Former FDNY firefighter from Baiting Hollow recalls surviving 9/11 when his entire battalion was lost
Kevin Shea was off duty on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when he learned a plane had struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
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A former FDNY firefighter from Baiting Hollow is sharing his story of survival, sacrifice and loss as the nation approaches the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Kevin Shea was off duty on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when he learned a plane had struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
“I was actually the only survivor in my battalion,” he said.
But after a second plane hit the South Tower, his unit, Ladder 35 and Engine 40, was called into action.
“I have a choice and I'm going. I'm going,” Shea says. “So, I get on and I jump on the rig.”
As he and his fellow firefighters made their way to the scene, they could already see the devastation unfolding.
“We can see the smoke, almost like a halo around the one tower,” Shea recalled.
When Shea arrived at the World Trade Center, he was initially instructed to remain outside.
After finding extra masks and oxygen tanks, however, he gathered the equipment he needed and headed toward the South Tower.
“There’s no radios working because we lost contact with all the radios,” Shea says.
Shea joined several firefighters he had just met and began to help extinguish car fires near the South Tower.
He says what happened next is hazy.
“He screamed out, ‘Run,’” Shea says. “The only parts of the memory I remember was I was running. Then I was lifted up in the air, then I was rolling, and then I was crawling."
Shea was partially buried by falling debris but was quickly located and rescued.
“I was in there with all the dust coming down like the snow,” he said. “They’re trying to get me to respond. I seem to be conscious. One guy was really nervous about me.”
Shea was taken to safety inside a nearby parking garage before he was taken to a hospital.
Doctors later diagnosed him with serious injuries, including a subdural hematoma, broken vertebrae in his neck and retrograde amnesia.
“I got a subdural hematoma. I had broken my neck at C4, C5 and C6,” Shea says.
Today, Shea considers himself fortunate to have survived.
“I was so happy to be alive,” he said.
But the memories of that day and those who died remain with him.
Now, nearly 25 years later, Shea is continuing to honor the firefighters who never made it home, ensuring their sacrifice is never forgotten.
