Eerie Details

as many marked the anniversary of the sept. 11 attack yesterday, i remained caught up in disturbing details of the tragedy that reveal it's shocking enormity.

one detail that has stuck with me:

all firefighters carry something called a PASS - personal alarm safety system. this beeping alarm can be triggered by a firefighter in trouble, OR it is automatically triggered once a fallen firefighter has been idle for a short while. this is intended, of course, to let other firefighters know where their fallen firefighters are so they can hopefully rescue them.

on sept. 11, one eyewitness rushed to ground zero shortly after one of the towers fell. upon entering the scene, he described it as fairly quiet, except for the sounds of firefighters PASS's going off in all directions - hundreds of them.

jb