Faces of Ground Zero 2001
John Baldassarre
Lieutenant, Ladder 9, Engine 33, FDNY
Having just come off the night shift, Baldassarre was having breakfast at his firehouse in lower Manhattan when a fellow firefighter announced that the World Trade Center had just been hit by a plane.
"I went down to the corner of Great Jones and Lafayette to take a look at the impact. As I headed back to the firehouse, I saw Engine 33 responding to the alarm. I approached the rig and said to Lieutenant Pfeifer, 'Kev, be careful down there, it doesn't look good.' Then they drove past me. With the exception of Richard Conte, the chauffeur, the guys on that crew - Kevin Pfeifer, Robert King Jr., David Arce, Michael Boyle, Robert Evans and Keithroy Maynard - never came back."
