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Oh, my gosh.

Tonight, the attack that stunned the nation...

The World Trade Center, we took a hit on that last explosion.

...caught on camera...

Mayday! Mayday!

We got to get everybody out! Let's go!

...inside the World Trade Center...

I saw the second one hit the other tower.

...as the first tower fell.

Tower One to Division 1, where are you?

...on a day we'll never forget...

Command Post to Tower One, evacuate the building.

...9/11.

For some, September 11, 2001, seems a lifetime ago.

For others, it was just yesterday.

But for everyone in this country,

the ruthless attack that happened

on that clear, sunny day is seared in our minds.

Good evening. I'm Denis Leary.

The entire nation gasped when the Twin Towers,

reaching high into the sky,

symbols of success and achievement and possibility,

were brought crashing down

when two hijacked jetliners flew directly into them.

Here at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum,

are the names of the almost 3,000 innocent lives

that were lost that day,

including 343 of New York's bravest.

CNN is honored to bring you the epic film "9/11"

that was born when two French brothers,

Jules and Gédéon Naudet,

with fellow filmmaker and firefighter James Hanlon,

were shooting a documentary about a rookie New York fireman

in downtown Manhattan.

On September 11th, their film about a year in the life

of a young firefighter

was transformed into a gripping,

minute-by-minute eyewitness account of the first responders

who rushed to the scene and tried to save people

while the towers burned, then fell.

The Naudet brothers kept their cameras rolling,

capturing historic footage of New York's real-life heroes,

heading towards danger in the area

that became known as Ground Zero.

When you work in a firehouse

7 blocks from the two tallest buildings in New York...

...you get to know every step, every staircase, every story.

Good morning, Jim. Couldn't get too close to that razor blade?

I'm James Hanlon.

I'm a filmmaker and was a New York City firefighter

at Ladder 1 downtown.

During the summer before 9/11,

there were days we'd go to the Trade Center

five times in a single shift.

10-4. We're going to also send in some help.

My point is, we knew those towers as well as anybody,

but nobody...

...nobody expected September 11th.

- Excuse me! - Got to get out!

Go to the Trade Center.

On that day, guys from my firehouse,

my best friends,

were some of the first firefighters in the Tower One

after the plane hit.

We've got jumpers.

What they did that day,

what everyone there did, was remarkable.

Chief!

And almost as remarkable,

it was captured on videotape

inside the tower,

beginning to end,

and tonight, you'll see all of it.

The tape was shot by two brothers,

Jules and Gédéon Naudet.

Holy shit.

They're documentary filmmakers

and old friends of mine.

There is always a witness for history, I guess.

For that day, we were chosen to be the witness.

The strange thing is, the tape, the whole story,

it kind of happened by accident.

I mean, we didn't mean to make a documentary about 9/11.

We wanted to make a documentary about a firefighter.

That's how the whole thing got started.

9, 10. 1, 2, 3, 4.

More to the point, the plan was to follow a rookie.

On the job, we call them probies.

The idea was to show a kid, almost,

become a man in 9 months.

We need some more!

My name's Paul Denver.

John Carroll.

Antonios Benetatos, Tony for short.

I was a police officer.

For a while, I was a pizza man, actually,

an Irish pizza man in the Bronx.

This is my first job.

It sounds kind of cheesy,

but I always kind of wanted to be a hero,

and this is really the only thing

you could do that you can do that.

Immediately, we were like, "Okay. This is the kid.

This is the kid. Let's go."

We got Tony assigned to my firehouse,

one of the biggest in the city.

It's Ladder 1, plus a whole other company, Engine 7.

Steve Lova.

They're guys who fought some of the worst fires you can imagine.

- What's up with that shirt? - What's the matter with it?

Soon, they'd face the unthinkable.

Question was, would Tony be ready?

I'm terrified.

This is what I want to do, but it's -- it's scary.

You know, I'm still worried

about how I'm going to actually react

when there's fire flying over my head.

The thing is, when you're a probie,

what you're supposed to do...

We got to do the sheets.

We change the sheets in the mornings.

...is pretty much everything.

More news and traffic coming up. It's 6:22.

♪ Oh, I, I got work to do ♪

♪ I got a job, babe ♪

♪ I got work, I got work to do ♪

♪ I got work to do ♪

Get all the wheels.

Then we start up top, and we wash the way down.

I think I'm doing decently.

You know, I'm still waiting for a fire.

That's all.

Engine niner.

Should we grab that big, long thing from the back, too?

Yeah.

GédéTony was nervous, of course, terribly nervous.

And as the days would pass, Tony waiting for his first fire,

wanted to prove to the other guys

and even more to himself

that he was going to be a real great fireman.

We're going to break your chops until you laugh about it...

- Right. -...because that's how we do.

It's all part of learning how to handle people and situations.

Now, say you got up there now,

got your helmet on, your bunker gear,

and you got to get your mask on.

How are you going to do that without letting go?

Uh, I don't know.

Start moving, guys. Hot in here. Hurry up.

Not bad.

- Payday today, man. - Yes.

For 2 weeks, I got $672.25.

You got to be kidding me.

You couldn't even buy a six-pack with that.

Holy crap.

If I wanted to get rich, I would've become a lawyer...

but I wanted something that I'd be able to live with

for the rest of my life.

This I can live with.

A lot of the guys feel that way.

You get to get up in the morning and look yourself in the mirror

and say, "You're doing something with your life."

Somebody's in there. Hit the door.

You do your job.

You risk your life to help people...

and to be part of a family at the firehouse.

How you doing, Jimbo, huh?

- You doing pretty good? - I'm doing pretty good.

Oh!

Oh!

- Oh! Oh! - Oh, man!

It's been 4 weeks, I think, 5 weeks, something like that,

and I'm still -- still no fire.

But it'll come, probably when I'm asleep and not ready for it.

That's when it'll come.

It's 2:30 in the morning, bro. You can sleep.

- You can. - All right.

Trust me. When the alarm goes off,

they'll come and get you. - Okay.

I got to spray water.

If they're all like that, it's going to be a fun 20 years.

Come here. There's fire over here.

There's the fire. Okay?

Start your line.

Put out the steaks.

Gédé By the end of August,

we knew that we had a great cooking show,

and there were no fires.

But every time we would talk with some of the senior guys,

they always told us,

"Well, be careful what you wish for."

Yesterday, a 27-year-old firefighter,

in Staten Island he was stationed,

went to a job, and he passed away.

We'll go to the funeral on Saturday, and...

what can you say?

At the time, we didn't think there could be anything worse

than losing a single firefighter.

I mean, looking back, we were all just

kind of innocent...

especially Tony.

A bunch of the guys were talking about what different parts

usually get them at the funeral.

When the coffin went past,

that was...

that was a little rough.

I don't know.

I hope it's my last one.

