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  • 12 hours ago
9 11 Escape From The Towers 2018
Transcript
00:00:07For 17 years, I've been keeping the story to myself.
00:00:17What was it like to be one floor below where a plane flew into your building?
00:00:24I've never talked directly about it.
00:00:34I was one of the few people that actually saw this thing coming at the building.
00:00:42It hit you.
00:00:43I looked at my window and I could see a huge fireball.
00:00:49And I knew the people that I had just talked to were all dead.
00:00:57It started the day as colleagues, ended the day as lifelong brothers and sisters.
00:01:02We succeed as a group or we go down as a group.
00:01:06Whether you went up or whether you went down, whether you went left or whether you went right,
00:01:10decided whether you were going to live or die that day.
00:01:12Everything, every decision that was made, it could have played out so differently.
00:01:15It makes me realize just how close to that line between who lived and died we were.
00:01:47The morning of September 11th, I actually arrived at the office a little earlier than I normally do.
00:01:53You know, it's time to get up and go, you know?
00:01:56And I enjoyed, I enjoyed that.
00:02:00Normally I'd wear a suit.
00:02:01That day I was wearing just a short-sleeved shirt.
00:02:03This one, same shirt.
00:02:07I'd drive into work every day, coming in.
00:02:10No matter where, I could see the Twin Towers.
00:02:12I felt privileged to be working in these buildings because I felt like, you know, we were on top of
00:02:17the world, literally.
00:02:19I worked in the North Tower and everybody recognized it by the spire on top, the antenna.
00:02:27Tower 2, which was the South Tower, is where we worked at.
00:02:30And I, I, of course, Tower 2 was, was better because we were there.
00:02:35You know?
00:02:44So on the morning of September 11th, I walked across the plaza.
00:02:48To be able to see the top of the building, you'd have to absolutely crane your neck up, completely up
00:02:54to stare at the sky.
00:02:57I'd never been in a building that, that tall before.
00:03:00No.
00:03:01There certainly aren't any in North Carolina.
00:03:07You enter an elevator that held maybe 50 people, and it shot you up 78 floors in 45 seconds.
00:03:16Feel your, your ears popping, and you can feel the motions.
00:03:19I never got used to traveling unnaturally fast in an enormous steel box.
00:03:31Good morning, American 11 with you. Passing through 190-230.
00:03:35Record 11 box.
00:03:36I don't know how to climb in here. We'll look to 280.
00:03:43Network Plus was a small little telecommunications company.
00:03:47Our office was on the 81st floor, and it was never hard to recruit anybody or hire anyone, because everybody
00:03:55wanted to be there.
00:03:56You know, it was my first office, my first job as a business person.
00:04:01Everything was unique to me.
00:04:04The majority of the people that worked there were in their early 20s, were out to have a good time.
00:04:11I mean, we worked for a telecom company. We weren't bankers. We weren't hedge fund guys.
00:04:15We were not all millionaires. We were struggling kids, most of us.
00:04:21When I started work there, there was no other tenant on the rest of the floor.
00:04:26So we had a quarter of the floor. The rest of the three quarters of the floor was open.
00:04:33We used to go into the unoccupied part of the office to sneak cigarettes when we were on our break.
00:04:41Yeah, Bank of America moved on to our floor. That was our floor, so they were coming in to our
00:04:46floor.
00:04:51We were new kids on the block. We had just moved there in June of that year. It was now
00:04:57a new office space.
00:04:58Coming into this building, it was massive. From one end of this floor, the other end of the floor, the
00:05:02size of a football field.
00:05:03I loved it. I can't say it enough, I loved it.
00:05:08The windows on every floor were 18 inches wide. They ran from floor to ceiling, though.
00:05:14If you are looking down from where I was, you look down, you get the feeling almost that you're going
00:05:17to fall out.
00:05:18You put your head against the window, you get that rollercoaster effect.
00:05:24Your stomach, you look down like, wow.
00:05:30I didn't have a problem with Ann working at the World Trade Center.
00:05:33I mean, a lot of people worked in each tower. You know, it was a lot of offices.
00:05:38Ann was a dear. Lovely woman.
00:05:40She was kind, sweet, always had nice things to say.
00:05:44She had jumped from one job to work for the bank.
00:05:47I kind of said, hey, that sounds like a really good position.
00:05:50So, she did.
00:05:52You know, I had no clue.
00:05:54I just didn't want to believe anything could happen.
00:06:02Is that American 11 trying to call?
00:06:05We have some planes.
00:06:07Just stay quiet and you'll be okay.
00:06:15Baseline just moved to the South Tower.
00:06:17We took up floor 77 and a partial of 78.
00:06:24On the morning of September 11th, I get off at the 78th floor
00:06:27and then take the escalators just down one floor, an internal escalator, to my office.
00:06:32I put my jacket down.
00:06:34I put my laptop and my docking station and get all set.
00:06:41Baseline was a company on the up.
00:06:44We provided software and data to investment banks.
00:06:48Everybody got along at Baseline.
00:06:50It was a very close-knit company.
00:06:54Even while being pregnant, I still was excited to come to the office every single day.
00:06:59Just to be able to work on that high up was like, wow.
00:07:04Stephen was an accountant at Baseline and he was so happy with his job.
00:07:09He loved working there.
00:07:12This was a place that he felt that he would stay for a long time.
00:07:20That morning, approximately about 8.30 in the morning,
00:07:23there might have been about 100 people already on the floor.
00:07:28I really had just sat down, got my computer on,
00:07:33looked at emails really quick to see how many hundreds of emails came in overnight.
00:07:39It was just another day.
00:07:45I got a heads up for you here.
00:07:46I got an American 11.
00:07:48Get a Southeast better now.
00:07:49We're not talking to him.
00:07:50No one's talked to him about the last 20 minutes.
00:07:58I dropped my food and my work bag at my desk
00:08:02and headed off to the bathroom to get dressed.
00:08:10Neil comes by, says, you want to go down for a cigarette?
00:08:15I just wanted to grab my friend and have a smoke break
00:08:18before I was going out in sales calls.
00:08:30So I'm standing with Peter at the elevators, hit the down button.
00:08:37That morning, we had a team up from Bank of America's corporate office.
00:08:41It was nice to show the new space off.
00:08:43I'm on a phone.
00:08:44I got my feet on a windowsill.
00:08:46I'm looking uptown at Empire State Building.
00:08:49And you see this plane coming at you, being a little hungover.
00:08:55You look at it and say, all right, there's a plane coming.
00:08:58You don't think twice about it.
00:08:59And you just go about your business.
00:09:02I heard a sound, which sounded like a plane engine throttling down almost.
00:09:07It sounds like it's a freight train.
00:09:12And I remember hanging up the phone and turning around.
00:09:19I hit you.
00:09:22An enormous explosion.
00:09:25One of the loudest noises I've ever heard.
00:09:27The whole room jolted.
00:09:32In an instant, there was terror.
00:09:38Time was in slow motion.
00:09:41The wall tiles seemed to pop off the walls.
00:09:46I remember the water pipes splitting.
00:09:50The building felt like it moved sideways.
00:09:55It had gone too far over.
00:09:59I remember seeing the water from where I was.
00:10:02And normally you didn't see it.
00:10:05Something was wrong.
00:10:06Like, something was very wrong.
00:10:08I looked at my window.
00:10:10I could see a huge fireboard.
00:10:16Flames and debris shooting out from above.
00:10:21People just stopped.
00:10:22It was like, almost like time stopped.
00:10:28Is the building going to fall down?
00:10:30You can't even, in your mind, you can't even fathom that.
00:10:38Neil and I were just stuck in this elevator.
00:10:41Everything kind of froze.
00:10:44And in my mind.
00:10:47Everything is just much more hype.
00:10:49Things looked crisper.
00:10:52Sounds sounded clear.
00:10:57I heard whooshing sounds.
00:11:00Sounds like it's coming from everywhere.
00:11:04As we're prying open the doors,
00:11:06I look across at the elevator bank in front of us.
00:11:09And one of the most vivid pictures I have of the day
00:11:14is this waterfall of fire falling down.
00:11:20There's raining fire inside of the elevator bank,
00:11:24opposite to us.
