# John oral history interview conducted by Julie Broihier, October 18, 2010

John was in the FDNY for 34 years. He retired as a captain in February 2002. He has two sons, one a NYC firefighter and the other NYPD. John said it took him most of the day to get to Ground Zero. He led 20 heavy rescue vehicles to the site on 9/11 at about 4 PM, going over the Brooklyn Bridge into the darkness. You could not see lower Manhattan as it was shrouded in dust. He helped set up lights for triage, headed for the pile, and began to dig. He was taken aback at the scope of the destruction and was in disbelief, but felt prepared due to his many years of training in the FDNY. John did not sleep for over 30 hours after arriving there. He spent three months at the site and said, "Very few bodies were found intact." He found many shoes with feet in them and could not understand where the rest of the body was. He said after a few days, you only needed your sense of smell to locate bodies. He said, "It felt like a reward when remains were found." He described 6-7 stories of flooring compacted into about a foot. On the pile, there was dust, instability, smoke, and human remains. John said there was "some danger in everything you did." Only paper masks were used for the first two weeks before the FDNY were given respirators. He described the respirators as uncomfortable and ineffective because they did not have the proper filters, etc. He did expect side effects from the air, but rescue and recovery were his main concerns. John was unable to go to many funerals. He thought…

- Kind: Interview
- Year: 2010
- Runtime: 54 min
- By: Broihier, Julie
- Genres: History
- Archive: [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2015048_065/)
- 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_065?play=1)