YOUNGSTOWN 9/11 rescuer hails family for support since attacks

Bill Butler and a woman he helped were among the survivors of the north tower's collapse.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- New York City firefighter Bill Butler may have been a hero Sept. 11, 2001, but he says someone else has taken on the role in the 14 months since.
"My family ... especially my wife," Butler said. "She's been the rock in the house this year."
The firefighter, who helped rescue a woman from the north tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11, was in Youngstown on Saturday to speak at the Elite Business Group E-Commerce Conference at St. Nicholas Byzantine Center.
His story
Butler, of Ladder Company 6 on Manhattan's Lower East Side, arrived at the Trade Center with six other firefighters after the first tower was hit. He and the others -- each carrying about 100 pounds of gear -- moved up a stairwell, stopping for three short rests and hitting the 27th floor. It was here that Butler's heroism began.
As the company climbed, they guided hundreds of people out of the building. All around them, they saw acts of heroism.
"This is an opportunity to tell everyone about the great effort by firefighters, police officers and EMTs that day, but there were a lot of civilians who stayed behind and helped others," he said.
The group felt a shaking and later learned that the south tower was collapsing as they climbed. They had lost contact with firefighters in the north tower lobby and did not discover the collapse until two captains looked out a window.
As they departed, Butler met Josephine Harris, a 59-year-old grandmother with a death grip on her purse, at the 19th floor. She had been climbing down the stairwell from the 73rd floor.
Butler put the woman's fatigued arm around his neck and began to carry her down the stairs as others looked for a stable chair they might use to support her. They found nothing but swivel chairs.
She was alert as she told him that she lived in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and about her children and grandchildren.
"Well, your kids need to see you home tonight. We need to keep going," Butler told her. "You have to push yourself and keep going."
Refused to leave her
By the fifth floor, Butler was carrying about 90 percent of the woman's weight when a second firefighter began to help him. She wriggled from their grasp a floor later, telling them: "You guys leave me here."
"That was not an option," Butler said.
About two steps later, the tower above them began to collapse. The stairwell rumbled, debris flew and hot air rushed down. He was blinded by the debris, using his flashlight to count his fingers. Harris had fallen just before the collapse, one hand clutching her purse, the other wrapped around his boot.
Nineteen seconds later, Butler had no idea where she had gone.
As he was pulling debris from himself, the woman popped out of the dust. As they tried to escape, they received calls from firefighters who ended up dead.
Nearly four hours later, they discovered they had left the still-intact stairwell to make their way to the top of the seven- or eight-story high pile of rubble that the tower had become. The light they had thought was a bathroom fixture had been the sun.
Harris escaped with rescue workers using a rescue basket to carry her from the debris.
As Butler was taken to a New Jersey hospital, another firefighter watched Harris being carried away. Her purse was still on her arm.
Butler was treated for dehydration, exhaustion and eye injuries before returning to ground zero and the fire station and, eventually, home. His wife met him halfway because he couldn't drive any longer.
He said he felt peace in the stairwell during the collapse, when he thought a fireball might be coming, when he thought he might die. In that moment, he remembered his wife and four children.
Suffering
He and others have suffered lung problems, post-traumatic stress, sleep disturbances and anxiety as they searched for bodies among the ruins, attended funerals and dealt with press exposure.
Throughout, he was carried by his family. "They've been the strong ones in my life," he said.
With Butler and Harris, 13 others escaped the ruins -- 12 firefighters and a Port Authority police officer. All six members of Ladder Company 6 survived.
"It's obviously just a miracle," Butler said. "Why us? I have no idea."