk that was the decomposed bodies, burnt rubber and plastic, and diesel fumes from generators. "The World Trade Center site looked totally different in the daytime," he said.
After receiving the tour, the team returned to the USMS Comfort to await their calling to move in and lend a hand at ground zero.
For more than 10 hours, they sat at the ship waiting for the call to go in.
At 11:40 p.m., they got that call.
At 1:25 a.m., Sept. 25, Donnelly and Fischer were positioned on the southwest corner of ground zero at Liberty, Trinity, and Church streets.
"The wreckage was awesome. To see buildings that used to tower the city reduced to a pile of rubble ... it's indescribable," Donnelly said.
Donnelly said one of the things he will never forget was the air horns that were blown throughout their stay. Air horns signified that another body, or fragment of one, had been discovered and everyone present would stop working - there was absolute silence.
Some time was given to pay respects and then work resumed. "We heard the air horn several times while working down there," Donnelly said.
Donnelly and Fischer did their work until about 3 p.m.
Donnelly said he was wide awake. He was up for about 36 hours during the episode.
During the time that Donnelly and Fischer were at the southeast corner of the site, Hutchinson and Kelly were waiting for their call to go in. The teams of two operated on 12 hour shifts, and Hutchinson jokingly lamented that Donnelly and Fischer went over their shift by two hours.
So basically, for 14 hours, Hutchinson and Kelly sat at the pier and got friendly with the other rescue workers. "We weren't going anywhere because we didn't want to miss the call to finally get in there," Hutchinson said.
When they finally got the call to go in, it was the middle of the night, Hutchinson said. It took them about 30 minutes to weave through the detours and get down to the site. Several security checkpoints slowed their arrival, along with the fact they wanted to peer down the side streets on the way to see the impact of the blast.
"It was like a volcano had erupted; everything was covered in ash and debris," he said.
Hutchinson said one of the things that stuck out the most in his mind was how focused all the workers were.
"It was incredible. Everyone there was determined to find bodies and help families out. It was very well organized," he said.
Hutchinson also noted how appreciative all the city workers were for their efforts.
The impact the felled towers had on area surrounding buildings was amazing, Hutchinson said. "It was like a nuclear blast. All the windows were shattered and beams from the World Trade Center were thrown right in to the other buildings," he said.
He said the images that were portrayed on television were 20 times worse in real life.
Not too long after reaching ground zero, Hutchinson got a call that someone needed to be transported to a hospital. "I was really nervous because I didn't know what kind of condition this person was going to be in," he said. It turned out that the patient was asthmatic and needed to have his lungs checked out at St. Vincent's Hospital.
Furthermore, another concern for Hutchinson was actually getting to the hospital. He said that he didn't really know the city - having only been there once before as a kid - and the map provided was less than adequate. Fortunately, he was able to get a police officer to give them an escort to the hospital.
The patient was all right and the team returned to the site to finish out their shift.
Hutchinson said he was also able to get an "up close and personal" tour of the premises, since they were stationed a block away.
"We could see ground zero from where we were, but to be right up in it ... it was incredible," he said, noting the size of the piled debris, which was about 40 feet high.
After finishing their shift, the teams returned to the pier and started packing up for the ride home.
The team left at about 10 a.m. Sept. 26, and returned to Owasco around 3 p.m. that day.
The award that was given to the department makes the Owasco Fire Department very proud. "If another disaster happens, we would go in a heartbeat," Donnelly said.
Hutchinson agreed but said while the effort is rewarding, it doesn't "compare to the workers who were there for months digging in the rubble. But it's rewarding nonetheless. It's neat they did this for us - like we are heroes."
The Citizens' Say
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