00:11:30There's fire.
00:11:31And then you notice that some of that fire
00:11:33is behaving in a very different way.
00:11:38Fire should not fall down.
00:11:40It goes up.
00:11:43Something against nature was happening.
00:11:46No idea what that was.
00:11:48In retrospect,
00:11:49I have to assume it was jet fuel.
00:11:53The only thing was,
00:11:55get out of this situation right now.
00:12:14We're trapped in an elevator and I could see fire and debris.
00:12:17Yeah, I mean, I thought first, but second, that's it.
00:12:20I was dead.
00:12:20It was over.
00:12:21I was gone.
00:12:24Neil and some other gentlemen opened up the doors
00:12:27and then the next second, it was flight.
00:12:31I yelled stairs, follow me.
00:12:35Turned right and just started running.
00:12:37Follow me, stairs, go!
00:12:39Go, go, go!
00:12:57There was a lot going on.
00:12:59Grown men on their knees,
00:13:01people praying,
00:13:02people under their desks,
00:13:04screaming.
00:13:05Just as a 23-year-old kid,
00:13:07you don't see things like this.
00:13:09Nobody has any idea what's going on.
00:13:10I started yelling at everybody to calm down
00:13:12and I got up and I immediately ran out into the hallway.
00:13:17I saw our destruction.
00:13:21Ceiling tiles down
00:13:22and debris in the middle of the hallway.
00:13:26As I walked through the elevator,
00:13:29banks, you see flames.
00:13:33But the stairwell was clear.
00:13:35So I run back into the office
00:13:37and I was like,
00:13:37all right,
00:13:38the stairwell is clear.
00:13:40Everybody go to the stairwell.
00:13:44As we opened the door to the hallway,
00:13:45I remember the smell
00:13:47of what I know now as jet fuel.
00:13:49And I'll never forget that smell.
00:13:53At that point,
00:13:54I still had no idea it was a plane.
00:13:58I was still, you know, in confusion.
00:14:00I looked out of the window
00:14:02to try to get a sense of what was happening.
00:14:05I could see debris,
00:14:08dust,
00:14:08papers,
00:14:09falling from above.
00:14:12And then what caught my eye was,
00:14:15uh,
00:14:16was a shoe.
00:14:17A woman's shoe.
00:14:20Red.
00:14:21Eye-heeled.
00:14:26I don't know.
00:14:28Uh, gosh.
00:14:34I'm seeing that.
00:14:36It wasn't a body,
00:14:37but it was this clarity
00:14:39that a human being
00:14:41was now affected
00:14:44by what was happening.
00:14:49that image
00:14:50and that thought
00:14:50and piecing that together
00:14:52is,
00:14:53is chilling.
00:14:59United 175,
00:15:00New York.
00:15:05United 175,
00:15:07do you read New York?
00:15:10United.
00:15:11United 175,
00:15:12do you read New York?
00:15:22You knew the bang
00:15:23didn't come from our building,
00:15:25but whatever it was,
00:15:28it was bad enough
00:15:30that it shook the building.
00:15:32And then you got this really
00:15:34fast,
00:15:35pervasive smell
00:15:36of something
00:15:37that came flying
00:15:37through the office.
00:15:38Like the whole ventilation system.
00:15:42And I'm like,
00:15:44what,
00:15:44what's going on, guys?
00:15:45You know,
00:15:46and I come out the office
00:15:46and I see out the window
00:15:48all these papers
00:15:50flying
00:15:51and they look like
00:15:52they're on,
00:15:52some of them are on fire.
00:15:56I look up
00:15:57and I see the North Tower
00:15:59and I see black smoke.
00:16:11and it looked like
00:16:14like he used
00:16:14a rusty can opener
00:16:16to try and open up a can.
00:16:22I thought that a small plane,
00:16:24like a little Cessna,
00:16:25must have hit
00:16:26the building.
00:16:27I didn't realize
00:16:28that what I was looking at
00:16:29was the exit side.
00:16:31I couldn't believe
00:16:32what I was seeing.
00:16:33I'm like,
00:16:33what,
00:16:33what's going on
00:16:35in that building?
00:16:44I thought to myself,
00:16:47this is definitely
00:16:48going to go out
00:16:48on the news.
00:16:49Something happening
00:16:50to the trade center
00:16:51is going to go out
00:16:51on the news.
00:16:53And I yelled out
00:16:53to everybody
00:16:54that worked for me,
00:16:54I said,
00:16:55call your home,
00:16:56call your people
00:16:57and just tell them
00:16:57you're okay.
00:16:58Make it a quick phone call
00:16:59because you gotta get out of here.
00:17:06Ann called me
00:17:08and I'm like,
00:17:10what's,
00:17:10what's the matter?
00:17:10She goes,
00:17:11a plane hit the building,
00:17:12I don't know
00:17:13what's going on,
00:17:13I'll call you
00:17:14when I get out.
00:17:15I was like,
00:17:16you gotta be kidding me,
00:17:17how could a plane
00:17:17hit the building?
00:17:18You can't miss those things.
00:17:19She didn't sound panicked
00:17:21but she just sounded like,
00:17:22I want to get out of here.
00:17:25When my mind started going,
00:17:26I gotta see what's going on.
00:17:28We have a breaking news story
00:17:30to tell you about,
00:17:31apparently a plane
00:17:32has just crashed.
00:17:33And I'm looking at that
00:17:34and I said,
00:17:34that is a big hole
00:17:35and that is a lot of smoke.
00:17:37That is not a little plane.
00:17:40And that made me feel
00:17:42a little worried.
00:17:47I walked over to my desk
00:17:48and I look up
00:17:49and you just see
00:17:50like a waterfall
00:17:51over the window.
00:17:52I just saw this liquid
00:17:54just rolling down the window
00:17:57not knowing what it was.
00:17:59I knew right away
00:18:01that it was jet fuel.
00:18:03Holy.
00:18:06What I feared more
00:18:07was that it was going to ignite.
00:18:11All right, people, let's go.
00:18:12And I may have yelled a little bit.
00:18:14Let's go, pick it up,
00:18:15let's go, get your stuff.
00:18:17I was with Ann Koster
00:18:19as we proceeded towards the exit.
00:18:25I turned around
00:18:26and I remember looking
00:18:28100, 200 feet away
00:18:29and that part of the building
00:18:31is on fire.
00:18:34my thinking is,
00:18:35can I be outrun a fire?
00:18:38We knew the impact was bad.
00:18:40We knew the visual was bad.
00:18:42We knew something bad
00:18:43had happened
00:18:45but the building was still there
00:18:46and I thought we were okay
00:18:48but I was,
00:18:49I turned out to be pretty wrong
00:18:50about that.
00:18:58Kennedy Hall reports
00:18:59that there was a fire
00:19:00at the World Trade Center
00:19:02and that's, uh,
00:19:03that's the area
00:19:04where we lost the airplane.
00:19:06We knew that there was
00:19:07no elevator service.
00:19:10The impact in the North Tower
00:19:13took out the elevator banks.
00:19:16So our only way of leaving
00:19:17was the stairwells.
00:19:20I don't think anybody really
00:19:23absorbed what 81 flights
00:19:24of stairs was like.
00:19:32I did not have
00:19:33the most sensible shoes on.
00:19:34and I had like nice
00:19:35three and a half inch heels.
00:19:37They were lovely.
00:19:41I was with Ed Costa,
00:19:44a few of the other people
00:19:45that I worked with.
00:19:46Ed was kind of asthmatic
00:19:48and I was going to stay with her
00:19:49no matter how long it took.
00:19:55You picture a fire in a building
00:19:57and you picture people
00:19:58just trampling people
00:19:59to get out of it.
00:20:00This is not what it was.
00:20:02Two people by two.
00:20:04in a very orderly,
00:20:07almost mechanical tempo
00:20:09down the stairs.
00:20:11I thought we would be
00:20:12out of the building
00:20:13in no time.
00:20:18I hadn't gone very far
00:20:19in the stairwell
00:20:20and I heard someone yelling
00:20:21that there are people
00:20:22stuck in an elevator.
00:20:26I got out of the stairwell.
