8/14/2019 NY B30 PA Police Reports 2 of 2 Fdr- Giaramita Sgt Frank 318

1/3

Sgt Frank Giaramita M arch 11,200 2REPORT OF MY ACTIONS ON 09/11/01

To: Gutch, Edw ard

From: Giaram ita, Frank

The following is an account of myactionson 0 9 / 11/ O I to the best of my ability:

On the morningof 09 /11 /01 ,1 was in myoffice at the Police Academy Rescue TrainingCenter in building 254 at JFK. I was in theoffice with Sgt.Ken Kohlmann.Sgt. MikeFlorie was at JFK m edical for a scheduled m edical and PO PaulJurgens was on his wayto the PATC for a meeting with Captain KathyMazza and Lt.Robert Cirri. PO JackBarry calledm e from the JFK desk to inform us that an aircraft had just hit the WTC andthat we were to mobilize.After expressingm y disbelief,I called m y wife to tell her I was

on the way to the W TC. Sgt. K ohl m ann and I then began to load the Police A cademy buswith every pieceof S.C.B.A.equ ipmen twe had in theinventory.We were directedtorespond to 269 topick up additional equ ipm entan d manpower before respondingto theWTC.As soon as we pulledthe bus outonto taxi"E", we could visuallysee that not one, butboth towers were burning . At this point w e knew w e were dealing with an intentionalterrorist act. O n the way to 269, we p icked up Sgt. Flo rie at JFK m edical. At 269, wepicked up additional equipm entand five Police Officers (J . Maher, M. Greco, F. Jilling,R. Egbert and J. Haw kins.) W ith Sgt. K oh lm an n at the wheel, we proceeded to the WTCvia the Belt Parkway.Just prior to entering the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel,we observed Tower2 collapse. We

enteredthe tunnel an d were confrontedby a large cloudof thick smokeand dust, whichwas com ing towards us. For a m om ent I thoug ht it was water. The vehicles infront of uswere turning around and driving againsttraffic to escape the tunnel. A num ber of themcrashing intothe tunnel wallsto accomplish this. Our bus w as tolarge to turn aroundsowe began to go inreverse to g et out of thetunnel. At this point I thought thatthe tunnelitself was damaged or had been the target of an additional terrorist act.W e were havingdifficulty getting the bus out of thetunnel in reverse, so I gotoff,of the buswith someofthe others, donneda Scot Pak an d began to assist the m any civilianswho were now usingthe tunnelto escape to Brooklyn on foot. Many people were runningfrom Manhattan toBrooklyn throughthe tunnel.I rem em ber lettingan elderlyman who washavingdifficulty breathing, breathsome fresh air from m y Scot pak while givingm y police hat

to another ladyto shield her face from the dust in order to breath. We decided to unloadmuch of the equipmentoff of the bus so wecould use it totransport someof theolderpeople or people with me dical problems,out of thetunnel. PO Greco was assisting w hatappeared to be a cardiac victim.PO Jillingand I stayed in the tunnel and started makingour way towards Manhattanto ensure thatth e tunnel was completely evacuated, whileth eothers went to unload theciviliansan d re-fuel the bus. We kne w that once they haddropped off the civilians, they wouldcome back throughand pick us up. We came acrossa few m ore people and encouraged them to keep w alking towards the tunnel entrance.

