Even as 16 years have passed, the emotions and sounds of Sept. 11, 2001, remain raw and vivid for Maui resident Adam Morsi, a former New York firefighter.
The 45-year-old broke down in tears Monday afternoon as he recalled hearing the eerie and intense chirps of fellow New York firefighters’ breathing apparatuses that let out high-pitched sounds when a firefighter’s body stops moving.
“When you don’t move for about 30 seconds, the chirps start going out . . . and the sound of over 300 of those going off at the same time” Morsi said, stopping as he tried to hold back tears.
That was the case when the Queens, N.Y., firefighter responded on his day off to the World Trade Center on the afternoon of Sept. 11. It was just hours after terrorists hijacked two commercial airliners and crashed them into the 110-story buildings, killing more than 2,000 people.