# FDNY photographer

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fdny-photographer/418622>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 9, 2007, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fdny-photographer/418622 "2007-09-09T23:14:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Tony\_Montana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/278dde/32.png) [@Tony\_Montana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tony_Montana)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2007, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fdny-photographer/418622/1 "2007-09-09T23:14:52Z")

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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?

Thanks, TM

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**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2007, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fdny-photographer/418622/2 "2007-09-10T00:01:18Z")

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Sounds somewhat like the Naudet Brothers, who made the riveting documentary [9/11](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0312318/). 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.

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**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2007, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fdny-photographer/418622/3 "2007-09-10T05:53:31Z")

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Moving thread from IMHO to General Questions.

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**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2007, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fdny-photographer/418622/4 "2007-09-10T07:59:10Z")

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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”.

So it sounds like an urban legend to me.

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**Author:** ![Fir\_na\_tine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fir\_na\_tine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fir_na_tine)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2007, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fdny-photographer/418622/5 "2007-09-10T13:38:16Z")

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[QUOTE=t-bonham@scc.net]  
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”.

So it sounds like an urban legend to me.  
[/QUOTE]

I don’t have the complete citation but you can probably do a search at [firehouse.com](http://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.