Five members of Ladder Co. 5 were killed when terrorists obliterated Tower One of the World Trade Center. Lt. Michael Warchola and firefighters Andrew Brunn, Louis Arena, Thomas Hannafin and John Santore are confirmed dead. Santore was known for playing Santa every year at the Christmas party. Their company trudged up a stairwell of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, and apparently into the fireball. On the night of the attacks, surviving members of the company dug with their hands through metal, plaster and mounds of rubble, looking for their men near their smashed ladder truck. They used hooks and shovels to clear debris. But nothing worked like their hands, and they dug until they were raw. "Everyone was hoping to find someone alive and pull him out," said Stephen Sullivan, a retired member of No. 5 on the scene. "You hope. But you're afraid, too, of what you'll find." The men of No. 5 and No. 24 were among the first to respond to Sept. 11's suicidal plane attack. They pulled their trucks, both brand-new, out on West Street, right up to the North Tower, and headed up the "A" stairwell. "We made it up 37 floors carrying a lot of heavy equipment," said Marcel Claes of Engine No. 24, "and we got an urgent message to come right back down. I think the Ladder 5 guys may have proceeded up farther."...Was a decorated New York firefighter and the senior member of a ladder company last seen evacuating people from the 37th floor of one of the World Trade Center towers. Santore, who lived on Staten Island, spearheaded a group that built a home for the John A. Noble Maritime Museum at a local cultural center.

Return to John Santore Home Page