00:20:27I went over to the elevator
00:20:29and I was able to get
00:20:30the doors open enough
00:20:31to see that the elevator
00:20:34stuck between floors.
00:20:36The guys in the elevator
00:20:37were panicked
00:20:38because the elevators
00:20:39have been compromised.
00:20:41So me and another guy
00:20:42run into an office
00:20:43and I happened to grab
00:20:45a bathroom key
00:20:45with a stick at the end of it.
00:20:47And he grabbed what looked
00:20:49like a leg from a chair
00:20:50and we get back
00:20:51to the elevator
00:20:52and we're trying
00:20:52to open the doors
00:20:53with these devices.
00:20:59And we're not opening them
00:21:01this way.
00:21:02The elevator doors
00:21:03are just kinking this way.
00:21:05And we felt like
00:21:06we're going to do
00:21:07more harm than good
00:21:08so we gave them
00:21:09the stick and the leg
00:21:11from the chair
00:21:11to try to do it
00:21:12themselves from the inside.
00:21:22And we left
00:21:24and that was it.
00:21:27That's the last I heard.
00:21:28I don't know
00:21:30if they made it or not.
00:21:45From the lower floors
00:21:47evacuating now
00:21:48the traffic
00:21:49was starting to build up.
00:21:51You know
00:21:52from the bottom up.
00:21:58Once we hit 69
00:21:59it was just
00:22:02a step a minute.
00:22:07We were hearing
00:22:08people yell
00:22:09from above us
00:22:10make room
00:22:11make room
00:22:12make room.
00:22:15Everybody get out
00:22:16of the way
00:22:17and part of the water
00:22:18is for them
00:22:18to pass through.
00:22:20You know
00:22:20people closer
00:22:21to the impact zone
00:22:22were really
00:22:22in very bad shape.
00:22:24That was the point
00:22:25when I said to myself
00:22:26this is very bad.
00:22:28I remember seeing
00:22:29the first wounded person.
00:22:32The hair was burnt
00:22:33and his face
00:22:34was charcoally black
00:22:36and he had
00:22:36an open wound
00:22:38from his wrist
00:22:40to his elbow
00:22:41where the skin
00:22:43was sort of
00:22:43peeled back.
00:22:44I remember thinking
00:22:44his wristwatch
00:22:45was still on
00:22:46and I'm like
00:22:46gosh that's really
00:22:47got to hurt.
00:22:49And just people
00:22:50with their faces
00:22:51all sliced up
00:22:51from glass.
00:22:56There was one woman
00:22:57that came down
00:22:57the step
00:22:59with her arms
00:23:00outstretched.
00:23:02You could tell
00:23:03she was burnt
00:23:06and the skin
00:23:06was literally
00:23:07draped
00:23:08off of her arms.
00:23:10Both arms.
00:23:15That's something
00:23:15I don't
00:23:16I don't ever forget.
00:23:23Hello.
00:23:24Do you see
00:23:25that United 175
00:23:27anywhere?
00:23:28I can't get a hold
00:23:29of the United 175
00:23:30at all right now
00:23:30and I don't know
00:23:31where you went to.
00:23:38In case of a fire
00:23:39or an emergency
00:23:40it was very clear
00:23:41we would all
00:23:42need to go up
00:23:43to the 78th floor
00:23:44and await
00:23:45further instructions.
00:23:47I go back
00:23:48in my office
00:23:48and I grab
00:23:49the whistle
00:23:50and I left
00:23:51the hat.
00:23:52I didn't want
00:23:52to mess up my hair.
00:23:53Everybody
00:23:53tend to go
00:23:54get up
00:23:55to the 78th floor.
00:23:58I went up
00:23:59to the 78th floor
00:24:00and the elevator
00:24:03banks there
00:24:03were just
00:24:04packed.
00:24:05Everybody
00:24:05from other floors
00:24:06were already
00:24:07evacuating.
00:24:08I'll never forget
00:24:08one guy.
00:24:09He literally
00:24:10jumped in the
00:24:10middle of people
00:24:11and it was packed.
00:24:13Being seven months
00:24:13pregnant and seeing
00:24:14that many people
00:24:15trying to rush
00:24:17out of the building
00:24:18I felt a little
00:24:19unsafe.
00:24:21There's a fire
00:24:22warden phone.
00:24:23It's a red phone
00:24:24that's a direct line
00:24:26to the fire station
00:24:27down in the lobby.
00:24:31I'm holding
00:24:31on to the red phone
00:24:32and I have it
00:24:33on my ear
00:24:34and I'm waiting
00:24:35to hear something.
00:24:38I don't hear
00:24:39anything.
00:24:42Some of my
00:24:42co-workers
00:24:43are just staring
00:24:43at me like
00:24:44what do I do?
00:24:45Do I leave?
00:24:45Do I stay?
00:24:46And I'm still
00:24:46waiting to hear
00:24:47something on this
00:24:48red phone.
00:24:48I had it here.
00:24:49No one answered
00:24:49this red phone.
00:24:50And I told them
00:24:51don't worry about it
00:24:52just go ahead
00:24:52and leave.
00:24:54I don't know
00:24:55if me holding
00:24:57on to the phone
00:24:58and telling
00:24:58them to leave
00:24:59encouraged
00:25:00more people
00:25:01to leave.
00:25:02I'm not sure.
00:25:03Something inside
00:25:04of me just said
00:25:05forget this
00:25:06get to a stairwell
00:25:08and walk out.
00:25:09The stairs were
00:25:10right there
00:25:10on the left
00:25:11so I just
00:25:11followed the crowd
00:25:12down the stairwell.
00:25:18Hey Joe
00:25:19you see
00:25:193-3-2-1
00:25:20code
00:25:20just southwest
00:25:21of Newark
00:25:21by about
00:25:2215, 18, 20 miles.
00:25:24We don't know
00:25:24who he is
00:25:25we're just
00:25:25picking him up now.
00:25:26Alright
00:25:27heads up man
00:25:27looks like
00:25:28another one.
00:25:28Alright.
00:25:31Several managers
00:25:32decided to go
00:25:33to our areas
00:25:34to make sure
00:25:35that nobody else
00:25:36was on the floor
00:25:38before we
00:25:39left ourselves.
00:25:41So I decided
00:25:42to go down
00:25:43and take the escalator
00:25:43and go back down
00:25:44to my office area.
00:25:47The north side
00:25:48of our floor
00:25:49looked directly
00:25:50at the north town.
00:25:56Within a couple
00:25:57of minutes
00:25:57we actually saw
00:25:58people start
00:25:59to appear
00:26:00at the edges
00:26:00of this
00:26:01gash.
00:26:03You literally
00:26:04could see
00:26:06everything
00:26:06up close.
00:26:08You could see
00:26:09the expression
00:26:09on the people's faces.
00:26:11You could see
00:26:12the smoke
00:26:12you could see
00:26:13the fire
00:26:14and you were like
00:26:15oh my gosh
00:26:17it looked like
00:26:18hell in there.
00:26:21I looked up
00:26:22in the sky
00:26:23and I see
00:26:24a gentleman
00:26:25in a white shirt
00:26:26and a tie.
00:26:28Nothing wrong
00:26:29with him.
00:26:30He's not bleeding
00:26:31he's not on fire
00:26:32he's physically
00:26:34fine
00:26:35except
00:26:36he's flying down
00:26:37like he was skydiving.
00:26:45it's just a vision
00:26:46you know
00:26:47I still
00:26:48I can still see it.
00:26:54I
00:26:55saw
00:26:55the group
00:26:56of three people
00:26:57with two men
00:26:57and a woman
00:26:58and they all
00:26:59made the sign
00:27:00of the cross
00:27:00and they all
00:27:01held hands
00:27:03and jumped
00:27:05and I had
00:27:06to
00:27:07turn away.
00:27:08I never
00:27:09saw where
00:27:10they landed.
00:27:14That's one memory
00:27:15that is
00:27:15seared into my brain
00:27:17that will never
00:27:17will never leave.
00:27:22I was starting
00:27:23to feel
00:27:24a little more
00:27:24scared
00:27:25even though
00:27:25we were not
00:27:26in immediate danger
00:27:27in the south tower.
00:27:30We had no idea
00:27:31the clock was ticking
00:27:32at that point.
