#210: 25 Years After 9/11 - A Firefighter's Call for a Re-United States of America feat. FDNY Lt. (ret.) Joe Torrillo

A quarter of a century ago, we lost the lives of nearly 3,000 people in New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia on September 11, 2001. Nineteen al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked and crashed four commercial airplanes into the World Trade Center (WTC), the Pentagon, and a field near Shanksville, PA. Since that day, several thousand have tragically died from 9/11-related illnesses, with tens of thousands today still battling those illnesses.

One of those survivors and firefighters is here today to share his 9/11 story.

Joe Torrillo, a retired 25-year FDNY lieutenant from Brooklyn, spent the first fifteen years of his firefighting career at Engine Company #10 directly across the South Tower of the WTC. By the Grace of God, he survived the collapse of the South Tower and then the North Tower, resulting in life-long injuries. Hear how Joe reflects on 9/11 as we remember those we lost 25 years ago.

Please visit Joe's website to learn more about his work: joetorrillo.com

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

I'm looking to the left and about six blocks away, I can see the top of the North Tower has about 10 to 12 floors of fire. Now I have to make an impromptu decision. What do I do? Do I make a right and go up to Rockefeller Center to the press conference, or do I make a left and make my way to that little firehouse across the street from the World Trade Center where I started my career back in 1981, but I left there in 1996 when I got promoted to lieutenant. And I knew all the firefighters from that firehouse would be the first one in the tower.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Patriotism, faith, national unity, education, fiscal responsibility, civility, the values that define America. Fascinating stories and talks from America-loving patriots dedicated to preserving freedom, opportunity, and justice. Welcome to the Friends and Fellow Citizens Podcast. Hello, everybody. Welcome to Friends and Fellow Citizens. I'm your host, Sherman Tailowski. Thank you all so much for joining me for this interview episode. If you're new to this podcast, welcome aboard. Thank you for joining us. I really appreciate all the support, especially for our Patreon members. They are absolutely incredible, helping to keep this show running. And if you haven't already, make sure to hit that subscribe button on YouTube to subscribe and make sure you get notifications when new episodes are released. Today we have a special episode reflecting on a very important anniversary. This episode has been released on September 11th, 2026. A quarter of a century ago, our country was brutally attacked by radical Islamic jihadist terrorists. Nineteen hijackers hijacked four aircraft and crashed into three sites. American Airlines flight eleven. Crash into the North Tower at the World Trade Center at 8.46 a.m. Eastern Time. At 9.03 a.m. United flight 175 now from Boston to Los Angeles as well. Crash into the South Tower. At 9 37 a.m. American Airlines flight at 77 from Dulles to Los Angeles crash into the Pentagon. And the fourth aircraft United Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco was hijacked and was headed straight towards the Capitol. We believe it was headed straight towards either the White House or the United States Capitol building. The passengers bravely fought against the hijackers after learning of the events earlier that morning and the aircraft crash near Janksville, Pennsylvania at 10.03 a.m. After the collapses of the World Trade Center with the South Tower collapsing and then the North Tower collapsing after that. Nearly 3,000 people were killed that day. And then a tragic day we also saw incredible courage, incredible patriotism, incredible service and sacrifice to save as many people as possible that day. Today we get to hear from one of the first responders from the FDOY, retired Lieutenant Joe Tarillo. As you'll hear from this interview, Joe is an incredible person, has with great wit and great personality. Someone who firsthand saw what occurred on September 11th, 2001. He was buried alive not once but twice. And by the grace of God, he is with us to share his story. And I think the most important part of all this is his initiative of reuniting the United States of America. Without further ado, let's get right into our episode. Alright, everybody, I am very honored to welcome Joe Torilla onto the podcast. Joe, thank you so much, sir, for being on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

Thank you for the opportunity, Shareman. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

Well, Joe, today as the episode's released, uh, we're remembering a very important anniversary. And I as I share with you or before our recording, uh, my dad's from New York, and there's a very sentimental value to remembering what happened 25 years ago. And I just want to first say it's an honor to speak with you and to uh hear your story. And so uh want to thank you for your time and for being with us to to share about your experiences. Um I I say that my dad's when you're I think we in in many ways we we were all New Yorkers on that day in the sense that we uh we felt the impact of September 11, 2001. Uh but uh before we get to the rec the events of that day, uh I'd like to first give you an opportunity to share to talk a little about yourself and and what you're doing these days.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Well, you know, uh Sherman, I came from a very rough, tough Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. That's where I was born. In a seven-block radius from where I was born. That's where every big gangster came from, and they were groomed. There were three kinds of people in my neighborhood in Brooklyn: gangsters, people who thought they were gangsters, and people who wanted to be gangsters. I tell people I was I was born in a spaghetto. I was one of seven children, you know, we uh lived in a one-bedroom apartment in a brownstone in this uh very thick Italian neighborhood. And, you know, we didn't really have any professionals in our family, you know, we didn't have any doctors or lawyers, you know, things like that. And so I never really professed, you know, to go into something other than civil service. And my father and my uncles were all civil service workers for the city of New York, and they all lived through the depression of the 1930s, and they always stressed in getting a civil service job, you know, because of the security of the benefits and the pension. And me, my two brothers, we made our way through various city agencies until I made my way to the fire department.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Wow. I mean, uh I I just I love hearing those stories about people who um grew up in in neighborhoods and were able to understand the importance of work, right? Importance of working working yourself up. Uh Joe, how did you join the the FDNY? I mean, obviously I I remember, if I may, I um I I had the opportunity to uh when I was in Santa Rosa, California, not too far from where I am right now. But when I was in Santa Rosa, I had the opportunity to do an internship, and one of the things we I got to do was do a ride along with the local uh fire department, and it was unbelievable. It was just a typical day, a typical Fourth of July day, actually. And just going around responding to calls, and it's it's remarkable to meet uh those kinds of people who say, I want to put myself and my life on the line for uh people to help others. Uh what can you share about how you joined the FDNY?

