Prince George resident Bill Bird is recovering from a stroke which makes it hard for him to express what he feels and remembers about his time as a relief volunteer at Ground Zero, but it's clear the events still have an emotional impact on him.
Bird spent two and a half weeks as an International Health Services Foundation volunteer at Ground Zero in September and October, 2001
"It was so powerful - it just made an impression on me," Bird said. "I'll never forget it was just a big hole. It was a huge building - and it was just a pile. It still effects me."
In October, 2001 Bird told his story to Citizen reporter Bernice Trick. Today the 75-year-old retired salesman has lost his gift of the gab, but the look in his eyes speaks eloquently to the emotion the memories conjure up.
"I still think about it. When I think about it, it's pretty bad," he said. "I wish I could talk [more], but I can't."
Bird said he remembers the shocked, numb looks on the faces of the emergency workers.
"Most people weren't talking - nobody talked," he said. "I remember one kid about 20 years old. I used to talk with him all the time. He wanted to know why God - he wanted answers."
In 2001, Bird told the Citizen about the Hellish scene at Ground Zero and the determination of the fire fighters and emergency workers searching for survivors and the remains of the dead.
"The smell is horrendous, and even four miles away where I slept in a church, you can smell death. Ground zero is still burning and it's burning hot. Huge cranes are holding up walls so people can work around it. And huge dump trucks come out loaded, and have to be hosed down to wash off the asbestos and cement dust," Bird said in 2001.
"Firefighters are just work on adrenaline. Their eyes are glazed over as though they are numb. But they won't quit. They work 12-hour shifts in between doing their own jobs. Their meals are taken to them at their work site because they don't want to come out to eat and they don't want to have to be hosed down of all the muck and dirt they're covered in."
He saw the recovery of a hand still clutching a phone and a fireman's foot still wearing the boot.
"They put that foot on a fire truck, and took it away as sirens blared and every working firefighter saluting as the truck screamed past."