00:27:33It seemed like
00:27:34we were safe.
00:27:35We didn't realize
00:27:36that we were
00:27:37in the most dangerous
00:27:37place in the world
00:27:38at that very moment.
00:27:50We have several
00:27:51situations
00:27:52going on here.
00:27:53It's splitting
00:27:54big, big time.
00:27:55Just get me
00:27:55somebody who has
00:27:56the authority
00:27:57to get military
00:27:57in the air now.
00:28:09I'd never been
00:28:10in the stairwell
00:28:10of the south tower
00:28:11before.
00:28:12It was just
00:28:13a sea of heads
00:28:14as you'd turn
00:28:15each corner.
00:28:16Nobody's pushing.
00:28:18Nobody's yelling.
00:28:19Nobody's shoving.
00:28:20It's just orderly
00:28:22down the stairs
00:28:23together.
00:28:24At that point
00:28:25I bumped into Henry
00:28:26and I said
00:28:27what's going on?
00:28:28What happened?
00:28:29And somebody said
00:28:30a small plane
00:28:31flew into the north tower.
00:28:32I really still thought
00:28:33it was just a Cessna
00:28:35and a pure accident.
00:28:36I didn't think
00:28:36that there was
00:28:37any terrorism.
00:28:38I had no idea.
00:28:39the magnitude
00:28:40of what just happened.
00:28:43It must be
00:28:44around 65th floor.
00:28:46An announcement
00:28:46comes on
00:28:47and it's a woman
00:28:48who sounds
00:28:50a little bit nervous.
00:28:52Due to a smoke
00:28:53condition in tower one
00:28:55that building
00:28:56is being evacuated.
00:28:57There was no reason
00:28:59to evacuate tower two
00:29:00at this time.
00:29:01If you want to leave
00:29:03you can.
00:29:04If you want to stay
00:29:07you can return
00:29:08to your office.
00:29:08so she really
00:29:09left it to
00:29:10whatever everybody
00:29:11wanted to do.
00:29:13It was like
00:29:14the stairs opened.
00:29:16People in mass
00:29:18amounts just left.
00:29:20At least a third
00:29:22of the people
00:29:22maybe half of the people
00:29:23turned around
00:29:24and said
00:29:25fine
00:29:25I'm going back
00:29:26to my office.
00:29:27And you saw
00:29:28people going
00:29:28turning around
00:29:29right into the stairs
00:29:30where they were
00:29:31and taking the elevator
00:29:32back up.
00:29:32but my insides
00:29:34were telling me
00:29:35there's something
00:29:36wrong you have
00:29:36to get out.
00:29:38And my colleague
00:29:38says to me
00:29:40I think we should
00:29:40keep going.
00:29:41It may not have
00:29:42been an accident.
00:29:4815,000
00:29:49descending.
00:29:50Okay we're just
00:29:51southwestern
00:29:51north by about
00:29:5220 miles.
00:29:53I'm just at it
00:29:549,500
00:29:549,000.
00:29:55This guy's a big boy
00:29:56can just leave
00:29:57in some big
00:29:57contrails.
00:30:07Bob Levine
00:30:08and Steve
00:30:08Warrenberg
00:30:09had come down
00:30:09from the 78th floor
00:30:10which is where
00:30:11their offices were.
00:30:12I was talking
00:30:13with Bob
00:30:14and Steve
00:30:14and Bob
00:30:16said to me
00:30:16he says
00:30:17you know
00:30:18they're saying
00:30:19you can stay
00:30:19and I said
00:30:20these people
00:30:21can't get a fire
00:30:22drill straight.
00:30:23And they said
00:30:24what are you guys
00:30:24going to do?
00:30:25And we said
00:30:25we're leaving.
00:30:29Steven called me
00:30:30from his cell phone
00:30:31and told me
00:30:31that he was
00:30:32looking outside
00:30:32at the other
00:30:34building
00:30:34that he could
00:30:35see debris
00:30:38almost like
00:30:38confetti
00:30:39and smoke.
00:30:40So I said
00:30:41you need to leave.
00:30:43And he said
00:30:44they're telling us
00:30:45that we're safe here
00:30:46that this was
00:30:46the other building
00:30:47we're okay.
00:30:49And I said
00:30:49I don't care
00:30:50you need to leave.
00:30:53So Bob and Steve
00:30:54went back upstairs.
00:30:56It had to have been
00:30:57a couple of minutes
00:30:59past nine.
00:31:03So I got up
00:31:05turned on the radio
00:31:06and started listening.
00:31:08There has been
00:31:10an explosion
00:31:10at the World Trade Center
00:31:12in Lower Manhattan.
00:31:14The upper floors
00:31:15of the Northern Tower
00:31:16at the World Trade Center
00:31:18has...
00:31:21That's another situation.
00:31:28When I got to
00:31:29the 44th floor
00:31:30we hit congestion.
00:31:33As we got
00:31:34to that floor
00:31:35we were being
00:31:35directed
00:31:36to the opposite
00:31:37side
00:31:38of the building.
00:31:43It was pretty much
00:31:44full
00:31:44of people
00:31:46that had come down
00:31:46from other stairwells.
00:31:49and as I made
00:31:50my way over
00:31:50to the window
00:31:51caught my eye
00:31:53this beautiful
00:31:53bright blue sky
00:31:55and there's
00:31:56sort of papers
00:31:57floating down.
00:32:00I'm almost smiling
00:32:02at sort of
00:32:02the beauty
00:32:03of the scene
00:32:05and there's
00:32:06this sort of sound
00:32:09sounding like glass
00:32:11twinkling down
00:32:12the side
00:32:12of the building.
00:32:14sort of wind chime
00:32:16almost.
00:32:17So I realized
00:32:18it's the glass
00:32:19that's just cracking.
00:32:32An enormous fireball
00:32:34came flying
00:32:36towards the window.
00:32:38I did not know
00:32:39what that fireball was.
00:32:41I'm right back.
00:32:43into the terrace
00:32:44just screams
00:32:45and fan of water.
00:32:47And then I heard
00:32:49the announcers
00:32:49saying
00:32:50another plane
00:32:51is coming in.
00:32:52Hey, can you look
00:32:52out your window
00:32:53right now?
00:32:53Oh my God.
00:32:55Oh my God!
00:32:55It went
00:32:56through the 80th floor
00:33:00and I just
00:33:02started to scream
00:33:04and fell to the floor.
00:33:07Stephen is dead.
00:33:07Stephen is dead.
00:33:11Bang!
00:33:13The plane
00:33:14careened
00:33:15through the building
00:33:15right above our heads.
00:33:18And all hell
00:33:19broke loose.
00:33:24The building
00:33:25just went back
00:33:26like this
00:33:27and my head
00:33:28went back
00:33:28and snapped.
00:33:29It felt like
00:33:30the building
00:33:31was going to
00:33:32snap in half.
00:33:34I felt it
00:33:35going from
00:33:36side to side.
00:33:37You know,
00:33:37it was just
00:33:38like being
00:33:39on a ship.
00:33:41The sensation
00:33:42was that of falling.
00:33:44Like the building
00:33:44was coming down
00:33:45and I felt
00:33:45like I was
00:33:46falling through
00:33:46the building.
00:33:50It happened
00:33:50all slow motion.
00:33:52Everything
00:33:52slowed down.
00:33:56All the glass
00:33:57went flying
00:33:58across the floor.
00:34:03The tiles
00:34:04started coming down.
00:34:10Like a set
00:34:11of dominoes.
00:34:17The lights were out.
00:34:19It was like
00:34:19literally
00:34:20one moment
00:34:21was day
00:34:21the next moment
00:34:22was night.
00:34:24There was
00:34:24all this
00:34:25black smoke.
00:34:26Like somebody
00:34:26did a magic act.
00:34:27Like nothing
00:34:28was there.
00:34:30It just
00:34:31was like
00:34:32a surreal
00:34:32kind of
00:34:34like
00:34:34what in the
00:34:35world
00:34:36just happened.
00:34:36Another one
00:34:37just hit the
00:34:37building.
00:34:38Wow.
00:34:38The whole
00:34:39building
00:34:39just came
00:34:40apart.
