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00:00At 9.59 a.m. on September 11th, the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed
00:05in the middle of the biggest rescue operation ever mounted in New York's history.
00:11In barely 10 seconds, 110 stories disintegrated into an avalanche of steel and pulverized concrete,
00:19which engulfed Lower Manhattan in clouds of smoke and dust.
00:23There were no survivors.
00:25It would only be a matter of time before the North Tower fell.
00:30The firefighters inside realized time was running out.
00:34I knew what kind of danger we were in.
00:35Time wasn't on our side anymore, that we were going to be lucky if we got out of here alive.
00:41I looked at my guys, and I said, all right, guys, if that one can go, this one can go.
00:47It's time for us to get out of here.
00:5128 minutes later, the North Tower began to fall.
00:55Those who couldn't get out seemed to face certain death.
00:57Yet 14 people trapped in one of the stairways live to tell the tale.
01:03They are unique eyewitnesses to the collapse of the Twin Towers from the inside.
01:08You could actually hear the floors hitting one another.
01:14Boom, boom, boom, boom.
01:16And I remember thinking to myself, I said, oh, shit, this is it.
01:20We didn't make it.
01:21I rolled to a corner and basically went into a fetal position and just waited for the end.
01:31I thought I was going to be dead in a few seconds.
01:37And I remember feeling, I hope, you know, I hope this is fast.
01:40I pretty much saw my funeral.
01:44I saw everybody at the wake and my parents and family there.
01:512,749 people, including 343 firefighters, died in the tragedy of 9-11.
01:59Yet amazingly, 14 people who were inside the North Tower, when it fell, managed to survive.
02:06This is their story.
02:08The miracle of Stairway B.
02:11As dawn broke on the morning of September 11th, 2001, it seemed just like any other day in New York.
02:26Commuters made their way to work at the World Trade Center in Manhattan.
02:31Then, at 8.45 a.m., there was news of an extraordinary incident.
02:36At his firehouse on East 29th Street, Lieutenant Mickey Cross heard the first reports coming in on the fire department radio.
02:45I'm listening to a transmission from a chief.
02:49And he was downtown, and he was at a gas leak or something very routine.
02:54And he was calling to the fire department dispatcher that he was confirming that an aircraft had hit the World Trade Center.
03:01The plane hit the North Tower between the 93rd and the 99th floors.
03:07Josephine Harris was working on the 73rd floor.
03:10She would be one of the 14 people to survive.
03:14The building just began to rock.
03:17To rock.
03:18And I kept saying, why won't it stop?
03:20Why won't it stop?
03:22Among the first firefighters to respond to the emergency at the World Trade Center
03:27was another of the survivors, Lieutenant Jim McGlynn of Engine 39.
03:31My girlfriend Kathleen works in that area.
03:35So before we left, I called and left a message on her voicemail at work
03:40that there was a plane that hit the Trade Center,
03:46that it was probably terrorism, and to stay away from that area.
03:53Huge fires were engulfing the top of the North Tower.
03:56On the 73rd floor, a bewildered Josephine Harris was trying to remember her evacuation drill.
04:04Always take your pocketbook.
04:06And I remember that.
04:08You got your keys, you got your money.
04:11So, I always had the bag, and I'm letting go of my pocketbook.
04:18And then I start down the stairs.
04:20But that's when I'm thinking, what's going on?
04:21Within 15 minutes, 235 firefighters were called out to the disaster area.
04:29One of the units to arrive was Ladder 6, led by Captain Jay Jonas.
04:34Their rescue of Josephine would play a vital role in their own survival.
04:38It put a knot in your stomach, you know, going across, seeing that.
04:45Something that you never thought you'd see.
04:46You know, you saw the North Tower of the World Trade Center, the top 20 floors in flames.
04:52When Lieutenant Jim McGlynn and his unit arrived at the scene, the tragedy was all too real.
05:00One of the first hazards they faced was the bodies of jumpers crashing to the ground.
05:04I saw people jumping.
05:09You heard them hitting the pavement.
05:12And you realized the utter desperation that these people must be going through in order to jump to their death.
05:229.03 a.m., a second plane crashed into the South Tower.
05:28A major disaster turned into a catastrophe.
05:32Mickey Cross and his unit had just got there.
05:35He would be another of the miraculous survivors.
05:39We got showered with debris.
05:41We were getting these pieces of material were coming down, flaming.
05:45I remember seeing that.
05:46It looked like, it reminded me, like, meteorites or meteors or something.
05:49We all got off, we got our equipment, and I kind of huddled everybody together.
