![]() The Fire Department of the City of New York lost 343 of their own that day.ĭePalma pointed out in his book that a few hours of the attack, the city 'had sent out police vans to pick up the executives of four construction companies' to take them to the site. Subsequent floors fell even faster.'Īs the fire blazed, firefighters and other first responders rushed to the 16-acre site in Lower Manhattan. ![]() Engineers who studied the collapse extensively believe that the first collapsing floor traveled the 3.7 meter distance from ceiling to floor in 0.87 seconds. 'The jets had smashed into each building at around 500 miles per hour, severing steel columns designed to work together to hold up the colossal structures,' wrote Anthony DePalma, author of City of Dust: Illness, Arrogance, and 9/11. 'They were there - a set of eyes to see what you might not see or might not feel.' Matters was part of a team that monitored the safety plan for non-uniformed crew such as the iron worker, above, who was working on the One World Trade Center pile on Octoa little before 3amĪt 8:46am, the first plane hit the North Tower, the second slammed into the South Tower at 9:30am. 'The noise was deafening out on the pile,' he recalled. He explained that a member of the Fire Department of the City of New York, known as the FDNY, or some other type of uniformed personnel were spotters to ensure safety as well in situations in which there were remains. ![]() Matters worked 12 hours on, 12 hours off seven days, mostly at night, from the week after the attacks until mid-March. It was the 1960s - it wasn't far removed from World War II - and it reminded me of the pictures I saw of Dresden.' 'I grew up in Germany so I was kind of cognizant of World War II. 'I always refer to it as Dresden,' he said, referring to the Allied firebombing of the city in February 1945. But when he arrived at Ground Zero a week after the attacks, the devastation was unlike anything he had experienced. He was no stranger to disasters, having worked at areas suffering from the fallout of earthquakes and hurricanes. Wall Street reopened mere days after the Twin Towers collapsed.Ī geologist by training, Matters had expertise in air sampling and asbestos, and AMEC, the construction company he was then working for, sent him from Boston to New York City. In the days after the terrorist attacks on Septemthat claimed nearly 3,000 lives, New York City scrambled first to find survivors and then to begin the cleanup and recovery effort for itself and a traumatized nation. 'I think it's probably one of the best things I've ever done in my life,' he told. It was grueling working on the pile for 12-hour shifts, tragedy ever present, but for Duane Matters, he wouldn't trade his time at Ground Zero for anything.
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