00:34:40Holy smokes.
00:34:42I went
00:34:43into the
00:34:43bedroom and
00:34:43sat down
00:34:44on his
00:34:44side of
00:34:45the bed
00:34:47praying
00:34:48for the
00:34:48phone to
00:34:49ring.
00:34:51I had
00:34:52maybe a
00:34:53very
00:34:53very small
00:34:54glimmer
00:34:55of hope
00:34:56because
00:34:58Stephen
00:34:58always used
00:34:59to say
00:34:59to me
00:34:59you always
00:35:00think
00:35:00the worst
00:35:00don't
00:35:01think
00:35:01the worst
00:35:03and so
00:35:04I thought
00:35:04well then
00:35:05I'm going to
00:35:06try to think
00:35:06of a little
00:35:07bit of hope
00:35:08maybe.
00:35:25The news
00:35:25is on
00:35:26and I'm
00:35:26watching
00:35:27I feel
00:35:30like
00:35:31is this really
00:35:32happening
00:35:32this is crazy
00:35:35Alfredo
00:35:36and I
00:35:36had just
00:35:36gotten
00:35:37married
00:35:38I used
00:35:39to visit
00:35:39Alfredo
00:35:40at the
00:35:40South Tower
00:35:42and I
00:35:43kept
00:35:43dialing his
00:35:43number
00:35:44and dialing
00:35:44his number
00:35:45and there
00:35:45was nothing
00:35:48and you
00:35:49see another
00:35:49plane
00:35:50oh my
00:35:52god
00:35:54oh my
00:35:55god
00:36:00what the
00:36:00hell
00:36:03my husband
00:36:04was in
00:36:04that
00:36:04building
00:36:09and I
00:36:10still
00:36:10haven't
00:36:10heard
00:36:10from
00:36:10Alfred
00:36:39right
00:36:47I don't even know what happened.
00:36:49I'm walking down the stairs, and the next thing, everybody is knocked to the ground.
00:36:55And there's this ringing sound in my ears.
00:36:59All of a sudden, we're leaning, and I'm fighting to keep myself standing.
00:37:05The entire stairwell is rocking, swinging like as if you're on a Ferris wheel.
00:37:10And then all you heard was screaming.
00:37:15I lost complete confidence in the structure that I was in.
00:37:19The panic sets in. I need to get out of here.
00:37:41I didn't know a plane hit that building. I didn't know a plane hit this building, neither.
00:37:45All I'm noticing is what's happening in front of me, right?
00:37:51I remember looking and seeing my office caved in, collapsed. The ceiling was gone.
00:37:57By this point, I was really, really shaking, because I came down the escalator from 78 to 77, less than
00:38:05two minutes earlier.
00:38:06And I knew the people that I had just talked to were all dead.
00:38:11All the people above us on 78 floor, waiting for elevators, to picture that in my mind is just an
00:38:19unbearable thought, to think they didn't have a chance.
00:38:22Whether you went up or whether you went down, whether you went left or whether you went right, that decided
00:38:27whether you were going to live or die that day.
00:38:33Then I remember hearing Jonathan Weinberg yell, over here, over here, over here, and going to the north side to
00:38:42stairway A.
00:38:45The only person I could see was my boss, Carl. And I was like, just follow him.
00:38:56It was dark, and it was smoky. That stairway was not passable.
00:39:04I remember going to the central fire escape, stairway B.
00:39:15I normally would see the windows on the other side and see daylight.
00:39:19I didn't see nothing. It was pitch black. It was like a big void.
00:39:26It was almost like that whole area just disappeared. That's how black it was.
00:39:32We were not going to go that way. That was not a choice, okay?
00:39:37So we tried to get to stairway C.
00:39:50I was a good 20 feet away, and I could feel the flames from over there.
00:39:58And I was like, that's not a good thing. We're not getting out that way.
00:40:05There was just no way to escape.
00:40:07The thought I had was, oh my God, we're in the same situation now ourselves as the people that we
00:40:16were just looking at across in the other building.
00:40:23I looked at the windows right there, and I was like, if you have to jump, you have to jump.
00:40:30You just do it quick and you're done.
00:40:34I was just standing there, really didn't know what to do. I can't feel my baby move.
00:40:42I remember seeing then Jyoti, who was seven months pregnant.
00:40:48And somebody came back and grabbed my hand.
00:40:51We need to make sure she gets out, you know?
00:40:54If we have to sacrifice ourselves, we do so to make sure she got out.
00:40:59So it was important, okay?
00:41:01That's the whole thing about baseline. We were all a family.
00:41:06The final image that I have is of my co-workers standing there, kind of banding together.
00:41:12I just felt that we as a group, we were all going to die together, or we were all going
00:41:19to get out of there together.
00:41:28In the 70s, I ran into my boss, Mike.
00:41:32He told me that everyone else in the office was further along than we were, and so we were the
00:41:36last two from our office.
00:41:40As we're going down, the entrance to the 68th floor was open.
00:41:45We could hear other people trying to figure out how to evacuate.
00:41:54Mike and I entered this office, where we saw this group of people just kind of standing around.
00:42:03I'm like, you got to get out of here. The stairwell's clear.
00:42:06And they weren't listening to us.
00:42:10Started kind of grabbing people by the shoulder and telling them to move.
00:42:14And a woman steps aside, and there I see this woman in a wheelchair.
00:42:20Now we understand why everyone else wasn't moving.
00:42:24She seemed a little anxious.
00:42:26We asked her if she wanted help, and she said yes.
00:42:32And I said, okay, let's bring her down, thinking we would be able to get her down in the motorized
00:42:36wheelchair.
00:42:37But the wheelchair had a heavy motor.
00:42:40It wasn't meant to go down the steps.
00:42:44And now I'm, like, anxious.
00:42:48She told us that there was another option, an evacuation wheelchair.
00:42:55Picked up the woman out of the motorized wheelchair and put her in the evacuation chair.
00:42:59Because she was relatively petite, we just picked her up.
00:43:03There was a handle on each side.
00:43:04And I was on the left, and John was on the right.
00:43:08And that's when I started, you know, just thinking about what the task was going to be ahead of us,
00:43:13to walk down 68 flights of stairs.
00:43:19I'm making my way downstairs in the middle of the worst event as far as destruction on U.S. soil,
00:43:29and not even know I'm in the middle of it.
00:43:50We needed to get out of here.
00:43:52Staircase C wasn't an option.
00:43:55B was such an unknown.
00:43:58And A wasn't any better.
00:44:00It was full of smoke.
00:44:02We don't know what we were getting into,
00:44:04but we knew that that was the only option we had at this point.
00:44:09I went back to my office and grabbed the flashlight.
00:44:14When we first got into the stairwell,
00:44:18it was where we encountered a lot of white smoke.
00:44:23And we all had to hold hands.
00:44:28The stairwell was cracked.
00:44:31It was damaged.
00:44:34There's wires, and there's this water coming down.
00:44:41I was thinking probably the sprinkler kicked in,
00:44:44and it's the water that we are walking on.
00:44:47The smell of the stairwell was distinct,
00:44:50but for some reason, I just,
00:44:52I didn't put one and one together at that point.
00:44:58It was really, really dark.
00:44:59You couldn't see more than a foot in front of you
00:45:02with the flashlight.
00:45:04And somebody saying that they wanted to light a match.
00:45:13I distinctly remember smelling something.
00:45:18Half the people I was with smoked.
00:45:23And then I realized there was no sprinklers going off.
00:45:29Something in me said,
00:45:31do not light a match.
00:45:37That's not water, that's jet fuel.
00:45:39The plane had essentially crashed right above us
00:45:41and had cracked open,
00:45:43and the fuel was spilling down the stairway steps.
00:45:47And if they had lit the match,
00:45:49we would have burned up.
00:46:07We're still moving at a pretty good pace
00:46:09from 68 to 55.
00:46:13There was a light-hearted nature of conversation
00:46:16that was really thinly veiling.
00:46:20Everyone being worried about what was going on.
00:46:23I wanted to call my parents.
00:46:25I got out of the stairwell and found a phone.
00:46:29And my phone rang at my desk.
00:46:31I picked it up, and it was John.
