What am i doing . 22 years ago, they answered the call. Every available ambulance, everything youve got to the World Trade Center now. We knew that it could be up to 20, 25,000 people in each building. I am on the 83rd floor. Its very, very hot. Every firefighter saw the flames and they looked into their own hearts. Stay together. Thats when i said to pete, pete, this will be the worst day of our lives, and that was before i knew the half of it. Mayday, mayday major collapse in the darkness, i wondered if i was dead or alive. Pete peter hayden tonight the World Trade Center collapsed. The Fire Department of the city of new york and the greatest active gallantry ever bestowed on an american city. I dont want this to be something thats in a history book that a page is turned and were forgotten. Im lesley stahl. Im bill whitaker. Im anderson cooper. Im sharyn alfonsi. Im jon wertheim. Im cecelia vega. Im norah odonnell. Im scott pelley. That story tonight on 60 minutes. 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Lets lead the wayay. Uncomfortable. I want the mental part of it to be uncomfortable, so that when the game comes, its easy. You got to mentally wake up and make a decision on who you want to be that day. How can i get better. How can i take this opportunity to step into a new level. Im all about things that work. And with oofos, i saw a product that was working, that was helping. You know, i actually feel better. I feel stronger. I feel faster. In the neighborhoods of new york, there are 217 firehouses. Each holds a memorial to firefighters who answered the call 22 years ago and never returned. As we first told you in 2021, 343 members of the Fire Department of the city of new york perished on 9 11 in the greatest act of gallantry ever bestowed on an american city. This is their story. This plane raced past us along the hudson river at such a low altitude, i could read american on the fuselage. At 8 46 that morning, battalion chief joe pfeifer was blocks away searching for a routine gas leak. I saw the plane aim and crash into the north tower of the World Trade Center. Holy from that moment, the firefighters of the fdny would have about an hour and a half to save 17,000 lives. They knew that they might not come home, but they knew there were people trapped. Thats our job. There is no way we were going to stand back and say we are not going in. That wouldnt be the fdny. Our aim was to get above that fire and get those poor people out that were calling us. We are on the floor and cant breathe and its very, very, very hot. And all the dispatcher could say is, were coming for you. So we like to keep our promises, you know. We told them were coming. Were coming. Joe pfeifer was coming with a camera. Filmmakers jules and Gideon Naudet were making a video. A number of floors on fire. It looked like the plane was aiming towards the building. Engine 6. Engine 6. The World Trade Center tower number one is on fire. Engine 1, World Trade Center, send every available ambulance, everything youve got to the World Trade Center now. Dispatch launched an armada. Engine 211. Ladder 11, engine 44, engine 22, engine 53. 121 engines, 62 ladder companies, 100 ambulances, 750 members of the fdny. Attention, 35 engine, 64 engine, 94 engine, 83 engine. At fdny headquarters in brooklyn, 54yearold chief of Department Pete Ganci jr. Raced to his car. He was the boss leading the second largest Fire Department in the world after tokyo. Dan nigro was his number two. We went downstairs, got in the car and headed over the Brooklyn Bridge where we could see the damage, see the smoke, see the fire. Thats when i said to pete, pete, this will be the worst day of our lives. And that was before i knew the half of it. Car 3 to manhattan. Pete gancis voice was recorded en route. Along for the pot, staging area three, chief somewhere on west street, o. A box is a location. K signals the end of a message. A throwback to the 19th century telegraph, which on this day was paungtuating the greatest crisis in the departments 136 years. Right away i got a deep sense that we were going to lose a lot of firefighters this day. Division 1 commander peter hayden met battalion chief joe pfeifer in the lobby of the burning tourer. I knew we weren going to be able to put out the fire. So the order of the day was to search and evacuate as many people as we could. I knew we were not going to back away. The fire was 93 floors above. Elevators were out. So firefighters climbed tight stairwells shouldering 75 pounds and more. I thought we would have enough time to get the people out and everybody that was above the impact of the plane we were pretty much sure were either dead already or going to die. There was a lot of people jumping out already. 