Remembering 9/11: D.A.R.T. – A Brotherhood of Service

The heroic actions of the firefighters who rushed into the smoke and flames of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 are almost legendary. They gave so much, and 343 paid the ultimate price, giving up their lives to save the lives of others. What few people may know is that five of those who perished were members of the Red Cross Disaster Assistance Response Team, or D.A.R.T., a group of firefighters with Red Cross training who donate their time to help others.

D.A.R.T. was formed as a partnership between the FDNY and the American Red Cross in Greater New York in 1989, when 18 active-duty firefighters responded to an urgent Red Cross call for bilingual volunteers to help 90,000 families in Puerto Rico devastated by Hurricane Hugo. The firefighters were trained by Red Cross and then deployed to Puerto Rico with Red Cross.

Since then, disaster responses have taken members of D.A.R.T. to some of the largest, most devastating natural and human-caused calamities of the last two decades. None hit closer to home than the tragic events of September 11th, 2001.

On that day, D.A.R.T. members numbered 110, most of them active-duty firefighters. Many D.A.R.T. members rushed to lower Manhattan with their respective fire companies, running into the smoke and flames to save lives.

Luis Fragoso, the current chair of the organization, and one of the founding members of D.A.R.T., was assigned to RAC-4 on Roosevelt Island on 9/11, where Special Ops is headquartered. Later that morning, he responded to Ground Zero, where he worked on and off until the end of January.

Fragoso remembers calling into the D.A.R.T phone message line and hearing dozens of messages from retired firefighters who were eager to help with the rescue and recovery operation. (Active firefighters, who were on call at their respective firehouses during this period, were unable to respond with D.A.R.T.)

Fragoso asked two other D.A.R.T. members, Ret. Captain Francis J. Bernard and Ret. Lieutenant Matthew Kiernan, to run the 9/11 D.A.R.T. operation. Bernard and Kiernan stepped up and worked out of the Red Cross Brooklyn chapter, retrieving calls and assigning D.A.R.T. member the tasks of assisting the families.

Many of the more than 120 retired FDNY responders who assisted D.A.R.T. during the 9/11 relief effort eventually joined the group.

Mike Mondello was one of those firefighters.

On 9/11 Mondello was home with his grandchildren in Rockland County, watching TV “in shock.” He immediately packed his gear onto his truck and headed to New York City. Finding the bridges closed, he turned back, ending up at a local dock, where he “hitched” a ride with a man willing to take him and three nurses who also needed transportation to Manhattan on a small private boat. “I can’t tell you what made me go to that dock or where this guy came from, but that’s something I’ll cherish my whole life,” Mondello said.

Mondello checked in with a makeshift command center set up at Ground Zero. “This was still in the opening hours. In the chaos, you picked your own assignment.” He worked at the site for about a week. Then he heard that D.A.R.T. was asking for firefighters to help out at the Red Cross Family Assistance Center at Pier 94 where survivors and family members of those who perished received food, beverages and emotional support. Mondello decided this was something he wanted to assist with.

In the six months that followed, D.A.R.T. alternated between search and recovery at Ground Zero and supporting grief-stricken families of victims. Mondello says of helping the families, "We worked 24/7, taking survivors to doctor’s appointments, shopping, wherever they had to go.”

He said it was especially meaningful for D.A.R.T. members to be helping the families of fallen firefighters. “We had a deep personal connection with them and they with us. There was a level of comfort in that they felt that a brother was taking care of a brother.” In fact, Mondello called supporting the families “a life-changing experience.”

Most, if not all, D.A.R.T. members feel the same about their D.A.R.T. service. “Without being involved with DART there would be a void in my life,” said Robert Reeg, a WTC responder who joined D.A.R.T. in 2006. “It gives you a feeling of fulfillment, and I think everybody needs a bit of that.”

Although Reeg was seriously injured on 9/11 by falling debris, he was fortunate to live to tell about his experience. Sadly, one of the five D.A.R.T. members who died was a good friend of Reeg’s, “an all-around warm, caring guy to work with and a committed firefighter.”

