foreign [Music] what's happening it's primary day and the polls are open you couldn't live within or visit New York without getting a tour of the Tower and if you were really interested you might actually go to the roof [Music] when the World Trade Center buildings were going up my dad told me when those are finished we're going to go up on the top dad said these buildings will last for a thousand years they'll be here forever [Music] and on a clear day you could see the curvature of the earth I said no it's not possible this is not possible that my life is going to end this way [Music] it was really every fiber on your body is screaming is you gotta get out of here they're all notified fire departments [Music] British huh great today so where are you from London from the south coast [Music] at 8 46 A.M American Airlines flight 11 smashes into the north side of World Trade Center number one [Applause] the first alarm is called in just 12 seconds after impact people are in shock and yet no one can possibly imagine the scope of the disaster only beginning to unfold in lower Manhattan at the moment of impact six floors are destroyed hundreds are killed and nearly ten thousand gallons of jet fuel dump into the gaping hole between the 93rd and 99th floors the fate of everyone in the building will be decided in the next hour and 42 minutes I heard the bang I thought it was done this so he goes look outside I looked outside I said holy it looks like a plane hit it or something billions of TV viewers around the world have a front row seat for the unfolding disaster but people inside the Trade Center have no idea what's happened manager of construction Frank demartini and his wife Nicole are just five floors below the point of impact what do you think it was Frank responsible for rebuilding the Trade Center after the 1993 bomb attack Frank knows the towers inside and out shouldn't we be getting out of here Frank hey hey do you know what happened no idea I'd say the building moved 10 maybe 12 feet 20. what's it like out there a lot of debris people pretty shocked can they clear it yeah yeah honey find somewhere less Smoky Allen's office maybe stay there till they find a way out not Pablo and me we're going to check out the rest of the floor everything's all right that's the slip joints held yeah Mac yeah Frank was very well respected by everybody he was very knowledgeable of the building to come down he wasn't loving the tour with the Trade Center please okay Frank wanted to make sure that everybody in the on the floor is out completely nobody on the floor [Music] levels above above crash on 106th floor Financial managers have begun arriving for a conference at windows on the world one of New York's most famous restaurants listen up everybody everyone listen up everybody please everyone please we've got to stay calm can you listen up I am going to call the emergency services they will be with us shortly okay assistant manager Christine olender is in charge of the conference center Christine volunteered to come in and help get this setup organized and that's why she was there early that day thank you it was a very typical of Christine to to do that she wasn't asked and she wasn't told she just knew that it was something that would help hi this is Christine assistant GM of Windows we're getting no direction I'm here we're having a smoke condition we have most people on the 106th floor the 107th floor is way too small Christine calls the in-house police force of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey manager of the World Trade Center you know our guests are scared you're on the air right now go ahead what can you tell us this just in you were looking at obviously a very disturbing live shot there that is the World Trade Center and we have unconfirmed reports this morning that a plane has crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center clearly something relatively devastating happening this morning there on the south end of the island of Manhattan the point of impact fatally divides the North Tower only people below the 93rd floor have access to Escape Routes six floors below the crash site investment banker Hong Zhu attempts to call 9-1-1 from the rubble of his office now we just suddenly felt there was a big Shake a rumble I say we go I say we go now you can't just hang around waiting for something and after that initial Rumble we looked around uh ceilings caved in and we didn't know what happened come on kiddo I need to get out hung's colleague Harry Ramos is a head Trader at the May Davis Group coming with us I think we should stay here and wait for instructions but why it's an emergency somehow I remembered in 1993 that was an incident in World Trade Center and some people died not because of the bomb but because they were stepped upon equitying the building huh the building just moved 10 feet it's not safe folks come on gotta go no I'm staying people and good luck and you too in the first minutes after the crash New York's 9-1-1 system is overwhelmed with thousands of calls Port Authority emergency lines are also flooded with desperate calls from people inside World Trade Center one and from family and friends trying to reach them we want to out the building ma'am sir most people in the North Tower choose to evacuate do not use the elevator you security announcements telling people to stay where they are all Personnel remain at your desk please remain at your desk falling on the 43rd floor what are we supposed to do we want you out the building ma'am do not use the elevator use the stairwells evacuate the building all Personnel remain at your desk please remain at your desk I'm gonna put you on hold the line for a second please tell them to stay where they are what can we turn it off from here no the plane's impact the building's vital systems begin to fail ings Buckle water lines are cut and doors