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Came here at the moment that the world trade center north tower collapsed. it is such a serene scene today but can you describe what it was like 20 years ago? can you describe what it was like 20 ears auo? ~ ., , can you describe what it was like 20 earsaao? ., , years ago? when i got here 'ust as the north tower * years ago? when i got here 'ust as the north tower collapsed _ years ago? when i got here just as the north tower collapsed with - years ago? when i got here just asj the north tower collapsed with the entire area was on fire and we were in the midst of an enormous just power, dust ...

It was in slow motion. this huge dust cloud came up, and i started running like everyone else, dropped my phone, and when all was said and done, i looked like someone who had been rolling around in an ashtray. i sort of made my way back to brooklyn, walked back home over the brooklyn bridge, and then sat down and wrote an e-mail to my colleagues at work just telling them that i was okay and what happened, and to my surprise, the e-mail wound up in the paper the next day, which had not been my intent. but my take away from that day, paul, is i was angry. i was very angry at what i had witnessed...

We didn't become firefighters to get rich. we would have chosen a different profession if it was about the money. frankly it's insulting. they didn't just let us down but everybody who lived and worked in lower manhattan. they let down the 19,000 school students who were sent to school in that toxic dust cloud under the assurance the air was safe to breathe. now they're in their 20s and 30s and they're getting sick and they're dying. it is not just about us. it's about all of us really. as you alluded to earlier it is about letting americans down. you know, if we're not going to take care of t...

I never got inside the stock exchange. when i hit the street, there were people everywhere. dust in the air. i called the office upstairs. i said everybody get out. we'll meet on the street, on broad street in front of the exchange. i called the exchange. some of our people didn't want to leave. some did. those that did, we all met on the street. while we were standing out there, i don't know how long we were there but we were there a good 20, 30 minutes, both towers collapsed. you couldn't breathe. we've seen pictures. i guess if you were a skier, a white out if you're skiing or driving in th...

You hear stories about people not knowing if it was an accident, what was going on, trying to figure it out and the second tower was hit. is that when you realized this was an attack on our country? >> after the second plane hit the second tower that is when we knew this was a terrorist attack and this is when we relied on the chain of command. i had a contingent of police officers under my command and one of the first things we did was a natural reaction, this is what we need to do, we execute a strategy that works best. we deployed to the world trade center complex and it was mass pandemoniu...