All language subtitles for 911.One.Day.In.America.S01E06.WEBRip.x264-ION10

Oh, here we go! Here we go!

Oh, my God!

Oh, my God!

Oh, my God!

Oh, man!

Oh, my God.

We have the second tower,
right now, the second tower.

But listen, can you feel it?

I can feel it. I can hear it.

Oh, my God! (Bleep)!

Oh, it's going!

Oh, my God! Son of a.

Second tower is down!

Second tower's down.

I knew it, man.

On September 11th,

I woke up late.

I had completely
slept through Monday.

I was living on the west
side of Manhattan and

I was having a hard
time, you know?

I was drinking, I was acting
out in different ways,

very depressed, sleeping.

New York City's not a very
easy place to, to be, like,

on your own, trying to find a place
or even trying to find yourself,

because it's a, it's a
very busy, impersonal city.

Then I turned on the TV, okay.

And then I saw that
what had happened;

That the, that the planes
had hit the towers.

And to tell you the truth,

I wasn't really connected
to the city, right?

I wasn't really
connected to anything.

And it really didn't, um...

I really didn't fully grasp what
I was even looking at on the TV.

I didn't have any
thoughts about it, okay?

Um...

But, I listened to my voicemail.

So, my estranged sister,
her name is Joy, and, uh,

she had left a message
on my, on my voicemail.

And the message said,

"I hope you're okay,

you're probably
down there helping."

I thought to myself,

"She thinks I'm
down there helping.

Why would she think that?"

Nothing was further from my mind
than to be down there helping.

Why would I be
down there helping?

I'm an ex-paramedic,

trying to recover from
drugs and alcohol, okay?

And she thinks I'm down
there helping, you know?

And at that point, I was like,

"Well, I don't
wanna let her down."

You know what I mean?

"Maybe I should go
down there and help."

My intention was not to put myself
in any kind of harm's way, okay?

I thought maybe I would
go to a triage area,

help bandage people, help, uh,

you know, give them water.

Things of that nature.

I just wanted to be
able to call my sister,

my estranged sister, and say,

"Hey, guess what? I'm
down here helping."

That was it.

That was my whole motivation.

I knew that I should,
I better respond.

I'd just got out of the
Marine Corps, early August.

Served eight years.

I felt compelled.

I felt that it was
my duty to respond.

I had all this training.

I remember having my military
uniform in the trunk of my car.

I had just moved into this home,

and all the, all my
military gear, I said,

"I'm gonna, I'll leave
inside the trunk of my car."

I remember just grabbing,
running to my car,

grabbing my uniform out,
and then heading straight

to the crash site.

I remember just continuing
towards the Trade Center,

and, uh, I had linked up
with some firefighters and

we were searching the rubble.

We're digging through this pile,

trying to find people, and
we're getting a signal from.

Seven World Trade Center,

that that building is
completely engulfed in flames.

And they felt that this was going
to collapse while we're digging.

So, we're on the pile
and they blow a horn,

"Everybody off the pile."

Now we start scrambling
and we get off the pile.

And we look back
at the building,

they give the all clear,
we go back to the pile.

We're digging, we're digging;
A half an hour later,

they blow the horn,
"Everybody off the pile!"

REPORTER We have not yet heard.

Building number seven on fire
and in danger of collapse at

the World Trade Center.

The two towers are
virtually gone.

Nothing but rubble, basically.

But building number
seven on fire,

so the troubles are far
from over at that complex...

REPORTER 2 Now, eight hours after
the first of the planes hit, uh...

And all we know is we
gotta find people and

time is of the
utmost importance.

We need to find
these people fast.

We're all sitting
there watching,

and this building collapses.

Right down onto the pile.

There were firefighters,

that knew that they had loved
ones that were down there.

And I could see the sense of urgency
to be able to find that person;

To be able to find
their brother;

To be able to find their son
or their father or their wife.

