"The story here," McDonald emphasized over and over, "is the people"

Steve Spak/FDNYphoto.com These photos were taken in the moments after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers by Steve Spak.

It was not until late in the evening of September 11 that McDonald was able to get eight to 10 tow trucks and drivers into the area to start moving equipment out. The truck facility in Long Island City, Queens, about 30 minutes from the WTC, became the staging area. There, all the repairable vehicles were hosed down and decontaminated, then stripped down. The 100 personnel in that shop went on 12-hour shifts, 24 hours a day. Personnel also worked on sedans, Suburbans and EMS vehicles at another facility in Maspeth, Queens.

"It became a truck triage center," McDonald said.

Many were not saved. "Some were crushed, destroyed beyond repair and taken to the landfill," McDonald said.

They replaced windshields and glass, cleaned pumps and motors and did minor body repair. Nozzles, fittings and hand tools went into a pile and were cleaned and decontaminated

"The men and women of Fleet Services rose to the occasion," McDonald said. "People refused to leave, just continued to work."

McDonald said 20 to30 people came out of retirement to add their help and expertise to the effort. One man came up from his Florida retirement home. "Without this dedication we would not have been able to rebound as we did," McDonald said. "We had 70-year-old guys out in the street repacking hose at midnight."

Courtesy Bryans Road VFD Bryans Road, MD firefighters, took these photos depicting the devastation in the aftermath of the WTC collapse.

In the next four days they worked on nearly 80 pieces of apparatus. As trucks were readied, they were rolled to the tool department and fitted out. By Saturday after the Monday morning attack, every company that suffered an equipment or apparatus loss was completely back in service.

FDNY maintains 22 pumpers in reserve. Another 20 were available for redeployment. Seagrave was in the process of filling an order of 25 rear-mounts, six had been delivered.

FDNY maintains 12 spare SCBA masks at each battalion headquarters. About 200 more were being serviced in the shop.

McDonald said the city keeps about a $6 million inventory of spare parts on hand. Most of the hose on apparatus at the scene was thrown away. "We were criticized that we had enough hose for a hundred years," he said. It is all on the trucks now.

Manufacturers early on sent five trailers of hose each containing 20 pallets of 3 ½, 2 ½, and 1 ¾ inch. They have ordered and received 500 sets of SCBA, which have been tested and distributed.

Steve Spak/FDNYphoto.com These photos were taken in the moments after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers by Steve Spak.

Contrary to some stories, manufacturers did not divert trucks being built for other departments, to FDNY. "The type of apparatus we use fits the bill and fits it well," McDonald said. "We could not take it off the shelf or that of other department’s specs. It is a matter of training issues and our specific needs."

McDonald praised all the manufactures for stepping forth and offering any assistance they could. "They were willing to do whatever we needed." He mentioned that a GMC plant in Flint, Michigan closed their line down early one day. The United AutoWorkers built two pickups on their own time, then had them driven to the city.

Today, FDNY has in reserve 15 pumpers, nine rear-mount and eight tower ladder trucks. "Soon, we will be as good as or better then before (the incident), " McDonald said.

McDonald felt that FDNY was ready for and handled the situation well. "We keep our apparatus in very good condition. Our spares are in as good condition as our front line stuff," he said. FDNY has a ten-year equipment replacement cycle.

They will probably create a reserve fleet of ladder trucks McDonald said. Otherwise he was satisfied with how his group was able to handle this tragedy.

"Remember, this is a story about people. All of my friends that I lost. And all of them who put it back together. It was great. We would never have done it without them," McDonald said.

Related:

• Firehouse.com's Full Coverage of Terrorist Attacks

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