Joseph Pfeifer is part of the New York City firefighters who keep historic riding lists in place at a firehouse on East 85th Street. Twenty-five years after Sept. 11, 2001, that board still carries the names of nine firefighters who were unaccounted for after the World Trade Center towers collapsed.
Captain Douglas Mitchell, who has been on the job for 27 years, returned to the firehouse and said, “This is my home.” He added that after the collapse, “These are our people.”
East 85th Street riding lists
The firefighters continue to change the riding lists every morning and every evening. Stephen Saucedo and Juan Rivera were there with Mitchell at the firehouse, where ABC7 Eyewitness News in New York saw them reunite.
Saucedo said, “I’m blessed I’m still here.” Rivera said, “Twenty-five years later it’s like, oh wow, you’re the old man here.” Saucedo also said, “It’s a belonging. A camaraderie that you like to be part of, and it’s hard to let it go.”
Douglas Mitchell and the board
Mitchell said, “Nobody wanted to touch anything about them.” He said, “Looking at that board made us have some hope.”
He also warned that, “You know, this is chalk on a chalkboard; this is not going to last,” which is why the names are kept in a ritual that is repeated every day. About 840 firefighters who were working on 9/11 are still on the job today, and the firehouse list remains one way they keep that era present.
Sept. 11, 2001 memory
The names on the board stand for a loss that the firehouse still measures against daily life. The routine keeps the record alive at the same time it shows how fragile that record is.