are wedged shut inside their frames many people are prisoners in offices throughout the building this is SCC hello hello we need some assistance flight 11 wipes out all three stairwells and every elevator to the upper levels trapping 1355 people above the point of impact they're a quarter mile in the sky and there is no way down but they're all burned out right um we need water the faucets aren't working can you please try to find some bottled water water from the vases any cream hi this is Christine calling from the North Tower of the World Trade Center we need help right now we need a safe haven can you direct us to a certain clutch I have to get on the food as human as possible the people are asking whether they can break the windows they can't breathe um can we break the windows so what do we do I had appointed Christine as the fire Warden and so she took it very seriously and and um so I know that she did exactly what was expected of her on that morning there's a service exit onto the roof it's usually lost but you never know it's the largest rescue operation in New York City history within minutes more than a thousand First Responders are on the scene once we turn the corner out to Canal Street what we saw was a nightmare so I was looking at 20 floors of fire which translated into 20 acres of fire and uh I've been thinking myself how are we going to deal with this okay come on guys come on come on no fireman has ever faced a skyscraper blaze of this scale all they can do is let the fire burn itself out this is strictly a rescue operation Jay Jonas is captain of ladder company Six okay check your packs one of the firemen from rescue one said what we were all thinking he came out he said we may not live through today and we all looked at him and says you're right and we stopped and we took the time to shake each other's hands and wish each other good luck of all those guys I was surrounded by I'm the only one who's alive they all perished just six floors below the point of impact Hong Zhu is still trying to get through to a 911 operator for Harry Ramos and his colleagues from May Davis who have chosen to evacuate conditions in the stairwell are bad and getting worse anybody got any water get a piece of fabric clothing handkerchief anything yeah I've got my lucky shirt there's some water on it Mass evacuation was never one of the safety plans considered when the World Trade Center was built there are only three narrow stairwells in each Tower trophy elevators the stairwells weren't designed to move thousands of people out of the building quickly they aren't even continuous when Machinery rooms and elevator shafts get in the way people racing down must exit at the bottom of one set of stairs then cross the building to find the top of another but only on certain floors three out of every four are locked thank you guys try another one yeah I say we go back to Sky Lobby maybe take an elevator if it's working if not find another stairwell is it pretty cool with that okay let's go there are 99 elevators in each Tower both Express and locals like the subway Port Authority employs Jan Dempster and Al Smith find themselves in Another World Trade Center nightmare trapped in a twin towers elevator we dropped a few floors five maybe ten yeah so what do we do now anybody got AIDS I call for help ladies and gentlemen this is the Port Authority a large explosion in the building and finally our boys came over the intercom not the recording that it normally gives a voice came over said we have had a large explosion in the building Port Authority we have a large explosion and that was it and there was no more boom the line of that tell them get us out of here you're gonna send someone to help us get out of here we have some problems I think and we never speak again with the man on an intercom when your inside it's still a cat and a cage I don't have any clue what happened outside elevator or anybody as we have to make a decision nobody gonna come and help us some of the smoke the Trap Port Authority operators now have an emergency in their office as well but we still kick it out hello hi hi Melanie I'm with the conference we're trying to get up into the roof but we can't I see where exactly are you I'm not sure what number the door one of them yeah you need a swipe card can you open them from down there I'm sorry when I'm able to do that from here so what are we going to do I'm afraid you're going to have to find a way now we've tried but we can't well then services to come to you I'm sorry even if Melanie devere and the others could make it onto the roof Escape would be impossible there is no official plan for helicopter evacuations and conditions are too dangerous to try police Pilots circling the tower have been forbidden to land or repel down to the building put your heads that's it all right everything's fine Janet you take him through Frank oh Frank are you hurting no no I'm fine Frank his wife was stealing him come on join me let's and then she kept actually in the cold saying that to him and he told her just to go I'm going to meet you downstairs no please please there are people trapped up here I know what you're thinking I'll be fine and that's where Frank would always cross the line I mean you would say okay I've done what I can do I'm going to get out of here and Frank just never had that point right I say we check out the textbook sure hey come on let's go what Frank doesn't know is that a Boeing 767 has sliced through 36 support columns with critical fireproofing Blown Away by the force of the crash the towers were designed to survive the impact of a commercial airplane but inside the gaping hole the heat of the burning jet fuel is enough to soften unprotected Steel one floor closer to the fire is Rick Bryan a manager at MetLife I'm one step into the hallway and I was struck by the Blackness that was in front of me it was