Lifestyle

New York Detective Who Survived Twin Towers Collapse Now Gifts Homes To Families Of Fallen Heroes Of 9/11.

By tension Sep 15, 2024

The day after the September 11th attacks, John Huvane drove into Manhattan and witnessed the billowing white smoke that engulfed the island. At that moment, Huvane, a 40-year-old New York City detective, questioned his decision to return to Ground Zero. However, like other courageous first responders, he chose to continue his work in the weeks and months that followed.

For approximately four months, Huvane endured the grueling conditions at Ground Zero, relying on adrenaline and heightened awareness to sustain him. Alongside countless other rescuers, he tirelessly toiled to sift through the immense heap of pulverized concrete, weighing 1.6 million tons. Amidst the toxic pollutants, including carcinogenic concrete dust, as well as the contaminated air polluted by jet fuel, glass, and asbestos, there was a pervasive odor of death.

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Huvane, who has also confronted three shootings and witnessed terror attacks in London and Mumbai, asserts that nothing compares to his experiences on September 11th and during the subsequent recovery efforts. Yet, despite the profound impact of the attacks, Huvane remains unwavering in his optimism as he participates in firefighter stair climbs, supports families of first responders through 5K runs for the catastrophically injured, and serves as the co-president of Tunnel to Towers—an organization that has disbursed funds to fully pay off over 200 home mortgages this year for families who lost loved ones due to the hazardous health conditions they faced during the 9/11 recovery.

“No, I see good people, and I see amazing sacrifices and acts of bravery,” he declares. “It’s so inspiring.”

In a fateful turn of events, Stephen Siller discovered that the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel was closed. Determined to reach Ground Zero, he embarked on a hike through the tunnel under the East River.

Moments before the attacks, Huvane, serving as a mayoral bodyguard, was on duty in Manhattan. He promptly headed towards the twin towers after the initial plane impact but before their collapse. Reflecting on that moment, Huvane recollects, “We were at a breakfast in midtown Manhattan, and we got a call that a small plane had hit the tower. I jumped ahead to go down there.”

What he witnessed was nothing short of surreal.

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“Chaotic is not the word,” Huvane conveys. “People were running from the building. Women were dropping their bags and taking off their shoes, running in their bare feet. I walked right by an engine of a plane.” He will forever remember the sight of people jumping from the building and the haunting sound of bodies hitting the ground. Building fragments and airplane debris fell, accompanied by horrifying noise from all directions.

As the government sought to reestablish control and deploy military support, all transportation infrastructure, including bridges and tunnels, were shut down. The nation was under attack, and uncertainty prevailed regarding whether subsequent attacks would follow.

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“It was very dangerous,” Huvane recounts, highlighting the ongoing peril from falling debris. “You didn’t want to be underneath when they landed.”

While conversing with a motorist, Huvane suddenly witnessed the driver swiftly reversing and accelerating. The motorist had seen what Huvane had initially missed, as his attention was focused in the opposite direction. When he turned around, Huvane found himself confronted by the first tower collapsing, engulfing the street between the surrounding buildings.

Using a vivid analogy, Huvane says, “It looked like that scene in Indiana Jones where the big ball is coming toward you, and you start running from it. So I started to run from it, and it was catching up to me. So I made a turn on one of the side streets.” He narrowly escaped the destructive force of the collapse.

Recognizing the fire truck heading up the side street, towards the twin towers, Huvane attempted to alert the firefighters to the imminent danger. Regarding the identity and fate of those firefighters, he admits, “I don’t know what fire truck that was, and I don’t know if those firefighters died that day.”

In the aftermath of the second tower’s collapse, after he shielded the mayor and once a small crisis headquarters was established, Huvane was fortunate enough to return home that evening. However, many of his friends did not share the same fate. Unlike Stephen Siller—who descended into the hot and humid Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, carrying heavy equipment for nearly three miles, never to return—Huvane reported for duty the following day, commencing the arduous recovery efforts.

“I probably know 50 guys that died that day, another 20, 25 that died since,” he laments. While not personally acquainted with Siller, Huvane learned of his sacrifice and the founding of the Tunnel to Towers organization by Siller’s brother, Frank Siller, in his honor. Reflecting on Stephen Siller, Huvane acknowledges, “He was off-duty. He could have easily gone and played golf. But these first responders, these firemen, they were coming in, all off-duty.”

This year, at the age of 63, Huvane, alongside Frank Siller, aims to pay tribute to the first responders from the recovery efforts who have succumbed to long-term health complications. Tunnel to Towers will provide mortgage payoffs and mental health services for hundreds of surviving families. Rodrick Covington, a New York State Police major who tragically succumbed to aggressive cancer in March 2022, is among those being honored. “I got to know him on a professional level,” Huvane remarks, reflecting on their shared service to the city.

“True heroes are the ones who are left behind,” he adds, while recognizing the resilience of those who wake up each morning after losing a loved one. “Obviously not to diminish the heroic acts that these people performed, but to get up every morning after you lose your loved one is something heroic in itself.”