| K I NG MR. McCOURT: The date is November 21st, 2001. The time is 1142 hours. My name is Tom McCourt from the New York City Fire Department. I am with MR. MURAD: Murray Murad with the New York City Fire Department. MR. McCOURT: Were conducting an interview with Q. Give your name and rank, sir. A. Battalion Chief Stephen King. Q. What command are you with? A. Iím with the Safety Battalion. Q. Chief King, could you describe the events that took place on September 11th, 2001? A. Okay. On September 11th, I was the Safety Chief on duty. I respond to all second or greater alarms for the entire city. I came into work about 7:00 oíclock that morning, and I was with the off-going Battalion Chief. We were in the kitchen having coffee. Q. Do you remember who that was? A. Yes. It was Battalion Chief Brian OFlaherty. We came back around into the office. work out of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. We respond out ? KING of the Marine Division building of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. When we walked back into the office, we have a picture window that looks right out on lower Manhattan. Chief OíFlaherty walked in the office first. I was right behind him. As soon as he walked in the office, he said, ìOh, my God, look at that.î We saw the building was on fire, the Trade Center building. The north tower was on fire. I didnít know what caused it. I was the Chief on duty. The second I saw it, I turned around to my aide, who was right behind me, Bobby Crawford, who is missing in the building, and I said to him, ìLetís get going, Bobby.î Normally we would wait for a ticket to respond like any line unit. I certainly knew that Iíd be rolling in on that, so I didnít even wait for a ticket to respond. I told him letís just get in the car and get down there. So we immediately went down to the car and proceeded to the site. We went over the Brooklyn Bridge. We were in there very rapidly, well before the plane hit the second tower. When we pulled up to the scene, there was an awful lot of debris coming down f:rom the north K I NC tower. Q. Do you remember how far in you got, where you were parked? A. Well, you know what? I donít know what street we came in on. We got fairly close to the building. We were pretty close in. We stopped the car. There was so much coming down that it was falling around the car. There were some jumpers. There was a lot of debris coming down. We responded and we were not dressed in fire gear yet. We would normally get out of the car and put our gear on at the rear of the car. I was concerned that we could get struck in the street. So I saw a building off to the side that had a construction shed around it, a sidewalk construction shed, and I had told the aide, Bobby Crawford, I said, ìBobby, pull the car over there sc we can get out and get under the shed while we get dressed.î So we pulled the car over to where the shed was and we got out and got dressed under the protection of that shed. There was, again, a lot of debris coming down. There were jumpers hitting the street. I literally had quite a concern that you could get struck just trying to run from where we 5 ? K I NC were into the building, which I would say was about 100 feet away. Q. Do you have any jdea what street you were on? A. You know what? I donít. I wasnít paying attention. Unfortunately, there was so much going on with radio communications on the mobile radio that I was trying to take in and looking at the building that it was kind of overwhelming. I didnít pay an awful lot of attention to which street we were on when we pulled in. Q. Were you aware of what happened, what the circumstances were? A. No. I did not know. Q. They didnít come over the radio with what had happened? A. No. Iíve been tossing and turning with this for a long time. I donít believe that it was clear to me that it was an airplane at all. I certainly could see that I had a major event. I mean, it looked to me like there was fire on eight to twelve floors. I know in my own mind I thought it was some sort of an explosion, that to get something going that rapidly, you know, to cover that many ? K I NC floors, something dramatic had happened. But I donít believe I understood at that point that it was a plane crash. We ran into the lobby. Literally, you had an impending feeling that it was not going to be a good day. As a matter of fact, I think I said to Bobby on the way in something to that effect. I said, ìBobby, this is not going to be a good day.