Latest / Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning / Michael Meyers, FDNY Assistant Chief Interview

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Michael Meyers, FDNY Assistant Chief Interview · Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We are honored right now to welcome Assistant Chief Michael Myers,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: a 35-year veteran of the FDNY and the department's chief
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: of training to the show. He has responded to many events,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the Hurricane Katrina, Superstorm Sandy, and of course, September 11th.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: There's so much, sir. By the way, thank you for
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: joining us today. There is so much we want to
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: talk to you about, but let's start with that date,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: September 11th, 2001. What are your memories?
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: One of the biggest memories that I have from that
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  Speaker 2: morning was getting to rescue force quarters while both buildings
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  Speaker 2: were still burning. I was coming in from home, but
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  Speaker 2: I knew that it was going to be a large
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  Speaker 2: scale event. I was in special operations at the time
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  Speaker 2: and that they were going to need our services down
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  Speaker 2: there because of the magnitude of the incident. So I
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  Speaker 2: remember getting to rescue force quarters, meeting up with a
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  Speaker 2: whole bunch of other guys and from that company in
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  Speaker 2: Queens and commandeering a city bus. One of the city
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  Speaker 2: bus drivers was brave enough to drive us in there,
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  Speaker 2: drive through all the smoke and get us there. We
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  Speaker 2: got there about 20 minutes after the second collapse. And
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  Speaker 2: I remember as we were coming down the West Side
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  Speaker 2: Highway towards the Trade Center, once we finally got down
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  Speaker 2: to the Trade Center, just the wave of people that
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  Speaker 2: were walking towards us, including police, firefighters, civilians, and they
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  Speaker 2: were all caked in World Trade Center dust, three or
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  Speaker 2: four inches on their helmets, on their hats, on their bodies.
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  Speaker 2: As they were walking towards us, kind of like almost
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  Speaker 2: in a, I call it a fog of war state.
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  Speaker 2: And as they were walking towards us, we were gathering
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  Speaker 2: their equipment, their tools, because we knew we were going
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  Speaker 2: to need that in order to help down at the scene.
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  Speaker 2: So we were handing stuff off, handing radios off. and
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  Speaker 2: getting there. And then I just remember the, when I
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  Speaker 2: finally got down to the trade center site, cause we
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  Speaker 2: had to park about a half mile out because of
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  Speaker 2: the traffic and because the way the cars and first
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  Speaker 2: responder vehicles will park just the, the enormous immensity of
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  Speaker 2: the task at hand, seeing all those two buildings down
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  Speaker 2: on the ground, which I never thought would have collapsed
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  Speaker 2: in a million years.
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  Speaker 3: Now, Michael, uh, What became of the firefighters who first
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  Speaker 3: went in? What impediments did they face as they tried
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  Speaker 3: to move up the floors to fight the fire that
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  Speaker 3: was engulfing the buildings?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, one of the first impediments that they had was
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  Speaker 2: the elevators won't be working to a certain level inside
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  Speaker 2: of the Trade Center, inside both towers, because of the
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  Speaker 2: way that the plane sheared into the building and because
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  Speaker 2: of the type of construction of the Trade Center. buildings
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  Speaker 2: and complex itself. So they weren't able to take elevators up.
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  Speaker 2: I think they were only able to get to about
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  Speaker 2: the 40th or 50th floor. So when you know, as
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  Speaker 2: a firefighter wearing full gear and carrying equipment, tools and equipment,
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  Speaker 2: it's very heavy. So encapsulated in our full gear, we
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  Speaker 2: have a hundred pounds of gear on. So if you
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  Speaker 2: have to go up, you know, in, in gear, a
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  Speaker 2: hundred pounds and then the equipment that you're carrying, you
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  Speaker 2: took about 125, 130 pounds of equipment and gear and,
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  Speaker 2: You're going up 25, 30 flights of stairs. You can
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  Speaker 2: imagine just how rough and tough that is. And with
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  Speaker 2: the folks coming down from upstairs, as well as the
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  Speaker 2: smoke and whatnot that was coming down. So there was
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  Speaker 2: a tremendous amount for them to face, as well as just, again,
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  Speaker 2: the sheer size and magnitudes of two buildings being struck
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  Speaker 2: and fully involved on fire on certain floors.
