Former Ground Zero commander breaks down Brooklyn building collapse rescue

We're going to turn our attention now to an analysis of the urban search and rescue mission and with a man who has given so much to our city and also to our region, both as a chief of the Port Authority Police Department, also the head of the Joint Terrorism Task Force and in one of his roles specific to today. As the day tour commander at Ground Zero for eight months during the rescue and recovery operation after the terror attacks. And he oversaw 27 different urban search and rescue units. John Ryan, thank you so much for joining us and making time to help us understand what's going on here. You're welcome, and thanks for having me. We appreciate it. John, what goes into an operation like this for an urban search and rescue when you see that video that we've been showing coming out of Brooklyn of what's going on there, this terrible tragedy? So, as bad a tragedy as this is, New York is sort of fortunate in a sense because of the amount of resources that we have. So within that. Urban Search and Rescue Group, it's actually 28 urban search and rescue teams that are spread throughout the United States. The New York Task Force One is based here, and it's primarily made up of New York City. Thank Police officers from the emergency service unit there and New York City firefighters from their special operations command you that are used to dealing with these types of incidents there. And actually, the incident in Brooklyn very is being managed not by an urban search and rescue, but under the New York City incident management system. much. And structural collapses is the fire department is the incident command that is there. So they would be leading all of the rescue components at this point. Okay, so when there's something like this that happens, where there's this building collapse, devastating building collapse, it's before there's a lot of information about how many people may have been there. What was going on, that type of thing. You were in the position where you were directing these teams to do what needs to be done. If you were commanding the operation, what kinds of concerns would you have and what are the top three things that you do when you arrive on a scene like that? So on a situation like this, where there's a concern for life safety, the primary mission is to recover, rescue, and then recover as many people as possible safely. So given the fact that the building was adjacent to a site that had been excavated there, the first thing you're going to be doing there is looking for... The victims that are accessible, after the people that are located that are accessible, the next thing is to get into areas there where people might be buried. But before you can do that, for the safety of the rescuers there and also for the safety of the people that unfortunately may be buried within the debris, you have to make sure that the area is shored up and that there's no further collapse that could then injure the rescue workers, But further. Injure or even kill people that might be buried within the debris. So that would be the primary mission would be the search for life. Search for victims. Once you've located all the visible victims, the next point would be to bring in heavy equipment to start removing the building's components that have collapsed. But before you can do that, you have to make sure that the surrounding area is shored up. The challenge that they're facing today is, as was mentioned in earlier reporting, is the weather conditions, the rain, the wind. All of these things could have impact on the structure that collapsed already there. You start to get flooding within the site there that could, you know, drown victims if they were buried deep within the site, but also further weaken the soil and the... The structure that actually collapsed. And then what about the risk factor of these types of sites? We're seeing them all over New York City. We've seen previous incidents very similar to this one, not with as many fatalities, but very similar where something new is going up, and then there's older buildings on either side or one side, and then there's collapses, and this type of thing happens. Do you see these scenes or sites? You can go, that's an accident, that's a tragedy waiting to happen. Well, besides the fire department being the incident commander, you also have the New York City Office of Emergency Management that is bringing in all of these other agencies to the Department of Construction, the Department of Design and Construction. They're also to assist in removing the debris that is being taken out of the site there to get to further victims. All of that coordination takes place through the New York City Office of Emergency Management there. Primarily with these construction sites, it's the Department of Construction. They have inspectors that go out there, and I've seen some reporting there that the site that was excavated there may have been already fined for having some insufficiencies there during the actual excavation and, I guess, eventually building a building on that site there. But the... The real key to managing these incidents there is the coordination that takes place between all of the agencies there. You know, you have New York City subways that are in that area. So those subway systems might be shut down so that it doesn't create further vibrations there that could impact As was mentioned earlier, the debris, but also the soil at the site, the street closures around it, they're impacting public transportation. All of these things need to be coordinated