September 11, 2001 changed the world. Islamist terrorists hijacked four planes and steered three of them into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York and into the Pentagon in Washington. People from the district tell their story 20 years later. Today in the second part of the 9/11 Tagblatt series, Ilse Brett from Garmisch-Partenkirchen reports how her cousin Dennis Gilroy, as the fire brigade commander, led the operation at the Pentagon.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen / Washington
- Dennis Gilroy sees the plane coming. About 25 feet, 7.6 meters, it races just over their heads. Then the explosion. A huge shock wave. Gilroy passes out for a few seconds. When he opens his eyes, he sees his comrade bleeding next to him, his skin seared. In addition, there are more of his emergency services. Gilroy is in the middle of the chaos. Smoke rises from the Pentagon. Meter-high flames lick the sky. The west wing of the Department of Defense is in ruins. People scream, cry and moan in the midst of burning debris.
Gilroy has been a firefighter for 24 years.
As a commanding officer, he heads Station 161 of the Fort Myer Fire Department in Arlington.
On September 11, 2001, at 9:37 a.m., he and his crew were standing on a meadow at the helipad near the Pentagon, conducting an exercise.
Ironically, they are simulating an aircraft rescue in the event of a fire when the American Airlines plane hijacked by Islamists hits the building.
llse Brett from Garmisch-Partenkirchen is Gilroy's cousin
“He could never forget this mission,” says Ilse Brett, 80 years old, 20 years later.
“Even today he thinks about it every day.” Brett is Gilroy's cousin from Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Her aunt Anni, Gilroy's mother, immigrated from the market town to the United States decades ago.
On September 11, 2001, her son, who was 47 at the time, only had to lead the exercise, he was not on duty.
But that changed suddenly at 9:37 a.m.
By then, Brett had only vaguely known her cousin.
But the attack welded the family together.
Gilroy wanted to come to Garmisch-Partenkirchen last year.
Not possible due to Corona.
In 2006 she visited her cousin in Arlington.
At the grave site for the 184 dead, he told her his story.
+
The fire department - his life: Dennis Gilroy (2nd from left) initiated first aid on 9/11 at the Pentagon.
© Private
Gilroy and his comrades are the first at the destroyed outer wall.
You have to walk.
The explosion damaged the new emergency vehicle.
His team helps the victims from the first floor of the building, even though the firefighters themselves suffered severe burns.
On the meadow in front of the Pentagon, they collect the injured and treat them.
"The only thing we could do at this point," he later told Brett.
"The heat was too enormous, we couldn't get any closer." Extinguishing with water would have been pointless.
"We would have even increased the risk," says the commander.
After all, there were around 16 tons of kerosene from the aircraft in the building at the time of the crime.
+
Visit to the scene: Ilse Brett (left) with her cousin Katie Gilroy in front of the cemetery in Arlington.
© Private
Gilroy and his men are only able to penetrate the damaged area when an aircraft rescue fire brigade is slowly getting a grip on the kerosene fire with chemical foam.
In the corridors, they step over severed limbs and corpses whose heads have been split open by the explosion.
They keep evacuating, saving countless numbers from the flames.
"God bless you," said Richard Keeville, Virginia State Police area commander, later.
The men have received numerous honors.
“My cousin saved so many lives,” says Brett proudly.
But he never really recovered from the pictures.
They burned themselves indelibly into his mind.
Brett noticed this in 2006. But he said to her at the graves: "We won't let us get down."
“The smoke was like a shroud”: Upper Bavarian experienced 9/11 attacks in New York - and remembers