Ahh.

They'll go straight up right now.

There's a lot of things going on at all times, you know.

You have to be on the top of your game.

All right.

There's a lot of things to think about, you know.

Tunnel vision, focus, really... - Right.

...because that's what's going to keep you alive,

and that's what's going to give you the opportunity

to help anybody else.

Right.

Fire or no fire, Tony had learned a lot that summer.

Get him up. Get him over the roof.

Sure, he had a ways to go, but we'd teach him.

Far as we knew, there was plenty of time.

A few days later, Jules cooked a French dinner for the guys.

At least, he tried to.

Decided to cook leg of lamb.

Gédé I think he cooked one, and we really needed at least five.

Where's Frenchie?

A couple more meals like this, we'll be able to share shirts.

We stayed up late, just telling jokes and busting chops.

This is the best part of the meat.

GédéEven though the guys were making fun of us

because we didn't cook enough, we were all having a great time.

We're getting accepted.

Silence!

Touchdown!

It was really a great night. Little did we know.

It was the night of September 10th.

Should be a beautiful day today, sunshine throughout,

low humidity, really a splendid September day,

the afternoon temperature about 80 degrees,

great weather for the primary election.

Tonight, clear and cool, low 60...

It's begun to sound like some sort of a cliche,

but really,

September 11th started out like every other day.

I was off that day.

Thirteen guys from my firehouse were on.

- Around 8:30... - Engine, ladder.

...I believe the run came in.

Get the run for the gas leak or an odor of gas in the street,

actually, I think it was.

Just Lispenard and Church, odor of gas.

You know, don't think anything of it.

You get on the rig. You go.

You say, "All right. It's an odor of gas."

Jules was riding with the battalion chief, Joseph Pfeifer,

videotaping.

It was just another call,

and I'm riding with the battalion chief.

We checked the area with meters, and it was kind of routine.

It was 8:46 in the morning.

That's when this stopped even resembling a normal day.

Holy shit!

Holy shit!

Come on!

Holy shit!

Right then and there, I knew that this was going to be

the worst day of my life as a firefighter.

Go to the Trade Center.

Immediately, I knew that this wasn't an accident.

Oh, my god.

That looked like a direct attack.

What?

Chief Pfeifer made the first official report.

We have a number of floors on fire.

It looked like the plane was aiming towards the building.

Transmit a third alarm.

We'll have the staging area.

All right.

Vesey and West Street.

Everyone we was passing was looking up.

It's like the world just stopped.

We are just currently getting a look at the World Trade Center.

We have something that has happened here.

Flame and an awful lot of smoke from one of the towers.

Whatever has occurred has just occurred within minutes,

and we are trying to determine exactly what that is.

Right in there.

As we swung around in front of World Trade,

my mind tells me, "Wow, this is -- this is bad."

What do we do? Like, what do we do for this?

My whole team, let them know.

We're going to team up.

We park right under the awning of one World Trade Center,

and Chief Pfeifer puts his gear on,

and I remember asking, "Chief, can I come in with you?

I want to come in with you." And he says, "Yep."

Yeah. Stay with me.

"Come in with me. Never leave my side."

All right. Ready? Who's got the 10?

I go in, and I hear screams, and right to my right,

there was two people on fire burning.

I just didn't want to film that.

It was like, "No one -- no one should see this."

Pfeifer was the first chief into the building.

Right away, a guy from the Port Authority told him

the damage was somewhere above the 78th floor.

But all you had to do was look around.

It was obvious something had happened

right there in the lobby.

You just saw that all the windows were blown out.

The lobby looked like the plane hit the lobby.

Later, they'd figure out that flaming jet fuel

had shot straight down the elevator shaft.

All of this damage was done already.

People was all over the place.

So you knew it was going to be worse when we got upstairs.

Flames are shooting out. Smoke is pouring out.

I want you to get an engine to team up...

- Let's get an off-site line. -...and talk to 7.

And I want to be a couple higher than 78.

My main concern was we had, you know,

20 floors of people above.

Chief, do you have any idea where the floors are...

And we had to figure out a way to get them out.

Stay close.

Chief, we haven't found elevator yet.

You don't have an elevator yet?

As it turned out, we had no usable elevators.

Freight elevator.

Any elevators working?

With the elevators out,

there was only one way to get up there --

walk.

Companies come in.

You see them with a concerned look on their face.

Can we get an extra man?

And they're sent up.

A firefighter in full gear

carrying sixty-something pounds of hose and equipment

takes about a minute to climb one flight of stairs.

These guys were looking at 80 stories just to get there.

Then they'd start working.

I felt the mood that we were going to put the fire out.

Everyone seemed to be confident. I know I was.

You basically looked at it and said, "Okay.

We got 10, 20 stories of fire.

You know, we'll deal with it.

We'll get up there.

You know, we'll get to it."

There are fire crews just screaming into this area

from every conceivable direction.

By this time, some of the top chiefs

in the department have joined Chief Pfeifer,

running the Command Post, sending guys upstairs.

One of the men who went up was Lieutenant Kevin Pfeifer,

who was in charge of Engine 33 and was the Chief's brother.

I just remember we both looked at each other, said a few words,

but it was more the look of real concern

that this was going to be something tough.

It was going to be a tough job.

It was going to be a long job.

They'll put it out. That's what they do.

The last time Jules had seen his brother

was an hour ago at the firehouse.

Far as Jules knew, Gédéon had followed Tony,

the probie, into the tower.

So for me, my brother is going up the stairs.

It turns out Gédéon was with Tony.

Engine 7, Ladder 1.

This is Firefighter Benetatos.

But Tony was still at the firehouse.

Yeah. No. I was off-duty.

And now he'd been ordered to stay there.

Everybody's been recalled.

All available units must come back to the firehouse.

While Tony tried to keep up with the phones...

This is Firefighter Benetatos.

...Gédéon took his camera and started walking

down towards the Trade Center.

He was sure his brother was inside,

and he wanted to get to him.

GédéWhat really stick in my mind is passing by people

and filming them and filming their astonishment.

I remember tilting the camera back and forth

between the people and the tower in front of me.

Let's go! Let's move it!

Both towers of the World Trade Center

have been hit by aircraft. Both are in flames.

Reporter # There is black smoke coming from both of the towers.

It's a horrific scene here.

- Mayday! - Mayday!

There were two planes. I saw the second one hit.

- Tower One. - It hit the other tower.

All we knew was that a second plane hit,

and we had a lot of people trapped.

Stay together! Stay together!

Let them know what's going on.

You're just gonna have to hurry. There's one way to go.

Second plane just hit. - For real?

Now the chiefs would have to set up a whole other operation

over in Tower Two.

Now he's going to... I'm going to send him up.

I got to check it.

When the second plane hit,

that's when you could see fear.

Both of them are on fire.