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Well, you know what? I think honesty is always the best policy. Uh I originally went into the fire department more so because of their work schedule uh than anything else. I wasn't like always this little kid who always, you know, wrote around in a little make-believe fire truck with a fire helmet on. I actually wanted to be a police officer more than I wanted to be a firefighter. I knew I was gonna go into some civil service agencies, and I did work for four other agencies before the New York City Fire Department. I actually worked for the New York City Parks and Recreation. I started there when I was 16 years old when I was a junior in high school, and I stayed for seven years all through high school and college. And then, you know, after graduating college, it was time now to start thinking about something more serious, because the park department was only like a part-time seasonal kind of uh employment. You worked the winter season, got laid off, you worked the summer season, got laid off, and so forth and so on. And so I realized I was going to be a civil service worker, and I figured that I might as well go for the two top agencies, police and fire department, because they were the most prestigious, so to speak, and the benefits were the best, and the pension was far better than the other agencies. And I wanted to be a police officer because my uncle and his son were both uh NYPD uh cops and detectives. But then I found out one day uh that firefighters work one day, and then you work for three days, and I'm a carpenter by trade. And I was always looking to have a side hustle. Truthfully, the the real passion in my life is the construction industry. You know, I'm a carpenter, you know, I'm also a novice plum and electrician. And I just loved what I did. I was like Michelangelo with a circular saw. You know, ever since I was a kid, I was always picking up tools and trying to fix things and take things apart and build stuff. But when I found out that the fire department works one day every four days, one on and three off, I saw an opportunity to have a VAC steady job that was prestigious, it was respected, came with great benefits and a great pension. And that's what really, really drew me towards the fire department. Even though I was all set to go into the police academy to become a cop, and then I got the letter from the fire department and had to make a decision. And the sergeant at the police academy, who was my investigator, told me to take the fire department to a better job. And that says, okay, if it's coming from you, I guess uh the decision's made. And that's how you ended up going into the fire department, really more so uh truthfully because of their work schedule. That to me was a big bonus.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

Uh-huh. Imagine that that was quite a crossroads for you. And uh and for great friends, they seem like they they're always ahead of you. Uh uh, same thing with the with the podcast. It wasn't my idea. It was asked initially some friends saying I should do a podcast, and I should and I listened to them, which I think was a great decision. So I appreciate you sharing about that, Joe. I want to now go to the morning of 25 years ago, September 11th, 2001. Joe, what what do you recall from just that morning? What was it a typical morning for you on that sense?

