YouSaid · the spoken record

Niels Jorgensen

lines on the record: 208
first: 2021-09-11
most recent: 2021-09-11
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“And that's to me the true great one. Some of them, they just have a hard time doing that. There's no shame in showing yourself.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“True great firefighter or responder or a cop or military personnel. That rough exterior with that soft underbelly. At heart, right?”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And then I saw some of the behind the scenes that were so impressive. We'd go to a fire around Christmas and a family would lose everything. And even when I was a cop, same thing. You come back either to the police precinct or the firehouse or the EMS station. Someone would put together a collection and say, Hey guys, hey, Lex, 50 bucks a man, you know, the Smiths down the street just lost everything. We're going to go get some presents for the kids and some turkeys. And not one of those guys questioned that. And they were making $12, $25 an hour, and they still came up with 50 bucks for that family. But see, that's the stuff the press won't show you, right? They don't want to show that humanity, that soft edge. See, when you're a warrior, you need to have this rough shield, this rough exterior. Because if you don't, you die.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Know that's kind of a broad term. You can go to different firehouses and they might have a different definition of what they consider a great firefighter. But I think in the industry as a whole If you're willing to put Everyone else before you, especially your team, you know, as we say, there ain't no I in team, right? It's T-E-I-M and there's no I in there. It's all about those guys and girls next to you. You can do that Makes you pretty great. You put everything else second and you just run in and you run in with that team for strangers. You know, I've had the honor of, I spent almost 25 years in my adult life serving humanity, my country, my former city. And the people I worked with were giants. And I don't mean that in height. I mean, but I mean that in spirit and in soul. I saw some of the most heroic, selfless acts.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's hard to be selfless in this world anymore, but I still know a lot of selfless people that just put on equipment every day, bulletproof vests, fire, bunker gear, stethoscopes. Know flack jackets, military helmets, and they go in and they do it smiling, that young Marine that past. Last week she was photographed and quoted as saying, I have my dream job as she was holding a little Afghani baby. And she was dead a few days later. She was so thrilled to be making $7 an hour helping people, right? Isn't that huge? That to me says... That's a true sign of character right there”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Firefighters and coughs and medics and EMTs, nurses, emergency room doctors, they don't really make a lot of money. I mean, the starting salary right now for New York cop. I was a New York cop for two years first. I made $12, $25 an hour back in 1989 to get shot at. During the crack wars If you made $11 an hour with a family of four, you were entitled to welfare back then. So I was just above the welfare level, risking my life. And these are the guys that are getting ripped up now. And look, I won't get into any politics. Says something about a someone's soul that they're willing to take a job like that and get now get zero respect. So a guy like Stephen, what that shows is the depth of that man's soul and courage and determination.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That shows the depth of a man's soul. He didn't have to do that. He could have turned around and went home to his family. And nobody would have shamed him. He's one of those beautiful, brave people that take a job that really doesn't pay a lot of money. And you become a cop or a firefighter. Nurse or an EMT or a medic or soldier or marine or airman. Sailor, when you take these jobs, you don't do it Fanfare. You definitely don't do it for money. I mean, those 13 brave souls we lost a week or two ago in Afghanistan. They're brand new soldiers and Marines. They make $22,000 an hour But they don't work 40 hours a week. They work 80, they work 90 hours a week. So they're making about six bucks an hour. You know what? They sign up.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That he's now helped thousands and thousands of people in the tunnels of towers is incredible. That's part of our mission is to bring awareness to these great people a tunnel to towers what they do. They've raised $250 million to help. Help protect the protectors, to rescue the rescuers in a what's become unfortunately a somewhat ungrateful society, but they will not forget these great guys.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Through the tunnel and he got there to help his team, right? It's all about the teams, it's all about the guy right next year. And he's the tunnel to Towers Foundation, Steven. His brother Frank decided in his name. Perpetuity, he's got a fund that now builds a home for every Gold Star family, for every seriously battle-wounded warrior, for every seriously wounded first responder or killed in a lighting duty first responder, if they had a home, they'll pay the mortgage. If they didn't have a home, they give them a home. And especially if it's a severely battle wounded, they give him a smart home because these poor guys come home with no limbs. So, the beauty of Stephen and his selfless act.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Back through the battery tunnel Unbeknownst that morning. Off 35 fighter Steven Siller from Squad Company He raced down there with his pickup. Couldn't go any further because the traffic was stopped up because So everything was held up And he grabbed his fire gear and he put it on. Stuff weighs about 60 pounds. And he ran through the tunnel. And a half miles got to the end of the tunnel. Fire truck was coming in from the other way. He hopped on the back, got him up to West Street, jumped off, tried to look for his company where they were. And he was never seen again.