Monday, January 27, 2014
By jeanne starmack
boardman
Lt. Scott Maxwell with Rescue 3 of the New York Fire Department lived through 9/11 while 343 other firefighters and paramedics died — that’s his legacy, but not his message.
“Part of my legacy is I survived the World Trade Center,” he said after his speech at a daylong seminar Sunday for firefighters in Mahoning County. “But I’m telling firefighters how to love their jobs.”
Maxwell, who at the time was a lieutenant in charge of an engine company in Brooklyn, did touch on what it was like that day as he spoke just before the seminar, at Boardman High School, concluded.
“Everything was exploding around us,” he said. “Cars, trucks — and another plane was on the way.
“It was World War III, man. We spent the whole day putting fires out, and I didn’t get home for two days,” he said.
Of the 343 firefighters who perished, 117 of them were his friends, he said.
“It’s a dangerous job we do, and I’m a lucky [person],” Maxwell said.
Maxwell said being a firefighter is like being in a brotherhood.
It should include “loving life, doing the job and going home at night,” he said.
He said firefighters should be learning more and should be “smart enough to use it to your department’s benefit.”
“Enjoy each other,” he said. “You never know — it may not happen, but it could happen to you in five minutes — this could be it.”
Maxwell said firefighters have to rely on their training, their command structure and their instincts.
Training and instinct take over, he said, if the command structure collapses. That happened on 9/11, he said.
During other parts of the seminar, firefighters talked about modern techniques and the dangers modern buildings present.
“Modern houses have new plastics,” said Marissa Hartman, a volunteer firefighter for Ellsworth Township.
“The construction is totally different,” she said. She said houses burn faster and hotter, and the fumes are toxic.
“This [seminar] was very helpful,” she said. Her husband, Jeremy Hartman, is also an Ellsworth volunteer firefighter. “It’s a family thing,” he said.
The Mahoning County Fire Chiefs Association organized the seminar.