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Well, Sherman, uh, truthfully, I'm gonna have to rewind the clock and we're gonna have to just step into a time machine and go back nine months before September 11th, which would be January of 2001. I was working in fire department headquarters. I was recuperating from an injury prior to that. I had gotten hurt really bad in the fire one night. And I was limited into what I can do. So they make me take a desk job working in headquarters while I was convalescing from this serious hand injury. And in January 2001, it was maybe January 4th, possibly. I don't remember the exact date. When the phone rings in my office in headquarters, and I pick up the phone, and uh it was a company called Fisher Price Toys. I told them, I think you have the wrong phone number. This is fire department headquarters. And they says, No, we don't have the wrong number. We'd like to speak to Lieutenant Torillo. I said, Well, that's me. How could I help you? I thought maybe they opened up a new office in Manhattan. Maybe they were looking for somebody like me to go there and host fire drills. They said, No, it has nothing to do with that. We want to run something, we want to run something by you might be interested in. Like, okay, what's that? What is it? They say you have some time to speak. I looked at my watch and I said it's nine o'clock and I work until six o'clock. Can you speak for nine hours? Okay, shoot, give it me. What do you got? What do you want? What do you need? This is are you familiar with the Fisher Price Corporation? I said, I think it's a household name in this country. They said, Well, it is, but do you know anything about our little action figures we call rescue heroes that kids love? Uh, truthfully, no. Well, let us let us explain it to you. We have a whole line of little action figures that kids love, a little police officer called Jake Justice, a nameless attendant called Perry Medic, uh construction work we call Jack Hammer, uh, a lifeguard called Sandy Beach, a lifeguard, I mean a scuba diver called Gil Gripper. So they have all these little action figures. Now they wanted a new action figure to be a New York City firefighter. They're gonna call him Billy Blazers, and if I helped them design, I'd get a dollar if everyone sold around the world. The money wasn't gonna go in my pocket, it would go into the education program that I was running for the fire department, where we were getting aggressive and going out into the public and teaching people how to both prevent and survive fires. And I used that kind of funding to buy smoke detectors and give them out free to people who'd be willing to listen to me for an hour on how to both prevent and survive a fire. So it sounded like a great deal. So in the end of January 2001, I set up a meeting with the Fisher Price Corporation. And as I spoke about what a firefighter looks like with his firefighting clothing in his hair, packing his tools and equipment, the artists and illustrators had uh pads on easels with crayons and markers, and they're drawing as I'm speaking about what a firefighter looks like. And at the end of that day, fully sketched out, they had this new action figure, a likeness of a New York City firefighter called Billy Blazers. They took the artwork and went to the factory. And six months later, which is now July of 2001, they had the mold and the prototype complete, and they wanted me to set up a meeting to review it before it went into mass production. So I set up a meeting in the first week of July 2001. They came down to my office and headquarters, and we looked it over, and there were certain things we thought they should kind of change and tweak a little bit. And one of the Fisher Parks executives took out a black Shoppy. She drew a big mustache on him. She said, Joey needs to look more like you. And they re-molded Billy Blazers with the changes and the big mustache. They thought he needed to look more like you. It took them about three weeks to do that. Now it's the end of July 2001. They called us up for another meeting. We looked it over, and now we agreed in going to mass production. And the Fisher Price executives were really excited. I didn't think this was such a big deal, but I was told by my boss to, you know, make believe you're really enthused about it because we're going to get some money out of these people. And so now that we agreed in going to mass production, which was the end of July of 2001, they said, we'd like to have a big press conference in New York City. You know, when can we have a press conference? I said, well, why don't we do it in October? And they said, uh, okay, why October? I said, October's fire prevention month. It's the longest-running health initiative in the world. It goes back to 1871 after they rebuilt Chicago, supposedly after Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked the Atlanted over the barn. So the story goes and burned half of Chicago down. Every October since they captured that month to prevent fires. So a couple of months from now, in October, it'll be fire prevention month. And every little fire department and every big fire department in towns and cities will go out all over their response areas and hand out pamphlets, you know, in guards of fire in regards to fire prevention. They thought it was very apropos to this project, but it was too close to Christmas and the holiday season. They wanted to get Billy Blaze on the mark a little bit sooner. Well, October was too distant. This meeting was the end of July 2001. And I was brainstorming to find, you know, what uh date in between would uh suffice for them. And I said, you know, 911 is an emergency phone number in New York City. Why don't we, for the first time, have a 911 themed safety day in New York City. We could talk about how to both prevent and survive fires and introduce the new rescue hero, Billy Blazers, the New York City firefighter, made to look like me. This is, oh my God, that's such a great novel idea. So on 9-1-1, September 11, 2001, at 9 o'clock in the morning, every TV station, every newspaper reporter was waiting for me, and Rockefeller Center at the press conference introduced this new rescue hero, Billy Blazers, the New York City firefighter. I got to my office and headquarters about 6 o'clock that morning because I had a lot of emails and voicemails to catch up on payroll and scheduling because I was going to be out of the office all day at this press conference. And it was about 20 minutes to nine. And um there were three college kids that were gonna come to the press conference and help me set it up. They were in a special program called Fire Cadets. And they were in the conference room next to my office. They were having their morning breakfast and watching the morning shows like Good Morning America and all that stuff. And I went to the conference room. I said to the three college kids, come on, guys, get your book bags. I I got to get moving. I got 20 minutes to get to this press conference. I should have been there already. And I went back to my office. I got my dress uniform, I shut off the computer, grabbed my wallet and my car keys, and one of the college kids came running from the conference room to my office and said, a plane just hit the World Trade Center. I said, What? He says, I swear to God, it's on the TV in the conference room. I went back into the conference room, they interrupted the morning shows, and I could see one of the Twin Towers has a bunch of smoke and flames coming out at the top. And I thought it was a movie. I thought it was a simulation. I thought it was a hoax. And I asked the college kids, did this really happen? They said, yes. I said, All right, hurry up. Get in the elevator. We got to get to the garage on the ground and get into my car. We got to get out of here now, else I'm gonna get stuck in traffic. I was just afraid I'd get stuck in traffic and not make the press conference. Every TV station, every newspaper reporter was waiting for me. All the dignitaries of Fisher Price and uh from the fire department were all waiting for me to introduce this new rescue hero, Billy Blazers, a New York City firefighter for the Fisher Price Corporation. We zoom out of fire department headquarters garage in two blocks away. I'm already on the Brooklyn Bridge, going into Manhattan. And then when I got to the Manhattan side of the bridge, which is all about 20 seconds from the Brooklyn side, I'm looking to the left and about six blocks away. I could see the top of the North Tower has about 10 to 12 floors of fire all around the top of the building. And now I realize this probably was not a little plane, which is what everybody thought initially. It had to have been a big commercial jet of some sort, but it doesn't make sense because jets don't fly in that direction. They're flying the opposite direction over the Twin Towers on the approach of LaGuardia Airport. But nonetheless, now I have to make an impromptu decision. What do I do? Do I make a right and go up to Rockefeller Center to the press conference, or do I make a left and make my way to that little firehouse across the street from the World Trade Center where I started my career back in 1981? But I left there in 1996 when I got promoted to lieutenant. And I knew all the firefighters from that firehouse would be the first one in the tower. And they would need as much help as they can from somebody like me who had so many years' experience with those uh complex of buildings. And that's what I did. I ditched the press conference. I said, the heck