“It was very tough to lose those guys,” said Fragoso. “They were dedicated to D.A.R.T., dedicated to the Red Cross and dedicated to the people of New York.”

Although Mondello didn’t know the five who were lost on 9/11, he said, “They were still my brothers.”

Reeg added that the D.A.R.T members and other firefighters who lost their lives during 9/11, "died doing something they loved. We’re a brotherhood and a sisterhood and we like to give back to the community. We honor their memory by continuing to serve."

Through D.A.R.T. they are able to do just that.

The Greater New York Red Cross pays its deepest respects to the five D.A.R.T. members who lost their lives on 9/11 and to their families: LT. David J. Fontana; SQ-1, FM. Vincent D. Kane, Engine-22; LT. Thomas R. Kelly, Ladder-105; FF. Gregory Saucedo, Ladder-5; and FF. Gerard Schrang, Rescue-3. 

LT. David J. Fontana
SQ - 1

FM. Vincent D. Kane
Engine - 22

LT. Thomas R. Kelly
Ladder - 105

FF. Gregory Saucedo
Ladder - 5

FF. Gerard Schrang
Rescue - 3

Remembering 9/11: The First Few Hours of the Greater NY Red Cross Response

Every year on September 11 we reflect on that fateful day in 2001 and on the trying weeks, months and years that followed. We do so to honor those we lost, to comfort those still grieving and to thank those who gave of themselves to help us heal.

Just as our nation was forever changed, so was the Red Cross. Our organization’s relief effort—in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pa.— was one of the largest in our organization’s history. The response continued for years after the attacks and involved more than 57,000 volunteers and employees from across the country.

No one place was affected as profoundly as our great city and no Red Cross chapter was as deeply impacted than Greater New York; we were at the epicenter of the relief effort. Within moments of the first plane striking the North Tower, teams of Greater Red Cross staff sprang into action to help.

Here is their story:

Minutes after the first plane struck the North Tower, Greater New York Senior Director of Emergency Services Virginia Mewborn and Assistant Director of Operations Max Green left the chapter’s headquarters on Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan to respond to what they then thought was a small plane hitting the World Trade Center.

Green and Mewborn were planning to evaluate the situation to see how the Red Cross could best support emergency personnel at the scene. On the drive down, Green said he felt that if the building were evacuated early, “…it would have been a long-term canteen operation, where we would support emergency workers.”

As they drove, Virginia paged Red Cross Field Operations Supervisor Luis Avila and asked him to join them. Avila, who was in Queens that morning working a second job, could see the smoke from the North Tower from his location. He told his boss he was leaving, and in fact, never returned to that job. As he left, Avila watched in disbelief as the second plane banked and hit the South Tower.

Mewborn and Green, in their car, began to realize that they had not understood the scope of this incident. “As you got onto the West Side Highway you could see the smoke,” said Green. “My heart fluttered. I looked up at it, saying ‘This, this looks a lot bigger than what I thought it was.’”

The two parked on West Street, south of Chambers and walked towards the World Financial Center (WFC). They hoped to find a command group—people from partner agencies like the Office of Emergency Management (OEM), who would be coordinating this disaster response with the Red Cross.

Because her cell phone wasn’t working, Mewborn borrowed a phone at a shoe repair store to call headquarters. Greater NY Red Cross CEO Bob Bender told her four things: a second plane had hit, they were dealing with a terrorist attack, Red Cross would set up a Respite Center downtown for survivors and first responders, and he’d sent an Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV) down with a Red Cross disaster responder, Kemagne Theagne, to meet them.

Mewborn and Green found a command post on West Street, right across from the Twin Towers. That’s when they saw a horrific sight—people jumping from the upper stories of the Trade Center. They decided they should not get closer; they should in fact return to the chapter to organize the Red Cross response from there.

