NEW YORK - "The second I am there, I can see myself standing in the spot where I went into the first pile of debris, and the first time we found a body."
That's what Beaverdale Assistant Fire Chief Kevin Mains saw when he visited Memorial Plaza at the site of the former North and South Towers of the World Trade Center.
Nearly 10 years after leading a search and rescue team of six firefighters through the debris of the twin towers, the former Marine still finds it hard to watch documentaries of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
"It smelled like concrete," Mains vividly remembers. "My lungs are still taking a beating. I lost lung capacity."
The physical damage from the lack of clean respirators and filters for emergency responders who responded to Ground Zero added to the emotional scars left from the worst terrorist attack on American soil.
"...thought it was a movie."
Mains was sleeping at home when the sound of his pager woke him. The pager alert indicated the county was operating under emergency conditions because of the attack; it was sent to all Northumberland County firefighters.
Mains turned on his television and saw images of the twin towers on fire.
"Honestly, the first time I saw it, I thought it was movie," Mains said. "I flipped though the channels, but it was on every one."
Minutes later, Mains met with fellow concerned firefighters who gathered at the Beaverdale and West End fire companies. Stunned, he watched as both towers collapsed.
Mains immediately made contact with friends employed by the New York Police Department and asked how he could assist. He and Beaverdale firefighter Mike Wolfgang were instructed to put their names on a list of firefighters willing to help.
"They were really looking for people after the towers came down," Mains said. "Once county conditions returned to normal, we grabbed our turnout gear and went to New York."
Team Mount Carmel
Speeding toward New York the next day, Mains prepared himself mentally for the devastation. Reports indicated thousands of civilians and hundreds of emergency responders were missing in a massive pile of twisted and smoking debris called "the pile." Although he is a former Marine who hasbeen trained in mass causalities and search and rescue techniques, he knew this situation would be completely different. The smoke began to fill the horizon as they approached the city.
"It really hit you when you went across the George Washington Bridge," he said. "The skyline was gone. There was nothing."
Mains and Wolfgang followed a police department escort to a check-in point at Chelsea Pier. There, they paired with four firefighters from East Stroudsburg and Rock Island, N.Y., and formed Team Mount Carmel. Mains was named captain due to his vast experience in search and rescue.
The team was transported to a command post near the World Trade Center. They entered Ground Zero from The Mall at the World Trade Center, which before the collapse served as a 427,000-square-foot underground mall underneath the concourse of the World Trade Center.
"Once we came out the other side of the mall, I saw a single ambulance buried in the rubble," Mains recalled. "We were then met by a pile of three or four cars stacked on each other."
Desperately looking for survivors, the team moved and crawled under smoking and sharp debris for 12 to 16 hours. September 13 and 14 lasted just as long despite the possibility that debris and neighboring buildings could collapse or explode.
"We worked until we couldn't work any more," he said. "It was like nothing I have ever seen before. I didn't know the full scope of it."
After three days of searching, federal search and rescue teams took over.
"Still hard to look back..."
Mains said despite training as a firefighter and Marine, there was no way he or anyone else who volunteered to help, could have fully prepared for that day.
Mains has visited Memorial Plaza three times, including last year. He is unsure if he will travel to New York for the 10th anniversary, but looks forward to seeing the completed museum and memorial fountains.
"It's still hard to look back at it," Mains said.
"But, compared to 10 years ago, even a year after it happened, it's amazing to see the progress compared to what it looked like."