the the deepest the richest black that I had ever seen anybody there anybody there and I'm thinking to myself you know you have the keys to the door you can easily open the door and go back from where you came hello but can you be certain that your keys are going to work and I was frightened I was very frightened so instead of continuing down the hall I went back into our office and let the door close oh it was actually our two co-workers on the other side down that hallway that ended up dying on that day and I often think now perhaps I should have continued than that hallway elevator 41 is a shuttle from the sky Lobby on 44. stopping only on Floors 67 through 74. I wouldn't say panic I will see people was beginning to I know I was was beginning to get a little edgy because the shuttle doesn't stop on the 50th floor they'll have to dig their own door through three inches of sheetrock ah so what do we do now but it's concrete no it's nuts it's sea truck hey he's right it's it's sheet rust it's plasterboard this is Christine again on Windows we have to have air the fresh air is going down fast I am not exaggerating oh man can we break a window you can do whatever you have to do to get there there were no evacuation plans because Builders assumed fires could be contained without spreading to other floors firemen call it defend in place in theory everyone else in the building is safe hey hey no stop what the hell are you doing you trying to kill us all you break the window you're gonna let the air and get away from the window this whole place will be in flames in minutes come on and I swore coming down behind them outside a look like a mansuit and I said to myself why would anyone do that who who would throw a suit out the window what is that about sister [Music] in all more than 100 people jump or fall from the upper floors of the North Tower Christine olender makes four calls to the Port Authority for help after that nobody from Windows on the world is heard from again we went to her apartment and that her answering machine was just full with messages no more could be that friends were calling her because my son took listened to the whole to the end and that answering machine we brought home that I have it just 130 feet from the disaster in the North Tower World Trade Center number two the South Tower is safe for now but the massive destruction in the other building is inescapable many begin to evacuate the South Tower too is secure Stanley premus a banker on the 81st floor of the South Tower decides to evacuate but he too is stopped by security announcements and guards in the lobby telling people it's safer to go back upstairs to their offices had I known had I known and I'd known that this building fire next door and a plane had gone into this building I would never have gone back up I would have gone straight home now [Music] I'm not sure about this guys within the short order it became clear that we had to leave because the smoke was getting it was getting uh it was it was getting frightening [Music] [Music] hey guys this way follow me the smoke was so thick and so black and I could could not see and as I'm walking down the hall through this Blackness I'm thinking to myself well you're going to die of Suffocation of smoke inhalation how many breaths do you need to take of smoke-filled air for before you actually pass out is the time is it measured in the number of breaths or is it measured in a number of minutes is there a period of time when you're breathing in smoke that you can feel yourself being overcome or does it happen instantaneously I did not know and I was annoyed at myself for not knowing let's try this way huh that's right that's right yeah so you have a 2 30 followed by 415. In This confined area with the door closed now it actually seemed or quite safe well I'll see what I can do but we're having a bit of problems with phone when they came in I was surprised that they were there well we have a situation here I'm sorry do you have a fire extinguisher on the wall above the cupboard and then I was even more surprised that they had just come out of a office that was on fire thanks yes sir I said look you have to do something within two seconds I realized what a ridiculous task I was trying to accomplish I was trying to put out this Inferno with this stream of fluid that couldn't have been more than a quarter of an inch wide my heart went into my throat from my chest and at that point I knew we were in trouble sorry your calls are not taken right now please hold the line Harry Ramos has reached the sky Lobby on the 78th floor a high-speed Express Elevator to the lobby would take seconds but people are instructed to avoid elevators in a high-rise fire Harry is committed to using the stairs if he can find them [Music] okay last one I'm feeling lucky I knew I was feeling lucky come on we'll be out of here in no time right now still in his office on the 87th floor Hong Zhu has been calling 9-1-1 since the moment of impact and finally gives up while nearly everyone in the building is trying to get down Port Authority Engineers Frank D Martini Pablo Ortez and Mack Hannah are going up this way I gotta call my sister sure yeah Diana it's Frank is Nina there I need you to get a message to her sure there's uh there's been another explosion at the World Trade Center I need you to find her right away and tell her that me Nikola file I don't want to hear about it on the radio [Music] yeah yeah I'm fine just waiting down let's keep moving now this way come on right through here that's it keep going [Music] less than 15 minutes after the crash ladder six Captain Jay Jonas receives his orders to go up the North Tower he just closed his eyes and he shook his shook his head and he says just take your guys upstairs and do the best you can and out of the corner of my eye I saw a big black shadow on the ground we heard that a