Month: September 2025

By Hannah Kliger

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    NEW YORK, New York (WCBS) — It has been nearly 24 years since Sept. 11 terror attack, and while hundreds of FDNY and NYPD crews rushed to ground zero, so did the city’s volunteer firefighters.

In the outer boroughs, small teams of “vollies” quietly stepped in to protect and support their neighbors however they could.

Gerritsen Beach Volunteer Fire Department still feels pain At the historic Gerritsen Beach Volunteer Fire Department, retired Chief Doreen Garson recalled the nightmares of a city covered in dust.

“Driving through the tunnel, you could not see anything. You couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. It was just ash coming at us,” Garson said.

The 100-year-old department’s first female chief served for 32 years before stepping down in 2018. On Sept. 11, 2001, and in the days following, Garson, who was running for city council at the time, went down to ground zero with a partner to help with recovery and cleanup.

“We were passing the buckets through to wherever the end of the line was. And the dogs went in and searched, you know, to see if they could find anybody,” she recalled.

Garson also took photographs of her time at the site, to document a city rattled by tragedy.

“It was just very, very frightening that something like that can happen to us when we felt so comfortable. That comfort is not there anymore,” she said.

“We all have our own variation of PTSD”

The Gerritsen Beach vollies are Brooklyn’s only volunteer-run firehouse, one of eight in the city, scattered across the outer boroughs. Ed Wilmarth III, former chief and department historian of the Broad Channel Volunteer Fire Department, comes from a long legacy of firefighters.

“Every male Wilmarth going back to the 1700s has been a [fireman], a volunteer fireman at some point in their lives,” Wilmarth said.

Wilmarth also rushed toward Lower Manhattan with three vollies after the first plane hit. He recalls running for cover once the first tower began to collapse.

“I can hear all this stuff hitting behind me, hitting the ground, hitting the ambulances. So, I just made the decision to just dive underneath the back of our ambulance. And that’s probably what saved me,” he said.

The force of the collapse broke windows of nearby buildings and bones of those lucky enough to be far away. All four volunteers made it out alive, though two of Wilmarth’s colleagues, Fred Gray and Captain Robert Nussberger, would eventually die of 9/11-related illnesses.

“I have a chronic sinusitis that was became 9/11 certified. We all have our own variation of PTSD, as one would expect,” Wilmarth said.

Many scars are invisible but lasting

In the days following the attack, volunteer fire departments in the outer boroughs were deployed to backfill at FDNY firehouses because their manpower and resources were all tied up at ground zero.

Memorials to local heroes can be found across the borough’s small communities: a baseball field, a flagpole in Marine Park, a plaque on the wall of the Broad Channel VFD.

“I hope I live to be an old man,” Wilmarth said of his health. “But unfortunately, the amount of first responders that were out on 9/11, the amount that have passed away has now surpassed the amount of people that were killed that day.”

Sometimes, the heroes walk among us, carrying the consequences of their sacrifice.

“Bladder cancer came in 2021. I went through a year of treatments. And then I was clear for a year, and then it came back again,” Garson said. “In ’23, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and last year it was metastatic.”

Many scars are invisible but lasting, a reminder that the danger, their fight, and their service didn’t end that day.

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By Marvin Hurst

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    PELICAN BAY, Texas (KTVT) — A Pelican Bay woman, who told CBS News Texas that she is known by many as the “monkey woman,” is willing to relinquish her furry companion, Abu. Carmen, whose first name we’re using for now, faces no criminal charges.

She was under investigation for owning a spider monkey, as keeping the animal in the municipality is against the city’s ordinance. Prior to securing an attorney, Carmen said she was unaware of the local law, and public safety members took pictures with the animal.

Police sergeant asks “monkey woman” for a picture “I was coming back to the police department here, and I saw the owner walking, and she had the monkey on top of her shoulder,” Sgt. Justin Spurgeon.

Spurgeon said he stopped Carmen for a picture. The images served two purposes: for his daughter and as a record of the animal in the city limits. The sergeant said as he prepared to take the picture, what happened next shocked him.

“I was probably maybe five feet away from her, taking a photo, and the monkey kind of lunged from her,” Spurgeon said. “Grabbed my arm, my left arm, and bit me on the elbow.”

The father of two said he asked Carmen if the animal drew blood. He said he did not see any until he got back to the office. Then, Spurgeon said he did research that frightened him about the possibilities that bit could bring.

“We’d like to avoid that just by not allowing it back in our city,” he said. “It shouldn’t have been here in the first place. But yeah, we don’t need that.”

As he sought medical attention, the authorities went to get the spider monkey. Police said it’s the same process for a dog that bites a person.

Abu’s owner alleges spider monkey is being kept in a bird cage

Abu was voluntarily surrendered by his owners and sent to a facility in Johnson County.

His owner alleges he’s being kept in a bird’s cage.

Her comments are now being answered by her attorney, Dan Wyde. He helped a Dallas woman regain custody of her spider monkey, Jorgie Boy, after she was arrested for a DWI offense. He was being kept at the Funky Monkey Ranch in Burleson until Wyde got involved.

Now, the owner of Abu wants her spider to go to the Funky Monkey Ranch. So, they are working in concert on the matter.

Owner requests spider monkey be transferred to Funky Monkey Ranch

In a statement, Wyde said, “Abu’s owners only want the current caretaking facility be “primate” certified. If not, the owners request Abu be transferred to the Funky Monkey Ranch Primate Preserve. Thank you for your concern.”

Pelican Bay Police Chief Brad Anderson said they have been working with Wyde to resolve the issue. He has no intentions of euthanizing the animal, although the wording of their ordinance states they can in certain instances.

Anderson said the matter will be handled in a hearing next week.

“The judge can make a decision on if the animal goes with her, if the animal goes with some other organization, that’s completely up to him,” Anderson said.

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By Alicia Roberts

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    PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (KYW) — Richard Cornish is a pro at making people look and feel their best, no matter the obstacles.

Cornish has been a hairstylist for more than three decades. Since January, he’s been operating a mobile bedside salon, Restore Salon Services, out of two black travel bags for patients undergoing long-term treatment and hospital stays at Penn Medicine.

“When you tell a person who is in the hospital that they can actually receive a haircut or a shampoo or a beard trim or something like that, it helps them to kind of change their own perspective on their own situation,” Cornish said. “It kind of normalizes their experience in the hospital, it helps them keep their own identities.”

For him, helping someone look their best even when they’re not feeling it is a small win in the road to recovery.

“People who I encounter in a hospital are just so incredibly grateful to have something other than medical issues to talk about and services to receive,” Cornish said. “So this work in the hospital is much more my calling, although I do love being in the salon.”

Right now, he spends two days a month at Penn Medicine, but come January, he’s hoping to spend four days a month. The goal is to expand his work to as many patients as possible.

He also encourages anyone with a talent to share to consider volunteering their time, knowing that sometimes the best medicine may come from the outside in.

“I think there is always something you can do with your talent you have, you just have to find what your passion is,” Cornish said. “This is my passion. I see the magic and the power that this provides people, and so that just fills me up.”

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.