In a brief interview, security specialist and marathon participant Robert Siciliano recounts his experience during the Boston Marathon bombings. He was about 500 yards from the finish line on Boylston Street when the explosions occurred. Despite police orders to evacuate, he ran toward the blast zone to reach his family, briefly clashing with an officer before escaping into back alleys. Siciliano describes the smell of soot, the sound and visual chaos, and his immediate concern that the device might be a dirty or radioactive bomb, prompting him to warn his father to evacuate. He observed multiple victims lying on the street, bleeding, attended only by ambulances that were originally there for runners and by Boston Athletic Association volunteers. Initial police response was confused but focused on getting people to safety; later, a massive influx of police, fire trucks, and state resources arrived, securing the scene. Throughout, Siciliano reflects on his instinctual drive to protect his family, his threat assessment, and the rapid escalation of emergency services.
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Robert Siciliano ran the Boston Marathon today. He is also a securities expert. He joins us on the line now from Boston with his thoughts on what he witnessed. So Robert, tell us, where were you when the explosions went off?
I was probably 500 feet away, about 500 yards, 500 yards. I had just turned the corner onto Boylston Street. Boylston Street is where the finish line is, where the explosions happened, and I was, uh, on my way to completing the marathon, and the bombs went off. Boston police stopped everybody immediately, and they forced us off the road, and they started to tell people to evacuate. Certainly in any situation like that, there's some confusion, a little bit of hysteria, and I kept running. I kept running towards the finish line, towards the bombs, because my family was on the other side of the finish line waiting for me. So between me and my family, two bombs went off. Wow. And, um, the— I kept running. Boston police started yelling at me. I just kept going. One of them grabbed me over to the side, and I kind of got in a little minor tussle with him. And then I kind of got away from him. I ran. He started calling after me and told another cop to get me. He got me, and they were kind of upset with me, rightly so, because I disobeyed them and I shouldn't have been doing what I was doing, and they were protecting me. But natural instinct is to go after your family. But I ended up hopping over a couple fences and I ran into the back alleys behind the restaurants that were bombed. And people were spilling out into the alleys and there was blood and I just kept going through the crowds. Eventually I made it around, back over to, across Boylston, over to the finish line and I was able to get my family out of there. Um, and in the meantime, you know, I'd seen maybe half a dozen people laid out flat on Boylston Street. They stumbled out of the bar that blew up. And, um, the only ambulances that were there when I was there were the ambulances that were taking care of the runners, because that's what they were there for. Um, I got— when I was there, there was no, you know, major fire trucks, ambulances, state police. Like, it was just like local law and ambulances taking care of the runners and crowd control, not for a bomb blast.
Robert, take a step back though. When you were running towards your family, towards the finish line, and you saw the blast beside you, I mean, what did it sound like? What did it look like? What did it even smell like?
So, it's— I've been smelling barbecue and smoked ribs all day long along the course. This didn't smell like that. Right. It was sooty and You know, my concern was, was it a dirty bomb? Was it radioactive? Um, it, uh, uh, you know, my first inclination was yes, this was an explosive, this was a terrorist attack. You know, you don't think that it was a— and my last concern, my last thought was, you know, a gas stove blew up. No, because that doesn't happen. Uh, it happens in houses, it doesn't happen in restaurants. You just don't see things like that anymore. Uh, you know, the gas companies have control over that stuff. I knew this was a bomb, and my first inclination was to get my family out of there. I called my dad my dad. Fortunately, I got him on the phone, and I told him to get everybody out of there because chances are there was going to be another bomb, another explosion. And, and they found more explosives afterwards, so I, so I was right to get them out of there as quickly as possible.
At one point, you said you were— you'd passed the finish line, and police officers were pulling you away, and so you were running around, and at some point you saw a lot of blood. What exactly did you see? Did you see people that were injured?
Yes.
Like what?
I saw people laid out on the ground on Boylston Street near the finish line that had come out of the bombing, and they were being treated by the ambulances that were there to treat the runners. They were bleeding from their face and their heads and their hands and all over their body, and just laid out flat. You know, one guy was sitting up, but the rest of them were down, and they had people around them. They had the Boston Athletic Association's help, the people that were there, you know, to assist the runners, helping them. They had Boston Police around them. They had a couple ambulance people around them. There wasn't a whole lot of support when I was there because it was the initial explosion. Shortly afterwards is when the cavalry came in. I mean, there was hundreds of police and fire trucks and motorcycle cops, and it was like the army just rolled down Boylston Street. There's nothing like I ever seen. And, um, and then they secured the scene and they evacuated everybody. You know, the, the first Boston cops on the scene, you know, they were just as confused as everybody else, but their, their first response was to get everybody to safety, to get them out of there. And, um, and that's what they did. They did a really good job of that.
Well, I'm glad that you are safe. I'm glad that your family is safe. Thank you so much for your time, Robert.