plane hit and Stanley premnath is already back at his desk in the South Tower his round-trip Journey to the lobby took just 15 minutes yeah I guess so I'm standing up with a phone in my hand my coffee and bagel that I bought when I was coming up still sits there in a desk and I'm looking towards the Statue of Liberty the direction of with the phone in my hand that's when the plane caught my eyes and his plane is Spearing down on me I love like our deck I'm hypnotized standing up the air I'm not having time to react all I'm looking at is this plane and it's getting bigger bigger bigger lord I can't do as you take over and I drove under my death [Music] wow [Music] that that that apparently does look like it is in the other building at this point last time United Airlines flight 175 Bound for Los Angeles crashes into World Trade Center building 2 the South Tower between the 77th and 85th floors once again nearly ten thousand gallons of jet fuel ignite instantly but unlike the North Tower because the 767 strikes at an angle one staircase remains intact it's changed into bizarre thing is the phone starts to ring I don't know who is trying to dial me but the phone is ringing I'm saying to myself I got to be dreaming this is not real in a real world the plane crashes you die this is not real I got to be dreaming I live help some areas on the impact floors are spared total Destruction from the fireball including the Office of Brian Clark an executive at Euro Brokers the sensation was that our whole building moved to the Hudson River and kept moving a distance of six to eight feet I know that sounds Preposterous and whether it did move six to eight feet I don't know but that was the sensation and I had this terrifying thought that we're going over oh everyone okay in a split second our room just absolutely disintegrated it was as if a a demolition crew had been given all the right equipment Sledge Hammers and crowbars go through and destroy this space and you've got a whole day to do it but it happened in an instant okay listen up there's a good chance of fire we have to exit this building as soon as possible no time to get your stuff just follow me [Applause] are we going down yeah we're going down in the South Tower there are 637 people at or above the Impact Zone wait wait wait where are you going it's bad down there it's both planes real bad I understand I understand but trust me we have to get out of the building and the only way out is down I say we go back up even with stairwell a intact only 18 of them will find the stairs and Escape find a different way down it's bad upstairs but it's not going to get any better yeah what was that okay no come on let's go let's go yeah I heard this noise inside the 81st floor that's sort of banging and this voice screaming for help help help I'm buried is anybody there I can't breathe and I said come on Ron we've got to get this guy is there anybody in here as I went through the Gap sideways I saw the rest of the group on the stairwell and they all went up and they all died that day okay let's round everyone up check they're okay see who's missing uh I'll call Emergency Services again Elaine gen tool is head of human resources at private Bankers fiduciary trust look check outside to see if you can find yeah okay I'm on it one of the first calls she makes is to her husband Jack yeah the first thing I said was thank God you're all right and she said well not really I said well what do you mean I don't know that heard some sort of explosion below us I don't know what it was and I said well it doesn't make sense because the plane hit the other building it didn't hit your building she said well there was some kind of explosion beneath us and I didn't know what to make of that and she said um well we're trying to figure out what we should be doing yeah it's getting really hot in here and there's smoke coming out of the vents she didn't know whether they should stay or leave and she didn't know what to do about the situation that was growing worse Elaine it doesn't look good I had no idea that there was a plane that hit her building she had no idea that a plane hit that building and I'm screaming Lord I don't want to die please send somebody anybody to help me and some Screaming I realize I'm temporarily deaf I couldn't hear hello hello is there anybody in here and I crawl the entire length of the loans department to the lounge into the computer room in the communication room and that's the farthest I could have gotten because one lousy sheet wrap wall stood firm blocking my path hello hello hey there's someone there yeah I can't see you keep going what I can't see you I turned my flashlight toward the voice yeah yeah I got to what I remember asking him was what is your name he said Brian Clark what are the chances for you to have a flashlight he said I'm a fire Warden Taylor but I suddenly heard this person with this saying can you see my hand can you see my hand yeah yeah can you see my hand s we have to go to the upper floors for search and rescue the only thing is we can use the elevator so we're going to take stairwell B 10 floors at a time 10 floors quick rest 10 more I told them I says they're trying to kill us boys let's go to work and today I credit every one of them they looked at me says okay cap we're with you there was thousands of people upstairs that needed our help and that's where we got to go carrying over a hundred pounds of equipment Jay Jonas and his men are facing hours of climbing to make their way up the North Tower there are over 200 flights of stairs in each building even coming down by foot can take an hour or more but emergency lighting has been improved since the 93 bomb attack thousands of people use the stairs to exit the building and yet some are unable to get out on their own one of them is Victor Wald now he made it from the 83rd floor down to the 59th floor so