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is me neither. He goes, No one's coming out of here. And I said, No, no, no. This has got to be someone coming out of here. I mean, there's thousands of people in here and they're coming out. We would hear him calling for help. They're gone. And I still at that point thought there was a chance. After about the fourth day, they just said, This is a recovery now. There's no more life. There's no more chance. And on that first night, we went full tilt till my crew, my specific crew of 12, 15 guys, and four in the morning, we just couldn't breathe anymore. We couldn't see. We were caked just with, it was like if you took flour and just kept dousing yourself. And a lieutenant just said, look, guys, we're going to go back. We're going to get some medical aid. And then we'll come back in a few hours. We took a city bus.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Unstable ground. Just horrible conditions, fires were still burning aside you, beneath you. And at one point, I kind of veered off to the side and I was with this other fireman from my father's old ladder company, 172. Was strange because we were down quite a bit down, like 70 feet down into this ravine of debris. And he says, Brother, what are you hearing? At the time, it was like dust, it was like sand just falling down a pile, and it was hissing from gas pipes and water pipes. And I said, I hear the gas lines. I hear the sand. I hear the concrete. He goes, no, no, what else do you hear? Just the side of us was Lady's pocketbook and a high heel shoe, and someone sneaker. Nobody with it. I said, I don't know. I don't hear anything”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Of the debris, it wasn't like you just walked a hundred feet on a street with something you were trying to climb over this eye beam and then down into this hole and then back up that hole. I mean, just to run one piece of equipment took a half an hour to get Feet, 200 feet. Mind you, some of these pieces of equipment are 100 pounds, generator for a hearse tools, this massive motor on a frame.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We painstakingly searched every single inch of that building to make sure no one was left in there. And then we were deployed to the pile and the pile is sort of ambiguous because there was just such a vast, vast pile. I mean, it went for city blocks. And we were assisting in the retrieval of two port authority police officers were lucky enough to survive, but they were trapped. They were deep down into a crevass and they had to be physically dug out and extricated. So there was a couple hundred few hundred guys involved in that process of bringing in equipment, jaws of life, airbags to lift steel, to cut pieces of steel. It was just a huge operation. And we were back toward the logistics end of it, shuttling in gear and bringing in stretchers, bringing in oxygen, you know, whatever was needed. And you were trying to climb over this jagged pump.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, this was nonstop, just nonstop really for days, but for my particular crew, we literally kept going. We initially were dispatched over towards number seven, had just gone down. And we were searching the post office that was there. There was reports of people trapped.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was just Was seen of control chaos, control because there was a semblance of command and we were just trying to do our jobs. But it was such a frantic pace because we're now digging frantically knowing that there's life underneath this pile.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Saved his life, but that's a heavy burden to carry now for the rest of your life because you say if I wasn't helping my dead friend, I'm dead.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Coming over the bridge, there's a famous picture of Ladder 118. You see this tractor trailer fire truck. It's the one with the guy in the back also drives. It's a zoomed out shot, and you see the Brooklyn Bridge, and you see only the fire truck in the middle, and you see the two burning towers in the distance. Well, his engine company was just ahead of them on the bridge Only reason that engine company lived is their initial duty assignment was to take that firefighter and bring his body over. It's like the military. We don't leave anyone behind. These are our guys. Some guys say it's all about the guy right next to you and nothing else really matters. When that guy right next to you goes down, it stops. You get that guy to safety. Or if he's dead, you get him out. In that time frame”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And there was plain parts that went into that firehouse, landed into the front doors onto the roof, but the building itself was not destroyed. So it was used as a mini command center for quite a while. My friend was ordered to take Daniel's body Respect and bring it over to this firehouse and give it some semblance of dignity and lay it out on one of the bunk room, the bunks we have in the bunk house. Just cover it with a sheet and put a sign, please fire to kill, do not disturb, and then we'll get to him later because obviously this operation is going to go on for days. And my friend, who's such a great, great, wonderful guy is so still to this day. Filled with guilt because if they weren't taking his body out. The respect and dignity that they did. It took a while because you know it's a tough situation. Ladder company”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's to me a true sense of desperation for humanity to say I'm going to die either way, but let me take my chance. And I don't know the exact number of those folks who did that, but our first member of the fire department killed firefighter Daniel Surf from 216 was struck by a jumper. And one of my dear friends was ordered to help take him, and they knew he was passed away because he was hit by a flying missile. I mean, you know, 120 miles an hour, a body lands on you. Those two bodies are now crushed. They were ordered to take that firefighter and bring him across the street to Engine 10, ladder 10. It was