05:57We had a kind of like a little pep rally, pep talk, something.
06:01I wanted to say something to the guys.
06:04I was nervous, you know, but I think that helped me to come to center myself, you know.
06:129.10 a.m., more fire units were arriving.
06:16A command post had been set up in the lobby of the North Tower,
06:19where the fire chiefs directed operations.
06:22Jay Jonas was one of those given his assignment by Chief Hayden.
06:25As they came in and we gave them their assignments, you could almost look in their eye and realize that they themselves knew that this was going to be very risky and very difficult for all of them.
06:39I gave them a salute, and I walked over to where my firemen were waiting for me.
06:44And I walked over to them, and I said, all right, here's the deal.
06:49That's a raw deal, but this is what we have.
06:53Chief Jonas came back over, and I'll never forget these words.
06:58He just said, boys, they're trying to kill us.
07:02Let's go.
07:02And, you know, you really don't have a choice.
07:08You know, that's what we get paid to do.
07:10You go.
07:12New York's firefighters were facing the biggest and most treacherous high-rise fire in history.
07:18Nothing could have prepared men like Jim McGlynn for a disaster on this scale.
07:23Every fire has its challenges.
07:27Every fire is a little bit different from the other.
07:30But this was totally uncharted water.
07:35Knowing that this fire was being fueled by jet fuel, you knew that you were going to have to improvise and deal with it when you got up there.
07:46With the elevator shafts destroyed, just getting up to the 90th floor was a daunting prospect in itself.
07:53James Eftemi-Artis was one of Jim McGlynn's men.
07:58At that moment, I was thinking, God, we have to walk up 90 flights of stairs with all our gear and get up there.
08:06I was supposed to go home at 6 o'clock that night, and I knew that wasn't happening.
08:139.25 a.m.
08:15The fires in the North Tower are blazing out of control.
08:18By this time, Josephine Harris has made it down to the 60th floor.
08:23She suffered no injuries from the explosion, but was slowed down by an old injury to her leg.
08:28Around the 60th floor, I looked at the number, and I said, gee, 60.
08:36And I stopped.
08:38I told myself, don't look at the number of floors anymore.
08:41By now, the fires, fed by jet fuel, were consuming the upper floors of both towers.
08:50In the South Tower, the temperature rose to 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit, causing the steel framework supporting it to buckle.
08:58But the firefighters were unaware how close the towers were to collapsing.
09:02It took us about an hour to get to the 31st floor, and we were regrouping there, and at that time, the building shook so violently that you couldn't stand up.
09:18Everybody had to hit the floor.
09:19What had caused the building to shake was the catastrophic collapse of the South Tower beside it.
09:26But the firefighters inside the North Tower were unsure what had just happened.
09:31Many of their radios weren't working, and the huge dust clouds made it almost impossible to see anything outside.
09:38I thought the elevators may have been coming down the shafts.
09:43Maybe they cut loose, and they were coming down the shafts, and I was right near the open shaft, so I was a little concerned about being sucked into the shaft.
09:51I'm thinking if the elevator's coming down, it's going to create a vacuum, and I could be pulled.
09:54You know, this is what was going through my mind.
09:57In the back of my mind, I thought that a piece of our building had fallen off.
10:02So I looked at Billy Burke.
10:03I said, all right, Billy, you go check the South windows.
10:06I'll go check the North windows. We'll see what we can see.
10:09I couldn't see anything.
10:10All I saw was the white dust pressed against the glass.
10:14I looked at Billy Burke, and I asked him, is that what I thought it was?
10:19Thinking he'd say that part of our building collapsed.
10:22And he just looked at me with a straight face.
10:25And he said, the South Tower's just collapsed.
10:31It was a disaster on an unimaginable scale.
10:34The streets around the World Trade Center had been engulfed with debris and dust, leaving the command structure of the fire department in tatters.
10:45Jay Jonas knew it was only a matter of time before the North Tower would also fall.
10:50If they couldn't get out, nothing short of a miracle would save them.
10:54September 11th, the History Channel spoke with rescue workers who experienced the day firsthand.
11:02We got ordered to the 23rd floor.
11:06It was surprising how calm people were.
11:08And many of them were injured, some very seriously injured people.
11:10But it was kind of dark in there, and it was another staircase.
11:13And I went over to the staircase, and there was two people in there.
11:16There was a gentleman, his name was Joe Garcia.
11:20He was a supervisor for the Port of Authority.
11:22I remember this very clearly.
11:23And he was with a woman.
11:25And this guy stayed with this woman.
11:29She was injured.
11:30And he stayed with her and took her down from the 73rd floor all the way to the 23rd.