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  Speaker 1: Now, sir, you are the department's chief of training. Are
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  Speaker 1: there things that were learned on that day that are
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  Speaker 1: used in training today?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, that day 100% changed the way that we
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  Speaker 2: look at firefighting, you know, not only in New York City,
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: but around the world. We constantly, since that day, and
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  Speaker 2: since the first World Trade Center attack was the initial
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  Speaker 2: phases of it in 1993, was again, like we started
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  Speaker 2: to have to worry about terrorism and And our hazmat
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  Speaker 2: responses or hazmat material responses became much more significant. And again,
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  Speaker 2: now coming into play today, right? Every response we go on,
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  Speaker 2: we have to worry about that terrorism aspect of things.
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  Speaker 2: So it's an aspect of the job when I first
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  Speaker 2: came on in 1991 that nobody really looked at. But
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  Speaker 2: now every fire department in and around New York City
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  Speaker 2: and around the country and around the world has to
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  Speaker 2: look at that now.
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  Speaker 3: Now, Assistant Chief Michael Myers, big controversy about radio communication.
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  Speaker 3: It was thought that many of the men who had
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  Speaker 3: gone up in the tower for the fire department had
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  Speaker 3: no idea that the order had been given for them
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  Speaker 3: to leave that building, to get down as fast as possible.
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  Speaker 3: Was that a radio error, leadership error? Has that been corrected?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we've corrected it as best as possible. And so
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  Speaker 2: what I would account that for at that time, whenever
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  Speaker 2: you're in a high rise building, just because of the
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  Speaker 2: distance away from everybody that you are, and most high
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  Speaker 2: rises today are constructed of concrete and don't have a
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  Speaker 2: great ability to communicate with the radios that we had
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  Speaker 2: at that time. We have obviously upgraded our radios two
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: or three times since then. But at that time, we
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  Speaker 2: can also do some triangulation and do other things that
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  Speaker 2: we use now to in order that we'd be able
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  Speaker 2: to get the word up there. We also have post
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  Speaker 2: radios that we would place on certain floors now so
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  Speaker 2: that we'd be able to get that communication into play
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  Speaker 2: and be able to communicate with each other. So we'd
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  Speaker 2: be able to get that water up there at that time.
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  Speaker 1: We appreciate your time so much. Is there anybody in
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  Speaker 1: particular that you want to remember on this day?
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  Speaker 2: I could go through a list of so many different people.
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  Speaker 2: You know, the first person that comes to top of
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  Speaker 2: mind to me would be, you know, my college roommate
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  Speaker 2: and best friend. We played football together in college. And
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  Speaker 2: for the FDNY football team, it would be Darrell Bronco-Pearsall, who,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I miss every day, you know, so, so much.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I could go down all the members of
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  Speaker 2: Rescue 4 who passed away and died, the members of
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  Speaker 2: Ladder 4, Ladder 11, the places that I worked where
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  Speaker 2: I got to know all the families. over the course
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  Speaker 2: of 25 years. And one of the things when you
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  Speaker 2: see these folks and what breaks my heart every year
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  Speaker 2: at the ceremony is that when your son or daughter
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  Speaker 2: dies in an event like this, they carry a sadness
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  Speaker 2: in their eyes forever. And we all carry that same
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  Speaker 2: sadness in our hearts as first responders for everybody who
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  Speaker 2: died there that day. And then to live with the
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: 453 members of the department who've gotten World Trade Center
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  Speaker 2: cancers and diseases and have died since then. And we
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  Speaker 2: have about three people in hospice in any given month,
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  Speaker 2: you know, succumbing to World Trade Center diseases. So we
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  Speaker 2: remember each and every one of them and we try
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  Speaker 2: to pay tribute to each and every one of them.
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  Speaker 2: And it's one of the things that we ask everyone
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  Speaker 2: to always do is to never forget. And, you know,
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  Speaker 2: especially as New Yorkers and being all in this together,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we need to never forget that.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Sarah, thank you so much for your time today.
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  Speaker 1: And thank you. Thank you for your service. We really
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  Speaker 1: appreciate it. Assistant Chief Michael Myers, a 35-year veteran of
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  Speaker 1: the FDNY, and he is the department's chief of training.