While most Albertans watched the horrible events of September 11 unfold on their television screens, at least one local CUPE member was in the eye of the storm.

Stephanie McDonald is an emergency medical technician (EMT) employed by the City of Edmonton’s Emergency Response Department.

On the morning of September 11 she was in Brooklyn – just a mile away from the World Trade Centre –attending a conference on emergency medicine.

When McDonald and the other ninety or so emergency specialists participating in the conference learned of the disaster, they quickly decided to put their skills to use.

They divided themselves into four groups. The first group set up a make-shift clinic in the hotel where the conference was being held. Here they treated some of the shaken and dust-covered New Yorkers who were streaming out of Manhattan across the Brooklyn Bridge.

The second group set up a triage centre on the bridge itself. And the third group left to volunteer at a local hospital.

McDonald, with 21 years on the job and experience from the 1989 tornado in Edmonton, joined the fourth group. This was the group headed for ground zero – the World Trade Centre itself.

After commandeering medical supplies from a nearby pharmacy, McDonald and about 20 other emergency specialists boarded a city bus and began the slow journey (through roadblocks and closed streets) to the effected neighbourhoods.

"When we got to Manhattan, the reality of what had happened really started to sink in," said McDonald.

"The first thing you noticed was the air quality. There wasn’t just smoke, there was a lot of fine dust in the air. It was hard to breath."

McDonald was also struck by the debris that was strewn everywhere – paper, documents, clothes – all evidence of the lives that had been so violently torn apart.

As McDonald’s bus approached ground zero, she was also disturbed to see demolished and abandoned emergency vehicles. Even three blocks from the towers, they had been crushed by falling steel and concrete.

When McDonald and the others reached their destination, they set up a triage centre in the lobby of a building two blocks from the rubble of the fallen towers.

"We had to do some pretty creative things in terms of getting set up," said McDonald. "We used coat racks for IV stands, basically anything we could get our hands on."

Unfortunately, despite all the preparations, the reality was that there were few survivors to take care of.

"We were prepared for multiple patients," said McDonald. "But there weren’t many people to help. Most of the people we ended up helping were volunteers suffering from burns and respiratory problems."

While her team was on site, the third WTC tower – Tower 7 – came tumbling down. And at 1 a.m. – after being on the scene since 2 p.m. the previous afternoon – McDonald and the other were informed that the building they were in was unstable.

"We had five minutes to leave," she said. "Everything was just left there."

After the evacuation, McDonald returned to her hotel and soon began a 42- hour journey home to Edmonton that involved cars, trains and planes.

McDonald says she would've liked to help more people, but she says she has no regrets. "It was a privilege and an honour to work with all the people on our team."

She says she will remember many things about that day, but maybe none more than the young New York City EMT she met near ground zero. He had lost both his partner and his ambulance when the towers fell

"What sticks with me is that despite everything he had lost, he stayed with his job ...These people are real heroes to me."