Seated at my desk, along the south face of the 72nd floor of 1WTC, I thought I was getting a jump on another day’s work after an early arrival. My office, on the south wall of the tower, is remembered for the extraordinary views it offered, and the regular comments it would evoke from first-time visitors. The 72nd floor layout was an example of open?planning, and where Procurement and Engineering staff toiled, and collaborated from adjacent areas.
When the plane hit its target, the building thrust violently from north to south. The 72nd floor lights stayed on, the ceiling and floor appeared to remain intact, and after a momentary lapse, a building violently thrust southward, righted itself, returning to plumb. For me, emotionally, everything changed. A secure and familiar environment became one defined by uncertainty. The result of a lesson learned years earlier when, while eating lunch with a bunch of friends on the 43rd floor of Tower 2, a distant blast, initially misidentified as an exploding transformer, became the 93’ Bombing, an event intended to cause mass destruction, tolled the death of innocent people.
Looking back at September 11th, I believe it was that earlier experience that made me respond in the way, and as quickly as, I did. Stepping out of my office, I immediately issued evacuation orders, directing Procurement staff to gather personal belongings, and evacuate the building using the stairwells, and warning against the use of elevators .“Use the stairs, leave the building immediately, and go home!”
As fate would have it, the open layout of the floor allowed my voice to reach many adjacent staff, who in turn responded to my request. Months later several Engineering staff members that were in earshot of my voice that day, approached me saying “We never heard you yell. It scared us enough to make us get up and get out ASAP”.
Once most of the people on my side of the floor vacated, I headed to the Chief Engineer’s office, SW corner of 72. We speculated about what had occurred and resolved to get downstairs, assess what had happened, and identify what next steps should be taken (not unlike our initial response to the 1993 bombing.
As the floor cleared, and as several of us subsequently made our way to the stairwell across from the westernmost elevator bank, shouts were heard coming from an elevator stopped on the 71st floor. “Help!!! Get us out of here!!!”
While the 71st Floor Elevator Rescue is a longer story than this snapshot will allow, thanks to the Grace of God, and a friend named Anthony Savas (a Port Authority Construction Inspector) who perished that day, several of us were able to free the elevator’s captives and escape the building before its collapse. While I have always been proud of my personal involvement in the rescue, it was Mr. Savas who, years earlier, dictated how such a rescue could be carried out. May God Bless him, and may he rest in peace.
