FDNY Rescue 1 on 9/11: The Eleven and the Rebuild

On the morning of September 11, 2001, FDNY Rescue Company 1 lost every firefighter who rode its rig to the World Trade Center. Eleven men from Manhattan’s elite special operations unit climbed into the North Tower and never came out. Their deaths, and the year-long effort to rebuild the company that followed, remain one of the defining stories of the FDNY’s response that day.

What Rescue 1 Was That Morning

Rescue 1 is one of the FDNY’s special operations units, based on West 43rd Street in the Times Square area of Manhattan.¹ Its members handle structural collapses, high-rise fires, confined-space rescues, scuba operations, and other emergencies that outstrip the capabilities of regular engine and ladder companies. Rescue 1 member Dave Marmonn described the unit’s role simply: “After us, nobody else is coming.”²

Into the North Tower

When the first plane struck, Rescue 1’s rig carried eleven firefighters rather than the usual crew. A shift change was underway, and members of both the outgoing and incoming shifts boarded the truck together.² Captain Terence Hatton, a twenty-year FDNY veteran and one of the department’s most decorated officers, led the group up the stairs of the North Tower.³

Hatton’s last known radio transmission was a distress call: “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Rescue 1 is trapped.”⁴ Several Rescue 1 members were later found in a stairwell of the North Tower.² All eleven died when the tower collapsed. They were among the 343 FDNY members killed that day, and the entire crew that had answered the call.⁵

The broader FDNY response that morning suffered from severe communication breakdowns. Radios performed poorly inside the high-rises, the repeater system meant to boost signals was never activated, and FDNY and NYPD operated without effective coordination. Evacuation orders issued by chiefs in the North Tower lobby were never relayed to 911 operators or dispatchers.⁶ For units operating deep inside the towers, that meant limited awareness of conditions above them and limited ability to receive orders to withdraw.

The Eleven Men of Rescue 1

These are the Rescue 1 firefighters killed on September 11, 2001:⁷

Captain Terence S. Hatton, 41. A FEMA task force leader who had deployed to the Oklahoma City bombing and the TWA Flight 800 crash, Hatton was nicknamed “Capt. Man-Hatton” for his encyclopedic knowledge of the borough’s buildings. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani called him a “resident hero.” His wife, Elizabeth Petrone Hatton, learned she was pregnant the day after his death; their daughter was named Terri.³⁸
Lieutenant Dennis Mojica, 50. A twenty-nine-year FDNY veteran and former U.S. Navy serviceman who lived in Brooklyn. He belonged to the FDNY Holy Name Society and the FDNY Hispanic Society and was survived by a teenage daughter, Alex. A Brooklyn street, “FDNY Lieutenant Dennis Mojica Way,” was later dedicated in his memory.⁹¹⁰
Joseph Angelini Sr., 63. The oldest member of the crew lost that day.
Gary Geidel, 44.
William Henry, 49.
Kenneth Joseph Marino, 40.
Michael G. Montesi, 39.
Gerard Terence Nevins, 46.
Patrick J. O’Keefe, 44. Survived by his wife, Karen, daughter Jennifer, and son Timmy.²
Brian Edward Sweeney, 29. The youngest of the eleven.
David M. Weiss, 41. A fourteen-year FDNY veteran who had earned the Emily Trevor/Mary B. Warren Medal for Heroism after jumping into the East River off the FDR Drive to rescue a driver whose car had plunged into the water. On September 11, Weiss was reported to have been on the 30th floor of the North Tower when the evacuation mayday came through. He refused to leave, saying people on the 50th floor needed help. His remains were never recovered. Fellow Rescue 1 members later arranged for his grave footstone to read “hero” rather than “victim.”¹¹¹²

Before September 11, the Rescue 1 firehouse held four memorial plaques for members killed in the line of duty, dating to 1925, 1962, 1970, and 1994. Eleven new plaques were added after the attacks.²

Rebuilding the Company

Losing an entire on-duty crew meant Rescue 1 had to be reconstituted from scratch. That task fell to Captain Robert Morris Sr., who took command after the attacks. Morris led search and rescue operations at the rubble pile in the immediate aftermath and then spent the following year rebuilding the unit and returning it to normal operations.¹³¹⁴

As company commander, Morris set new standard operating procedures for fireground operations, technical rescue, water rescue, and EMS protocols. He also developed procedures for aircraft and helicopter rescue scenarios, including protocols for the movement of foreign diplomats and the President of the United States.¹³ Over a forty-year FDNY career, Morris invented several firefighting tools, including the Rex Tool for forcible entry, a mono pod for high-angle rescue, and a hydraulic lifting strut system. He authored the FDNY Forcible Entry Handbook, taught at the Connecticut Fire Academy, was appointed chief of the Stamford, Connecticut, Fire Department in 2024, and received the FDIC Tom Brennan Lifetime Achievement Award in 2025.

The Special Operations Command that oversaw the rescue companies also lost its chief that day. Ray Downey, a nationally recognized expert on urban search and rescue who had led operations after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the Oklahoma City bombing, was last seen directing the evacuation after the towers fell. His sons, Captain Joe Downey and Lieutenant Chuck Downey, continued to serve in special operations after his death.²

A Toll That Kept Growing

The dust and debris at Ground Zero produced lasting health consequences for the firefighters who stayed to search and clean the pile. As of 2016, twenty-six percent of the FDNY’s WTC-exposed cohort had been diagnosed with obstructive airways disease, with elevated rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, cancer, and other chronic conditions, especially among those who arrived on the morning of the attacks.¹⁵ More than 15,600 FDNY WTC-exposed responders enrolled in the department’s medical monitoring and treatment program, and by late 2016 over 10,400 had been certified by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health as having at least one WTC-related health condition.

The federal response was the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010, named for an NYPD detective who died of a respiratory disease linked to WTC exposure. The law established the WTC Health Program, which provides free medical monitoring and treatment for eligible responders and survivors, and reactivated the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.¹⁶ Cancers were added as covered conditions in 2012.¹⁵ In 2019, President Trump signed the Never Forget the Heroes Act, permanently authorizing the Victim Compensation Fund through 2090. By one count, the number of FDNY members who have died from WTC-related illnesses has now surpassed the 343 killed on the day of the attacks.¹⁷

1
National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Rescue 1 Firehouse Portrait
2
CBS News. Rescue 1, Rescue 2
3
National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Remembering Terence Hatton
4
Coffee or Die Magazine. Tim Brown FDNY
5
ABC News. FDNY Members Who Died at World Trade Center
6
National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. 9/11 Commission Report, Chapter 9
7
George W. Bush White House Archives. September 11, 2003 Photo Essay
8
National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. Terence S. Hatton
9
National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. Dennis Mojica
10
Voices Center for Resilience. Lt. Dennis Mojica
11
National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. David M. Weiss
12
NJ Jewish News. Man Honors Firefighter He Considered a Son
13
Fire Engineering. Robert Morris Sr., 2025 Tom Brennan Lifetime Achievement Award
14
Connecticut News 12. Stamford Fire Chief Gives First Interview About 9/11 Experience
15
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. FDNY WTC Health Program Report
16
International Association of Fire Fighters. WTC Health Resources
17
ABC News. FDNY Members Who Died From World Trade Center Illnesses