He is still dealing with the fallout from that awful day that shook Americans' sense of security, most recently handling the hoax that forced a U.S. Airways plane to abruptly return to Philadelphia. A suspect has been arrested and charged with falsely reporting that a passenger had liquid explosives on board.
Tuesday's early morning hours were chilly, "eerily similar" to the temperature the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Quinn said, and he felt compelled to redraft his prepared remarks. He had to dig deeper.
"It may be comfortable to remove yourself emotionally," Quinn said afterward. "But I thought the audience deserved a personal response . . . I felt I owed it to them."
At a 9/11 memorial prayer service at Trinity Episcopal Church on Main Street, packed with local firefighters, law enforcement officers, EMS personnel, and others, Quinn followed a mournful bagpiper, the singing of the National anthem, and remarks by several dignitaries.
The event was sponsored by the 200 Club of Burlington County, which holds fund-raisers for those killed or injured in the line of duty.
Quinn delivered. He shared vivid memories, which he said he had never publicly revealed before.
He remembered how fast he ran away as the North Tower fell and what went through his mind.
Soon after the first plane hit, layers of ash piled up on the road, causing his car to skid and crash into a retaining wall.
He was only a couple of blocks away. He got out and began running to safety.
"I experienced for the first time in my life, sheer terror. I knew I was going to die . . . That building was so big when it started to come down . . . I said a prayer to God," he told the crowd.
Quinn also recalled the fear he had seen in the eyes of the firefighters who were huddled nearby, followed by the transformative look of "grim determination" as they pressed on.
"In spite of the incredible danger and very real possibility - and some say probability - they wouldn't make it out alive," they continued their rescue efforts, he said. "That to me is heroic."
After 9/11, Quinn was one of five agents assigned to the primary team that investigated the siege of the city. Years later, his job was spent "in search of the people and networks who did this and to bring them to justice."
As he wrapped up his remarks, Quinn spoke softly of a special memory that he had long kept private. He prefaced his remarks by saying that it might seem "a little corny, melodramatic."
But the image has remained etched in his psyche over the years and it was time, on this 11th anniversary, to talk about it.
"I saw a break in the debris field - the Statue of Liberty framed basically by the debris of the day. . . . I drew comfort from that," he said. "I like to think she was giving a bronze salute" to the country, he said, confident that the nation "would be resilient enough and defiant enough to withstand" the assault.
Several in the audience nodded.
Contact Jan Hefler at 856-779-3224 or jhefler@phillynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @JanHefler. Read her blog, Burlco Buzz, at www.philly.com/BurlcoBuzz.