Meanwhile, Avila had arrived in lower Manhattan and parked on West and Vesey. “When we get to a scene,” he said, “the first person with a vehicle tries to get as close as they can.” He continued on foot to 7 World Trade, where OEM’s offices were located. “I saw debris everywhere, I was wading through rubble,” he said. As he began to follow a group of fire chiefs, the “haunting scenes” around him convinced Avila he should leave. He turned right to regroup with Green and Mewborn, and the first responders turned left, towards the Towers. Avila later learned they had perished.

As Avila approached the WFC he saw Mewborn and Green, and they walked inside together. “We made a deal that we were going to stay together from that point on,” he said, “that we were going to take care of one another.” Avila was able to contact his wife and let her know he was alright, then the line went dead. “What felt like an earthquake” shook the building. It was the North Tower coming down, but they didn’t know that. They thought the WFC was collapsing on top of them. Suddenly, the building’s windows exploded. Avila grabbed Mewborn and Green. They ran, along with hundreds of others, to the West Side Highway, zigzagging their way back to Green’s car.

Meanwhile, Kemagne Theagne, who had rushed down from chapter headquarters in an ERV, was on Church Street, directly in front of the Towers, trying to find the Red Cross staging area for the relief operation he believed Mewborn, Green and Avila were mounting. He had just gotten out of the ERV to help a woman who had fallen, when he heard, “Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.” He looked up and saw the North Tower coming down, floor by floor. “I just froze; I couldn't believe this was happening.”

As people ran out of the lobby towards Theagne, a man grabbed him. The two ran together, holding one another, towards a staircase leading into a subway station with a locked gate. They were now engulfed by choking soot and debris. Theagne tried calling his three colleagues, but his Nextel radio was dead. He said to himself, “I hope, I hope, I hope they made it.”

His colleagues were on their way back to HQ. As they drove, they spotted a man in Red Cross gear they thought was Theagne. They stopped and pulled him into the car, only to realize that it was responder Barry Crumbley, who had traveled to the site on his own to find his wife, who worked in one of the Towers. (She made it out safely.)

Theagne spent the next 45 minutes at the foot of the staircase, “just waiting,” trying to breathe, until he saw some light trying to break through the smoke. “We used that little bit of sunlight to guide us out.” They climbed up the stairs and ran.

After washing himself off at a nearby deli along with dozens of others, Theagne made his way back to the ERV. “I said to myself, ‘I got to get this vehicle out of here.’” He slowly made his way out of the site in the dust-covered ERV, “driving through the spider web what was the windshield.” When he finally arrived uptown, covered in dust and ash, no one could believe he had brought the ERV back.

Mewborn, Green and Avila had already returned, also covered in soot from head to toe. “I don't know if [our colleagues] thought we were dead or they were seeing a ghost,” said Avila. “All I remember saying is give me water… I drank about two liters as quick as I could.”

After giving themselves a few moments to wash up and regroup, they remobilized with the rest of the Red Cross team. “After we realized everybody was okay, we needed to make sure that we had supplies down there,” said Avila.

 

They needed to get the canteen trucks (the ERVs), down to the site as quickly as possible to replenish the water for the survivors, firefighters and other emergency personnel. “Preparations had already begun when we were downtown,” Avila said, “but whatever needed to be finished we continued to do.”

That included creating a plan to send caseworkers to Penn Station, Grand Central Station and the Port Authority, to position ERVs on the West Side Highway and the FDR Drive, and to get ready to set up a relief operation at the Brooklyn Chapter.

“And we knew that help was on the way,” said Mewborn. Red Crossers were coming from upstate New York and National Red Cross headquarters in Washington, D.C. There were also lines of people inside Greater NY Red Cross headquarters, waiting to volunteer, give blood or donate money.

“In those first 12, 24, 36, 48 hours,” Mewborn said, “we registered thousands of volunteers and provided service to thousands of people in New York. We did it well, and we started the platform of how we were going to move forward.”

9/11 Reflections from Greater New York Red Cross CEO

On September 11, 2001 I was on the #4 Train on my way back to my home in Brooklyn from a breakfast meeting in Midtown earlier that morning. I was going to get my suitcase at home and then grab a cab to LaGuardia to head to an out of town business meeting in Colorado.