he made it down over 25 flights sir do you need a hand I just think probably he just became more frightened sometimes you just become you know you can't move your legs anymore I'll send someone back up to bonjour here we'll just hold you back go on Victor you stay I stay I don't know why he was drawn to Victor I have no idea why you guys don't need to hang around why don't you take off I'll meet you downstairs when we get there they had no connection they didn't know each other at all you know they just could have walked by him like a lot of people would have done that was when I saw Harry was helping a gentleman who I did not know and quite slowly hey he decided to take the day off after all come on this is Victor Victor this is on we're gonna help him get out of here guys let's take a rest here drink some water we're at war with somebody I don't know who we're at war with but we're at war with someone okay but you know right where I'm standing is a major Target Now is it going to be a third play is there going to be a fourth plane we didn't know [Music] guys you ready okay let's go in the South Tower Brian Clark and Stanley praying myth are still on the 81st floor and still separated by a mountain of debris you're gonna have to climb over the top I'm not sure I can do that well you're gonna have to I said the only way out of here is you to go over this you must do this and I climbed up in some stuff and kind of looked down at him he scrambled up like a cat and I tried to he fell down once I said you must do this and this person behind us wall is telling me if I want to live I must climb over he says you jump on the other side I'll catch you he said Hallelujah I've been saved which was sort of took me back this man really thought I was crazy I don't know how to thank a man who just saved my life I reached down I hugged this man and I give him a kiss and he gave me this great big kiss this man says what are you doing he says Brian Clark and he said uh I'm Stanley we'll be brothers for life I said well that's great as we started to dust ourselves off I said uh flowers for me I never had a brother and now I do this man put his hand around my shoulder and he says come on buddy let's go home and the first time in my life I cried like a baby because nobody never showed me that kind of compassion in my life before a total stranger back in the North Tower the occupants of elevator 41 are winning the battle of the sheetrock geography finally after maybe 40 minutes or so he got a hole about the size of a grapefruit oh [Music] World Trade Center made out of sheep Rock s 100 Judy was able to speak just um barely Frank Pablo and Mack are still rescuing people trapped in offices in the North Tower but finally begin to think about saving themselves too we're saying two more down we're coming down to the copy but I think you truly did know every inch of the building but buildings out the towers he knew him let's head down listen 89 that's uh that live right yeah let's go it was apparent that within a few minutes the smoke would be thick enough and we would not survive wait I think I heard something and I hear the pounding pound pound bang bang bang nobody knew that the wall was merely a plasterboard or sheetrock stand back I thought it was concrete it looked like concrete it was painted like concrete but I didn't know nobody knew foreign all right everybody this way on this day these fellas that were great collar workers and blue collar workers had the wherewithal to save everyone else while the lawyers and the accountants didn't quite know what to do and had no sense of how to act in this situation and these fellas did are you all right sir Frank take him down no no no no I'm staying here Frank Nicole is waiting for you she'll be waiting for you Mac yeah can you get him down right you go no no we'll be right behind you after we check out the other floors okay this way sir we should head up is there people trapped here they're probably others up I don't know that's what we got to find out he should head down and I just said thanks and he nodded back in return and that's the the last I uh I saw this fella until I was flipping through the um pages and pages and pages of uh obituary photographs several weeks later as I'm flipping through these pages of hundreds of people I see this Fella's face I'm like that's the guy that's the guy who I was nose to nose with and I saw his name Frank demartini and now I know who the fellow was but here he was here was his picture and he he didn't make it out [Music] crashed into the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center a disaster everybody if you leave for Harry and Hong the elevator is a last resort it could be dangerous but it may be their only hope of getting Victor out of the building look if everyone agrees I'm happy to volunteer okay with that yeah Harry and Victor are just two floors above elevator 41. thank you can see anything there's another wall maybe it's thinner than the other one well one way to find out where are we [Laughter] yes yes anybody need to go to the bathroom [Music] foreign dimartini knows that no skyscraper in the world has ever collapsed the very possibility that one of the Twin Towers could collapse has been inconceivable until now Pablo yeah I don't like the look of this instruction manage at a base I'm on the 78th floor North Tower the express elevators are risk of collapse the steel is failing we need a structural engineer do you copy construction manage the base I'm on the 78th floor fire Department I need a structural engineer in the 78th floor Sky Lobby now the elevators are risk of collapse do you copy Frank's message is the first and only time an expert on the inside warns that the structure could be headed toward catastrophic failure the intense heat is weakening the steel in the floor trusses causing them to Sag if they start to collapse the