25 years after 9/11, Utah firefighters who responded remember the call

SALT LAKE CITY — Twenty-five years can make a young firefighter not so young. Hair gets a little lighter. Ranks change. A few more aches and pains show up.

Eventually, the young firefighters become the captains and chiefs working alongside people who weren't even born when the story they're telling happened.

For six Utah firefighters, however, Sept. 11, 2001, isn't simply history.

It's something they experienced.

"I think every year we sort of reflect on this time of year," said Bob Silverthorne, now a division chief with the Salt Lake City Fire Department. "It's kind of a sacred moment for us to sort of look back on the impact that day had on all of us."

Silverthorne is one of the Utah firefighters who responded to Ground Zero as members of Utah Task Force 1 following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The others are Salt Lake City Fire Capt. Matt Taylor and Unified Fire Authority Assistant Chiefs Zach Robinson and Wade Russell, along with Captains Keith Bevan and Steve Schaugaard.

A quarter-century later, all six are still firefighters.

"We have people on the job that weren't even alive back then," said Russell with a laugh. "So, for me, it doesn't seem like it's been that long, but it obviously has been, and it's a pretty big moment."

Where they were

Taylor was working that Tuesday morning. Then a regular, everyday call would come in for help. Taylor and the other firefighters would leave the television, respond to a medical call or traffic accident, then return to the station and the images coming from New York.

"It felt really surreal," he said.

Robinson was just coming off duty when he heard the first report on the radio. He went inside the office and turned on the television.

Bevan was at the airport with his two children, planning a day trip to Santa Barbara.

"I was a single parent with two little kids bundled up at the airport," he said. "I was at the airport when the second flight hit."

Schaugaard had been a firefighter for only four years. He remembers watching firefighters enter the World Trade Center before the towers came down.

"I was thinking, 'Oh, that would be a cool fire, having that experience" Schaugaard recalled.

Then the building collapsed.

"Yeah. Knowing that there were firemen in there kind of sent me back thinking about that's my job now," he said.

Soon, they were notified to start preparing for deployment. Schaugaard remembers the realization.

"Holy cow," he said. "We're really going."

Utah Task Force 1 is one of the federal urban search and rescue teams trained to respond to major disasters. This disaster was different. The attacks had happened on American soil where airplanes were used as weapons.

"We watched 343 firefighters, who (are) us, you know, it's us," said Bevan. "So, these 343 died. So that was even more important for us to go."

Seeing Ground Zero

With U.S. airspace shut down, getting to New York involved flying in a military aircraft from Hill Air Force Base. Silverthorne remembers both having a sense of responsibility.

"There's a healthy fear, but there's also respect for the privilege to be able to go and make an effect, for the people in New York and for the country and to be a small piece of that is important," he said.

Then they saw Ground Zero.

"Me going around the pile, it's like, I don't know if y'all recognize, but this scene is massive," said Silverthorne. "In my mind I'm thinking, they really need our help."

Even at Ground Zero, being a firefighter did not automatically make the Utah crew part of the New York firefighting family. Silverthorne said they understood they were entering FDNY's city wearing the uniform of a federal task force.

"We had to build relationships," he said. "We had to respect that this is in New York and FDNY. We had to earn their respect."

To make clear that they were firefighters back home, members of the Utah team began putting Maltese cross stickers on their helmets.

"No, this is our day job, we're firefighters," Silverthorne recalled.

Then they went to work.

"It didn't matter what the job was," he said. "We did what was ever asked of us, that we would do it and we would do it well and very thoroughly."

Over time, Silverthorne said, they earned trust and were given more responsibility. The team spent 10 days at Ground Zero. For all the devastation surrounding them, the firefighters also remember something else about those days: people and a feeling of unity.

Russell remembers riding a bus to and from Ground Zero.

Watch KSL TV's newscasts when the 9/11 attack occurred:

"Every street corner you stopped at, there would be people, hundreds if not thousands of people that would just cheer," he said. "Every time you'd stop, they'd cheer for you, they'd be waving at you."

The support was everywhere. Taylor also remembers discovering something about New Yorkers that made him laugh.

"Everybody in New York is so much nicer than I've ever heard," he joked.

9/11's remnants

Eventually, the Utah firefighters came home.

The extraordinary calls gave way again to ordinary ones. For Robinson, that contrast became part of why he loved the job.

"Having the opportunity to respond to Ground Zero was something that I'll always be grateful for," he said. "But then coming back home and having the opportunity to respond to grandma's house to help her back up at 3 in the morning, every time we went out the door, you got a smile on your face because we get to go take care of people and do our job that we love."

Taylor sees it the same way.

Watch KSL TV's newscasts when the 9/11 attack occurred:

"When somebody calls, it's because they don't know where to turn and we're there for them to turn to, to make their day maybe a little bit better," he said.

Twenty-five years later, all six are still doing it. However, some of the effects of Ground Zero didn't end when the deployment did.

"I ended up contracting an occupational cancer because of 911," said Silverthorne.

He recovered. But knowing what he knows now, Silverthorne said he would still make the same decision.

Silverthorne said others who deployed to Ground Zero have died in the years since. He describes his approach to his health now as "playing defense." It involves staying alert for anything that might be wrong and encouraging others to do the same.

The lessons of the past 25 years haven't been limited to physical health. Russell said the fire service's approach to mental health today is dramatically different from the culture he entered.

"We all kind of giggle because we hired on in an era of just, you kind of suck it up and kind of deal with it is what we do," he said.

Today, firefighters have access to clinicians, employee assistance programs, and peer support teams.

"The mental health piece has killed just as many people as a cancer has," Russell said.

Schaugaard still remembers what went through his mind as he watched New York firefighters run into the World Trade Center.

"That's what I signed up to do," he recalled thinking. "I would have been in on that group going in, you know, and running after people I don't even know. But what an honorable way to go, if that's what happens."

That sense of duty is part of what bound the Utah firefighters together and still does to this day.

Some barely knew one another when the deployment began. That didn't last long.

"Suddenly these people from a whole different agency were my brothers, and they have been ever since. Not to get gushy, but we love one another now," said Taylor.

Russell said the group has deployed together multiple times in the years since.

"We share something special," he said. "You remember the guys that you went with. You remember the stuff that you did."

Some of the firefighters have returned to Ground Zero.

Bevan has attended anniversary commemorations and visited FDNY's rebuilt Station 10 near the World Trade Center site.

He described standing there with New York firefighters as "a phenomenal time to reflect and to actually be with people there you were there to help."

But 25 years later, the six firefighters say remembering Sept. 11 isn't only about looking backward.

Russell remembers how united the country felt after the attacks and hopes Americans can find some of that feeling again.

"I hope that maybe just for one day or for part of a day, maybe we can be united again, or just remember what it felt like back then to be united," he said.

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