through a central location, which is the New York City Office of Emergency Management, while the FDNY under the City Incident Management System is the primary agency handling the rescue operation. At the at the location. And then, John, at what point does it become it go become a go from a rescue operation to a recovery operation? And what's the likelihood that, you know, almost 24 hours later that somebody might actually still be alive there? So, you know, if we were to base it upon previous more significant incidents there, like earthquakes, World Trade Center, you know, the thought process there was that based on the people that had been rescued and prior incidents there, it was looked at at 14 days. This will never, in my opinion, Go from a rescue to a recovery, given the fact that it's a three-story building, they'll continue to excavate until they clear all of the debris and locate all of the people that are unaccounted for. So given that it was a fixed structure, a three-story, Don't worry. Once they start interviewing people, they should be able to find out exactly how many people were located within those buildings. You also have coordination with the New York City Police Department, Missing Person, and the Medical Examiner's Office there to record and identify any of the people that are reported missing there that may have been at the scene of the tragedy. After 9-11, given the tremendous loss of life, the... The city created this system. It's called the Unified Victim Identification System, which is managed out of the New York City medical examiner's office in coordination with the New York City Police Department and EMS. So that system is a very robust system, and it's used to... identify and locate all of the victims of a specific incident. So like in this case, they'll be canvassing local hospitals. Some people may have self-evacuated themselves and went to a hospital for treatment, but they'll also be looking at You know, locating and coordinating with the building owners to find out how many people actually live in the building to get a relatively good number of potential victims. And, John, what about tools that the rescuers and that the first responders might have? We were just showing video. It looked like the firefighters had a dog that was going over the area. Is there any type of technology that can assist them, too, especially in such a massive amount of debris? So, given the instability of it there, the fact that it collapsed, excuse me, they'll be using drones to access the area to see whether or not they see people, but also to see if they can get a better idea as to what locations might be more stable that they can then begin entering into the site. Besides the drones, the FDNY are being supported by the New York City Police Department, Well, I'm in K9 cadaver locators. To look and see if they can find people, you know, bloodhounds there that look for missing people, but also can look for remains within the collapse zone. And then what about the, you know, we've always we all know about the lack of equipment that first responders had during after, you know, after 9-11 at Ground Zero. Do the current first responders today in 2026, fire department, paramedics, the police department, Port Authority police, do they have proper equipment to protect themselves when they're in these? They do. And at this stage there, the majority of that equipment is hand tools. Because they don't know the stability of the components that have collapsed in. So they'll be using jaws of life. They'll be using Sawzalls, all hand tools that don't add any excessive weight that could further endanger not only the rescuers, but people that might be trapped within the debris. So they'll start out with the hand tools. Once they get a better idea as to the stability of this area. Shoring up the surrounding areas there to see whether or not, in coordination with the engineers, whether they can bring in heavy equipment to access and start the removal of the bigger components of the buildings. And then how do you deal with the humanity and the emotion after something like this? How did you deal with it after eight months at Ground Zero? Yeah. You there's also coordination with the with the Red Cross. They always turn out in support of the victims. You know, you don't only have the people that were in the collapsed building, but you have people in the surrounding buildings there that have concerns about the. The stability and the safety of their buildings as well. So there's a massive victim support system that goes into play that's run through the New York City Emergency Medical System and in coordination through the New York City Office of Emergency Management. So all of these support resources there get exercised on a regular basis there so that when there is a... An incident like this, they all come together and they're not meeting for the first time. They're coming together to coordinate support for the victims, victim families. They'll be setting up a family reunification center. And, you know, the. The thing people don't realize all the time is that, you know, maybe all of their families aren't located locally, so they'll be coming in from out of town, you know, and then coordinating through the hospitals also to identify the location of the victims so that they can further support the families. All right, great. John, thank you so much for breaking that all down for us. And again, thank you for your service to our city and to our region and to our country. We appreciate it. John Ryan, we're going to take a short break. When we come back, we're going to get an update.