‘Almost like it’s a holy relic’: World Trade Center beam stops at Indiana War Memorial

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Jack Kielty was off duty when the World Trade Center was hit.

Like so many other off-duty New York City firefighters that day, the Staten Island native was called in to provide backup as the Twin Towers burned.

“Traffic was horrific because they closed all the bridges and tunnels,” he said. “I was physically on the Verrazzano Bridge (from Staten Island to Brooklyn) going to my firehouse in Brooklyn when the first tower fell. I did 14 years on the Lower East Side. And I knew with certainty, I wasn’t sure of their names yet, but I knew I had a hundred people I knew just die in front of my face.”

Sept. 11, 2001 was the deadliest terrorist attack and the worst lost of life among firefighters in U.S. history. The attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, plus the hijacking of United Airlines Flight 93, killed a total of 2,977 people, including 343 New York City firefighters, 23 NYPD officers and 37 officers of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey Police Department. Another 8,000 have died in the years since from illnesses related to exposure to the toxic dust from the attack sites.

Kielty retired after 40 years with the Fire Department of New York City. He is now part of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’s Steel Acr...