Choate Rosemary Hall

N.Y. firefighter gives Delran students eyewitness view of 9/11

"I'm going to be a firefighter. I always wanted to be a fireman, "he said Gerber.

"I lived the dream since," he said to students at Delran High School on Friday, where he received a standing ovation after giving the students a summary of the day when his dream turned into a nightmare, 11 September 2001.

Gerber has described how he felt lucky to be one of 500 candidates selected from 40,000 applicants for the Fire Department of the city.

"It's a really rigorous program," he said of the probationary training.

He graduated from the "school freshman" in July 2001.His first mission was to deliver a baby.

The crystal blue morning of Sept. 11, Gerber said he was checking his equipment when he noticed on television that the World Trade Center was on fire. In a few moments on the fifth alarm, the crew was sent from his station in the Bronx for the shopping center site about 10 miles. On the way, he noticed his friends all talk on their cell phones. A firefighter who befriends Gerber told him to call his mother.

The crew could see the twin towers burning as they rushed toward them. They parked as close as they could, about three blocks.

Gerber said he was walking with a lieutenant when he noticed that the man had forgotten the necessary equipment. He returned to the truck and they headed back to the towers. At this point, Gerber said he was looking for when he saw the antenna on top of one of the towers jiggle a little, as the second hand on a clock moves. Then the tower collapsed.

"When you see something like that is unbelievable," he said.

Then he saw people running toward him, followed by a billowing cloud of concrete, steel and glass powder.

"This huge cloud of gray dust and ash comes to me.You run for your life, "recalled Gerber, aware enough to keep her breathing apparatus, as it fell to other equipment.

As the cloud caught up with him, everything went black. He had seen a new truck before the cloud descended and ran toward her, striking the side. He opened a door and fell inside, then urged the driver on board in the area. They picked up other people fleeing the scene as they left.

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