South Tower survivor recounts escape 25 years after 9/11

Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, World Trade Center South Tower survivor Joseph Dittmar is recounting his escape, the people he lost and the events he witnessed as the deadliest terror attack in modern history unfolded.

Dittmar, then a commercial underwriting executive from Chicago, was attending a morning meeting on the South Tower’s 105th floor when the first plane struck the North Tower at 8:46 a.m. He was among 54 people in a windowless conference room, where flickering lights were the only sign that something catastrophic had occurred.

A volunteer fire marshal ordered the group to evacuate. Dittmar, the last person to leave, said many in the room initially thought they were safe and wanted to continue their meeting, but the marshal insisted that everyone leave.

The group was directed down 105 flights of stairs. With the main cellphone tower for southern Manhattan located atop the burning North Tower, their phones had no service. Dittmar said those inside the building did not understand the scale of the attack.

At the 90th floor, he followed others through a propped-open stairwell door and saw the North Tower for the first time. He described seeing large black holes, intense flames, aircraft fuselage lodged in the building, and furniture, paper and people being pulled from the tower. Frightened, he returned to the stairwell.

At the 78th-floor sky lobby, many evacuees chose elevators, but Dittmar stayed in the stairwell. He said that decision saved his life. At 9:03 a.m., while he was between the 74th and 72nd floors, the second plane struck the South Tower. He described violent shaking, broken handrails, cracked concrete, undulating stairs and jet fuel in the air.

Evacuees continued down the stairs while helping people with injuries or mobility challenges. In the lobby, Dittmar saw twisted steel, crumbled concrete and red markings on the ground. Security staff directed people into the underground concourse because debris and bodies were falling outside.

Eight blocks north, Dittmar and others heard the South Tower collapse. Hours later, he saw television footage of the plane striking his tower and struggled to comprehend how he had escaped.

He said a colleague from the same meeting died after briefly stopping at a restroom on the 90th floor. Dittmar credits critical decisions, luck and what he calls divine providence for his survival.

Dittmar said he remains grateful for Canada’s response, including first responders who travelled to New York and the sheltering of thousands of stranded passengers in Gander. He also thanked Canadian soldiers who served and died in Afghanistan after the attacks.