NYC Photog Gets By With a Little Help From His Friends
On 9/11, a photographer was saved by the very firefighters he took photos of.
As a news photographer in New York City, David Handschuh has spent more than 20 years working alongside the city's firefighters, EMS providers and police officers. "I never dreamed," he says, "that the people I photographed saving so many lives one day would save mine."
Handschuh, a staff photographer for the New York Daily News, was at Ground Zero moments after the first plane hit last 9/11. He was there when the second plane hit, shooting from near the base of the south tower. And that's where he was when the south tower collapsed.
"The only way of describing it was like a wave at the beach," says Handschuh, past president of the National Press Photographers Association, whose photo of two Fire Department of New York paramedics graced the October 2001 EMS cover. "This choking cloud came at us, with gravel and grit and dirt and noise, and picked us up and tossed us around like rag dolls in a tornado. People caught nearby were either buried alive or tossed--I was both. And I basically owe my life to a bunch of New York City firefighters who dug me out and carried me to safety."
Some of those firefighters, such as EMS?Chief Charlie Wells and Phil McArdle of Hazmat 1, Handschuh had known for years. Others, including Lts. Tom McGoff and Gary Wood and firefighters Jeff Bortowski and Mark Rupert, he has gotten to know since.
"I wound up with a bunch of guardian angels that day,"?Handschuh says. "Without these individuals, I wouldn't be here."
The photographer had a badly broken right leg and an injured left knee, but by July, 10 months after the fact, was largely recovered.
"There are a couple of physical shortcomings I don't know if I'll ever be able to catch up on," he says. "But the crutches are gone, the cane's gone, and I'm walking pretty well."
