I worked on the 84th floor of the southern tower for Euro Brokers.
I had a flashlight, helmet and other emergency material in a kit, for working there for long as I have.
It came essential for what I can't put enough words into describe.
Almost immediately after the plane struck our tower, we brought ourselves a debate whether to go up or down, as a method to escape.
As a collective group, momentarily we all went down.
Before I continue? There were three different stairwells, we could've descended down from and for whatever reason why, I chose Stairwell A.
When the plane, struck the tower, it struck the Southern Tower at an angle - it didn't strike directly in the center, like it did with the Northern Tower.
When it struck the Nothern Tower, front and center - it destroyed access to all of the elevators and stairwells.
That's why nobody survived, in or above the impact zone of the Nothern Tower.
Stairwell A was the only stairwell from the South Tower, where anybody made it out alive.
Stairwell B and C were destroyed, during the initial impact of the Southern Tower getting struck.
Because the south tower was struck at an angle, it allowed access down to Stairwell A and how we escaped.
Only around plunging to the 80th floor, we see an overweight woman stopping all of us, hysterically screaming there was fire and smoke downstairs.
She pleaded all of us, the only way to escape was to go up.
My group was arguing back and forth with, what we should do next.
The overweight woman was growing more agitated by the second.
I reflected my flashlight, through the smoke to each one of my personnel that were talking, through the smoke.
Bobby Coll, Dave Vera, Kevin York, a fire marshal and Ron DiFrancesco were with me, and they all wanted to go up, as a way of escaping.
I was not involved in the debate. I didn't even make a comment. I just flashed my light, directly to whoever was talking.
I have no idea, what or how I managed to hear it but, I suddenly heard a "Help me! Help me! I'm buried!" cry from a moment, through the rubble.
I heard the cry for help on the 80th floor - the floor we were currently on.
Growing impatient in time, I noticed that Kevin York, Bobby Coll, Dave Vera and the fire marshal with me, opted to help the overweight woman to go up, instead of down.
I have a vivid memory inside my head - where all of them went up, instead of down - and every single one of them, died that day.
I heard Kevin and Bobby say to the overweight woman "Come on, we're in this together. You can do it."
And they disappeared through the smoke, and I never would see them again.
I still opted to help out the cry for help on the 80th floor.
Ron DiFrancesco was next to me, and I grab him by the shoulder "Come on Ron, let's get this guy."
His voice was crying out to the two of us.
Just guiding us and here I had, this worthless flashlight barely able to see heads or tails of anything.
Ron had been taken back by the smoke and left the room where we were at, as we got closer to the man.
I don't know whatever happened to Ron, thereafter.
(Ron ended up going up, then went down and escaped from the Southern Tower, just seconds before it collapsed.)
There was a wall blocking between me and the man.
I opted to yell at him, that he needed to jump from brick wall, block the two of us.
He jumped over the wall, and I grabbed him over.
We both addressed ourselves.
"My name is Brian Clark.
"My name is Stanley Praimnath and we're brothers for life."
We immediately worked ourselves down.
The water sprinklers were partially on, oozing some of the drywall out of the sides of the tower.
Like as we went down, the railing to the staircases were melting and as you worked yourself down, it was easy to slip as you made your escape.
We didn't encounter anybody until the 68th floor.
There, me and Stanley come across Jose Marrero.
The lights were working, fresh air, no smoke or fire whatsoever.
Jose also worked for Euro Brokers.
He was on the walkie-talkie.
I tried to stop him. "Hey Jose, where are you going?"
"I'm going to go up, and help Dave Vera."
"I'm here with this man from Fuji Bank (Stanley Praimnath). Dave's a big boy. He'll fend for himself. Come on down with us."
"No, No I can help him. I'll be ok."
"Well, all right."
I never saw him again. He ended up perishing as well.
Me and Stanley got around the 44th floor and encountered, a security guard helping a gravely wounded man on the floor.
Stanley said, that his back was out or something.
I didn't know, how to respond.
In a spur of the moment, I asked the security guard if the phones on this floor worked. He responded no.
I told him, to make sure to stay over the injured man, and call for help to the 44th floor. He agreed in response. He promised, he would.
Me and Stanley got to the 31st floor.
Eerily silent. Normal conditions. Electricity was still on.
We got in an office on the 31st floor, because that's where Euro Brokers used to work at.
The phones on the 31st floor were working.
Why they were working on the 31st floor but, not on the 44th floor, I don't know.
We called our loved ones, having some problems trying to get through, we told them were okay and then five minutes later, we continued our descent.
We finally got to the plaza level.
One officer told us, "You better run through Liberty Street, debris is falling down from the tower."
I was baffled. I stared up for a few seconds. I didn't see anything.
Me and Stanley ran down Liberty Street and we were finally out of harm's way.
After about four minutes from escaping the south tower, it collapsed.
We were currently on Rector Street.
Me and Stanley were talking to each other such if?
"It might fall down, Brian."
"No way. That's a steel structure-"
And right as I said that, the tower collapsed.
We stared at the collapse in horror, gob smacked at what we witnessed.
I thought just maybe the top third of the tower had collapsed.
We ran down Broadway to Broadway 42 street. Me and Stanley dove into a lobby for 45 minutes and exchanged business cards.
As we made our escape, not wanting the dust cloud of debris to chase after us, we ended up, somehow getting separated.
Thank God I had his business card with me, and we are still friends, no brothers to this day.