Dialectical Journal For The Giver

Matthew E. Barnes was a firefighter who could be called many things including a hero, a friend, a husband, a father and even an angel. The story begins like many 9/11 stories do, with the planes being hijacked, he was one of the men working that day in the New York City Fire Department that would go into the World Trade Center, but would never come out. The 37-year old resident of Monroe, New York was a father to three boys and the husband to Ms. Susan Barnes; he would spend all his available time with his family, somehow slipping out of chores and such just to go fishing with his boys. Two years before the 9/11 he had saved two twins, Isabella and Jacob Kalodner from a fire in their mother, Linda Kalodner’s apartment, by climbing up a 100-foot aerial ladder to the 10th story to save the 6 week old twins.

During 9/11 a tragic event happened. Two planes were hijacked and crashed into the twin towers on a beautiful Tuesday. Everyone was surprised and shocked about what had happened on such a beautiful day in Manhattan. Now from the perspective of what was occurring inside the building, it was obvious people were unaware of what was happening. After a plane crashed into the first tower, people at the bottom floor got out of the building. In the other tower, some people were confused about what was going on. After someone came onto the intercom and told everyone in the building they were safe, and that everything was going to be fine, they told everyone on the bottom floor to go back up the building but, some others still remained

1.) People are not allowed to go outside after the specified curfew, this can help prevent someone getting injured, kidnapped, and just ensure a higher level of security for the residents in the society.

     The fire spread from the O’Learys’ barn to the yards nearby. Soon it was spreading throughout the neighborhood. William Lee, a neighbor a block away, saw the fire and ran to Bruno Goll’s drugstore to turn in the fire alarm. Bruno Goll refused to turn in the alarm because he said the fire truck had already gone past. So instead of arguing, Lee went home to his family. At the courthouse the lookout on duty saw smoke, but thought nothing of it, thinking it was just Saturday's fire and there was no reason to be alarmed. Then he looked up and noticed it was a different fire and had his assistant strike the Box 342 for the fire department. Soon fire trucks were at the scene and attempted to put out the fire. The fire department’s Chief Marshal, Robert A. Williams got the engines to circle the fire to contain it. They got as close to the fire as they could until their arm hair was being burned and their

“This is it”, Will said softly as the he is in tower was collapsing. The jet fuel in an inferno about 20 feet away, scorching the concrete. There are dismembered limbs, scorched around him. He remembers the moments before the plane hit the 1st tower. He was terrified when he saw the plane collide. There were objects and debris flying everywhere. The people around him were terrified, wondering if the people in the other tower were alright. The tower was shook from the impact. He knew that he had to run, or else he would die. He sprinted as fast as he could to the stairs, when he was younger he had a similar experience, the Oklahoma City bombing.

The survivors of September 9, 2001 will never be the same. While they may be emotionally scarred from the traumatic event, physical scars will also remain on their body. Bruno Dillinger describes that many evacuators lacked skin and hair, and that many evacuators were severely burnt. Despite all the mayhem and chaos, the people in the stairwell kept their wits with them. They did not panic; they were calm. Bruno Dillinger’s description of the first responders walking up the stairs was heartbreaking. He commented, “They were going up to their death. And I was walking down to live.” Despite the fear the firefighters and other responders felt, they rose to the occasion in order to save the lives of many others. The bravery the firefighters and

April 19, 1995, 9:02 a.m: a bomb was set off beneath the Alfred P. Murrah Building. The bomb damaged the structural support beams and the Northern support columns. Half of the building collapsed. 168 people died (Cook 5). Eric McKisick, a district manager, recalls the incident, ¨I made an assumption that, hey, everybody is out, everybody is good, and I left at that point. It wasn't ´till much later that I saw the devastation and understood they didn't respond because they couldn't.” Not only were there a large number of casualties, 300 people were also injured, some of whom were physically impaired for the rest of their life. A child who was in the building at the time of the explosion states, “I have no recollection of that day, but I’m reminded everyday about it because of my breathing problems (Brandes, Heide, Schapiro).”

September 11th, 2001 left a huge impact on people’s lives all over the country. Michael Burke, a wall street journalist, discusses 9/11 in the article, “No Firemen at Ground Zero This 9/11?”. He expresses the bravery the first responders showed on the tragedy of 9/11. On the 10th anniversary, the firemen were not invited to ground zero to watch the remembrance ceremony. The committee that puts on the ceremony sent invitations to politicians, but not the firefighters who put their lives on the line to save others. They were told they could watch on TV instead. Burke is trying to show the businessmen of New York about how wrong not inviting the first responders was, he does this with his descriptive narrative and organizational structure.

On the afternoon of March 25, 1911, a fire broke out in the 10-floor Asch Building, a block east of Manhattan's Washington Square. This is where 500 mostly young immigrant girls were producing shirts for the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. Within minutes, it spread to consume the building's upper three stories. Firemen at the scene were unable to rescue those trapped inside: their ladders weren't tall enough. Exits were locked, and the narrow fire escapes were inadequate. Panicked, many jumped from the windows to their deaths. People on the street watched in horror. The flames were under control in less than a half hour, but 146 people perished, 123 of them women. It was the worst disaster in the city's history.

