IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
New Jersey man used a Maglite flashlight to lead people to safety at the World Trade Center shortly after they were attacked.
Eighteen years after the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, Gary Fishbone recalls the events of that day as if they happened last week.
An electrical contractor and a resident of Belle Meade, N.J., Fishbone was in his office on the west side of Manhattan when he received word that an airplane had struck Tower One of the World Trade Center, via a call from an associate who saw the attack.
Fishbone immediately contacted Tower One’s building management office.
“The guy said “Gary, we’re bleeding down here,” Fishbone, who was 38 at the time, recalled. “I knew I had to get there and help.”
Fishbone, whose office was about one mile from the World Trade Center, persuaded a cab driver to take him within four blocks of the World Trade Center, where he exited and ran the rest of the way.
“He said, ‘you want go where?’ ” Fishbone recalled. “But he got me close enough to where I could get to the towers.”
Fishbone entered Tower 7 through the back. It provided the easiest access to the Trade Center, and he was familiar with the building, having worked there almost every day.
After helping evacuate some people at the back of Tower 7, Fishbone went to the lobby, where emergency personnel were getting ready to set up a triage. But that never happened because, as they were making their preparations, Tower 2 was hit.
“It was a large boom, and then a big flash,” Fishbone said. “We were all in front of a big glass wall, so we all turned away. By then Tower One collapsed. I knew we had to get everyone out of the building.
“Then someone yelled out if anyone knew the layout of the building, which I did.”
Fishbone then got the group of about 14 people into a corridor that ran from the lobby to some outdoor loading docks. That was a walk of maybe 80 feet that lasted two or three minutes, but the corridor was filled with dust and debris. Visibility was limited to some emergency lighting.
“I had my two small Maglite flashlights with me, which I always carry in my tool bag,” Fishbone said. “As far as I’m concerned, those flashlights got us out of that corridor. There was a lot of screaming and panic. Even though I knew where I was going, we wouldn’t have gotten to the loading docks, and then outside to safety, without them. They saved our lives.”
Outside, the scene was horrific.
“When we got onto the loading docks, it looked like a blizzard but It wasn’t cold,” Fishbone said. “It was all of the dust and debris in the air, and it lingered for awhile. I was on a pay phone when I saw Tower 2 collapse. I think that was when I was the most scared, because I had no control over anything.”
After speaking with his wife Jackie on the cell phone, Fishbone made his way to his parents apartment, in Manhattan, where he stayed until about 4:30 the next morning. He remembers getting home about noon the next day.
“They were running trains out of Penn Station,” he said. “That’s how I got back home to New Jersey.”
Jackie Fishbone said she watched news reports of the attacks with some friends and never considered that he might not return home.
“I knew he would come back OK,” she said. “I knew what kind of a person he is and how strong he is, so I never worried about it.”
Several days after the attacks, Fishbone got on Mag Instrument’s website to learn more about the company.
“I got to thinking that these were a lot more than two little flashlights,” he said. “They saved lives. There was a testimonial section on the website, and I posted one.”
Fishbone received several complimentary flashlights from Maglite, but otherwise heard nothing from the company for about 10 years, when they asked him to participate in a History Channel documentary on gadgets produced by Popular Mechanics magazine.
About one year ago, Maglite officials called and asked him about receiving the company’s first Civilian Hero Award, and he agreed. The award – a flashlight engraved with Fishbone’s name – was the idea of Maglite Vice President Jim Zecchini, who modeled it after the company’s award to someone from law enforcement who did something heroic with a Maglite flashlight.
Both awards try to shift attention onto people who do good things, Maglica said.
“Too many times we don’t pay enough attention to the people who do the right thing, the Good Samaritans,” said Maglica, who accompanied Gary and Jackie Fishbone, their 24-year-old son Bryan and Bryan’s girlfriend Rachael on a tour of Mag Instrument Tuesday, the 18th anniversary of the attacks. “The media only tells us about the criminals. I think we need to pay more attention to the people who do good.”
Fishbone is still an electrical contractor in Manhattan, and he and his wife still live in New Jersey. He says New York City is probably as back to normal as it will ever be, but that the events of 9/11 will never go away entirely.
“I think about it at least once every day,” Fishbone said. “It’s impossible not to. I saw people jump out of buildings. Whatever you do, don’t tell me how terrible a day you just had.”
