{"id":6172,"date":"2022-09-15T12:58:23","date_gmt":"2022-09-15T12:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=6172"},"modified":"2022-09-15T12:58:23","modified_gmt":"2022-09-15T12:58:23","slug":"remembering-9-11-firefighter-roderick-lewis-was-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2022\/09\/15\/remembering-9-11-firefighter-roderick-lewis-was-there\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering 9\/11: Firefighter Roderick Lewis Was There"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
New York City firefighter Roderick Lewis (left)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Firefighter Roderick Lewis Was There, and In Ways, He Still Is<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Ahnayah Hughes, Howard University News Service<\/em><\/strong>
\nGuest Column<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Even now, the pain of that day lays just below the surface for retired New York City firefighter Rodney Lewis.\u00a0 As Lewis recalled the sights, smells, sounds and horror of Sept. 11, 2001, tears accompanied those memories even as he sat in the comfortable Queens, N.Y., home he shares with his wife.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had quite a few friends that were at the scene,\u201d Lewis, 66, said through his tears.\u00a0 \u201cPeople I had just spoken to the week before. People I directly worked with. People whose homes I went to on New Year\u2019s Eve. Just like that, so many lives were just gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twenty years after the attack, after leaving the department and busying himself with new hobbies, after his oldest child, a son, had struck out on his own and his daughter had graduated high school, after buying a sailboat and exploring deeper his love of sailing, after he and his wife purchased another home in Chesapeake, Virginia, after counseling and consultation, it even surprises Lewis how quickly the feelings can come bursting to the surface.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can talk about it now, but it\u2019s still very emotional,\u201d he said. \u201cI remember what I went through, and what so many others went through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three hundred and forty-three. It is a number nearly all New York firefighters have seared into their consciousness. That\u2019s how many firefighters died combatting the devastating fire that took down the World Trade Center and claimed more than 2,000 lives. Lewis knew well over 30 of those firefighters.<\/p>\n

\"\"
New York City firefighter Roderick Lewis right<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lewis, then a lieutenant with Engine Company 330, was there too.<\/p>\n

Lewis, a native of New York, was studying for his captain\u2019s exam in Staten Island that day, when a firefighter announced that a plane had crashed into a tower at the World Trade Center.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until another firefighter arrived shortly after and explained that both towers had been hit, that the room of firefighters fell silent as their new reality began to take shape.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were off duty, but we were under attack,\u201d he said. \u201cWe knew what we had to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Lewis arrived in Brooklyn, he and the other firefighters around the station geared up to face the unknown. With no trucks or buses to take them to the site, Lewis ordered another firefighter to commandeer a city bus. As the passengers filed off, the firefighters piled on, preparing themselves for what lay ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all going to Manhattan to fight a fire we had never fought before,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we all knew someone was going to die\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lewis describes Manhattan upon his arrival in two words: pure chaos. All the experience he had gathered in his then 22 years on the job, he said, could not have prepared him for the catastrophe that lay beyond the smoke.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like walking in a cloud: you couldn\u2019t see beyond three or four feet in front of you,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought it was the end of the world. That\u2019s just how it felt \u2014 \u2018This is the end\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lewis and his colleagues were in the third wave of firefighters to respond to the burning buildings.\u00a0 There was no organized effort as the firefighters aided civilians and attempted to calm the raging flames. Spending hours on the scene without adequate protection, the first responders were exposed to a toxic mix of asbestos, ash, and smoke, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was concerned because we were just breathing all of that stuff in,\u201d he said. \u201cI remembered the telephone company fire in 1978 released asbestos into the air, and many of the firefighters working died from lung cancer. I always thought about that and had that on my mind at the Towers, but we had to do what we had to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lewis spent 24 hours on the scene before being relieved of duty on Sept. 12. The days that followed were bleak.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a long time, we [firefighters] were unable to talk about it because it was so traumatic,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cWe could talk about it amongst each other, but if a supervisor came around, we wouldn\u2019t say anything\u201d.<\/p>\n

This is partially due to the standards of excellence and bravery firefighters feel they must hold themselves to, he said. But beneath the masks, badges and gear, he said, were hurt people trying to make sense of the loses and the trauma they had experienced.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re firefighters,\u201d he said. \u201cFirefighters were supposed to do this. Firefighters were supposed to be strong. We\u2019re not supposed to be afraid or show weakness. But you can\u2019t have people walking around with such a traumatic event bottled up inside and not be able to release it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A special counseling unit was assigned to visit different firehouses and helped those involved to open up about their experiences. Although it was a challenge, it was a first step in the healing process, Lewis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took a long time, years,\u201d he said, \u201cbut time itself is very healing,\u201d<\/p>\n

As the years go by, documentaries are made, memorials are constructed and articles like this one are written every year, but Lewis is unsure how to feel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have mixed emotions,\u201d he said, \u201cA part of me wants me to support the anniversary of what happened for those who died, but another part of me doesn\u2019t want to go out or celebrate.\u201d<\/p>\n

In previous years, Lewis would participate in a firehouse ceremony to commemorate the firefighters who died and those who survived.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just not enough,\u201d Lewis said as he fought back tears.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose people died, and the rest of us are going to die from the complications, whether it be lung disease, cancer, whatever it may be. We knew the risks, but we went in anyway. We knew we may not make it home, and so many didn\u2019t. To stand up there in my uniform just can\u2019t be enough.\u00a0 So, I don\u2019t do that anymore\u201d.<\/p>\n

Instead, Lewis honors those who died in his own ways. \u00a0A \u201c343\u201d tattoo rests upon his arm to honor the first responders who he believes made the ultimate sacrifice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were human beings,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cThey were people with lives. They came in knowing the likelihood that they might not make it out and continued anyway. Every so often, I go through this book of victims and look through their names and remember their faces, because I don\u2019t ever want to forget.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Firefighter Roderick Lewis Was There, and In Ways, He Still Is By Ahnayah Hughes, Howard University News Service Guest Column Even now, the pain of that day lays just below the surface for retired New York City firefighter Rodney Lewis.\u00a0 As Lewis recalled the sights, smells, sounds and horror of Sept. 11, 2001, tears accompanied […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,17],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[139],"class_list":["post-6172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headline","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6175,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6172\/revisions\/6175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6172"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=6172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}