# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
subscribe to StoryCorps podcast

On Sept. 11th, 2001, Joe Dittmar was on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center's South Tower for a business meeting when the terrorist attacks started.

Dittmar, then 44, had been visiting New York City from Aurora, Ill., a Chicago suburb, where he worked in the insurance industry.

Before the meeting began, the first plane hit the North Tower, and Dittmar saw the hellish aftermath from a South Tower window.

In an interview with StoryCorps last August, Dittmar, now 61, vividly recalled the scene, describing "gaping black holes through the sides of that building ... gray and black billows of smoke pouring out of those holes, flames redder than any red I'd ever seen before in my life, flicking up the side of the building."

Dittmar took the stairs to evacuate. He said he'd made it to the 72nd floor when, 17 minutes after the first crash, the second plane hit the tower he was in.

Some of the other people from his business meeting took the express elevator to try to get out and did not survive.

All he could think about was making his way back home to Aurora to see his wife and four kids.

He'd taken the train to Manhattan that morning from Philadelphia, and so he decided he would go back to Penn Station and hop on a train to go back, get his rental car and then drive to Illinois.

"The train was packed with people sitting and standing," he said. "Not a word was spoken - there weren't any words to say."

He spent the night at his parents' house in Philadelphia, and before making the drive the next morning, Dittmar called work to let them know he would not be coming in that day. "It was a good thing," he said, "because they thought I was dead."

Dittmar said when he was close to home he called his wife "for what was probably like the 50th time."

"I said to her 'Hey, I'm almost there.' She said, 'They decided to have a mass at Our Lady of Mercy -' and I stopped her right in the middle of her sentence. I said, 'I'll be there. I'll meet you there.' "

When he arrived, the church parking lot was packed. "You would've thought it was Christmas," he said. "I opened up the back door of that church to see these hundreds of eyes all staring back at me, knowing where I had been."

He scanned the church to find the spot where his family usually sat.

"My wife jumps over the back of the pew, runs to the back of the church, gives me the greatest hug and a kiss a man could ever want," he said. "She's not that kind of a demonstrative person, but that's what made that moment even more incredible. And I knew at that moment that I was home. Never had a better feeling in my life."

Dittmar has made multiple visits back to Ground Zero both before and after the National September 11 Memorial and Museum was built. While he appreciates what's there now, he says visiting the site when it was still a hole in the ground was deeply emotional. "The scaffolding with wooden walls and the writing on those walls with love and thoughts about lost family members was the true Ground Zero," Dittmar said.
The 17th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks is Tuesday. StoryCorps and the National September 11 Memorial And Museum are recording a story for each life lost StoryCorps is a national nonprofit that gives people the chance to interview friends and loved ones about their lives. These conversations are archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, allowing participants to leave a legacy for future generations. Learn more, including how to interview someone in your life, at StoryCorps.org..
Audio produced for Morning Edition by Aisha Turner.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
'They Thought I Was Dead': A Sept. 11 Survivor Recalls His Escape

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
subscribe to StoryCorps podcast On Sept. 11th, 2001, Joe Dittmar was on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center's South Tower for a business meeting when the terrorist attacks started. Dittmar, then 44, had been visiting New York City from Aurora, Ill., a Chicago suburb, where he worked in the insurance industry.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Ron DiFrancesco was a Canadian working on a U.S. immigration work visa in the South Tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11. He was a manager at Euro Brokers' office on the 84th floor. As a Canadian he felt as if it was a unique honor for him to have been appointed to his position and to be working in the World Trade Center, regarded by many as the most prestigious building in Manhattan.

When the first plane hit the North Tower, the people in his office heard the crash and saw the flames and smoke emanating from that building. They did not know yet that a hijacked plane had been involved. As the phones started ringing and people started asking Ron and the other employees there what happened, they surmised that a small plane had lost its way and accidentally hit the building. They could see that the flames from the crash were forcing people in the North Tower to flee and in some cases to jump to escape the fire. As news reports started coming in giving more accurate accounts of what was happening, Ron got a telephone call from his good friend in Canada telling him to get out of his building. He heeded the warning and made his way over to the elevators. Just then the second plane his tower.

Ron says that the impact of the crash was so violent that the building swayed some seven or eight feet. He thought for the moment that the building would tip over but instead it simply swayed back the other way. After the building stopped swaying, Ron made his way to the staircase. Unlike in the North Tower where the plane came in level, in the case of the South Tower, the pilot of the plane came in on an angle evidently to cause maximum damage. In a sense that was fortuitous for Ron in that the right tip of the wing of the airplane plowed into the tower above the 84th floor although the body of the plane crashed into the building below it.

Ron quickly made his way to the staircase. Smoke was coming up the stairs from the lower floor. He tried to make his way down but people from lower floors were coming up to escape the fire below. So he turned around and tried to go up.

Since the right tip of the wing of the plane hit the tower above his floor, that part of the tower was on fire. There was no way to proceed upward. For perhaps the first time, Ron DiFrancesco realized he was no longer in control of the events in his life. A sense of doom descended on him and the rest of the people trapped between the floors. Unable to go up, once again he turned to go down facing the billowing smoke coming up the staircase like a smokestack. Now there was also fire down below and despite using a piece of drywall to shield himself from the heat, as he proceeded his body was being burned.

He thought it was all over. Overcome with smoke he was about to give up. Just then Ron says he heard a voice. He cannot really explain exactly whose voice it was, but he drew strength and faith from it to continue downward despite the burns. Then he heard a second voice, the voice of a firefighter. While he could not see in the smoke, the firefight said to come in the direction of his voice further down the stairs.

Ron reached the firefighter and told him he couldn't breathe. The firefighter examined him and told Ron to go down to the bottom where he would be cared for. That's what he did. Since he was now below the crash site the sprinklers had come on making the descent much easier. When he finally emerged on the ground floor he was blocked from exiting the building by firefighters who said it was too dangerous because of falling debris and the bodies of those who jumped. Instead he was direct into the basement of the building to exit there.

Ron descended below. He was especially impressed by a heavy set man who had also come down from his tower and was now descending with Ron into the bowels of the building. As they reached downstairs they suddenly heard the rumble of the building pancaking down on them. They turned to look back down the corridor where they saw a huge fire ball coming at them. They turned around and ran for their lives.

Ron woke up in the hospital. There were burns to the great majority of his body. His contact lenses had melted to his eyes. It took years to recover. But he had made it. He was the last known survivor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center bombing. Since then Ron and his family have moved back to Canada. Yesterday, however, he returned to New York to the site where exactly 15 years ago he was lucky enough to survive America's worst terrorist attack. His story is a testament to resilience in the face of adversity. It is one that reminds us of how precious life can be and of the fact that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Last Known Survivor Of The South Tower Of The 9/11 World Trade Center Attack

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ron DiFrancesco was a Canadian working on a U.S. immigration work visa in the South Tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11. He was a manager at Euro Brokers' office on the 84th floor. As a Canadian he felt as if it was a unique honor for him to [...]

# data[].attributes.body
A time laspe of rebuilding one world trade center

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Official One World Trade Center Time-Lapse 2004-2013

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
9/11 Memorial Ground Zero New York Post Twin Towers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Hear 911 call from teenage sole plane crash survivor

# data[].attributes.body
¨We will win this struggle not for glory, nor wealth, nor power, but for justice, for freedom, and for peace… so help us God.¨- Tom Harkin

# data[].attributes.body
¨What seperates us from animals, what sepeartes us from chaos, is our ability to mourn people we never met.¨- David Lev