FDNY firefighter Joe Torrillo has recounted the harrowing experience of being buried alive twice during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Torrillo, who had 25 years of service with the Fire Department of New York, described the moments he spent trapped beneath the rubble of the World Trade Center, recalling the sounds of screams fading to silence.
Torrillo was in Brooklyn when the first plane struck the North Tower at 8:46 a.m. He saw the event on television and immediately headed toward Lower Manhattan. By the time he reached the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge, he could see the scale of the disaster and realized a commercial jet had likely been involved. As he proceeded down Liberty Street, United Airlines Flight 175 flew directly overhead before striking the South Tower.
"Now I realize we're under a terrorist attack. It's so obvious because this is no coincidence," Torrillo stated, recalling the events and his immediate understanding that New York was under attack. He also recalled the fears of 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
First Collapse
As the South Tower began to collapse at 9:59 a.m., Torrillo sought cover. He described the force of the falling skyscraper ripping off his helmet and throwing him through the air. The collapse destroyed the adjacent Marriott Hotel, burying Torrillo beneath steel and concrete. In the darkness, he heard screams for help from others trapped with him, which eventually faded.
"After a while the screams turned into cries, cries into whimpers, whimpers into silence," Torrillo told the Daily Mail. "One by one, I guess they all died and I was still alive."
Rescuers eventually found a void in the wreckage and pulled Torrillo and three others to safety approximately 25 minutes later. He sustained a severe head wound, broken ribs, a broken arm, and a crushed spine. Medics immediately began rushing him toward the Hudson River for evacuation by boat.
Second Collapse
As Torrillo was being transported by boat, the North Tower collapsed at 10:28 a.m. Debris and shattered glass rained down on the vessel. Torrillo, still strapped to a stretcher, freed himself and dove into the boat's engine room to escape the falling wreckage.
He believed he was being buried for a second time when the debris from the North Tower hit the boat. "Now the North Tower buried the boat on the river and I'm buried a second time and suffocating all over again," he recounted.
Despite surviving the second collapse, Torrillo was unaccounted for, and the FDNY listed him as missing for three days. He stated he was the last firefighter to be removed from the department's missing list. Twenty-five years later, Torrillo maintains that the memories of the darkness, the screams, and the roar of the collapsing towers remain vivid.