11:36This is like one of the unsung heroes of 9-11.
11:40He disregarded his own safety to stay with his employee.
11:43He took her down 50, walked her down 50 floors.
11:47The History Channel remembers 9-11.
11:50Visit the new Tribute Center on Liberty Street in New York City.
11:58In the aftermath of the collapse of the South Tower,
12:01dazed firefighters were trying to regroup and get to grips with the catastrophe they faced.
12:06All they could hear were the calls for help and the high-pitched personal alarms
12:11of injured firefighters going off all around them.
12:15Inside the stricken North Tower, Captain Jonas knew it was a race against time.
12:20I knew what kind of danger we were in.
12:22The time wasn't on our side anymore.
12:24That we were going to be lucky if we got out of here alive.
12:27So I looked at my guys, and I says,
12:30All right, guys, if that one can go, this one can go.
12:34You know, it's time for us to get out of here.
12:38We weren't running.
12:39We weren't even really moving all that fast, you know.
12:43We were basically at a very steady pace.
12:45We stayed together, and we were working our way down.
12:48I thought I was very clear to my men that the other tower had collapsed.
12:54But I didn't find out until later that they really didn't understand what I was telling them.
12:58The whole way down, he was like, he just said,
13:03Come on, guys, let's keep moving, keep moving, let's go.
13:05A couple times we'd stop, and we'd look around, you know, maybe take a look on a floor.
13:10Come on, guys, let's keep moving.
13:1110.15 a.m., Captain Jonas and his latter six crew had reached the 15th floor
13:19when they ran into Josephine Harris on Stairway B.
13:23Even though her office manager was helping her down,
13:26her leg was so bad she could only move at a snail's pace.
13:31Every fiber in my being was telling me,
13:35Keep going.
13:36You know, you're wasting time.
13:38Get out of this building.
13:40And I turned around and said to Captain Jonas,
13:44I said, What do you want to do?
13:47And he said, Grab her, let's go.
13:53Somebody told the manager that was with me,
13:55because he stayed with me, that he could go.
13:58They would take care of me.
13:59This was ladder six, and we start down.
14:03I'm getting more and more tired.
14:08It's really getting to me now.
14:10I helped her as much as I could, and we moved down.
14:12But it was a very slow process.
14:14She was, her legs were giving out.
14:16She was just, she was just all beat up.
14:19I'll be behind Billy Butler, and I said, Billy, can you move a little faster?
14:26And my speech would be slower and more deliberate.
14:30Inside, I'm, I'm screaming.
14:34We've got to get out of this building.
14:36We've got to move faster.
14:37We've got to move faster.
14:38So we're not going to make him.
14:40It was 10.24 a.m., 25 minutes after the collapse of the South Tower.
14:47Captain J. Jonas and ladder six had helped Josephine down to the fourth floor.
14:52Then they ground to a halt.
14:54Once we got to the fourth floor, Josephine Harris couldn't stand up anymore.
15:00And, uh, she, she told us to leave her when we weren't going to leave her.
15:07And I'm really, really tired now.
15:09And I think I said something to them like, um, leave me.
15:13I want to sit down because I wanted to sit down.
15:15And they could just leave me.
15:16It's that clock ticking that, you know, we don't have any time.
15:22You know, every second that passes by is a second closer to us not making that out of here.
15:29While J. Jonas and his crew were stuck on the fourth floor with Josephine,
15:34rumors that the North Tower was about to collapse and everyone running for their lives.
15:40Lieutenant Jim McGlynn had got to the ground floor.
15:42Then he discovered a colleague, John Drum, was missing.
15:47I told the guys, I said, all right, you guys stay right here.
15:51I'm going to walk in and see if we can go back and find John.
15:55Uh, so I walked up, I walked back into the stairwell and walked up a couple of flights.
16:00But James Eftemi-Artis and the crew of Engine 39 followed Jim into the stairway.
16:06As soon as I got into the stairwell, you heard creaking of metal.
16:11And we, you just knew that the building was coming down.
16:14It was so loud.
16:16That's when the building began to shake again.
16:19And you knew exactly what was going on this time.
16:21There was no doubt because you heard the floors landing one on top of the other.
16:28Every time a floor hit another floor, it would not only make a noise, but it would cause tremendous vibration.
16:34So we're being bounced up and down off the floor, hearing this collapse coming closer and closer.
16:41Mickey Cross was caught on the second floor.
16:45My helmet started flying off my head.
16:47I had forgotten to snap my helmet.
16:48So I grabbed my helmet.
