Oh, the smells in the area? Well, the...the smell was just the, ah, burning...what was burning, the dusty smell, burning smell, nothing, just...just a smell, smoke. Um, got out to West and Veezy [Vessey], I saw Frank Caruthers. As it turns out, Frank was going to be the next highest ranking officer there, alive, working, so I went up to Frank, who I know well...Frank became Chief of the Department the next day, I think...or that day, probably. Went up to Frank, I said, 'Frank, listen, you can't see past the collapsed walkway, but it's destruction from here all the way down to Liberty.' I said, 'The street is totally blocked off, there's no way for anything to get in. Can we start making an opening at the far end? At Veezy...I mean Liberty and West...to start penetrating the pile along the street anyhow, to make an opening.' He looked at me, he said, 'Can you do that?' And I said, 'Yeah, Frank, I'll try it.' He said, 'Go ahead.' I turned to walk away and there were three guys there...civilians. The one guy, who was like the leader of these three...you could see that they were construction, dressed that way, anyhow, uh, he said, 'I heard what you said, I can get equipment...heavy equipment to help you. Do you want me to give you a hand?' So I just immediately said, 'Yes, of course,' I said, 'Come on, we'll walk up this way...' and he said, 'What are you going to need?' I said, 'We're gonna need to move heavy steel...building...steel...I beams...box beams.' He said, 'OK, I'll get...' he turns to his guys, he said, 'Go down to that site, pick me up a bulldozer... pick me up anything that's gonna pick up steel, move steel, bucket loader, whatever it is. I'll go with this guy...what's your name?' I said, 'My name is Lee, what's yours?' I don't remember his name...he gave me his business card...to this day I kick myself because I didn't organize myself. I would love to find this guy because he was a godsend...and the other guys too, but this guy took...took charge. So we're walking, we're talking back and forth, I tell him about my son, and uh, there wasn't any, you know, he didn't know what to say. So I said, 'we're gonna need to, to move a lot of things out of the way at the other end.' He says, 'You got it! No problem at all.' We got down to the other end, we went through the AMEX Building this time, rather than try to hop over the rubble, because it was time consuming...the up and down, up and down, up and down... Oh, Building Seven is burn...Six is burning fiercely and I didn't...you didn't see it, uh, but Four was burning fiercely, Building Five was stem to stern fire, Building Seven was tremendous amount of fire. You could see the building which was the Customs Building down...right down where we were...the thing was just burning. The fires were...uh...the, the...the fire department water system was compromised by the collapse, ah, the calamity, people weren't sure of where...where, what, and when, or how. Uh, fireboats eventually hooked up to the, uh...pumping out of the Hudson, but yeah, fires...ah shit, everything was burning. No, I didn't pay attention to the fires, I mean, those buildings were good, those, the smaller buildings, were sound buildings, you know, what was going to happen? They're gonna burn, there's nothing you're gonna do, you know. Those guys that were looking for hoses to try and fight the fire a little bit...alright, go, do that. I felt...I felt my thing was more important than trying to put out the fire. That's just, you know...We came out of the AMEX Building, went down Liberty...uh...there's a little walkway that's still standing there, and it was standing that day, it was...the windows were all blown in...that crossed over Liberty, get down there, ah, this guy, for some reason I think his name was Tom, but I'm not too sure, said, 'What do you want to do? Where do you want to start?' I said, 'Well let's go down further.' I said. You couldn't tell the semblance of where roads were, I said, 'Why don't we start right in here? And we'll start penetrating here.' I said, 'Can you get something to move these...' Turns out Rescue Two is where I worked; Rescue Two is the rig that was there. Squad One, who I knew just about everybody working, um, the officer was a super-good friend of mine, you know. Lynn Tierney, who is...good friends; her car was behind them. Ah, there was a chief's car or two in the front of them...and these are the rigs that, ah, you know, I'm ju...I'm gonna tell this guy. He said, 'Listen, I know where I can pick up some sort of, of, of...I forgot what he said, but some sort of a crane for pick up.' I said, 'You can get it?' He said, 'I have to hotwire it.' So what he's saying to me is I have to steal it, you know. I said, 'Hotwire it, no problem, go!' So, you know, he went and...and stole it, you know, what, somebody's gonna get pissed? So he went and stole it, next thing I know, this equipment is coming down the street, this guy is walking there, and he said, 'What do you want us to do?' I said, 'Well, start right here. Get these cars, get this chief's car, just pick'em up, bring them down the block.' He says, 'Where we put Ôem?' I'm kind of like saying, 'OK,' I said, 'Take them down to I think it's called South End, is the next one down,' I said, 'Take them down as far as you can on South End.' I said, 'Don't go too far, we don't want to waste time, but go to South End, don't dump them in the streets, gotta leave the streets open for access.' I said, 'Throw them on the sidewalks.' He said, 'OK,' went and picked up the