So I heard a (supposedly) true story of a photographer who’s main subjects were NYC firefighers at work. Over the years the firfighters got to know him so well they began calling him ‘brother’.
The story goes that on 9-11 he was a he was just outside a firestation in NYC just as a firetruck was headed out to the twin towers. He was without his camera. The firefighters saw him as they were leaving on the truck and he has a mental picture of all of them with their hands in the air waving at him. None of them made it back,they all perished.
Anyone heard this? Did I get the story right and does someone have a link?
Sounds somewhat like the Naudet Brothers, who made the riveting documentary 9/11. They were making a documentary on the FDNY and just happened to be filming on 9/11. They have one of the few shots of the first impact. There was a scene where one of the brothers–missing for a while in the confusion–made it back to the firehouse and was welcomed by the firemen as one of their own.
While there were many firefighters killed in 9/11, I don’t believe there was any firestation where ALL of the firefighters failed to “make it back; they all perished”.
I don’t have the complete citation but you can probably do a search at firehouse.com
There were several stations where the entire on-duty crew never returned. There were many individual pieces of apparatus where the entire on-duty crew of that apparatus were killed. The Special Operations Command - Rescue1, Rescue 2, etc - the guys who get called when firemen need help, was virtually wiped out up to their Chief, Ray Downey.
