Public Employee Press

2001-2011
"Parts of buildings were falling everywhere"

On the crisp morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Lt. William Melarango began his usual tour at Battalion 4, in Lower Manhattan near South Street, the fire station closest to the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.

After receiving the emergency call, he headed straight toward the World Trade Center. Clouds of dark smoke were coming from the North Tower, filling the sky.

Melarango stopped at Church and Fulton streets where he joined Lieutenants Bruce Medjuck and Rene Davila and Captain Janice Olszewki . They quickly set up a triage station near the Millennium Hotel.

The EMS workers unloaded oxygen tanks and supplies from a truck and passed out helmets. That triage center was one of several that Melarango helped set up with his colleagues around the disaster area that treated dozens of New Yorkers that Tuesday morning.

The second tower came crashing down shortly after.

"People were running down the block, screaming and crying," recalled Melarango. "There were parts of the building falling everywhere."

Melarango's crew helped clean up people with minor injuries and then transported them out of the area to a nearby hospital. Firefighters and Police used the triage center that they set up to flush out the debris and the smoke from their eyes. They also supplied oxygen masks to help people being treated at the center to breathe.

"Fortunately, it was mainly bruises, lacerations and burns that we treated," Melarango said.

Around noon, Melarango and Lt. Tom Eppinger helped set up another triage center at Greenwich Street, where they got assistance from doctors in the area and the crews of several EMS ambulances. They also set up a morgue with lighting provided by a film crew that showed up.

"If we needed we could have done minor surgery there," he said. The triage team treated around 30 patients, mainly for respiratory and cardiac problems.

Melarango, who became an EMT in 1989 and was promoted to Lieutenant in 1995, said he was proud of the job his crew did as chaos took over the streets of Lower Manhattan that Tuesday when buildings fell down all around them.

"We did what we are supposed to do," he explained with the typical modesty that you hear from the members of Uniformed EMS Officers Union Local 3621 and Uniformed EMTs, Paramedics and Inspectors Local 2507. "That's our job."

—AA