Just as the train pulled into Fulton Street (under the WTC) around 9:30am, it came to a halt and we just sat there with no information because cell phones did not work underground in those days. After a time, the doors to the train opened and several people covered in ash and blood boarded the train in panic and told us that two commercial airliners had crashed into the Twin Towers.

They finally allowed the train to move forward to the Brooklyn Bridge station and then told us to evacuate. As I left the train station – the dust and ash in the air made it look like a blizzard and as I looked back, I saw the Twin Towers collapsing as if it were a melting wedding cake. In a state of shock and disbelief, I crossed the Brooklyn Bridge on foot and walked to my home in Carroll Gardens. As I was walking towards my home, I saw memos and other papers that had blown across the river from the impact of the explosion in the tree in my garden. They were from Cantor Fitzgerald, one of the businesses that were decimated during the attack.

When my husband finally got home that evening, the first thing we agreed on was to go to the Red Cross Blood collection site then in Brooklyn Heights to donate blood to the victims. The line was long and the Red Cross volunteers came out and told us they were not collecting because sadly, the hospitals were not admitting any survivors. In the days that followed, I made a donation to the Red Cross and also brought some batteries to a Red Cross station near the site. What haunts me to this day, are all the posters that were placed all over the city for people looking for loved ones. I will never forget that day for the rest of life and I am so glad that the Red Cross was there to help and is helping us to commemorate that unspeakable tragedy.

Mary J. Barneby

In Case You Missed It – Sept 15

Red Cross responding to a 3-alarm fire on Decatur Ave in the Bronx.

In the last week the Red Cross provided emergency relief in the form of shelter, food, clothing, health services and/or emotional support to 97 New Yorkers impacted by 35 disasters across our region. Here are some highlights.

Last Week in Review

• Every year on Sept.11, we reflect on that fateful day in 2001 and on the trying weeks, months and years that followed. We do so to honor those we lost, to comfort those still grieving and to thank those who gave of themselves to help us heal.
• There were two Sandy rebuilding efforts last week. Volunteers from JetBlue Airways worked with Red Cross partners, Friends of Rockaway, on Sept. 13 to help repair two homes damaged by Sandy. Earlier in the week, volunteers from Holland & Knight worked with the Red Cross and Friends of Rockaway to help repair another Sandy-damaged home. 
• On Sept. 10, the Red Cross responded to the scene of a 3-alarm fire that damaged three buildings on Decatur Ave in the Bronx and left three families (11 adults and 3 children) homeless. We provided emergency housing, food, funds for basic necessities as well as emotional support to those that needed it.
• On September 9, the Red Cross setup a reception center with Yonkers OEM to help four families displaced by a fire in Yonkers. Translation assistance, financial assistance for personal items and referrals to community partners was provided for those families to assist in their road to recovery.
• In the second week of National Preparedness Month, we have preparedness tips for seniors and an action checklist for people with disabilities.
• Nat'l Preparedness Month is also the perfect time for you to prepare your pets for an emergency. Check out the Top 21 Most Prepared Dogs of NYC on BuzzFeed. Thanks to our friends and partners at The Good Dog Foundation, for helping us!
• Greater NY Representatives Meet with Brooklyn Deputy Borough President Diana Reyna to discuss Red Cross disaster services in Brooklyn. 
• A great time was had by all at the LI Volunteer Appreciation picnic on Sept. 6. Close to 100 volunteers showed up at Babylon’s Phelps Lane Park to enjoy great food, play Long Island trivia, participate in cot races and more.

Post by American Red Cross in Greater New York.

A Red Cross Volunteer Reflects on Her 9/11 Day of Service

By Megan Bruno

September 11 has become a day for Americans to pause, reflect and remember a painful tragedy that changed our history forever. I think it can also be a time to turn the hurt of losing lives into the hope of saving lives.

