In Memoriam: NYC Firefighter Angel Juarbe, Jr.

Today is September 11, the day we remember those who died at the hands of terrorists back in 2001. This year I would like to highlight one of the many heroes of that awful day.

Angel Juarbe, Jr. was a firefighter with Ladder Company 12 on September 11, 2001 – and he and his fellow firefighters were working feverishly to get people out of the Marriott hotel at the World Trade Center. Here is an account of Angel’s heroics, published online shortly after the disaster (it refers to him as being “missing”, even though his body was eventually recovered):

Ladder 12, it seems, was not one of the first to arrive at the disaster in the WTC, as was reported last week. Instead the firefighters from Chelsea arrived just after the first tower fell. With the second tower still standing but leaning, Angel and his company entered a hotel connected to the Trade Center. There he and his fellow firefighters slowly made their way up the levels of the hotel, escorting people down out of the building and onward to safety as they went. When some people on one of the higher levels needed actual physical assistance, the firefighters knew that they needed to become less encumbered. They elected to discard some of their emergency equipment. This included the entirety of their supply of rope.

Sometime later, when the team was rescuing people from the 14th floor, the call to evacuate was given. As Company 12 made their way down the stairs of the assaulted hotel, the building lost much of its structural integrity. The building began to groan under the stress, and the stairwells began to evidence this. When Ladder 12 was on about the 4th floor, the stairs below them began to collapse. (This apparently split the company, as some of the firemen were already out of the building.) When the stranded rescuers realized that they were going to need to rappel down the now ravaged stairwell, it became evident that they were going to need their supply of rope. Angel and another of the firefighters in his company were quick to volunteer.

As the two brave men began the long trek back up the stories of the hotel, they came into contact with another firefighter who was in trouble. Angel radioed back to the stranded men on the 4th floor that there was a firefighter who needed assistance. In response, a lieutenant from Ladder 12 left the 4th floor and began his own journey up the stairs of the hotel. At this point, the unimaginable happened. The World Trade Center's north tower collapsed. This was at 10:28 AM.

Amazingly, the firefighters stranded in the 4th floor stairwell all survived and are now accounted for. Apparently the stress caused one of the walls in the stairwell to collapse before the building proper, allowing the firemen to fall to the street below. Four stories, but all are apparently okay. Sadly, Angel and the two other rescuers from Ladder Company 12 are still unaccounted for. They were willing to pay the ultimate price for their firemen brothers, and they may have done just that.

Less notably, Juarbe was the winner of the Fox television reality competition, Murder In Small Town X. They announced him the winner on September 4th, and exactly one week later he was dead.

Juarbe also once posed for an FDNY calendar…

May he rest in peace.