JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Chris Hogan remembers the moment clearly. A cloud of dust rising on a Tuesday morning he described as beautiful — and a world that was about to change forever.
“Seeing that cloud of dust on a beautiful Tuesday morning was something nobody ever expected,” Hogan said.
Twenty-five years ago, Hogan was working as a dispatcher at the City of Newark University Hospital in New Jersey when New York City came under attack on Sept. 11, 2001. News4JAX anchor Jenese Harris sat down with Hogan for a one-on-one conversation about a day he will never forget.
‘One of the scariest experiences’
When asked what it was like to realize the country was under attack, Hogan didn’t hesitate.
“It was one of the scariest experiences that any of us ever had and witnessed,” he said.
Dispatchers like Hogan had no option to stop. Even as trauma and loss mounted in the days and weeks that followed, they kept working — answering calls, coordinating help, keeping others safe.
“We could see what was happening on the radio,” Hogan recalled. “Seeing the people on the transit trains, seeing them covered in dust. Looking at the news and seeing all of those hospitals in Manhattan waiting for patients that never came because people were escaping from New York.”
Walking into Ground Zero
On Sept. 16, 2001, Hogan traveled to Ground Zero to assist with recovery efforts — a moment he described as unreal.
“To come through the Holland Tunnel, that was cleared by the New Jersey State Police, and coming out of the tunnel and seeing nobody — there was no traffic, heavily guarded,” he said. “The smell, the devastation, just seeing people walk around, the stares.”
The Sept. 11 attacks physically impacted New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia. But for Hogan, the memories remain vivid to this day.
Paying it forward in Jacksonville
Since 2001, Hogan and his family moved to Florida. He now serves as a paramedic and dispatch engineer with JFRD’s Gemma Auxiliary and teaches for an Emergency Medical Responder training program — preparing a new generation of first responders for whatever may come.
“There was zero hesitation,” Hogan said. “There was no regard for our own personal safety. We knew the risk, we knew them, and it wasn’t that we didn’t care — we didn’t feel like we had a choice.”
He added: “We don’t talk about it a lot. We just knew that’s where we had to be. We had to go there.”
A new report from New York City says many people were exposed to toxins while helping others after the attack. Several of Hogan’s friends have died over the years. He has been a dispatcher since 1987.
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