I went to Copley Sq to...

Item Information

Title:
I went to Copley Sq to...
Date:
April 2013
Format:
Documents
Genre:
texts (documents)
Location:
Northeastern University Library
Collection (local):
Our Marathon
Series:
"Your Story"
Subjects:
Boston Marathon Bombing, Boston, Mass., 2013
Places:
Massachusetts > Suffolk (county) > Boston
Link to Item:
http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20265503
Terms of Use:
Copyright Not Evaluated. The copyright and related rights status of this Item has not been evaluated. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/ Requests for permission to publish material should be addressed to Northeastern University Library's Digital Scholarship Group (dsg@neu.edu).
Contact host institution for more information.
Language:
English
Notes:
Item Text: I went to Copley Sq to meet friends who were at the Charlesmark hotel. Me and two of my friends mistakenly thought we could use the Copley subway to cross under Boylston St. We were wrong and ended up on the wrong side of Boylston St. We stepped into the lobby of Lord & Taylor to get out of the crowd and figure out what to do. We decided to walk back up Boylston St. and try to cut over by the Mass Ave. subway. As we walked out and away from Lord & Taylor within literally 30 seconds the 1st bomb went off. We all turned towards the sound and said WTF?? The blast smelled a bit like steam so my first thought was a manhole cover or a subway transformer. You could immediately see the crowd got anxious. Before we could even turn away the 2nd bomb went off right in front of us. It was a huge fire ball/bang and then smoke. We had just been standing across the street from the blast! In my mind this was like 9/11 at first you were unsure what was happening but then you knew. The smell from the second blast smelled like gun powder! The crowd panicked and started to stampede. Me and the guys I was with pulled down the metal barriers lining the sidewalk so the runners on the street could escape. I got separated from my friends and ran directly into the blast scene in front of Atlantic Fish and Forum. It took me 20 seconds to run down the street and honestly I was scared another bomb was going to go off as I ran towards the scene. It was surreal, almost like it was all silent for a moment with gray smoke and the smell of the blast in the air. As I got within 15 feet of forum I was stunned. It was carnage and it really went unreported. People were decapitated everywhere. 2 young children were being tended too, both had lost limbs. It was like a war zone scene from a movie. People had lost arms and legs and some of the detached limbs were lying near the victims. It's honestly impossible to describe. I truly was frozen. At that point people were providing medical attention so I started pulling the barriers away from the area so the medical people could get through. I did that with a couple of police officers and bystanders from the blast. I looked around and there was burning flesh in the street, literally someone's knee. I pointed it out to an officer. Then it was like the sound was turned on, and sirens were everywhere. I backed up and stood in the middle of the street signaling the fire truck to come to the area in front of Atlantic Fish. As the fire trucks arrived I just stood back and watched the scene. There was nothing left I could do and now the police were telling everybody to clear the area. I took a couple of pictures from the sidewalk and walked up Boylston St. From there as I roamed around Copley Sq. in a daze looking for my friends I ran into employees I knew from various restaurants. I was so happy to know they survived. The friends I was going to meet at the Charlemark were sitting on the patio when the blast went off! I truly thought they were gone. As the cell service started to return I started getting texts from the friends I was meeting. Every one of them survived uninjured!! What a horrific day!
Notes (acquisition):
This story was collected by the Boston Globe in the days immediately following the Boston Marathon Bombing. GlobeLab collected these anonymous stories on the Boston.com website and donated them to the Our Marathon Archive. We are grateful for this contribution, which gives insight into how Bostonians and visitors to the city understood the bombing events in their immediate aftermath.