FDNY Firefighter Breaks 25-Year Silence on 9/11 Survival

For 25 years, John Drumm stayed away from his crew's reunions, interviews, and memorials about surviving the World Trade Center collapse. The FDNY firefighter couldn't shake the feeling that it was their story to tell, not his.

But this September, something changed. When his captain Jim McGlynn invited him to the 9/11 Memorial, the 59-year-old pulled out his dress blues and made the trip from Orange County to Lower Manhattan.

"I wouldn't let myself be included with them," Drumm said. "So being included last week helped cross another bridge."

The story he carried alone all these years began in the dust and chaos of the north tower's lobby. McGlynn and Bob Bacon went back up the stairs to find Drumm, while James Efthimiades and Jeffrey Coniglio waited below. But Drumm had already made his way through the broken glass doors.

Minutes later, firefighters were yelling at him to run. The north tower was coming down.

He pressed himself against the Verizon Building as the floors collapsed. Then on hands and knees, using the West Side Highway median as his guide, he crawled north through the debris to safety.

His crew survived the collapse in Stairwell B. They've always told him the same thing: if they hadn't gone back for him, they likely would have died when the building fell.

"So 6 Truck had Josephine as a Guardian Angel and we have you," McGlynn joked at their recent gathering. It was a reference to Josephine Harris, the Port Authority worker who slowed down Ladder 6 in the same stairwell where Engine 39 survived.

Why This Inspires

The firefighters now carry different scars. Bacon avoids crowds and concerts. Efthimiades retired early due to respiratory issues from Ground Zero. Drumm, now a deacon at his Lutheran church, never says goodbye to his family anymore.

But they're here. They remember the 343 FDNY firefighters who didn't make it home. They honor Arthur Myers, who drove their truck that day and bear-hugged each of them when they emerged alive.

Their friend Jeffrey Coniglio sees divine timing in their survival. "I truly believe that God provides," he said. "We don't know what the outcome would have been."

After a quarter century, Drumm is ready to be part of the story again, proving that some wounds need decades to heal and that brotherhood can wait as long as it takes.