Brother of 9/11 firefighter recalls heartbreaking moment he knew sibling had died
Frank Siller reveals how he found out his brother had passed away whilst responding to the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.
25 years on from the devastating 9/11 attacks, the impact can be felt even today.
The collapse of the towers saw a tragedy unfold that nobody on the ground could have prepared themselves for.
3,000 people died on one day, which has since become known as one of the deadliest terror attacks in human history.
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Investigators soon revealed the plan had been carried out by Islamist extremists in al-Qaeda, where plane hijackers caused two planes to crash into the Twin Towers in New York.
A third plane was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon in Virginia, and a fourth jet crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after being taken over by brave passengers.
New York was the most devastating of the three crash sites, as not only did people in the buildings pass away, those on the planes and also responding to the scene died too.
Even today, people who were there are dying of cancer due to the harmful dust and debris that caused plumes over the city from the collapsed towers.
As survivors and families who lost loved ones remember the attacks this month, Siller reveals the harrowing way he found out his brother was dead.
Per The Post, he said: “I turned to my mother-in-law and said, ‘I think I just lost my brother.’ I was sick to my stomach.”
His brother, Siller, was driving home after a shift as a FDNY firefighter when he heard the North Tower of the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane.
With so many responders needed, he decided to turn his truck around and sped through the closed Brooklyn Battery Tunnel toward Manhattan to help.
Siller, who is the Chairman and CEO of the Tunnels to Towers Foundation, which was created in memory of his brother, explained that this was the decision that cost Stephen his life.
The news was delivered by his brother’s friend and fellow firefighter Richie Obermeyer, who phoned him from Ground Zero at the scene.
In his new book, Let Us Do Good, Siller said he was told: “No one is coming home, Frank. No one.”
Stephen was a father of five, and gave his life to help rescue those trapped in the Twin Towers.
“It was brutal, but that’s when our faith kicked in,” said Siller.
He explained: “Are we going to let that define everything — or are we going to take what Stephen did and thank him for his sacrifice?”
In response to Stephen’s efforts, the remaining Siller siblings launched the Tunnel to Towers foundation, which was intended to help the children who had lost parents in the attacks.
In 2002, one year after the attacks, they held a 5k run retracing Stephen’s route through the tunnel, and soon, it became a regular event.
Now, they build homes for injured veterans, pay off mortgages for Gold Star families and more.
When remembering his brother and the route he took to race toward danger despite what he would be leaving behind at home, he wrote: “I’m sure he was torn. That’s a hero.”
Britt Jones