Knight Alfredo Fuentes remembers his 9/11 ordeal

by Columbia Staff

Ten years ago, New York Fire Department Capt. Alfredo Fuentes was in his Brooklyn office overlooking New York Harbor when news came that one of the World Trade Center Towers was ablaze, struck by a commercial airplane. As acting battalion chief for the department’s Marine Division, he mobilized three fireboats, with his own in the lead, and grabbed a walkie-talkie, which would soon prove to be his only lifeline.

With his boat speeding toward Manhattan’s West Side, Fuentes saw flames shooting high from the North Tower and knew that many lives had likely already been lost. He thought to himself, “We’re not going to be able to put this fire out.”

Fuentes returned to Ground Zero recently to record his memories for a forthcoming documentary that is being co-produced by the Knights of Columbus and Quiet Consensus LLC, and starring actor Matthew Marsden. Fuentes agreed to return to the World Trade Center site only because of his dedication to the Knights as a member of George W. Hudson Council 3701 in Woodside, N.Y. These are his remembrances recorded near the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

As Fuentes’ boat approached the Twins Towers, he saw another low-flying aircraft. “I figured [the pilot] was getting a close look at the burning North Tower. But then he turned and headed back from the south, and I heard the engines roaring even more as he increased speed. … All of a sudden he banked his wings and crashed into the South Tower.

“I grabbed my aide, and this was the first time it sank in. I screamed, ’We’re under attack here.’ … We’d faced some disasters in our lives but we never faced anything like this.”

Fuentes gave the command that only he and his aide would go ashore. They found wounded people racing from ground zero and bodies falling from the towers. He connected with fellow firefighters and began to make plans for search and rescue, but soon the South Tower began to tilt.

“Everybody started running,” he said. “There was this covered driveway where I ran, and I knew I didn’t have much time, so I put my hands on my head and started saying a Hail Mary. I remember thinking, ’I can’t believe I’m going to die here.’ Saying the Hail Mary, I didn’t feel alone for that moment of time. The noise got so loud it was unbelievable. After a while it was all quiet. But I couldn’t breathe; there was smoke and soot everywhere.”

As he climbed through the debris, Fuentes felt like he was in “a combat zone.”

“I couldn’t believe my eyes. There were mounds of debris 20 feet high, and suddenly I was hardwired to rescue people. We had to do something. We had to get people out of there,” he recalled.

“Then, I heard a noise and looked up and the North Tower started coming down. I knew I couldn’t get out. So I knelt down, put my hands on my head and said the Hail Mary one more time. And that was it — silence.”

Fuentes was eventually found because his radio continued transmitting after the tower’s collapse: “Two hours after the tower fell, someone heard radio static and looked down a hole and said, ’Who’s there?’ I said, ’It’s me.’”

Weeks after being placed into a drug-induced coma, Fuentes began to regain consciousness. “I started opening my eyes, and I looked and saw my wife there on a cot,” he said. “She’s everything to me. I’m alive because of her. She was my rock. Our family was always close; we became even closer through this. Character is developed during times of challenge.”

One decade later, Fuentes continues to deal with the aftermath of Sept. 11. “I saw great courage that day,” he said, “and we lost many good men. My mission is that they not be forgotten, and also to prepare our first responders to deal with this … if this ever happens again.”