(WBBM NEWSRADIO) —On Saturday, the U.S. will mark the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. A retired suburban firefighter still has vivid memories.
Pat Schey, then a Morton Grove firefighter, was actually teaching a collapsed-building class at a Chicago area fire academy when the planes hit the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
He was at Ground Zero in New York a couple of days later. He worked the bucket brigade, removing debris and searching for any signs of life. The ground was so hot, the soles of his boots melted.
“The smell. I can still smell the smell,” Schey tells WBBM Newsradio’s Bernie Tafoya.
He remembers that everyone worked in silence. The scene was more than any seasoned first-responder had ever dealt with.
“I found a police officer’s badge. I offered it to one of the officers on-site out there, and these guys were so overcome with emotion and debris.
“He said, ‘I don’t know what to do with it at this point.’”
The aftermath impacted him emotionally and had a negative effect on his relationships, Schey said.
He said he tried talking to a counselor in the weeks after Sept. 11, but his comments were too much for the professional, so, he never sought any other help.
“It did affect me. I was very fortunate to personally overcome it,” he said.
Schey said he has had some respiratory issues, which he suspects were from his time at Ground Zero.
Today, he co-owns rescUSA, which trains first responders in disaster work. He has since improved his relationships with his son and daughter, he says.
Schey’s son will soon be a firefighter in Skokie, while his daughter works in the hospitality industry.
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