You could see it in everybody's eye.

- Was it a plane or a bomb? - We saw it! We saw it! A plane!

You saw a plane go into the building?

A plane ran straight into the building right there!

We heard, "Boom," and the whole...

What are those people going to do?

On the second one...

All the elevators are blocked out!

Well, the staircases might still be...

Right?

The stairs were crowded.

People were coming down burnt.

Upstairs in Tower One, the guys from my firehouse

were now 10 floors up and climbing.

If we did talk, it was to the people coming down,

trying to comfort them, telling them,

"It's all right. Get out. Stay calm."

I run up finding a woman in the C staircase.

Her arms were all burnt.

She was just sitting there basically in shock,

so I picked her up under her arms,

and I put her in with a group of guys,

and I asked the group of guys to, you know, take her down.

I knew we had to get up to help people.

We had to get up there.

Man #People pretty much said, "Why are y'all going up there?

Get out."

Their concern was to get everybody out.

That was the key, as much people out as possible.

Most of the people in Tower One

came out on the mezzanine above the lobby.

Then they'd get out through another building.

All right. I want to use the lobby of seven as your triage.

The chiefs didn't want anyone going through the lobby doors.

First it was because debris was falling outside.

Then...

Jumpers.

...it was people falling.

You don't see it, but you know what it is.

What's that?

And you know that every time you hear that crashing sound,

it's a life which is extinguished.

It's not something you could get used to.

And the sound was so loud.

I just remember looking up, thinking,

"How bad is it up there that the better option is to jump?"

The FBI is now investigating reports of a plane hijacking

before these crashes we're telling you about

at the World Trade Center towers this morning.

Pieces of the building and the planes

actually landed blocks away.

Do not walk in this area, please!

Gédéon was walking with his camera

when he found a chunk of the plane engine

that had crashed completely through Tower Two.

Whoa. Whoa. What are you doing?

Don't be kicking stuff, homey. This is evidence.

Now you don't kick it. - All right. All right.

Just get out of the area. Just go.

This is evidence. You're kicking stuff.

What's the matter with you?

That was as close as Gédéon would get to the Trade Center,

without a firefighter anyway.

Go! Go! Let's go! Move!

GédéSo I decided that the smartest thing to do

was to slowly walk back to the firehouse

and find a way to get to Jules.

We're just getting word now.

One of the two planes

was hijacked after take-off from Boston.

Reporter # Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Center

in an apparent terrorist attack on our country.

Reporter #We now have reports of a fire at the Pentagon.

The fire at the Pentagon being reported this morning.

And I was just saying that the officials

are calling this an act of terrorism.

They're saying that's clearly what it is,

clearly not an accident.

Gédé Arriving back at the firehouse,

and Tony is still alone,

and he has no clue of what to do.

The Pentagon's on fucking fire?

War. This is war.

Gédé And, just by listening to him,

freaking out and swearing

and behaving like I've never seen him behaving,

Tony was expressing what we all felt.

I can't believe the fucking Pentagon.

Somebody has balls.

Tony just wanted to go there.

In the lobby, the chiefs were trying to run

the largest rescue operation any of them had ever seen.

You got a phone that's working?

I assumed the entire world knew more than we did.

Everybody had seen the attacks.

Everybody had seen the tower burning.

I'd seen the Pentagon.

For us, we didn't have a clue.

...other than NYPD, Port Authority,

police and the military, and I need that done now.

On top of everything else,

just talking to the guys in the stairwells was tough.

I want David to Battalion 7.

The tower's internal communication setup

had been knocked out by the crash.

That left fire department radios.

Suddenly, you have hundreds and hundreds of firefighters

that have radios.

Seems to become more and more difficult.

And one guy from the WTC who was trying frantically

to reach anyone on the elevators.

69 car. Can you respond?

Is there anyone in this car?

And going through the list...

Hello? Is there anyone in this car?

...there's about 98 elevators in the World Trade Center.

The cars are dead.

In the middle of all this,

suddenly, an elevator opens up...

and we see people,

not having a clue of what's going on

because they've been stuck in there since the first plane hit.

We see the look on the firefighters.

I don't know.

It was not fear. It was, "What's going on?"

Disbelief.

That made me panic a little bit.

That made me panic.

For the first time, I had seen Father Judge,

the chaplain, as he's called.

He was in the lobby with us,

and I could tell that he was praying.

You know, Father Judge, he would at least make eye contact

with you and kind of give you a reassuring look.

That wasn't occurring,

almost like he knew that this was not good.

This is a dangerous way to go out.

Back at the firehouse...

- What's up? - What's up?

...off-duty guys were starting to show up.

We're just waiting right now.

What's that?

We're just waiting right now.

GédéTony was... He just had one thing in his mind...

This is bad.

...to go there, and he couldn't,

and that's when Chief Byrnes arrived.

We need to have a look.

Larry Byrnes joined the fire department in 1957.

He retired in 1998, a battalion chief.

I couldn't wait.

I had to get down there because you know what?

They're my firefighters. It's my building.

It's my city.

So you get them all together.

Get a flashlight and a bottle of water.

Okay.

Gédé I remember Tony asking me

to bring him some gloves, medical gloves...

Grab the box of gloves. Go grab the box of gloves.

...and by the time I found them and rushed back,

they were gone.

What are we gonna do?

The probie and the retired chief were lost in the crowd,

headed down to the Trade Center.

I think, at that point, the lobby was pretty empty.

There were just a few of us in the lobby,

and we were discussing tactics.

Some of the outlying companies

didn't know what Tower One was and Tower Two,

so we were just trying to help them out

by writing it on the desk to make it obvious to people.

It was just before 10:00,

a little over an hour since the first plane hit.

Firefighters from all over the city

were inside those towers, hundreds of them.

I remember filming Chief Pfeifer,

and he's on the radio.

A situation that started bad

just gets worse and worse and worse.

The World Trade Center South Tower,

which was hit by a plane and wracked by an explosion

approximately an hour ago,

has totally collapsed.

What happened?

If you're just joining us this morning,

you're in for a horrific surprise.

This scene here is just one right out of one of those movies

you would see in Hollywood --

people walking around with cell phones,

in tears, holding their heads,

looking up at what's left of the World Trade Center

and just shaking their heads in disbelief.

Out on the street...

...everyone knew what just happened.

The South Tower was gone.

What the hell is going on?

They saw it collapse and ran.

I waited.

Time slowed down, and everything became pitch-black.

- Everybody all right? - Yeah. I'm okay.

How's the way out of here?

Then I realized, "Okay. I'm not dead."

Yeah. Right here.

So let's turn on my floodlight on top of my camera.

All right. Come on down this way.

Yeah. Let's get out the way we came in.

Come on back. Everybody down.

Inside the Trade Center,

all Jules and Chief Pfeifer knew...

Yeah, right here.