On October 15, 1910 the factory has a mandatory fire inspection and they pass. A month later, a fire in Newark kills twenty-five workers. This stimulates fire prevention efforts in buildings but again, this warning is ignored. January 15, 1911 is the last time prior to the fire that garbage is taken from the factory. On March 16, another report warning of improper safety standards in New York buildings is published. However, like previous warnings, it is again ignored. Nine days later, at 4:45 PM, just before workers would be released, a fire breaks out on the eighth floor. This fire will take the lives of a 146 unfortunate victims. Most of these victims are those of young woman. Six minutes later, the New York Fire Department (NYFD) arrives on site. By this time, the fire is spreading up to the ninth and tenth floors, which also belong to the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. Those on the eighth floor quickly head down and those on the tenth floor flee to the roof. However, most workers who were on the ninth floor are stranded, unable to move up or down. By 4:47 PM, the last of the bodies from the ninth floor land on the sidewalk, falling from the ninth floor ledge. It is not until 5:05 PM, that the fire is finally taken under control and ten minutes later is described as “all over.” (Stein. Triangle Fire) NYFD fighters head to all the top floors of the building finding many severely burned bodies. Mobs of

Colonel J.D. Magnus was the commander of Camp Edwards in Massachusetts when the event hit that Saturday night which seemed like an eternity ago. Camp Edwards is or was an Army National Guard training area, the largest in the northeast. Like many National Guard and Reserve components throughout the nation it was the time of year that they held two week drills constantly on post by various units. On the night of the event the camp was at its maximum capacity as far as units on two week drill. Some of the units had been in the field for two weeks already and were returning to garrison to clean and turn in vehicles, tents, weapons and other gear. There were also new units arriving to start their two week drill.

The crew was not prepared for the fire when it suddenly arrived. A wave of fire, heat, and smoke over took them by surprise, Eight of the crew deployed their shelters on the road and the two civilians took shelter with one of the crew members. The squad boss was high above the road in the rock scree watching the fire. He ran down towards the road but couldn’t get there before the fire arrived, He turned around and ran back up the slope were the other four crew members and the crew boss was.

At 2215 hrs, on November 28, 1942, Fire Alarm Headquarters from Box 1514, situated at Stuart and Carver streets, received an alarm. When the responding apparatus arrived they found a small car fire at the corner of Stuart Street and Broadway. After the fire was extinguished the firefighters were about to return to quarters when their attention was called to smoke emanating from the Cocoanut Grove Nightclub a few doors away. Upon their arrival at the entrance of the Broadway lounge on Broadway they encountered numerous people leaving the premises admidst the cries of “fire”. The chief in charge immediately ordered that a third alarm be sounded from Alarm Box 1521 which the alarm was received by fire alarm headquarters at 2223 hrs. A

That evening, nearly 600 workers were working in the 10 floors of the Asch Building. Near closing time on March 25th, 1911, the fire broke out on the top floors. Oil that was spread all over the floors and tables of the sweatshop helped to increase the volume of the fire rapidly. The chaos that ensued created a crowded, dangerous pandemonium. One of the main disregarded safety features that lead to nearly 50 deaths was the locked stairwell doors. The doors had been locked by Blanck and Harris as a “safety procedure” to keep employees from stealing. During the fire, workers fled to the stairs, only to find they were trapped inside. In addition, out of the four elevators located in the building, only one was operational, and that elevator broke down after just four trips. In a desperate attempt to flee, girls waiting for the elevator plunged down the shaft to their deaths. The old and rusted fire escape on the eastern side of the building collapsed after it was overcrowded. Other girls who did not make it to the stairwells or elevators began jumping to the sidewalk. As firefighters arrived to fight the fire, bodies landed on their firehoses, making it difficult to extinguish the flames. Firefighters also brought ladders that only reached up to the 7th floor. The water pressure of the firehoses was not powerful enough to reach the burning levels of the building, and the nets brought to catch jumping women ended up ripped and torn after only a few uses, leaving girls with nothing to catch them apart from the concrete sidewalk. Those in the floors above the fire, including both Blanck and Harris, escaped the inferno to adjoining buildings from the rooftops. Remarkably, after just 18 minutes, the crisis was over. 49 workers had burned to death or were suffocated by the smoke, 36 were dead in the elevator shaft, 59 died from jumping to the concrete sidewalks. 2 later

Maycomb County has been living a few dynamic days, as it not only snowed yesterday, but also today at approximately 2 in the morning a tremendous fire burnt the house of Maudie Atkinson to the ground. Even though the cause of the fire has not been confirmed yet, it is highly believed that it was due to the flue in her kitchen. Since it had not snowed since 1885, the people in town were not prepared. The fire truck was killed by the extreme weather and it took plenty of time for it to arrive to the scene, but fortunately it arrived in time to prevent the fire from spreading to other houses in the neighborhood. The commotion among everyone was clearly perceived.