Rescuers: Our Modern-Day Heroes
Rescuers: Our Modern-Day Heroes
Sept. 26, 2001 -- They're the people at a spot dubbed "Ground Hero" -- the firemen, the police, the hundreds of support people trying to cart away the wreckage and retrieve the bodies left after a national tragedy.
There's obvious physical risk, if the wreckage collapses even more. But there's also the emotional toll that trauma and exhaustion takes. How are these modern-day heroes faring?
It's the end of his 12-hour shift, and Les Dixon -- an ER physician from Utah -- says he's "41 going on 60 this morning." He's part of the 62-member, four-dog Utah Task Force, one of many that have migrated to New York City and the nation's capital.
"I've been up all night, happily," Dixon tells WebMD.
"You and I both know there are many, many people who wish there was something they could do to help here," he says. "We're just lucky enough that we can. We've contributed a little sweat and more than a few tears."For excerpts from the interview with Les Dixon, click on Words From Ground Zero in related links.
Dixon staffs a field hospital on-site, to handle rescue workers' blisters, scrapes, puncture wounds, headaches, acid indigestion -- "the minor stuff," he says.
He spoke with WebMD from the rescue command center, some two miles from Ground Zero, the less-patriotic name for the same tragic spot. When the interview is over, he will head upstairs where cots have been lined up military style. It's not particularly quiet, certainly not plush. But rescue workers don't have much trouble sleeping, Dixon says. "It's exhausting work."
"The devastation is impossible to appreciate, unimaginable," he tells WebMD.
"It's the biggest pieces of steel you've ever seen, just like spaghetti noodles, all twisted and torn. ... The metal veneer, the aluminum veneer -- it's like knife blades. They have to be real careful about that stuff ... wear good, thick boots, long-sleeved clothes, knee and elbow pads."
Very few human remains are in this wreckage. Much was incinerated. "I didn't appreciate how much fire there was here that day," Dixon says. "Ever since we got here, we haven't seen open flames, but it continues to smoke. Even though it rained two or three different days, it just continues to smoke."
Rescuers: Our Modern-Day Heroes
Sept. 26, 2001 -- They're the people at a spot dubbed "Ground Hero" -- the firemen, the police, the hundreds of support people trying to cart away the wreckage and retrieve the bodies left after a national tragedy.
There's obvious physical risk, if the wreckage collapses even more. But there's also the emotional toll that trauma and exhaustion takes. How are these modern-day heroes faring?
It's the end of his 12-hour shift, and Les Dixon -- an ER physician from Utah -- says he's "41 going on 60 this morning." He's part of the 62-member, four-dog Utah Task Force, one of many that have migrated to New York City and the nation's capital.
"I've been up all night, happily," Dixon tells WebMD.
"You and I both know there are many, many people who wish there was something they could do to help here," he says. "We're just lucky enough that we can. We've contributed a little sweat and more than a few tears."For excerpts from the interview with Les Dixon, click on Words From Ground Zero in related links.
View From the New York Command Center
Dixon staffs a field hospital on-site, to handle rescue workers' blisters, scrapes, puncture wounds, headaches, acid indigestion -- "the minor stuff," he says.
He spoke with WebMD from the rescue command center, some two miles from Ground Zero, the less-patriotic name for the same tragic spot. When the interview is over, he will head upstairs where cots have been lined up military style. It's not particularly quiet, certainly not plush. But rescue workers don't have much trouble sleeping, Dixon says. "It's exhausting work."
"The devastation is impossible to appreciate, unimaginable," he tells WebMD.
"It's the biggest pieces of steel you've ever seen, just like spaghetti noodles, all twisted and torn. ... The metal veneer, the aluminum veneer -- it's like knife blades. They have to be real careful about that stuff ... wear good, thick boots, long-sleeved clothes, knee and elbow pads."
Very few human remains are in this wreckage. Much was incinerated. "I didn't appreciate how much fire there was here that day," Dixon says. "Ever since we got here, we haven't seen open flames, but it continues to smoke. Even though it rained two or three different days, it just continues to smoke."
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