î There was just so much happening. You could see right away that the magnitude of th:Ls event, though I never expected that a tower might collapse Q. You never thought that? A. No, I donít think I ever thought that. I know I didnít think that, not understanding that it was an airliner full of fuel. It was so much easier watching on TV later and people telling there were so many thousands of gallons of fuel, et cetera. When you hear all of that, you can start saying to yourself this building could fail. But, no, I donít believe I ever thought about that. I knew I had a very serious fire and I wasnít anticipating building failure at that point at all. Anyway, so we got into the lobby, and when I got there I saw Deputy Chief Hayden and I had seen KING Chief Callan. I donít remember if I saw him right away or when I came back to the command post. But I checked in with Chief Hayden and there was an awful lot going on. It was obviously extremely busy. The handie-talkies were almost overwhelmed with the amount of transmissions going on. Q. Was there radio communication; it was working at the time? A. Yes, there was radio communication, handieó talkie communication. It was working. I asked Chief Hayden if we were using a command channel and he said we were using a command channel and I switched over to the command channel. I asked him what he wanted me to do. Chief Hayden and I go back a long way. He was a Chief of Safety immediately before me, so weíve worked together, and he knows a Safety Chiefís job inherently because, like I say, he was Chief of safety for a couple of years. He said, ìDo me a favor, Steve. Just check out if we have any elevators that might be usable. Check out the stairwells. Just give me an idea whatís going on.î I said, ìOkay.î I left with my aide. We walked around the KING lobby trying to get an idea if there were any elevators. There were no elevators. We just wanted to see if maybe something looked like it might be able to be put back in service somehow. We looked around at the elevator banks. Nothing was in use. We went around to the escalators. This is in the north tower. We went to the escalators. They werenít functioning. We walked up to the promenade level, visiting level. Iím not sure what they call it. Iím not overly familiar with the Trade Center buildings. As a matter of fact, the last time I was in it was the ë93 event. We got up there. We started checking out the stairwell. When I say we, itís my aide, Bobby Crawford, and myself. Q. Just the two of you; nobody else was with you? A. No, nobody else was with me. We walked into the first stairwell and walked up one flight of stairs. There were people coming down. We were trying to get somewhat of an assessment of, you know, were there any panic situations, which one might be better for firefighters to access to go upstairs, et cetera. KING Q. What was the demeanor of the civilians coming down; how were they acting? A. I would say that there was no panic. Probably shock but quite orderly. I believe it was four staircases. I was in three of the four stairwells. They all seemed to be pretty much the same. I didnít see pushing, shoving, anything that resembled a panic. It seemed to be just people rather orderly coming down. As a matter of fact, when firemen were going upstairs, the civilians coming down tended to hug to the right and the firemen were going up to the left side, passing them, and some of them were patting them on the back saying God bless you and that sort of thing. But, really, at least at these lower floors, and I was only at the lower floors, but it was quite organized and working very smoothly at those lower levels. I have no idea what the conditions might have been up higher. Q. What was the condition of the stairwells themselves; smoky, hot, anything you noticed? A. No. Once again, not at these lower floors, of course, remembering that the impact was way above that. At my level there was virtually no smoke. K I NC Everything was clear. There wasnít a problem with any of those sort of conditions at all. Q. There was lighting? Regular house lights were on or were there emergency lights? A. There were emergency lights that I recall. I believe they were the emergency lights. We went to the second floor in the first stairwell. We actually went in the hallway. We walked down to where the elevators were on the second floor, second level, looked around. Then we went to the next stairwell, checked out conditions. They were kind of similar. We walked around some more and went to the third stairwell and started going up to the third floor. As we started going up to the third floor, people were coming down the stairwell. There was a large woman coming down the stairs, and Iím a big guy myself. When I was trying to pass her, she had bumped into me and caught me off balance. Anyway, I ended up kind of falling backwards. I put my foc~ down and caughz a step about two or three steps down on my leff foot. I popped something in my knee anyway at that. point in time. I did something to my kneecap. ft feli like I popped a ligament or KING whatever it might have been. I got like a piercing pain in my head. MR. McCOURT: Weíre stopping the interview at this time for a second. (Pause.) MR. McCOTJRT: The time is 1154 and weíre continuing the interview. A. Anyway, I had done something to my left knee at that point and ankle. After that we started to go up to the third floor and it became very clear to me that I could not do stairs very well. My left foot, between the knee and the ankle, was killing me. That woman literally probably saved my life as things turned out. We got up to the third floor and I turned around to my aide, Bobby. I said, ìBobby, I canít go up the stairs. Whatever I did to my knee, itís done. Thereís no way I can go upstairs. Weíre going to have to end up heading back down.