1355 people were trapped above the fire. The boeing 767 had severed all three stairwells, leaving one way out. Jumpers jumpers division i, be advised, battalion advised they have jumpers from the World Trade Center. We heard a loud thud, and i knew that was somebody that either fell or jumped from the building. The first firefighter killed was hit by a fellow human being. It was happening so rapidly, that i grabbed the p. A. System at the fire command post and i said, firefighters are coming, if you can hold on. Its something thats going to haunt us probably the rest of our lives. Sal cassano had arrived precisely 17 minutes after the north tower was hit. Just as i got out of my car i heard another explosion and i could tell you exactly what time it was. 9 03. That was the plane that hit the south tower. You have a second plane into the under tower of the trade center, major fire. Mayday, mayday another plane hit the second tower, k . The second 767 exploded into floors 77 through 85. Now 2,000 people were trapped a quarter mile high. Cassano ran into the department chaplain, mychal judge. I told him, father, we are going to be in for a bad day. We need a lot more chaplains here. More and more firefighters kept coming in. They took their assignments with no question. Yeah. Pretty tough though. But its also hard to give them those assignments . It was. Yeah. It was. But, you know, i could tell when i gave the assignments out, i could see the look in their eyes. I remember seeing firefighters hugging each other and heading up. How many firefighters did you see that day refuse to go up the stairs . Nobody refuse to go in. Stay together. I can remember one lieutenant from engine 33 coming up to me and not saying a word. And we stood there wondering if we were both going to be okay. And that lieutenant was my brother, kevin. And then i told him what i told many of the other fire officers. I said, go up to the 70th floor. 70, they hoped, could be a staging area in the north tower in less than half an hour, the fdny had rescue operations in the north tower, the south tower, and the nearly soldout 800room hotel between them. From the time the first plane hit the north tower until the second the tower collapsed was 102 minutes. The things that were going through petes mind in just 102 minutes is mind boggling. Sal cassano was with chief of Department Pete Ganci at his command post on the street below the towers. This is the only known picture of ganci that day. Was ganci the kind of boss that you did things for because you feared him, or because you desperately did not want to let him down . You did it because you loved him. Ganci joined the fdny in 1968. What kind of man was pete ganci . Yeah. Pete, i guess pete would say is my alter ego. Had a chest full of medals. He was just a down to earth, honest, hardworking guy, you know. He is a paratrooper in the army. Worked his way up to be chief of department in the fdny. Quite a story. A story of courage over his 33year career. He won the departments medal of valor crawling into a burning apartment on his hands and knees, grabbing a child who was certainly going to die, and dragging that child out and saving her life. Thats the kind of person pete was. He would put people in before himself, without a doubt. He put his firefighters before himself three months before 9 11. Ganci, the chief of department, responded from home to a call of firefighters trapped in a burning store. He went in wearing shorts and boat shoes. He once said his 11,000 firefighters were his children. On that day in queens, he lost three. On 9 11, the man responsible for firefighter safety was chief al turi, who was tormented by the passing minutes. He asked peter hayden if he had considered the threat of a partial localized collapse on the burning floors. I said, yes, but we needed to get the people out. There were hundreds of hundreds of people coming down the interior stairs. How much time did you think you had . I thought we had a couple of hours. The chiefs knew no steel highrise in history had ever completely collapsed due to fire. None of us expected the building to come down. We expected the fire to keep burning and conditions to get worse, but if we could just get one route above in each building, perhaps we could bring some folks down at least. You just needed a little more time . We just needed time. All right. No one would do more with time than orio palmer. Thats him on the right with the mustache. He is receiving orders to go to the south tower to try to clear a path to the trapped souls calling 911. How many people where you are at right now . Like five people here with me. All of them on the 83rd floor . 32yearold melissa doi was saying the hail mary prayer when 911 answered. She was manager in a Financial Firm on 83, one of the burning floors in the south tower. Are you going to be able to get somebody up here . There is no one here and the floor is completely engulfed. We cant breathe. And its very, very, very hot. The operator was right. Someone was rising towards melissa doi. Orio palmer ran marathons as a hobby. Battalion 7 is chief palmer. Ladder 15 is a team of firefighters a few floors below. This is ladder 15s lieutenant joe leavey. We are on 71. We are coming up behind you. All right. Palmer found fire Marshal Ron Bucca on the 75th floor evacuating civilians. Ladder 15 . Palmer had discovered the only intact stairway to the top of the south tower. Unlike the north tower, the second plane had missed stairway a. If palmer could clear this stairwell, 619 souls would have a way out. He was five floors below melissa doi and rising. Im going to die, arent i . No, no, no. Maam, maam, say your prayers. You are not im going to die. You got to help each other get off the floor. Stay calm, stay calm. Youre doing a good job, maam. Youre doing a good job. Its so hot. Im burning up. The assent of orio palmer and peter gancis sacrifice when we come back. Lactaid d is 100 rereal mil, justst without t the lactose. Delicicious too. Jujust ask my old friendnd, ke. Nothing g like enjoyoying a cole while e watching the game. Whos s winning . No idea. Real milk. Real delicious. And dont forget to try some delicious, creamy lactaid ice cream. Whatats thatat mabel . mooo wow, smsmart cow i rememberer when i fift started d