{"id":283334,"date":"2026-09-10T22:58:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T22:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/283334\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T22:58:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T22:58:16","slug":"erie-man-recalls-working-with-first-responders-in-9-11-aftermath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/283334\/","title":{"rendered":"Erie man recalls working with first responders in 9\/11 aftermath"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Twenty-five years ago in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, an Erie man was called in to help first responders dig through the rubble.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;It was surreal. You could imagine, there were two buildings more than 100 stories high, and all of the sudden you look, it&#8217;s a 30-foot-high pile of debris,&#8221; said Professor Emeritus Dr. Frank Vento.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Dr. Vento was called on by federal law enforcement to bring his ground penetrating radar to New York City after 9\/11. Now, he reflects on the five days he spent at ground zero while crews worked among the rubble.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;We used the radar to identify in the subsurface the structural stability\u2014 could they bring trucks in, heavy equipment, you know, to drive close to the pile of debris to start to remove parts of it,&#8221; said Dr. Vento.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a data-ylk=\"slk:City officials detail next steps in storm cleanup process;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\/news\/local-news\/city-officials-detail-next-steps-in-storm-cleanup-process\/?ipid=promo-link-block1\" class=\"promo-link__link\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0City officials detail next steps in storm cleanup process\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">While he worked to mitigate and ensure the safety during recovery efforts, he points to the work of emergency crews on scene: &#8220;I can&#8217;t say enough about the firefighters because they took control of the entire scene the whole time I was there. Five days. Anything that went on, they were in control of, they organized everything.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Following the recent release of air quality records in New York City following the attacks, Dr. Vento believes there should have been more done to protect the crews and first responders working in the city at that time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;For 25 years we weren&#8217;t told what was in the air, right? We were told when we were there that masks weren&#8217;t necessary, in fact there were no masks,&#8221; Dr. Vento said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Dr. Vento said with the division in our country 25 years after 9\/11, he hopes we can think back to the unity that erased those dividing lines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;After that event, the whole country was united. It was democrats, republicans, citizens in general were very supportive of each other. I wish we&#8217;d get back to those days when people were kinder.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Dr. Vento hopes in sharing his story, we can remember the work of the first responders and lives lost on that day almost 25 years later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<a data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twenty-five years ago in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, an Erie man was called in to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137,11326,56439,99999],"class_list":["post-283334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-federal-law-enforcement","tag-ground-penetrating-radar","tag-september-11-attacks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}