î So we start going back down the stairs. i get to the second floor level again and thereís a woman there thatís having a little problem breathing, having a little difficulty, and I stopped to talk to her for a minute. KING My aide, Bobby, by the way, has like 31 years on the job. Heís been with Safety Battalion since it was formed in 1981. Heís a very checked-out individual. But anyway, he said, ìChief, Iím going to look in the hallway here at the second floor level again.î I said, ìOkay, Bobby.î I said, ìIím just going to help her out for a minute.î So I was talking to her for a minute. She looked like she was just having difficulty breathing. I talked to her for a minute and I told her, ìYouíve just got like one more floor to go down and thereís EMS personnel in the lobby and theyíll be waiting to assist you.î I said, ìGo over to one of them and have them check you out. Theyíve got oxygen. Theyíll take blood pressure, et cetera.î There were people coming down the stairs and I had asked one man that was coming down the stairs, I said, ìIf youíd just assist her getting down the stairs.î And he did. That probably took one or two minutes. At that point I went into the hallway where my aide had just gone a minute or two earlier and I opened up the door and I looked in there. I didnít see him. I walked down that hallway, a very long KING hallway. Thereís no smoke or anything. Itís completely clear. Iím looking for him and Iím calling out his name and I donít hear from him. The handie-talkie is kind of overwhelming to call him on the handie-talkie. Iím still on the command channel. Heís on the tactical channel. But Iím not the least bit concerned. Weíre way, way, way below the fire. Itís not even a problem. I donít see him. So Iím kind of like, you know, I donít know where the heck he went. Did I miss him? Did he go upstairs? I literally said Iíd better go up. Maybe he went up to the third floor again. I went back upstairs, which was extremely difficult for me to do. Q. Because of your injury? A. Because of my injury. I went back up to the third floor and I poked my head in that hallway. I donít see him at all. I said to myself, well, I know heís not going to go upstairs without me. He must have gone downstairs. Iím going to check the second floor. I went back down to the second floor. I poked my head in again. I donít see him. I continued down to the lobby command post and I KING expected that he might well be down there by the time I got down there. But he often would take off on his own for a little bit and kind of look around, and itís basically what we do. Heís a very checked-out individual. At an average fire, at certain times, like outside the building, normally we would split up. Q. He would survey the area? A. Yes. He might go around to the rear and survey, et cetera. In the building we tend to stick together. But this is a very different kind of building, you know, everything thatís going on. In other words, youíre not in any immediate danger at all. Weíre way below the fire. Anyway, I report back in. I see Pete Hayden at the command post and I said, ìPete, listen, my knee. I did something to my knee. I canít even walk.î And he says, ìOkay, Steve.î They were by the command center. He said, ìJust stay by the command board with me.î I said, ìOkay.î There was a Battalion Chief there from the 1st Battalion, I think, Pfeifer. Q. A. Yes. He was there and there were several KING others. There were probably six, seven, eight individuals there. I donít know them all. I saw a couple of EMS personnel. Chief Gabriel, who is an EMS Chief, I spoke with him for a second. I had seen Father Judge pretty early on. Again, so many events are just confusing in that I donít remember the time frame. I think I might have seen Father Judge in the lobby before I left to go upstairs with Crawford. I remember at one point a fireman came in to the command post and he said, ìFather Judge is dead.î And I said, ìWhat are you talking about? I was just talking with him,î meaning five, ten minutes ago or whatever. And he said, ìHeís dead, Chief.î Q. Was this before the collapse? A. Before the collapse. Definitely before the collapse. Absolutely. And I couldnít believe that. I was just like, oh, my God, I canít believe this is happening. Q. When you saw him, how was he? Was he all right? Did you talk to him at all? A. He was fine. Yes, we talked for a quick minute. He knows me. I know him. I said, ìHello, Father, ì and he said, ìhello, Chief, God bless you, KING or something like that. It was a very quick conversation. When I came back down, I know at one point I was talking to Ray Downey. Ray and I know each other for many, many years. We live a couple of blocks away from each other. Our kids grew up together and everything. I saw Ray at the same time. We talked in the lobby there. I believe that was after I came back down. But we talked in the lobby for