Thomas Von Essen

Thomas Von Essen was born in Brooklyn, New York. Von Essen was the New York Fire Commissioner on 9-11. He personally went to the Twin Towers to oversee evacuations by his department following the arrival of the first units there with 1st Battalion Chief Joseph W. Pfeifer and the companies with him, who were investigating a report of a smell of gas only a few blocks away when American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower, followed 17 minutes later by United Airlines Flight 175 crashing into the South Tower. Von Essen and his men evacuated as many people as they could until the South Tower collapsed 56 minutes after it was hit, at which point Chief Pfeifer ordered all personnel to evacuate the North Tower before it collapsed. Von Essen escaped the collapse of the Twin Towers, and continued to serve as FDNY Commissioner until Mayor Rudy Giuliani's term ended in December 2001, by which time von Essen wanted to preserve the accounts of the FDNY's members "before they became reshaped by a collective memory." According to Jim Dwyer of The New York Times, the FDNY oral histories were "originally gathered on the order of Thomas Von Essen, the city fire commissioner on Sept. 11, who said he wanted to preserve those accounts before they became reshaped by a collective memory." The oral histories constitute about 12,000 pages of testimony by 503 FDNY firefighters, emergency medical technicians and paramedics collected from early October, 2001 to late January, 2002. Mr. Von Essen’s prophetic act has given us a remarkably rich body of narrative material." Most prominent of which were perceptions of the initiations of the towers collapsing. He appeared on Saturday Night Live alongside Rudolph Giuliani and NYC first responders to give hope and encouragement to America.