Imagine living in a world where nothing is convenient and simple necessities like food and clothing are difficult to obtain. Your daily worry would be how to fulfill your most basic needs. Now, imagine you are a doctor or nurse trying to fulfill those needs for several people: getting them proper medicine and supplies, food, or even a warm blanket. That is often the case in many countries in Africa.

On this year’s 9/11 anniversary, six Red Cross volunteers from the Metro New York North chapter, led by our hard-working coordinators, Carissa Duro and Andrew Sindell, went to the Afya Foundation warehouse in Yonkers, N.Y. The Afya Foundation obtains and ships vital supplies necessary to support medical and surgical initiatives worldwide, with a primary focus on Africa. Supplies are donated and gathered from hospitals, surgical center and corporations.

Upon arriving at Afya (which means “good health” in Swahili), initially one would think that this place is just like every other warehouse in an industrial section of Yonkers. In reality, the people inside were working furiously to package and send all different types of collected supplies. The majority were indeed medical supplies; however, we also came across some that addressed basic needs, such as clean drinking water and soap, which we in America often take for granted. For Afya, no donation is too bulky or too delicate; nothing is turned away or goes to waste.

What I enjoyed most about this experience was that it was truly a team effort. On the same day, Afya invited other volunteer organizations to help out along with the Red Cross. We all seemed to work together as a family, each of us having our own task but essentially working toward the same goal. Turisha Herbert, Afya’s volunteer coordinator, was proud of the mission and accomplishments of the organization, as she should be; its tremendous efforts do not go unnoticed. Through several resources, programs and donation opportunities, Afya proves that a little goes a long way.

Megan Bruno has been a volunteer with the Red Cross Metro New York North chapter for about 18 months, working with the Service to the Armed Forces and Blood Services programs.

Photos by Red Cross volunteer photographer Matthew LaMonica. 

Jill Bellinson, Red Cross Mental Health Volunteer, Reflects on 9/11

September 11, 2012

Red Cross (RC): How many 9/11 memorial ceremonies have you attended as a mental-health volunteer?

Jill: I joined the Red Cross on 9/11 as a mental health volunteer, so today is my anniversary, too. In 2001, we got a short briefing and I started my shift with an experienced, long-time mental-health leader from the National Red Cross. I worked at Ground Zero for the first month and at the Family Assistance Center at the Piers after that.

RC: What does 9/11 mean to you?

Jill: It’s a marker of my work with Red Cross. That day the world changed, including mine, in so many ways. I’ve worked with so many hundreds of people affected by 9/11 over the years. I worked for Project Liberty, New York's crisis counseling program created in the aftermath of 9/11, for a year or two afterward.

RC: What was today like?

Jill: This year, there was a smaller Red Cross presence—just four of us in the reader’s tent, which is a large tent where those who read the names of those lost wait their turns. There are about 200 readers. Some have guests, chaperones, and aides with them. We are there to lend emotional support.

Many readers are all nervous about speaking. Sometimes that overwhelms what they feel about the rest of the day. They read the names of about 16 people whom they don’t know. The last name they read is their person, and they’re told they may say something about them—what they were like or how they always had dinner together or some phrase their loved one always said.

Some are members of a large extended family, and other family members have read in past years; this time was their time. They want to do this right. After they read the names, they’re often drained. They meet their other family members at that point.

Another touching thing someone told me: One woman who lost two family members, and is still very teary and grieving quite a bit, said she has a little package of Red Cross tissues that we gave her at the first commemoration that she keeps with the mementos of the family members she lost. That was important to her.

A lot of people said they were grateful for us being there. That always makes me feel good—I appreciate that Red Cross allows me to make some small difference in someone’s life.

Jill Bellinson, Manhattan, N.Y.

My Red Cross Dress Code Post-9-11

By Chi Kong Lui, who has been with the American Red Cross Greater New York Region since November 2000.

