On the morning of September 11, 2001, the Arizona Burn Center was one of hundreds of U.S. hospitals scrambling to get ready for the thousands of people who would be pulled from the burning wreckage of the World Trade Center.
At least, that was the hope. The reality, of course, is that almost none of the people who were at their desks or enjoying breakfast that morning at Windows on the World ever had a chance of being saved.
But out of that horrible day came the nation’s realization that terrorist attacks and other tragedies were no longer confined to the rest of the world. They could happen right here, to us.
And from that came a call to action – from federal and state governments, the American Burn Association and others – to build a system that could handle thousands of burn patients whenever the need occurred.
