dan nigro was his number two. >> we went downstairs, got in the car and headed over the brooklyn bridgewe could see the damage, see the smoke, see the fire. that's when i said to pete, pete, this will be the worst day of our lives. and that was before i knew the half of it. >> car 3 to manhattan. >> pete ganci's voice was recorded en route. >> along for the pot, staging area three, chief somewhere on west street, o. >> a box is a location. k signals the end of a message. a throwback to the 19th century telegraph, which on this day was paungtuating the greatest crisis in the department's 136 years. >> right away i got a deep sense that we were going to lose a lot of firefighters this day. >> division 1 commander peter hayden met battalion chief joe pfeifer in the lobby of the burning tourer. >> i knew we weren going to be able to put out the fire. so the order of the day was to search and evacuate as many people as we could. i knew we were not going to back away. >> the fire was 93 floors above. elevators were out. so firefighters climbed tight stairwells shouldering 75 pounds and more.