ABBY ELLIN
NY Post Online
November 1, 2001 -- Jillian Adler was lugging a case of soda around ground zero when she was approached by a handsome firefighter.
The 25-year-old financial analyst was volunteering with Bouley Bakery, which had set up in an abandoned restaurant to offer food, drinks and massages to the rescue workers.
When the firefighter insisted she let him carry the soda for her, she was taken aback.
"I kept saying no, but he wanted to, so finally, I said OK," said Adler, who has also volunteered with the American Red Cross.
When Adler returned to the Bouley outpost, a line of firefighters was waiting for massages. To her surprise, one asked if he could massage her shoulders.
"I felt guilty, but it was a good massage," she said. "It was hilarious. Here they are, carrying cases of soda for me, and I'm getting a massage when they're supposed to be! It's crazy."
Adler's tale is hardly unique: Ground zero has become the newest place for single New York women to meet men - or, at least, to flirt.
Morbid though it sounds, a ground-zero access pass is the hottest ticket in town, as women in work boots rather than stilettos try to charm their way past the "Do Not Cross" signs.
"It's like club or rock-concert culture - who's got what pass?" said Robert Leonard, former FDNY spokesman and a volunteer fireman in Howard Beach, Queens.
"You hear people saying, ‘I really want to go to ground zero. How do I get in?' "
While most volunteers say they aren't looking to add a notch to their bedposts, the scene has taken on an entertain-the-troops quality.
"Part of our role is like the girls at USO dances during World War II: brightening up the day for men who face a heartbreaking and grim task," said Benita Gold, a Manhattan public-relations executive in her early 40s who volunteered last week with the Red Cross.
"A lot of the men want to flirt and to laugh, and as long as we're sensitive to them and take our lead from them, there's nothing wrong with it."
Of course, the intrigue can progress.
Adler exchanged her numbers with a few male volunteers, and as Gold was handing out supplies - bandages, eyewashes, hand sanitizer - a visiting chaplain from Kentucky asked if she was single.
"He said he'd call next time he was in New York," she said. "I hope he does."
Susan, a 28-year-old volunteer who asked that her last name not be used, has dated a firefighter and a police officer she met on the scene.
"I've gotten asked out so many times," she said, smiling and waving to the guys as they left Nino's, the Canal Street restaurant that has been serving rescue workers full-time.
"I'm not doing this just to meet guys, but it does happen," she says. "You're serving food in a restaurant; they come here to eat, relax. They want, or need, to talk. You want to help."
Like most members-only communities, this one has a fairly strict dress code - and it's more Betty Crocker than Betty Grable.
The Red Cross requires all workers to wear oversized vests emblazoned with its logo.
Food workers wear hairnets and latex gloves, but there are stories of women in tank tops and short skirts showing up to volunteer, or donning bikinis to cheer on workers making their way up the West Side Highway.
One female volunteer wearing a tank top was escorted from the scene because she refused to cover up.
"Some girls come in here and treat it like a dating service; they're so obviously not dressed for mopping the floor," said Susan, in a pair of faded jeans and a tight T-shirt. "You just try to get them to focus on work."
Still, Cindy Leive, editor-in-chief of Glamour magazine, said some of the romance swirling around ground zero is a positive sign.
"For weeks after the attacks, a lot of people didn't even think they could get out of bed in the morning, much less put on lipstick and flirt. So the fact that women and men are getting back to what they do - flirting - is a good thing," she said.
"If you're flirting, it means that you're able to think about something other than these terrible threats we all fear."
But not all firefighters appreciate the attention - some find their sudden pin-up status tiring, along with the constant stream of female visitors.
"It's beginning to wear a little thin," admitted Paul Iannizzotti, a firefighter with the 45th Battalion in Long Island City, Queens, who has been at ground zero since Sept. 11. "We appreciate all the support from everyone, and it's been amazing. But we also have work to do."
Besides, finding love during wartime is precarious.
One police officer called an actress who was volunteering at ground zero - only to find out she had a boyfriend.
"I wasn't surprised that someone as wonderful as she was would have one," he said. "I told her to call me if they ever break up."
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