Retired Sacramento firefighter reflects on witnessing 9/11 in New York, 25 years later

Retired Sacramento firefighter Tony Soares reflects on witnessing 9/11 in New York City and what he hopes future generations will remember.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Twenty-five years after the terrorist attacks, retired Sacramento firefighter Tony Soares is reflecting on what he saw in New York City on 9/11 and the enormity of what happened.

Soares was inside a New York City fire station when firefighters were dispatched to the World Trade Center after a plane hit one of the towers.

“I am literally walking into the shower, on the second floor of the station, and over their internal speaker system they’re dispatching a 5th alarm to the World Trade Center for a plane into the World Trade Center. And my initial thought is, wow, that’s kind of odd.”

At the time, Soares thought the plane was a private aircraft.

He and his fire academy classmate, Mike, were visiting New York City for the first time for what was supposed to be somewhat of a working vacation.

They flew in on the Sunday before 9/11. By Tuesday, they were preparing to head to the Marriott World Trade Center, where they had reservations.

The two were about to leave the fire station when they caught a glimpse of the television.

“And then the first tower collapses. And the thing that stuck with me from that morning to now till probably I pass away, is the, the guys in the raider room kind of look around and they go, all of our brothers are dead. They understood what were their coworkers, their, their brothers, what they like to refer to them, brothers and sisters in New York, what just happened to them.”

At the time, Soares and Mike were on a FEMA Urban Search and Rescue team.

Their first thought was to start making calls and find out how they could help rescue people.

“Maybe we can, we can dig enough and find someone that by the grace of God, was lucky enough that’s still alive.”

But Soares said FEMA regulations would not allow them to go.

Their hotel was also completely demolished, leaving them with the option of returning home to Sacramento.

ABC10 captured video of Soares and Mike greeting their families at the airport about a week later.

“We made it home,” said Soares in the video.

Twenty-five years later, Soares watched that video again.

“Looking at that and kind of the message that we shared when we got interviewed. I’d like to think is kind of the same message that I kind of shared this morning with you two. Just the enormity of it. I’ll always remember it, but it was definitely good to get home,” said Soares.

The now-retired firefighter and father of two remembers the tragedy as the attack on Pearl Harbor of his time.

Decades later, he hopes future generations will never forget what happened.

“The onus is really on the baby boomers, the Gen Xers to to reinforce what really happened that day. The enormity of it, the significant of it, significance of it, so that those next generations truly never forget,” said Soares.

Soares said he has not been back to New York City since 9/11.

But he said it is a great city and hopes that one day soon, he and his family will be able to experience all that New York is.

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