16:50I guess instinctually, I just pulled myself down into the corner.
16:55The collapse of the North Tower created a massive rush of air.
16:59I was blown down six stories down to the first floor.
17:05And all I could remember while I was being blown down was, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.
17:11There wasn't any time to think about anything.
17:14The 110-story tower disintegrated in just 10 seconds.
17:18It was that fast, yet for me it was kind of slow motion, too, at the same time.
17:23And I remember thinking to myself, I said, oh shit, this is it.
17:28We didn't make it.
17:33Faced with what seemed like certain death, the trapped firefighters thought their last thoughts and prepared to die.
17:40In those 10 seconds, I thought of, I was like, well, I'm 33.
17:47What have I done with my life?
17:48Worked almost all the time.
17:50My wife is going to be a widow now.
17:54And I pretty much saw myself.
17:57I pretty much saw my funeral.
17:59I saw everybody at the wake at my funeral.
18:02And my parents and family there.
18:05You think about everything that's, everything, I guess, that you haven't done in your life.
18:12And you realize that, is this it?
18:16Are you going to make it out of here?
18:18And I was just too young and I have too much more to do with my life than for this to be it.
18:28I thought I was going to be dead in a few seconds.
18:30And I remember feeling, I hope, you know, I hope this is fast.
18:34Because I had a fear of being trapped, like, say, with a broken back or severely injured and still being conscious and alive.
18:44It was strange, but I was at peace when the collapse actually started.
18:48I said, whatever's going to happen now, it's going to happen.
18:51And I hope it doesn't hurt too much, but the fear was gone.
18:57For thousands of years, the biblical tale of the Exodus has captured a human...
19:07The collapse of the North Tower killed over 1,300 people trapped inside the building.
19:13From outside, the destruction was devastating.
19:16It looked like the end of the world, and it seemed impossible that anybody inside could survive.
19:22Yet, miraculously, the men of Ladder 6 were still alive, buried under the remnants of Stairway B.
19:29I could hear Mike.
19:31I could hear him groaning.
19:32I could hear him, uh, called out to me.
19:35I called out to him.
19:36Said, no, he was alive.
19:38You know, from the neck up, I seemed okay, but everything else was just like pins and needles.
19:42I mean, I was slapping my leg with my...
19:44Like, I'm watching my arm hit my leg, but I can't feel it.
19:48I had my flashlight on my side, and I looked at my hands and looked at myself to see if I was bleeding or anything anywhere.
19:57When he heard noises around him, Captain Jay Jonas realized he, too, had somehow survived the disaster.
20:04I wanted to know who was still alive.
20:07And, uh, I started calling them out by name.
20:11My guys, I says, uh, Billy.
20:15All of a sudden, I heard this voice.
20:16I heard it was Captain Jay Jonas.
20:17He goes, Billy, are you there?
20:20And he had been right behind me.
20:21And I said, yeah, I'm here.
20:24The entire Ladder 6 crew and Josephine Harris had survived inside a dark and dust-filled cavity within the collapsed shell of Stairway B.
20:33Nobody really understands how this miracle came about, but experts believe it was because the tower fell, with its exterior collapsing outwards at a faster rate than its interior, leaving a protected stump toward the base of the building.
20:47It was here that the survivors were trapped.
20:50When the tower fell, the man who was to play a vital role in their rescue had just arrived on the scene.
20:56He was Lieutenant Glenn Rowan of Ladder 43.
20:59We looked back, and here comes this huge cloud.
21:04And we ducked in this little alleyway, and the cloud just went flying past us.
21:11And I'm thinking, okay, we're in pretty good shape.
21:13But I looked to the side, and the cloud is coming now from the east side, too, to totally envelop us.
21:20It was lights out.
21:21It was completely black.
21:22As the dust began to clear, radio traffic suddenly increased dramatically with mayday calls.
21:33I got on the radio, and I transmitted my own mayday message.
21:41This is mayday, mayday, mayday.
21:44The sea officer of ladder company 6 were trapped in the B stairway of the North Tower.
21:54However, the scale of the disaster made any coordinated response to the mayday calls virtually impossible.
22:00Battered firefighters were emerging from everywhere, looking for water and gasping for air.
22:10Ladder 6 waited for a response to their call for help, but there was no reply.
22:15Initially, we just sat tight.
22:17We made Josephine as comfortable as we could.
22:20And we just stayed quiet and listened and monitored the radio.
22:26We were sitting there, and I'm wondering, how am I going to get out of here?
22:33I'm thinking, I should have called the kids.
22:38It's been about two weeks.
22:40Then it goes back to, how are they going to get me out of here?