00:46:33Hey, Dad, it's me.
00:46:35And I said, are you okay?
00:46:38He said, I'm in the building.
00:46:39I asked him which floor he was on,
00:46:41and I think I lied and said that I was way further down.
00:46:45I'm almost out.
00:46:46I said, well, just keep on coming out.
00:46:49The tone of his voice was, um, yeah, it was intense.
00:46:54I was worried that he knew something,
00:46:57and I didn't feel like asking him.
00:47:01When I spoke to John,
00:47:03I knew that this was a deliberate attack.
00:47:06It wasn't an accident.
00:47:08I didn't think it was a good thing to tell him.
00:47:11The circumstance didn't matter as much
00:47:13as the job of encouraging him to get out of that building.
00:47:40We had no idea what was going on.
00:47:41We didn't have the perspective that the rest of the world had.
00:47:46The North Tower, cell phone service was, was non-existent.
00:47:50I don't know if it was jammed, if it went down,
00:47:52but there was no cell service.
00:47:56There were no smartphones.
00:47:58There's no way to know what was going on
00:48:00unless you spoke to somebody.
00:48:04But I did hear someone say,
00:48:07oh, my Blackberry says that a plane hit the towers.
00:48:11And I'm like, what's a Blackberry?
00:48:13How do you have news on a phone?
00:48:16Like, I didn't, it didn't compute.
00:48:18So I just dismissed it outright.
00:48:22It was hot as hell in there.
00:48:24And you got, I mean, it probably felt like 100 degrees in there,
00:48:27probably even higher.
00:48:28And everyone's sweating.
00:48:30You want to just be as calm as you can.
00:48:32Being in a cramped stairwell with that many people,
00:48:35my nerves were so on edge, I felt like a crack.
00:48:41I discovered being claustrophobic when I was in that staircase.
00:48:45I started to panic a little bit,
00:48:47and it's like being pinned to the floor
00:48:48and not being able to move.
00:48:51It did a number on me.
00:48:58A woman that was with us in the group said,
00:49:00hey, why don't you take your jacket off?
00:49:03Oh, that would be a smart idea.
00:49:04And you can take your tie off, too.
00:49:06You know, you're not going to appointments today, Neil.
00:49:08You can sort of let it out.
00:49:11But I didn't want to get undressed
00:49:13because I felt like if I didn't admit to myself
00:49:17that I didn't need these items anymore,
00:49:19there was a sense I'm getting out.
00:49:21There was a sense that I'm alive.
00:49:25I was with Ann Costa for a long time.
00:49:27Very, very wonderful woman.
00:49:29She was part of my team.
00:49:30Ann was kind of asthmatic.
00:49:34I was worried about Ann.
00:49:35I was worried about anything
00:49:37that would cause her to have an attack.
00:49:40I just didn't let myself go to pieces
00:49:42because that wouldn't do anybody any good.
00:49:47She was having trouble moving down the steps.
00:49:49She actually, at one point,
00:49:50started going down the steps sideways,
00:49:52one step at a time.
00:49:54I tried to ease her burden by taking her jacket,
00:49:57and I took her pocketbook from her,
00:49:59and I carried that, you know,
00:50:00for as long as I was with her.
00:50:03Maybe in the 30s or 40s,
00:50:05we saw our first firefighter come up.
00:50:11And people were cheering,
00:50:12and people were,
00:50:12hey, the firefighter's coming,
00:50:13he's going to put out the fire.
00:50:14They were carrying hoses and picks and equipment
00:50:17and just trudging up those steps.
00:50:22I know I can walk up 40 flights of stairs
00:50:25on my own with nothing on me, you know,
00:50:28and here these guys are carrying 60,
00:50:31100 pounds of equipment.
00:50:35And we would go into different floors
00:50:38and find vending machines.
00:50:42And we'd break the vending machines open
00:50:44so that we'd get water or soda or drinks.
00:50:47We were giving them to the firemen
00:50:49and pouring it on their heads
00:50:50and trying to cool them off.
00:50:55Someone that's sort of seemingly in charge,
00:50:58taking a poll of where everyone's coming from.
00:51:01What floor were you on?
00:51:02And somebody going 50-something,
00:51:03it was above us.
00:51:04And 60-something, it was above us.
00:51:06He asked me, and I said, 81.
00:51:08And his face just went completely white.
00:51:16I'm like, look behind me.
00:51:18There's nobody left up there.
00:51:20I'm like, let it burn.
00:51:22And his answer was to me, it's my job.
00:51:25All right.
00:51:27I wish him luck.
00:51:28And he went up, and I went down.
00:51:31I didn't know there was a second plane.
00:51:32I didn't know it was a terrorist attack.
00:51:34Didn't know any of that, but they did.
00:51:38And they still went up.
00:52:03As we were going down, there's no more stairs.
00:52:06It's a landing.
00:52:06It leads us straight.
00:52:08I'm not walking.
00:52:09And eventually now, we're in front of this wall.
00:52:17There's a wall here and a wall here.
00:52:19And I'm like, okay, this feels like a dead end.
00:52:22There was a sense of panic among everyone.
00:52:25If this is not continuing, where do we go now?
00:52:30Everybody has a quiet moment.
00:52:31That was my quiet moment.
00:52:35I just was trying to keep myself together.
00:52:41We're literally staring at a brick wall.
00:52:43Oh, my God, there's no way out of here.
00:53:07I used to visit Alfredo, what, the 77th floor?
00:53:12It's horrible.
00:53:13You're seeing it, and you see it's on fire, and it's unbelievable.
00:53:19It's unbelievable.
00:53:21These are innocent people.
00:53:24I was on the phone trying to reach Alfredo, not knowing where he was.
00:53:31It was devastating.
00:53:52Having gone down only one flight of stairs, and to be faced with the brick wall,
00:53:57it seemed like that was the end and could be game over at that point.
00:54:02It's just an uncomfortable feeling.
00:54:04Now we're going to go back up.
00:54:05We're moving as to go back up these stairs.
00:54:11And we finally see there was light underneath, and we see there's a door here.
00:54:14It says exit.
00:54:16And I go, that's a little relief there, right?
00:54:19We see a door.
00:54:20We open the door, and it led us through this little corridor
00:54:26that led us to another set of stairs that was lit.
00:54:33To this day, I don't know why that stairwell angled like that at that floor at that point,
00:54:37but we were incredibly lucky that we were able to find our way out of it in the dark.
00:54:4876 stories to go down at that point, that's a lot of stairs.
00:54:53Nobody ahead of us, nobody behind us, people who would have left, would have left already.
00:54:59The person who really was leaving was Jyoti, because she was seven months pregnant at the time.
00:55:05I became the more like a focal point, sort of like a distraction, so everybody was focusing on me.
00:55:12We were only going as fast as Jyoti could go, because nobody was going to go ahead.
00:55:31She had that mother's sense of, I am going to get out of here, because I am going to protect
00:55:38my child.
00:55:38And I just wanted to get out there, get it checked out, and make sure everything was okay.
00:56:03It must be about 940, and we reached the 21st floor.
00:56:08It's John and I helping a woman who was using a wheelchair.
00:56:13First responders had set up a sort of triage area.
00:56:19The firemen are saying, as we're passing them, just set her down, we can take it from there.
00:56:24Get whatever medical attention she needed, and just get out of the congestion of the stairwell.
00:56:29And I looked at her and I said, you know, do you want me to set you down here?
00:56:36There's no trouble to us if you want to come, because we're leaving now.
00:56:41And she's still, like, being hesitant or not giving an answer.
00:56:49And I said, listen, I'll take you all the way out of here.
00:56:53You just tell me what you want to do.
00:56:58She said, I want to stay with you guys.
00:57:03That really intensified our mission, camaraderie, and our bond.
00:57:10We were there for her, carry her out, but maybe she was there for us.
00:57:16Yeah, just three of us or nothing at all.
00:57:35So, it's now probably about 10 to 10.
00:57:38As we hit maybe the 11th, 10th floor, floor's wet.
00:57:45I had to put the shoes back on.
00:57:47First, it's just wet.
00:57:48And then it's really wet.
00:57:53And then it's rushing water.
00:57:59It became very slippery coming down the stairs after that.
