After the horrific loss of firefighters in New York City on September 11, 2001, the FDNY faced a rough road ahead. The personnel shortages caused by deaths of firefighters, senior officers and even the chief, and a wave of subsequent retirements, caused permanent changes within the department. But the FDNY also suffered huge equipment losses. It was reported that more than $1 billion in motorized equipment was lost on this single day.
Fortunately, the department had a reserve fleet of apparatus at the time, consisting of about 20 pumpers, nine rear-mount ladders and eight tower ladders. The department also keeps a large inventory of spare parts–about $6 million worth–that aided in the repair of many units.
What really astonished the FDNY and the people of New York, however, was the outpouring of donations that came in from various apparatus manufacturers as well as whole communities that donated money for the purchase of new apparatus.
Showing Thanks
The donations are too numerous to list, but a few are worth noting:
- The Louisiana Governor’s Bucks for Fire Trucks program donated funds for the Spirit of Louisiana, a pumper built by Ferrara. Ferrara’s employees donated their time to build the vehicle. (FDNY firefighters drove this same vehicle to New Orleans to help out during Hurricane Katrina four years later.)
- Akron, Ohio, raised $1.4 million dollars to purchase and donate a 95′ Seagrave tower to the FDNY.
- Seagrave, which has been building FDNY trucks for more than 75 years, donated a pumper to the FDNY and stepped up its production of a large order of 54 apparatus. Rigs that normally take a year to build were built in 120 days, thanks to employees who worked double shifts. The city of Clintonville, Wis., where Seagrave is based, also raised money for the effort.
- Pierce donated a rescue vehicle built on a Kenworth chassis that was used as the second piece of a hazmat company.
- American LaFrance donated a heavy-rescue vehicle built on its Condor chassis, dubbed the Spirit of Oklahoma. It was donated by the people of Oklahoma City, thanking the FDNY for its help during the terrorist bombing in that city.
- General Safety, which is now part of Rosenbauer, built a heavy-rescue vehicle on a Mack chassis.
- Luverne, now part of Crimson, partnered with Spartan to build a pumper on a Spartan Gladiator chassis.
- E-One contributed a Freightliner rescue that was used as a decon unit.
- Bank of America donated money to purchase three pumpers.
- White Knoll Middle School in Columbia, S.C., raised $520,000 to purchase an apparatus for the FDNY. Perhaps, like Oklahoma City, Columbia wanted to repay FDNY firefighters for their donation of a hose wagon after the Civil War.
Changing Specs
The FDNY moved quickly following 9/11 to replace most of its apparatus fleet, with new orders and bids going out over the following several months. But it didn’t just copy the old specs. Instead, it made substantial improvements to its fleet based on lessons learned during 9/11.
All pumpers now have 2,000-gpm pumps with five lengths of hard flex suction hose and special intakes for drafting. This idea stemmed from the water main collapses that prevented firefighters from flowing water at Ground Zero. Now, every FDNY pumper ordered since 9/11 can draft water from any of the nearby rivers and supply other units on the scene.
To further add to its water-delivery capability, the FDNY recently took delivery on two $27-million fireboats that can pump 50,000 gpm each, and are equipped with air filtration and sealing systems to protect firefighters from chemical, radiological and biological agents.
Several decontamination units have been purchased and dispersed around the five boroughs, as well as command and control units that can stream video and radio transmissions directly to FDNY headquarters and its command center. Because the inability for fire, police, EMS and Port Authority to communicate was a huge problem on 9/11, interoperability has become a major focus of all apparatus purchases. Radios and communications units now enable the various agencies to talk to one another.
Spreading Beyond NYC
As the fire service began to rebuild and recover from 9/11, departments large and small across the country evaluated their level of preparedness and found it lacking. A key factor in enhancing preparedness: increased funding from DHS and grants from the AFG and SAFER programs.
Thanks to this funding, many municipalities have been able to upgrade apparatus, radio communications and personal protective equipment. We’ve seen decon units and WMD trailers with caches of equipment purchased and stored in various areas of the country. Post-9/11 funding also helped some poorer areas purchase much-needed apparatus. For some departments, it was their first new apparatus in many years; for others, it was their first-ever new rig.
Radio communications and wireless communications have improved vastly since 9/11. Many large cities and counties have purchased command vehicles and have learned and practiced the incident command system. Although we’ve by no means solved the problem of all agencies being able to talk to one another, significant advances have been made. At the time this article was written, the Federal Communications Commission, Congress and first responders were still fighting over a segment of the radio spectrum that’s supposed to be allocated for the use of first responders. Hopefully, they will agree to work together and push this idea forward.
The Best Use Could Be None
The amount of equipment and apparatus that was purchased after 9/11–not just by the FDNY, but by departments across the country–has been criticized by some people who say that such equipment will rarely be needed. To me, that’s the point: 9/11 elevated the level of response capability we must have. But if we never use half of the equipment that was purchased because of this tragedy, that will be a good thing for the fire service–and the people we protect.
Adding Up the Costs
Although the real costs of the WTC attacks are impossible to measure, following are some of the concrete expenses the FDNY incurred:
- $3,455,305 for the replacement of radios, mobile data terminals and printers, mobile radios and vehicle repeater systems lost or destroyed in the WTC collapse
- $2,139,099 for radio equipment used by firefighters and EMS personnel at Ground Zero and command centers in the aftermath of the WTC collapse
- $1,710,100 for the alarm box network located in the WTC vicinity that was destroyed in the attack
- $1,236,289 for contracted, on-site uniform cleaning services for FDNY recovery workers
Counting the Losses
The FDNY lost the following equipment in the World Trade Center attacks:
- 10 ambulances
- 2 EMS Suburbans
- 24 sedans used by staff chiefs
- 17 Suburbans used by battalion chiefs
- 2 heavy-rescue units
- 1 tactical support unit
- 2 high-rise units
- 4 hazmat support step vans
- 1 mask service unit containing 300 SCBA cylinders
- 2 roadside emergency trucks used by mechanics
- 1 satellite unit with a 2,000-gpm pump and a deck gun
- 3 1,000-gpm squad pumpers with specialized equipment
- 20 1,000-gpm pumpers
- 6 75′ tower ladders
- 12 100′ rear-mount ladders
Source: FDNY
