The 9/11 Firefighter Whose Name You Should Know
It was 10:00 a.m. on September 11, 2001. American Airlines Flight 11 had been flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center (WTC) complex at 8:46 a.m.
The rescue operation had made very little progress, the fire department hampered by malfunctioning radio communications. Once inside the stairwells of the WTC towers, the firefighters could not communicate with each other.
People watching on television had more knowledge of what was happening than the firefighters in the buildings.
But the radio silence would finally be broken.
The man who repaired the radio receiver was 45-year-old Battalion Chief of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY), Orio Palmer.
Palmer was among the first firefighters to arrive at the scene that morning. Well-known in the FDNY for his dedication, humour, and athletic endeavours, documentary footage shows him entering the South Tower, where he single-handedly fixed an elevator and proceeded to take it to the 41st floor — around half-way to where almost 700 people were struggling to survive.
From there, he began to climb 37 flights of stairs with approximately 25kg of bunker gear. A very fit man who had run marathons he made very quick time, ascending 12 floors in just 10 minutes. He eventually reached the South Tower Sky Lobby on the 78th floor, one of the few reported first responders to make it up that far.
There are radio transmission recordings of him, as he climbs.
He can be heard reporting that the B stairwell walls had been compromised as he climbed past floors 73 and 74.
“The walls are breached, so be careful,” he communicated to his team who were following behind him.
When you listen to Orio’s voice on these recordings, it’s clear he is trying to conserve his oxygen and energy; his transmissions are short and concise with little chatter.
During his ascent, Orio discovered that the south stairwell was intact all the way up to the impact zone and beyond. For the hundreds of people trapped there, this stairwell could have been an escape route.
He can be heard confirming this information on a radio transmission: “The south stairway, south tower,” he says.
The 78th floor of the South Tower was the dividing line between the living and the dead. It was a transfer spot in the tower for the elevator system and many people trying to evacuate had gathered there waiting for their chance to descend and exit the building. When United Airlines Flight 175 hit the South Tower that morning at 9:03 a.m., many people were killed instantly or critically injured.
Orio Palmer had raced to this point of impact.
The first to arrive, he communicated that “we’ve got two pockets of fire, we should be able to knock it down with two lines.”
“Radio that,” he continued, “78th floor, numerous 10–45 code 1’s,” which was code for civilian fatalities.
Debbie Palmer, Orio’s wife, recalls listening to the tapes of her husbands final minutes. “When I heard the tapes, we were watching a screen with all of the words on it, but with a digital countdown so you knew exactly what was coming, you knew the exact minute that the towers were going to go down, and you can’t help but feel like you want to jump out of your seat and yell “hurry up and get out of there”, you know, you have one more minute before it comes down. And that’s the hard part,” says Debbie.
When an audiotape of communications between the firefighters on 9/11 was released, it was clear that they didn’t anticipate the building’s collapse. Palmer can be heard on the recording calmly issuing an order to one of his men. You can hear the urgency in the voices of Palmer and his colleagues, but there was never a hint that the clock was running out on them. They had no warning that the tower was about to collapse on top of them.
Seven minutes after Orio’s last words were heard on the radio, the south tower came down.
Almost 1000 civilians and first responders would die in the collapse, including Orio Palmer.
His remains were never identified.
Although he lost his life that morning, Orio Palmer played an indispensable role in ensuring calm in the stairwells, assisting the injured, comforting the dying, and guiding evacuees to lower floors.
His bravery that day surely saved countless lives.
After his death, the FDNY’s physical fitness award was renamed the Orio Palmer Memorial Fitness Award in his memory.
“If history is going to be a tool for the living, if memory is going to be something that we can rely on, then you can’t blink, you can’t turn away. You have to say this is what happened, and this is how it happened,” said Jim Dwyer, New York City journalist, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and lifelong New Yorker.
So, on the 20-year anniversary, don’t turn away. Share the stories of what happened.
Remember the name Orio J. Palmer.