a minute or two and he was running around doing his thing and that was the last I had seen of him. Anyway, Iím around at the command post there. I was talking with Chief Pfeifer a little bit and basically just kind of taking in everything that was going on, you know, listening to the transmissions. I talked with Chief Gabriel for a little bit about what his men were doing, his personnel. I didnít see Fireman Crawford. I was starting now to wonder where the heck he went. Now Iím getting a little concerned. Q. This is your aide? A. My aide, who, again, has been missing since that day. But now I had a little concern. Iím not KING worried about him being in danger. In other words, weíre so far from the danger area. But now Iím just like, jeez, itís been a little while. Iím surprised he hasnít come back down here. It wouldnít be like him to just, in other words, be gone upstairs by himself. So Iím kind of wondering, wherever he went, I figured at some point heís going to figure out I must be at the command center. He knew I couldnít do stairs. You know what Iím saying? Anyway, pretty much Iím at the command center and I had the Scott mask on my back all this time but, of course, I wasnít using the face piece because there wasnít any difficulty breathing. At one point I took the Scott pack off and I put it under the desk there at the command center because my knee hurts and Iím lugging this extra weight around for nothing. So I put it under the desk. Nothing much else I can remember, until at some point I hear a transmission about the building coming down. I donít even remember the exact words, but something, the building is collapsing or the building is coming down. I hear that. Now, I think itís my tower. Q. Did you know there was any incident going KING on with the other tower at that point? A. Oh, let me tell you. I guess I left that all out. Yes. At some point when Iím at the command post, I hear something about an aircraft has struck the other tower, the south tower. Iím at the command post at that point. Q. Youíre in the north tower? A. Iím in the north tower. I hear something about an aircraft just struck the south tower. And I donít know that a plane has hit the north tower. Q. You still donít know that? A. I still donít know that. I donít believe I know that. If I do, then I was in more shock than I thought. Even though I heard a plane struck the south tower, I mean, I didnít hear anything like an airliner. It was just I heard a plane struck the south tower. I remember saying how is that possible? In my mind, Iím thinking it might be a news helicopter. Iím thinking that, you know, when we have an event like this in the city, how you get one of those helicopters in there very quickly. So, literally, although they said an aircraft, Iím thinking that maybe itís some idiot in a news helicopter circling, you know, filming this event in KING the north tower and somehow he plowed into the south tower. Or else, Iím saying to myself, if it isnít that, maybe itís Iím a pilot, by the way. Iím a commercial pilot for 30 years. I f:lew in the Navy. Q. Fixed-wing pilot? A. Fixed-wing. Iíve flown some helicopters. But fixed-wing. And I flew in the Navy. But anyway, the other thing Iím thinking is what they call a VFR corridor that runs up the Hudson River right alongside the Twin Towers. It goes up the Hudson River. VFR, visual flight rule, private plane type, they can go up and down that as long as they stay under 1100 feet AOL, above ground level. So Iím saying to myself the other pc.ssibility is some light plane. But Iím never thinking airliner. I donít hear that at all. So Iím saying to myself weíve got a major thing going on in the north tower, something struck the south tower, and I donít envision this as a terrific event going on in the south tower. Anyway, that early, thatís not what I understand. But getting back to where I was then, thatís what I had heard. I have to say one other thing. If Iím not mistaken, at some point after that I believe I KING heard and Iím not clear as to how I heard it, but it was at the command center. I heard something about thereís a report of .a third a:ircraft inbound, something to that effect, and I donít even know who said it. Q. You donít know who said it? A. I donít know who said it. Iím not even clear if it was on a handie-talkie transmission or if it was something verbally said at the command center. But I heard something to that effect. When I heard that, then all of a sudden everything kind of clicked and I said, literally, holy shit. We must be under some sort of an attack. That was the first time that it registered, whoever said something about a third aircraft inbound. Q. That was after the second aircraft? A. Oh, yes. It was definitely after the second because they said something about a third. And then I said, whoa, you know, weíve been attacked or something. Something major is going on. Thatís the first time, at least in my own mind, that I remember it really clicked. At some time after that, and I have no concept of time here, I remember hearing something to ? KING the effect that the tower is collapsing or coming down. I hear that and I hear a rumble. I remember a terrific rumbling, getting louder. Now, I believe and I did for two days after this -?