...all anyone knew...

...was that something had gone terribly wrong.

Got a light?

No, right here.

They asked me, "You, with the light, help us out."

We got to get everybody out.

So I was pointing my light wherever they needed.

Right here.

I remember seeing Chief Pfeifer.

Command Post from Tower One,

all units, evacuate the building.

What's going on?

Command Post to all units.

He gave it right away, very calm.

Didn't wait, and it was, for him, it was a precaution.

It was, "Okay. Something wrong is happening.

Let's get everybody out."

- Where's that flashlight? - Tell me what's going on!

From the tone of his voice,

I knew that it was no normal thing.

I knew it was time to leave.

I remember saying to the guys,

"Well, we're on our own now," and, for the first time,

I looked in someone else's eyes and saw fear...

Whew!

...which you don't see with fire.

We totally evacuated. It was such long walk.

21, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13.

I was going down the stairs.

I could remember a fireman resting on the landing

and telling them, you know, "You've heard a Mayday.

Get out of the building."

I don't think they -- A lot of them,

I know for a fact, did not take it serious.

- Hey, Pete! Pete! - Come on.

I was not even consciously filming.

I just had my camera by my side

and pointing the light wherever they needed.

Sorry.

They needed my light to actually help someone,

and then I realized it was Father Judge.

Hey, guys. Hey, we need a hand here.

Come back! Come back down.

They saw him lying at the base of the escalator where we were,

and I removed his white collar,

and I opened up his shirt,

and I remember checking for his pulse,

realizing at that time he was gone.

All right. We got four guys.

Top of the escalator.

- Top of the escalator? - Top of the escalator.

After that, we had to figure out how to get out of where we were.

Because if you go out this way,

right where we are now,

people are still jumping.

Debris is still falling, and it's too dangerous.

You cannot go out this way.

One World Trade Center,

we took a hit on that last explosion.

Which way?

Can we get out here? Out this way?

Go across.

Chief Pfeifer tells the people carrying Father Judge,

"Okay. Stay here."

Which way?

I told them that I'll be back and wait here,

and I'll see if the bridge is still here.

Chief Pfeifer went to check one of the footbridges

leading out of the Trade Center.

If it was still standing, it'd be their best way out.

Did you hear what happened with the other tower?

- What's up? - Did you see the tower collapse?

The top or the whole thing?

Looked like the whole thing.

We'll head down together.

And I wondered for the first time if Jules is still alive.

I never thought about it before.

I realized that Jules could be dead

that very moment.

I had to find Jules.

Gédéon hitched a ride with three off-duty firemen,

determined to get the Trade Center

the only way they could --

in a pickup truck.

You shouldn't have even come in here.

Everybody out.

- Okay. - Battalion 1 to Division 1.

We were walking and walking and walking.

Going for Mayday. Going for Mayday.

There are Maydays being given,

and we start to figure out, "Okay.

This must be worse than we think

because you cannot have that many Maydays

and all that dust and that noise."

Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!

Whoa!

GédéThat's when I felt the danger for the first time.

It was all around you.

I mean, every single cell of your body is telling you,

you know, "You shouldn't be here."

The scenery was radically different.

I mean, it was this white powder everywhere.

Get yourself a mask. You got masks?

We're getting Officer Silva, and then we're gonna go in.

Just a few people here and there...

and this kind of silence.

The ambulance is straight down, okay?

Of course, there's no word on casualties...

Ambulance is straight down.

...but suffice to say, the loss of life presumably profound.

Ambulance straight down. Ambulance is straight down.

Reporter #At this time, everyone's concern

is just getting north,

getting away from the World Trade Center,

as well as finding out where their families are.

The South Tower of the World Trade Center,

just minutes ago, collapsed to the ground.

Only one tower is standing at this point.

Reporter # I have a direct line of sight

to what is left of the World Trade Center.

The fire continues to burn.

I can see the flames through the smoke.

By this time,

Chief Pfeifer had found a safe exit...

...and tried to radio the men in the lobby.

No answer.

Going for Mayday. Going for Mayday.

So we walked across the bridge back towards the Trade Center.

He's still trying to call on the radio

and not getting through.

The guys that were left there, they're not there anymore.

They had already gone out another way,

carrying the body of Father Mychal Judge

down the street to St. Peter's Church.

They laid his body on the altar.

Father Mike's death certificate is number 00001,

the first official casualty of the attacks.

The chief, his aide Eddie Fahey, and Jules walked outside,

underneath the footbridge they just crossed

and into a scene that none of them could even comprehend.

And there's debris everywhere.

There's dust covering the entire place,

and we look, and the tower's here.

So we say, "Okay. Probably do something else.

The tower is nice. It's standing,"

and the other one, we can't see it,

but it's probably just, you know, on the other side,

and no one tells us.

We have no clue.

So we walk north,

just trying to figure out what to place here.

And then try to gain some control.

And there was just a sense

that this wasn't a good place to stay.

Chief Pfeifer's priority

was to set up a new command post and find his men.

Right now, they were coming down the stairs.

At some point, I started to run.

I don't even know if I was touching stairs on my way down.

When I got about to three or two

is when I started think of my family, you know,

because I got to get out of here.

When we reached the lobby,

I-I joked about it.

I said, "The command post was abandoned.

The board was set up, and nobody was there."

I said, "Oh. This is not a good sign."

Yeah.

I knew there was nothing that I could really do.

I mean, I was not a fireman.

But, as a cameraman, there was something I could do,

and it was to document what was happening.

Strange enough, the only thing that was -- that was --

My primary occupation was to -- to clean my lens.

Jules was with Chief Pfeifer,

who was plotting his next move.

The firefighters from my house

had reached the lobby and scattered.

We're kind of walking at this point.

We knew we were out of the building, felt we were safe.

Unfortunately, there were people jumping out of windows.

You could see them hitting the ground all around you,

debris hitting the ground.

Let's move. Come on, officers.

Basically, everybody was standing

right in the shadow of Tower One.

It was 10:28 in the morning.

And this huge roar.

And I don't even have time to think at that point.

I just -- I just run.

Then I feel someone jumping on top of me

and then the dust.

Gédé At that point, I realized that I was going to die...

We need help!

...and the only thing I could think about was Jules,

and I remembered telling myself that,

if I would survive that,

I would -- I would be a better brother.

Let's go before the car blow up!

- That way! - This way!

And it's dead silence, nothing, no radio calls,

no -- no sound, nothing.

And I feel the person who was on top of me get up...

Got to get up.

Are you with me? - Yeah.

And I recognize it's Chief Pfeifer's voice,

and I just realized just, you know,

he jumped on top of me to protect me from all this.

Chief Pfeifer said, "Okay. Let's go now."

And we get up, the dust starts to clear

because the wind was blowing in the opposite direction.

