Rescue Efforts Painfully Slow

Heavy debris stalls workers' search

Reported by Glenn Gamboa, Joshua Robin and Rocco Parascandola, with Tami Luhby contributing | It was written by Gamboa.

September 13, 2001

They were hailed as heroes each time they returned from "The Crater," the site where the World Trade Center once stood, to the staging area near Chelsea Piers, with volunteers hooting and hollering for every returning vehicle.

They watched as their colleagues gasped for air, bent over in exhaustion or tried to hold still as debris and soot were flushed from their eyes. But as yesterday wore on, rescuers grew increasingly frustrated as they talked about what they had seen beneath the rubble.

"We're finding a lot of hands, and arms and feet, half a head, chopped up bodies," said John Jennings, 37, a seven-year veteran from Ladder Company 56 in the Bronx. Most of that came from firefighters digging by hand.

Joe Chabre, a burly red-headed firefighter from Franklin Township, N.J., was part of a team of six firefighters that arrived on the scene late Tuesday, when they pulled five victims from the rubble.

He talks about helping to pull six people from the rubble yesterday, including one survivor. She was conscious but could only mumble, Chabre said.

"I told her, 'Sit back and relax and calm down and we'll get you to triage,'" where medical professionals could assess her condition, Chabre said, before trying to get a nap so he could return to the scene.

He focused on her, he said, because those whom he pulled out were so badly disfigured they were unrecognizable. He couldn't determine whether they were men or women. They were all injured beyond recognition. Some were missing limbs. One was disemboweled.

Chabre said the recovery efforts were going slowly, because of the heavy, twisted metal where the victims are buried. It's hard to sit and just watch the welders at the scene, but there's little they can do since many of the pieces are so heavy only a crane could remove them.

"The smell of flesh is very palpable too," Chabre said. "It's bad, a burning flesh smell."

One paramedic passed the time organizing roughly three dozen airpaks and firefighter helmets, all of which are believed to have belonged to firefighters.

"How many firefighters do you know who would leave their helmets and airpaks behind?" the paramedic said. "You know any firefighters that would leave his helmet behind?"

Chabre gets choked up when he talks about a fire truck from FDNY Engine 6 that was crushed by a huge metal beam from the building. Several firefighters are believed to have been inside.

"One thing about firefighters, we're just one big family," Chabre said. "It's rough. We can't do anything until we take the iron out of the way."

Falling buildings have also slowed them down.

Parrish Kelley, 35, from Ashburnham, Mass., raced up the West Side Highway about 5:30 p.m. yesterday. Rescuers thought they were fleeing a possible explosion caused by a gas leak. Actually, it was the remains of the World Trade Center's south tower collapsing.

"When the whistles go off, you don't know why they're going off," Kelley said. "It's pretty hairy."

The smoke and wind made for poor visibility. "One minute you have clear visibility, the next minute you can't see your hand in front of your face," Kelley said.

Francisco Martinez of Washington Heights, an EMT with Metrocare ambulance services, said that since arriving at 7 p.m. Tuesday, his main involvement had been bringing back more supplies for the rescuers.

"We started running out of supplies because it was hard to get them in there with all the roads closed," Martinez said, looking tired as he sat on a bench in the Chelsea Piers staging area. "We had to drive on the sidewalk wherever we could to get in. It was a total mess."

Martinez said he expected to be able to do much more.

"It was weird," Martinez said. "You were expecting to help people, and we had to pull ourselves out of the place."