RIVERDALE, Ga. — As the nation marks 25 years since the September 11 terrorist attacks, a retired New York City firefighter now living in Georgia is remembering the friends, colleagues and fellow first responders who never made it home.
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For Sterling Poole, a former member of the New York City Fire Department who now lives in Riverdale, Sept. 11 is more than a moment in history. It is a day forever tied to personal loss and the firefighters who ran toward danger as the World Trade Center came under attack.
“The first day we only knew about seven persons that had died officially,” Poole recalled. “And then every single day we was marking who passed away.”
Poole spent 21 years with the FDNY before retiring and moving to Georgia. By 2001, he had begun a new chapter hundreds of miles away from New York City. But when he watched the attacks unfold, he knew he had to return.
“I said to my battalion chief, ‘I have to go to New York,’” Poole said. “So I came back home, and then I got my friend who was also there watching, and he said, ‘Let’s go.’ And we traveled back to New York that same day.”
Poole and another retired firefighter drove through the night to reach Ground Zero, where rescue and recovery efforts were underway. He said he personally knew 40 of the 343 firefighters killed in the attacks.
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“We knew that we lost a lot of people,” Poole said. “Because the day that we went there, you could hear the PASS alarms of the firemen. Once they are motionless, there’s a beeping that you hear over and over. And then after the battery ran out, then it would stop.”
The memories remain vivid a quarter-century later — the confusion, exhaustion and overwhelming grief that followed one of the deadliest days in American history.
Poole said one of the losses that hit especially close to home was FDNY Capt. Brian Hickey.
“I knew my captain was Brian Hickey. I was his driver, I was working in his squad at that time,” Poole said. “And I knew him personally. He was a nice guy. And the only thing that we found of him later on was his helmet.”
As the nation prepares to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the attacks, Poole said he hopes people remember not only those who died but also the families who have carried that loss for decades.
“I want people to remember that we were not heroes,” Poole said. “We just did our job.”
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