Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff
@independentamericans·13.4K subscribers·3.5K videos
Engine 65’s 9/11: Five Floors, a Bad Knee, and a May Day That Saved Their Lives. Firefighter Al Barr
Posted
August 18, 2026
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1:07:51Now PlayingPaul Rieckhoff sits down with his friend, retired FDNY firefighter Al Barry of Engine 65, for a no-BS, floor-by-floor account of September 11, 2001 — the climb up the North Tower stairwell, the lieutenant's bad knee that slowed them at every fifth floor, the May Day at 22, the collapse he first mistook for elevators being recalled, the pile of strangers he ended up beneath under a police car on West Street, and the collect call from a pay phone that got word to his family. Al also opens up about what came after: the lungs that ended his run as an FDNY ceremonial bugler, the brother firefighter lost to suicide, the years it took to sit with a counselor, and why the current generation of firefighters is finally starting to talk. A brother-to-brother conversation for anyone who was there, and required listening for anyone who wasn't yet born. Independent is an attitude. Stay vigilant.
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