After that, I was just trying

to literally walk around the block

and recoup or walk back to the scene

and see what we could do.

Holy shit.

The most surreal scene I have ever seen.

I cannot describe what took place.

Reporter #It was a scene just not to be believed,

the smoke still billowing.

What we do have is a lockdown.

You can't get in. You can't get out.

You can't go up. You can't go down.

I see that I'm still in the middle of the street,

and I see there's a little deli

that seems to be open in the corner.

Yeah, we got O2 now.

A lot of people injured.

Firefighters, bloody nose, things like that.

And then it hits me, you know, "Where is my brother?"

Go back here.

I start realizing that I've probably lost my brother.

So I try to go back to the World Trade Center.

I need to go find my brother.

Where are the guys? - I have no idea.

I was with Chief Pfeifer.

And I'm in the middle of the street, walking,

and a cop approached me and says, you know,

"Who are with?"

I'm with Chief Pfeifer with Battalion 1.

- Oh, you're Battalion 1? - Yeah.

- You got ID? - My letter...the Commissioner.

Take your letter and your camera and get out of here.

All right? Go.

So I go back up, walk north,

not really knowing where I'm going.

- Police department? - No.

I'm making a documentary on the fire department.

Come on. This ain't fucking Disneyland. Let's go.

Then after a while, I said, you know,

"There's nothing I can do here.

I need to go back to the firehouse.

Maybe they'll have some news,

and maybe he's already back there."

But at that point, I just...

...I think he's dead,

and it becomes too overwhelming.

It's not easy being a survivor.

Little to little,

the guys started to come back, one by one.

I can't explain why I'm here and there's so many dead.

- Very emotional. - Yeah.

- A lot of guys are crying. - So many thoughts and emotions.

We were -- We were in One.

Two fell first, and then they told us to get out.

- Two fell first? - Two fell first.

I can't figure out this out. If One didn't fall --

That's why they were getting us out.

We got to call our loved ones, tell them we were okay.

It's fucking sick.

But we just got out.

We had just got out, and I got two blocks,

and I'm like, "I'm still not far enough."

You know, you just needed to be with the guys, you know?

I couldn't get back in. They wouldn't let me up.

I was never so glad to see firemen in my life.

It was a -- It was a --

It was a great thing to know that, uh...

that people were surviving this.

I thought you guys were dead.

You're not the only one.

I thought I was dead.

That was the scariest thing, when I came out.

I was like, "Oh, my god. Am I glad to see you."

We were the lucky ones.

I don't think it's luck, Eddie. It's a miracle that we're here.

"Miracle"

isn't a word you hear much from firefighters,

especially not on that day,

but what else could you call it?

One guy after another was making it back, safe.

Down here looking.

I got...

I-I can't believe we all made it out.

How did we make it out that building?

30 seconds...

another two flights higher...

GédéOne guy from the firehouse came to me,

and I ask him, you know,

"Have you seen Jules? Do you know where he is?"

and he look at me, and he said, "Yes.

He's behind you,"

and I turn over,

and Jules was there in the firehouse.

I didn't even see him coming in.

It was like meeting for the first time.

I ask Jules, "You all right?"

He tells me yes.

He tells me that he was, all that time, in the lobby.

And, um, I know now what it's like to think

you're going to die,

and then I tell him I got the first plane,

and I filmed and, "Do you have enough tape?"

Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

You okay?

- Yeah. - Yeah, close?

I'm good.

Yeah. Okay. Good.

I'm all good, actually.

You'll be all right.

And it definitely was a miracle, you know?

Oh. Fuck, man. Where were y'all?

We didn't know what happened to you guys.

Everybody's accounted for?

- Come stand right here. - Is that everybody?

Everybody's accounted for?

Everybody come back one by one in the firehouse,

except one.

Did you see Tony over there in the tunnels?

Looking for Tony.

Yeah. That's what I heard.

We were all accounted for except for Tony.

Everybody was wondering about Tony.

There is not anything recognizable

of what were the two Trade Towers,

nothing standing out

from those clouds of dust at this time.

You guys were in the building together?

Put your hands down for me gently.

Okay? - Yeah.

Oh, that day... That day changed everything.

I think you got fibers in there.

You got fibers in there.

When I came back that day to the firehouse,

one firefighter came to me, and he said,

"You know, yesterday, you had one brother.

Today, you have 50."

It's good to see you.

It's hard to even describe the emotions

in the firehouse that day.

It was just like, you heard the ground rumble,

and it was just fucking debris was just chasing you.

We were running, hauling ass.

On one hand, you're celebrating.

A very frightful day, man.

I'm really happy to be here.

Somehow, the guys from our house, they got out.

We lost so much in that 2-hour period.

How are you doing? All right?

And we felt like we got the hell kicked out of us.

John, I don't know what to do, man.

Go back down there or what?

I'm fucking in shock.

At the same time, we knew hundreds of firefighters,

thousands of people had to have died in those towers...

- Oh, my goodness.

...and every hour that passed,

we were more certain Tony Benetatos

was one of them.

Hey, guys. Deputy Chief Hill called.

First Division, he doesn't want anybody else

down there right now.

Let's go, guys. Come on. We're moving out. Let's go.

But the truth is, the guys had to go back,

had to start digging for survivors.

Let's go!

I had to go back...

Billy.

...and find the kid.

Hold on.

Shit.

It's gone, man.

I got down there just as Seven World Trade finally collapsed.

Hey, Rick, they've been going live with you.

No sign of Tony anywhere.

It had to be almost 6:00,

9 hours after everything started...

Benetatos!

...that Tony just walked in.

I walked in like a daze, and they were all like, "Hey.

It's Benetatos. You're all right."

What's wrong with your hand? Anything?

- No. - No?

- How are you doing? - Good.

- You okay? - Yeah. I'm all right.

What happened on your end?

I was in the building.

- Were you? - Yeah.

Is everyone from the house --

- Everybody's back. - Everyone?

- Everybody's accounted for. - My God.

I just asked, "Did everyone get back?"

and they were like, "Yeah."

That felt pretty good.

I left here right after the first collapse.

Turns out Tony had been with Larry Byrnes the whole time,

the probie and the retired chief.

They were right there when Tower One came down.

I checked all the rigs.

There were rigs crushed,

paramedic trucks covered with rubble, flipped,

fires burning everywhere, huge fires.

That whole day, I just searched through rubble,

lifting things up, checking underneath.

It's hard for him, just very hard for him.

He's only been a firefighter for, you know,

a couple of months,

but he proved himself that day to all those guys.

Yeah.

There was so much that we didn't know about that first day --

who had attacked us, how, why.

All we knew was that nothing would ever be the same.

Just a while ago, Mayor Giuliani held a news conference

saying it's important not to lash out in anger

because of the attacks on the World Trade Center."

- You all right? - Yeah, I'm all right.