They still didn't give
up on looking for them.

Through there.

I was standing across
the street from the.

World Trade Center.

Everyone, you know, was trying
to formulate a plan on how to

go about conducting
a search and rescue.

And I just knew
that we have to act.

You know, I can only
imagine being trapped and

not being able to
help myself, um,

and no one is
coming to rescue me.

I ran into another Marine.

He had his uniform on as well
and he introduced himself.

And I knew at that time that,
that he was going to be, you know,

that he was going to see
this through with me.

We started crawling
across the debris.

And it was so hot.

My boots would sink into the
rebar because it was hot.

And I remember turning around
and looking up and seeing that

this firefighter,

and he's yelling at
us, telling us to,

"Come back! Come back! Get off the,
the, get off the pile of rubble."

And I remember yelling
back at him, saying,

"We're Marines.

We do not go backwards,
we go forward."

I knew that we continue
to move forward,

digging and searching,
we'll find someone.

Think of, you know, the
worse nightmare you have

and multiply it by a million.

And we found ourselves
literally buried alive.

And it was black.

I mean, I found myself
in a black cavern,

if you will, and,
uh, I couldn't see.

Then all of a sudden,
about 30 feet up above me,

there was a hole and light
started coming through

this little hole.

And it was a very dust
filled environment,

and when I could finally see,
I remember looking at myself

and just seeing this wall
of concrete on top of me.

You know, at that point,

the pain really started,
uh, taking over on me.

I was just in a lot of pain.

My fellow officer, Dominick,

was buried to my left,
uh, in the debris,

and our team leader,
Sergeant McLoughlin,

he was about 15
feet beyond my feet.

And Sergeant McLoughlin being
the professional he is said,

"Alright, what's
everybody's condition?"

I said,

"I can't move. I'm stuck.

I'm actually being crushed."

Dominick said, "I think
I can get outta here."

And there wasn't
much room, I mean,

there was concrete
right above me;

There wasn't too much room, um.

But he was able to shimmy
out and literally crawl over

my face into this very
small space to my right.

And at that point, he started
to attempt to try to get me

out of what this concrete
cocoon looked like really.

He had been working
on me for, I'd say,

about ten, maybe 20 minutes,
uh, trying to get me out,

and that's when we
heard a humongous boom.

An earthquake-type of event where
everything's shaking around me.

Debris just kept
coming down on us, um.

I kept getting hit.

I remember thinking to myself,
"I'm not gonna make it."

And something I've always
done to my wife, Alison,

and my little girl, Bianca,

was always say the "I love
you" sign in sign language.

"I love you."

And all I could do
is take my hands,

make the "I love you" signs
and cross 'em over my chest,

because I figured
I was gonna die,

and if they found me,
they could tell Alison,

"This is the way we found him."

And she would know that in my
last moments on this earth,

I was thinking of them.

And that's when I
kinda glanced over and

I saw something come
through the hole above us,

and hit Dominick
really, really hard.

But then it stopped.

And when everything
cleared up again,

at this point I could hear
Sergeant McLoughlin yelling,

I was yelling more.

But then I looked over
and I could see Dominick,

and Dominick was now bleeding
outta his mouth, pretty bad.

And Dominick said,
"Willie, I'm hurt bad."

I said, "Hold on."

You know, I kept trying to
give him encouraging words.

We talked a little bit
more and he actually said,

"Sarge, can I get
a three-eight?"

Which means a break.

He cracks a joke in
the middle of this.

And Sergeant McLoughlin
stopped yelling and said,

"Yeah, you can have
a three-eight."

And I said, "Dom, hold on."

And he goes,
"Willie, I'm dying."

And he goes, "Just
don't forget that I died

trying to save you guys."

And I said, "Dominick,

I will never let
anybody forget this."

You know, at that point,
he took his side arm out,

he pointed it up into that hole that I
told you where the light was coming in,

he fired one round in
a last-ditch effort

to let somebody know
we were down there.

