Rescue 4 Home Safe

State-of-the-art truck only one to survive attack

By William Murphy | STAFF WRITER

September 13, 2001

Only one of the Fire Department's five top-of-the-line rescue vehicles survived the withering cascade of debris when the World Trade Center towers collapsed, officials said yesterday.

The other four were rendered unusable, prompting the department to pull the surviving one, Rescue 4, from the scene yesterday morning and get it back in shape at its quarters on Queens Boulevard.

"Their concern is covering the entire city with one rescue unit," Lt. Timothy Kelly said as he stood in the doorway of the firehouse that houses Rescue 4.

The Fire Department had five rescue units, one in each borough. The extra-large vehicles were loaded with tools of the rescue trade, such as a pneumatic tool that can cut through a car door. There are three older spare units that do not have equipment.

Kelly said when one of the newer units is taken out of service, firefighters have to unload the heavy-duty tools and pack them on the replacement rig.

"This is all the city has right now," he said, looking at the cleaned-up truck, "and we're covering the entire city."

Kelly spoke after members of his unit had spent more than an hour cleaning up the rig, using air cylinders to blow ash and debris out of compartments holding equipment, swabbing out the crew section and soaping and hosing the exterior.

Another important element in the Fire Department's emergency operation that suffered heavily in the World Trade Center collapse are the special "squads" trained to do rescues and battle hazardous materials. Kelly said the collapse had crushed the vehicles from five of the department's seven "squads."

Members of one of those remaining "squads", 270, stopped by Rescue 4 yesterday morning to talk with their fellow firefighters.

The Fire Department declined to comment on its state of emergency preparedness, referring calls to the mayor's press office, which did not return telephone calls for comment.

Kelly said he was not working at the time of the terrorist attack on the trade center, and he was still unsure of the fate of the 25 firefighters and four officers in Rescue 4.

"We're on the phone, trying to find the status of our people," he said.

He said he was told that two of the men working that morning "had been accounted for." He said he did not know what that phrase meant. "We do not know their location or anything else," Kelly said.