'All You Could See Was Smoke and Flames'

Editor's note: On the 10th anniversary of the day that changed our lives, we have decided to once again share the story of Grafton native Gregory Lynch, a New York City firefighter who was at Ground Zero when the towers collapsed. Here is his story:

Gregory Lynch, a former r, was working a temporary assignment at a fire station off Lafayette Street for the New York City Fire Department when the disaster hit Sept. 11.

Because he hadn’t been working there long, he didn’t know his colleagues very well.

But that didn’t ease the pain when the guys who answered the call that morning never made it back.

And it definitely provided little comfort when their wives banged on the station door later that day, looking for answers they really didn’t want.

“It hurt a lot,’’ he said. “It was a bad time.’’

As the days and weeks passed, the wall of the station filled with more and more notices of funerals and memorial services. “It was just horrific,’’ he said.

Lynch made the move from the Grafton Fire Department to the New York City Fire Department when an opportunity came up to serve on perhaps the world’s most famous fire department.

He knew the action would outpace his Grafton experiences. But he couldn’t have imagined that, on a September day in 2011, he would live through one of the most infamous days in American history.

That morning, he headed to the 23^rd floor of 7 World Trade Center, where responders were instructed to meet in a disaster. Less than five minutes later, he received an urgent call from police: “Get out right now, right now.’’

A police helicopter hovering above the scene saw the buildings about to fall. Lynch took the stairs down and got to the bottom just as one of the buildings collapsed. He huddled with about 30 people in a loading dock area, uninjured but eternally changed.

“Thank God I was where I was,’’ he said. “I happened to be in a lucky spot. If I had been outside, there is a good chance I would have died.’’

He saw people jumping from the burning building and small pieces of the doomed planes scattered about.

“The scene was so chaotic,’’ he said. “All you could see was smoke and flames.’’

He remembers the sound of firefighters coughing and vomiting and the endless, haunting beeping of discarded oxygen masks.

“It really was like a movie,’’ he said. “It was really happening, but it really wasn’t. It was such an overwhelming’’ experience

“It was like it was in slow motion,’’ he said. “It was surreal.’’

In March 2002, he volunteered to work at the scene, spending cold, rainy days sifting through rubble. He found fire and police equipment and bones.

When the remains of a fellow firefighter were located, work stopped and an honor guard from that fire company was brought down to accompany the remains off the site.

“It was very miserable work in every sense of the word,’’ he said. “It was a really long month.’’

Today, Lynch works as a lieutenant at a firehouse not far from the former World Trade Center site. He said he might spend the 10^th anniversary working, which “might not be a bad thing.’’

He worries that some of his fellow firefighters, particularly those who joined the force after that tragic day, have grown complacent about the devastation.

But Lynch will never forget. And he remains proud to serve on the New York City Fire Department.

“You feel like you’re part of something, that you belong to something important,’’ he said.

For more images from throughout the country, read here: http://huff.to/riv8zM.