flying, anand we wouldld exexperience t turbulence. I i would watctch the flflight attenendants. If theyyre notot nervous,n im m not going g to be ner. Financncially, im the e flit attendndant in thahat situati. The relief that comes over people once they know theyve got a guide to help them through, i i definitelyly feel privivid to be in t that positition. He didnt go to college and never asked for a raise. He didnt wear fancy shoes and never took out a mortgage. His friends didnt belong to a country club and his parents didnt have a will, so he worked hard and invested wisely. Not in stocks or bonds, but in others. Whwhen you shohop wayfair, you u get big dedeals for your homome every y day. But in others. So b big, well hahave you sayaying. Amam i a big d deal . Yeahah you are, becacause its a big dedeal, when you g get a big d deal. Wawayfair dealals so big t t you might t get a big g hea. Bebecause withth savivings so reaeal. Yoyou can get t your dreamm sofafa for half f the price. Wayfyfair. Its alalways a bigig deal. Wayfair, youve gotot justst what i neneed an hour had passed since the attack on the World Trade Center began. In the south tower, battalion 7 chief orio palmer took the only working elevator as high as it would go. Then he led the men of ladder 15 on a climb from the 40th floor. Palmer was trying to clear a path to 619 people trapped by fire. This is palmers radio transmission from the 78th floor of the south tower. He is calling the firefighters of ladder 15, who are coming up with rescue gear from a few floors below. 1045 code 1s were fatalities. More than he could count. He pressed towards 79, climbing at about one floor a minute. As he rose, melissa doi speaking to 911 from the 83rd floor thought she heard someone. We hear voices. Help help oh, my god. You stay on the phone with me. Is there anyone on the floor . We dont know what she heard, but hearing no answer to her shout, melissa doi returned the call. Orio palmer knew how dangerous this was, as he didnt stop. Ladder 15 knew how dangerous it was. What we never thought that an entire highrise building would collapse. There was no history of it anywhere in the world. But this day history was changing because the planes had blasted away the sprayon fireproof foam insulating the structural steel. The burning floors were sagging, slowly pulling the exterior inward. E. M. S. Division chief John Peruggia was the City Emergency Operation Center where he received a warning from an official he believes was an engineer. He said, the building is severely compromised. You can see slight lean. They are in danger of collapse. So i grabbed one of my staff guys, emt rich zarrillo, and i said go to pete ganci. Dont talk to anyone else. Deliver this message. The buildings are in danger of collapse. In this foursecond video, at far left you see rich zarrillos blue shirt. He is delivering the warning to pete ganci. Zarrillo hardly got the words out when gancis attention was drawn to a roar from the south tower above him. Loud noise. Had no idea what it was. All we saw was a plume of dust and smoke, and debris. In the moment before, melissa doi had given the 911 operator her mothers phone number and the message that her daughter loved her. Then there was silence. Oh, my god. Palmers last radio transmission was battalion 7 to ladder 15, and there is nothing after that. Thats when the tower collapses. He must have known that with every step he ascended, his chance of survival dropped. Didnt deter him one bit. The only thing that was in his mind was let me get up, let me get as many people out as i can, as quickly as i can. Joe pfeifer, next door in the north tower, was 200 feet from the cascading twin. And then the lobby goes pitch black. Everybody all right . Im okay. And in the darkness, i wondered if i was dead or alive. We got to get everybody out. Lets go i got on my radio. I said, command to all units in tower one. Evacuate the building. Joe pfeifer was given the order to evacuate, and one of the firefighters were calling my name. Pete peter hayden he says we have somebody down. I felt somebody at my feet, and i saw this was our Firefighter Department chaplain, father mychal judge. I removed his white collar and i checked for his pulse and breathing, and he had none. And i knew he was gone. Several of us picked him up and we carried him out. The emts that taken him, took him not to the morgue, but they took him to st. Peter claver, a Catholic Church a little bit north of the trade center and laid him on the altar and called the franciscan priests to come down and get him. Tower two a major explosion and what appears to be a complete collapse. Have them mobilize the army. We need the army in manhattan. There was a rush of dust with High Pressure coming in, you know, with force that i have never experienced before. Gancis streetside command post had been set up next to an underground garage in case shelter was needed. Captain john sudnik, ganci, and the chiefs dove into the entrance. I just remember the dust that day, feeling like it was searing your lungs, like it was, like it felt like you were swallowing glass. Pitch black. Pitch black. We heard voices. Are you okay . Are you okay . Thats when be made our way back up. Then we got up to where the command post was. Petes mind went into rescue mode. Pete ganci heard on the radio the cries of trapped and wounded firefighters. And then i remember him giving orders. I need truck companies. I need rescue company. Tell them to come with me. As he before, ganci went in