Joseph W. Pfeifer (born 1956)[1] is a retired American firefighter who served with the New York City Fire Department (FDNY).

[5][6] A native of Boston, MA, Pfeifer enrolled in the Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception in 1974 with a major in psychology and a minor in philosophy, and graduated in 1978.

[7][8] Franco-American filmmaker Jules Naudet, who with his brother Gédéon had been filming a documentary about Pfeifer's firehouse, captured one of two known videos of the North Tower impact.

[7][8] He personally ordered hundreds of firefighters – including his brother Kevin, a lieutenant with Engine 33 – to ascend the stairs in the North Tower to rescue people trapped at and above the impact zone.

[10][8] When the South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m., causing an avalanche of dust and debris, without knowing the extent of the damage, he called for all firefighters to leave the North Tower and left the command post, escaping via a pedestrian bridge to the World Financial Center,[7][2][11][12] bringing with him a number of survivors as well as the body of his friend and FDNY Chaplain, Father Mychal Judge.

[7][12] At 10:28 a.m., he witnessed the collapse of the North Tower from across the street and covered Jules Naudet with his body to protect him from the flying concrete and steel.

[7] Without the infrastructure to fight the fires that had started in WTC-7 during the attacks, Pfeifer and the surviving firefighters could only watch as the other skyscraper burned out of control before collapsing at 5:20 p.m.[7] In recent years, Pfeifer has publicly discussed his experience on September 11 in detail, including in his 2021 book, Ordinary Heroes: A Memoir of 9/11,[7] and in an interview for the 2021 National Geographic documentary series 9/11: One Day in America.

[8] His decision to allow the Naudet brothers to stay and film the crisis as it unfolded both confirmed his account of events and resulted in the only record of the World Trade Center attacks from start to finish.

[16] During his tenure as the Chief of CTDP, Pfeifer played a vital role on the effects of Hurricane Sandy in New York in 2012, served as an Incident Commander at the Metro North commuter train derailment at Spuyten Duyvil in 2013, and assisted in developing the Ebola response in NYC in 2014.