Sunday, March 17, 2002
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Sunday, March 17, 2002 |
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More thoughts on 9/11 By MARY JANE HOLT I watched the CBS documentary Sunday night, the one filmed by the two French brothers the film they had been working on for nine months in an effort to document the life of a New York firefighter. The film makers were on scene with cameras running when the planes hit the towers. They captured the people running to and from the horror that was unfolding. They captured the disbelief on the faces of people of countless nationalities stunned by what they were witnessing. At the towers, they captured the horrific, crushing spats which we were told were bodies falling from the floors high above. They recorded their own emotions. They also captured something else that has disturbed me. You would think with all the choices I have to be upset about, that this one would not be what kept me from sleeping well after viewing the film. Not only did I not sleep well, when I did doze, I had horrible nightmares. You see, the French film makers caught on camera the firefighters/first responders scurrying around in the lobby of Tower One trying to figure out if the elevators were working and discussing the best ways to get to the upper floors. That elevator area discussion has upset me. The planes had hit the building eighty-plus floors above them. We have an idea how long it takes a firefighter laden with all his gear to go up a flight of stairs. This particular documentary said it can take a minute to climb just one flight of stairs. That's 80 or more minutes before a rescue worker would ever even get to the floors where the damage occurred on impact. I keep wondering why the elevators were ever a consideration. And why do rescue workers walk up the stairs of a building whose structural integrity has been so compromised? Is that what a firefighter does? Must they go barging in unaware on scenes and into places the rest of us run from? I am very much aware that one alternative would have been to stand back and possibly do little or nothing. And the other alternatives? Climb nearly a hundred fights of stairs carrying gear that weighed almost as much as some of them did? Expect when they reached the floors filled with smoke and flames to be able to function? To help others? To rescue them? To go back down all those stairs again? Did those firefighters even have enough oxygen on their backs to take them up that high and back down again, huffing and puffing like they had to have been? Did they think the fire would be still and not spread until they got there? I truly am not being critical here. I wouldn't dare. I want to know. Common sense seems to be telling me it was unwise to do what made dead heroes of many men and women. Is there room for common sense on such a scene? Is there ever a right time to use, or even consider using, an elevator when you suspect or know a building is on fire? Is there ever a time when you just stay on the ground and pray that the sprinkler system is working and that everybody everywhere knows the best way to try to get out of a building? Does the fact that so many firefighters died lessen the pain? Do their deaths make it easier in some way to accept the loss of so many of those they were there to serve? Would better training have saved some of them? Do we need to abolish construction of high rise buildings? I expect responses to this column. I welcome them at: MJHcolumn@aol.com. I want to try to understand this better. What was right, wrong, wise, or unwise about the firefighter/EMS response of 9/11? Do we dare think such a horrible tragedy would never happen again? Who imagined it could happen the first time? How prepared were we? How prepared will we be? Am I proud of, and thankful for, those men and women who gave their lives to try to save others? Of course I am! They did the best they knew to do in an unimaginable situation. Assuredly "all gave some and some gave all" right before our eyes. Still, I am left wondering how well trained our emergency services professionals are. Everywhere. Not just in New York. Is it even possible to adequately train/equip a firefighter for another 9/11? Oh ... and how much are they paid? And how are their families cared for when they die for us? Because such first responders do die. For us. It's a disturbing day with disturbing thoughts. It is six months since many, many people died who should not have died.
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