literally a firehouse Than 100 yards from the facade of the trade center, from the trade center complex. They're literally right there”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Those people who jumped, those were acts of sheer desperation. I've been in fires and just minor burns, but minor situation. But I've been trapped, caught somewhat, ended up in the burn center for some nothing serious at all. But for those brief seconds, half a minute was thank God if I didn't have my fire gear on, I would have been burned to a very, very horrible level. Those people were burning alive. And they had the choice of either to stay there and burn alive or to launch themselves. And some of them... Don't fault them, but they had a few folks, they won't show it anymore because they say, I don't know why, offend some people, but they had a couple folks that took umbrellas and they took garments. Because they thought that it would slow down their acceleration rate to the ground, and maybe just maybe they wouldn't be killed.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They closed down. I believe it's either seven or eight. In May of 2002, they closed down nine firehouses in New York City for budget reasons. We hadn't even finished cleaning up the World Trade Center site, and they slashed the budget. And still to this day have not reopened those firehouses. There's a million more people now living in New York City than there were in 2001. And the fire protection is way less than it was. And it's a sin. It's really a sin.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's a strange phenomenon in the first responder world and in the military world. It's really one of the most important things that takes place in society, the most pertinent organizations, and we can't get the funding we need. It's crazy. They'll throw money at every nonsensical thing. But when it comes to gear, equipment, protective equipment, trucks, this couldn't get it.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, guys had to walk up 80, 80, 90, 100 flights of stairs. And there's audio of Officers and firefighters speaking to each other on a radio channels, and unfortunately at that point in time we had very, very bad communication system. We've been fighting for years to get radios that work properly. We couldn't because it was a lot of money. We fought for years to get the full bunker firefighting suits, which is the pants and the coat. We used to have just coats and these roll-up rubber boots and guys were burning to death. And we had to fight. And unfortunately, we lost three guys in one vicious, vicious fire in 1994. And then they finally said enough's enough. Give these guys the gear.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the first bosses in, the first Chiefs were just going to do their best to get. We get hose lines, what our whole theory is, our tactics is to get water at the fire, at the base of the fire, and get the truck company, which is the ladder company. They're the guys who break the doors down, put ladders up, this and that, to get them to where the life is most expected and get them out of there. So I think the chief's tactics at that point was, let me get multiple engine companies, let me get four, five, six hose lines fighting this fire, this massive fire, and let me get 15, 20 truck companies up there just yoking people out of there.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Just burning. I mean, upper floors, just up in the 78th, up to the 80s, and then it's, you know, there's the way the cut was from the plane. It wasn't just straight across. It was, you know, from the 78th, then, you know, on up to maybe the 86th. Then the jet fuel had come down and was burning down. And there was people on the ground who were doused with. Jet fuel that was already burning, and they were lit on fire on the ground. It was just insane how vast the destruction path was.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was such a feeling of disbelief that fear wasn't even kicking in. It was just like, what the hell just happened? And I honestly think it was almost like a shock and it just stayed that whole day.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“As crazy as it sounds, I never thought that the other tower would go down. I said, okay, maybe some freak chance that one went down. But no, the other one's not going to go. Like they're built so strong. You know, it was in those towers so many times and I ate dinner up in the top four restaurant windows on the world. And I'm saying, nah, there's no way. Like, how the hell did this one happen? But I was having a hard time mentally processing that the building was gone. And believe me, if you don't have fear in this industry and, you know, police fire military, then you're kidding yourself or you're a danger to everyone. I don't care who it is, as tough as they are this and that. Everybody has a certain level of fear with doing this. And I don't care how long you do it. There's always that chance of something going bad. And everyone who does it has that certain amount of fear. But at that point,”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We were coming over the bridge, the first one as we were deploying from the firehouse, we had a television on and I saw it go down. It was just like, and, you know, we were so involved in getting geared together and getting, okay, you know, team set up and okay, you're going to be with these two guys. I just yelled those of guys, and they look at me. I dropped to my knees and I started praying. They're like, what the hell's wrong? I said, I couldn't even say. He's like 114. They're in there. And they're like, what? I said, the tower's gone. And all you saw on the TV was just this pile of dust. I guess because they didn't see it going down, I probably thought I truly lost it. And then the realization came was like, oh wow, the tower's down. So now it was like, wow, this is really on. So we just took off and got that bus.