00:58:03We're walking in almost ankle-deep water, and it was a rusty, reddy color.
00:58:12And there was a moment where I thought, oh my gosh, the ceiling's bleeding.
00:58:24I don't know how long I held on to that.
00:58:28I think it was probably just rusty pipes making the water a little bit tannish.
00:58:31But it was a horrible image to have.
00:58:38As we got closer to the bottom, we see these people in the uniform.
00:58:41They're telling people to get out, get out, get out.
00:58:43Was there a sense of urgency to get out?
00:58:45Yes.
00:58:45Was it a dire need to get out because the building's going to collapse?
00:58:51No.
00:58:51Well, now the pace had picked up, and finally, we're getting out.
00:59:11When we got down, we kind of merged up with the other people that were coming out of the other
00:59:18stairwell.
00:59:18They kind of came together.
00:59:22I literally was inside the building for an hour, which insulated me from the outside world.
00:59:36You come out of the stairwell, and there's an upper level to the lobby of the Trade Center.
00:59:46And you can see out in the courtyard.
00:59:56And now I'm looking in that courtyard.
00:59:58There's just pieces of recognizable wing, airplane, and landing gear.
01:00:07You see the huge tire.
01:00:15I saw just clumps of things hitting the ground.
01:00:21And in my mind, it's not registering to me what that was.
01:00:33You see, you know, desks on fire.
01:00:37You see paper falling from the sky on fire.
01:00:39You hear this noise.
01:00:43A lot of people don't.
01:00:53You could see some remains of people in the debris.
01:01:02If you looked, look away pretty quick, though.
01:01:18Outside was mayhem.
01:01:21I was struck by the number of people watching all of this unfold.
01:01:26And some of them I recognized from being on the train with them.
01:01:30We turned around and we looked, you know, and we saw the two buildings on fire.
01:01:39There's both of them on fire?
01:01:40Why are both of them on fire?
01:01:41What happened?
01:01:42What happened here?
01:01:54Remember, our mission is not over until Joe T is taken care of.
01:01:58Police officer asked if anybody needed help.
01:02:03I said I don't feel my baby.
01:02:05And he basically grabbed my hand and helped me cross the street.
01:02:12We saw Joe T being taken and put in the back of the ambulance and the ambulance driving off.
01:02:21That mission accomplished.
01:02:35I go to put a cigarette in my mouth like I'm bringing my lighter to the cigarette.
01:02:40I never got it lit.
01:02:42Because all of a sudden the world shook again.
01:02:46Hearing sounds of metal twisting.
01:02:51Then I remember hearing a thunderous roar.
01:02:55And then it started to just look like it was toppling.
01:03:00I actually thought that the building was going to fall on top of it.
01:03:06Everyone just said run.
01:03:07And so it's pick a direction and hope he gets the right direction.
01:03:23I remember knocking into a woman.
01:03:24She fell on the floor.
01:03:26I got sort of sent flying.
01:03:27My cell phone went one way.
01:03:29I remember going for the cell phone and trying to grab her at the same time.
01:03:33Somebody picked me up and was sort of dragging me with them as they were going as well.
01:03:40You got to my right is beautiful September day.
01:03:45And to my left is complete darkness of pure hell coming at you.
01:03:53And it looked like it was a physical object, not like smoke.
01:04:02And it swallows you up like a wave in the ocean.
01:04:16I remember seeing when the cell tower collapsed.
01:04:22That was rough to watch that.
01:04:25It went through my mind.
01:04:27I was wondering where my wife was.
01:04:30Where was Ann?
01:04:31Holy crap, where are you in all that mess?
01:04:33I prayed a long time that day.
01:05:04The building was vibrating.
01:05:07Such a huge building, vibrating.
01:05:09It doesn't bode well for safety.
01:05:11I said to myself, we have to really get out of here right now because this is very bad.
01:05:18I lost contact with Ann only because I went to aid somebody else.
01:05:23And Ann Costa kind of went with two other gentlemen and kept evacuating.
01:05:28I still held on to her jacket and her pocketbook.
01:05:30I just never realized I had it.
01:05:45That two or three seconds when that initial dust bowl hits you, it feels like it's an hour.
01:05:52There's no sun coming in anywhere.
01:05:54There's no lights anywhere.
01:05:55There's nothing except this dust around you.
01:06:04It was just white, white everywhere, just white powder ash.
01:06:13I hear a lot of the firemen's, the whistles that go off when the fireman's down, you know, the high
01:06:18-pitched beep.
01:06:19You hear that in the background.
01:06:25The firemen, I guess, that were in the building that are now down.
01:06:29And you hear it, and it's loud.
01:06:40It's the sound again.
01:06:42I don't want to remember the sound again.
01:06:44But you, I do.
01:06:53The awareness of how many people must have died was now a thing, like in the front of your mind.
01:07:01My mind.
01:07:06I was just thinking about my floor and my people.
01:07:14And just how it had just been a little while before that I'd seen them and just, it was, it
01:07:19was a heavy,
01:07:23the feeling in my, I don't know how you say it.
01:07:33I knew exactly where Stephen's office was.
01:07:37I knew there was no hope as soon as that building came down.
01:07:40That even if he had lived through the plane coming into the building, that there wasn't enough time for him
01:07:48to get down from 78.
01:07:50And at that point, I said to myself, I think we have to plan a funeral.
01:08:18The lower we got, the slower the pace down the stairwell became.
01:08:24Probably around the fifth floor, we get stopped.
01:08:31Like now I'm not moving, and people are screaming.
01:08:41We're really in a bad situation, I mean a super bad situation.
01:08:47We encountered firemen, and we got out of the stairwell for the first time, into this fifth floor.
01:08:55It was pitch black.
01:08:56There was obviously some destruction in there.
01:09:00Step over debris, stop, put the woman down, move things out of the way.
01:09:06I did that a few times.
01:09:09And we followed the firemen to this one side.
01:09:13And the firemen's like, no, you can't go out this way.
01:09:19We went back another way and tried a few other options.
01:09:23Because we're going back and forth on the same floor, and I'm on the fifth floor, it's dark, and I
01:09:28can't get out of here.
01:09:29Panic really started setting in.
01:09:31And now being aware that there are about a hundred stories of this building above us.
01:09:37My head is like screaming, like, we're in a dark floor.
01:09:41I'm five floors away from getting out of here, and I'm stuck.
01:09:45There's no way out?
01:09:47There was this intense feeling of being trapped.
01:10:05Before I knew it, I was 10, 15 blocks away, covered in soot, drenched in sweat.
01:10:12And I turned around and just saw a space in the sky that wasn't there before.
01:10:20Didn't make sense.
01:10:22I just kept telling myself, keep it together until you tell someone you're alive.
01:10:28Once you tell them you're alive, you can completely crack.
01:10:33We were looking for a phone, because cell phones weren't working at the time.
01:10:37I remember looking at pay phones, and people were 25, 30 people lined up at pay phones.
01:10:47Called my house, and kept praying that the line would go through.
01:10:54I just went, Mom.
01:10:57And she just said to me, she says, are you okay?
01:10:59And I'm like, no.
01:11:03No.
01:11:09I heard my mom's voice, but I couldn't speak.
01:11:14And that's when I let myself sort of break down and sort of give in to the horrors of the
01:11:24day.
01:11:45We followed the fireman.
01:11:47This can't happen fast enough.
01:11:49And the longer it took, the more anxiety set in.
01:11:54We were stopped again.
01:11:55Why are we stopped?
01:11:57So close to getting out, this might be just where we stay.
01:12:05And then the guy go, okay, it's fine now.
01:12:07Let's go.
01:12:11There's no more lights.
01:12:12There's water coming down the stairs.
01:12:16And it was stopping us from moving as quickly as we wanted.
01:12:20Really heightened the anxiety level.
01:12:26We continue down.
01:12:27We're down the steps.
01:12:29So now the hallway gets flooded with light from outside as the door opens.
01:12:37I saw one fireman in the lobby who was directing us out through a broken window.
01:12:42And we're walking out now into this unexplained, like, dust and gray matter all over the place.
01:12:53We see an ambulance there facing south.
01:12:57We put the woman in one of the ambulances and said our goodbyes.
