Echoing concerns raised by the commission investigating the emergency response to the Sept. 11 attacks, Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge yesterday said the first responders to the World Trade Center disaster lacked some of the most basic tools to do their jobs. Ridge, who was in Philadelphia to receive the Drexel University President’s Medal, said the 9/11 responders could not communicate via radio and often did not have proper equipment. “Some fire departments couldn’t put hoses to hydrants because the couplings were different,” Ridge told an audience of 300 university and government officials, as well as students. “That’s real basic stuff,” he said. Full Story