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A war zone. I was a soldier in reserves and I never saw combat and I would never claim that I did. But we trained. We trained for a lot of situations and we trained in real life atmospheres and whatnot. And this was just beyond that by leaps and bounds. It was bizarre”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Reports. It was like, holy shoot. And then as we were being deployed, it was a little frustrating, but they were trying to take command and send us in groups now because they realized we have to start searching this. You could hear the alarms on the Scott Air Mask, the packs we wear to go into the building. It has emotion alarm. And if you stop moving for 30 seconds, it just sounds like this whining, this screaming bell. It just keeps going and going. And you could hear multiple units of those going off. And you're like Wait a minute, there's guys with those where are they? And it's emanating from underneath the pile. It was just surreal Truly”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was just a burning pile of dust and concrete and plastic, and it was just everything was just pulverized. And it was truly hard to mentally compute that. Like it was like what, and then there was just fighter jets, couple fighter jets just circling. And you just heard the flying by over your head. I mean, you literally see the guy banking the turn around the Brooklyn Bridge and just coming back. And I'm like, holy shoot, we're under attack. And we couldn't really get concrete intel as to what exactly we knew planes, but then we kept hearing there was multiple devices. There was devices in a battery tunnel and there was devices on a George Washington Bridge and in the subways and it was just chaos. I mean, we kept it together, obviously, because that's kind of, we tried. That's what we do. But the just constant barrage of different...”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We thought they were all gone, but yeah, it looked like a movie scene with just end of the earth destruction, these just massive piles of Intertwined steel, what was left of the steel. And there was no cement. It was all just dust.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What did you see? Was in there too? We didn't realize that at that point, we didn't even realize that they had gotten under that truck.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Figured out, they're all in there, all gone. All the police officers, port authority police, NYPD police, court officers just up the street from the courts. Transit cops from the train tunnels, like just you know, we knew everybody was going and now they're”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In 1994, we had a trainer manual with a picture of the towers with a target. And it said, Not a matter of if, but a matter of when, be prepared. It's a one thing. It was like people knew, right? And we didn't stop it. Got off the bus, but just prior to that coming over the bridges, the second tower is gone now. We're just destroyed because we're like, oh, guys are there, they're all in there. Now we're feeling like cowards because we got there late. And initially, we're thinking there's 500 guys that are gone because there was a tenth alarm assignment, which means... 50 60 fire trucks, five to six guys per, you know, you're looking at. Least I was even more attent alarm plus multiple alarms on top of it, there was a dispatch basically equivalent of $500 to $600 firefighters.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Under the wing of a senior man, as we say, a senior man is a guy with a lot of experience, and he'll. Watch over you, make sure you don't veer off like I veer off a lot talking and you don't veer off and you get yourself hurt. Morning in 1993 bombing Hammy Miller was my senior man. I was the young guy on the wing. And he protected me. And toward the end of the day, he looked around. He said, Kid, it's a bad day. He said, they didn't do it right. They blew it up in the middle. If they did it in a corner. Would have dropped this building half a mile down a canal street. Don't kid yourself, they'll be back and they'll do it, and they'll do it right next time. It's so strange and so prophetic because. He was there with him and he died with Dennis. He knew it.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Second tower hit was the first one to go down, and they were heading over to go in it, and all of a sudden he looked up and he saw what he thought to be disintegration and he turned the guys around. He said, run, just run, don't look back, don't look up, go. They sprinted as fast as they could, and they dove under a fire truck. The guys that were sprinting behind him 40 feet away were Underneath the pile that was 10 stories deep. They were killed. Just further into that pile was his rookie son, who Dennis' rookie son, who was working in Ladder 105, which was my first command under the department. I work for proudly served for three years. Just aside them was my childhood best friend John Chard and his Crew from 201 They were all killed Strange irony to that is that Dennis' son, Dennis Jr., was working underneath”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Was somber because just prior to getting on the bus, the first tower went down. So we figured that at heard 114, my lieutenant, Dennis Oberg. Heard him on the radio, and he He said 114 to Manhattan. We're on your frequency. What do you need us? And they said, Tally Ho, which is our nickname. Tally Ho responded to Vessey and West to the command post and receive your orders. And I heard Dennis Tallyhill 104. Little while after that they were proceeding to go into. I believe it was. I get this mixed up, and I'm sorry. I should know this by the back of my hand, but sometimes it's just such a haze.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So we did. We got a city bus, we flagged it down, and the bus driver said, I'm sorry, I can't give you the bus. I will drive you. And he took us and we stopped at engine 201, which is just about a quarter mile down the road from us as our affiliated engine company and my... My childhood best friend here, Johnny Shard was. He was assigned there and he was on shift. And they went through the tunnel And we picked up those guys, the off duty guys from 201, and then we kept going down 4th Avenue, and we picked up 239's crew. And then we high tailed it down the bridge. And there was a lot of traffic. There's a lot of people fleeing coming over the bridge and waves. So it affected the inbound.