Page 4 - The Military Reunion Network Sept Oct 2017 Issue

Military Reunion Network | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 | #militaryreunionsmatter
An inspiring story of a day in the life of
“Where were you on September 11th, 2001?”
We all have our own stories about that day. It
would be hard to find a more heart wrenching and
inspirational one than that of Lt Joe Torrillo of the
New York City Fire Department. He was one of only
a few that made it out of the rubble of the World
Trade Center. We were fortunate to have Mr. Torrillo
with us at the 2017 Educational Summit. Attendees
commented he is a presenter they will never forget.
“We need to go back to 1981 to get a sense of how
the day unfolded,” said Joe in a thick Brooklyn
accent. His firefighting career began that year at Ten
House, a station right across from the World Trade
Center. For 15 years he served, until being promoted
to Lieutenant. Prior to his transfer to a new station,
as was the custom when becoming a supervisor,
Joe suffered a serious injury resulting in a move to
a desk job. His new mission was to talk with school
age children about fire prevention. Eight months
later he was put in charge of the Office of Fire
Safety and Education for the city.
For the better part two years, Joe was focused on
the creation of a fire prevention center called the
Fire Zone. It would be a place of “Disney like” quality so we went through the buildings several times.
where children could come and learn. They opened
in October of 2000. (In 2002, his determination
and commitment to education earned the
center a coveted THEA award which recognizes
achievement, talent and personal excellence within
the themed entertainment industry.)
In January of 2001, the toy maker Fisher Price
reached out to Joe asking for his assistance in
creating the fire fighter figure in the Rescue Heroes
Action Figure series. This new hero would join the
police officer, paramedic, air rescue specialist and
construction worker. Their names were very clever.
“Billy Blazes” “Jake Justice”, “Perry Medic”, “Cliff
Hanger”, and “Jack Hammer”, to name a few. The
initial design was developed at their first meeting. By As he lay there, he reflected on his life. “I said to
July of that same year, they had a prototype ready
for mass production. Press conferences go hand
in hand with new product launches. Billy Blazes
was no different. Joe suggested October 2001 at
the Fire Zone. October is Fire Prevention Month in
New York City so it would be a perfect connection.
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Fisher Price wanted to
launch earlier, so Joe
suggested September
11th as 911 is the
emergency number
to call. The press
conference was
set for 9am.
Traveling across the
Brooklyn Bridge on the
morning of September
11, 2001, Joe saw the
smoke plume from the North Tower. Realizing
he had to make a choice, he abandoned the
press conference and traveled instead to Ten
House, his old fire station. “I was in my dress
uniform because of the press conference so I
grabbed a hat, gloves, boots, pants, and jacket
of off duty fire fighter Tommy McNamara and
ran toward the North Tower.”
“I studied engineering in school and had the
opportunity to tour both towers as they were being
built. Some of my professors had connections
I thought everyone else knew what I knew. The
towers were going to come down.” Armed with
this information Joe was insistent that the triage
center medics were setting up in the tower lobby be
immediately moved several blocks away. Watching
the last loaded ambulance drive to safety, Joe heard
the loud slam of the south tower collapsing floor
by floor like a stack of pancakes. The air pressure
lifted his body slamming it into steel and concrete.
Within minutes he lay in darkness with a fractured
skull, broken ribs, snapped left arm, and damaged
shoulder. He was covered in dust but alive. He knew
there were others. He could hear their screams,
followed by cries and then an eerie silence.
myself, Joe, this is the job that you wanted. You
always knew that one day something like this could
happen but you never really thought it would. I
thought about the oath I had taken twenty years
ago. There were 124 of us kids. We raised our right
hand and took the oath vowing to lay down our