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Volunteer does his part at ground zero
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times, LEALMAN -- Mike Brophy had watched the television news. He'd seen the newspaper pictures. But none of that prepared him for ground zero in New York City -- the place he came to call the "valley of disaster." "The destruction you see on the TV . . . is nothing compared to the reality of what's there," Brophy said Monday. "The destruction goes for blocks. . . . There's just debris everywhere. . . . The concrete dust goes for blocks and blocks and blocks." The main area is 16 blocks, which is surrounded by another 8 acres covered in concrete and asbestos dust and other detritus, he said. Eight acres is about the size of eight football fields. "The thing about the site is the immenseness of the destruction," Brophy said. "You can't comprehend it if you don't see it." Brophy, a member of the Lealman Fire Commission, has returned from several days' volunteering at ground zero, where firefighters from around the country painstakingly pick through the ruins of the World Trade Center. When Brophy arrived in New York on Sept. 20, he had no intention of joining in the grisly task. The former firefighter and New York native had gone up for the memorial service because he has relatives who are retired New York firefighters and police. None were lost on Sept. 11, but he wanted to carry the condolences of the Lealman Fire Department. When he got there, the service had been canceled, so he dropped by one fire station to offer sympathy. They sent him to another. Soon, he was at 10 House, the fire station across from the World Trade Center and the first to answer the call for help. "They rolled out and got destroyed," Brophy said. They lost five men, one of whom was a fill-in. All their equipment was lost. When the towers collapsed, the force of the cloud blew out everything in the fire station, leaving only the husk of the building. Brophy volunteered his help. During the next four days, he got 31/2 hours of sleep. He met rescue workers from Los Angeles, south Florida and Hillsborough County. With the searchlights constantly on, he said, day and night became indistinguishable and people worked around the clock through terrible hardships. With the concrete and asbestos, it was hard to breath. "You never saw such dedication except in combat," he said. "Everybody was so exhausted. "Many of the guys would refuse to leave. They would sleep on the sidewalk in a doorway, in what was once a doorway." Even the rescue dogs, he said, "kept wanting to go back in." Occasionally, all work halted when a body, or a part of a body, was found. Brophy said he was awed at the "reverence" given to the dead. Brophy teared up and his voice quavered as he described the procedure of wrapping the body in white, placing it in a body bag and covering it with an American flag. This was done in silence as firefighters removed their helmets. Before the body was removed, the litter-bearers stopped so a chaplain from the New York Fire or Police department or the FBI could murmur a few words. "It's removed with great reverence and dignity to a temporary morgue two blocks away," Brophy said. "Each time that happens, you see the pain." Brophy wept.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
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