And then he passed, right
in front of my eyes.

Finally.

Alright, you guys.

Get back.

Everybody was just waiting.

And now it's
getting pretty dark.

There was nobody searching
the rubble because they,

they deemed it too
dangerous to search.

And then I was, I was right
at the edge of the rubble,

and I saw, I saw
looking up the rubble,

that there was a few
people searching.

But you could look down into
the cracks in the rubble and

you see the fire coming up.

I'm extremely scared of fire.

I'm extremely scared of smoke.

I'm extremely scared of heights.

Okay?

I have no plans to crawl
in any rubble to try to

rescue any person, right?

My plans were to be able
to call my sister, Joy,

okay, and tell her that
I'm down there helping.

And I remember taking the
first step onto the rubble.

I don't remember why I did it.

Okay?

I just remember
taking that step.

Hello!

We were searching for hours.

Every area that we get to
we would yell down inside,

"Is there anyone down there?

This is the, this is the
United States Marines."

And we would listen for voices
and we would get nothing.

As I'm looking around,

it felt like we were not
going to find anyone.

As we get about three quarters of
the way, the way across the debris,

I see this hole to the right,
and yelled into this hole,

"This is the United
States Marines.

Is there anyone down there?"

And I heard a voice.

I was physically,
mentally exhausted.

So tired I wanted to die.

And then I heard
voices in the distance.

And what I heard was,
"United States Marine Corps.

Can anybody hear us?"

And I started yelling
at the top of my lungs.

It was faint, but
I heard this voice.

But we were searching
all day and for hours,

and here it is.

I'm saying is that wishful,
is that just wishful thinking?

And it was almost
like a dream to me.

I, I actually asked myself,

"Am I hallucinating?
Am I dreaming this?"

Uh, but they answered me.

And this voice is panicky,

and it seems like the
voice is trembling.

And I said, "Hey,
Port Authority Police.

We got men down here.

Me and my sergeant
are hurt bad."

You know, "Don't leave us."

And they said, "We're
not gonna leave you."

And I was like, "Thank God."

But he was buried, buried
beneath the, the earth.

He wasn't easy to get to.

I continue to crawl and
walk over the rubble.

And then I saw there's a Marine,

standing in a hole
in the rubble,

with smoke and fire coming out,

with people down in that
hole who need to be rescued.

I don't know what
he was thinking,

but I was thinking, you know,

"Where are all the, where are all the
men and where's this rescue happening?"

You know.

And he's looking at
me like, "Hooray!

The rescuers have arrived."

He introduced himself to me, um,

that he was a paramedic,

and I knew that that's exactly
what we needed in that hole.

He pointed, down into the hole.

And he said,

"Look. Look at that hand."

And finally I saw this dirty
hand popping up from the rubble,

maybe 50 feet down into
the rubble, and waving.

And I thought to myself,

I don't know what I thought
to myself, you know?

I just, maybe just

you know, my training, my
training of, um, you know,

I guess every reason I ever became
a paramedic, uh, uh, kicked in.

I thought to myself,

"Maybe his life's worth
more than my life."

You know, my life wasn't
going very well, um.

So, I started to crawl
down into this hole,

this fiery, smoky, 50-foot
hole, into the rubble.

As we're crawling into the hole,

there's debris everywhere.

We can't get to that
voice that's in need.

I remember yelling for
this voice, asking him,

"Where are you at?"

And, um, he's yelling back,

and the hole is so hot,

and there's so much smoke you
could couldn't even breathe.

I reach a point where I
come upon the man who had

stuck his hand out, and
he said his name was Will.

He obviously needs help, okay?

He's beside himself.

He's, um, he's trapped.

He's in a very bad situation.

He's in the center
of the rubble,

50 feet down, trapped.

As they got to me, I
remember just wanting to

give myself up because
I was so exhausted.