with Billy Blazers, this ain't happening today. And I made a left, and six blocks later, I was already at the firehouse, right across the street from the World Trade Center. And I parked my car on the sidewalk in the back of the firehouse because I remembered from the bombing in 1993, one of the lessons we learned from that incident was don't block streets if there's ever another big incident, so we get ambulances to and from hospitals. So I parked my car on the sidewalk in the back of the firehouse. Me and the three college kids ran around to the front of the firehouse, and both of the firehouse doors were wide open, and both of the fire engines had already responded to the North Tower before I got there. And I'm trying to get into the firehouse, even though the doors are open, but it's a little difficult because people are laying all over the floor of the firehouse like pickup sticks. People from the area have been hit with some jet-fueled pieces of the building. They saw a firehouse with the doors open and they all ran in there and toppled on top of each other. Some were screaming, some were crying, some were in shock, some had torn clothes, some had some burns on them, but none of them was in critical condition. And the three college kids in this special program who were running for them as cadets, they had become emergency medical technicians. And I told them to treat the people as best as you can. If they want to go to hospitals, get on the phone, call ambulances. All right. I says, don't leave this firehouse. I says, I'll be back later. I might not ever be back again. And I took off my dress uniform and I borrowed a set of firefighting clothing from Lieutenant Tommy McNamara, who was off duty. I took his helmet, his boots, his gloves, his jacket, his pants, and I ran out of the firehouse, left the cadets behind with those people. And I was running down Liberty Street, going to the North Tower. But I had to pass the South Tower first. And as I'm running past the South Tower, the second jet comes over my head and slams into the South Tower. And then the plane, the jet just disappears like a magic act. And now the first thing I realized we're under a terrorist attack because two jets hitting within 17 minutes of each other is no, uh, you know, there's no coincidence. And the second thing I said, everybody on the top of the towers are gonna die. I said, we're not gonna get to them, and they're not getting down. And then I said the buildings are gonna collapse. And people said, What? I said these towers are gonna collapse. And all these years later, you know, when I travel around the world and I do a lot of keynote speaking and I do a lot of interviews, and people always ask me, What made you say that? How did you know the towers were gonna collapse? I went to college for architecture and engineering, and two of my professors were working for the concrete contractor on the Twin Towers, besides being civil engineering professors. And they could take us down to the World Trade Center when the towers were going up to study this new lightweight steel design support system. And all those memories came back to me about the days being there on an engineering school trip, and I knew the towers would not withstand that amount of structural damage and they were doomed to collapse. Very few people listened to me. It was very hard to really understand why I was saying that. Uh nobody knew my background. They never really spoke about it. And I think that the people I was really worried about the most were the EMTs and paramedics that were responding to the scene. Because I realized at the end of the day, they were going to be the ones that we needed the most. You know, people always talk about it, you know, as the biggest fire incident ever in the United States history. The truth of the matter is that's not true. We didn't get one drop of water on that fire. This was not a firefighting incident. It was a mass evacuation and EMS and medical scene. And as I'm standing out the South Tower, right outside, I'm turning ambulance crews away because they wanted to set up their what we call triage, which is an initial treatment area to help the people that are being brought down from the floors above. And I told them you can't set up your triage here. It's too dangerous. And they said, why? I said the towers are gonna collapse. They said, What? I said, These towers are gonna collapse. You gotta go back, go six blocks away from here, park your ambulances side by side. We'll call you one crew at a time as we need you. And they were they were giving me a hard time, but the last ambulance crew finally listened. And I was a little bit relieved. I was outside the South Tower, and I hear a rumble and a roar. And I look up and here comes the tower, and I said to myself, You idiot, you're the one who knew this building was going to collapse, and you put yourself right underneath it. And I realized I didn't have much left. I I probably had about 10 seconds left to live at most, or so I thought. And I started running as fast as I can as the building's coming down, one floor hitting the floor below. And as each floor is hitting the floor below, it's puffing air out like a fireplace bellows, like boom, boom, boom, boom. And as I'm running, I feel the air pressure on the back of my neck. And I was looking to make it underneath the footbridge that went over the main thoroughfare. I thought that would maybe uh give them uh an opportunity to find a piece of my body at least. And as I'm running, the air pressure took my helmet off my head, and my helmet was just flying through the air faster than I'm running. Then it got so strong the air pressure lifted me off my feet, and I was kind of flying through the air. Next thing I know, a piece of steel split the back of my head wide open, and I'm getting pummeled by slabs of concrete one after another. And we do it each slab of concrete, more and more bones are breaking. And I'm buried in the darkness, pinned under heavy amounts of twisted steel and concrete slabs, and there's no more air left. It was darker than midnight. And I'm buried with all these other people. And I couldn't breathe. I was thinking I was gonna suffocate to death. And all those people that were surrounding me, we couldn't see each other. They were screaming at the top of their lungs in the pitch darkness. And after a while, those screams turned into cries, cries into whimpers, whimpers into silence. One by one, I believe they all died, and I was in the middle of all these fires. And I did something I hadn't done in a long time. I went to 12 years of Catholic schooling. I kind of got away from an organized religion, so to speak. And I closed my eyes and I said a prayer, and I didn't want to die angry. I just thanked God for my career. I accepted what was happening to me. I just said to myself, You never thought this was going to be the way your life would end. And I just begged God to take care of my family when they received the news that uh I'm never going home again. And then about 25 minutes later, when I was taking my last breaths of life, they found a void and they found four of us. And they pulled us out and they put me on a spine board, and they ran across the street to the shoreline of the Hudson River that separates Manhattan from New Jersey. Boats had come from New Jersey into lower Manhattan to get people out of New York City, which was one of the few ways you could get out unless you ran on to the east side over the Brooklyn Bridge. There were no cars, no taxis, no buses, no trains. Because either you got on the boat on the west side or he ran over the bridge on the east side. And I'm laying on the deck of the boat and they're holding my split head together. And somebody on the boat said, Oh my God, now the North Tower started collapsing. A big piece of it flew across the street on to the Hudson River, onto the boat. I broke free from the uh spine board, and I jumped into a doorway. I ended up diving headfirst into the engine room. Everybody else jumped overboard and left me behind. Now the North Tower buried the boat on the river, and I'm suffocating all over again, buried in an engine room of a boat, all alone. About an hour later, I heard voices and people jumping on the deck above. And they came down into the engine room to start the moat, and they found me, and they started screaming to the deck above to the captain. There's a firefighter down here, he's not gonna make it. The captain came down and says, Oh my god, we gotta get this boat out of here. The boat skipped across the river that stopped. I was on the New Jersey side. I heard of people screaming. Paramedics on the New Jersey side jumped onto the deck of the boat, came into the engine room with another spine board, lifted me out, and I remember being put in an ambulance. I remember the ambulance doors shut and closed. And next thing I know, I I wake up and I'm in an operating room. I don't know where I'm at. I have no idea where I'm at. I'm in another state. I'm in New Jersey in a hospital where nobody knows where I am for three days. And the next morning when the sun came back out and the dust cloud disappeared, people realize that Superman's not real, Batman and Robin's not real, Spider-Man's not real. The only children's rescue who ever came to life was Billy Blazes, the day I chose to introduce him to the world, when he would come to come to represent the 343 firefighters who made the supreme sacrifice and all marched up to heaven together and left me behind to tell their story. People tell me it's a made-for-tv movie.

