The Firefighters Who Kept Climbing (FDNY Leaders on 9/11, USA)
Quick answer: What did FDNY chiefs Joe Pfeifer and Orio Palmer do on 9/11?
Battalion Chief Joe Pfeifer, the first FDNY chief on scene, set up command in the North Tower lobby and ordered evacuation; his brother Kevin went upstairs and didn't return. In the South Tower, Battalion Chief Orio Palmer climbed to the 78th-floor sky lobby and radioed a clear, actionable report before the collapse killed him.
At 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001, an airliner hit the North Tower. Battalion Chief Joe Pfeifer, nearby on an unrelated call, was the first FDNY chief to arrive. He set up a command post in the lobby, a marble-and-glass space that became headquarters for thousands of decisions, and ordered the buildings evacuated. He saw his brother Kevin, a lieutenant with Engine 33, for a brief moment before Kevin went up with his company. Kevin didn't come out. In the South Tower, Battalion Chief Orio Palmer found a working elevator to the forty-first floor and climbed the rest in about fifty pounds of gear, thirty-seven flights, to the seventy-eighth-floor sky lobby. His preserved radio report is pure job language: two isolated pockets of fire, we should be able to knock them down. He died in the collapse. Pfeifer survived and served until 2018. John's lesson: put one person where information converges and one where reality is, demand clear reports, and keep the voice steady enough to follow.
Why it matters for leaders: In chaos, clear and calm information is itself a rescue tool; put someone where the signals meet and someone where the truth is.
Q: What did Pfeifer say the day was made of?
A: “Little stories of people doing small things or making small decisions, which turned out to be the difference between life and death.”
Q: What practical lesson does John draw?
A: Put one person where information converges and one where the reality is, demand clear reports, and keep your voice steady.
Read the full essay on Substack → https://heroespath.substack.com/p/the-firefighters-who-kept-climbing
By John Fenzel, founder and CEO of Heroes' Path Foundation