# Martin Carrano Jr. oral history interview conducted by Sonia Fore, July 28, 2010

Martin was working as an NYPD narcotics detective in Queens on 9/11/2001. In the morning, he reported to the city. He remembers first visiting the site with his supervisor. Martin remembers that he was only wearing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. He said that it "smelled bad" and "nothing echoed." They grabbed a bucket and started work with the bucket brigade. He remembers that on the bucket brigade, there was a line of people passing buckets trying to find body parts. There was no protective gear for the first few days. He recalls they made a triage out of a Burger King near Ground Zero. They were involved in clean-up and were put on rotations at the site. He remembers eating a lot and gaining a lot of weight during his time, and remembers at one point, he thought, "I don't know what the hell we were looking for anymore. . .you found nothing, just dust." He saw volunteers from the Salvation Army and all over the country when they were working at the pit. He also mentions witnessing unity and patriotism among people, and said, "There were people holding signs (for responders) on the West Side Highway." Martin also did rotations down at the NYC morgue for 12-hour shifts and worked at the Fresh Kills landfill where he and his partner, Mike, found "socks with bones in it." If he found any remains, he was responsible for informing family members. It was a difficult time because, on top of this job, there were his regular job responsibilities. Martin worked on the WTC site for…

- Kind: Interview
- Year: 2010
- Runtime: 31 min
- By: Fore, Sonia
- Genres: History
- Archive: [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2015048_032/)
- Licence or status: Rights statement at the Library of Congress (as the archive states it)
- Credit: Library of Congress
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/loc/afc2015048_032?play=1)