Brenda Berkman, who sued the city of New York to ensure that women could become firefighters, has fought to raise awareness of the women first responders on the frontlines during 9/11.
On the easternmost corner of ground zero on the afternoon of September 11, 2001, Brenda Berkman and a small group of her fellow firefighters stood before a wall of flames and dust. Both towers had already collapsed, but every other building on the street was ablaze, including the 47-story 7 World Trade Center.
As she watched fire lick the buildings around the collapsed towers, Berkman realized that thousands of people were surely inside. She also knew that it would be nearly impossible to get to them, but that they must try — and that they might die doing it. They only barely made it into another building for cover when 7 World Trade creaked loudly before collapsing at 5:20 p.m.
In the haze of the months that followed, work continued for the first responders. They worked as they grieved: Berkman knew 250 of the 343 firefighters killed. She never watched the media coverage of the attacks in the weeks that followed. So she was surprised when she started getting phone calls from other women firefighters she knew across the country. they asked her.
Three women first responders—Port Authority Police Department Captain Kathy Mazza, New York Police Department Officer Moira Smith and EMT Yamel Merino—were killed at ground zero. Dozens of others responded to the scene, including the 25 women firefighters who were part of the department at the time. But the focus of the coverage at the time was on the heroism of the fireWomen were only spotlighted as widows or nurses, another example of how women are often erased from history, Berkman said.
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