I remember starting to
hyperventilate to the point

I thought I was gonna give
myself a heart attack.

And I remember Chuck saying,

"Hey, buddy, you gotta
hold it together.

You gotta control yourself."

And I remember
thinking to myself,

"Alright, calm yourself down."

I did calm myself down, and
they started to dig me out.

We had to remove
chunks of concrete.

I remember taking these huge
boulders and lifting them up

and, and, uh, walking them back.

It's, once again, it is
so hot that we had to

remove ourself from the hole.

And we did that multiple times,

we did that multiple times,

dig as hard as we
can and move debris.

And, um, and every
time we went topside,

we would yell out for help and
yell for help and wave our hands

and do everything
we possibly can, uh,

to alert people.

And no one was around.

We were, like, smack in
the middle of the debris.

No one could hear us.

Then there was
basically a point where

the room filled
with smoke, okay?

And at the point the
room filled with smoke,

I got a little scared.

Fire was, fire was coming
through in certain places.

It was, you know, it was obviously
that we were in grave danger.

And everything, every, like,
every cell in my body said,

"Get out of here."

You know?

And Will was, uh,
Will was also scared,

and he's telling me
to cut his leg off.

These fireballs,

you know, started
falling into the hole.

And, um, they worked
on me for a long time,

and at one point, they
couldn't get my left leg out.

And I remember saying,
"Just cut my left leg off.

I can see the hole.
Cut my left leg off."

I don't know how to
cut somebody's leg off.

It wasn't, like, an option.

What do I do?

Do I pull myself
out of this hole?

That fire was starting
to become larger.

You knew that the hole
was about to collapse.

It just felt like it
was going to collapse.

It was just a matter of time.

I didn't know if I was strong
enough to achieve that mission.

Will shares that his
wife is pregnant.

She's six months pregnant.

They're expecting a baby girl.

My mother raised me to respond
when you see someone in need.

She would always tell us,

"You are your brother's keeper.

Never leave your
brother behind."

And for years, she
would say that.

I had promised this, this, this Port
Authority police officer, Will Jimeno,

I had promised him, I said,

"I am going to, I promise
I'm gonna see this through."

At one point, I
remember them saying,

you know, just saying, you know,

"We're not leaving these guys."

You know?

"If we die, we die with them."

And, uh, that meant a lot to me.

They all wanted
to help, you know,

and that, that meant
a great deal to me.

We had all just made that
decision that no one was

gonna leave that
hole without him.

"Nobody's leaving you.

If you die, we're
all gonna die."

I said to myself, you know,

"How do you tell your family?

How do they know what
you were going to do,

what you were doing?"

I remember reaching
over to my pocket and

I had a, a camera,
a disposable camera,

and I took a couple
pictures of myself.

If I died, hopefully God would allow
someone to find this camera and

hopefully it would
answer some questions.

And I took that
camera and I put it,

and it was just the
hardest thing for me to do.

And I remember taking that
camera and putting it on a

high point of the debris, and
I went back into the hole.

But before I go back down,

I see a light.

Like these lights
appeared to be either

flashlights or
head-mounted lamps,

and, um, they're every bit
of 100 to 200 yards away.

And I'm yelling for these
lights and waving my hands.

They started making their
way directly towards me.

Before you knew it,

I could hear more
people up above us.

And two NYPD ESU officers,
Scott Strauss, Paddy McGee,

put their lives on the line
and they get into this hole.

I remember them saying, "We
got the cavalry on the way.

Hold on."

Chuck saying, "I'll
put an IV in."

And if I recall right, I think
he used duct tape or some,

some other tape than medical
tape to put an IV into me.

It's years and years and years
since I've started an IV,

I don't even know.

It's, like, it's been so many
years since I started an IV

that the catheters
have changed, okay?

And they are...

And I'm like, "How do
I use this catheter?"

Started the IV right away.

It was, it was one stick,
it was like a perfect IV.

But his legs were trapped.

