Pasquale Buzzelli was going
down the stairwell of the north tower
at the World Trade Center
when he felt the whole building moving.
Suddenly,
he was free-falling in the middle of rubble,
smoke and people.
How could anyone survive that?
Twenty years ago,
the world was shaken.
On September 11th, 2001,
four planes were hijacked
by the extremist group al Qaeda
and used to attack the United States.
Two planes hit the twin towers
of the World Trade Center
in New York City.
The third plane hit the Pentagon
in Washington, D.C.
and the fourth plane hit a field
in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Nearly 3,000 people died
from those attacks.
But hidden amongst all that tragedy,
there are incredible stories of survival.
Today we'll look at three stories
of people who survived the falling
of the Twin Towers
due to their courage,
the hands of a stranger,
or just sheer luck.
According to the Federal Building
and Fire Safety investigation,
99% of the individuals
below the points of impact
in both towers survived.
But for those above the impact point,
it was a lottery.
In the middle of the chaos,
some people were trying to escape
while others were coming in
to rescue them.
And in our first story,
the people being rescued
help the rescuers make it out alive.
A crew of firefighters entered
the north tower just before the plane
crashed into the south tower.
Each of the six men carried
45 kg (100 lbs) of gear.
After evacuating people,
they started going back down.
Around the 20th floor
they found Josephine Harris,
a 59-year-old bookkeeper
who had been making her way down
from the 73rd floor.
She was exhausted.
Rescuing her put the firefighters at risk,
but they didn't hesitate to help her.
They continued down the stairs
with Harris’s arm around
one of the firefighters.
But around the 4th floor, she collapsed
and told them to leave her.
They didn’t abandon her.
Instead,
they all huddled together as the building
came down on top of them,
all one hundred floors of it.
Luckily, stairway B was the safest
place to be at that moment.
It was the only one that had
three supporting beams around it.
As the tower's floors started to pancake
on top of one another,
the debris field around the building
had spread widely,
which helped distribute the weight
of the collapsing building.
If the firefighters hadn't slowed down
because of Harris,
they wouldn't have been at that safe spot
when the floors above them collapsed.
Eventually,
they were able to climb
through the rubble to safety.
When the building collapsed,
Pasquale Buzzelli was
20 floors above them.
But we'll get back to that.
Brian Clark,
the executive vice president
of Euro Brokers,
worked on the 84th floor
of the south tower,
and he was above where the plane
hit the building.
And right before he would
have entered stairway C,
he had a strange feeling that pushed him
toward stairway A.
On the 81st floor,
he heard someone calling.
It was Stanley Praimnath,
who had watched the plane
hit the building.
He was trapped under rubble.
Clark went to find the man
and told him to climb over the
sheetrock wall that separated them.
After a first failed try,
Praimnath scrambled up the wall.
Clark grabbed him
and pulled him over the wall.
They fell to the floor
and introduced themselves.
Praimnath recalls Clark saying,
"All my life I’ve lived as an only child.
I always wanted a brother,
and today I found that person.
From today, you’re my blood brother".
And Clark rubbed their
wounded hands together.
They continued their escape as Brian
shone his flashlight down the stairs.
He only saw smoke, no flames.
They had to push their way
through the rubble.
They got out of the building
just before it collapsed.
Before watching our last story,
let's see what helped our first two cases
to survive.
In both examples,
the most important lesson
is to take the stairs,
never the elevator.
Staircases are usually reinforced.
But elevators could get stuck
or fall at high speed.
In "A Lucky Encounter"
and "Blood Brothers,"
taking the stairs right away
allowed the people to survive
and help others.
And even in the most
challenging conditions,
there are some ways to increase
your chances of surviving.
Use your shirt or a piece of cloth
to cover your mouth and nose.
This will help you avoid inhaling smoke,
dust and debris.
Do not shout or scream
unless you know there are people nearby
looking for you.
Shouting can exhaust you quickly,
and it causes you to inhale more dust,
debris or toxic fumes.
But even if you do everything right,
sometimes all you need is a bit of luck.
This brings us to our last story.
Now, let's go back to 34-year-old engineer
Pasquale Buzzelli.
He was working on the 64th floor of the
north tower when the attacks happened.
He didn't evacuate right away
since the building security staff
instructed people to wait.
Many 911 callers got the same directive
since it is the protocol for high-rise
fire scenarios.
But sadly,
it meant that many people would die
because they should have left
as soon as they could've.
At 10 a.m.
Buzzelli called his wife,
who was seven months pregnant.
He said not to worry because he and his
fellow employees were about to
head down stairwell B.
He looked down the stairwell,
and it was smoke-free.
He led about one dozen other people
down the narrow stairwell.
When they got to the 22nd floor,
he felt the building shake.
He dove into the corner as he heard
the sounds of falling objects.
Then he felt like he was free-falling.
Two hours later,
he woke up and found himself
on top of a massive piece of concrete.
He felt numb,
and there was nothing above him
but sky.
He had fallen almost 15 stories
on top of that piece of concrete,
which got him his "9/11 Surfer" nickname.
There was rubble and smoke everywhere.
Buzzelli heard fire and explosions.
His right leg was painful,
which helped him realize
he was not dead.
The rescuers worked to reach him
through the fires.
Eventually, he was put on a stretcher
because he could no longer walk.
He had a fractured foot.
After getting out,
he called his wife at about 3:30 p.m.
When their daughter was born,
they named her Hope.
Despite the hardest conditions,
plenty of people chose to help others
even though they put themselves at risk.
Many did not survive,
but will always be remembered as heroes.
Now, after 9/11,
you are less likely to be a victim
of such massive terrorist attacks.
But a high-rise fire is something
that can happen any day.
And we have the tips to help you
make it out alive.