SPEAKER_01 29:37

Joe, uh sorry, I'm getting a little emotional here. Um wow. What a what a story. Um you know, I think the the fact that what the Fisher Price would ask you what does a firefigh look like? And as you rightly said, it's it's the sacrifices that those firefighters made. It's the it's the the first responders who give it all they have to to save as many people as possible from the from the World Trade Center. I think it was such an important thing to to remember stories like yours and for you to to be as courageous as you are to not only respond as you did, but to uh continue to share the stories of uh the stories of these brave men and women, uh with the EMTs, the the police, the um you know, bystanders, people who are to try and help one another out of an unprecedented disaster and tragedy. I um I I just I don't I just can't imagine what that was like. Uh if I may, I'd like to uh like to ask a bit about the a bit more about the scene in terms of when you were first responded to um to to the to the to the South Tower. What was the scene like in terms of what you can remember in terms of describing what what you were tasked to do, what um what the goals were and just how how you all were to think in terms of realizing that when the North Tower, when excuse me, when the South Tower was was struck, um that that this was not just atypical um well there's nothing typical, I imagine, for a job like that, but that this was not a disaster not a tragedy in New York, this was a tragedy for for America.

SPEAKER_00 32:11

So what was the scene like? Yes, sir. Oh, so you know what? It was a lot, it was not half as chaotic as you would have thought it would be. It was almost like hard to believe, like that we were in the middle of such a big incident. Matter of fact, let me take that back. This was not an incident. People always talk about the attack in New York City on September 11th as the worst incident in recent memory on American soil. I, you know, I tell people that's only partially true. It was the two worst incidents in recent memory on American soil occurring 131 feet apart from each other, separated by 17 minutes. We had two commercial airliners strike each of the towers within a 17-minute period. One struck at 8 46 a.m., the second one struck at 9.03 a.m. The towers were diagonally apart, separated by 131 feet. We had two major incidents side by side occurring at the same exact time, and that is the enormity of what we were up against that day. This was not one incident, this was two incidents going on simultaneously. And to think that we could have gotten a handle on this is beyond the stretch of an imagination. If we would have just had one tower that we were dealing with, that would have been as big as anything that you can imagine. But imagine having two and all the chaos that's now getting uh thrown into this whole thing. So you we had about 90 fire engines that were responding to the incident. I think about this all the time. I guarantee you, many of those firefighters who responded that day, it was probably the first time they were ever at the World Trade Center, Twin Towers. They're probably never there. Some of them might have seen it. You'd be surprised how many people like me. I'm seven years old. I'm born and raised in New York City my whole life. I've never been to the Statue of Liberty. Never. Most New Yorkers have never been to the Statue of Liberty. We don't think about it because we see them all the time. We don't feel the urgency like a visitor or a tourist because you know this is their only opportunity. You'd be surprised how many people have never ever gone to the Empire State Building. How many people have never been to Central Park? We just take it all for granted. So, with that said, a lot of those responding firefighters that day, it's the first time they're at the World Trade Center. Me personally, I worked in the firehouse across the street. So I had an intimate uh relationship with the whole complex of seven buildings, the two of them being the towers. But the firefighters responding that day, most of them only they know the Twin Towers, obviously. They know them as the two biggest buildings in the world. They've seen it a million times in movies and magazines. But for a lot of them, this was the first time they're actually at the towers. So these 95 engines are responding from all five parts of New York City: Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. And they're responding to the scene and are imagining that depending on what direction they're coming from, whichever tower they encountered first is the tower that they entered. There was nobody in the fire department. There was nobody in command outside the towers directing any of these individual ambulances, police cars, or fire engines into any of the particular towers. Wherever they stopped, that's basically the tower they went into. So now you have firefighters going into the North Tower, into the South Tower, police officers, EMTs, paramedics, and they're going up the stairs. You know, they're going up, uh EMTs and paramedics are going up to treat and to bring down uh injured uh uh office workers, firefighters running up with hoses and axes and the stuff like that. And as they're going up, uh this is a very unique situation because fire, the the fire in both towers was not only at the point of impact and above, which is typical of any fire, it always goes up, not down. But in the Twin Towers, you had fire going up, fire coming down the elevator shafts, blowing out elevator doors on multiple floors. And as firefighters, you know, the first thing we do when going into a building, we try to locate the the actual point of ignition of the fire and to radio that back to the officer in command. But here we have firefighters on all floors of each tower on their radios, calling the command station. We found the fire. We found the fire. Where's the fire? Oh, it's on the 22nd floor, on the east side of the building. Oh, and I found it's on the 44th floor on the north side. And the in the the command is asking the where are you? They say, What do you mean? We're we're in the Twin Towers. They says, uh, yeah, we know, but what tower are you in? I don't know. I have no idea. I'm in one of the towers. So now all this information that's being relayed back to the incident commander, he can't make heads or tails out of it because he's getting all this information, but he doesn't even know where this information's coming from. So, and then in less than an hour, in exactly 55 minutes, the South Tower had already collapsed. So by the time you could even think about getting a strategy uh in place and try to get a logical uh handle on the situation, the South Tower was already down. And a half hour later, the North Tower comes down. So at the end of the day, when I look back upon it, the best that we can do was to act as quickly as we could, get as many people out as quickly as we could, to the best of your ability, uh as fast as humanly possible. And at the end of the day, it didn't really matter at all for the most part, because we ended up losing both buildings and over 2,998 lives. We just couldn't have been prepared, we could have never ever been prepared. And even if we were prepared for it, we couldn't have handled it. People have to understand that. We do prepare for these large incidents all the time. You know, we're a very, very highly respected aggressive fire department. And as much as we prepare for these incidents, you just couldn't get a handle on it. This was just too massive. This was something that was beyond anybody's control. And I and I really do believe that, you know what, at the end of the day, we did the best that we could at a huge expense to so many first responders. 417 first responders gave their lives in the greatest rescue effort ever under wit ever witnessed.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

