9/11 survivor: 'Every decision you make impacts your life'

Emergency personnel ‘knew they were going up the stairs to save lives they couldn’t save. They knew they were never coming back down.’

By DENISE DICK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

CANFIELD — The first time Sept. 11, 2001, survivor Joe Dittmar talked about his experience, he told the crowd he wasn’t sure why God had spared him — but that he would strive to learn.

A woman in the crowd told him he was saved so that he could talk to others and educate them.

Dittmar, a Philadelphia native who now lives in Gaithersburg, Md., spoke Friday morning to students at both Canfield Village Middle and Boardman High schools. Canfield Rotary members arranged the presentations.

“Every decision you make impacts your life,” Dittmar said.

He was working for an insurance company in Chicago in 2001 and was called to a meeting with other agents on the 105th floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center, New York City.

The 54 meeting attendees were in a windowless room that morning when the lights flickered at 8:48 a.m. No one thought anything of it.

“We didn’t hear anything, didn’t see anything, didn’t sense anything,” said Dittmar, a father of four.

A man then entered the meeting room and told them there was an explosion in the north tower. They wanted to continue their meeting, but the man, a volunteer fire marshal, told them they needed to evacuate.

“We were all evacuated to the fire stairwells and all 54 people left,” he said. “I know that because I was the last guy out.”

Only seven of those 54 people survived.

Annoyed, everyone pulled out their cell phones, Dittmar said, but no one could get a signal.

Still, the people inside of the building didn’t know what was happening.

“You knew way more of what was going on outside and inside of that building than those of us who were right there,” he said. “We had no idea.”

As they continued down the stairs, the door at the 90th floor was propped open and people were filing out and Dittmar followed.

“It was then that I experienced what was probably the worst 30 to 40 seconds of my life,” he said. “I looked out and saw gray and black plumes of smoke billowing out of the [north tower] building and red flames lapping at the sides.”

The mangled body of the plane twisted through the building and he saw furniture, paper and bodies being pulled from the rubble.

“I had the feeling of ‘Oh my God, I just want to go home,” Dittmar said.

It made him turn around and head to the stairwell to go back down. The people inside of the building still didn’t know what had happened.

A man behind Dittmar said he was opting for the stairs too, but that he wanted to use the restroom first. “That simple decision cost him his life,” he said.

An announcement came over a loudspeaker saying that the south tower was safe and urging people to return to their offices.

Dittmar said he realizes that announcement sounds unbelievable, but the people handling security were trying to protect people from falling debris from the first tower.

“Who would have thought that within 18 minutes, the same exact thing would have happened again?” he said.

Despite the announcement, Dittmar continued down the steps to leave the building.

At the 78th floor, some of his colleagues opted to take the elevator and urged him to come along.

He kept to the stairs.

“That is arguably the best decision I have made in what is still my life,” Dittmar said.

When he was between the 75th and 72nd floors, the second plane hit.

“I have never felt anything like it at anytime in my life,” he said.

The stairwell shook, handrails broke from the walls, the steps undulated beneath his feet like waves on the ocean, and he felt a heat ball go by and smelled jet fuel.

The group bonded together to help each other, aiding the injured.

As they continued their descent, they met emergency personnel who were headed up the stairs.

“The looks in their eyes told the whole story,” Dittmar said, his voice breaking. “They knew. They knew that they were going up the steps to fight a fire that they couldn’t beat. They knew they were going up the stairs to save lives they couldn’t save. They knew they were never coming back down.”

He and a group of colleagues continued down the stairs and out of the building to a friend’s apartment.

On the way, they heard two horrible sounds that Dittmar says he’ll never forget.

The first was the sound of crumbling concrete as the south tower, the building they had been in eight minutes before, collapsed.

“The second was the sound of millions and millions of people all screaming this blood curdling scream at the same time,” Dittmar said.

Of the three men with whom he remains in contact, one lost his job because of an inability to cope with what happened that day; another likes to act as if it never happened.

Dittmar, who has since joined another insurance firm, chooses to speak about it. He gives four or five talks per month to different organizations, schools and groups on top of his full-time job. He gives the talks, for which he isn’t paid, using his vacation time.

Dittmar said he wants to talk about it to remember those people who didn’t survive — “to let their voices be heard and their spirits soar.”

He also said he wanted the children to understand that every decision they make is an important one.

Eighth graders Tyler Youmell and Ed Curran, both 13, were in first grade when the terrorists struck the Twin Towers and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Their memories of that day are foggy. But both boys said they learned the importance of making the right decision and doing the right thing.

“It was moving,” Ed said.

denise_dick@vindy.com