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American Morning

America's New War: Talk with a Volunteer Rescue Worker

Aired September 19, 2001 - 09:05   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Everyday, on a daily basis try to take some measure of progress based on what's happening here and the recovery effort that you see behind me. From our vantage point today, it appears to be far less smoke today. It appears less thick. Don't know if that is that's scientific or our observation. It is possible the massive amounts water that have been dumped on the rubble possibly taking effect seeping through that rubble and helping to extinguish the fires burn throughout the week here. We know there is heat- sensing equipment being used in various places trying to detect the hot spots, so rescue workers can be directed in places that are safer than, and we also know that fiber-optic equipment being used in those the very, very small areas where no human being can find his or her way through.

Paula, you mentioned the volunteers and the rescuers who come down here. You know, one of the best ways for us to truly understand what is happening on the former World Trade Center complex is to talk with them. Bob Gayer is an executive with the Barry House Coffee Company. He is a volunteer. He has taken vacation time to help in the effort, been here nine days running now.

Bob, the thing have you done for us this morning is shared the pictures you have taken of the rubble behind us. We're going to pick some of those up, because some of those are critical, especially when it comes to going beneath the rubble and beneath the surface level. Take us through, describe us what you're seeing in the photos?

BOB GAYER, VOLUNTEER RESCUE WORKER: Actually, day one, we're up on the pile, that we refer to it as "the pile." And it was about anywhere between 11:00 and 12:00. And we were working as a team. This gentleman went down, I didn't know who he was, he would go down hole or opening that we would find, and I would be his backup. If he's down there, if something would happen, shift, we would depend on me to help him get out of here fast.

HEMMER: And this is?

GAYER: A scene Wednesday night, I volunteered to go under the World Trade Center. This is one of the offices many floors down, the ceiling had collapsed when we were down there. This next scene is a scene actually on day one of a destroyed police car.

HEMMER: Wow. GAYER: All of the emergency vehicles that day from the first wave were just basically annihilated. This shot here was when I had gotten down there, I was running up Broadway, carrying some cases of water to throw to the firemen to wash their face off. That is the building we went down into Thursday night. It was burning. It burned for about two days. This is a pile of debris from the Trade Center. On Thursday morning, when I had gotten down there, when everybody started to get involved with the bucket brigade.

HEMMER: Bob, you know when you went below the street level in these areas that we were just talking about sharing to our viewers, did you find any bodies when you were down below?

GAYER: No, actually what we did, is we went down there, there was four of us. And somebody had given us indication that there was a parking lot with people in it. So just human instinct went over and tries to save somebody. And when we got down there, we found the parking lot. It was pretty much wrecked. We did notice that that was about 10 cars down there, and every driver's window of the car was smashed in, and their headlights were on. But the -- headlights were on. There were people down there, at one point wherever they're. I don't know much. We couldn't find anyone. We didn't find a dead person or anything. I did find two other trucks. I smashed the windows in. Somebody was watching out for us. At that point, we saw a Port Authority supply truck, we broke into it, and we found oxygen tank.

I was down there with Deputy Commissioner Caracas (ph), and he asked me to hold on to the tank in case we got stuck down there. And it also had an indicator if we were to get stuck down there, they would be able to find us, and we proceeded to go through every room, sweeping through rooms, looking for people, crawling through cracks, screaming and yelling for people. We didn't want to draw too loud, because we doesn't want to draw attention from above.

HEMMER: You are a New Yorker, born and raised, and you went to a funeral last night?

GAYER: Yes, I went to a -- at first, I didn't know the gentleman, and he was a fireman from Bellmore (ph), and it turned out that we went to the same gym together. It was a pretty moving night. Cops, firemen, everybody were there.

HEMMER: Bob, how are you doing?

GAYER: Relatively, I'm doing OK. I'll never be the same. I saw so much devastation and death and witnessed so much stuff I wish no one ever has to see. Like so many people say, it's -- to be down here is so much different than watching it on the television, and when I arrived on day one, I called my wife, and I just said, Diane, it's -- I cried, and then I says, it's like a movie set. Everything is flipped upside down. I just could not believe what I was looking at. Then I got really angry, and all my fear left me, and I just jumped on the pile with the fire guys, and there was about 40 of us, and we did whatever we had to do to find anybody arrive.

HEMMER: Bob Gayer, much appreciated.

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