It’s 21 years since the Twin Towers collapsed. The Freedom Tower can be seen dominating lower Manhattan from vantage points around Newark. Most of the Newark firefighters who responded to Ground Zero have retired. The choices they faced, the decisions they made, their experiences, & what they witnessed have all become part of the NFD story. What makes the World Trade Center story so unusual is that all the members who responded to it that September did so in spite of being discouraged or outright ordered not to go.

To be reasonable, the initial reactions from the fire administration in the first few hours after the planes hit were probably for self-preservation.

On duty fire personnel could not respond to the WTC on their own. Their primary responsibility was to provide coverage for Newark.

It is what happened in the hours & days afterward that make the city’s threats so unpalpable.

To commemorate what Newark fire personnel did, I think it is appropriate that I post a few stories that illustrate the loyalty & dedication they had for their brother firefighters in spite of what they were hearing from the administration.

F. Bellina: I go into Twelve Engine. We’re watching it on the news when they go down. “Oh my God, there have to be hundreds of firefighters that are trapped in this stuff. What are we going to do? We need to do something.” I called dispatch, “Can you do me a favor? Can you call all the firehouses & find out who wants to go to the World Trade Center?” He goes, “What are you an idiot? I’m not doing that. You’re not going anywhere.” And hangs up on me. Well, I hang up the phone over at Twelve Engine so hard that the hotline came off the wall. The director calls Five Truck because Twelve Engine’s line is not working. “No one’s going anywhere. No one’s leaving. If you go over there you’re getting fired.” I’m not staying here. There’re firemen over there. I don’t know what I’m going to be able to do, but I’m going.

Killeen: We got a phone call from headquarters that they were sending somebody down to arrest us so we couldn’t go over to the World Trade Center. So, somebody sees a Police Athletic League bus go by. They flag it down. They’re going to take us to Liberty State Park. We all just jumped on the bus w/our gear. And of course, there’s a lot of chatter going on. Jerry DeLane was there. Jerry DeLane called a friend of his that’s a judge. And the judge said, “Don’t worry nobody’s going to put you on charges or anything, not today.” That part of our mind was cleared up.

Highsmith: People just started showing up at the firehouse w/ their gear. They’re going to New York. Being that we were working, they were organizing the party to go at six o’clock. I remember Arson saying that we’re not allowed to go. An Arson guy showed up taking names.

Straile: Unfortunately, the City of Newark at the time didn’t want any of the firemen going over there. But the unions said the heck w/that & they got together. We got buses. And we all got on buses at Twenty Engine on Prince Street. There were buses, two or three busloads of guys that I remember went over there.

Griffith: Meantime those guys up at Five Truck were trying to get buses. They actually reached out to the Fire Chief who told them no & that we were not to go. And that if we did go, we were on our own. The city wouldn’t cover us. They actually sent the Arson Squad down there to get names. We, being us, decided that things were going to be different. We were on our own time. We’re doing what we want to do.

Willis: Me & Billy Melodic made our way down to Jersey City. Stepping onto the boat, we were ordered by the chief from the Jersey City fire department to get off the boat. That Mayor Sharpe James had called them, notifying them to remove any Newark firemen trying to go over to the World Trade Center. There were Jersey City Police officers. They said, come w/us. They commandeered a bus. Put all the Newark firemen on the bus & it drove to the Bayonne terminal. There were about twenty of us that got on that bus. We got on a Coast Guard cutter there.

Nasta: I get to work & the third tour was working. A chief walks into Five Truck; he’s going from firehouse to firehouse ordering us not to go, that you would be fired if you go over to New York. Takes off his shirt. He goes, “Now that I delivered the official news, this is what we’re doing to get over there.” With that the phone rings. It’s my battalion chief, Mike Lalor. “Listen, Mike, we’re going to send people over. I know what the official word is, but we’re going to do the right thing. Here’s the thing, I want you to put a guy in the seat tonight as acting captain. I want you to go over there.” I says, “Alright, no problem.”

Ramos: There were about fifty-eight of us. We were waiting for the powers that be to say something & nothing was coming down, so we just had to go by ourselves. Chief Esparolini goes, “If we go, we can’t have anything that has Newark on it.” So, we had to take our Newark stuff off because they said if you go over there, you’re on your own basically.

Tarantino: At the time they didn’t want anybody to go. And my wife said, “Listen, you’re going to get into trouble.” I mean it was pretty clear they didn’t want anybody going over there. But the next morning we set up that we were going to go anyway later in the day.

McGovern: I was amazed, you know, at the outpouring of the guys from Newark that went over there on their own time after being told that they could be punished for it. Which was a big mistake for the city. They should have immediately sent at least a Signal Nine. Right after it happened, I called the fire chief; is there a recall? I couldn’t believe, no. And then they specifically ordered, I want nobody going over there. That pissed me off.

Montalvo: The city didn’t want us to go. Actually, we were told that if we went over there, we would be in trouble. The mayor’s office put something out, a memo out or something. No on duty personnel are to be going over there, but we were off duty. We’re going on our own time. We’re not doing it on city time. They lost three hundred & forty-three guys.

If you want to get a better understanding of that time, I did a book talk for The Newark Library last year about the NFD at the WTC. Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttqlMJVIoI4