Thursday, October 1, 2026
As New York and the nation prepare to mark the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, Rockville Centre resident Thomas Von Essen can still recall the attacks' first moments with startling clarity.
Von Essen, then New York City’s fire commissioner, was driving along the FDR Drive toward work when he heard the first reports that a “small” plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. He could see the smoke, and arrived at the north tower about three minutes later. As he walked through a window blown out by the impact, there was a heavy thud about 20 feet away.
It was a body.
Within minutes, Von Essen learned that the aircraft had been a commercial jet, and that firefighters were already climbing into the burning tower. Then a second plane struck the south tower.
“Those of us in the lobby when the second plane hit, we knew that we were being attacked,” he recounted. “It was not just an accident.”
Twenty-five years later, Von Essen, who’s now 80, still carries the memories of that day — and of the 343 FDNY members who never came home.
Von Essen had spent more than three decades with the Fire Department before becoming commissioner. After two years of active duty in the U.S. Naval Submarine Service, he entered the FDNY's Proby School in 1970, and served more than 15 years with Ladder Company 42 in the South Bronx. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani appointed him commissioner in 1996.
His experience as a firefighter gave him a personal connection to those responding to the World Trade Center.
The emergency quickly expanded beyond anything the Fire Department had previously experienced. Von Essen helped provide Giuliani with information and determine what resources were needed as the city responded to the attacks. Urban search-and-rescue teams came from around the country.
Firefighters continued climbing the towers even after evacuation orders were issued, responding to calls for help from people on upper floors. “I knew how aggressive my guys were, how much they wanted to help people — strangers,” Von Essen said.
The south tower collapsed while Von Essen was walking on Church Street. His driver told him the entire building had fallen. “And I said, ‘No, it can't be,’” Von Essen recalled.
At first, everyone hoped there would be rescues. “There has to be people in there that were gonna be able to survive,” he remembered telling Giuliani. Later that night, an expert told Von Essen that there would be no survivors in the rubble.
The death toll eventually included 343 members of the FDNY. For Von Essen, those losses were deeply personal. “To me, it wasn't a job, it was family,” he said.
While he was immersed in the response, his wife, Rita, was experiencing a different kind of terror: not knowing whether her husband was alive.
Rita was on her way to work at Breslin Realty in Garden City when she heard the initial reports on the radio. After arriving, calls began coming in from Tom’s office, as well as friends and family, asking where he was. She did not know he was alive until after 2 p.m., when she saw him on television at a news conference.
“Other than that, we did not know what had happened,” Rita said. “There was no communication at all.”
The relief was followed by months of grief, funerals and emotional exhaustion. The Von Essens’ four children became an important source of support.
“I don't know if I would have gotten through it without my wife and my kids, [and] the grandchildren,” Tom said.
By November 2001, he knew he could not continue as fire commissioner. He stepped down at the end of the year.
“Emotionally, I was a wreck,” he said. “I knew what it was gonna be like the next year, with all the memorials and everything. And I said, ‘No, I can't do it. I gotta move on.’”
“The emotional empathy, that was the biggest thing,” Rita said. “There was depletion.”
In the days after the attacks, Von Essen ordered oral histories from firefighters and medics, preserving thousands of pages of firsthand accounts. And in 2002, he released a memoir, “Strong of Heart: Life and Death in the Fire Department of New York,” co-authored with Matt Murray and published by ReganBooks.
“I always compare it to a burn,” he said of Sept. 11 and the aftermath. “It never goes away.”
Von Essen has attended the Sept. 11 ceremony at the World Trade Center every year since the attacks. He expects this year's observance to be particularly difficult.
For the Von Essens, the anniversary also has a Rockville Centre connection. The family first moved to the village from Queens in 1978 before moving to Manhattan in 1996. They returned to Rockville Centre in 2014.
All four of their children attended South Side High School. Two still live in the village and six adult grandchildren are nearby.
Though he was unsure whether he would attend Rockville Centre’s 9/11 ceremony Friday night, Von Essen said he appreciated the community’s recognition of his service and the relationships his family has developed there.
As the anniversary approached, his thoughts remained focused on those who responded.
“I would hope that people understand that when ordinary men and women try to do extraordinary things to help strangers,” Von Essen said, “that that's worthy of respect and admiration.”
