The story of the firefighter who was buried alive twice on 9/11

Former New York fightfighter Joe Torrillo, pictured, survived both tower collapses at Ground Zero on 9/11. Joe Torrillo | Courtesy

Joe Torrillo was fighting for his life; he was buried under tons of steel and concrete with dust filling his lungs.

He’d been a firefighter for nearly 20 years, but his experiences had never prepared for something like this.

Screams echoed around him that eventually fell silent as he was thanking God and telling him to take him quick, as he was certain this was the end.

 In just a few short hours his life had changed forever.

Joe had started that day like most New Yorkers, by being late to work because of traffic, the only danger he was in was the scolding he was going to get from his boss.

For the past year Joe had been working with Fisher Price Toys to create a Firefighter action figure called Billy Blazes.

He was instrumental in the creation of Billy, with Fisher Price even basing the likeness of the figure after him. 

Joe was even planning to use the funds from the toy to provide free smoke detectors for the people of New York.

“They came to me with the proposal of making an action figure that would represent the firefighters.” Torrillo said “when it came time to unveil I chose the date of 9/11 to hold because it coincided with the emergency number 911.”

A few years earlier a bad hand injury had sidelined Joe from being an active firefighter and he took up a desk job as head of fire education at the Fire Department.

 There he would head to schools, health fairs and other public events to talk and teach about fire safety.

After a while of doing this job, Fisher Price would come to him with the idea that would go on to become Billy Blazes.

The Billy Blazes toy from Fisher-Price burrows by Torrillo’s likeness. Joe Torrillo | Courtresy

With the traffic showing no signs of clearing up he decided to get out of his car and B-line towards the press conference, as he cursed after his breath, he heard the news the north tower had been attacked.

He didn’t know exactly what happened, but his fireman instincts kicked in and instead of going to the press conference he decided to make a turn to his old fire station to help out.

“On my way to the press conference for Billy Blazes the first jet struck the north tower. I didn’t know exactly what happened,” Torillo said. “I just knew there was an attack so instead of going to the press conference I made an impromptu decision and headed towards the fire station.”

Joe kept running all the while hearing murmurs of the attack as he ran past other pedestrians, he saw fire trucks with their sirens blaring rushing towards the World Trade Center, then as he crossed the bridge to get to Manhattan. He saw it.

The top of the North Tower with plumes of smoke coming out of it was then he realized the true gravity of the situation. He ran even faster, the only thing on his mind was fulfilling his firefighting duties.

Eight years earlier, on Feb. 26, 1993, Joe and his fellow firefighters were at the World Trade Center getting lunch when suddenly they saw the lights flickering on and off and smoke coming out of the north tower hotel.

They immediately knew something had happened and rushed into the building to help.

Later that night as he and others got back to the station, they found out terrorists had placed 1,200 pounds of explosives in a parked van under the north tower’s parking lot intending to damage the structure of both towers so they would collapse.

They failed but six people were killed, 1,000 were injured and 50,000 in the area were evacuated.

“Later the FBI had come out to give out all the details, and they said they would probably come back one day and try again, and 8 years later they did come back,” Torrillo said.

In the moment he didn’t care who had done this, he just knew people needed help.

He ran into his old fire station and grabbed some leftover gear, a coat and helmet and made his way to the World Trade Center, where he saw dozens of ambulances and fire trucks already at the scene.

Then he heard something above him.

“As I got closer, I heard this big roaring above my head then I looked, and I saw a plane hit the South Tower,” Torrillo said.

The twin towers, arguably what many saw as the peaks of American architecture were now in ruins with the World Trade Center looking like a warzone and Joe was at the epicenter of it all.

As firefighters and paramedics rushed into the towers, he remembered his days as a structural engineer and architecture student during his college years.

He had gone on a field trip to the twin towers to study the new lightweight steel novel support system. He knew the towers would not be able to take the damage and could collapse any minute. He screamed at everybody to get away from the towers.

While most ignored him, some first responders listened to his warning and parked their vehicles four blocks away from the area.

A few moments later his prediction came true and the south tower collapsed practically right on top of him.

He tried to run away but wasn’t quick enough.

“The air pressure was so strong my helmet flew off my head like the Wizard of Oz,” said Torrillo.

As he tried to make his escape, a piece of metal stuck to the back of his head, and he hit the ground where he was then consumed by the clouds of dust and debris.

Now he and many others were trapped in complete darkness, and as he lay there in severe pain he wondered why he was in this position in the first place.

A part of Joe’s traveling 9/11 memorial showcase the wreckage of the Twin Towers. Joe Torrillo | Courtesy

“I was thinking why did I choose the career of a fireman that’s ending my life,” Torrillo said. “With the college degree I had I could’ve been working for a large construction company in New York.”

Joe was trapped for around 20 minutes, but for him it felt like years. He was thinking of his wife and kids, and he was worried his body wouldn’t even be found or identified.

He hated himself for not fully capitalizing on his knowledge that the towers would collapse but also had a sense of pride for having that knowledge in the first place.

So, he laid there breathing what he thought would be his final breaths and speaking to God.

“I heard screams of people in pain, those screams turned to whimpers and eventually there was silence,” Torrillo said.

Eventually after 25 minutes, he was found by emergency services and pulled from the rubble where he was then taken to a nearby port with a boat carrying other wounded.

He was in so much pain he begged his rescuers to just leave him there.

That’s when the north tower began to collapse and with so little time to react the emergency services jumped on the boat with the people they had and left.

Joe was now buried under the rubble for a second time. Joe had already accepted he was going to die then and there, so death was the only thing on his mind at that point.

Eventually though he was rescued a second time and this time he was taken to a hospital in New Jersey with a brain injury, multiple broken ribs and internal bleeding.

There was a big problem though. Joe had taken another fireman’s uniform so he had a nametag of someone else and he was in such a bad state he couldn’t speak. For three days, he was listed as dead or missing.

After three days a good friend of his tracked him down and found him at the hospital.

He then saw something he thought he’d never see. His friend who he had known for years started crying.

“He saw me and he immediately started to cry,” Torrillo said. “I knew him for years, but I was surprised because I never saw him cry once up until then”

Joe was released from the hospital after a week and returned home to his family, still processing what he went through. He was never the same man after that day.

Billy Blazes went on to represent the 343 firefighters who lost their lives that day

The empty boots and shoes of the traveling display honors the first responders who lost their lives. Joe Torrillo | Courtesy

Amid all the darkness though he saw a bright light across the country.“There was a big rise in patriotism in the two years after the attacks,” Torrillo said, “People became very patriotic, people came together and people were starting to befriend each other.”

Today, Joe Torrillo lives in New Jersey with his wife, and he still struggles with the effects of that day mentally and physically.

Sometimes he’ll have nightmares of the horrors he saw and wake up in a cold sweat.

He’s had multiple surgeries and has dealt with the onset of Parkinson’s disease as a result of the brain injury he suffered.

In the 24 years since the attacks, Joe has traveled across the country to tell his story and inspire others into doing good and keep the legacy of 9/11 first responders like him alive. Recently he’s been working with Fisher Price Toys again for a relaunch of Billy Blazes to honor first responders.

His family continues to carry on the firefighter tradition as last year Joe’s son, Joe Jr., graduated from the New York City fire academy.

“I tell people all the time you never know your strength until your weakest moment,” said Joe

Torrillo’s son, Joe Torrillo Jr., graduated from the FDNY’s training program in 2025. FDNY | Courtesy

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