added weight will be too much for the floor below once it starts It Won't Stop every time we think it can't get any worse we're now learning that the FAA is shutting down all takeoffs anywhere in the country now the FBI according to the Associated Press is investigating reports of a plane hijacking just before those crashes President Bush calls this a uh an apparent terrorist attack the president is in the air uh Jesus armed with guns and missiles uh have direct orders to divert and or a shoot down any plans it seems bent on is crashing into something else [Applause] has engulfed the Pentagon an even more terrifying a big chunk of the building has been destroyed the fact that we have obviously a state of Siege here in the nation's capital as this apparently coordinated attack takes place Let's uh right now go to the White House area the White House grounds of looks like he got stuck or got out yeah come back of what if he doesn't and we'll think of something else welcome back it's clear great but only as far as the 44th floor come on it's better nothing Victor hi hi almost home huh we're gonna try to break out through smoky in here honey I have to go and Jack tell the boys help the boys I love them I said I will and I love you she said I love you I said I love you he said I love you I said I love you she said I'm scared and I said call me when you get down oh God when I hung up the phone I was horrified just horrified because she wasn't saying she was saying goodbye she was saying goodbye that's how it felt that's what it was when we hung up I called our minister and I asked him to pray and he said he'd have a prayer chain and then I prayed and I felt her body go right through mine and I knew she was gone [Applause] I gotta make a call by 9 46 am more than one-third of the New York City Fire Department is at the World Trade Center hey buddy do we know what's going on I got the Pentagon I said uh it was an accident now that fireman said no we're at war that words were really scary was war hi you don't know me but I need you to make a call for me my name is Victor Wald I'm in the World Trade Center I can't get through to my wife I'm asking you to call her her number is the same as yours except there's a six at the end instead of a seven could you just tell her tell her I'm all right thanks they just hit the Pentagon we better be clear on these doors I really think we should go now Al-Qaeda come on Al-Qaeda they're a bunch of terrorists yeah whoever they are we gotta go now I bet you it was that guys don't take this come on all right guys I'm back now this is the man who will help us down huh if I think about them in my prayers and they're fine with me God bless him wherever he is because if it hadn't been for him it's leading us to the safety I wouldn't be sitting here talk now this is 10 on 450 if you caught me I've got six civilians three puppy follow me get out of here I'll come please please trust me [Applause] thank you hey let's hope this one works no more elevators what you're gonna walk five percent I like coming to elevator I see the Big Shine do not use the elevator when it's fire and I stay and I I don't know what to do I said something's wrong listen man it'll take 30 minutes to walk down we may not have 30 minutes I said let's manuscript not responsible for itself because if you were stuck at another elevator who's gonna help you you got no choice my friend come on what's your name yeah yeah I'm out by 958 more than 500 members of the New York City Fire Department are inside the Twin Towers spread throughout both buildings firefighters are reported as high as the 54th floor of the North Tower and the 78th floor Sky Lobby in the South Tower foreign on your left into the office [Music] guys take a rest two minutes in World Trade Center 2 nearly 8 000 people have succeeded in evacuating although it was hit second time has run out for the South Tower no problem we're brothers right yeah now let's get out of here come on I'm coming in the North Tower the stairwells are a slow-moving chain of refugees from the upper levels Rick Bryan and the others rescued on the 89th floor are nearing the end of their long Trek down a mountain of stairs [Music] thank you and all of a sudden a huge cloud of of this dark gray smoke comes shooting up the stairway and just covering everyone and everything and it was hot very very hot our building started to shake it swayed back and forth and then the Lights Went Out I said is that what I thought it was thinking that part of our building collapsed and he just looked at me in a very serious face he said the South Town was just collapsed [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] get better knowing that high-rise building has never collapsed before and now the sister building that we were in and had suffered the same fate but it got hit later than ours had just collapsed so I'm thinking to myself as he said that he says we're going to be lucky to get out of here guys now pick up your stuff we're heading out right now the sheer Terror that we're in this building we're dead man walking come on Keep It Coming the fire department's a semi-military organization you don't do things without orders so I was basically self-evacuating it was my instinct that I perceived the danger and I acted on it what was that sounded like an explosion picture you got to be positive it's got to go in case you hadn't noticed it was still only on the 36th floor well that's only 36 more floors to go come on we have to go now come on you let the family down he could have probably pushed himself harder but he didn't have to sit there and wait you let people down that's all I don't think he realized how important he was in the family look how about if you try going down like sitting I'm telling you I can't move you have to move up you move get out of here that fireman's words to me I really felt was a way