One of the things that sticks with me

more than everything I saw...

is I sat down sitting next to Ted.

He looked real bad.

He said, "Tony, man. It was raining bodies."

The roof of the Marriott...

We were on the roof of the Marriott.

There was parts all over the fucking place, legs, feet.

It was nasty.

The man had been through hell.

Good evening.

Today our fellow citizens, our way of life,

our very freedom came under attack

in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts.

It's a very depressed,

dismal, miserable mood.

...secretaries, businessmen and women, military...

Hundreds of your firemen,

thousands of civilians are gone...

as quickly as you're blowing a matchstick off.

Flip a switch, and they're gone. That's it.

Those buildings came down, gone.

It's hard to believe they're not there.

They're not there.

It did happen, right?

It's not something that I'm going to close my eyes

and open them again,

and I'm going to see the tower, right?

It's not there.

Around midnight, we sent Tony up to lower the flag

to half-mast again.

There's going to be a lot of pain

to deal with in the future.

A lot of guys, we all lost friends and family.

I don't want to ever have to put that thing at half-mast again

for the rest of my career.

That's it.

Until the recall ends, it's 24 on, 24 off, 24 on, 24 off.

We got word that we'd start digging in the morning.

Some of the guys with wives and kids went home

just for a few hours.

They knew it might be days

before they would see their families again.

My son was sleeping.

I picked him up, and I put him in my bed.

And I wanted him to be with me, and, normally,

I would take him out of my bed and put him in his own bed.

But this night was the opposite. He didn't mind that.

He actually had a big smile on his face,

and it was wonderful to see that smile again.

Probably the best, best entrance I ever made to a place.

And the kids came out,

and we just kind of all cried in one big hug.

It was a -- And we just cried.

No, gonna put two there.

Get a couple more guys out here. We'll set up a little line.

Keep the three and a half in the middle.

I came back to the firehouse the next day.

I couldn't wait to get back actually

because I wanted to get down, and I figured,

"Well, we're going to have plenty of people

that are going to be trapped for sure.

We're going to get them out.

I mean, we have to. We always do."

We're all alive.

That's more than we could have possibly hoped for,

so our job now is to go

and do whatever needs to be done

and do as much and as hard as we can

for as long as they'll let us.

Some of the guys took a city bus down to

what the media was already calling ground zero.

You guys, I got extra surgical gloves.

You guys need to put them in your pockets.

Some firemen called it the pile.

For us, it was still the Trade Center

even if it was gone.

Hey, guys. If you hear three horns,

that means something might be coming down.

So keep your eyes open

when you're walking around down there.

We'll do what we can.

And I just realized

something that I always wanted to deny

is how evil evil can be.

I need five firefighters, 19 and 12.

I need five firefighters.

And we went down there and formed up companies,

five man and an officer.

Let's go.

We went to work right away trying to look for survivors.

Try to get some buckets back here.

Buckets!

Guys were digging fast, passing those buckets quick,

digging frantically.

Bucket.

Hey. Watch your back, guys.

We'd be digging, and, all of a sudden,

everybody would say, "Quiet."

Quiet!

And the whole place would get quiet, and people would look.

Hello!

And then slowly they would go back to work and start again,

and that's how things went down there.

We'd clear what we could by hand.

Then the ironworkers would come in,

cut the steel beams and lift them out.

Then we'd just start digging again.

You have two 110-story office buildings.

You don't find a desk.

You don't find a chair.

You don't find a telephone, a computer.

The biggest piece of a telephone I found was half of the keypad,

and it was about this big.

The building collapsed to dust.

How are we supposed to find anybody in this

that there's nothing left of the building?

Bucket!

We found a body.

It was a girl.

She was dead.

She was definitely dead.

All her clothes had been burned off her.

She looked to be pregnant.

Some people thought maybe she was just bloated,

but I don't think so.

She was encased in rubble.

And we had her about halfway uncovered

and getting the body bag ready.

And then they told us to run, and we ran.

So I never got to see if they got her out.

It would have felt good saying, "All right.

At least I got one person out.

One family will be able to have a decent funeral."

- Quiet. - Quiet.

Our first shift was 24 hours,

and, in all that time,

there was one person pulled out alive -- one.

It was beyond discouraging.

It was even hard to understand.

Walking back to the firehouse...

...people were cheering us...

Thank you.

...but we sure didn't feel like heroes.

Every day, total strangers were showing up with supplies.

Somebody said that you could still use towels,

so that's the end of the towels.

- Thank you very much. - Okay.

I know it's early in the operation here,

but I just wanted to thank everyone

for all their hard work that they've been doing.

How we're here, only God knows,

but, again, guys, thank you so much.

I really... You have no idea how much love I have have...

Check the lockers, bro. Check the lockers.

All the lockers. Take whatever.

Listen. We tried to keep hope,

but as days turned into weeks,

we began to accept...

there just wasn't anybody to find.

- Hey, Chief. - Yes, sir.

We got another body over here.

Day after day, it pushed guys to their limit,

maybe passed it.

A lot of guys don't know

if they're going to do the job anymore.

I know it's either this or the Army now,

and I like saving lives.

I don't like taking them, but, after what I saw,

if my country decides to send me...

to go kill...

I'll do it now.

Every night, the fire department would put out a list

of firefighters confirmed dead,

and, every night, that list got longer.

It is with regret that the department announces

the death of the following members --

Battalion Chief John P. Williamson,

Firefighter William Henry,

Firefighter Eric T. Allen,

Firefighter Manuel Mojica,

firefighter...

We lost so many people that everybody has lost dear friends,

and not just one or two, but dozens.

Most days, there was a memorial service for some guy you knew.

Some days, two or three.

Some days, four.

One of those services was for Kevin Pfeifer,

the Chief's brother.

He was last seen in the stairs of Tower One

directing guys to the fastest way out of the building.

I would say Chief Pfeifer's brother saved my life.

He saved a lot of lives.

And I remember walking down West Street.

I just remember him saying, you know,

how much my brother and I used to love being downtown

and...and doing this job...

and...

and...

...and how now I didn't love it anymore.

Eventually, we started going on runs again...

It feels good though.

...and trying our best to love the job again...

...but things will never be the way they were.

So did you want the new tape?

As for Jules and Gédéon, it's strange how things work out.

In the beginning, they came to me, and they said,

"Let's make a documentary about a boy becoming a man."

During those 9-months probationary period,

it turns out Tony became a man in about 9 hours

trying to help out on 9/11.

You know how you can tell that? He's not bragging about it.

Do I feel like it's given me more of a sense of self-worth?

Yes.

Has it made me a man?

What's a man?

Hey, Benetatos!

I don't think it's so much the severity of an event

that alters who you are.

I think it's how you interpret it that changes who you are.

Gédé We keep forgetting how many people were saved on that day.

