SQUEEGEE SAVIOR - At WTC

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Current News - Homefront Preparations : One Thread

Telegraph -

Squeegee saviour at Trade Centre

By Philip Delves Broughton in New York (Filed: 10/10/2001)

FIVE men trapped in a lift when the World Trade Centre was attacked on September 11 escaped after one of them, a window cleaner, cut through the lift shaft with the edge of his window wiper.

The men were on their way up the north tower of the centre, close to the 70th floor, when the first plane struck at 8.47am. "We felt a muted thud," Shivam Iyer told the New York Times. "The building shook. The elevator swung like a pendulum."

The lift then began to fall faster and faster until someone hit the emergency stop button. The men were 500ft off the ground. They waited for 10 minutes until a crackly voice told them over the intercom that the tower had been hit. Smoke was pouring into the lift. The intercom went dead.

The tallest man in the group, George Phoenix, an engineer, found a hatch in the ceiling of the lift. The other men pulled open the doors, propping them open with the handle of a squeegee belonging to the window cleaner, Jan Demczur.

In front of them was a wall marked "50". The lift they were in did not service the 50th floor. They would have to find another way out. After feeling the wall, Mr Demczur, a former builder, saw that it was made of layers of inch-thick panels of synthetic partition material known as sheetrock.

He knew he could cut through it with a knife. As no one had a knife, he pulled the rubber from his squeegee and used its metal edges to begin cutting. All the men breathed through handkerchiefs dipped in a carton of milk which Mr Phoenix had bought for breakfast.

As Mr Demczur reached the third inch of sheetrock, he dropped his squeegee, watching it spiral down the shaft. His hands aching, he used the small metal handle he was left with and punched and kicked at the wall.

He gouged a hole about 12in by 18in, enough to crawl through. Finally, he came to a layer of white tiles: a bathroom wall. All the men joined in punching it out, then squirmed through.

It was 9.30am and the building was deserted except for firemen who looked astonished to see the men crawling through the wall. They joined the line of people in the fire escape and when they reached the 15th floor heard the noise of the south tower collapsing.

"We heard a thunderous metallic roar," Mr Demczur said. "I thought our lives had surely ended." Behind them, the firemen told them to hurry. At 10.23am they ran into the street. Five minutes later the north tower fell. "That man with the squeegee - he was like our guardian angel," Mr Iyer said.

-- Anonymous, October 10, 2001


Moderation questions? read the FAQ