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Disabled people caught in the terror The events of last month are already raising questions about evacuation procedures for people with disabilities. Tim Merricks recounts the stories of some of those who escaped.
- A woman survived the second attack on the World Trade Centre after being stranded on the 68th floor in her wheelchair
The woman, who has not been named, was carried down by two men, Michael Benfante and John Cerqueira, as they were fleeing from the 81st floor. Cerquira, 22, said: ?In the back of my head I heard my mother telling me to get the heck out of there, but I had to help. Everything went black, the smoke and debris were everywhere. "I took a breath and it stuck in my throat, it was like eating the burning cinders from a fireplace.? When they eventually reached safety, they placed the woman, in tears of relief and gratitude, in an emergency van and ran until they reached 14th street, where they found a church and staggered inside.
- John Abruzzo bought a sleigh-like evacuation wheelchair after the 1993 bombing, when he was among the last to leave the building.
This time he thought he was prepared, but with eight co-workers taking turns to carry him in his chair down 69 floors, it was a race against the clock. The eight friends and aquaintences choked on fumes of jet fuel and smoke, but they wouldn?t leave Abruzzo. Every few flights of stairs, they would stop and change places, all the while telling jokes. ?We all had our lives to lose,? said Abruzzo, ?What they did was? I don?t know. Do you just say thanks? I don?t know what to say to them.? - A blind man was led down 78 floors to safety by his guide dog as chaos broke out around him at the World Trade Centre.
Mike Hingson told a CNN talkshow how Roselle, his yellow Labrador, had been trained to deal with noise and stayed by his side as the hijacked airliner tore through the first tower. Together they found and manipulated the narrow staircase while fire-fighters and rescue teams fought the carnage around them. ?The building shook very violently. I remember saying, ?God don?t let that building tip over,? Hingson recalled. A colleague looked out the window and told Hingson there was ?fire above us and debris falling.?
- A Columbian man had the same experience, led down 70 flights of stairs, also by his Labrador guide dog.
Omar Eduardo Rivera, a blind man from Bogota, was working on his computer when the plane crashed into the building 25 floors above him. ?I stood up and and I could hear how pieces of glass were flying around and falling,? said Rivera.
Tim Merricks 4 Sept, 2001
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