The six-man crew on FDNY Ladder 118’s truck raced across the Brooklyn Bridge toward the twin towers of the World Trade Center as thick black smoke poured out of their upper floors on the otherwise bright, clear morning of September 11, 2001.
Less than 90 minutes later, they were among the 343 hero firefighters killed in the al Qaeda terror attack that would reduce the towers to piles of rubble, blanket lower Manhattan in an inches-thick ash of concrete, asbestos, glass and remains — and claim the lives of 2,743 innocent people. Afterwards, an eerie silence fell over the usually bustling financial hub of New York City.