22:47Also trapped further down in Stairway B was Lieutenant Jim McGlynn and his crew.
22:51My concern was the rest of this building is coming down, and we have a limited amount of time to get out of here.
23:00So I looked around at the building and was trying to find other ways out.
23:07Lieutenant McGlynn was talking to us, and he's like, guys, can you see my light?
23:13So we said, we can hear you.
23:15We can see your light, but there is no way out of here.
23:18We were in just a tight little teepee concrete vault.
23:24Another survivor was Mickey Cross.
23:26Like all the others, he had no idea of the scale of the disaster he'd miraculously lived through.
23:32I had the thought on occasion that, okay, wake up now.
23:40I was in a dream that this was a nightmare.
23:42And I said, okay, I want to wake up now.
23:46I want to go downstairs and have a cup of coffee with the guys in the firehouse and shoot the breeze.
23:51Because this can't be real.
23:53This can't be happening.
23:55It was 11.30 a.m., and the survivors had been trapped in total darkness inside the smoking ruins of Stairway B for an hour.
24:03It was hot and dusty, and with no radio contact, they had no idea what was going on in the outside world.
24:11We're trying to figure out what exactly has happened to us.
24:14We survived some sort of catastrophic event, but we don't know how bad it is.
24:20You know, did the top of the building fall off?
24:25You know, couldn't be the whole building collapsed because we're still there.
24:28You know, we're in this stairway.
24:30It's twisted and rubble-filled, but it's there.
24:34In the debris field above them, the firefighters were just beginning their search and rescue operations.
24:39But the chaos and destruction that confronted them made it all painfully slow and extremely dangerous.
24:45Some of the survivors were already wondering if they would ever be dug out and rescued.
24:51I had no idea what was over us.
24:53I'm thinking 110 stories.
24:56How much rubble that is, how, if they start pulling it apart, how long would it take for them to get to us?
25:01So there were times it was very, like, wondering, this, this, this, they'll never get to us.
25:07It might take weeks and weeks, you know.
25:09Hundreds more firefighters were now arriving at the disaster area.
25:13But Captain Jay Jonas' mayday messages were still not being picked up.
25:18Trapped down in Stairway B, there was nothing else Jay could do.
25:23We realize we can't get ourselves out.
25:26And, uh, that's a big mental leap for a fireman to take.
25:32Because we're so used to being the people who are going in to rescue someone.
25:37Now, the roles are reversed and you realize you're helpless yourself.
25:42Josephine also felt helpless, but remained calm and composed, even in her prayers.
25:48I remember one time saying to God, if you get me out of here, I'll never ask for anything again.
25:57And I said, nope, I'm not going to say that.
26:01It soon became clear to the outside world, however, that there would be very few survivors.
26:06Those who feared their loved ones had been killed when the towers collapsed, desperately tried to find out if they were alive.
26:14Mickey Cross' girlfriend, Christine, telephoned his firehouse.
26:18She was told he was missing.
26:20I started yelling at the firefighter who answered the phone.
26:24I was saying, what do you mean, what do you mean?
26:27He's just not back from the job yet.
26:31And then I came out of my little denial and I said, listen to me, I'm calling this disaster a job.
26:41And then I went out to look for him.
26:46Strict security measures made it virtually impossible for family and friends to get anywhere near the World Trade Center site.
26:53So Jim McGlynn's girlfriend, Kathleen, went to his firehouse for any news of him.
26:58I just started asking a lot of questions and I said, well, can you at least tell me when they responded?
27:06And at first they just weren't sure or they just didn't want to tell me.
27:11And then one of the firemen came up to me and he said they responded at 8.52.
27:16And it was then that I really started to fall apart because I realized if they left at 8.52, they were down there.
27:27And I knew what happened.
27:30Shocked and traumatized, the nearest and dearest of the victims could do nothing but hope.
27:35If anyone had survived the collapse of the Twin Towers, the rescuers were determined to find them.
27:41But with any survivors buried alive in a debris field that extended over 16 acres, they knew time wasn't on their side.
27:50How does it feel?
27:51It was midday on 9-11 and Captain Jay Jonas' mayday messages were still not being picked up.
27:58The firefighters had no idea there was a pocket of survivors nearby.
28:03Then Jay again tried to make radio contact.
28:07Unexpectedly, this time his call was picked up.
28:11One of the officers coordinating rescue operations was Chief Nick Visconti.
28:16He responded to Jay Jonas' mayday call.
28:18The location given by Jay Jonas was unbelievable to the firefighters listening.
28:47The North Tower no longer existed.
