Last Man Down

Last Man Down is the amazing true story told by one of the Fire Officers on how they were called to go up into the north tower of the World Trade Centre and how he led people out of the tower on September 11th when the towers were attacked by two aircraft flown directly into them and the loss of service personnel and others on that tragic day.

I chose to read this book because I lost a nephew in this tragedy and with all the hype of the television I had been unable to gain closure on a young very fit married man with a family who died that day.

This book really gives an insight into the way the rescuers had to go about their professional job of entering an unstable building and how Pitch describes what they saw and what they had to do to save lives where they could. The emotion of hearing on their radios of another officer down and his immediate reaction to protect his team and let them take a couple of seconds to pray for their lost colleagues, but still keep moving up 11 flights of stairs to where they could begin to direct more people down to the ground.

Pitch as he was known by his colleagues had to lead his teams fully kitted up with breathing apparatus and pick axes, large torches and heat seeking equipment up eleven floors via staircases, at the same time as others were making their way down leading people out of
the building. The bravery of these officers, - plodding up floor after floor - stopping to hear if anyone was crying for help; and then plodding on again in the hope of finding just one person still alive further up the building.

When the towers started to collapse ‘Pitch' describes the moment and the noise as that of an avalanche, combined with the devastation of a tornado caught in a wind tunnel, all beneath the crashing wave of a tsunami all at the same time. The descriptions are so vivid that no one
could fail to understand what the emergency services faced that day and thereafter.

He talks of how he questions Why God allows this incidents to happen? Yet he carried on up facing the problems of jammed doors which they could not open because of the rubble built up behind them. Of searching for a chair for a nurse to be carried down to the ground on, but one
could not be found because all the chairs were typical chairs with no arms as secretaries etc sit on.

This book was so well written by this emergency fire officer to help him, come to terms with what he experienced and to rehabilitate himself from the memories of those tragic days and nights.

I was so glad that I had the chance to read Last Man Down not only because it is a factual true record but because it helped me to have closure about the way my nephew had died.

I thank God that there are people like Pitch and his team and others that can go and help in such precarious situations knowing that they have their faith to hold them together through all the trauma. I also feel for those left behind after the tragedy must have felt they were
blessed by the fact that they did have people in place to counsel and support them as did all the people who worked through the experience of 9/11.