New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
‘My mind could not register it’
Greenwich volunteer firefighter witnessed the buildings come down
Frank Napolitano didn’t know what to make of the plane that was flying overhead as he went to work in lower Manhattan on Sept. 11 — nearly 20 years ago. Then he heard the impact as he stood on lower Seventh Avenue and knew that plane had gone down.
“I was in a place where I could look out and see them up the street, and I just stood there for the rest of the morning, until the towers fell,” said Napolitano, a Greenwich resident who works as an attorney in New York City.
He thought it was war.
For people who lived or worked in New York City, the day of the attack and weeks that followed was a darker time than even the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Napolitano said.
He is a docent at the 9/11 Tribute Museum in Manhattan, and he has also been a volunteer firefighter since he was 18 and continues to serve in that capacity in Greenwich.
“It was personal,” Napolitano said of the attacks that day. “It was a really personal gutting.”
Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives in the attacks, which included the first responders, transit workers and civilians, according to The 9/11 Commission Report.
“I went home that day and I could not believe the depravity of man having witnessed it firsthand,” Napolitano said. “I couldn’t believe anyone could do that. That really fractured me.”
More than 3,000 children lost a parent in the combined attacks, according to the Commission Report.
“When the building went down, my mind could not register it,” Napolitano said. “Did I just see that building go down? Being a volunteer firefighter, I just knew we’d lost at least 500 guys (in the building
and on the plane). That was tough. It was staggering.”
In the end, it was many more lives than that. It was the single deadliest incident for firefighters in American history, claiming the lives of 343 New York City firefighters in the twin towers. At least 200 more have since died from illnesses related to their work at ground zero.
Since Napolitano was near St. Vincent’s Hospital that day, he got in line with countless others to give blood. As he waited, Napolitano could see people running up out of the dust cloud from the buildings’ collapse, seeking help at the hospital.
“I remember one man running up, and he had a thousand-yard stare, totally in a state of shock,” Napolitano said.
He finally got on a Metro-North train for home. When Napolitano got to Greenwich, he went down to the firehouse where the career firefighters had already been assigned to mutual aid in Westchester County, N.Y., he said.
The Greenwich Fire Department was covering for firefighters in Westchester who were covering in the Bronx, N.Y.
Those firefighters were needed in Manhattan because so many first responders there had died, he said.
“We were 27 miles from the World Trade Center. The scope was just staggering to think that our firehouse would have been implicated in some way,” Napolitano said.
Two weeks after the attack, Napolitano and three other volunteer firefighters — Sandy Kornberg, Anthony Medico and Andrew “Duke” Maloney — went down to the pile at ground zero to help in any way they could.
“I don’t think I felt better until we went down there,” Napolitano said. The four searched and dug on the pile, helped distribute supplies and did whatever else they were asked.
“What you realized was this was the largest thing you’ll ever do in your life in the fire service,” Napolitano said. “We were taking part in a historical event and we were very proud to help our country.”
At the firehouse, he would hear more stories about the firefighters who lost their lives in the line of duty. It turned out that he knew several of them personally.
Napolitano said he talks to young people for whom the attacks are just part of U.S. history because he believes it’s important for them to hear firsthand stories.
“Before 9/11, people would say, ‘Why do you do that, why do you volunteer?’ There was a big disconnect between people who are drawn to the first responder field and the civilian base,” Napolitano said. “Now they understand what they do. It has reminded people that there’s a calling that is unique among people in emergency services and the military.”
Over the past 10 years, Napolitano has worked on a novel titled “Day of Days” to be published in September that explores how the fire service responded at ground zero.