And they called down
for a Hurst tool.

A Hurst tool is what they'll
use in a car accident

to pry a door open,

where it's like, has
the jaws of life.

At a certain point,
it just caught right.

It just caught, you know,
it just caught perfectly.

And, um, it released his legs.

And his leg was released.

They put me, finally,
on a Stokes basket,

and they started bringing me up.

And at that point, they
started passing me down this

long line of rescue
workers from all over;

From New York, New
Jersey, Connecticut.

You know, I remember just grabbing
patches and thanking people.

I didn't know anybody
till I hit one person.

There was one person
that grabbed me and

was actually looking
down at me and

I was looking up at him.

It was some classmate of mine.

But I heard him say, "Jimeno?"

And his nickname in the
academy was 'Devil Dog.'

So, right away I knew
who it was, and I'm like,

"Devil Dog?"

He's like, "Yeah, it's Grant."

And I remember.

I don't mean to get choked up,

but I remember just that I said,

"Devil Dog," and he said,

"Yeah, Jimeno, it's me."

I felt like it's
somebody I know,

and, uh, that meant a lot to me.

Just him saying,

"Hold on, buddy, you're
gonna make it out."

But then I looked up and I
didn't see the buildings.

And I asked, "Where
is everything?"

And a firefighter said,
"It's all gone, kid."

They took me down
to the ambulance.

They put me in the ambulance.

They took me to the hospital.

When we got there I'm thinking,

"Okay, I'm a police
officer, I'm hurt.

I'm sure there's probably of
hundreds if not thousands of people

they're working on.

I'm hoping someone can take
a peek at my injuries."

You know?

And when they get me
off the ambulance,

all I see is these doctors
and nurses standing around.

And I was like,
"Where is everybody?"

And they're like, "You're it."

This is now, I don't know,
11:30 at night, quarter to 12,

and they're telling
me that I'm it.

For the first day,

there was hope that
people would survive.

And I was hoping my
brother would survive.

In the back of my mind,

I was hoping that
I would see him or

he'd just walk up and
tap me on the shoulder.

And then we would, uh, talk
about it for weeks to come.

Until the evening
of September 12th,

there was still dust and
smoke coming from the pile,

and the tip of Manhattan
was in total blackness.

And I'm walking back
to the firehouse,

and knowing that my
brother was gone.

It was an, it was a
very eerie feeling of,

of loss.

Certainly, being part
of the fire department

I've seen many
things and, and, um,

and people dying.

I just never thought that I would
have to deliver the same message

to my family about my brother.

I went over to my
parents' house,

pulled into the little
driveway and walked in

the back door, and, uh,

and told 'em, um,

that there was, um,

there was no hope.

It's not part of nature for
your kids to die before you.

The only thing that's
important in my life right now

is to stay focused on how
do I find my daughter,

how do get to where she is?

I'm gonna find my daughter
no matter what it takes,

no matter what I have to do.

There's only one thing
in my life right now and

that's to bring her home.

Ma'am, tell me, you were
Yvonne's best friend.

Tell me about Yvonne.

We're all her best
friends over here.

We're looking for Yvonne.

She was on the 94th floor.

She was an Amex employee who
worked at Marsh McLennan.

Please, somebody from any
floors, from 88 and up,

please call our number,
917364, and tell us...

What happened over there
and if anybody got out.

And if anyone made
it, please call us.

Joey, as you can tell,

it is just an endless sea of people
who are looking for their loved ones,

who are doing anything they can
to find some sign, any sign.

Joey.

Thank you, Mayor.

Everybody, thank
you for your help.

I give myself no credit for
any part of that rescue.

God uses the weak to
confound the wise.

So, God uses the low, the
low people of the world,

to confound the wise.

There's no way that I...

That I could ever turn
around and say it was me.

I had no desire, no will,
no strength, no training,

no power to, to have accomplished what
the Lord used me to do that night.

