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Retired Miami-Dade USAR captain recalls confronting devastation at World Trade Center site
Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, a retired Miami‑Dade Urban Search and Rescue captain described being deployed to Lower Manhattan and encountering dust, debris and large crowds as his team neared the World Trade Center site. He said the magnitude of the collapse was staggering when they arrived and the team's primary task was to search for survivors, focusing on voids and spaces where people can sometimes be found after building failures. Despite that effort and training, his crew did not find survivors, and he says the images of the scene remain with him. The retired firefighter shared the memories and expertise he gained during the deployment.
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