Historical NotesAn Engine 9 firefighter, Benny Hom was off-duty on the morning of September 11, 2001. He arrived downtown after both Towers had collapsed. Conditions on site were still dangerous and visually disorienting. Radio transmissions of trapped responders were sparse and vague. In McNally’s studio, Hom spoke of seeing people in shock walking around, and recalled another firefighter holding a disembodied leg. Remarkably, among the rare survivors awaiting rescue were Hom’s firehouse counterparts from Ladder 6.
Captain Jay Jonas and the men reporting to him that morning were trapped in the collapsed stub of the North Tower’s Stairwell B. By later that afternoon, this “miracle” group had been found and extricated from the wreckage alive. “When our guys got out, all of them set in a huddle, crying like babies,” Hom told the photographer.