Red Cross vehicle parked near Ground Zero on September 11, 2001.
(Photo: Luis Avila)

Whenever I come to work dressed in a suit and tie for special events, I get many strange looks and comments like “You look so nice!” I always laugh a little because even though I know my colleagues don’t mean it as an insult, it indirectly implies that I don’t normally look so nice.

I also laugh because there was a time when I use to come to the office every day in a dress shirt and tie, but that all changed after September 11, 2001.

On that Tuesday, I came to work as the webmaster of the American Red Cross in Greater New York at our old location on 66th and Amsterdam Avenue (right behind Lincoln Center) like any other day. But things quickly shifted as word trickled through the office of the terrorist attacks.

Some my colleagues and I had gathered in the Public Relations department and we watched in stunned silence as the two towers of the World Trade Center fell on live television.

That stunned silence would prove to be the calm before the storm as hundreds and thousands of New Yorkers flooded our plaza and lobby, all wanting to volunteer to help any way they could. Those people were willing to do almost anything, so desperate were they to make sense of the madness had befallen the city.

The nyredcross.org web site I managed was inundated with traffic that brought the speed of the site to a crawl, and the webmaster inbox was soon flooded with hundreds—and eventually thousands—of emails from people looking for information on loved ones or information on how they could help.

The rest of the day proved to be a blur. With the help of our web host and several volunteers, we were able to manage the massive flow of traffic and emails that would follow in the weeks to come.

That night, after receiving some heartfelt hugs from my colleagues, I left the office to see my then girlfriend (who would later become my wife) in Brooklyn.

As I rode the subway to her, I pondered how the world would be different in a “post-9-11” world. I got that answer more quickly than I’d expected as the subway pulled in the 34th Street (Penn) station, police officers began to scream at the top of their lungs to evacuate the station.

The immediate thought of dying in a train station made my heart pound.

Dozens of other passengers and I frantically poured out of the subway and into the streets of the city and ran south for blocks as police officers continued to wave us through.

Eventually I stopped running, my pulse returned to normal and I walked on through to the 14th Street Union Square station and jumped on another train to Brooklyn. I never found out why we were evacuated from the subway that night.

The following day, after spending the night at my girlfriend’s place, I must have went back to work in the same clothes as the night before. I’m sure no one in the office even cared or noticed as we all continued to respond to the disaster—providing support to first responders, emergency radio communications to city agencies and eventually, assistance to the families who lost loved ones.

I didn’t make a conscious decision to dress differently after September 11. It simply became clear to me how important the work we do at the Red Cross is, and worrying about what I wore to work took a backseat to making sure I wore my Red Cross ID badge around my neck each morning.

Reflections on Yesterday’s September 11 Tribute

By Josh Lockwood, CEO of the American Red Cross Greater NY Region

Luis Avila, Greater NY Chief Response Officer (in the red tie) greets attendees

Yesterday evening, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum marked the 10th anniversary of the official end of the recovery operation with a tribute on the 9/11 Memorial Plaza in lower Manhattan.

During the nearly three-hour event, thousands of volunteers and first responders who had worked at Ground Zero, along with their guests, made their way past a receiving line of first responders, clergy and others, as well as former and current officials, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and former NY Gov. George Pataki.

I went to the event with Luis Avila, our Senior Response Officer. We watched families of 9/11 victims go through the receiving line and thank Luis and other first responders. On the ride down Luis shared with me his harrowing experience on 9/11 as he and other Red Crossers sought to respond to the worst disaster in our City’s history and then ran for their lives as the towers fell.

We can all understand the emotional resonance of that experience, not just for Luis but for other staff members and volunteers here—folks like Charlie Wells, who was with the New York City fire department at the time.

At various points in the evening I’d see someone approach me wearing a Red Cross shirt or a Red Cross lanyard—volunteers, and current and former staff members, some of whom came from as far away as Albany.

What was clear was how incredibly meaningful the event was for all of them, and for all of us in attendance. It was deeply gratifying to meet people for the first time both in and outside the Red Cross, see the Red Cross logo and have people tell me again and again how important our role was in the city and continues to be; how thankful they were—and are—for the Red Cross.