Translation of Jim Riches 09/11-protocol as published in the October issue of German GQ-Magazine.

“I was off duty on 9/11 but once I saw the burning towers, I immediately knew my son Jimmy was on-side. We were talking on the phone just the night before. We’ve talked about his upcoming thirtieth birthday party which was scheduled for September 12th.
In a police car with lights flashing we sped from Brooklyn to Manhattan – a privilege which I was entitled as a fire chief back then.
During the drive I stared at the burning north tower and thought:”Jimmy, please get out there!” Once we’ve passed half of the Brooklyn Bridge the first tower collapsed. As a firefighter I immediately knew: my son was in there. But as a father I couldn’t believe it until I saw Jimmy’s Mercedes. With his top down it was parked in front of his firehouse in Downtown Manhattan. The fine dust of the collapsed towers covered the black leather seats of Jimmy’s car like snow. In a trance I’ve fought my way through the chaos and began to dig for injured people with the other rescue teams.
A week later, the search for survivors was stopped officially. Jimmy was not among them. Although I knew he was dead, I wanted to bring him back to our family and to give his mother the chance to say goodbye. Therefore I volunteered to lead the rescue work. My colleges and I worked around the clock. And every damn day I promised my wife again:”Today we’re gonna find Jimmy!”
More than six months after the attacks I could keep my promise. One of the excavators recovered a black-yellow uniform. I was standing only a few steps away. I immediately was looking for the badge number inside the jacket. Once I scratched a layer of mud from the sticker, the number 734 was shown up: Jimmy’s badge number. I had found my son! On March 25th 2002, my three youngest sons and I were carrying our beloved Jimmy from the ruins of the World Trade Center.”

Hold on guys, the story gets better. After they released him, without bail thank God, they let him know that his crime will come to trail. Of course it will, since it was a major assault against the United States, its President and all United Churches within this God blessed country. But let’s rather stick to the facts within this pre-trial record: On July 21st at 9:30am there will be held a trail on this hideous crime. Until then, the defendant has to check in twice a week with his probation officer to discuss changes in his peeing behavior. Since of the incident the sidewalk moistener is only allowed to pee under the supervision of a state official. During his trial in mid July a jury is going to decide whether he has to serve a lifelong sentence in Guantanmo or is put on death row in New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail which will rather be the case, since the authorities there just got rid of Mr. Strauss-Kahn and therefore can provide an open spot.

Please be advised not to comment on this entry. All your statements can and will be held against you in the court of law.

Sincerely,
U.S. Department of Justice, Land of the free and home of the brave

So, you see, this bed bug thing is kind of serious in New York. If you are planning on coming to fun city within the next weeks please make sure you download this life saving iPhone App displayed above and teach yourself how to fight against these invisible but militant troupes. The war is on. Sharpen your teeth and get ready to bite back.

At the time then, most of the garment producers within New York were located in that area around Washington Square. So was the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, in the early 1900s the most successful blouse producer in America. More than 600 people were working for the owners Max Blanck and Isaac Harris in their Greenwich Village headquarter. Most of them 16 to 23 year old European immigrants, basically women. Lots of them were on duty at this fateful Saturday afternoon in 1911 and waiting for the closing bell that usually rang at 4:45. Only five minutes before they would have been off for the weekend, a gruesome fire inferno broke out in the eight floor of the ten story brownstone on the corner of Washington Place and Greene Street.

Within minutes the fire was all over the place. Most of the dressmakers in the tenth floor could get out of the building by climbing through a hatch up to the roof where they later were saved by firefighters. But for most of the young women in the eight and ninth floor was no possible escape. The elevators in the building didn’t work any longer since the fire damaged the mechanic seriously. While some of the workers from the eight floor could escape through the staircase the tailors in the ninth floor where completely trapped. Somebody locked the door to the staircase there. As it was discovered later, the owners themselves did it to avoid theft. With no possible way out the dressmakers rescue depended on the firefighters. But their turntable-ladders were literally a dead end too, since they only reached between the sixth and seventh floor. While the fire got worse and worse lots of the young women began to leap out of the windows which implied the certain death since there were no reasonable life nets either.

Dead bodies on the pavement of Green Street. Nobody of the leaping women survived.

After less than 20 minutes the inferno was over and 146 people had died. 123 were young women. Although the tragedy paralyzed New Yorkers at the time, they began to change the unacceptable working conditions in the manufacturing companies around the city. Three month after the incident, John Alden Dix, the 38th Governor of New York, passed a bill that started the labor movement and finally established the “Fair Labor Standards Act” in 1938. In a sense the fire was a huge and gruesome tragedy that saved thousands and thousands life’s in later years.

The brownstone where the Triangle Shirtwaist Company ran their business in 1911 still exists. Meanwhile it’s part of NYU. Right in these minutes where you’ve been reading this short abstract, hundreds of people gather in front of the building to commemorate the victims of the fire that happened 100 years ago today.

Editor’s note: I just wrote about the incident in detail for German News Magazine Spiegel-Online. Click in and find more details about the Fire that changed America.

Except – except these little white things called flakes. Mostly common during the winter when the temperature goes under 30 degrees. Yes, we are talking about snow here. And it seems that a whole Nation is afraid of this force of nature. A couple of weeks ago we had a prediction of 7 to 15 inches which equals almost 40 centimeter. What happened was that offices got closed, children stayed home rather than going to school, employees called in that they couldn’t get to the office because the public transportation shoot its service down and the streets of New York looked a little like they’ve been depicted in the drama “I am Legend.“

Since of then I’m still asking myself where this fear comes from. Is it because there is a certain lack of control. Does a Nation that’s been always in charge of everything have trouble to deal with the uncertain? Maybe. The upcoming spring will hopefully bring some redemption and the climate change will do the rest to eliminate this threat for ever. But that’ll probably take another couple of years. We’ll see.