Engine 65’s 9/11: Five Floors, a Bad Knee, and a May Day That Saved Their Lives. Firefighter Al Barry Tells All.

Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff · Aug 18, 2026 · 1h 7m

Twenty-five years on, the loudest lesson from 9/11 is still the quietest one: appreciate every damn day. In this replay from the Independent Americans archive, Paul Rieckhoff — combat veteran, 9/11 first responder, and founder of IVA — hands the mic to his friend firefighter Rob Serra and Al Barry of Engine 65. Al walks us floor by floor up the North Tower stairwell, through the May Day at 22, through the collapse of the South Tower that he first mistook for elevators being recalled, and through the black cloud on West Street where he ended up at the bottom of a pile of strangers under a…