Englewood man reflects on life-changing weeks at Ground Zero 25 years later

ENGLEWOOD, Fla. (WINK) — An Englewood man is reflecting on the days he spent helping at Ground Zero, 25 years after the September 11 attacks.

Jonathan Hile traveled to New York weeks after the attacks, an experience that would change the course of his life. Like most Americans, Hile remembers exactly where he was on Sept. 11 at work as a hazardous materials specialist in Louisville, Kentucky.

"You saw that 2nd plane hit, and your heart just sunk in, just a gasp of, you know, what's happening? you know, we're under attack? And how is this happening? How is this even happening?" Hile said.

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He remembers that shock and the feeling he needed to take action.

"I could not sit back and just watch and watch and watch," Hile said.

By October, Hile was in New York City using his hazardous materials expertise to help dust out buildings near Ground Zero. He helped clear paths to apartments so displaced New Yorkers could get some of their belongings.

"Whatever items they were wanting to try to take, um, we would try to make sure that they were decontaminated as best as possible so that they could take some clothes and some personal items with them," Hile said.

He says one memory that sticks out is the sound of heavy equipment working around the site until Ground Zero went quiet.

"One day, we are moving from one building to another, and there was nothing. There was no sound. And you heard a bell ring," Hile said.

Hile asked a firefighter what it meant.

"He said, 'Well, they found somebody.' And so it was the most deafening silence that you could ever hear," Hile said.

Hile says his time in New York changed the course of his life. After returning to Kentucky, he became a firefighter, inspired by the people he worked alongside at Ground Zero.

"It was a set course, after being there, was made up before I'd even gotten back, that I was going to, following the footsteps of the people that I'd met and worked with down at the World Trade Center site," Hile said.

Twenty-five years later, Hile remembers the loss but also who Americans became in the days after.

"I'm very proud to have been an American at that time, and I honestly, I carry that with me, and I miss who we were and who the country was at that time. And I just hope it doesn't take another tragedy for us to find that unity again," Hile said.