- I think that my tower that Iím in, the north tower, is collapsing. This is the south tower collapsing. You had to be there to envision this. The noise becomes deafening. I can feel the ground shaking. I remember saying to myself that thereís like a big archway behind me, more or less to the back of me, but when I was talking with Chief Gabriel, I was pretty much standing under it. And you know how you always hear this, I guess weíre kind of trained, you know, look for an arch or something, if thereís a collapse. I remember kind of instinctively running back there. As a matter of fact, I think I hollered out to the guys that were along with me, ìCome back here under the arch.î Itís amazing what happens in a few seconds, but I remember going under the arch. I remember just hearing the noise. You know itís corning down. I mean, I know my tower was coming down and that this is it. Itís all over. Absolutely got to be. I remember being under the arch and saying to myself KNG this is a joke. Iím going under an arch. Iíve got 110 stories coming down. Itís over, Steve. I literally remember that. And I remember having been in one of these subbasements in ë93 with the other event, and in a couple of seconds, I just remember saying Iím going to get driven down to the eighth subbasement of this building and thatís it. Theyíll be paving the street. Iím dead. Thereís not a chance in the world Iím living through this. And it comes down. The next thing I know, Iím getting buried in debris. The windows are shattering. Again, I think itís my tower. Iím not exactly clear how itís coming down, but itís coming down. You canít miss the noise. You can feel the air pressure building up. I mean, literally, it blows the windows in. Q. The windows were blown in? A. I guess everything came in because the next thing, we are covered in white. So you cannot breathe at all. I remember I had you know the hoods we wear? I had taken my Scott mask off, if you remember. Now, thereís so much of that powder mixed in with smoke, I guess, but the second you took a mouthful or two of it in, it dried your mouth and KNG throat and you were gagging. It was like holy shit. I remember now I pulled the hood over my face to filter out some of that. I noticed guys next to me were alive and Iím like Iím in shock. Q. Do you remember who was next to you? A. Yes. Iíll tell you in a second. I just remember kind of like I cannot believe weíre alive. Thereís no way we could have survived this. But Iím alive. Now, I know Pete Hayden is with me, Joe Callen, Chief Pfeifer, and there were others, maybe a couple of the aides. Iím not sure of who all the people were. There was an EMS fellow there. I would say there were maybe six or seven or eight of us. We canít even see each other. Weíre blind. Weíre kind of gagging. I know everybody is absolutely in shock. I mean, everybody was kind of quiet for a while. Weíre sitting there. I remember now saying I canít believe that Iíve lived through this, but now I canít breathe. I mean, itís really difficult breathing. Now Iím like, oh, my God, weíre going to get asphyxiated in here. Weíre going to die. I remember saying to myself, literally, that I would rather have been crushed to death instantly ? KING than the worst nightmare. I mean, Iíve done a lot of investigations, and the ones that run out of air, you just know that, you know... Anyway, I have this vision now that, if I donít get out of here pretty soon, I may well asphyxiate in here. I remember there was a Port Authority cop that was with us somewhere in the area. Now Iím saying to myself which way is even out? I know where I came in and I donít want to go back out that way. I know itís a distance to get in. I thought there was a way to get out behind me more or less. I remembered that cop, and I said, well, he works in the building. I said, ìIs the cop still around here?î And he says, ìIím over here. Yeah, Iím here.î I said, ìWhich way to out of here? Weíve got to get out of here.î And he said, ìI think itís back here.î I canít really see this guy, but heís behind me. And I said, ìThatís where I thought it was, that direction.î Q. Was it still smoky and cloudy in that area so you couldnít see? A. Yes, it was. Q. Just a couple of minutes after the collapse? KING A. Well, it wasnít very long. Yes, within the first couple of minutes, because we didnít hang around there very long. Anyway, I got Pete Hayden and Joe Callen and weíre holding onto each otherís coats more or less. We canít see anything at that point. And I think I said something. I said, ìWeíve got to get out of here before we suffocate.