Firefighter Suhr, Engine 216: Context, location, and more.
I'm familiar with the other posts on this topic, but I wanted to add a lot, including when and where it happened. This covers sensitive topics, and it's important to remember that the characters aren't abstract. I am an OIF veteran, and certain topics and questions you just don't go prodding witnesses and widows over. We're fortunate that a lot of them do go public, but I would never prod them for more.
I find the incident with Firefighter Suhr to be one of the most compelling on 9/11 for a few reasons:
It's horrific, it involved extreme odds, it saved the lives of the rest of Engine 216, and it produced what I believe to be the most iconic photo on 9/11. I'm also a history buff, and I believe there's some value beyond morbid curiosity in this stuff.
That photo shows Suhr's company (and possibly others) around him, after he was hit by a jumper, while a member of Engine 118 walks by, hose on his back. Ladder 118 was famously photographed crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, sometimes inaccurately described as the last photo of that company. Nobody responding from 118 survives. It's difficult to declare what is really the last photograph of anybody, because there are a lot of photographers on the scene.
Firefighter Suhr, Engine 216, on the ground
The above photograph of Firefighter Suhr after being hit is one of a series of photographs taken by Todd Maisel, a New York Daily News photographer.
Maisel's website is here, but he does not have all the photos published there. Among other photos on his site, he has a photo of Christopher Amoroso helping a lady; he's one of the Port Authority police depicted in Oliver Stone's World Trade Center (2006). He has also done interviews where he says he personally witnessed Suhr being struck. He starts speaking about it around 7:00 in this video.
He's taking these photos from the corner of Cedar Street. You can see the edge of the sidewalk near Firefighter Suhr's head. He is near the area circled with the photographer facing North East. Keep in mind that the present-day reflecting pools have a slightly smaller footprint than the towers.
The location of the above photo
This location is not where he was hit. I'll go into that later.
Context of the incident
Engine 216 was an Engine company from Brooklyn, and Daniel Suhr was a 16-year veteran of the FDNY. It's important to know WTC 2 was hit second, so that after WTC 1 was hit, a lot of the closest FDNY units responded to WTC 1, while many distant ones arriving later responded to WTC 2. Because WTC 2 collapsed first, this meant that whether you lived or died heavily depended on which tower you responded to. Some of the closest fire companies had no fatalities, and some from the outer boroughs of NYC were wiped out.
Engine 216 was responding to WTC 2 and was headed directly to WTC 2 when Suhr was struck. Because of this happening, they survived. Nobody ultimately survived the collapse of WTC 2, except for some at the Marriott Hotel adjacent to it. It's safe to deduce that this incident saved the other firefighters' lives.
Jumpers are people forced out of the building due to the heat, or those who fell. Contrary to the way some people frame this, the person jumping doesn't have much of a choice, just like we would instinctively remove our hands from a hot stove we touched. The vast majority of jumpers came from WTC 1. They would often come out in groups as fire reached their floor. There's a list of times researched, and where they fell from WTC 1, and there's plenty of material out there on that. Far fewer came from WTC 2, I believe NIST has info on this but I couldn't find it other than references here on Reddit.
The scarecety makes FF Suhr's intersection with a jumper all the more of a fluke.
The witness accounts:
In addition to photographer Todd Maisel (7 minute mark).
One of the most prominent accounts of FF Suhr getting hit is by FF Sanseviro from Engine 216. In the fuller documentary, he describes arriving at the scene around 10:00 into it. He describes the jumper as hitting a Volkswagen.
Captain Conlon of Engine 216 was also interviewed; transcripts here. He also wrote a book, which confirmed to me the exact location FF Suhr was hit. To my knowledge, he hasn't done many public interviews, he doesn't even mention what FF Suhr is hit by in this short one.
Todd Maisel's Photos of the incident.
I'm not entirely sure where I got a few of these. All the but last photo was probably taken within 10-30 seconds. I'll put them in order of when they were taken. I believe the first one taken is in black and white because it likely shows human remains somewhere within it, possibly the background, but I'm not entirely sure. I do not believe any show the remains of the specific jumper that hit FF Suhr.
They've moved him across the street, the black van is where the prior photo was taken.
They've now set him down near the curb on the opposite side of Cedar St
One of the EMTs who treated FF Suhr was interviewed. He speaks briefly of getting him and the injuries. He may describe the vehicle that was hit by the person depending on how you interpret his words. He also mentions photographer Maisel, and assumes he didn't survive.
Engine 216's route of travel, and the location FF Suhr is hit.
They were filmed arriving on the scene at about 1:35 in this clip, which is from "9/11: The Firefighters Story" (full doc here).
Once on the scene they get orders at the command post. Captain Conlon describes it vividly between his book, and his WTC Task force interview.