28:50They asked for his location again.
28:53He asked me that a couple times.
28:54One time he asked me that.
28:56Somebody else got on the radio and said,
28:57Where's the North Tower?
29:00I remember somebody saying that.
29:02Where's the North Tower on the radio?
29:04And I said,
29:05And I said,
29:05Oh, shit.
29:07I says,
29:08This,
29:08It's not good.
29:12Now,
29:12Ladder 6.
29:14Chief Visconti sent out rescue teams to look for Ladder 6.
29:18However, first, they would have to find the remains of the North Tower.
29:22In the meantime, the chief kept in contact with Jay Jonas.
29:29One of the few times I got choked up, he just kept coming over the radio and said,
29:33I'm coming for you, brother.
29:35I'm coming for you.
29:36We're coming for you.
29:37We're coming for you.
29:38News that Ladder 6 had survived the collapse of the North Tower got through to Jay's wife, Judy.
29:45But she was told they were still trapped.
29:48It was relief in some ways to hear that he was alive and that he was trapped.
29:53But there was many stories of guys being trapped and not coming out.
30:00So trapped is not a great word for a fireman's wife.
30:05But he was alive.
30:08There was no news at all, however, about most of the missing firefighters.
30:13Chief Hayden, who was coordinating search and rescue operations,
30:16had the painful job of answering questions from next of kin.
30:20There were many men that I know and work with coming up to me and asking me,
30:26you know, Pete, chief, have you seen my son?
30:31And son's coming up.
30:32You know, chief, have you seen my father?
30:34And it was a very difficult time to look them in the eye and knowing full well that most likely their son or their father had been killed.
30:491.30 p.m.
30:50The rescue of the firefighters buried in Stairway B still seemed a long way off.
30:56I started to freak internally.
30:59I never voiced anything.
31:00But inside, I was freaking out and I wanted to get out of there.
31:04You know, and I started to look around and everybody else was calm.
31:09Josephine was calm.
31:10So I started to talk to myself to calm myself down.
31:12I didn't pass out.
31:16Afterwards, I thought about it myself.
31:18I said, gee.
31:20But there was no time for crying.
31:23Glenn Rowan and his latter 43 crew were one of the first rescue teams sent out to try and find the Stairway B survivors.
31:30We're walking across this debris field and it was a pretty hazardous area to be.
31:36And I'm like, God, dear God, I just said to myself, it was the first time I said, you know, just, you know, keep my guys safe.
31:47You know, this is dangerous.
31:48This is very dangerous.
31:50Locating them, even with regular radio contact, proved to be almost impossible.
31:55Then, down in the depths of Stairway B, things changed dramatically.
31:59All of a sudden, a ray of sunshine hit the stairway.
32:05You know, you're looking at it, you're in this darkness, and then all of a sudden, a ray of sunshine hits the floor.
32:11I said, where is that coming from?
32:13It was just clearly sunlight.
32:15Maybe it was about 12 inches wide.
32:16And it was all peppered with this dirt and debris running through it.
32:21But it was the most beautiful sight in the world.
32:23It was almost hard to believe the sunlight coming.
32:26I mean, this is a 110-story building fell down on the top of us.
32:30And I'm looking at, and I'm on the third floor looking at sunlight.
32:34The hole letting in the sunlight proved to be the way out of Stairway B.
32:39The first trapped firefighter to emerge through the hole set up a rope, and some of the survivors began to climb out.
32:46The others were still trapped beneath the wreckage.
32:49Glenn Rowan still couldn't see them, but realized he was very close.
32:55He goes, how close are you?
32:57And I just said, I'm going to scream.
33:00And I screamed at the top of my lungs, probably to let out some emotion.
33:05And he said, oh, okay, I got you.
33:08You're right over there.
33:10Somebody goes, there's a fireman.
33:13And sure enough, we looked out through this hole, and there was a fireman.
33:16I could just see them starting to come out of the hole.
33:22This incredible area, and I can't believe there's people walking out of this spot.
33:27It's just so dangerous.
33:29And where did they come from?
33:31Where were they?
33:32After being buried for over four hours, the firefighters were astonished by the scale of the devastation surrounding them.
33:39And I looked around, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
33:44And all I could see is fire and smoke and twisted debris.
33:49And it looked like we had just been hit by a nuclear bomb.
33:53You know, I says, wow.
33:55I can't believe I survived this.
33:56The first rescued firefighters set off across the treacherous debris field with one of the latter 43 crew leading the way.
34:04Meanwhile, Glenn Rowan climbed down into Stairway B to look after Josephine and the other survivors who were still trapped inside.
