MALTA’s John Viola never gets used to devastation, but he’s dealt with it before. Fourteen of his Ladder Co.15 firefighters perished during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in New York.Although retired, his experience is invaluable during emergencies, and early Wednesday the Malta resident left for the Dominican Republic, en route to Haiti, bringing hope to the countless victims of last week’s killer earthquake.
“It’s something you harden yourself for,” Viola said. “These people need help. This is going to be a long, long process. We’ll probably be going there several more times during the next year.”
Viola belongs to the organization H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 (Healing, Emergency and ResponseTeam), composed of retired New York firefighters and police officers who survived the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The team going to Haiti was accompanied by several New York City construction workers.
The 20-member group flew from Newark to Santo Domingo, where they awaited transport to Haiti by a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter.
“The roads going into Haiti are backed up for hours,” Viola said. Just getting onto the island has been a problem.
“I’ve heard some flights have circled for five hours,” said Viola’s wife, Sally. “That’s what we’ve read.”
H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 ’s priority is to set up a base camp, help with search and rescue,provide first aid and establish contacts for future visits. Viola will be in Haiti for about a week, return home and then head back with a much larger group of 50 to 100 volunteers including doctors and more construction workers.
Previously,Viola was part of a H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 team that helped with recovery efforts following Hurricane Katrina that ravaged New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. The group???s stated purpose is to provide relief anywhere in the world where disaster response is required.
“We’ve traveled all over,” he said. “We’ve helped wounded veterans. A lot of people have been involved with this.”
In Florence, N.J., they built a home for a paralyzed U.S. Marine in three days. At St. Bernard Parish, New Orleans, they constructed five homes and renovated nine others in a week. Before leaving that devastated area, they heard one of the city’s fire chiefs was still living in a trailer, so they built a new home in less than 24 hours.
Viola was a New York fireman from 1982 to 2002. The couple first started living seasonally in Malta in the late 1980s and became full-time residents several years ago.
On Sept. 11, 2001, Viola had just gone off duty and returned home when the first plane hit the World Trade Center. By the time he got back to the city, both towers were down. Ladder Co.15, in Lower Manhattan, is about 10 blocks from Ground Zero so he understands the grief, pain and heartache that Haitian survivors are dealing with. “I lost my whole firehouse,” Viola said. Afterward, he began looking for a way to help others, and H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 was the perfect opportunity for channeling his talents and training.
“I felt compelled to somehow pay back the people from all over the U.S. who had supported us during our time of need,” Viola said.
For information or to support H.E.A.R.T. 9/11’s efforts financially, see the Web site: www.heart911.org.
Bill Keegan and John Viola
