Chief Richard Picciotto is the highest ranking firefighter to survive the World Trade Center collapse.
On September 11, 2001, FDNY Battalion Chief Richard “Pitch” Picciotto answered the call heard around the world. In minutes, he was at Ground Zero of the worst terrorist attack on American soil, as the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center began to burn–and then to buckle.
Trapped in Stairwell B when the North Tower collapsed, Chief Picciotto and the 10 others with him were among the total of 14 who survived the collapse.
A veteran of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, Picciotto was eerily familiar with the inside of the North Tower – and it was there that he concentrated his rescue efforts. It was in its smoky stairwells where he heard and felt the South Tower collapse. He made the call for firemen and rescue workers to evacuate, while he stayed behind with a skeleton team of men to help evacuate a group of disabled and infirm civilians. And it was in the rubble of the North Tower where Picciotto found himself buried – for more than four hours after the building’s collapse.
He and another first responder, A Mick A Mook and a Mic’s own Billy O’Connor, will talk about that horrible day and the days to follow on this 9/8 podcast that you won’t want to miss.
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