"I would have thought there would have been people screaming for help and a lot of things like that but there wasn't," said firefighter/paramedic Scott Hudson, who was among the first to scramble into the wrecked train on the Red Line between Ft. Totten and Takoma Park. "It was eerie and kind of quiet until we got our equipment there and started making our own noise."
"I think people were in such shock, they just weren't talking," said firefighter/paramedic supervisor Nicole Norris who performed triage on survivors.
While the skin of one rail car was pushed up and over the car that was struck, once inside, the rescuers found the remains of the carriage compressed by the collision into a tangle of metal and bodies only 15-feet long.
The first crew to arrive focused moving seats and crushed sections of floor. They uncovered the two most badly trapped victims, a pair of women.
"Once we found them, that is where we stayed for the next 2 and a half hours," said Lt. Tony Carroll. "They weren't talking. They weren't conscious. There was no communication with them."
The women did not survive but the rescuers never stopped trying to get them out.
"We gave them the best shot possible at a better outcome," said Carroll. "It was a once in a career incident, at least you hope. But you can't dwell on it too much. You have to get ready for the next response."
Eighty passengers were injured and 9 died in the worst disaster in Metrorail history.
Republished with permission of WUSA-TV.
