Forgotten Heroes Of Ground Zero

“The Bravest” is a label of enormous respect. No higher level of respect can one identify with that of the Fire Department of New York City (FDNY). No greater leadership and traditional institution have I ever been a part of. I never envisioned how my life would virtually spin in so many directions in one year. The dramatic challenge that the FDNY has ahead leaves one breathless.

The tragic events of September 11, 2001, forever altered the American landscape, both figuratively and literally. Immediately after the jets struck the twin towers of the World Trade Center, Dennis Smith, a former firefighter, reported to Manhattan’s Ladder Co. 16 to volunteer in the rescue efforts. In the weeks that followed, Smith was present on the front lines, attending to the wounded, sifting through the wreckage, and mourning with New York’s devastated fire and police departments. This is Smith’s vivid account of the rescue efforts by the fire and police departments and emergency medical teams as they rushed to face a disaster that would claim thousands of lives. Smith takes readers inside the minds and lives of the rescuers at Ground Zero as he shares stories about these heroic individuals and the effect their loss had on their families and their companies. “It is,” says Smith, “the real and living history of the worst day in America since Pearl Harbor.” Written with drama and urgency, Report from Ground Zero honors the men and women who—in America’s darkest hours—redefined our understanding of courage.

Omar Rivera, an office worker who is blind, and his guide dog, Salty, were on the 71st story of the World Trade Center’s North Tower on the morning of September 11, 2001 when terrorists hijacked two planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center towers. Omar’s coworkers raced to the stairway to escape the burning building. With chaos all around, Omar told his dog to guide him down the stairs. Would Salty be able to lead his owner to safety? In this book, young readers will meet the brave dogs that helped people during and after the deadly terrorist attack. From guide dogs that calmly led their owners to safety, to the 300 search-and-rescue dogs that used their powerful sense of smell to try to find survivors in the rubble, these incredible animals were part of the largest canine rescue operation in U.S. history. With true stories and full-color photographs of dogs working at Ground Zero, this book is sure to appeal to dog lovers everywhere.

Since its founding more than two hundred years ago, the United States Coast Guard has rescued over a million people. On any given day, "Coasties" respond to 125 distress calls and save over a dozen lives. Yet despite having more than 50,000 active-duty and reserve members on every ocean and on our nation's coasts, great lakes, and rivers, most of us know very little about this often neglected but crucial branch of the military. In Rescue Warriors, award-winning journalist David Helvarg brings us into the daily lives of Coasties, filled with a salty maritime mix of altruism and adrenaline, as well as dozens of death-defying rescues at sea and on hurricane-ravaged shores. Helvarg spent two years with the men and women of the Coast Guard, from the halls of their academy in New London, Connecticut, to the frigid, storm-tossed waters of Alaska's Bering Sea, to the northern Persian Gulf, where they currently guard Iraqi oil terminals. The result is a masterpiece of adventure reporting---the definitive book on America's "forgotten heroes."

Fallen Heroes: A Tribute from Fire Engineering was published in 2001 to honor the courageous men and women who responded to the September 11, 2001 attacks on America. This beautifully-bound, 160-page tribute details the tragic events of the attacks. The book includes a photo gallery with biographies of the fallen firefighters, firsthand reports from Ground Zero and the Pentagon, and reactions from around the world. Proceeds will benefit the Fire Engineering Courage and Valor Foundation.

A symphony of contemporary New York through the magnificent words of its people—from the best-selling author of Londoners. In the first twenty years of the twenty-first century, New York City has been convulsed by terrorist attack, blackout, hurricane, recession, social injustice, and pandemic. New Yorkers weaves the voices of some of the city's best talkers into an indelible portrait of New York in our time--and a powerful hymn to the vitality and resilience of its people. Best-selling author Craig Taylor has been hailed as "a peerless journalist and a beautiful craftsman" (David Rakoff), and acclaimed for the way he "fuses the mundane truth of conversation with the higher truth of art" (Michel Faber). In the wake of his celebrated book Londoners, Taylor moved to New York and spent years meeting regularly with hundreds of New Yorkers as diverse as the city itself. New Yorkers features 75 of the most remarkable of them, their fascinating true tales arranged in thematic sections that follow Taylor's growing engagement with the city. Here are the uncelebrated people who propel New York each day--bodega cashier, hospital nurse, elevator repairman, emergency dispatcher. Here are those who wire the lights at the top of the Empire State Building, clean the windows of Rockefeller Center, and keep the subway running. Here are people whose experiences reflect the city's fractured realities: a Latina mother of a teenager jailed at Rikers, a BLM activist in the wake of police shootings. And here are those who capture the ineffable feeling of New York, such as a balloon handler in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade or a security guard at the Statue of Liberty. Vibrant and bursting with life, New Yorkers explores the nonstop hustle to make it; the pressures on new immigrants, people of color, and the poor; the constant battle between loving the city and wanting to leave it; and the question of who gets to be considered a "New Yorker." It captures the strength of an irrepressible city that--no matter what it goes through--dares call itself the greatest in the world.