Firefighters, Public Memory, and Heroism After September 11
The firemen who participated in the 9/11 attack’s cleanup of the area and saved people from miserable deaths were highly appreciated, and even now, they are considered heroes. During the attack, the World Trade Center was operating normally, and the building had people who were working on their regular tasks. After the attack, the firemen were among the people who started saving those inside the building.
There were countless people who were thankful for the firefighters and the other responsible authorities. It is stated in a number of discussions and considerations that if the firefighters had not stuck to their job, the death rate of the disaster would have doubled. The main aim of the paper is to discuss how the firefighters really put all their efforts into minimizing the loss as much as possible, according to and even beyond their duties.
One of the firefighters, Steve Buscemi, who works in the United States media industry, performed his duties as a firefighter during the 9/11 attack. He explained his story of saving people in the 9/11 attack as the most shocking incident for all of New York City. He elaborated on his job, saying that, at that moment, they were working there as firefighters, but when they saw that aid was missing for helping the injured people at the site, they had to finish their work immediately and get involved in saving people. He said his sense of danger for himself was gone, and his feeling of protecting others was overwhelming. He also explained that on that day, he consistently worked beyond his shift, and after that, he used to work 12 hours and even more to help the people so that as many people as possible would survive.
Steve also worked as a firefighter advocate, and he discussed the efforts of firefighters as admirable. There was a statement of his when he became famous all over the country after the 9/11 attack. It was that the firefighters were supposed to help others and each other and work for their own satisfaction. They always know that someone is in need, but they never know that they are also in need.
Emergency Response and the Experience of Firefighters at the World Trade Center
The control room informed all the safety departments about the 9/11 emergency, and everyone rushed towards the World Trade Center. A firefighter named Lt. Mike Quilty and his colleagues used to work on a regular basis and never stopped helping people who were in trouble. They explained that when they saw the World Trade Center burning and the concrete of the building turning into debris, they only thought that this was the end of the world and they were supposed to protect as many people as possible.
A number of people who were connected with the communication networks at that moment explained that the people in the control room were not attending to them, and they were completely ignored. Here the scenario was different: when a big part of the building collapsed onto the ground, everyone just thought that this was the end and nobody could survive now. This time for Manhattan, New York, was an emergency, and there were unlimited calls coming from countless people. Everyone was supposed to describe the situation, and many who were engaged at the site or trapped inside the building were ignored. The fault here was explained by many of the control rooms, which didn’t respond to the calls. People started to call the control rooms, and they didn’t realise the current busy schedule of the people in the control rooms.
If estimated according to the reports, almost everyone was at the WTC site after some time. Not a single firefighter truck stopped. Some were at the filling stations, some were travelling towards the site and performing their duties. Even the non-Manhattan firefighters were also available for the additional requirements. The firefighters were working beyond their shifts. People felt bad when most of them returned after a tiring schedule, but rest was a human need that was required by every firefighter. Some of the most important perceptions of the people against the firefighters were that they were not working at the site and were standing beside them. Some were not performing their jobs as they should. All these points were considered by the firefighter association, but these perceptions were those of the general public, who critically analyzed the situation, which was their right.
Recognition, Institutional Judgment, and the Limits of Rescue Work
The final comments from the associations and government institutions were positive, and they explained the limitations of the firefighters and their duties. There was a discussion which lasted for weeks that the firefighters should have done their jobs differently to limit the damage. This discussion was analyzed as well as ignored because, at the site where ashes and concrete were everywhere, nobody was able to help anyone except by trying to overcome the damage. The lives of the people were the first priority, and because of this, everything was ignored; the firefighters were supposed to find the people trapped inside the debris of the building. Since Manhattan is a highly populated area and the buildings are close to each other, firefighters were prevented from cutting and throwing concrete from the upper floors onto the ground. This caused great difficulty and made it a time-consuming task to evacuate the building as soon as possible, help the injured, and remove the dead bodies from the World Trade Center’s building area (Tierney, 2005).
In my opinion, a firefighter is a position which is associated with protecting anything from fire. The security of the people engaged in the situation is also the first priority. Every department has its own job. Most of the firefighters, after the elimination of the fire, also act as lifesavers for the people who are trapped at the site where the destruction happened.
In a number of ways above, it is concluded that the firefighters are properly acquitted of their efforts. They didn’t step back from their own work and completed their work efficiently with respect to their abilities and considering their limitations. Despite the negative perceptions of the people who witnessed the situation, it is understood that the firefighters completely put all their efforts into helping the people get out of the World Trade Center building. There are many firefighters who didn’t sleep for more than twenty-four hours while serving at the site. The Manhattan firefighters were helped by firefighters from other areas, and they collectively managed to overcome the issue as soon as possible. Even after seventeen years, the World Trade Center incident is in the memories of the people as crystal clear as if it happened yesterday. They argue even today that it took a long time to help the people to get out of the building. Not even a single person knows all the facts and figures. If studied in detail and analyzed, the problems would be understood completely (Freedman, 2004).
Works Cited
Tierney, Kathleen. “The 9/11 commission and disaster management: little depth, less context, not much guidance.” (2005): 115-120.
Luban, David. “Liberalism, torture, and the ticking bomb.” Intervention, Terrorism, and Torture. Springer, Dordrecht, 2007. 249-262.
Hinds-Aldrich, Matt. “Firesetting Firefighters: Reconsidering a Persistent Problem.” INTERNATIONAL FIRE SERVICE (2011): 33.
Menendez, Anne Marie, Janice Molloy, and Maryann Corrigan Magaldi. “Health responses of New York City firefighter spouses and their families post-September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.” Issues in mental health nursing 27.8 (2006): 905-917.
Freedman, Tovia G. “Voices of 9/11 first responders: Patterns of collective resilience.” Clinical Social Work Journal 32.4 (2004): 377-393.
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