first car...of course we're crushing the cars, I mean, but they'd already been somewhat damaged...just picked them up, like toys, and just started bringing cars down the street, um, got them out of the way because they gotta make room, you know, no need to just fuck things up more than they are with this shit...ah, and the Rescue Two, actually tried to move it. Um, I met a guy named Galione (?), who, who, who came in from home, Rescue Two, finally, or not finally, I shouldn't say finally, ah, showed up at that end. He said, 'Lee, what are you going to try to do?' I said, 'Bobby, we gotta get two out of the way,' I said, 'but I don't think we can move it, it doesn't look like it's gonna be drivable.' He says, 'Let me give it a shot.' I said...he got in, it...it started up, but it wasn't gonna move anyplace, you know. So I told the guy...I said, 'Don't waste anymore time, Bob.' Told the guy, hook up, pull it out of here, get it out of here. I think Bob wanted to stay and try to...I said, ppsh, hook it up, get it out. Hooked it up, pulled it...and there were other chiefs that were there, standing there. I don't know, I don't want to, ah, I think I can remember them, but I'm not going to say. Rescue Two was on Liberty between West and South End, I'm pretty sure it's South End. The next street...the next thing would be the Hudson. Uh, they were there, a couple of chiefs' cars were there, Lynn Tierney's car was parked right at the back of the squad, Squad One. Got Two out of the way, got the Squad out of the way, Lynn's, um, told the guy, I said, [cell phone in the background] 'OK, we gotta start penetrating from here in.' Ah, as far as their heavy equipment is concerned, if I...if I remember right there might have been something down on West Street, that came down West Street and to get there you either had a choice of...where we were you could come down the streets by the Hudson and literally drive into, ah, I don't know the name of the...behind the World Finance Center there, is the, ah, marina. You can drive in there, you can drive a truck through there. Um, they, the people that came and brought the equipment that I wanted came from the north through the back of the, ah, World Finance then out onto, uh, South Street and then on Liberty Street that way. Anybody else had to go all the way around on the periphery. I don't know even...I guess Broadway, but they must...I'm trying to picture Broadway, because I wasn't up on Broadway, but it had to have been wall-to-wall cars by now and trucks and ambulances from all over the...the counties that responded here, uh, so it was difficult to get equipment down that end. I...I don't want to say for sure, but I don't remember too much at this point on West Street, to speak of. The equipment that I got coming in was the first equipment that came down and made penetration, ah, a start at that point. Um, later in the day, and what was always amazing, and the...I don't know, we can't publish...put this in...some things you just can't put in...is that, you know, I took charge of it, there were chiefs standing there. I had no helmet on. I just have a turnout coat on, maybe my moccasins, or maybe boots, and I'm giving orders, and I'm telling them to grab this car and to chuck it and take this truck and chuck it, move this thing and chuck it and this is where we're going, and, uh, uh, a few of the chiefs came up to me and said, 'Lee, what do you want to do?' and I said 'Well this is where we're gonna go and work. This is where we are going to go and work.' And they said, 'OK.' So I had it, and as the day went on, more people started penetrating different areas and more people started getting into where I was and what are you look...what are you trying to do? Which way do you want to go? And eventually I could sense that, OK, other people are now taking over, and doing just what...and I said, you know, you got it, because, ok, it's good, it's started, this is where they want to go and we'll penetrate in that way. And I remember going back onto the pile and looking around, and uh, I don't remember what time...I don't have the vaguest idea of what time this was anymore now. Uh, it's getting...oh yeah, we're standing down there and the, uh, Building Seven collapsed so whatever time that was, we were still...I was still down by West, I was concerned about Brendan because he wasn't with me. Building Seven came straight down, just like the other buildings came down, but, but Building Seven was built traditional building, you know, box construction, I-beams cross horizontal-vertical-horizontal-vertical, but it came straight down, which was, like, unbelievable; those people that think about these things and know how buildings are built...it didn't fall to the side, it would have killed I don't know how many people, it's forty-seven stories high. It came straight down. Anyhow, that was late in the day... Yeah, somebody...I mean there was word going around that Building Seven looks like it gon...might come down. Somebody came up, not just to us, but came up to us and everybody in general, and whether there was a bull horn or not I don't know, 'You gotta be careful, Building Seven could come down at any minute.' And we're, we, a few of us that were standing there said, we looked at it, you know, it was like, 'that's...that's not gonna come down, look at it,' I mean it was burning but that doesn't mean it's gonna come down, and I don't think it was ten minutes, fifteen minutes. There was like a 'Crack! Whoosh;' came down, it's gone that quick.