On September 11, 2001, Aaron McLamb had just arrived at his workplace near the Brooklyn Bridge when the first airplane crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Eighteen minutes later, he watched in shock from his 10th-floor window as the second plane tore into the South Tower.
The 20-year-old ran for his camera to capture a devastating moment in American history. “It was almost surreal being that high up looking at everything going on down below.” he told New York Daily News. “You couldn’t hear the crackling of the fire or the creaking of the buildings. The only thing we could hear were the sirens from the fire trucks going across the bridge.” He then snapped an unforgettable photograph of the Ladder 118 fire truck speeding to its death, with the Twin Towers smoking in the background.
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| The photo Aaron McLamb took of Ladder 118 racing toward the Twin Towers. |
It’s estimated that within 30 minutes of this photo, everyone aboard ladder 118 was killed when one of the towers fell with all 6 fire fighters in the stair case. Ladder 118 was one of the fire trucks that responded to the disaster that followed the deadly attack.
After the second plane crashed into the South Tower, firefighters Vernon Cherry, Leon Smith, Joey Agnello, Robert Regan, Pete Vega, and Scott Davidson left the Brooklyn Heights fire hall and were on their way.
Once they arrived, the six men from Ladder 118 ran deeper into the carnage and landed at the Marriott World Trade Center Hotel, which shattered around them when the 110-storey towers collapsed. Survivors remembered seeing the heroes with the number 118 on their helmets running up the stairs to help guests.
They were never seen alive again.
Bobby Graff, a former elevator mechanic at the hotel said, “They knew what was going on, and they went down with their ship.” Referencing the hundreds of guests and Marriott employees that survived, he continued. “They weren’t going to leave until everyone got out. They must have saved a couple hundred people that day. I know they saved my life.”
Days later, Graff spoke with the members of the station and explained how the brave team refused to leave until they safely evacuated the building.
Retired firefighter John Sorrentino shared, “They heard the rumble of the tower coming down and Graff, everyone just started running. After the smoke cleared [Graff] was in a spot where he survived and everyone else died.” Sorrentino continued, “[Graff] could see the look on the guys faces from 118, that they knew that this was going to end bad, but they weren’t leaving because they wanted to get as many people out safely that they could. And that’s how we found out what Ladder 118 did that day.”
Some of the men from Ladder 118 were found within a few feet of each other, and others were found days or weeks later. The truck, that was last seen charging across the bridge to the site, was a mangled wreck of steel and glass and recovered within days of the attack.
Two months later, firefighters digging through the rubble found tools engraved with the Ladder 118 logo.
The team of Ladder 118 are six of 343 firefighters who died in 9/11, a number that represented almost half the number of “on-duty deaths in the New York City Fire Department’s entire 100-year history.”
Aaron always dreamed of being a fireman when he was young, and he knew the Middagh St. firehouse and admired its trucks. In fact, when he took the photo of Ladder 118 during the September 11 attack, he was eagerly waiting to see the truck cross the bridge.
He even told a colleague, “here comes the 118.” So, he was happy to capture a picture of the rig, not knowing the crew members would not be making it back from the disaster they were rushing to help resolve.
Aaron soon developed the photo of Ladder 118 during the September 11 attack and took it to the firehouse, where the firefighters immediately recognized Ladder 118. They studied it with a magnifying glass to confirm if the truck on the Brooklyn Bridge was indeed Ladder 118. It did not take long for them to verify that it was after noticing the orange stokes basket, which was upside down, and a saw box that jutted out. These were all Ladder 118 trademarks.
One of the firefighters recalls how chilling the experience was. Aaron passed the photo to New York Daily News, and they published it on their front page.
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| New York Daily News front page dedicated to Ladder 118. Dated Oct. 5, 2001. |
For that reason, the photo of Ladder 118 during the September 11 attack is now seen as a proud symbol of patriotism during the terrifying tragedy.
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