in their head because that was the death toll that day in the fdny. what was less clear to civilians, this was a decapitation of the management of the greatest fire department in the world. all the white helmets, all of the battalion chiefs responded. many of them were in the lobbies of those towers doing their jobs. chief pfeiffer famously was first on the scene as a battalion chief. first guy to call in and say make this three alarms. i think it went to 14. there s nothing higher in the city of new york. talk about that day. there were almost battlefield promotions that had to happen to fortify the ranks, to fortify management. among the 343 firefighters that were killed that day were 89 officers from the chief of department to deputy
the time stamps from that day that have, of course for the families, victims, first responders, they have become codified. they ve become etched in the memory over the years. 8:46 is the first of them. 8:46 was when we realized first off that we had a major tragedy in new york city. we had had a major emergency. that s when the first responders started to roll. famously recorded by the french documentary crew, that s when chief pfeiffer was standing not far from here in lower manhattan, saw the plane go over his head. had the presence of mind to start directing the response. 8:46 will be the first of our moments of silence it was upon
i just watched a very moving interview with chief pfeiffer. and the term heroes is the right term. we have so many heroes to whom we pay tribute and we pay tribute and memory for those who lost their lives on 9/11. i think the message from that interview, if i may, is that our democracy, our principles, our american way of life are enduring. and it s because of the heroes. the threat over the last 20 years has evolved. we were, of course, in the aftermath of 9/11 focused on the foreign terrorist, the individual who sought to penetrate our defenses enter the united states and do us harm. and that threat evolved and then became the most prominent threat of the home grown violent
chief pfeiffer says, okay, let s go now. we get up. the dust starts to clear because the wind is blowing in the opposite direction. after that, it was just trying to literally walk around the block and walk back to the scene and see what we could do. [ sirens ] this is the most surreal scene i have ever seen. i cannot describe what took place. it is a scene just not to be believed. the smoke still billowing. what we do have is a lockdown. you can t get in. you can t get out. you can t go up. you can t go down. i see that i m still in the middle of the street, and i see there s a little deli seems to be open on the corner.