Twenty‑five years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Durham Fire Chief Robert Zoldos still feels the echo of that day whenever he sees a damaged structure or smells the scent of smoke. The memory is especially vivid because the Pentagon mission was the closest his team ever came to home.
From overseas deployments to a hometown call
Before leading Durham’s fire department, Zoldos served with Virginia Task Force One, a elite urban search and rescue unit that responded to disasters worldwide. By 2001 he had already been to Kenya after the U.S. Embassy bombing and to other crisis zones. When the planes struck the World Trade Center, Zoldos was proctoring an exam for the Prince William County Fire Department. Orders came to return to their stations, and the team expected to head to New York. Within minutes, however, American Airlines Flight 77 hit the Pentagon, and the assignment changed.
“It was my shortest response time ever for a mission,” Zoldos said. “We drove only four miles.” The rapid deployment left little time for mental preparation – “When you fly to Turkey, you’ve got a day to think about it. We had 20 minutes,” he recalled.
Making the Pentagon safe for rescuers
As a lieutenant and squad leader, Zoldos and his crew rode buses to the Pentagon, followed by tractor‑trailers loaded with shoring equipment. Seeing the iconic building “caved in” was, he said, “a punch to the stomach.” Yet training took over. The team’s first priority was to make the structure stable enough for other rescuers to work safely.
They built massive timber supports, stacking heavy lumber to hold damaged floors in place. “You’d shore something, then search to make sure it was safe,” Zoldos explained. Their efficiency improved quickly; a support that once took an hour was assembled in roughly 24 minutes during the operation.
A wave of national support
Beyond the immediate rescue effort, Zoldos witnessed a massive outpouring of help from across the country. Additional rescue teams arrived, companies delivered equipment, and a local hardware firm sent trucks loaded with lumber. “There were people everywhere trying to help in some way,” he said.
When Zoldos finally left the Pentagon, his wife drove him home. Along the route, they saw American flags waving from cars and pickup trucks. “There is a fervent feel of patriotism right now that’s just wonderful,” she told him, a sentiment Zoldos still cherishes.
A personal reminder in Durham
Back in Durham, the chief keeps a lime‑green rescue helmet from the Pentagon mission on display in his office. The helmet, scratched and worn, bears stickers marking his earlier deployments – the 1998 Kenya embassy bombing, the 1999 earthquakes in Turkey and Taiwan, and the Pentagon rescue.
Inside the helmet he once kept a picture of his family. His daughter was not yet two, and his son was a baby when the attacks occurred. The helmet now serves as both artifact and reminder of a chapter he calls “closed but never far away.”
Lessons for the next generation
Zoldos hopes that new firefighters, many of whom were not alive on Sept. 11, will understand the enduring lesson of that day. “I really hope that when we look at that day, we don’t memorialize the attacks. We memorialize the response,” he said.
The story of Durham’s own hero underscores the bravery, faith in community, and patriotic spirit that continue to define our first‑responders and the families they protect.
Original reporting: WRAL Raleigh — read the source article.
