9/11 first responder and local firefighter shares story in exclusive ABC57 interview, 24 years after attack

BERRIEN COUNTY, Mich.-- One 9/11 first responder now lives and works in Berrien County. Paul Delle is several months into his tenure as a firefighter for Benton Harbor Public Safety, but during the 9/11 terror attacks, he was an EMT in New York City.

He shared the graphic details of what he saw on Sept. 11, 2001, but also the gratitude he feels to have witnessed the heroism of all the first responders who were there with him during and after that deadly attack.

(Content warning: mature descriptions of the 9/11 terror attack.)

"I always kind of looked up to firefighters. I never thought I'd actually become one."

But now, Paul Delle is one. He's a firefighter for Benton Harbor Public Safety, less than a year into the gig. Before that, he was a doctor. Before that, he was a marine. And before that, he was an EMT in New York City.

"Every job he's had is in service-- in a position of service," his wife, Rachel Delle, said.

Delle showed ABC57's Annie Kate a binder with a printed record of computer-assisted dispatches from Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001.

"I'm #40A, right here," he said. "You can see at 9:12 we were dispatched."

"When I met Paul, I didn't even realize he was a responder there," said Rachel. "It's not something he talks about or brags about-- he's so humble."

The Long Island native and his wife, Rachel, moved into their St. Joseph, Michigan, home less than two years ago.

"I took an EMT course when I was in high school and started volunteering at a local volunteer EMS and fire department," Delle said. "When I graduated high school, I got a job almost immediately, working as an EMT in New York City."

He shared his story of that day with ABC57's Annie Kate in an exclusive interview. At just 19 or 20 years old, he was in an ambulance, en route to the World Trade Center.

"I just saw a black streak across the sky, coming from the World Trade Center towers," Delle said. "...we went through the Battery Tunnel. Once we exited the tunnel, I saw a large piece of an aircraft."

Delle recounts what he saw in graphic detail.

"So, when we were driving down West Street, we could see pieces of people in the street. I can remember my partner, Lou, he looked at me and said, 'Dude, those are pieces of people. Those are human bodies on the street,'" Delle said. "There were papers everywhere. Some of them were burned, some of them weren't. Just papers everywhere in the street."

His ambulance was parked near the entrance to the World Trade Center, he said, but only firefighters were allowed into the building.

"We were waiting, and I was watching firefighter after firefighter carrying all their gear, their hoses, their extrication tools," Delle said. "And all I could think of at the time was, 'When do we get to go in, when are we going to get to go?' Because I know there's probably hundreds, at least, hundreds of people up there, waiting for us."

EMT personnel were preparing to move in when something stopped them.

"At that time, I just heard this really loud roaring sound, and with the roaring sound, debris started to fall, and people started running," Delle said.

At 9:59 a.m., the South Tower collapsed.

"I guess, I imagine like an earthquake kind of sound. Just a very, very loud rumble," Delle said. "A lot of debris falling, you could hear it kind of raining all around you. You could hear glass breaking, people yelling," Delle said. "After that, it was all just smoke, powder, pulverized material in the air."

He said he ran, ducked behind a vehicle, and after some time made his way back to his ambulance. The equipment set up for staging and triage, he said, was lost or destroyed after the collapse.

"It was complete chaos at that moment. So, I tagged these firefighters according to their injuries, and we put them into the ambulance," Delle said.

Three or four dust-covered, injured firefighters in tow, they began to peel away for the hospital when more debris started falling.

"I heard again, another really loud rumble," Delle said, "raining debris on our ambulance, as we were leaving, evacuating these firefighters, is when the second collapse occurred."

Luckily, they made it out.

"I went home sometime early the next morning. I just went until I was exhausted. And I think a lot of people did that," Delle said. "I was basically driving around with other EMS units, just around the site, looking for survivors, and over the course of the next day, we found one or two. Not very many."

He talked about the overwhelming frustration he felt spending weeks after the attack, not finding survivors.

"It was almost futile, even just the recovery effort. We were just digging through so much rubble and trying to find-- really, just finding parts of people and just filling up buckets at that point," Delle said. "It was hard to really process. You know, that day. The months afterwards, it just became exhausting. I've been to so many funerals."

Now, looking back in 2025, it's gratitude he holds on to.

"I was fortunate enough to be part of that first initial response. I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by those people who perished, you know, who really, really are the finest human beings I could have been around," Delle said.

"We got to spend time with Paul in New York, and see where he was, where he was standing, and I'm very grateful that he wasn't in there and that I have him here," Rachel Delle said.

After multiple career switches— and his recent move to southwest Michigan— he's landed in the role of the men he refers to as heroes.

"When you made that decision to transfer from medicine to firefighting, were you thinking about those firefighters on that day, on 9/11?" Annie Kate asked.

"Oh, 100 percent," Delle replied. "I think about it every day. Every day I'm a firefighter, I think of that. Every time I go to the firehouse. Every call I go on, I think about it. I remember that I'm following in their footsteps, and that's, you know, the standard that I want to hold myself up to."