New York City's Fire Chief's Account
Sept. 20 -- The son of a fireman and a 32-year veteran himself, Daniel Nigro was promoted to chief of the New York City Fire Department replacing his friend, Peter J. Ganci Jr., who died in the World Trade Center attack.
ABCNEWS' Diane Sawyer spoke with Nigro about the men the NYFD lost, the lessons learned, and moving on.
ABCNEWS' Diane Sawyer: Do you remember the morning last Tuesday?
Daniel Nigro, New York City Fire Department Chief: Sure. Beautiful day. We heard it, and then we saw it. I saw it from the office … I responded in the same car with the Chief of Department Ganci and recall telling him this will be the worst day we ever have. It was … We could see from the Brooklyn Bridge that we would need just about everything the fire department could send down there … At that point, soon after we got there, people began jumping.
Sawyer: You saw them.
Nigro: In large numbers. So that, alone, would have made it the worst, the worst day we'd experienced, if it had ended just at that, but it didn't.
Sawyer: Did you want to say to some of your guys and women don't go, don't go in there?
Nigro: Geez, I'd like to think now that I could have said that, but I don't know if anyone would have listened anyway. They're trained to do that. When there's people in there in need, they're going to go up.
Sawyer: Tell me about Chief Ganci.
Nigro: I guess he was somewhat my alter ego. He was more gregarious, and he was the short one. We were always together, a good friend, golf buddy, and real, just a friendly, warm, everybody liked him, from the people at the security desk to the boss. He's that kind of person. He treated everybody like a friend … For the last 10 years, I guess, we've been together a lot, and there were a lot of good days, a few real bad days, and then one real, real bad day.
Sawyer: What did you admire the most about him?
Nigro: Honesty, I think, integrity. That's something you can't learn. You either have it or you don't. So if he said something, that was it. You never had to wonder. … Nobody worked harder here. Nobody. … He worked harder for the department than anyone.
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