to to get me off the hook I was grateful to that fireman to think back very likely the firemen know what kind of danger we were all in but he himself didn't move Harry of course I do not have these shiny characters a man should have there was some cowardness selfishness displayed in my action in my behavior you think we're going to make it Harry Harry yeah we're gonna make it right sure would well come on hey Victor oh yourself up and let's go come first keep it moving okay come on guys okay come on is perfect hey how's it going I'm kind of a flag can you walk slowly and Tommy Falco turns around and looks at me and he says Hey Camp what do you want to do with her and I I took a deep breath it's like [Music] if you got ourselves a VIP to get down okay so they're real well and people ask me says why did you do that you know you could have passed by nobody would have known I says I would have known and uh the side of her standing in the door it would haunted me forever South Tower collapse police and fire department radios are screaming for all Personnel to evacuate the North Tower but many firemen never hear the order they're tuned to a different Channel [Music] foreign they should be here by now [Music] it's time to go ladies we're glad to see you [Music] guys a short time ago nobody could conceive of a skyscraper collapsing now Police and Fire Department officials expect it to happen in the North Tower too just a matter of time we know both Towers were hit but what more can you tell I've seen many people running to save them many of them just can't believe that this has happened or that they've been lucky enough to have made it out I would have to say at this distressing time I can see a huge pillar of dust and smoke where one of the Twin Towers once stood it's too soon to speculate on the full extent was really every fiber on your body is screaming you gotta get out of here you gotta get out of here this once we're almost like running down the stairs now our evacuation is one step at a time both feet on the same step going very slowly and now this is becoming like Chinese water torture going down the stairs you know the time the clock is ticking it wasn't a question break someone and I developed this this trait of mine whenever a situation got more serious I would speak more slowly and more deliberately because if the situation is that serious you didn't need somebody screaming in your ear to add more anxiety to the situation so I would try to defuse that by speaking in a more calm Manner and I was at my Commerce guys guys I'm gonna see if I can find us a chair we can carry it okay okay [Music] come on take my hand hit go go yeah this way this way a word on our engineer no you think we should go no I mean I think he felt he could do it I mean why not I may be heard I may be tired I might be burnt but I'll get out um so I broke into the fourth floor to look for some sort of a sturdy chair that we could put her on the chair and we could pick it up and run with her thinking that we gotta keep moving we gotta you know the time the clock is ticking [Music] that's the biggest office building in the world and it wasn't an office floor it was a mechanical equipment room floor and I was way on the other side of the building and I was running and I never run out of fire and something just told me says you know what this just isn't working out we're just gonna have to drag her down the stairs after one World Trade Center Burns for 102 minutes nearly twice as long as the South Tower the center support column has reached the breaking point hundreds of firemen throughout the building still aren't aware rescue Personnel are also evacuating the North Tower I went out from the site of the building and I kept walking on West Side Highway and then I heard some people screaming I looked back that's when I saw a very at a very close distance I saw the building collapsed [Applause] I thought probably we lost Harry at that moment at 10 28 a.m 106 floors of concrete and steel come Crashing Down floor by floor one on top of another way centers it collapsed the top floors collapsed down sword brought blow and then ran like hell thank God I'm 69 but I can still run there's got to be flying a trap back there though immediately assume that everyone inside has died [Music] foreign okay every time a floor hit another floor it was like a loud boom like a train that was off its tracks and was hitting the railroad ties and it was getting closer and closer so violent was the vibration that we were actually being bounced around off the floor and uh just kept waiting just kept waiting for uh that big beam of that big piece of concrete to come and uh for us it didn't come Matt sounds like you dropped a drop you mean me yeah yeah I'm here and my name's Josephine good job Josephine and I'm up here yeah they have no idea what I look like I've never done I mean your grade two kiddo you can all you want it won't help all the furnishings and the fixtures inside the building none of that existed after the collapse there were no desks there were no phones no computers no copy machines chairs nothing had all been pulverized by the tremendous amount of energy that was created by this collapse pulverized into this dust and we're in the geographic center of that dust North Tower we need help do copy and uh somebody got on the radio and said where's the North Tower like I looked at my radio I said where's the North Tower I said man we're in trouble they don't know where the North Tower is I had stepped out onto West Street wondering what could have happened to cause these to cause this mess uh the Ash and the fire trucks twisted up like toys I went back towards the building where there was a fireman and I walked up to the fell and I said you know hey there's a body over here he looked at me with the look that that I sensed hey why is he looking at me like I have two heads