Experience at ground zero inspires Sorrento man

A Sorrento firefighter and former schoolteacher who went to New York City after the terrorist attacks says he has some pretty grisly memories of digging through the mountains of rubble where the World Trade Center collapsed.

What has stuck with him the most is an inspiration to become more involved in his community.

Leonard “Earl” Bierman, 36, went to New York City with his brother-in-law, Scott Van Patten of Belfast, two days after the disaster. Bierman said as a firefighter at the Navy base in Winter Harbor, he and Van Patten, a state employee, felt compelled to assist with the recovery effort.

The two men drove south Sept. 13 without any specific plans and quickly were put to work by Red Cross officials after they arrived at ground zero, Bierman said. They initially helped with removing rubble by hand by standing in a line and passing bucket after bucket of debris to workers behind them. They also searched and listened for possible survivors.

At one point, while crawling through a pile of rubble, Bierman came across a large, white sheet of metal he thought was part of one of the hijacked airplanes. It turned out to be the roof of a car.

“There were two people in the front seat,” Bierman said. “They were probably trying to get out of there when the building collapsed.”

The supportive atmosphere among the recovery workers, many of whom lost family members or colleagues in the disaster, was remarkable, Bierman said.

“You’d ask for an aspirin and they’d throw you an aspirin bottle,” he said. Fellow workers thrust cell phones at him when he said he needed to make a call, and one worker helped his brother-in-law up when he fell running away from a shaking building, he said.

“It was a life-altering experience,” Bierman said.