î So we all started working our way in that direction, and I remember we came to the escalators. What gets sort of interesting and confusing here is thereís a videotape that was taken by, I guess, a department photographer that was in that lobby with us, and I had the opportunity to see some of that recently, I guess last week, and Iím in that videotape quite a bit. Some of the events I remember are a little bit different than when Iím watching myself. To give you an idea, when I say that this has been a very stressful or confusing event for me, literally, if you would have asked me to do this interview without seeing that tape, I would have said that I remember the escalators distinctly and that I thought I walked and continued past them and got KING out. However, on the videotape, we go up the escalator and I go up the escalator with them. Then at some point, when we get up there, I think, we separated and that cameraman stayed with Chief Pfeifer and they went a different direction. Anyway, we work our way out of the building. I remember getting outside the building. There were definitely a few guys with me, Joe Callen, Pete Hayden and others. There was somebody that was unconsciouS that a couple of the guys were carrying with us. I donít know who that person was. He wasnít in bunker gear or fire gear. I donít know that he was a firefighter at all. But we get outside the building. Now weíre hugging the building, and I still donít understand that my building is standing. We were out in the street Q. Where did you come out? A. I donít know. You know what? I donít know. But I believe it was by Vesey Street. For some reason I seem to think I donít see streets or. here, but I believe it was somewhere along here. Q. Vesey? A. I ended up coming up here somehow. But Iím KING not even sure of that. Q. Towards West Broadway, right? A. Right. Exactly, yes. I donít know. Everything was white. I remember trying to find a street sign. But first we hugged the building. There was so much debris coming down and still jumpers and stuff, and I can only speak for myself, although Iíd say we stayed together, in a single line, hugged the building and walked along the building for quite a ways. We were almost Iíll speak for myself afraid to leave the building. Your chances of getting struck by something were good, and I could not run or do anything. I was having difficulty walking. There was no way I was running. We stayed together for quite awhile, but at some point, and I donít remember any of the particulars, Iím by myself. Again, Iím not clear with a lot of this. I ended up walking up I believe I walked along Vesey and went to West Broadway and I was walking north up West Broadway. At this point Iím by myself. I do not know where everybody else went. I donít know how we got separated or what led to it. KING A week or two later, I saw Joe Callan. As a matter of fact, it was at Chief Ganciís funeral. saw Chief Callen and I said to him, ìJoe, T donít remember how we got separated that lay.î I said, ëI guess I left you guys. Iím sorry. I donít remember what was going on.î And he said to me, ìSteve, you didnít leave us.î He said, ìYou couldnít walk almost.î He said, tJ ran.î He said, ì1 did the 60-yard sprint for two blocks.î He said, I left you. He said, ìAt that point it was every man for himself.î Anyway, the next thing I know, Iím walking in the middle of the street. Everything was white. Iím sure youíve seen pictures of it. Tm at least somewhat in shock. I donít think I had a very clear focus of what I was doing. I remember saying to myself lye got to get away from the building. I canít believe Iím not getting hit getting away from the building. There was a lot of stuff coming down. Keep in mind that I absolutely believed that I was in the tower that collapsed. Iím walking north. Pm looking to see any sort of a fire truck, a Chiefís car. I figured other units have got to be coming in. Iím going to see one KING sooner or later. As soon as I see one, Iím going to kind of flag them down and say, you know, all right, whatís going on, whereís the command center, try and get reformed. Iím thinking about, did everybody get out? I havenít seen my aide. Now Iím really worried because, in my mind, he was in the building that collapsed and I know heís still in there. I walk about Iíll say two blocks north. Iím guessing. I donít see any fire units at all. So now Iím starting to say, well, wherever theyíre forming, theyíve got to be forming another staging area or command post outside the building. I said Iím going in the wrong direction. So I stopped and I turned around and I said Iíd better start heading back down there again. So, literally, I turned around and I started going back towards the Trade Center. I get about a block away. Iíll say about one block away. So maybe I walked back about one block. Now all of a sudden I hear people are starting to run and scream. And I said, ìThe other tower is coming down.