Brooklyn firefighter Stephen turned truck around to help after 9/11

On September 11, 2001, thousands tried to flee Lower Manhattan while danger loomed everywhere. My brother Stephen drove straight toward it instead. His shift at the FDNY had ended, and he planned to meet his brothers for golf. But the moment news hit that a plane struck the World Trade Center, he turned his truck around. There was no real choice for him. People needed help, so he went to give it.

Stephen barely thought before hearing about the North Tower strike on his radio scanner just after 8:46 a.m. He sat in his black 1990 GMC Sierra 1500 pickup truck while news spread fast. That moment felt fitting somehow. From Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood, where he finished his shift at Squad 1 sixteen minutes earlier, he faced a simple truth. A terrible accident or attack had just happened, and countless innocent folks needed aid. The only path forward led not away from the fire but right into it.

Golf balls rattled inside the cab as his clubs flew to the other side of the vehicle. Stephen quickly reversed on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and pressed hard on the gas pedal. He raced toward the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, ready to drive under the river and reach Lower Manhattan. Thick smoke rose from downtown as he tore down the highway, wondering what exactly occurred and how fast he could arrive. Having known him his whole life, I know one question dominated his mind during those frantic minutes: How many lives can I save?

While speeding safely along the BQE, Stephen called his wife Sally. He told her an aircraft had hit the Twin Towers even though his overnight shift was done. He would not go home this time but head toward Lower Manhattan instead. Right after saying "I love you," he reached for his Nextel phone to hang up. Then he asked Sally to tell his brothers he could not play golf that day.

Beyond saving lives and caring for his family, another thought likely weighed on him as he approached the tunnel entrance. This was no accident. Terrorists struck our cities on purpose. For years Stephen told me and others that New York would face another attack soon enough. He specifically warned about the World Trade Center being targeted again by international terrorists. His prediction proved correct though it might have seemed dramatic to some. The 1993 bombing happened just one year before he became a firefighter, and this new event looked far worse than anything seen before.

Stephen deserves credit for his foresight, but few in the FDNY felt differently. Many senior department leaders believed another attack was coming soon. My friend Sal Cassano held these same views along with firefighters like Stephen all the way down the chain of command. Tragically, their warnings turned out to be right. Stephen's golf gear kept bouncing around as he navigated stopped cars blocking lanes on the expressway. Drivers halted right in traffic to watch terrifying scenes unfold above Lower Manhattan. Anything could happen in those few moments yet Stephen remained undeterred. Sally heard calm resolve in his voice while everything fell apart outside.

Nothing short of a nuclear missile strike could have stopped my brother from squeezing through that tunnel and reaching the Twin Towers. That is where our story begins, right before the tour stops ahead of 9/11. Robin and Joe Raiso sat at the mouth of the tunnel after witnessing the surreal sight of the first plane, American Airlines Flight 11, crashing into the North Tower. Their car had nearly made it inside the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel when the NYPD quickly shut it down, leaving their vehicle covered in soot. Even on the Brooklyn side, debris rained down from a sky that went from bright September blue to gray with smoke and fire.

Naturally, Robin and Joe were baffled and scared by what they saw. They became even more frightened when they heard the screeching sound of a black pickup truck stopping beside them on the median. If what was unfolding above was some kind of terrorist attack, could the man getting out be part of it? Was the tunnel about to be bombed or hit with another mass casualty incident? A million thoughts raced through Robin's and Joe's worried minds.

That is when they saw my brother. As calmly as possible in the middle of what he correctly assumed was a terrorist attack, Stephen got out of his truck while sirens blared and thick black smoke filled the air. Debris fell around him. He went around back to rummage through the bay of his pickup. After maybe a minute or so, Stephen returned to the front side wearing 60 pounds of firefighter's gear. Then, without hesitation, my brother started running toward the mouth of the tunnel.

A few moments later, Robin and Joe saw NYPD officers stop Stephen at the entrance, which was completely blocked by police barricades. It did not take long for them to realize Stephen was an FDNY firefighter. They nodded, patted Stephen on the back, and let him through. "We were shocked and amazed. Everyone was trying to run out," Joe would later say. "He was running in." The last time Robin and Joe saw Stephen was when he ran full speed into the uncertain darkness of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. Above him was fire, dust, smoke. In front of my brother was a 1.7-mile path through North America's longest continuous underwater vehicular tunnel toward the only thing in the world that mattered to him in that moment: the victims of what would soon become known as 9/11. With each step forward, even with that heavy gear on his shoulders and chest, Stephen was closer to helping the helpless.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine precisely what happened next. Because of Robin and Joe's eyewitness account, I believe it is most likely that while Stephen was running through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, the unthinkable, at least for most New Yorkers and Americans who were not part of the FDNY, NYPD or intelligence services, happened in front of millions of eyeballs watching from the ground and on television screens across America. At 9:03 a.m., a second hijacked plane, United Airlines Flight 175, hit the South Tower.

If Stephen was indeed inside the tunnel when the world as we all knew it changed forever, I can only imagine the tunnel shaking and the deafening sounds that Stephen must have heard. That terrible experience probably made him run even faster, not because he was afraid, but because he knew from the sounds of new explosions that thousands more innocent people were almost certainly in grave danger.

What I cannot imagine is what Stephen saw when he first reached the other side.

Lower Manhattan stood in total darkness when fire, smoke, and death filled the air. There was no light at the end of that tunnel to guide anyone home. The Fox News app is available for download right now if you need updates.

Stephen Siller found a sliver of hope even while chaos ruled around him. He knew his defining moment had arrived without hesitation or fear. Going backward simply was not an option for him anymore. His only path led forward toward innocent people he wanted to save with all his might.

His final run through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel now stands as proof of his courage and sacrifice. Stephen put others before himself in a way that defined everything he stood for. In memory of his heroism, his family launched the Tunnel to Towers Foundation today. This group carries that spirit forward while supporting America's heroes and their families who need help. You can learn more about this legacy by visiting T2T.org immediately.

The text comes from a book titled "LET US DO GOOD" written by Frank Siller. It covers Stephen, September 11, and the mission to honor America's fallen heroes. This excerpt is copyrighted in 2026 by Frank Siller himself. Broadside Books and HarperCollins Publishers granted permission for this publication recently.