Joe, you you all did your job. You you responded to the call of duty. You responded to the time of urgency when when New York and the whole country needed you. Um I I think a couple things. First is that I mean when I think of think of that day, I think of the the the images. Um whether it's the towers collapsing, whether it was when while the fires were burning, um the the the the video of I think it was the gentleman who couldn't bear to to have to face the flames, which which which couldn't no no no one would want it face, but decided to to leave leap out of the building. And we all had to witness that tragic, tragic moment. Um I remember there was a story, and you you perhaps you know the name, but um I remember hearing about there was a story of a of a firefighter. He was he was very close to officially retiring from the FPMY. I believe he was off duty and he heard the call uh Workship Center, he put on his gear and he got on the truck anyway to go and respond. I mean, and and unfortunately he didn't he we we lost him and and and 342 others from the FTMY. Um it's stories like that that I think define the resilience and of of the city, resilience of of you all, and I I can't even put it into words right now. Even as we we schedule this to obviously talk about 9-11, it's it's all it's it's never it never gets easier, it feels like. Um reflecting on that day. Um Joe, I want to talk about the the rec the recovery efforts in the sense of how not just uh obviously first of all your your recovery from your your injuries, but what are the recovery efforts in terms of what people did to in the city to come together to uh to to start locating the bodies, try uh trying to clear the wreckage as much as possible. What what what can you share about the days uh after 9-11 in terms of the feeling, the mood um that you that you all felt in those days after such a such a tragic day?

SPEAKER_00 42:18

So truthfully, I think after a full seven days afterwards, I think it was basically um agreed silently that this was now gonna be a simple recovery effort. You know, to think that it went from a recovery, uh it went from a rescue to recovery effort, probably within the first week, but officially two weeks. After two weeks, I think they realized that uh nobody else would be uh found alive and and recovered. And of course, they had a huge, you know, uh a huge uh issue at hand. Uh the firefighters and the police officers were uh determined to uh remove debris, literally uh uh hand by hand to sift for anything that they could find. They all wanted to find firefighters and police officers. They were also, we were looking to recover any human body. And uh they went off eight months and 19 days, uh 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and never stopped any of the holidays. And uh they persevered. And I was actually there in mid-March of 2002 when they found uh my friend's body uh in a spot where they found a couple of other bodies. It was mid March of 2002, about six months later, and to be down in the pit, so to speak, you know, we were down basically below ground level at that point, as far as clearing out the debris, and they found the spot, and my friend's body was there and He was a very good friend of mine, and he had been working for me. And this is strange because uh he had come to me back in April of 2001. He came to see me in my office in headquarters, and he needed a favor. And I said, Okay, uh how could I help you? And uh he says, uh, he told me, he was being honest with me, you know, his father left him a piece of property in New York City. And he had a couple of friends who were in the construction industry. They went partners in developing this piece of property, and he said he needed some time off from the fire department to get this project moving along. So I had him assigned to me, and truthfully, I cut him loose, you know, to go and handle his private business. It's a favor I extended to him. You know, nobody knew what was going on. That's just sometimes what we do in the fire department, you know. We look out for each other. I mean, I wasn't really allowed to do that, but I did it because he was uh prouding himself in a financial pickle with this project he got himself knee deep into. So all summer long he was working on this project with his two partners, you know, at home. I told him, God forbid you get hurt, just give me a call so I can cover this up, you know. And the day before September 11th, he came up to my office, which was September 10th. And he says, Joe, look, I really appreciate what you did for me. He says, you know, we've made a lot of progress. He says, I really feel guilty about what I asked you to do for me. I says, Look, don't worry about it. Nobody knows but me and you. He says, I'm gonna go back to the firehouse. I said, Look, that's up to you. If you need more time, I'm I'm cool with it. Don't worry about it. Nobody knows about this, just you and I. He says, no, no. He says, I really feel terrible, you know, uh that I had to ask you to do this for me. I says, listen, don't worry about it. Uh it's all good. He says, no, he says, I'm sorry. He says, I'm gonna go back tomorrow, which was September 11th. And he went back and he got killed that that morning. And then I ended up, you know, being there to help take his body to the uh to the uh to the to the morgue to for his brother to come and identify him.

SPEAKER_01 46:25

Um I imagine that I I can't well I say imagine I can't imagine. I can't imagine what it's like to lose a friend like that. Uh and you know I think I think it goes to show that life is just so it's i it can it can end so quickly. And so you know it's it's such a something I didn't really understand when I was younger. Over the years I've gotten to understand a bit more. But it's about seizing every day because you never know for any of us, right? Um but to you know, to to to reflect on the the the sanctity and the the the value of of life I think is is a very important value. Um and I think I just I'm just again reflecting on you know a lot of a lot of things that I've gotten to learn over the years. Um I was, if I may, I'll just I was four years old at the time, so I was pretty young, but I remember school canceled um for gosh, it was like a week or two. I may not have understood exactly what happened at the time, but I soon learned why school was canceled and why we all took time to um not only ensure that we didn't have any for subsequent attacks later on the days to come, but also to uh to have a sense to reflect and uh to pray for for all the the families and the and the friends of those we lost that day. Um and Joe, I want to ask you about you know, in not just in the days after uh September 11, but even to this day, what I think is often forgotten is that we had a number of individuals who were a number of first responders and just people in the vicinity who have had respiratory-related illnesses because of the toxic fumes and the the smoke and all. And I I remember several years ago, uh John Stewart, who is the the comedian, the TV show personality, uh he is a huge advocate for the 9-11 survivors and families. And he was sitting in front of Congress, in front of a nearly empty Congress. And regardless of what people think of him and and all, regardless of what party or whatnot party you're not, he delivered in nine minutes, I believe. Nine minutes, he delivered a very touching speech to Congress and the entire nation by reminding people the sacrifices that our first responders made and wanted to ensure that the the men and women who gave it all uh were not only remembered, but also the fact that people who did survive can get the treatment that they they need. Um some of them didn't unfortunately did not make it up until that day. That was 2019 when he made that speech. But I just I remember I was uh I was just an intern on on Capitol Hill at the time, but I remember watching that speech, and I just couldn't believe it was it was so so uh so touching. Um and for him, and I imagine for for a lot of people who knew him and the many families and people like you, Joe, um that that's that was a pretty clear reminder that we couldn't let politics get in the way we had to do the right thing um and ensure that there were that that um that sort of that survivors get the treatment that they deserve. Uh Joe, if I if I may, I'd like to now talk a bit about the 25 years after. Um what lessons do you think we should be taking from not not just on that day, but really in the 25 years since. Um what what what values or lessons do you think are are most important in reminding ourselves about in as we reflect onto that day?