î I looked up and the tower is coming down and Iíve got to get buried in the debris. I mean, itís like itís got to hit me. Now KING Iím back to the same thing. In a couple of seconds, Iím saying, holy shit. I got out of the first one and now Iím going to get killed by the second one. Iím looking to see where am I going to go now? Thereís a subway station right alongside me. I donít know what station. I dive down the subway stairs. I get down to the bottom of that first set of stairs. I turn the corner. I sit up against a wall on the floor and the building comes down. It goes down the stairs. I thought the sidewalk was going to collapse. Iím buried in that smoke again. Iíve got to pull the hood back over my face. Iím gagging. Iím going through pretty much the same things that happened to me after the first tower came down. Q. Were you alone? Was anybody with you? A. I was by myself. I kind of sat there. I donít even have any clue how long. I do not know how long. Prom this point on it gets kind of vague, I guess. I do get out of there. I donít remember coming up. I donít remember how I got out. I get up to the street. At some point I was interviewed on TV, you know, a camera, not for very long. I have not seen KING this interview, but everybody in the entire United States has. It was on for two weeks straight every day. It was on Americaís Most Wanted. But I had people from all over the United States calling me up. I sit on a lot of national committees, the NFíPA and other things. But theyíre all calling me up, ìSteve, I saw you on TV, ì and I donít ever remember speaking to anybody on camera at all. I remember now, when I came out of there, I started walking away from the Trade Center again. I remember seeing a civilian in the street who said to me, ìAre you okay?î I said, ìIím okay.î He had a cell phone in his hand and I just remember telling him, ìWould you mind calling my wife at the house? Sheís probably not home.î I didnít know what time it was. She works but comes home for lunch. I said, ìJust leave a message if you get an answering machine. Just tell her your husband is okay. I saw him. He told me to call you.î And he said, ìI promise.î I remember for some reason he was from Detroit. I just remember he said, I promise Iíll call,î and he did end up calling. I know you donít want to go much after ? KING Q. Thatís okay. Iím just checking the tape, thatís all. A. Anyway, I kept walking. At some point a doctor from St. Vincentís Hospital, I guess there were ambulance teams dispatched out to the street, et cetera, but a doctor from St. Vincentís in a blue gown comes over to me and he says, ìAre you okay?î And I said, ìYeah, Iím fine. Iím fine.î Iím walking. Iím just going to leave him. Iím just walking down the middle of the street. And he says, ìHey, I want to check you out. Come over here.î He says, ìTake your jacket off. I want to check your blood pressure.î I said, ìIím okay.î He said, ìLet me check you out.î Anyway, he checked my blood pressure and it was 100 over 90. I remember him saying, ì100 over 90.î Iím saying, ì100 over 90? I never heard of a number like that.î He says, ìLet me check your other arm.î And he does it and he said, 1100 over 90,î and he said to somebody, there was an ambulance by him, in fact, and he said, ìGet this guy to the hospital.î Thereís something else. I left somethino out. At some point I went to a firehouse. I think K I NO Engine 9. When Iím walking the street, I end up at Engine 9 and thereís guys there and I walk in and I was the only Chief around,, I guess. I walk in and thereís a lot of guys that are coming in from home and didnít know the things going on and theyíre kind of like, ìChief, where do you need me?î Q. Where is Engine 9? Do you know where that is? A. I think itís on Vesey Street. Iím not sure. Anyway, thereís firemen, and thereís a lot of activity and theyíre like, ìWell, thereís a Chief here. Chief, weíre going to go down there. Where should we go? What should we be doing?î I said, ìListen, we canít have guys just running down there.î I said, ìDo me a favor, then.î I said, ìGet a clipboard. Get some paper. I want to know everybody thatís here. I want to know their name, what unit theyíre assigned to.î I said, ìLetís get that done first so we know who weíve got. If weíre going to send a team down there or anything, I want to know just who is going in and then weíll try and do it somewhat organized.î At one point I remember Chief Blaich, Billy Blaich, 1st Battalion, come running into quarters. KING He was like in a panic. I know Billy for a long time. I said, ìBilly, whatís going on?î He said, ìMy son is working.î He said, ìHeís in there. Iíve got to get down there.î And he quickly grabbed gear and ran out. Q. He came from home or he was somewhere else? A. Iíll assume he came from home, but I donít know that. It was so quick. He was obviously extremely concerned. He knew his son was responding and was in there, and he ended up being okay. But anyway, I saw him quickly, he grabbed something and ran out. I also remember, and Iím not sure of the sequence, but when I was walking down that street, there was a captain that came up to me, Iím pretty sure he was from 252 Engine, if I recall, and he was going down to the Trade Center. Again, he wasnít or. duty. I donít know how he was there, whether he was recovering or not, but Iím almost positive he was from 252 Engine. He had all his gear with him, but he didnít have a handie-talkie, and he saw me and he said, ìChief,î he says, ìcould I use your handie-talkie? I donít have a handie-talkie. Iím going to report in.