Stay together. Stay together.

On 9/11, firefighters saved 20,000 people.

I have that much respect for human life.

I'm honored.

Sometimes I still don't even think I'm ready,

but I am honored to be a fireman.

Here in the 9/11 Memorial Museum,

the last column, as it's known,

reminds visitors of the 343 members

of the FDNY we lost their lives,

the largest loss of firefighters in this country's history.

9/11 was a day that defined the end of an era

and the dawn of another, making us understand

we are vulnerable as a nation, and, ever since,

we've been adjusting to our new normal --

wars overseas, acts of terror at home and abroad

and an ever-present fear

of where the next attack will come from.

Tonight, we meet again some of the firefighters

from the documentary

who live the true meaning of heroism

every day of their lives.

The firefighters of Engine 7 and Ladder 1

have a new responsibility

soaring over the neighborhood, the Freedom Tower,

World Trade Center One.

The firehouse on Duane Street is busier than ever.

Only a handful from 9/11 are still there.

One of them is John McConnachie.

The new guys that are coming on are just as good

as the guys we had before.

They're so eager to learn and work.

Now I'm one of the old guys in the firehouse.

The firehouse now responds to nearly 6,000 emergencies a year.

There's nothing like getting on the rig,

hauling down Broadway with the lights and sirens.

Johnny Mack, as he's called in the firehouse,

had been there for 8 years on September 11, 2001.

It was just a terrible day,

and it's tough being the hero.

That's why I don't like that whole thing

and whatever anybody says about that.

We were there.

We saw it firsthand.

For me, the best thing I ever did was stay at the firehouse

and stay down there.

I think that was my therapy, you know?

A lot of guys, after 9/11,

had a lot of trouble,

drinking and depression and post-traumatic stress.

That's real. It's definitely real.

You know, we had a lot of support groups,

but the only really support group

for I think the firemen were the other men.

That's all, you know?

The firehouse for me.

All right, babe. Have a good day.

I'll call you.

Still, that same firehouse, for Steve Rogers, too.

The firehouse is a big family.

You know, you have your family at home,

and your second family's the firehouse.

And, when something happens, guys gather together,

everybody steps up and does the right thing.

That's what a family does.

And that's what Steve did when he rushed into work

on 9/11, his day off.

I think, truly, 9/11 should be a national holiday.

A lot of heroes that day.

There was people that were doing extraordinary things,

and they should be remembered.

Driving to work for 31 years,

the changing skyline has meaning for him.

When I used to come over the bridge from Staten Island,

come to work, and you look at the skyline.

And you always seen the Trade Center,

the towers and everything.

And, for a long time, there was nothing there.

Now it fills a void.

It just makes you proud.

It shows you that we're not going to stand for it.

Dennis Tardio retired in 2002.

Even if 9/11 never happened,

it's a tough job to leave.

There's no other job like it,

the brotherhood, the camaraderie.

He says, "Not a day goes by without remembering."

When my head hits the pillow at night,

I can see that plane hitting the tower.

It's hard to believe they're not there.

They're not there.

That's etched in my mind and will always be there.

The memories also used to haunt Ron Schmutzler.

He was promoted to chief the year after 9/11

and asked for a transfer.

...to the building.

I felt like I wanted to leave

because every day you'd be driving by the site,

so it was a reminder of my 343 guys.

But the FDNY had other plans for him.

I thought for sure I'd be moved,

and the Chief of Departments said,

"We lost so many guys in Lower Manhattan.

I'm going to ask you to stay.

Stay for 2 years,

and help us out down there to rebuild.

Rebuild the fire department.

Get us back to where we were."

So I did, and, after the 2 years was up, I stayed.

And I became the Battalion Chief,

and I watched the firehouses grow again.

When you walk through here, you're going to have to hold on.

All right.

And it was like a breath of fresh air to see the young guys

coming back into the firehouse again,

but it took years and years for us to rebuild

and to get back to where we were.

It's quite a view.

He's now in charge of all seven fire companies

in Lower Manhattan.

Now you look at the entire landscape

down here has changed so fast, so rapidly.

The high-rises that are going up,

one building is bigger than the next.

It seems like they can't build them big enough

and they can't build them fast enough.

We're looking at new ways of getting the firemen

up faster to the fires.

There's that many more people in the building to worry about.

Worrying about the public's safety

is also front and center for Chris Connor.

He retired from the FDNY,

and he became a safety expert on construction sites.

As my luck would have it, I was assigned to work back

at the World Trade Center.

I was back at the scene of the crime, so to speak,

back in a place where I never wanted to go again.

He has spent 7 of the last 10 years within the 16-acre site.

When I started to work there,

it was still very much a hole in the ground.

You had to literally walk down a 10-story ladder

into the bottom of what we called the pit as firefighters.

Eventually, when the below-grade construction was completed

and the buildings started to come out of the ground,

for me, that's when the magic happened.

You really saw these beautiful, beautiful buildings.

The first of five towers planned for the site opened in 2014 --

World Trade Center One.

At 104 stories, 1,776 feet high,

it's the tallest building in the United States

with a bomb-resistant base,

and like most new high-rises, a concrete core.

They've gone above and beyond the New York City building code,

which is very strict.

Also now open, the marble transportation hub

with its startling sculpture, Oculus.

It took 12 years to complete

and is the most expensive train station ever built.

Cost -- $4 billion.

Safety for the rebuilt area,

as well as all of New York City,

rests on the shoulders of FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro.

Since 9/11, buildings have become stronger,

and the record of high-rise buildings is that they are safe.

As the city continues to grow vertically,

and that's happening at such a rapid pace,

we hope we have the ability to keep up with it,

but it is certainly taxing to our people.

Chief Joseph Pfeifer, who lost his brother Kevin,

a lieutenant in the fire department,

has turned that personal trauma into purpose.

The thoughts of my brother and losing him on 9/11

actually shifts a lot of my own thinking of,

"How do we make it safer for our firefighters?"

Go right in that corner right there.

He was the FDNY's Chief of Counterterrorism

and Emergency Preparedness...

On your way out with anybody?

...and drills together with the police department.

He is invited to speak around the world

and went to Paris after the November attacks...

Let me tell you some of my nightmares.

...to share strategies with the French first responders.

The thing we're worried about is vertical spread,

multiple floors.

One of the things that we need to prepare for

is to deal with a terrorist attack on high-rise buildings,

the use of automatic weapons and explosives

and the use of fire as a weapon.

The 9/11 firefighters,

who now make up the FDNY's top brass,

talk about managing the next attack.

Terrorism is always on your mind today,

so when this does happen again,

I think we will be a little more prepared.

Prepared so that nothing resembling

that devastating death toll,

losing 343 in one day, ever happens again.

There is such a thing as survivor's guilt,

and I would have to say most of us

who made it out that day have it.

