Americans who remember the 9/11 attacks call it Ground Zero. Serge Burack calls it "the pile."
The retired New York City firefighter who now lives in Aiken, S.C., joined more than 91,000 rescue and recovery workers on Sept. 11, 2001. The lives of 2,753 victims were lost after terrorists flew two passenger jets into New York's World Trade Center, demolishing the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.
In 2001, Burack was a 38-year-old lieutenant with Engine Co. 234 in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood.
"I was home on Long Island when this happened and worked my way into the city to get turned around," he said. "We were there all the way to the following
May. We covered the firehouse, we covered funerals and then covered 'the pile'."
The atmosphere at Ground Zero was toxic in more ways than one.
The WTC's destruction unleashed particulates of lead, mercury and an estimated 2,500 other contaminants across acres of lower Manhattan. That created a health crisis still unfolding to this day. More people are believed to have died from 9/11-related health problems than from the actual disaster.
After 9/11, Burack developed non-deadly nodules on his lungs and thyroid gland. Surgeons also removed a silver-dollar-sized malignant melanoma from his forearm. He continues regular health visits to specialists in Aiken and New York to monitor the cancer's possible return.
"I got skin cancer, but there are a lot of guys in worse shape," he said. "There are guys dealing with horrible stuff."
Grief hung heavily over Ground Zero. Seemingly, everybody lost somebody. Burack's brother, also a firefighter, lost his captain later to pancreatic cancer.
One of Burack's next-door neighbors, a father of two small girls and a vice-president with insurance giant Marsh McLellan, worked in the WTC more than 90 stories up. The first piece of his remains turned up in March 2002.
Emergency responders kept sifting through the rubble while mourning 343 New York firefighters, 23 New York police officers, and 37 Port Authority officers who died on 9/11.
"Sometimes there were five, 10, 15 funerals a day," he said. "You had to make sure enough guys go to each funeral. Guys would cover the firehouse and there were still people down at the site for recovery work. That got very stressful for families."
The odor at Ground Zero was unforgettable.
"You wore your respirator, but you couldn't wear it all the time. You get sweaty, and you have to take it off now and again," Burack said. "The smell down there, working on that pile, was horrific. As you got into it, you're there a month, you had 2,000 bodies in one big area. It was terrible."
Burack now treasures each day, remembering the "hundreds of guys who got shortchanged" by fate from enjoying longer, happier lives.
"It sound a bit cliché-ish and all, but it's like wartime," he said. "Guys who went off to war, their lives were cut short in their 20s and 30s. They aren't going to get to see the fruits of their labor, and that includes bouncing your grandkids on your knee."
Burack, now 63, has two grandchildren ages 2 and 1, one for each knee. A third grandchild is expected in November.
Burack will be at scheduled 9/11 observances in New York at Ground Zero on Sept. 11. He said he has seen tourists "taking selfies and stuff like that. I get it." But it's still a burial ground where more than 1,000 still haven't been identified.
"Remember the sacrifices, the way everybody came together on 9/12 and afterward," he said. "That was a really good feeling how everybody pitched in to do what they had to do."
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Serge Burack remembers 'the pile' and sacrifices after 9/11 | Exclusive
