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Article: Two Men, a Single Goal: In different ways, the fire commissioner and head of the Stock Exchange helped New York go forward.(New York Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen; New York Stock Exchange;Dick Grasso; Sept. 11 attacks)
- Article from:
- Newsweek
- Article date:
- September 27, 2001
- Author:
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Byline: Arian Campo-Flores, Susan H. Greenberg and Franco Ordonez
Just as he'd done thousands of times in the past 31 years, New York Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen raced toward the smoke. It was a little before 9 a.m. on Sept. 11, and the North Tower of the World Trade Center was a billowing black cauldron. When he arrived in the lobby of the tower, Von Essen immediately began organizing rescue efforts. Outside, he recalls, glass was shattering and bodies were tumbling from the top floors "with a terrible deafening sound--from the compression, I guess--as they hit the ground." Inside, hundreds of firefighters were charging up the stairs to retrieve people. It ...