Engine 51

            The alarm blared as Jim flew out of bed and slid down the brass pole. He grabbed his uniform and jumped onto the truck, people starting  to blur.

            “Jim! Jim! Do you hear me!” yelled Mike, “There’s a 5-alarm at World Trade Center Tower 1!

            “What happened?” Jim inquired.

            “ I don’t know but it must be big. Command is calling out everyone, the whole FDNY!”

            The crew raced down the streets their emergency lights reflecting off storefront windows. As they rounded 7^th Street, they saw the flames licking the empty windowsills like a slowly advancing disease, fueled by hate, slowly enveloping the top portion of the building. “Holy….” mumbled Jack his eyes fixated on the column of smoke, wide-mouthed, completely awestruck.

            Suddenly the radio burst to life “Attention all units, be advised. Tower 1 has been struck by an aircraft of unknown size or origin”

            “An airplane! In Manhattan! How could this happen…” shuddered Jim.

            Mike, the unit leader interrupted the baffled firefighters “Ok guys, prepare to go!” Jim looked out the window and saw a sea of emergency lights and sirens coming from every direction. Bewildered bystanders were looking on in total awe, dumbfounded by what they saw- people rushing out of the Tower being helped by the NYPD.

            The fire engine lurched to a stop and engine 51 and their comrades rushed inside, Mike barking orders, “C’mon guys! We’re going to the 50^th floor! We gotta take the stairs!”

            Jim inquired, “How are we supposed to get up 50 floors! The stairway is clogged!”

            Mike answered, “Quit whining and let’s get-” his sentence cut short by screams followed by a bone-jarring explosion. Jim ran to the window, the sounds of breaking glass reverberating while they ran…    

            He looked out the window and saw flames like dragon tongues pouring out of tower 2, 10 floors completely exposed to the outside. Thoughts were racing through his mind, “How can this be? What’s happening? Who cou-”. His thoughts were interrupted by the commanders voice, “C’mon! Move it! We gotta get these people out of here before something else happens!” his words barely comprehendible over the screams, sirens and fire alarms.

They took off up the stairs adrenaline pumping watching the floor numbers, 5, 10, 15. The echoes of their footsteps reverberating off the walls weaving between evacuee after evacuee higher and higher they went.

At the 40^th floor, they started to see the injured, but they knew the worse injured were higher up so to the 50^th floor they trudged. When they got there smoke had started to fill the air and the commander ordered “We stop here!” he yelled out of breath “Search the floor for survivors and help them to the stairwell, then continue up!”

Jim and Steve headed into the smoke listening for yells for help. As they got further down the hallway, they heard moaning in one of the cubicles and darted toward it yelling, “NYFD! Can you hear us!”

 And so began the tragedy.