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Rescuers fatigued on `the pile'

Firemen about to end a shift stand outside building 7 of the World Trade Center in New York on Thursday. In a rare display of unity, the US Congress gave the president the authority to use ``all necessary and appropriate force'' to strike back against the terrorists. PHOTO: AFP

The fresh crews of firefighters line up two by two after three hours of sleep, call out their numbers and march back to what is left of the World Trade Center.

As they begin yet another shift of round-the-clock digging for the victims, who include 300 missing firefighters, their hope for a miraculous rescue grows weaker, but the resolve to continue is like iron.

"We've got to keep going. We've got to be American," said one man, who asked not be identified.

"They can get bitter, or they can get better," said Jack Poe, a Southern Baptist minister and a chaplain in the Oklahoma City Police Department, who came to offer counseling to the rescuers.

Poe said he felt a need to be in New York after helping to counsel workers clearing the rubble of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where a 1995 bombing killed 168 people.

A retired New York firefighter sat on the hard concrete of a curb of the West Side Highway, just south of what the public refers to as "ground zero" and the rescue workers call "the pile," and looked grateful for his break.

"You cannot appreciate the devastation and loss until you see it. We find bits and pieces of people. You keep hoping you'll come across a miraculous save. We are hopeful but not expecting much."

Captain Bob Moody of the Montgomery County, Maryland, Fire Department

Some of the dried muck covering his clothing flaked off onto the hot food and cold drink he had been given for dinner. He looked back at the jagged mess 100 yards behind him, but his stare was 10,000 miles away as he chewed his food slowly.

"New York has suffered so much of a loss you cannot imagine. Staying busy is the only way to make it tolerable," said Captain Bob Moody of the Montgomery County, Maryland, Fire Department.

Two hijacked commercial aircraft slammed into the 110-story twin towers during the morning rush hour on Tuesday, apparently killing thousands of people and destroying the complex in the heart of New York's financial district. Officials said 4,972 people were missing. Of 159 bodies recovered, 99 have been identified.

"You cannot appreciate the devastation and loss until you see it. We find bits and pieces of people. You keep hoping you'll come across a miraculous save. We are hopeful but not expecting much," Moody said.

There are bursts of adrenaline when the dogs from the K-9 search units pick up a scent, known as "making a hit."

K-9 unit officer Robert Schnelle, working with his dog, Atlas, said: "At this point, nobody is coming out alive. But we are still in search-and-rescue mode."

Schnelle said that Atlas seemed affected by his failure to find survivors but that his presence helped hearten rescuers. "Atlas is a little diversion. They like to pet the dog. It gives them a smile," he said.

Clean-up crews in the financial district worked as "America the Beautiful" blared from a third-floor window of the New York Federal Reserve building.

Wall Street, still full of remote power-generating systems, expects to be open for business today.

"Americans are from everywhere. We are mutts. But mutts are the smartest dogs, and everyone else is jealous of us," said Matt Horton, a corrections officer from Nassau County on Long Island.
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