Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE- On April 1, at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, retired New York fire chief, Richard Picciotto, shared his story of what happened to him on Sept. 11, 2001. Picciotto is the highest-ranking firefighter to survive the attack on the World Trade Center.

"We all know where we were on 9/11," said Picciotto.

His day started like any other. He was at the fire station at 8:45 a.m. When Picciotto found out that a plane hit the World Trade Center, he immediately thought of the terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. He had led that evacuation and knew the buildings well. He called the dispatcher and said he had to be there. At 9:29 a.m., he was on the 35th floor of the North Tower when the South Tower collapsed. At 10 a.m., he was still in the North Tower when it collapsed. Eight seconds later, he thought he was dead.

Picciotto's story began when he arrived right before the second plane hit. He was told to take a battalion and get to the 20th and 23rd floors of the North Tower to save trapped people. Upon reaching those floors, he found they'd already been cleared, so he made it his goal to get to the 90th floor, the point of impact, to save others who may be trapped or injured. Making their way against the thousands of people going down the approximately 36 inch stair well, Picciotto and his team stopped every five floors for a few seconds to catch their breath and check for people who needed help.

"You rely on your training and your instincts. You know what you have to do. It's like you have tunnel vision. My objective that day was to save lives." said Picciotto.

Picciotto remembered a particularly stubborn man he encountered on the 27th floor. The man was typing in his office. Picciotto told the man he had to get out, but the man just put his hand up and said, "I'm doing something important here." As Picciotto tried again and again to convince the man to leave, he still wouldn't listen.

"I told the other firemen that if he doesn't walk down the stairs, pick him up and throw him down ... He went down," said Picciotto.

Picciotto and his battalion continued to the 35th floor. Upon arrival the group froze.

"The building started shaking. We heard a loud noise above us and we froze, staring at the ceiling. The noise and the shaking came around us, went below us and then it stopped," said Picciotto.

The group had heard and felt the South Tower collapse. When Picciotto realized this, he worked quickly to get his battalion and as many remaining people as he could, out of the building.

"The firemen who were staring at the ceiling were now staring at me. Firemen take risks, but we take calculated risks. They would have continued up to the 90th floor if I told them to. But I decided that we had to stop and get out. I gave the order on my blow horn to all three stairwells," said Picciotto.

Soon people were limited to just one stairwell because debris from the South Tower had blocked the other two. As he and his battalion worked their way down, Picciotto and others lingered, checking each floor on the way down to make sure everyone got out.

"We kept waiting and pushing, not letting anyone stay back," said Picciotto.

Eventually, Picciotto and his battalion reached the sixth floor. He thought to himself, in just a few minutes, we'll all be out of here. But then he froze again.

"The shaking and the noise started again. I couldn't believe how violent it was," said Picciotto. "We were tossed around like rag dolls. The lights went off. The air pressure pushing down acted like a tornado. The pressure was all around us. I tried to stand up on the ground, but the ground disintegrated and I was free falling into blackness. Then I stopped. It was black, silent, still. I thought, well I guess I'm dead now."

After a few seconds, Picciotto realized that he wasn't dead, but trapped in an air pocket of the collapsed North Tower with 10 other firefighters, a police officer and a civilian. He made mayday calls on his radio and after an hour and a half, finally got through to another fireman. Picciotto had a siren on his blowhorn and turned it on, but the fireman couldn't hear it. As the other firemen searched for them, Picciotto and the 12 others sat trapped for over four hours. Just as Picciotto was about to give up, he saw a grey area in the blackness above him. As he continued to watch it, a small beam of light filtered in to reveal a crevice. He hadn't seen it before because of all the dust. But as the dust settled and the wind shifted, it became clearer. Picciotto cleared an opening and climbed out and stood on top of the largest debris pile.

"I thought someone dropped a nuclear bomb because of the devastation. There were no people," said Picciotto.

He turned on his siren and this time, other firefighters heard it and assisted in getting him and the others to safety.

Picciotto said the biggest lesson from his experience was making priorities in life. "Your priorities become clear in a tragedy. You realize what you really want and desire. For most of us, it's family, friends and safety. We can't take those things for granted," he said.

He also expressed the need for the United States to become united. "We became really unified after 9/11 and we've lost that," said Picciotto. "We have a lot more in common than what divides us."

To cope with the traumatic things he witnessed, Picciotto talked to his family and friends. He also wrote a book, "Last Man Down," which commemorates the 343 firefighters and 3,000 civilians who lost their lives. The book hit the New York Times Best Seller list shortly after its May 2002 release.

Picciotto retired 14 months after 9/11 and currently resides in Hudson Valley, N.Y.

Contact: Val Wetzel, assistant director, Pioneer Student Center, (608) 342-1448, wetzelv@uwplatt.edu Written by: Krystle Kurdi, UWP Public Relations, (608) 342-1194, kurdik@uwplatt.edu