Thomas Essen Quotations

They were surrounding (the original fire), attacking it, in every possible way, trying to get in there every possible way, ... Put the fire out as fast as they could so to avoid something like this. But, it must have been burning longer than they were aware of. There was probably more serious fire in the basement. It was visible as they began to get inside, and it just blew up without any warning.

I can't find anybody from five rescues and seven squads, ... It's a devastating thing. The fire department will recover, but I don't know how.

I think that one of the criticisms of this committee has been statements like you just made, talking about scandalous procedures and scandalous operations and rules and everything else,

Every firefighter knows that he is always susceptible to this type of tragedy. They go to work every day knowing that they are doing something so positive, that people really respect them and people appreciate them,

They're cutting holes through the roof ... hoping there's people trapped below that roof in a spot ... where there might be a little room for them to breathe and where they might not be crushed.

The more I walk it, the more I realize there's less hope, ... But we still believe there is hope in some of the mall areas and some of the below-ground areas where enough strength stopped the pressure and there's a void that people could still be in.

What was a quiet Sunday turned into a terrible tragedy very quickly.

On Father's Day 2001, the mayor and I attended the funerals of three brave fire-fighters lost in the line of duty. I couldn't help thinking, as we were winding down our terms of office, that it was one of the saddest days I could remember, not knowing my life and the lives of those around me would change forever very soon.

There's nothing scandalous about how New York handles its emergencies. We had strong leadership with the mayor. We had strong leadership with the fire commissioner and with the police commissioner.

Sprinklers aren't required for that type of a business at that level of flammables that he's got stored,