As somebody who was in charge that day,

I probably have the biggest case in the department,

but it's something one must learn to live with.

New York firefighters are also learning to live

with the physical toll working at Ground Zero

took on so many of them,

diagnosed with a variety of cancers

linked to breathing in that 9/11 dust.

In 2006, we talked to retired chief Larry Byrnes

about the gathering storm of disease.

There's something out there cooking in all of us,

and I fear for what 10 years are going to bring us.

Our beloved chief, Larry Byrnes,

died from a 9/11-related cancer,

the third from the Duane Street Firehouse.

Now there are names inscribed at the FDNY headquarters,

firefighters who died from 9/11-related diseases,

among them John Sullivan,

who died of pancreatic cancer.

His son, Mike, is a legacy kid,

the FDNY's turn for the new generation

related to firefighters

who died in the line of duty 9/11.

It's not the day he passed away, but it's the day

that made him pass away.

Mike works in upper Manhattan,

Ladder 34,

the same firehouse as his father and grandfather.

What I like most about being on the job is, hands down,

the family and where I am.

Seeing the guys in the house, they're so amazing.

They're like my uncles, and now we're brothers.

They've taught me a lot in between cooking.

Hell, that's a big thing.

You know, the Hot Pocket guy before, and now, watch out.

I'd spend my career in Hook and Ladder 34

because that's what I love.

It's the most beautiful rig.

On the job, those tillers are...

You know, that's sexy right there.

The firehouse's street has been named for his father,

John P. Sullivan Way.

The only thing that I can hope that, one day,

is that I make an impact, and at the end of my career,

I could put my boots next to his.

I don't want to fill his. I could never fill his.

I'm too emotional to fill his.

He's tough -- tough box of nails, that guy.

I'd do anything to have him back.

You can have this job if it meant my father standing

in front of me today.

Our legacy kids are special, I think.

It says a lot about what's inside them.

It most likely says a lot about their parents,

and, their parents, how they lived their lives.

It was after 9/11 when I knew

that I have to make sure that I get on this job

for me wanting to always be a firefighter

but for also me wanting to carry on my father's legacy.

Another legacy kid -- Josephine Smith.

Her dad, Kevin, was a hazmat specialist.

Her father rushed to the towers after the first plane hit.

He never came home, and his body was never recovered.

When I'm always looking up at my dad, I'm like,

"You're going to see, Dad!

I'm going to be a firefighter one day.

Like, I'm going to work with you,"

and he never said no. You know?

He never said, "No, I don't want you being a firefighter.

No, you can't be a firefighter.

Like, girls can't be firefighters."

He never told me that.

He would just smile.

I would always remember he would just look down at me and smile.

Josephine is now one of 53 women on the job

with more than 11,000 men.

I'm small and petite, but I can still do the job.

I want them to be able to trust me

that I can have their back

just as much as they can have my back.

It's been almost 2 years now,

and I don't think there's one guy in the house

that doesn't believe I can't do the job

just as much as they can.

My father is a hero.

He's someone I look up to still every day.

Woodley Joseph looks up to a hero too --

His brother, Karl Henry Joseph.

My brother being on the job was probably the number-one reason

why I probably became a firefighter.

His rig was found at Ground Zero, crushed.

No remains have ever been recovered.

Woodley finds solace visiting the 9/11 Memorial.

Being on the site, trying to imagine, like, where he was,

now knowing that I'm a firefighter

and trying to imagine, like, how he felt that day.

His brother's name is inscribed with all those who died

at the reflecting pools next to the 9/11 Memorial Museum,

which opened in 2014.

It holds a collection of more than 11,000 artifacts,

including visceral reminders

of all those firefighters

who headed straight towards danger,

a crushed firetruck that we remembered seeing

in the street that day.

Chief Pfeifer's helmet is on display

as is Gédéon Naudet's camera.

GédéTo see braveness, to see courage right in front of you,

for me, has more of an imprint

than the fear I experienced on that day.

The Naudet brothers were made honorary members of the FDNY.

They have continued to live in New York

and still make documentaries together.

This film for us is all about hope.

It's all about the best of humanity at a moment

when the worst is there.

I am now a director in Hollywood.

I go to work now, and I direct television,

and I go home at the end of the day,

and when I lie in bed, my head hits the pillow,

I'm like a firefighter.

Benetatos!

And everyone always asks about Tony Benetatos,

the probie from our film.

Now, being a lieutenant, being in the fire department

and being able to make a difference

is the best profession

I could ever hope to have.

Nice and comfortable?

Yes.

Whoa!

He thinks he may have found the answer to the question,

what makes a man?

Maybe getting up for work every day,

and then coming home and reading to your children

and doing the dishes

and taking care of your family,

maybe that's what defines a man.

- On me? - Okay.

Family is at the center of the lives

of all these firefighters we've had the privilege

of getting to know over the years.

Chief Schmutzler's son, Steven,

is now a firefighter in Manhattan.

Have you had to go up 60 flights, no elevators?

No.

I go to work, and I go to fires,

and you just do your job.

You don't really think about the danger,

until my son got on, and I think, for the first time,

I realized what my wife was going through

for the last 30 years because I go off to work,

and she's wondering if I'm coming home the next day.

They all say the horrors they witness

and the challenges they face pale in comparison

to the rewards of being on the job.

Every day is a great day in the fire department,

but the danger is always there.

Tonight, the strength and beauty of this city

is on display once again.

From the top of the Freedom Tower One World Observatory,

now standing tall where the Twin Towers once stood,

a symbol of this nation's resolve,

rebirth and resilience.

I'm Denis Leary.

Thanks for watching, and good night.

♪ Oh, Danny boy ♪

♪ The pipes, the pipes are calling ♪

♪ From glen to glen ♪

♪ And down the mountainside ♪

♪ The summer's gone ♪

♪ And all the flowers are dying ♪

♪ 'Tis you, 'tis you must go ♪

♪ And I must bide ♪

♪ But come you back ♪

♪ When summer's in the meadow ♪

♪ Or when the valley's hushed ♪

♪ And white with snow ♪

♪ 'Tis I'll be here ♪

♪ In sunshine or in shadow ♪

♪ Oh, Danny boy ♪

♪ Oh, Danny Boy ♪

♪ I love you so ♪

♪ And when you come ♪

♪ And all the flowers are dying ♪

♪ And I am dead as dead ♪

♪ I well may be ♪

♪ You'll come and find ♪

♪ The place where I am lying ♪

♪ And kneel and say ♪

♪ An Avé there for me ♪

♪ And I will hear ♪

♪ Though soft you tread above me ♪

♪ And on my grave ♪

♪ Will warmer, sweeter be ♪

♪ For you will bend ♪

♪ And tell me that you love me ♪

♪ And I shall sleep in peace ♪

♪ Until you come to me ♪