Stories of survival & loss at Ground Zero

September 11, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

On the 25th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, Fresh Air revisits the stories of those who were inside the World Trade Center and those who searched for the missing. The episode weaves together firsthand accounts from New York City firefighters who made impossible choices in the stairwells, a retired firefighter who lost two brothers and then spent months digging through the rubble, a writer who explained the architectural flaws that doomed the towers, and artists who turned to poetry and music to make sense of the aftermath. What emerges is not a single narrative of heroism or loss, but a collection of specific, unpolished moments—a captain deciding to stop for a slow-moving woman, a firefighter choosing to stay on the job after his brothers were killed, a saxophonist walking down 39 flights of stairs in the dark.

The decision to stop on the 27th floor

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What you'll learn

1 Stories of survival & loss at Ground Zero
2 Fresh Air
3 (00:20) **Introduction: 25th Anniversary of 9/11** - Host David B. Couley sets up the episode's focus on the World Trade Center, featuring three first-person accounts recorded in the years following the attacks.
4 (01:02) **FDNY Deputy Chief Jay Jonas: The Decision to Stop** - Jonas, then a captain, led his men up the North Tower's stairs and describes the moment he learned the South Tower had collapsed.
5 (03:42) **The Fourth Floor: Harris Collapses** - By the fourth floor Josephine Harris could no longer support her own weight and began yelling at the firefighters to leave her.
6 (04:47) **How They Survived the Collapse** - Jonas explains the physics of why his crew lived while so many died.
7 (08:10) **Escaping Through the Rubble** - Trapped for about four hours, Jonas's crew finally saw sunlight through a slit of blue sky where 106 floors used to be.

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Show Notes

For the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, we go into our archive for voices of those who were there. Deputy Fire Chief John “Jay” Jonas spoke with Terry Gross about being inside the North Tower when it collapsed. Firefighter Ken Haskell talks about losing his two brothers and his search at Ground Zero. Author (and former firefighter) Dennis Smith talks about the structure of the WTC itself, and how it contributed to deaths.

In the second half of the show, we hear from artists who processed the tragedy in poetry and music: Poets Sekou Sundiata and Robert Pinsky, saxophonist Sonny Rollins.

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