Local Voices

‘It Always Lives With You:' Philadelphia Firefighter Recalls Search And Rescue At Ground Zero

The group arrived after two planes crashed into the iconic World Trade Center, hitting the North and South towers.

(Daniel Hampton/Patch)

September 10, 2021

It’s a day Craig Murphy, and the entire country will never forget. The First Deputy Commissioner for the Philadelphia Fire Department remembers September 11, 2001, vividly, arriving at Ground Zero with Pennsylvania Task Force One.

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“You could smell burning paper, there was concrete dust everywhere,” he told CBS3. “It looked like snow, a lot of dust, and you could smell jet fuel and the fires that were burning.”

The group arrived after two planes crashed into the iconic World Trade Center, hitting the North and South towers. They had a single task: searching for any survivors in the rubble of the buildings.

Find out what's happening in Philadelphiafor free with the latest updates from Patch.



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