PHOENIX — They weren't in New York when the planes struck. They watched the tragedy unfold from thousands of miles away, like millions of other Americans.
But for more than 60 members of Arizona Task Force 1, watching the attacks quickly turned into a call to action.
Phoenix firefighter Jerry Johnson was watching the news when he saw the second plane hit the World Trade Center.
“I turned to my wife and I said, ‘Hey, I don't know, but we're probably going to get activated and have to go. I'm going to go,’” Johnson recalled.
Johnson was among the Arizona rescuers who traveled to Ground Zero in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Captain Mark Tirman remembers first learning about the attacks while at Dillard's. Televisions throughout the store showed the first plane hitting the World Trade Center.
“We were watching it like it was a TV show,” Tirman said.
Within hours, the reality of the attacks would become much more personal.
The Arizona team joined rescue crews from across the country at Ground Zero, where the scale of the destruction was difficult to comprehend.
Johnson remembers seeing the debris pile for the first time.
“The first thing I remember was looking up and seeing this pile,” he said. “It was probably 40 feet tall, or maybe 50 feet tall.”
Dr. Steven Reinhart, the physician assigned to Arizona Task Force 1, had seen images of the destruction on television before arriving in New York. But nothing prepared him for experiencing the site firsthand.
“When you actually see it in person and hear the sounds and smell the smells, it was totally different,” Reinhart said.
Initially, the team had few medical emergencies to handle. Reinhart said the group was healthy, so he became part of the rescue operation itself.
“They taught me how to use a chainsaw, to dig, to shovel, to go through the rubble, and I became one of them,” he said.
For 20 days, the team worked around the clock, searching through massive mountains of debris.
The work sometimes stopped when crews located something connected to the firefighters who had died at the World Trade Center.
Johnson said those moments were especially important to the firefighters working alongside them.
“If there was something up there to be found, or the son of one of their guys, it was important that they had their hands on it,” Johnson said.
25 years later, the memories remain vivid.
Tirman recently watched video recorded by Arizona Task Force 1 during its time at Ground Zero. When asked if he remembered those moments, his response was immediate.
“I remember them like they're right now,” Tirman said, pausing.
The images of Ground Zero have stayed with the Arizona first responders for a quarter-century. But they say the destruction is not what they remember most.
They remember the people who worked beside them, the victims they searched for and the sense of unity that emerged from one of the darkest days in American history.
“On 9/11, even though we were all different, we all became one,” Johnson said. “We all could put it aside and just be concerned about each other and where we needed to go.”