34:12I remember seeing him come down, and he's on a rope.
34:17I'm like, how are they going to get me out of here on a rope?
34:23You look around, the place is totally a disaster.
34:27I said to Josephine, you're okay.
34:30You're going to be fine.
34:31We have more people coming and more equipment.
34:34We'll get you out of here safely.
34:35Having put Josephine at ease, Glenn Rowan then turned his attention to Jim McGlynn.
34:44Jim was on a landing.
34:46Below him, two of his crew were trapped inside a narrow void.
34:51I said, okay, great, Glenn.
34:52What do you have with you?
34:54Do you have a rescue?
34:55Do you have a squad?
34:55Who's with you?
34:56And he says, at the moment, it's just me.
34:58And I said, okay, well, we have a problem.
35:01You can just hear the disappointment in his voice.
35:03He's like, oh, we're going to be here so much.
35:05You know, how are we going to get my guys out?
35:06We've got to get my guys out.
35:08Glenn Rowan was determined to get them out, but he knew it wasn't going to be easy.
35:20At 2.30 p.m., the first group to be rescued from Stairway B began to make their way across
35:27the treacherous debris field of the ruins of the World Trade Center.
35:33There was no solid footing there.
35:35This was just twisted, you know, bent up beams.
35:38Some were cut.
35:39There were sharp edges, but there was nothing solid.
35:44All that dust that was created from this collapse made the steel very, very slippery.
35:49If you put your foot on it, it was almost like talcum powder.
35:56It wasn't easy.
35:58We had to go up and under concrete and twisted steel, and some of it was hot, some of it was
36:02smoldering, and there were sharp edges, and there were voids everywhere, and we basically
36:06just stayed together.
36:07We took our time.
36:08We crawled over this debris field.
36:11After an hour of relentless effort, Glenn Rowan and his crew managed to dig out the last two
36:17remaining firefighters of Ladder 39 from the void where they'd been trapped.
36:21All 14 survivors were now free from the building, but they still had to make it to safe ground.
36:27As soon as I got out, I just looked.
36:32I'm like, which way do we go?
36:33And the guy's like, that way.
36:36Finally, I got the guts to go.
36:38I started climbing down beams, up beams, down beams, up beams.
36:42I basically, I took off.
36:45After what seemed like an unending struggle to escape from the danger zone, Mickey Cross
36:50finally began to feel the end was in sight.
36:52I saw a bunch of firefighters coming up the pile.
36:55And that's the first time I felt okay.
36:59I says, okay, these are fresh troops.
37:03They're coming from a place of safety, so if I could just get to them, I'll be okay.
37:09Mike Meldrum's back was injured, and he was very unstable on his feet.
37:13He feared he wouldn't be able to make it through the 16-acre debris field littered with 30-foot-high
37:19hills of broken beams and shifting masonry.
37:22I remember saying to myself, I was just, you know, I don't know how the hell I'm going
37:27to do this.
37:29You know, I just don't know how I'm going to do this.
37:31I was like, if you missed a step, if you fell, there was no way to get you back.
37:36Mike looks at me, he says, he says, Cap, I can't do it.
37:43I can't climb up.
37:44I said, yes, you can.
37:45You can climb up.
37:47He said, no, I can't.
37:48I says, Mike, your wife and kids are on the other side of that hill.
37:53Mike Meldrum did make it to safety, as did all the 14 survivors who were buried in Stairway
37:59B.
37:59Remarkably, none of the survivors were seriously injured.
38:05They were all given first aid as soon as they came out.
38:08This is Billy Butler on the gurney being given medical attention.
38:12The first thing Mike Meldrum wanted to do was to get back to his fire truck.
38:18I remember looking for the trucks, because all the trucks were there.
38:21And I could see the walkway bridges.
38:23They were down.
38:24I couldn't see any trucks.
38:25There were no, I says, my truck should be somewhere right here.
38:30And I couldn't see it.
38:31All it was was just mounds and mounds of debris.
38:35And I think that was the first time I really got to look back.
38:40And there was nothing in these buildings.
38:453 p.m.
38:47Jay Jonas was looking for a command post to report in.
38:50He saw Chief Hayden standing on top of a fire truck coordinating the rescue operation.
38:57Jay came up and he reported.
39:00He stood there and I'm looking down at him and he saluted me and he says, Captain Jonas reporting for duty.
39:08And I just couldn't help but smile at him because this was one of the bright moments of the day.
39:13It was a very emotional moment for him and I.
39:18You know, he looks down and he starts crying.
39:21I look up and I'm crying.
