Fire Captain Rescued Amid Sept. 11 Chaos

N E W Y O R K, Nov. 5, 2001 -- Fire Department Captain Alfredo Fuentes was used to rescuing others, but on Sept. 11, his was one of the voices seeking help on haunting 911 radio transmissions from the World Trade Center.

"Are you trapped, Cap? Captain Fuentes, are you trapped?," Manhattan emergency dispatcher Ivan Goldberg said, after losing radio contact with the captain. "10-4," came the reply: Fuentes was trapped under the debris on the west side of Tower One.

Theirs was just one of the radio exchanges from ground zero that exemplifies the rescuers' calm professionalism amid the chaos. Dispatchers smoothly passed on information, while rescue workers at the scene struggled to help victims.

But their rescue efforts turned into a struggle to survive when first one, then the other tower collapsed, trapping many of the emergency workers — including Fuentes. More than 300 firefighters died.

Fuentes suffered a head injury and was slipping in and out of consciousness, so he does not remember talking to the dispatcher or being rescued. Even listening to the tapes does not jar his memory.

"My only feeling is I'm kind of proud I was able to hold my own and talk in a reasonable way with radio discipline," Fuentes told Good Morning America. "That's always been a big thing for me, I hate when people yell on the radio."

Goldberg remembers trying to assure Fuentes to hold on.

"I wanted him to know that he was heard, that there was going to be help coming," Goldberg said. "It was like saying to him, 'Don't give up — don't give up. We are going to find you,' because I needed somebody to be found alive there.'"

Started Out as Normal Day

Fuentes heads the department's marine division from an office at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, across New York Harbor from lower Manhattan. As usual, he arrived at his office about 7 a.m. on Sept. 11, and was doing some paperwork when the first plane struck the World Trade Center. He ran out and saw the smoke coming from Tower One, knowing instantly that it was going to be a large-scale incident.

Fuentes ordered three boats to lower Manhattan. The second plane hit Tower Two just as the boat he was on pulled up to Battery Park. He reported to a command post in front of the Trade Center and said that his three boats could be used to help move people. Another fire chief was directing the firefighter companies to various floors within the tower, but soon it became clear that no other rescue workers would be going in.

"I remember looking up and I saw Tower One leaning, and we all started running into a driveway/parking lot type thing," Fuentes said. "As the tower fell I hit the wall and got close to the wall and put my hands over my head. Unbelievably, it got by me."

He ducked inside the building, where other firefighters had also taken cover. Outside, falling debris had piled seven feet high on the street.

"I realized the whole building had collapsed, and I said we have to start searching for people," Fuentes said. The last thing he remembered was helping to guide some of the other rescue workers out.

"That's my last memory 'til I woke up in the hospital from a drug-induced coma," Fuentes said.

A Call for Help

In fact, he was alert enough to direct his rescuers to him. Here is an exerpt of the radio transmissions:

Captain Fuentes: We're at the collapsed unit. This is Captain Fuentes. A couple of other members here.

Dispatcher: Are you trapped, Cap? Captain Fuentes, are you trapped?

Fuentes: 10-4.

Dispatcher: Be advised, we are in radio contact with Captain Fuentes and his people, they are trapped. He is trying to give me a location but he is unable to.

Dispatcher: All units stand by. Calling Captain Fuentes. Is this Captain Fuentes?

Fuentes: 10-4.

Dispatcher: All right, we have help on the way to you, Cap. We believe you are in the West side of the number one World Trade Center. In front of the collapse zone. Is that correct?

Fuentes (in pain): In the collapse zone. 10-4.

Dispatcher: All right, we're sending you some help.

Rescuers Popped Him Free

Fuentes suffered a severe head injury, broken ribs and broken fingers. Both of his lungs were singed and one was collapsed. Doctors had to sew his scalp back on. He still suffers from vertigo, though that has gotten better in the last two weeks.

He has not met his rescuers, though a number of emergency workers said they assisted.

Fire Lt. Terry Jordan was one of the first to reach Fuentes.

"Al was laying in between a lot of the heavy steel girders that had just fallen over him like it was a doorway," Jordan said. "It was amazing that Al survived."

Fuentes was covered from the chest down with sheet metal, but his head and shoulders were visible, and fellow rescuers said he looked almost like part of the landscape. Rescuers later told him that they moved the metal and "popped me right out," Fuentes said.

"The dispatcher was fantastic," Fuentes said. "I heard him on tape trying direct people to where I was, but the state I was in, I couldn't give him exact directions."

Fuentes was taken to hospital. His family and doctors did not initially tell him that Tower Two had collapsed also, or how many firefighters perished. One night he woke up in the hospital at 4 in the morning, crying. He asked his wife if he could see the fire department chaplain. Unbeknownst to him, the chaplain was killed at the scene of the World Trade Center, as was the fire captain he had first been working with.

"That's when I finally realized how bad it was," Fuentes said.

But those who helped rescue Fuentes said they will not forget it.

"It was like a miracle when we heard that voice of the firefighter that said 'I found him, I found him. We got him," Goldberg said.