SPEAKER_00 51:20

You know, that's I'm glad you asked that question because there's certain things that I feel very strongly about. Uh I had become the director of the fire department's public education program. Uh uh something I had gotten kind of thrown into because I was injured at a serious fire a couple of years before September 11th. I didn't even know we had an office of fire safety education. I didn't even know who they were, what they did. But I was thrown into this office to recuperate, and I didn't really know where I would fit in. I didn't have any area of expertise. And ironically, unbeknownst to me, I had a hidden talent to teach and to instruct people, and I got so good at it. I became the director of the fire department's public education program. When the fire department set out on a mission to go out into the public and teach them how to both prevent and survive a fire, it was a very, very rewarding experience and something that kind of really changed my life in a lot of different ways, and I learned so many things and so much from that. And when I look back about what I did for the fire department, you know, I'm not trying to pin medals on myself, but I built up a very, very successful public education program where we lowered the amount of fires on average of 375 per year in New York City down to less than 70, about 54 people, just typically just through the efforts of educating people. And I think if I was if I could do anything and I had any powerful voice in this country, I would make sure that every high school student, when they're done with school, serve two years in some kind of paramilitary organization. I think that's so important because, you know, if if and when there's other another serious incident, or even if it's not that serious, we need as many well-trained and disciplined uh Americans to respond. And I think that we don't ever really give young kids nowadays that opportunity. An opportunity I think will mold and shape them into uh respecting and appreciating, you know, having been born in the United States of America, a country that's second to no other country in the world. And, you know, I I'm proud to say that I'm not an arrogant American, but as the youngest country in the world, it's amazing that we set the standard for all other countries that measure themselves up against, and everybody knows that. It's no secret why everybody's trying to come to the United States of America because life doesn't get any better than the United States of America. So I think that we need to focus more on how we train the public and how we train young kids to become part of a catastrophe and a disaster, you know, especially when all the resources of your first responders have been exhausted. You're gonna need young blood, you know, boys and girls together. I mean, you know, in Israel, you know, but when you're 18 years old, you've got to serve two years in the military because that that's your uh responsibility to have been born in that country. And I think that's something we really should consider. I think that if you give kids that opportunity, they'll start to appreciate themselves and appreciate what this nation does for them and has done for people, and we'll do it in the future.

SPEAKER_01 55:00

I 100% agree, Joe. We need to not only emphasize the value of public service, but we need to make Americans, young Americans, feel like they can be a value to their country.

SPEAKER_00 55:15

Absolutely. You know, kids, I'm sorry, sorry. Kids nowadays, when I say kids, I talk about young, I don't I I hate to use the word kids. That could be demeaning. But young adults don't really have a sense of belonging to anything anymore. And it's not their fault. I don't think it's their fault. I'm not blaming them. You know, they go about life the way life, you know, uh allows them to. But I think there comes a time where you have to kind of not, I'm not gonna say forcefully, but I think you have to like structure them in everybody. So everybody's equal. I mean, it doesn't matter whether you're you're your father is, you know, uh Elon Musk or whether you know you come from a poor neighborhood in New York City. It doesn't matter if you're African American, you're Caucasian, you're Hispanic, you're whatever. You know, all these young uh adults really need to be structured. And at the end of the day, you know what? As they grow older, they would all appreciate, you know, having gone to uh a system where they gained a lot of self-respect and appreciation for what they can offer their country.

SPEAKER_01 56:24

I think you're absolutely right. I mean, it's like it we have to value institutions. People want to feel like not just not just that they want to be part of a a group, but they want to be part of a group that upholds those those American values of patriotism, of service, uh, and of gratitude. And I think we we need to do a lot more to encourage young Americans and to uh show them that there are so many ways to serve. Uh whether it's people who are savvy about computers, which I am not, you know, savvy about computers, they can maybe prevent a cyber attack from um from screwing up the electrical electrical grid, which you know affects every single household business you can think of, think of in any community, whether it's someone who may could be an athlete, could be whether could be uh participating in the joining the fire department or the police department, or you know, just there's so many different paths that people can take. I do believe everyone's got the capacity to serve. I think we we've got such a unique country in the sense that we we we we have you know, as a country made mistakes, just as any country has made, but we have built a remarkable republic and a remarkable system that no other country had ever thought of. The fact that a country could be built on ideas, right, in the 250th anniversary this year. Um I think the founders wouldn't uh would would be surprised at how successful it's been given the ups and downs, but it it has proven so robust. And just as we proved our resilience in the wake of the tragedy of 9-11, I think we we have a lot of capacity in this country to uh and we have so much more to deliver. And Joe, I think this is part of a huge part of what you were just talking about, your reunited States of America initiative. Would you would you mind sharing a bit more about specifically about that and and what what you what you see as the the opportunities to to reunite our country?

SPEAKER_00 58:43

Yeah, uh that's a very good question, Chairman. You know, uh I needed to find another purpose in life. Uh I wanted something to be fulfilling. And I was thinking about our country as a whole, you know, what part do I play as only one of, you know, a couple hundred million people all throughout the United States. And I just thought that, you know, there are there are factions amongst Americans that really don't want to come together. And I think some of them have ulterior motives. I really do believe that. I don't believe there's nowhere near racial uh tensions the way people say it. I just don't see it. I don't believe it. I understand that, you know, there are, you know, uh characters on both sides of the fence. Maybe they have their motives to keep this nonsense and all this controversy alive. And I just really wanted to go around the country, try to bring people together and resurrect patriotism and to teach young people, you know, the value of being uh a patriotic American because of all the people before of us that uh gave so much of themselves so that we can have a life that nobody else has for the most part around the world. And you know what, uh Sherman, this is uh this is something I want people to come away from, if anything. America is one of the youngest countries in the world, and yet we set the standard for all other countries to measure themselves up against for the most part. I really do believe that and like anything and anybody in the growing process, you all make mistakes. And I know and I wanted to be known that America absolutely has made mistakes in her growing process. You know, there were times where blacks had to ride on the back of the bus. Uh, women couldn't serve in the military, same-sex people couldn't get married. But I think we face those issues, and I like to think that we resolved them. And I'm tired of America keep getting indicted for things that she's already paid her penance for. It's time to move on and to bring people together and to do it realistically, and to be fair. You know, to me, everything in this world is about fairness to every everybody, and for people to be compassionate and generous and to think about somebody else and what you can do for somebody when they need you the most.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:16

