As I watched in disbelief
A firefighter's story of terror and its aftermath

By Ronald Jon Siarnicki
Firefighter and faculty member

As I watched in disbelief of the tragedies that unfolded on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, I quickly realized that my life and my career would never be the same. You see, I am the Executive Director of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, a non-profit organization that is charged by the United States Congress to support and assist our fire service family and survivors of our nation's fallen fire heroes.

Ronald Siarnicki

Unfortunately, we as a nation experience, on average 100 line-of-duty deaths in the fire service each year. Because of this one incident that number will increase by 353 individuals who are either confirmed deceased or still listed as missing on the scene of the World Trade Center.

My organization has been in New York providing direct assistance to the Fire Department (FDNY) since Friday of that week. The United States Fire Administration (USFA) through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) asked the Foundation to deploy its resources to immediately bring relief and assistance to the surviving members of the department and to begin the process of helping the thousands of family members who lost a loved one.

Through a partnership with the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) and the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), the foundation established the Fallen Firefighters Support Section within the FEMA disaster response structure. I was charged with commanding this section and remained in New York for about 15 days. The operation will remain in place until November 4, 2001 and will be providing the following services to FDNY and its family members:

• Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) resources including the activation and deployment of professionally trained teams.
• Coordination of Chaplain Support Services including the activation and deployment of professional chaplains to assist FDNY in the notification of fire service survivors.
• Coordination of Survivor Support Services including coordination and expedition of the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program requirements with the Department of Justice, the State of New York, FDNY, and the IAFF. Providing outreach to survivors of fallen firefighters, as appropriate, and assessing long-term survivor support needs.
• Coordination of support and resources for the FDNY's Counseling Services Unit.

It is hard to fathom what it must have been like on the scene of the incident that day. I have heard many stories and tales of courage and bravery. For most of the firefighters that were on the scene, the sudden and rapid collapse of the towers was their worst nightmare. Individuals have talked about how quickly that occurred and yes; there always was the knowledge by the rescue workers that a catastrophic building failure could occur. But even still, the firefighters, law enforcement officers and others remained committed to the task at hand, rescuing as many people as possible, no matter what danger was present. Something that our national fire service faces every day. Maybe not to this scale or magnitude, but surely just as dangerous, considering that 100 firefighter lives are lost annually in our country while these individuals perform day-to-day service requests that our communities have come to expect.

Personally, I have seen the damage that was inflicted in New York by those two airliners, but what I will remember most is the valiant effort put forth by the FDNY to first respond to the original incident and the long-term efforts they have delivered in the rescue operations after the collapse. Firefighters and Emergency Medical workers have been on the "Pile at Ground Zero" since day one. They are committed to ensuring that none of their own gets left behind, a tradition that the fire service has honorably upheld since its inception. As they dig through the debris with their hands, a hope and a prayer is continually with them that they would recover their fellow crewmembers. Family members continue to wait in the city fire stations hoping to get word about their missing family members. As the days unravel, most likely 353 fire department funerals will be conducted to pay honor and respect to those brave American heroes. I can only hope that our nation never forgets those individuals, what they have done for us and most of all what they represent to our life, our society and to our nation.

Ronald Siarnicki began his career as a firefighter with the Prince George's County/EMS Department in 1978 and with 23 years of fire, rescue, and emergency medical services operational experience, he progressed through the ranks to chief of the department. He retired from that position in September of this year when he was appointed president of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. Ron earned both his master's and bachelor's degrees at UMUC and has served as a faculty member for the University's fire science curriculum since 1997.