(cont) ... To be truthful, I was lucky to make it out alive. Yesterday, as I was
watching the fire on the first tower building, I bought a disposable camera,
then when I got back, all my co-workers were in a state of panic as they had
just witnessed the other plane crash into the other building. As I watched
the burning, I witnessed a man jump from the 80th floor as the flames and
smoke became unbearable. My heart immediately went out to his loved ones.
Shortly after, seeing that, we were evacuated from the building, and told to
go home. I then made my way to the subway, which is no more then two hundred
yards from the world trade center. Of course, with all that was going on,
the subways were packed, so I awaited above ground watching the scene from
up close actually taking pictures of the site with a disposable camera I had
picked up along the way. The furthest thing from anyone's minds was that the
building would collapse. This expectation was soon dashed as we began to
hear screams and to everyone's horror, a large crashing sound filled the
air, and the building began to collapse. Knowing full well that I could not
outrun the debris I stayed and took a picture as the building crumbled in
case that if something happened to me, they would where I was at the time of
the accident. Seeing that I would have a small window to run, I ran toward
the first building I saw with an open door. I stayed out momentarily and
was blasted temporarily by the full force of the debris as there were others
having a hard time making it to the door and needed help to get in. The
building was 11 John Street. I feel it ironic that the number of the
building correlates with the day (Sept. 11) of this tragic event. It seemed
as though that this building would be our grave as we did not know which way
the tower would collapse and we all knew that if it fell eastward, the
building we were in was well within range of such a fall. Once all those
that could make it in the building made it, the doors were closed, in
essence, they had to be closed with so much debris coming down from the fall
of the building such a short distance away. As a result, there was a great
deal of debris in the building, which began to asphyxiate some of the
persons there, one of which had asthma. As a result, we were forced to run
up the stairs with wet
towels over our mouths in search of clean air. One of the police officers
who had made it in the building with us had to shoot out a door with his gun
which allowed us to be in a room relatively free of debris. Here we devised
an escape plan as we did not know the building fell completely and we did
not want to risk being there any more. After a half hour or so, we were
assigned to a partner to whom we assigned. The older individuals would walk
in front of the younger persons in case the needed assistance from us once
in the streets. (cont)