Brian Clark was one of the very few people who escaped from a floor above where the plane hit the South Tower on 9/11. Sadly, he would lose many of his co-workers in the New York office that day.
On the morning of September 11, Brian arrived at work around 7:15 a.m. He walked across the trading floor, went to his office, and started working with his back to the windows.
At 8:46 a.m., he heard a loud boom. The lights in his office flickered and buzzed, and he quickly turned around to see flames swirling outside his window. The North Tower had just been struck on the 93rd floor. At first, Brian thought it was some sort of accident or explosion, not a terrorist attack.
He began telling co-workers to move toward the center of the floor. Many of them started heading down the stairs to evacuate. At the same time, people in the North Tower had already started jumping from the building.
At 8:55 a.m., Brian called his wife and family to tell them to turn on the TV. He didn’t know exactly what had happened yet but assured them that he was okay. Right after he hung up, the lights went out and the strobe lights came on.
Then, an announcement came over the speakers saying, “Your attention please. Building Two is secure. If you are evacuating, you may return to your office.” Believing the danger was only in the North Tower, many people—including Brian and his co-workers—stayed on their floor.
A few minutes later, Brian saw his friend and co-worker Bobby Coll. Bobby had gone down several floors but returned after hearing the announcement. As the two spoke, a second massive boom shook the building—the South Tower had been hit at 9:03 a.m.
Ceiling tiles fell, white dust filled the room, and the air turned hard to breathe. The entire building swayed. Brian grabbed a flashlight he had picked up earlier and began leading six of his co-workers down the stairs from the 84th floor.
They kept going until they reached the ground floor. Brian made it out of the South Tower just 10 minutes before it collapsed.
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