Romito, Mazza and Cirri exited the staircase and were making their way into the lobby. “I got down one more floor when I felt the building shaking, rumbling,” he said. “It sounded like someone stuck me in blender. I actually could hear the floors [above me] pancaking – boom, boom, boom! The thing I remember most is putting Josephine down on the floor and covering her with my body. I’m lying there thinking of my family and hoping it works out for everyone.”
The collapsing tower compressed gale-force winds through the stairwell. “It was like a hurricane,” Lim said. “One of the firemen behind me was lifted up and was thrown over me.”
Lim said he had a selfish thought. “I hope it’s quick,” he said. “I don’t want to be lying here for days, legs broken, dying of thirst.”
After 15 to 20 seconds the building stopped collapsing. In complete darkness, buried under dust and debris, Lim thought, “’I must be dead.’ Then I coughed. Dead men don’t cough. A weird thought, I admit.”