01:13:04And she starts to cry.
01:13:07And I'm like, you know, what are you crying for?
01:13:10We're out.
01:13:11And I just handed her my business card.
01:13:17And I didn't realize it at the time, but we never even asked her her name.
01:13:23It does seem weird that we hadn't, up to that point, exchanged names and introductions.
01:13:31But that wasn't an ordinary day.
01:13:44It didn't seem like those ambulances were in any rush to get out of there.
01:13:50After I shut the doors to the ambulance, I turn around and face the North Tower for the first time.
01:13:58From my vantage point, I couldn't see the South Tower wasn't there.
01:14:02And just at that point, there's a man with a camera.
01:14:05And I'm looking up, like, in shock.
01:14:10And he's asking me questions.
01:14:12Tell me what you saw in her.
01:14:14But I still kept looking up and, like, what's going on?
01:14:19What do you work for?
01:14:20Network Plus communications company out of Randolph, Madison.
01:14:25Mike, Ben Fon.
01:14:33I kept hearing these intense impacts that sounded like car crashes.
01:14:40Several of them.
01:14:45You know, you don't, you don't try to think about every sound you hear until you see it.
01:14:53I'm walking to John, and that's when I see, you know, people falling from the sky.
01:14:58And, uh, and I, and, you know, that's where you're like, your whole world just turns upside down.
01:15:07It's like nothing makes sense anymore.
01:15:10And I'm like, this is chaos.
01:15:12This is chaos.
01:15:19I stopped and took one last look at the building.
01:15:23And it looked like the smoke started moving downward and outward.
01:15:31And I just hear this huge rumbling sound.
01:15:38I see the antenna on the north tower, just dropping in the middle of the building.
01:15:50I heard this boom that just rose up right behind me.
01:15:54And I look back.
01:16:03I take off.
01:16:04And I remember, there's a cameraman right there, and I'm running by him.
01:16:09And he's filming it, and I'm thinking, this guy's going to die.
01:16:13And no matter how fast we ran, we could not outrun it.
01:16:18I did my final prayer for, really, my family.
01:16:29Well, my wife and I were sat there pretty much in silence.
01:16:39I think we both may have given up hope.
01:16:45But we didn't want to tell the other that we had.
01:16:58After the Northammer collapse, I really didn't want to entertain the idea that Ann was not going to survive.
01:17:06The reporters just keep on giving you bits and pieces of information.
01:17:13The only way to identify anybody if you don't have a body would be by DNA testing.
01:17:21So I went upstairs to the bathroom.
01:17:23I got her a toothbrush and a hairbrush and put it in a bag in case they found anything.
01:17:36Watching the second tower come down, that was it.
01:17:41I thought he died.
01:17:44I tried calling and calling, and there was no service.
01:17:48Towers were down.
01:17:49You couldn't get anything.
01:17:58I wanted him to tell me that he was OK.
01:18:02That did not take him from me and the kids.
01:18:05This is what I wanted.
01:18:07I wanted to hear him tell me.
01:18:10Honey, I'm OK.
01:18:27My sister-in-law came over, hysterical.
01:18:29Oh my God, what's going on?
01:18:31I'm like, please.
01:18:32I didn't mean anybody going crazy because I was trying to hold it together myself.
01:18:39That's the day I turned white.
01:18:41I was going gray.
01:18:42I turned white that day.
01:18:46Ann is the love of my life.
01:18:57Ann finally called me at 11.30.
01:18:59It was like, thank God.
01:19:02It was great to hear his voice.
01:19:04It really was.
01:19:05It really was.
01:19:06It was wonderful.
01:19:109-11 has definitely brought us closer.
01:19:14Very much.
01:19:15We have friends that tease us because we do everything together.
01:19:20Just think of what it would be if things were different.
01:19:23How much my life would be changed.
01:19:27And not for the better.
01:19:29Love you.
01:19:30Love you too.
01:19:41I'm still trying to reach him and there's nothing.
01:19:44I feel like I'm going to pass out.
01:19:48But he walked in the door.
01:19:50I was like, oh my God, honey, everybody's calling and crying.
01:19:53And he said, did they start crying after they found out I was okay?
01:19:59Because this is what he does.
01:20:02Oh, okay.
01:20:04Here we go.
01:20:089-11 changed us because we didn't take this relationship that we had for granted.
01:20:14We had good times, bad times still, right?
01:20:17But we were fortunate to have the time together.
01:20:21You can't take anything for granted.
01:20:23You have to live each day and make the best of it.
01:20:35When I found out that all of us survived from the 81st floor, it was miraculous.
01:20:39The only person that wasn't accounted for, the woman we carried down.
01:20:45It was very likely that the ambulance that we put the woman in never made it out.
01:20:54Well, John and I thought she was dead.
01:20:56Several days later, I got a call from a journalist who said that she wanted to do a story.
01:21:06She said that it's admirable what you did in carrying Tina Hanson down.
01:21:13I was like, what?
01:21:14Who?
01:21:15Her name is Tina.
01:21:17And she made it.
01:21:18This picture here is me, Tina, and John at my wedding one year later.
01:21:24We were all pretty glad to be together again.
01:21:33Well, I'm very proud of what John did on that day.
01:21:36I don't know that I ever said how proud I am.
01:21:38I brag on him every chance I get with friends and, you know.
01:21:42I'm very proud of you. I sure am.
01:21:45You know.
01:21:46Okay. Good.
01:21:56What did we do?
01:21:58You know, we were just going to work like every other normal American person going to work that day.
01:22:02The Baseline family suffered four tragedies that day.
01:22:10We think about Steven all the time. We have pictures of Steven around.
01:22:14We were a happy family.
01:22:16Happy hurricane.
01:22:17Happy hurricane.
01:22:18Go on.
01:22:19We all know that we're sad.
01:22:22But we smile and we laugh when we talk about him and the things he did or the things he
01:22:27said.
01:22:29He's only one of a few thousand that we lost that day.
01:22:35But I'll tell you, he was probably one of the nicest ones.
01:22:46Losing colleagues, um, feel a little guilty that, that they lost their, like, why, why them?
01:22:54Like, how did that happen?
01:22:55How am I sitting here? Why am I sitting here?
01:22:59There's so many people didn't get out.
01:23:00And you ask yourself, for 17 years, what could I have done different?
01:23:09There's a guilt every day you have.
01:23:14And it won't go away till I'm dead.
01:23:20Started the day as colleagues, ended the day as lifelong brothers and sisters.
01:23:29We needed to be able to call our friend from the office and say, are you still having nightmares three
01:23:36years later?
01:23:37Yeah, I'm still having nightmares. Okay.
01:23:41I don't feel as crazy anymore.
01:23:45They tried to take our spirit and, and the American people and whoever was in that, those buildings that day,
01:23:52kind of says, you know what?
01:23:54Not with us. It's not going to happen.
01:23:57The way people came together that day is something to be appreciated.
01:24:03It is a sad day, but it's also a day to remember how we came together for the good of
01:24:12others.
01:24:16We stuck together.
01:24:18Because of Jyoti, I believe, in my mind, I truly believe, because of her, we survived, because we stuck together.
01:24:26Shailaja was born on November 24, 2001.
01:24:30It means daughter of a mountain.
01:24:34And literally, I came down the mountain called World Trade Center and survived.
01:24:41And she's here because of you.
01:24:49People made it out alive.
01:24:52And I'm very grateful that they looked after us, not just me, you and me both.
01:25:00You know, I love my name.
01:25:02Like, there's nothing about my name that I would ever want to change.
01:25:05I earned my name.
01:25:13The most positive thing about that day was that I wasn't alone.
01:25:18I was with a wonderful group of people.
01:25:22Because if I had been by myself that day, I probably would have died.
01:25:29The person that went into that building is not the person that came out.
01:25:34But I didn't stop living.
01:25:37I'm glad I'm here to tell people about it.
01:25:42The only thing I can say at this point, I'm glad I can...
01:25:47I'm a walking piece of history, as my nephew says.
01:26:04I'm wealthy in heaven.
01:26:06I'm a walking piece of history.
01:26:08He's like, I don't stand by myself.
01:26:09And I'm hungry.
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