Reprinted from September 2001, This is the story a local man who experienced “Ground Zero” in person in the days immediately following the 9-11 attack – with an update 10 years later.
by Bea Peterson
On September 11, while most of us sat stunned in front of our television sets, Hoosick Falls resident Brian Rousseau went into action. Rousseau is a Leader of the Capital District Regional Urban/Technical Search and Rescue Response Team (U/TSAR), which is an elite group of rescue specialists. Within hours his team of 100 and their fleet of five trucks had left their headquarters in Albany and were at Ground Zero, where the team remained for the next 16 days.
In On the Ground Floor
Rousseau, a Hoosick Falls native, joined the Hoosick Falls Fire Department in 1975, at the age of 17. He was Fire Chief in the early 1990’s. Then he started working for the State of New York in the Office of Fire Prevention and Control In 1990 he was asked to work on training manuals and materials and the development of the U/TSAR program. The confined space rescue manual he developed is a standard, used for training worldwide. Some of his training manuals are also used by military personnel overseas.
Training
Rousseau conducts training sessions throughout New York State, including the Special Operations Command FDNY Technical Rescue School in New York City and he sits on two National Standards Commissions.
He’s taught rescue courses at the National and international level. A few weeks after the 9/11, he testified before Congress on the rescue operations he directed in New York City.
World Trade Center
Brian Rousseau has worked with and trained firefighters throughout the state, many of them from New York City. “I lost seven close friends and many acquaintances,” he says of the World Trade Center. “I knew a lot of those guys; it was very personal.” His team set up at Ground Zero the evening of September 11. “We worked 48 hours straight,” he says. “My first sleep was three hours in a nearby homeless shelter.” During the first 24 to 48 hours they were under a lot of pressure to find live victims. “It was a daunting task,” he recalls. They were scrambling over mountains of rubble and constantly looking over their shoulders at buildings that were at risk of collapse. The team sustained one injury. “Alarms would go off periodically to indicate a building might collapse,” says Rousseau. “Then we would scramble to get out of the way. One of our team was tripped up and had an ankle broken.”
The head of the FEMA team and many other rescue and hazardous materials (HAZMAT) personnel were lost in the collapse. “Initially, we were the key team for HAZMAT monitoring,” says Rousseau. Federal officials wanted to shut the site down because of the dust, debris and other contaminates, but our monitoring results showed that it was not necessary.
In their search, void spaces were discovered so large team members had to rappel down into them. In other debris piles they used a rope system to trolley equipment. “A lot of our team saw some very horrific things. In the first 72 hours of the primary search, our team, working with NYC firefighters, probably found 50% of the bodies,” says Rousseau.
“Our team worked 15 to 20 people per shift, 24 hours a day for 16 days. We were by far the team there the longest, next to New York City personnel. We were beat up big time,” he says.
The after affects are still being felt. “A lot of people are fine,” says Rousseau. “Others are having some difficulties.” Those difficulties include illnesses such as “the WTC cough”, stress related problems, memory difficulties and difficulty concentrating. They have had stress debriefings and talked with each other; just being away from the site with the time that has passed has helped.
It hasn’t been easy for Rousseau either. At first he couldn’t talk about the tragedy at all. He and his teammates spent a lot of time at their headquarters, sharing their grief and trauma with one another. Now he’s beginning to speak to groups about his experience, healing through sharing.
Ten Years Later
This week we spoke with Brian Rousseau to hear his perspective ten years later. Rousseau has had some health issues as a result of his time at Ground Zero. “They’re nothing I can’t manage,” he said. He has been invited to a Memorial Service on Sunday at the NY City Fire Department Rescue headquarters. He plans to be there. “Three of the guys killed on September 11 worked for me,” he said. “And there’s always a little part of me that says what I do, I do for them.”
Rousseau’s job has expanded to include the world since 9/11. He is now NYS Deputy Chief of Special Services. Rousseau has been in on establishing state-wide rescue services since its inception. “I love what I do,” he said on Tuesday, his first day off since Tropical Storm Irene devastated many sections of the state. Last week he put in 96 hours. Yet, he said, “I’ve been blessed to have done the right things early and chosen a career I continue to love. I’ve spent my career helping locals train to help their neighbors.”
Today, he admits he is too old to do the rescue work, but he is pleased there are other people stepping up to take his place. When Irene struck he had 51 water rescue teams on alert. He used 40 of them. In the Catskills the teams rescued 54 people. “Two or three years ago we couldn’t have done that,” he said.
In the last ten years Rousseau has written a book entitled The Fundamentals of Technical Rescue. He continues to give seminars on the subject all over the United States, and overseas. “And for the last couple of years we’ve been helping Vermont improve their rescue capabilities,” he added. He was the keynote speaker for a rescue training program in Scotland. “I had a chance to talk to rescue workers from Lockerbie, he said. “They totally understood what it was like in New York City. Many people don’t.”