Welcome to Week #5 homework.
I want to tell you a story about Ladder Company #6 in New York City.
These firefighters may quite possibly be the heros of the century, and the lady that they would eventually save from a certain death, may have been sent by God to these man to save them from certain death as well: As our story begins, these seven firefighters from Ladder Company #6 were enroute up the #2 stairway of tower #1. I think that I have this right. Unless I am mistaken, tower #2 was the first one to crumble. And tower #1 was last. Anyway, they were in the process of assending the stairs to the fire on the 80 something floor. About that time, they felt the building begin to shake and heard the sounds of the first tower collapsing.
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| This is an image before the attack. The tower on the right is the one that they were in. |
So the firefighters urged her on down to the next level, and that is when they began to feel the building shake again and heard explosions and down it came on top of them. The soot and debris covered them completely. They had white powder from the drywall covering them totally. They had to dig it away from their mouths and noses so they could breath. But still they had no idea what had just happened. They just knew that they were alive. In retrospect, they now know that if Josephine had not been there, or if she had not been as slow as she was in moving down the stairs, none of them would be alive now. They were stranded inbetween the second and third floor stair case and it was nearly the only place in the building that was left pretty much intact.
They debated on how to try to get out, but all exits were blocked to them. The haze was so great from the smoke and debris that they could not see very well. They tried the stairway door and it was blocked. They looked up and knew they couldnt go that way. There was no down. The captain had his walkie talkie with him and he radioed to the rescuers on the street below that they were in there, and needed help to get out. The rescue companies outside were trying to determine just where they were, but everything had changed on the outside appearance. They told the firefighters that they were in the #2 stairway between the 2nd and 3rd floors. But the rescuers had no way of knowing just where that was because everything was on the ground in rubble piles. I forgot to say that they were having trouble communicating with the walkie talkie because of the rubble. But the captain realized that there was a security guard with them in there and he probably had a cell phone. He asked him, and sure enough he had two of them. The captain then called his wife and gave her the instructions on how to find them. She relayed the message to the rescures and they moved to that side of the building to begin digging them out. In the meantime, the stranded firefighters were trying to comfort and take care of Josephine. She became scared at one point, and they assured her that she was going to be ok. She got cold, and one of the firefighters took his coat off and gave it to her. Then the air cleared for a few minutes, and the firefighters could see some light coming from a place in the rubble. The dug their way toward it and it led them to the outside. But they had to cross some trecherous debris to get to a place where it was safe. They knew Josephine could never make it. So they called in rescue units to carry her to safety. They had to go across a beam that was only about 6 in. wide and about 40 ft. in length. Either that or they would have to go down 2 stories and then back up two stories. To make this long story shorter: With out the firefighters, Josephine would have perished on about the 30th floor, and with out Josephine the firefighters would have perished as they moved outside the building. There is little doubt in this man's mind that God had a major part in the lives of these fine men. So many other firefighters perished as the first tower collapsed but these men lived because Josephine slowed them down. Imagine if you will, a guardian Angel dressed up as and elderly woman. :-)
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