Scott Montellaro was a paramedic working out of the American Medical Response (AMR) office in New Haven on 9/11. When Montellaro heard the attacks, he rushed down to New York.
He saw people fleeing; cars that had been crushed or incinerated. But he also saw something that to this day, has stayed with him.
“While we were there, we were staging, the people in the city were just coming together, coming to us, asking if we needed anything,” Montellaro said.
That sense of team work and community is a lesson Montellaro now also teaches to paramedics at the AMR office as a paramedic field training officer.
“We're much stronger as a team rather than an individual, and you just have to put your trust in people,” Montellaro said.
Friday marks 25 years since the terror attacks and Connecticut will host multiple commemoration ceremonies across the state.
Montellaro said he’s never attended the memorial ceremony in Manhattan and doesn’t watch TV shows about the attacks. He said he assumed it’s a coping mechanism.
But, he said what he does do is continue to work out of the AMR office, and volunteer to assist in recovery efforts, including Hurricane Katrina.
“It's about team building, understanding that it doesn't have to be you,” Montellaro said. It can be a team, and we need to do better to understand that we can rely on other people, (to) delegate and communicate.”
Multiple first responders have suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after responding to the attacks. Montellaro did not say he had PTSD and said he hadn't sought out therapy to help process what happened. But said he has talked about his experiences with others.
His experiences roughly line up with an academic study showing that while PTSD rates were more common among survivors, they were able to show great resilience, with the help of strong support networks.
Montellaro’s lived experiences partly reflect that, and he said he’s continued to work in the first responder field because he fundamentally still believes in the value behind assisting others.
“I'm the first one calling, because I want to do what I can to help,” Montellaro said. “So, yes, I would say it has definitely impacted me, and it's definitely made me want to do more of it and help where I can.”
Montellaro also had a personal connection to the attacks.
He learned his uncle, Warren Grifka, worked at the World Trade Center that day. He hoped to find him. But days later, he realized he was one of the thousands killed in the attacks.
Montellaro walked to the ruins of the World Trade Center, known as the pile, as he came to grips with what happened.
“I just stood there for a couple minutes of silence because I thought I had this feeling in my gut that that would be the closest I'd ever be to him again,” Montellaro said.
Montellaro said Grifka’s remains are still unaccounted for. When asked if he hadn't gone to a memorial ceremony due to wondering if a part of him still hadn't processed what he experienced, Montellaro said he wasn’t sure.
He said he has no desire to attend the ceremony at Ground Zero. But he said that could change.
“At some point, I will,” Montellaro said.
