tanley and James Smagala grew up as if they were twins.
The youngest of seven children, Stan and Jim were almost
two years apart, but they were inseparable, friends and
family say.
They got an apartment in Dix Hills together when their parents
moved to Florida 12 years ago. And when Jim got married, Stan
lived in an apartment at Jim's house in Commack.
"That's how we were, "
Jim said. "We did everything together."
Six years ago, after working at the same insurance company,
Jim and Stan decided to quit and join the New York City Fire
Department. At their graduation from the fire academy, Stan
met his future wife, Dena. She is now six months pregnant.
The morning of Sept. 11, both men - working in separate
units - responded to the attacks on the World Trade Center.
Jim, an aide to the
citywide tour commander, responded to the North Tower. Stan,
36, with Engine Co. 226 in Brooklyn, went to the South Tower.
"At the time, I didn't know he was working," Jim,
38, said. "But I heard a radio transmission that his
company was responding to the South Tower. I remember thinking,
'I hope he's not working,' but somehow I knew he was."
As the day unfolded, the men's older brother, Gary, an
accountant working in Melville, took comfort that his brothers
were stationed in Brooklyn "out of harm's way,"
he thought.
But when the first building collapsed, a cascade of wreckage
knocked Jim and the other firefighters in the lobby to the
ground.
"It was like a wave at the beach that just takes over
everything," Jim said.
He managed to escape the building, he said, about five minutes
before it collapsed, causing plumes of dust and debris that
blotted out the sky.
But Jim's sense of relief quickly soured as uncertainty
about his brother's fate grew.
"For a minute, I thought I was dead; it was so eerie,"
he said. "Of course, I realized I was alive, but somehow
I knew that my brother was not OK."
For the next several hours, Jim wandered throughout lower
Manhattan searching for his younger brother to no avail.
At one point, he came across several men from Stan's unit
- Engine Co. 226 - but they didn't know where he was either.
"They saw the desperation
on my face," he said. "We all knew at that point
that he was in there."
Despite getting reports from Jim at Ground Zero, the family
remained optimistic, "calling all the hospitals, hoping
that he was among the injured," said Gary Smagala. "We
exhausted every avenue we could think of but still came up
empty-handed,"he said.
A memorial service for Stan Smagala will be held tomorrow
at 10a.m. at St. William the Abbott Roman Catholic Church
at 2000 Jackson Ave. in Seaford.
(486 words)
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