>Captain Conlon:
"So we walk up we find Chief Barbara although they said West and Liberty, he wasn't north of the South Pedestrian Bridge he was South of that Bridge so he was somewhere along West Street between Albany and Liberty when we reported to him...."
>
"....I put my cylinder down and start opening up my coat, and the chief said, "Oh, nope, you're going to go into the lobby command post now." I said, "All right." So I buttoned my coat. I picked up my cylinder. The other guys never put their stuff down. We said, "Okay, let's go."
>He pointed to the lobby command post. Again, you could see the entrance. You can point to the lobby command post. He pointed to the entrance of Two World Trade Center. From where he was standing, you could see it. It was probably 200 yards or something.
You can see their starting point here, taken from this documentary near the command post Engine 216 started from.
He continues:
>
>I look at it. There's burning debris everywhere. There was an engine company north of us, north of that pedestrian bridge, putting something out, putting out a car fire or a large thing of rubbish or something. There was burning debris on the ground. There were people jumping.
>So we look at the scene, and Dan Suhr said something like, "Let's make this quick." I was thinking the same thing. I said to the guys, "Let's go." We start waking. We walked in a diagonal line straight from the command post to the entrance of Two World Trade Center.
>We're walking. 216, we're kind of leading the way. Not so much leading the way, but we just happened to be walking first. The other guys were still putting their gear on, I guess. 205 and 217 were right with us, though, somewhere a little behind us, though. There were no companies in front of me as I walked.
>We got about halfway there and Dan Suhr gets hit with a jumper. He was right to my right and behind me. It was as if he exploded. It wasn't like you heard something falling and you could jump out of the way. He gets hit.
>The guys are like, "Oh, fuck." They drop their rollups. I drop the cylinder. Me and another guy look at each other, and at the same time we both said, "Let's get him underneath the scaffolding." There was scaffolding across the way on the north side of 90 West Street at that time. There was scaffolding up.
>So we go to pick him up. He's a big guy. Other firemen stopped to help us pick him up. I didn't know who at the time. I've heard who since. I think all of 205 Engine stopped to help us pick him up, and I think two members of 216 stopped to help us."
From this, we can tell FF Suhr was hit by a jumper between the command post on West Street and the lobby of WTC 2, which they never made it to. They also mention taking him to the scaffolding for cover. The scaffolding, I'll discuss later, is near where they carried FF Suhr in the photographs. I know there was speculation in another thread about where he was hit, and it revolves around a red Volkswagen. The real location is on the opposite side of the Orthodox church. I don't know if the vehicle was red or not.
Conlon's book ( Daniel Suhr: A Story of September 11th Daniel Suhr: A Story of September 11th ) is worth buying for anyone really interested in this incident. He lays it out vividly in his chapter, "No greater love." It's only a few dollars as an eBook. Since his account is several pages long, I don't want to quote the whole thing and go beyond fair use.
>"We walked diagonally towards the entrance, through a grassy area in front of One Financial Center and across the south-bound lanes on West Street."
>"We headed east on Cedar Street, looking up to make sure nothing was coming down, then looking forward to avoid tripping on anything in the street: plane parts; building parts; burning material. Smoke filled the air and sirens wailed; it was dim and dark. The streets were deserted except for firefighters and cops and EMTs. The term surreal might come to mind--surreal and dangerous."
>"We were moving in a sort of of a line, spread out, but moving together, looking forward and looking up. We began winding our way through cars. It occurred to me that it was a parking lot, but it was nearly empty. The parking lot was in front of St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church on Cedar Street,..."
This more or less pinpoints the location he's hit. More on this later.
>"Then there was a loud bang, like an explosion. And Daniel went down."
>"Danny's helmet lay nearby. "I heard a whistling sound, and something falling toward us. And then I saw Danny fall," Chris remembers. John recalls a wheel or a tire rolling rapidly away from us and Tony remembers the jumper striking a car. I heard the impact, was walking next to Danny when it happened, but knew that Tony, Chris, and John had seen it, and knew it was heartbreaking to witness."
He then goes on to speak about the aftermath, moving him towards the scaffolding. He estimates that they were fifty yards from the scaffolding or if it factors in having to move diagonal to get there.
Here's my estimation of the route they traveled. After he's hit, they head to the location where the photographs are taken and then along the scaffolding across Cedar Street out to West.
The scene:
The area is extensively photographed immediately after WTC 1 is hit. So much debris is present even before WTC 2 is hit. Fires begin, which will grow later into cars fully engulfed. People are not afraid to stand near the building because they aren't yet spewing glass and debris like WTC 1.
Taken on Liberty Street about a block from the parking lot by Joe Cullity
A photographer's website has some photos of the scene, including the beginning of the car fires in his 8:46 album.