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I got on the phone and I called command right away. I called the 40th Battalion's aide just said, look, get 12 guys, sign them in to the journal. There's a journal of daily events, everything that takes place in the firehouse 24-7 has to be logged. I log myself is coming in reporting for duty. And as the guys came in, I logged them in. And then one of our lieutenants took command. We grabbed up a bunch of gear and they basically told us get 12 guys, get a city bus, and get down to the battery tunnel. They said would probably be closed. There was threats it was going to be blown up to get to the Brooklyn Bridge. And, uh,”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so anyway, I did. I listened to him. I listened to my wife. I went to the firehouse, and it was really strange. It was eerie because the computer dispatch system was still beeping, which meant it sent a dispatch and the truck received it. Ladder 114, my truck company received it and they left. They were gone. So there was this beautiful old building built in the 1880s with a spiral staircase, just a narrow old brick garage and it was empty. And I just heard the computer chirping. And I looked down on a ticket and I said, Ladder 114, respond, Vessian West World Trade Center aircraft into building. And I said, Oh God, I just hope they're not on a death ride because this now was two towers. And they were burning. They were free burning. And I knew this was really, really bad.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And he did, and he said it. And now every time we talk, he says it. So, you know Know they talk about masculinity and whatnot, and my dad is one of those tough, tough guys with a soft edge, and that's how he brought me up, you know, to be a protector. I hate bullies. I was bullied really badly as a kid. And I really hated it. And now I find myself sometimes throwing myself into situations to protect. People that are being violated and hurt. And I just can't walk away from it. But that's my dad. My dad was that, you know, just a great guy. But anyway, yeah.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My dad, yeah. I got on a job and he said, I had a go, kid. I was the toy. We call it tour duty. That was great. It was great. I love it. And he goes, just remember, you keep low, you always keep low and keep low means you stay down below the flames, you know, for room flashes over and it's burning. If you stay up high, you're going to get burned badly. But if you get down on your belly and you crawl, you'll get out. So he'd always say that when you hang up the phone, and I said, Well, I love you, Pop. And he says, well, thanks, kid. I said, well, you can say it too.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They made it up to each other at the end of my granddad's life. My granddad turned out to be the best grandfather ever. I think he tried to heal and heal everyone by his change of behavior. So he's proof that you can change. You can improve if you work on it. But I know I'm going off track here.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, sir, and every time we hang up the phone, it's fireman talk. He'd say, I love you, keep low. My dad couldn't tell me he loved me until low. I told him when I first got on a fire department, I was 22, and my dad grew up in a tough household. My granddad was a good man with a tormented man. He was sent away from home at 12 years old. He was from Denmark, and I'm named after him, Grandpa Nills. And I think his demons took up a large part of his life, his anger, whatever it was, his fear, we got the sense that maybe when he was a child, he was an apprentice baker, you know, living with strangers, working for them. And we think maybe he was abused, and that's why he took it out of my dad and my grandma, my aunt's.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Just always remember him saying, kid, they give the recall, you go to the firehouse. You don't go where you think you should. You go to the firehouse, you follow your orders”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sit up, watch the news, watch a game. And then Monday morning, he'd go back to work. He did that for four years. And he's 82, and he's still here”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And he gets off looking at the towers, and then he'd take a subway into Brookly On every other Thursday, he leave at noon, do the same exact reverse route, and he get to the cancer center. And my mom would meet him and he'd get his infusion. And within two hours, he'd be violently ill for. Few days really badly ill I just remember, yeah, I was 10 years old. Just had to have the room darkened out, and he'd be so sick, and I just go in and wipe the vomit of his face. Try to give him a little water, but he couldn't take it down because he'd throw it up. On Saturday, you start coming around a little bit, drink down a little bit of tea. And on Sunday morning, he put his robe on, he'd go down, mom would make him black coffee and toast”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He says, But doc, I have three young kids. She called him a couple hours later. She said, I got in touch with Sloane Kettering and they have a new drug. We want you to be a test pilot. He said, hey, Doc, he's got a heavy Brooklyn accent. I'm a fireman. I'm a fireman. I'm not a pilot. So she said, no, no, we want you to try this drug out. If it works, we might have some success. But if not, he says, yeah, I'm going to die. So let's do it. So every two weeks for four years, he'd go for treatment. But he was assigned to a desk job after that after the cancer tumor removal and the heavy treatments. You get up every morning at four o'clock in the morning and he'd walk down to the train station in Staten Island, take the train. And then he'd take the ferry across the harbor.”
2021-09-11 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #220 – Niels Jorgensen: New York Firefighters and the Heroes of 9/11 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source