8/14/2019 NY B30 PA Police Reports 2 of 2 Fdr- Giaramita Sgt Frank 318

2/3

The bus nowreturnedand picked us up in thetunneland we proceeded towardsth e TradeCenter. We had picked up a group of FDNY fire fightersto transport them to the scene aswell. When we exited the tunnel ,the streets were covered w ithash and debris,which wecould not drive through.We parked on West street wh ereSgt. Kohlmann,Flone, POMaher and 1geared up and proceeded north on West Street to assist in any waythat wecould. TheFDNY group that came w ithus on the busseparated from us andwentoff ontheir own. PO Greco stayed b ackwith his aided case. The rest of the PO's stayedwith th ebus. We located the Police Aca dem y van (#53032) that PO Ju rgens had used to go to hismeetingfrom our office on West Street. It was on thesouthbound sideof West Street,just south of where tower 2once stood. I guess it was at this po int that Imust haverealized that both towershad collapsed. Tower1 mu st have fallen whi lew e were still inthe tunnel. We foundP,Q Jurgens'eyeglass case and Police hat (plate #1048)in the van.As far as wecould tell, therewas a scot pak missingfrom the back of the vanwhichweassume he had donned in aneffort to effect rescue at thescene. We left the van wh ere itwas and began helping FDNY unitsfight num erou s vehicle fires, w hichafter a whileseemed futile. We left the m and proceed no rth on West Street. T he road was blockedwith debris, so wewalked towardsthe Hudson Rive r sideand huggedthe buildings.Weeventuallycame upon th e Winter Garden, whichw as half intact and half destroyed.Weentered it and IthoughtI heard some mo vem ent unde r some debris.We attempted to findany survivors,but were unsuccessful.We left th e Winter garden, deemingit unsafebecause of the glass roof. We came upona golf cart that we believed the World FinancialCenter security force used.I was able to start the cart and we used it to getaroundthedebris. NYFD asked us to use the cart to stretc h a hosel ine from the Hudson, downVesey street, which w e attempted to do, but thecart kept stalling and weabandoned itsomewhere on Vesey. We located an unoccupied PAPD marked Suburban unit which welater found out was used by POGeorge Howard and KurtRiechel.There was no sign ofan y PAPD in thevicinity so we proceeded to walk north and eventually made our w ay tothe Manhattan Community College Gym, whereall PAPD units were staging. Sgt. Flo rieand I went back ou t to relocate the Academy van that POJurgens had used, hoping hewould be somewhere nearby. We found the van with no sign of Paul and although it wascovered in dust and debris, droveit back to the College.All PAPD units were directed PO ChiefHall to standby in the gym un til we cou ldassessthe situation and see who was m issing. As the day went on, I reme mber looking at mywatch from t ime to t ime an d know ing thatPO Jurgens'wife w ouldbe worried about him .I expressed my concerns toSgt.'s Kohlmann and Florie and they correctly advised methat we could in no way consider callin g her yet, since we had no news onPaul. He couldbe fine some wh ere for all we know . By now , it was approx1600 hours and 1 knew Paulcame hom e about that time. I knew hisfamily was waiting for him to come home. Laterthat evening, approx 1900 hours, I approached Lt. Mike M urph y of JFK abou t callin gPauls home,and hestrongly advisedme against it stating that he could be in a hospitalsomew here. I knew he was righ t, but Ifelt for Paul's wife and three children. I wanted togive them some new s, any new s. I also knew Lt. Mu rphy was correct and did not mak eany call to Paul's hom e. I know it wa s the right thing to not call, but for me, this strugglewas the hardest part of the w hole day.

8/14/2019 NY B30 PA Police Reports 2 of 2 Fdr- Giaramita Sgt Frank 318

3/3

Later, after dark (unknow n time), I wasteamed up withSgt Florie, POK Cottrell and POB. Fitzpatrick.W e went out to attempt to find any surviv ors. There was a reportlater onthat tw o PAPD officers were located alive,but were trappedby debris.We ran to theLiberty street side,across from ladder 10 and teamed up with a large num berof rescuerswho were attempting tofree who were later found out to be Sgt. JohnMcLaughl inandPO Wil l J imeno.W e made our way up thelarge pile of debris, in towards whatwas onceth e concourse area.W e assisted by getting on l ine and handingup whateverequipmentwas requested w hile balancingon the debris.The smoke and debris were verythick dueto the b uildin gs behind usstill bu rnin g out of control an d the dust in the air. W e were alsoconcerned with damaged parts of thefa?ade from the towers co llapsi ng on us.Afterworkingfor a w hile, PO Jimeno wasfinally freed and was passed down to our area. Hewas conscious an d seemed to recognize me although I could not remember havingmethim prior to 9/11/01 .1 havesince talked to Will , and he believes he was reactingtoseeing the firstPAPD Police patchon mine an d Sgt. Flories uniforms.He believes he wasjust happy to see another member ofhis department. I remem ber himrepeatedlystat*A6how thankfulhe was to be freed and Irememb er feeling thankfulfo r finally being abletoassist in getting somebody, anybodyout of this mess aliveafter all of these hours.It wasespecially satisfyin g that he was one of our bro the r Officers.Officer Jim eno was placeddown nearus and wasattended to by medical personneland later mo vedto anotherlocation foradditional medical attention .W e stayed in the area and continuedto assist,but the bu rning in our eyesbecame to mu ch and w e backed out of the area to regroup.Sgt. Flo rieand I ended up in the lobby of a building where NYP DESU unitshad somedrinkingwater. One of the NY PD Officers approached me and handed m e what hereported to be PO Jimen o's service weapon. W e returned to the gym w here I turned theweapon overto Lt.TierneyBy now it was approx 0130hrs on 9/12/01 and w e were directed to secure and return at0700 hrs. W e went back to our office at JFK in thePolice van that PO Jurgenshad used,leavingour academy bus at the WT C to be used ifneeded.It was verydifficult to leavethe WTC scene without Pauland without havingany knowledge of where he was. It waseven worse not havingany informationfor his family. At the t ime of this report, sixteenof our missin g 37 Police personnel have been found. PO Jurgens isstill unaccounted for.