Last Man Down: The Fireman's Story

On September 11th 2001, Battalion Commander Richard Pitch Picciotto lead seven companies of fire fighters up the B stairway to Tower 1 of the World Trade Centre. Pitch and his men were on the 17th floor racing upward when the world seemed to explode around them. Out of radio communication with the command centre and with no time to reflect Pitch ordered the evacuation of Tower 1. Firefighters staged an orderly retreat until word came that the stairwell was blocked with debris. From his knowledge of the towers gained during service after the 1993 WTC bombing, Pitch lead the firefighters to an alternate stairwell, and the descent continued. After eight minutes when they reached floor 12 Pitch and his men discovered 50 traumatized civilians. Fourteen minutes had elapsed since the collapse of Tower 2. Pushing and cajoling them down and out Pitch was in the 7th floor stairwell when a sound of thunder was heard from above. It took eight seconds for Tower 1 to fall. Pitch and a handful of survivors woke to find themselves buried on the landing of floor 2, in an inky cavity broken by the screams of hurt men. This is the story of how they made it out.