î He could see that I was just KING covered in white. I guess I must have looked like death to anybody that saw me. I think he saw clearly that I wasnít going back down there. Anyway, I said to myself, if he can help out, I gave him the radio. I gave him my handie-talkie. I said, ìHere, take the damn thing.î I said, ì252, right?î Because I wanted to remember who I had given it to. Anyway, so that was that. I handed him my handie-talkie. I think thatís before I got to that firehouse. As a matter of fact, I totally forgot this until Iím doing this interview. Things still come back very little at a time. I was at that firehouse for a while and I think at that point, somewhere along there is where I saw that doctor from St. Vincentís. The next thing I know, they transport me to North Shore University Hospital out in Forest Hills, Queens. I thought Iíd be going two blocks away or something. But for whatever reason, they brought me out there. I think they thought there were going to be an awful lot of very serious injuries or whatever. I donít know what their problems were. But I got in an ambulance. I didnít know where I was going at all. I just remember the ride was like, KING where the hell are they taking me? I ended up at Forest Hills. Q. Was there anybody with you in the ambulance or you were the only patient? A. I was the only patient in the ambulance. Q. Okay. A. I got to North Shore. They were treating me for symptoms of a possible heart attack. I guess with that blood pressure they didnít know what was going on. I had difficulty breathing. I had ingested an awful lot of that smoke/debris down there. Thatís basically it. I was in the hospital I think five or six hours. They did cardiograms and blood tests and chest x-ray, knee x-ray, ankle x-ray, things like that, and later that day or that eveninc they released me. They took me. One of the ambulance guys that was off duty brought me back to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, my headquarters, on his own, which was nice of him, so that I could get my car, and I got in my car and I drove out to Deer Park. I knew Ray Downey was missing and I didnít even go to my house first. I went straight to Ray Downeyís, the family house, and I went over there and KING I saw Rayís wife and the kids were all over and I talked for a little bit and I told them that I had been with Ray earlier and that I knew he was missing, and I know they knew and they were obviously extremely distraught. I remember his wife saying, ëYou know Rayís alive, Steve, right?î She said, ìYou know how smart Ray is. I know heís just waiting for us to come get him.î I said, ìRoe, I certainly hope so.î I said, ìI know if anybody could take care of themseJ~f, it would certainly be Ray.î And it was just terrible. Then from there I went home and that was it. Q. Any further news on your aide, Bobby Crawford? A. No. To date heís still missing. Q. Anything else that you can think of? Anything you want to retract and go over? A. No. I know thereís things missing and its frustrating to me, particularly having done a lot, of interviews, you know, its so frustrating when itís not clear, and it?s the first Ume Iíve ever sat on this side of the fence. I have to tell you that Iíve been seeing a psychologist, so weíve been ~a1king KING about this a lot. Iíve been telling this story about 15 or 20 times and it seems like each time I tell it just little bits still come back. Like that captain I just talked about from 252. This is the first time that it ever hit me that I gave that handie-talkie to him, and I havenít said that yet. I had just kind of forgot about it until today. So itís different. Itís still coming back in bits and pieces and a lot of it, unfortunately, is kind of chronologically difficult for me, maybe out of sequence, and time references are difficult. So itís frustrating to me. Q. All right. If at any point you remember anything else and you want to get back to us, we could always add to your interview. Weíll make an addendum onto it? A. I donít know if Iíll get involved in doing some of these interviews myself, but you find out more, of course, as you talk to other people, and I havenít talked to an awful lot of the other people that were there. Iíve been almost avoiding it in a sense. But when you do, people remind you of things that you say, oh, thatís right, I do remember that myself. So, obviously, thatís part of it. I know when I viewed that videotape that I mentioned to you KING last week, I only saw parts of it, but it certainly looked a lot different. Some of it is different from what you remember. Itís amazing. It really is. MR. McCOURT: Okay. The time is 1227. As a matter of fact, we conducted this interview at 9 Metrotech on the 4th floor. Thank you very much, Chief. CHIEF KING: Thank you. 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 this. 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 | |
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