The story of one man's escape from the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001
"There were so many ways that we were lucky," says John
Abruzzo, of his narrow escape form Tower One of the World Trade
Center. September 11th started as a normal day for John, who worked
on the 69th floor as an associate accountant for the Port Authority
of New York and New Jersey. When the first plane hit the tower
that day John, like others, rushed to the stairwell. However, evacuation
for John would prove to be much more difficult than many other
World Trade Center occupants. Johnis a C 5-6 quadriplegic who relies
on an electric wheelchair for mobility.
That day, many seemingly ordinary people did extraordinary things.
ten such people were at John's side. "There was no debate
on whether I would be brought down or not by these people. It
was more or less a collective decision," says Abruzzo. With
the use of a special evacuation mobility devise designed for
the physically disabled, call the EVAC+CHAIR Emergency Wheelchair,
John was able to make an escape to safety. "It took us an
hour-and-a -half to get down 69 floors." Although it is
designed to be guided by one person, three to four people handled
the special evacuation chair while heading downstairs, rotating
positions as necessary.
In the first attack on the World Trade Center in February, 1993,
John's evacuation took six hours during which his electric chair
was carried from the 69th floor to the 44th floor, where he was
then transferred to a stretcher and finally exited the building.
Shortly after the '93 bombing, a number of products and systems
were purchased to aid in the evacuation and life-safety of World
Trade Center occupants. The implementation of these products
proved successful on 9/11; lights stayed on while John and his
friends evacuated, ventilations systems in the stairwells minimized
smoke infiltration, and the evacuation chairs purchased by the
Port Authority became a real life-saver.
Several disabled people were successfully evacuated with the
EVAC+CHAIR that day. John and his group exited the tower and
were out of harm's way ten minutes before its collapse.
