NYC asks local firefighters to stay home

BY SAM FRANK

NEWSMAKERS Overcome by the scene before him, a rescue worker pauses at the former World Trade Center in New York City.

New Haven is less than 100 miles from lower Manhattan: close enough to feel the Twin Towers' aftershocks, too far to provide easy aid. Though a number of the Elm City's emergency services stood ready within minutes or hours of the first World Trade Center impact, most of the help New Haven has provided thus far has been only indirect, if valuable.

"We were on highest stage of alert from about 8:45 [a.m.] Tues., [Sept. 11] to about 10 a.m. [Wednesday]," Mark D'Antonio, media coordinator for Yale-New Haven Hospital, said. Immediately after American Airlines Flight 11 slammed into the north tower, hospital management placed the facility on a Level D stage of alert, expanding triage and emergency treatment areas, extending hours for staff, and readying extra equipment—all the preparations for a crisis. But by midmorning on Wed., Sept. 12, the Department of Health for the State of Connecticut and the Department of Emergency Services had informed Yale-New Haven that its help probably would not be necessary.

"It's not a rescue mission anymore," D'Antonio said. "It's more recovery." Those who have and will be rescued are most likely to be treated closer to Manhattan. D'Antonio recalled a conversation he had with a doctor during a moment of relative calm. "I asked him how many hospitals there are closer to New York than New Haven is. He looked at me and kind of rolled his eyes and said, `Geez, Mark, maybe 180.'"

Other groups have not let distance stop them. On Wednesday, as soon as they learned that as many as 350 New York firefighters were lost in the Trade Center's collapse, the New Haven Fire Department (NHFD) dispatched 25 firefighters—nearly 10 percent of its force—to Manhattan via Metro North. But, like Yale-New Haven, NHFD's help may not be needed. "They were taken to a staging area at Chelsea Piers," Assistant Fire Chief Ron Dumas said. "However, because of all the resources now in New York, they weren't needed," and they came back to New Haven after a few hours of idleness. Now, Dumas said, "we're just waiting for word. Assistant Chief Michael E. Grant has been in touch with New York. They just want us to hold tight."

However, firefighters and rescue personnel from other area towns were able to actively help out around the disaster site. Firefighters from New Haven suburbs North Haven, East Haven, and West Haven joined the rescue efforts Tuesday night. According to the New Haven Register, North Haven firefighters worked a mere 40 feet from the ground on top of what used to be Building Two of the World Trade Center. Police officers and rescue dogs were also sent to New York from area communities.

The Associated Press reported on Thurs., Sept. 13 that a rescue team from the University of Connecticut Health Center rushed to New York on Tuesday prepared to treat the injured. Instead, the team found itself helping to dig through rubble and assist medical workers already on the scene, because the number of dead largely outnumber those who are injured. On Thurs., Sept. 13, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani placed the number of missing persons at over 4,700.

At a press conference Wednesday and via teletype Thursday, New York let the rest of the country know that it was adequately staffed. According to Judith Mongillo, in public affairs at the New Haven Police Department (NHPD), "they have all the volunteers necessary," though NHPD is ready to send help as needed. But for now, Mongillo said, New York wants all fire, police, and EMS personnel to "please remain in their communities."

Even though they are not at the disaster site, New Haven's public services have refused to stand idly by in the face of this tragedy. NHFD is helping a local energy company donate respirators, gloves, and Tyvex suits—which protect from blood-borne pathogens—to the relief effort. Dumas hopes to ship the equipment to New York by this weekend. Yale-New Haven is also helping with the immense blood drive, even extending Wednesday's hours due to unprecedented turnout. Approximately 350 people waited for up to two and a half hours each for a procedure that's normally completed in one-fifth the time. "That's all we can do right now," D'Antonio said.

Reverend Jerry Streets, DIV '75, Yale University Chaplain, noted the efforts of local congregations in raising awareness about the hospital's and others' blood drives as well as in fundraising for the victims of the attack through the Red Cross and the Firemen's Benevolent Association. As chaplain, Streets has tried to help his own community, leading a Yale vigil Tuesday and a candlelight march Thursday evening. But next week, Streets will do his best to reach beyond New Haven. He and his fellow members of the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma, a group associated with Massachusetts General Hospital and run by Richard Mollica, DIV '79, will meet with officials at New York's Bellevue Hospital to work with them in trauma counseling and psychiatric social work.

As willing as New Haven residents are to give more of themselves to aid those who suffer in New York, as of yet, their services have not largely been needed. But in case anything changes, Dumas said, "guys are just eager and waiting for the word."

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