39:23And he says, Jay, it's good to see you.
39:26I says, it's good to be here.
39:28Mickey Cross was wandering around in a daze trying to find his crew members.
39:34Then he saw a man behind a desk at an improvised command post.
39:37It was a flat table with some papers on it and it was a chief sitting there.
39:42And I said, that looks like someplace I should go.
39:45And I said, I'm Lieutenant Mickey Cross, engine 16.
39:48So he looks at me and he goes, he has this list of names.
39:52He goes, oh, geez, we have you missing as presumed dead.
39:55You know, he says, no, I'm here.
39:58And then I asked him, I says, where, where am I?
40:00Where's my company?
40:01Did they all get out okay?
40:02All of Mickey's crew were out of the North Tower before the collapse occurred and survived.
40:10But Mickey's girlfriend, Christine, had no news of his whereabouts and was searching for him at ground zero.
40:17Jim McGlynn was receiving first aid and worrying about the other firefighters in his unit.
40:47I just went over and I got myself checked out and I had a lot of dust in my eyes and glass and I guess they washed them out.
40:56Nobody was sure of where people were of the magnitude of our losses.
41:03There were estimates of 100, 200, 300 dead, but nobody was really sure.
41:12All the men in Jim's unit survived.
41:16And at last, his girlfriend Kathleen got the news she desperately wanted to hear.
41:21Jim was safe.
41:22I felt my whole body just, just feel relieved.
41:32And I just said my prayers of thanks.
41:35James Eftemiardis suffered severe breathing problems.
41:40He was given emergency treatment, then taken to hospital.
41:43Before he went, he managed to speak to his wife.
41:49I called my wife.
41:51I said,
41:53It's me.
41:56I just want you to know I'm okay.
41:58I gotta go.
42:00Call my mom.
42:01Let her know I'm okay.
42:03So she, she says okay.
42:0410.30 p.m.
42:08The burst of optimism that came from finding the survivors of Stairway B was beginning to fade.
42:14Exhausted firefighters went home while fresh volunteers arrived to face the grim reality of Ground Zero.
42:22After a very long day, survivor Sal D'Agostino made it back to his firehouse.
42:27But we get back to the firehouse, and we walked into the office, which is right off the apparatus floor, watching it on TV.
42:37And that's when we really hit us, the magnitude of this whole thing.
42:44I went upstairs to take a shower.
42:46And I basically was in the shower, and that's when I kind of broke down.
42:50I started crying in the shower.
42:52And shaking, and just a mess, basically.
42:57After a long and difficult rescue, Josephine was given a medical checkup.
43:04Then she went home.
43:06And when I got home, I looked at myself in the mirror, and I had to take steps back.
43:12I was shocked at what I looked like.
43:15I get the television on, and I start hearing all this.
43:18And I lost it.
43:25I just lost it, right there in the middle of the floor, which is unbelievable.
43:30For hours, Mickey Cross aimlessly wandered the streets in a state of shock.
43:38Later that evening, he returned to his firehouse, where he was reunited with his girlfriend, Christine.
43:43Me and Christine, we walked to my apartment, and I must have fallen asleep.
43:54I don't remember the rest of the night.
43:57She says I was yelling in my sleep that night.
43:59Mick shook like a leaf and screamed all night long in his sleep.
44:14He has no recollection of it.
44:16You couldn't go near him.
44:18It was like he was going to snap like a tree branch.
44:22As the night wore on, Glenn Rowan and his unit eventually went home, exhausted.
44:28I wanted to see everyone.
44:30I wanted to hold my wife.
44:31I wanted to see my kids.
44:33They were all sleeping, of course, but I just wanted to spend some time in their rooms,
44:39just being so fortunate that I was able to do this.
44:43And so many of our guys aren't going to be able to do it tonight.
44:46The miraculous survival of the 14 people rescued in Stairway B was one of the few moments of
44:54hope amidst the tragedy of 9-11.
44:57Their story bears witness to the extraordinary courage and heroism of New York's firefighters
45:03on the darkest day in their history, when they lost 343 men.
45:09You have to remember these men, not just as firefighters, but taking them as they lived
45:18their lives.
45:19They were sons.
45:21They were brothers.
45:23They were husbands.
45:25They were fathers.
45:27They were friends.
45:29They were family men.
45:31And then they were firefighters also.
45:34They lived lives of responsibility.
45:37They lived lives of courage.
45:39They lived lives of dignity.
45:59I don't think this has been used for centuries.
46:04Out there is a whole lost world.
46:06An all-new series that brings to life these lost worlds.
46:11Next on the History Channel.
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