Retired Naperville firefighter Chuck Wehrli recalls 10 days at Ground Zero after 9/11
A retired Naperville firefighter was one of a team of rescuers who boarded a C-130 to travel to New York City after the September 11 terrorist attack, bound for Ground Zero.
Time can wrinkle a face and rust a piece of steel, but for Chuck Wehrli 25 years is not nearly long enough to fade a memory. He is a reluctantly retired fourth-general Naperville firefighter.
"It's the best thing ever. Best job in the world," he said.
But in all the decades he spent on the job, there are 10 days that stick with him the most: the days he spent at Ground Zero, at the wreckage left after the 9/11 attacks.
The day the towers fell in New York, Wehrli was on his way to Arlington Heights to teach a class on structure collapse rescue.
"And on the way there, I heard it on the radio, what was going on" he recalled.
He rerouted to Missouri to meet a federal urban search and rescue team and deployed to New York.
"I snapped as shot as we were walking in. You can see all the dust and everything there," he said.
As a safety officer for Missouri Task Force 1, Wehrli watched over firefighters who scoured the pile for survivors and found none.
"Seven, eight days into that, they found—our guys found a civilian lady and a firefighter," he recalled.
He offered to lend a hand, not knowing the body recovered from the rubble belonged to a man he'd met.
"I told the guys, you know, I'll give you a hand. I'm right here," he recalled. "We all put our helmets on our chests."
The man was Joe Angelini, Sr., a New York firefighter who'd gifted him the patch off his hat years before.
"Him and his son both died that day, and I just found out that his grandson is now on the job in New York," Wehrli said.
Ten days at Ground Zero took their toll.
"About halfway home, I just pulled over on the side of the road and kind of sobbed," he said.
They also left a lasting mark.
"I had Stage IV tongue cancer caused by the dust at Ground Zero because we were breathing in, besides all the chemicals, people. Dust of people," Wehrli said.
But after he returned to Naperville, Wehrli helped secure a steel beam from the World Trade Center for one of the first 9/11 memorials in the country.
"All of it was donated. The concrete, the excavation, the brick," he said. "I want my grandkids to know about it when they're old enough to understand, because it's part of our history."
As the 25th anniversary of 9/11 approached, Chuck shared his story with visitors at the Naper Settlement in Naperville, where his Missouri Task Force 1 helmet is on display. He hopes his firefighter's story is passed down and never forgotten.
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