like I'm crazy why is he giving me this look and he said just go on and I realized there were actually bodies and people scattered all over the place and you couldn't see what the scene was like because everything was covered with Ash cones of bodies [Music] 2749 people died in the Twin Towers that morning including Melanie devere Christine olender and more than 170 delegates diners and staff at windows on the world Elaine gen tool and 95 of her colleagues at fiduciary trust including Ed Emery and 84 men and women who work for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey you know the people I knew at the Port Authority or Jerry Gogan Bill Jones Tommy claro and Margie and all these people they've just you know just like it was just like there was a peak family are you gonna be okay in the North Tower Frank demartini and Pablo Ortez both gave their lives they were still helping people escape when the building collapsed well I mean I think for me there still is this Burning you know hole that you don't really know what happened and of course I would like to know more about you know what was happening and I know he'd love to tell it was sad to see them fall and um saving as many people as he did that it was somehow fitting that he he went up into the air with the with the buildings along with Mack Hannah who escaped helping an 89 year old colleague from the Port Authority Pablo and Frank saved the lives of more than 50 people among them Rick Bryan and the 22 people trapped on the 89th floor including receptionist Diane defontes Pablo's wife put the website and children were on it and I sent her an email and I I and I told her I tried to tell her how I felt and that her husband and their father is the reason that I'm alive and I know that his absence is a terrible thing but here is a man that you can be proud of because he saved other people's lives [Music] Stanley primath and Brian Clark both survived 61 people from Brian's company Euro Brokers lost their lives 23 from Stanley's Victor Wald and Harry Ramos were both killed in the collapse of the North Tower we got a picture of Harry Ramos it was a brilliant picture it was a very short picture with a Rolex watch and I said to my children well you know Victor didn't die by himself an angel came and and took him and Harry was his angel Harry was the only person from his company Mae Davis who did not survive and hung you know he helped to the fullest and he made a decision he had to leave and I think that was a better decision to make because he thought that you know he had to think of himself at some point and he tried to help a man but if Victor couldn't help himself at a point he analyzed the situation he made the decision he had to go he probably feels bad about it but he made the correct decision the five people trapped in elevator 41 all escaped including Al Smith and yam demscher can't imagine I'm short I hear uh Battalion one eight to a lot of six Battalion one eight two out of six is that you want a radio I said yeah it's me rescue three two ladder six Captain Jay Jonas this is Cliff I'm coming for you brother I'm coming for you and that was the first it choked me up it's the first time in my career where I had become the person in need of rescue instead of the person coming to do the rescue it would take over five hours before Jay Jonas and the 13 people trapped with him would finally be rescued they owe their lives to an extraordinary twist of fate once the collapse reached our area kind of ran out of energy because the pile itself was about six to seven stories tall the debris pile and we we were in that two-story cocoon if you were lower than that the debris settled there and you didn't make it if you were above that you were part of the kinetic energy of the collapse and you didn't make it so you really had to be where we were [Music] trying basically now to re-establish some kind of a safe perimeter and many of the emergency workers basically just happy to be alive certainly That Picture Tells it all many of them just happy to be alive at this point uh having survived what is an extraordinary event the collapse of Two Towers in all 412 rescue workers died in the World Trade Center including 343 firemen Josephine is that you it ends up I did make the right decisions that day but I didn't know they were the right decisions at the time running into Josephine Harris making this decision to stop and save her with inadvertently saved ourselves and I looked around and it was just just disarray and I said this this is this is it and he says yeah this is what's left I said how many other people have come out of here and he said none and I was just stunned don't push it under the rug don't forget it because it's gonna happen again and I believe that they are going to try again it won't be tomorrow it won't be next year but they're coming back it was a day when we didn't think that it could happen to us when we taught what we were too big into strong and mighty it's a constant reminder of what can happen again so we need to remember September 11. not the tragedy that happened but the lesson that to be learned we need to keep it alive because it can happen again [Music] well these are the pants that I was wearing on that day and and I made it my project I guess it kept me a little from really going completely out of my mind I made it my project to wash them by hand and every day I would wash them a little more and hang them up to dry and then I'd see some more dirt and I'd put them I put more soap and then I'd I'd scrub the legs because I I I just had to get them clean it was like it was like it was like washing away it may sound silly but washing away the dirt and evil and the bad and just getting it out and I did and um Unfortunately they don't fit anymore but they're clean this has been a presentation of the Discovery Channel and the BBC World Class television