Personal Narrative Essay By Dan Mcwilliams

I, Dan McWilliams, woke up at 5:45 to go to work for the FDNY. It was sunny day with clear skies, little did I know the horrors of the day to come. I got to work at 6:45, we were at the station for about 2 hours. Next thing we know every fire station in New York is being called to the twin towers because of an apparent plane crash. It was 8:46 the first plane hit the North Tower, when we arrived it was chaos. Debris everywhere, smoke everywhere, and citizens of New York running and screaming, looking for help. My team rushed into the bottom of the North tower, trying to find as many people as possible.What seems like 5 minutes later, at 9:03 another plane crashed into the South Tower. My team then split up, half in the North and half in the South tower. It all was a blur to me, I couldn 't believe someone would do this. Next thing I remember is being evacuated by our lieutenant, and walking away from the burning towers. At 9:59 the South Tower collapsed, we then went into the debris and smoke to save as many injured people as possible. Again, what seems like seconds, the North Tower collapsed and once again we ran into the debris and smoke to save people.

We then stood there for 10 minutes just looking at the horror of the towers falling. I then see an American Flag in the distance, I go and retrieve it. I the walk up a mountain of debris with George and Billy. I begin looking for a place to put up the flag, I eventually find a spot and said,” Gimme a hand,will ya, George”. Then George and billy walk up to me and help me pick up a metal rod to stick the flag in. Little did we know that our picture was being taken, that picture means everything to me. Me, George, and Billy still talk about the horrors of that