I couldn't agree with you more, Joe. I I want to first say that we were talking about patriotism, about understanding our our values and appreciating our country. I had the opportunity to teach a class about media and politics, and we had a class that was scheduled on uh September 11, 2025. This will be a year, exactly a year ago. And knowing that there's that the kids in college now were born after 9-11, I felt it was an important opportunity to reflect on that day. And I'm so glad that we had a very honest conversation about our country, about how there's truly a lot of love for this for this country. We have to channel that through our service, through uh through our through our civics, through the people. And it really does come down to the people, we the people. Uh and it was it was an incredible opportunity. I hope that though those those students as well as people, the young people around the world understand uh the understand your story, but also the stories, all the stories of 9-11. And Joe, I want to now reflect uh before we wrap up, our uh final question about George Washington's farewell address. George Washington was not inaugurated in DC as people might like to think. Uh Federal Hall was uh where George Washington took the oath uh as our first president. And Federal Hall, of course, is not that far from On Wall Street. That's right. That's right. Uh around Wall Street. And I think it's very fitting to reflect on his farewell address, talking about patriotism, about faith, national unity, education, fiscal responsibility, and civility. Out of these, Joe, which values do you think we can most apply to our conversation today and to um and to best reflect on September 11, 25 years later?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:33

I think at this juncture, you know, on the 25th anniversary, I think we have a great opportunity that we need to capture to find a way as a nation, as our leaders in Washington, D.C., as mothers and fathers and teachers, to really inspire the sense of patriotism. Because if we don't inspire patriotism, I I really don't know where this country is going to be in the next 50 years. And it's not like I'm not gonna pay the price, I'm not gonna be here no more. But my children, my grandchildren, and everybody's child and grandchild, one day is gonna pay the price when America will fall apart at the seams. And it's so obvious that that could possibly happen. When you lose a say, when you lose a sense of patriotism, you're not fighting for anything. And it's gonna be a free-for-all, and people are gonna just come into this country and pick America apart, and we're gonna lose everything that we ever gained and everything that people fought and suffered for all throughout the years. The young people gotta young people have to be told that. They have to find a way to really believe that. And somehow we have to find a way to bring uh speakers into schools like me. I I do a lot of speaking in schools. I talk to kids very, very straight. I don't, you know, I don't sugarcoat anything. I tell them about my life in Brooklyn, New York, the mistakes that I made, all the things I think are important for them. And I really do get into speaking to the hearts of these kids. And that's what really kids want. They need somebody who has a story, uh, a story like mine, one that could be frightening, one one that could be uh heartbreaking, to listen to people and for people to inspire them. I think that for people to be motivated to do anything, they need to be inspired by somebody that they grow and and meet and learn to respect. I think that's so important.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:27

Amen. Amen, Joe. Uh I I hope that you continue to uh inspire young people. Thank you for believing in the next generation. I think it's important to uh for every generation to to sow the seeds for the next generation and and future generations after that. Uh I I think that the the capabilities are endless if we tap into it, if we put in the work to ensure that we have opportunities for for for our young people and for for uh for the generations that will come afterwards. As you mentioned, the children, grandchildren, great grandchildren. Joe, before we we uh conclude, I just want to say another thank you. A deep thank you to you for sharing your story. For thinking about the the the incredible values that our country holds dear and for what you and countless other first responders did uh that day and for the days after even until now we still have so many people who serve every single day all the sacrifices that the FDNY, the NYPD, Port Authority, uh EMT, uh and all those all those other uh incredible institutions who really showed the resilience of America who showed the the sacrifices that we are willing to make for the greater good. And I think reflecting 25 years on we we need to we need to always remember not just in that day but uh the the people who who uh the names of that we can see on the reflecting pool. I encourage anyone who's who's uh who visits New York City to uh to go and and and uh pay your respects at the the memorial and to visit the museum and to see the artifacts to see uh the history and uh understand that that history is part of not just New York's history but uh America's history and uh I I'm so incredibly grateful for this opportunity Joe to have heard your story today and I hope that you continue to share that and I think you're absolutely right to to call for for public service because that's what's all about it really is about the public service and to serve your fellow countrymen and to serve for your fatherland.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:14

So Joe thank you again uh and please please share how people can learn more about you and uh about uh about what you what you do yeah you can go on to my website uh www.joetorello.com I have 37 topics on the speaking menu uh basically a topic for almost anybody uh my really uh big wish in life is that I wish I could speak in every single school across the United States of America commencement exercises going right into the classrooms holding assemblies to speak to kids to get to meet somebody like me who survived the worst tragedy in American soil and to open up kids' eyes and give them a chance to speak to me and ask the kinds of questions that they're curious about.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:02

I'm very very good with students I just love young people because I want to see them grow up to have a good life and to understand themselves and I have so many great speaking points for young people you know and they really gravitate to me most so because they love my Brooklyn accent and they love the figure I'm sure of uh uh of Billy Blaze's uh it's gotta it has to look like you Joe that's that's right that's important. Joe Torillo thank you very much sir for your time and for sharing on the podcast. You're welcome we'll be in touch thank you all so much for listening to this episode I hope you enjoyed it make sure to check out the links down in the show notes below have a great rest of your day and rest of your week and remember a day in America is always better when we are with our friends and fellow citizens