The parking lot FF Suhr is hit in is the opposite side of the Greek Orthodox Church, which is the little white building on the lower right of this photo. Note that the distance from WTC2 to the location FF Suhr was hit is very far, 75 yards or more.
This is a Bolivar Arreyano photo from a website that no longer exists, so I couldn't find a better copy.
This video is from inside WTC 2, maybe even before WTC 2 itself was hit, it shows the parking lot and the fires beginning. You can see Liberty Street, the Orthodox Church, and the fires.
In this video, probably taken from near the narrow pedestrian bridge near WTC shows the parking lot as well starting at 7:30
A Still from the above video showing the parking lot.
The location where it happened, taken from under the scaffolding on Cedar Street. This is the best photo I can find of the lot, and might even be taken by Maisel himself.
The above photos are the best I can find of the spot. You can see the parking lot is mostly empty. You can see the frame of the scaffolding, and even a truck parked with more material for scaffolding. I cannot tell if any of those vehicles is a Volkswagen. I do see a Mercedes-Benz hood ornament on the black vehicle at center-right. Because Captain Conlon says Danny was "to his right," I believe it precludes the vehicles on the left of the image. It's possible FF Sanseviro mistook the Mercedez-Benz hood ornament for a VW one.
Now, some photographs of Cedar Street right nearby, stepping towards the parking lot from this perspective. You can see the same flat bed vehicle. Notice the vehicles are parked tightly, blocking access to the scaffolding. Moving FF Suhr's body straight under the scaffolding is not an option; they had to go to the corner on the far end and go around the parked vehicles.
The scaffolding sidewalk is blocked with bumper-to-bumper vehicles.
Here's a photograph of the sidewalk where they will later move FF Suhr.
The corner they will move FF Suhr to first
This photo is from around the corner. You can see the large orange and blue truck, the corner (left), and the black van facing perpendicular at left. It has Orange on the side and blue on its rear.
The person who impacted FF Suhr
Generally, I think it would be impossible to identify who hit him except for some chance information. Obviously, the incident is not this person's fault. I'm also not the first person to suggest who it is.
The falling person traveled a long distance. The wind was traveling in that direction, but it's still a remarkable distance. It's probably around 50-75 yards. The distance from WTC 2 to the scaffolding on Cedar Street is about 100 yards. This happened around 9:30am.
The reason I believe this person's identity is known is pretty simple. FF Suhr, and possibly other firefighters, had DNA on them from the person. There's blood visible in the photographs. There is a real possibility that DNA was collected for the purpose of bringing closure to one family.
I believe the person who landed on FF Suhr is the wife of a person interviewed in the documentary, "Falling Man." I know in prior discussions, this person was supposedly on the phone at 9:38am, however I find no evidence of this. The time stamps related to 9:38 are from one Guardian article and are abstract, regarding the conversation.
BTW, I intentionally avoid using most people's full names in this post, I doubt anyone wants to Google a victim's name and go down the deepest rabbit hole.
I have a lot of problems with "Falling Man," I think it's relatively poorly done documentary in its methods. I think some of the people they interview are not framing it well or are mistaken with a child-like emphasis on 'choosing' to jump. However, a widower interviewed about the loss of his wife speaks with confidence about where she is found. He speaks starting at 10:25 and says:
>I know that Elaine was found on the street in front of the building across from her's.
That is across from WTC 2, and it's oddly specific because the entire building is going to fall and end up in the street and everywhere else. How does he know she fell if it was merely a matter of where she was recovered?
To understand why this is significant, we need to understand the situation. Nobody is IDing or even removing the bodies of these people at the time. They are severely disfigured and dismembered, as photos and video show.
The combination of the fall and the building collapse is severe.
The Orthodox church is obliterated, the cars are utterly crushed. Not only will they crush the surrounding area completely, thick dust is going to coat everything, including organic matter which wouldn't be easy to ID to begin with. There are accounts after WTC 2 falls of people running out of WTC 1 and stepping on human remains, only knowing because of how it felt beneath the dust. Footage just after WTC 2 collapses shows how chaotic it is near WTC 1, before it collapses. The entire scene is shrouded in dust. You can no longer ID human remains in the frame outside WTC 1, even though they are all over the place directly in front of the structure.
I think "Falling Man" has a lot of issues, I also don't entirely believe the story of the family IDing the man from the photograph near the end, or the story of IDing his body around an hour and five minutes in. These bodies had to be obliterated. If they were intact, it implies more that they did not fall. If the widower's testimony in "Falling Man" is reliable, I think it very strongly points to this being the person.
I suspect, without proof, but by reasoning that Elaine's DNA was found on FF Suhr's gear. This extraordinarily unlikely intersection between two people at about 9:30 am saved the lives of nearly a dozen others by removing them from the scene.