It was Super Bowl Sunday,

and I was working that day.

Uh, I remember being
called to the site and

they wouldn't tell me why.

But I knew why.

My brother, he was found
after digging for months.

Placed him on a stretcher and

carried him to a
waiting ambulance.

And I got in the back.

And it was one of the
saddest moments or

the saddest moment of my life.

I, um, was sitting
on the, uh, bench,

next to the stretcher,

in tears.

The lights of the fire
truck behind, flashing,

um, with the number 33 on it.

And then I could remember
moving from an intense sadness

to thinking about
the times we sailed.

And the sadness disappeared
into wonderful memories.

One of the captains told me that he
met my brother on the ninth floor and

he said that if it wasn't for my
brother directing him and his unit,

he woulda never got out alive.

He could've got out.

Not just him, but his unit.

Engine 33 made a commitment
to help other firefighters,

so they stopped, and
they redirected not only

the firefighters but other
civilians to the safest stairs.

Um...

And that's probably what
we're most proud of.

To me it's still a cemetery.

I know it's a memorial, some
people think it's a park,

but to me it's a cemetery.

Over 1,100 people are still
missing that have never been found.

I work at the 9/11
Memorial Museum.

We take care of the pools;
We keep the place clean;

We take care of the grass;
We take care of the trees.

I wanna keep that
place pristine,

so when the family members
come there they're proud of

how we remember their,
their loved ones.

Still around,
guys, still around.

I made it.

What's your name?

Tom Canavan.

Tom, what happened, man?

Uh, big boom.

Come down the steps,

everything fine till
we got to the basement,

and then everything
just fell in.

I got trapped in there
with another guy.

It's hard sometimes to go

just through
everyday life without

thinking about that day.

And I know a lotta people go,

"Well, you're
alive. Get over it."

There is no getting over it.

There is no...

There's dealing with it and
moving on with your life,

but it's always gonna be there.

And it's a big part of my life
because now I chose to make it

as a part of my life.

And that's, I think
that's my legacy now.

When I bring people through
sometimes, who visit,

we go to the memorial exhibit

where we have pictures
of the victims.

I asked the people that
I'm bringing through,

"Do you notice anything
similar with them?"

They'll look at them.

Some people get it, some don't.

And they'll say,
"They're smiling."

Ruth Clifford McCourt

and her daughter Juliana
Valentine McCourt.

Jennieann Maffeo.

Andy Fredericks.

Orio Palmer.

Billy McGann.

Tommy Swift.

Steve Strauss.

Lindsay Herkness.

Rick Rescorla.

It was Mark Schwartz,

Carlos Lilo, James Pappageorge.

Kevin Cleary.

Steven Chucknick.

Jose Marrero.

And part of our job
here is to show you

this is how these people lived.

They were just everyday people;

They got up, they went to work;

Feed their kids, put
clothes on their back,

get 'em through school,
make their life good.

Antoinette Sherman.

Mark Bingham.

Joe Hunter.

Richie Allen.

David Marc Sullins.

Tommy Langone.

John Bergin.

Detective Joseph Vigiano.

Lieutenant Greg Atlas.

Dominick Pezzulo.

Abdu Malahi.

Don DiFranco.

Manny Gomez.

Leroy Homer.

My brother, Lieutenant
Kevin Pfeifer.

My best friend.

Your memory shouldn't be your
name on a wall somewhere.

That's not you.

You are the person
in that photo album.

You are the smiling
person, living your life.

That's how you want
people to remember you.

Vinnie Danz.

Walter Weaver.

Lieutenant Stephen Harrell.

Toyena Skinner.

Tom Burnett.

Dan Bergstein.

Ronald Kloepfer.

Bernard Curtis Brown II.

Carmen Alicia Rivera.

Jack Punches.

Pat Cody.

Bobby Coll.

Vernon Richard.

Kathy Robinson.

Captioned by Cotter Media Group.