As a young firefighter with the Fishers Fire Department, Jamey Burrows was about to begin a technical rescue class as part of his training on Sept. 11, 2001, when he heard an ominous message over the station’s public address system.
“They said the World Trade Center was on fire,” Burrows recalled. “When I walked into the large training room, they had a big screen (TV) in there, and they’d already turned the channel and had it up, so when I walked in, I saw one of the towers burning. We were all in the classroom watching it when the second plane hit the second tower.”
Burrows, now the chief of the Chesterfield-Union Township Fire Department, said it only took seconds to grasp the gravity of what he was seeing. His fears were realized when the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed.
“I remember my captain at the time was in there with us, and he said, ‘Guys, several firefighters just got killed,’” Burrows said.