Changed by 9/11: Rocco Pasquarello, Firefighter

Rocco Pasquarello of Melville had been a volunteer firefighter and captain in the Franklin Square Fire Department for more than 12 years.

When he got married and had his two daughters, he decided to take a break from the department and continued to work full time as the vice president of information technologies of Fuji Bank, located at Two World Trade Center.

Sept. 11, 2001, started as an ordinary day. Pasquarello woke up early, rode the Long Island Rail Road into Manhattan, hopped on the Subway and grabbed coffee with his coworkers before heading to the office. He joked with the security guards and said hello to Jack who ran the football pool each year.

That morning would be the last he ever saw of them again.

At 8:43 a.m. the first plane hit the north tower.

“We then heard an extremely loud whoosh and crackling noises from outside the windows. I looked out the lunchroom windows and saw Two World Trade Center surrounded by a ball of flames and getting hit by debris. We thought a sightseeing helicopter had hit our building,” he said. “The windows on the far side of our building cracked from the heat of the explosion of Tower One.”

He and his coworkers decided to get out of the building when an announcement came over the loud speaker telling the employees that the Tower Two was safe and that all employees could return to their offices. Pasquarello made the decision with six other coworkers to continue evacuating. Pasquarello's office was on the 81st floor, which the second plane later struck. Those who followed the announcement and went back to work never made it out.

It took him 13 minutes to get to the 55th floor, at which time the second plane hit.

“I remember seeing women’s shoes all over on every floor. High heels women took off to run down the stairs,” he said.

From his company, 23 people died including three security guards, Jack and Human Resources Director Brian Thompson of Dix Hills. Pasquarello later went to Thompson’s memorial, but his remains were never found.

It took Pasquarello 25 minutes to get out of the building. “We looked up and saw the tops of both towers on fire. It is an image I’ll never forget,” he said.

Within 10 minutes after he escaped the building, the second tower collapsed.

Looking back a decade later, he recalls that day as a “stream of consciousness,” which included a series of decisions that he believe saved his life. “I just thought of my family and knew I had to get home because they were worried about me.”

Pasquarello is reminded of the attacks each day as he commutes to Jersey City instead of Manhattan for work since his office was destroyed. While he his reminded of the tragedies each day, his new office also offers a silver lining of a better future. From his window, Pasquarello can view the construction at Ground Zero and has watched the city rebuild itself from the rubble.

“It's a sad feeling but also like we're moving on. We won’t ever have closure, but we’re moving ahead again,” he said.

After his kids were old enough to go to school, he felt a calling to return to the fire department. He has been a volunteer firefighter with the Melville Fire Department for the last six years.

“It feels good doing it again, it's giving back,” he said.

Working in the fire department, Pasquarello has seen the events of 9/11 continue to take hold on him and his fellow fire fighters.

"We see people sick. My friends are coughing, they have cancer," he said of his fellow firefighters who are suffering from the dusty aftermath of the Ground Zero site.

The physical effects are noticeable among many, but the mental toll is also a lingering reminder of that day. "I still look over my shoulder when I walk into the subway," he said.

One month after Pasquarello narrowly escaped death, he wrote a letter to his children. He said that he wanted to write it down while the event was still fresh in his mind so that one day he could explain to his daughters, who were then 1 and 3 years old, what happened.

“Daddy’s tried to get through this the best he could. He still cries, gets angry easily and can’t easily fall asleep at times,” he wrote to them.

The most important thing Pasquarello said he wanted to pass on to his children is tolerance for all people. "What happened was the act of a few people and you can't blame the whole religion," he said. "That's the thing I tell them the most."

This year, Pasquarello is leading a 10th anniversary memorial service for the victims of 9/11 at the Melville Fire Department on Sunday where the fire department will honor his coworkers, fellow firefighters and other residents from the Town of Huntington who perished that day.

“This is for them,” he said.