Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11: A gripping biography of triumph over tragedy

by Mitchell Zuckoff

The escort from the Chinese men was among thousands of tributes, official and unofficial, to the heroism of New York firefighters, Port Authority and New York City police officers, and other emergency responders. In the weeks and months that followed, amid funerals and tears, the accolades built into a national outpouring of gratitude. Among the dead were 343 FDNY firefighters and paramedics. The loss dwarfed the FDNY’s previous worst day, in 1966, when a fire in a Manhattan brownstone killed twelve firefighters. Those lost on 9/11 included more than a dozen of the friends and colleagues Jay encountered that day in person or on the radio: Chief Richard Prunty; captains Paddy Brown, Billy Burke, and Terry Hatton, who died without knowing that his wife was pregnant; lieutenants Pete Freund, Dennis Mojica, and Mike Warchola; and firefighters Faustino Apostol, Andy Fredericks, Scott Kopytko, Kenneth Marino, Gerry Nevins, Doug Oelschlager, and Dave Weiss. Lieutenant William “Billy” McGinn, who worked under Jay years earlier in Ladder 11, and who immediately warned that “it could be a terrorist attack,” was also among the dead. Chief Joseph Pfeifer’s brother, Lieutenant Kevin Pfeifer, died in the collapse of the North Tower. The FDNY’s annual fitness award was renamed for Battalion Chief Orio Palmer, whom Jay saw in the North Tower lobby before Orio led the charge up the South Tower. Also killed was Firefighter James Riches, whom searchers found in what had been the North Tower ...