LEWES, Del. - Joe Dittmar of Lewes is a survivor of the terrorist attacks on 9/11. As we are just two days away from the 20th anniversary of the attack, WBOC sat down with Dittmar to hear his story.
In 2001, Dittmar was living in Aurora, Illinois and working for C&A insurance company in Chicago. In August of 2001, he was asked to attend an executive meeting the following month in the World Trade Center.
The meeting was on the 105th floor of the South Tower, in an enclosed conference room with 54 people, no windows and one door.
"At 8:46 the lights in the room started to flicker," Dittmar explained. "That was it. We didn't hear or see anything or feel anything, just this flicker of the lights."
Immediately after the lights flickered, Dittmar said a gentleman came into the room demanding they all evacuate. At first the businessman didn't think much of it, but ultimately ended up following orders. They headed to fire escape and began their journey down the building.
Dittmar recalled everyone grabbing their cell phones trying to communicate that they weren't going to have their meeting, but there was no service.
The journey down the 105 stories felt never ending said Dittmar.
"There were three critical points that occurred that day," he said. "The first one was when we got into the stairwell and into the 90th floor."
The fire stairwell door was propped out, so many of the people in stairwell decided to exit the fire escape and look out the window. At that moment Joe saw the destruction of what had occurred in the north tower.
"That was an unbelievable site. You see all this, you see because of the force of the building, you have this vacuum affect and furniture, paper, people being pulled out of the building against their will."
At that moment, Joe realized the urgency of the situation, so he headed back to the stairwell and continued to evacuate.
The next pivotal moment occurred on the 78th floor. Joe's colleague tried to force him into the elevator, but he chose to not go in.
"My common sense kind of took over at that point. I thought to myself, building, fire emergency. I shouldn't get into an elevator. I should stay in the fire stairwell. And I looked at Mary. I never said a word. I waved politely at her turned around and went back into the fire stairwell. That is arguably the best decision I have made and what is still my life."
Just minutes after leaving the 78th floor, the second plane hit the South tower between floors 75 and 83.
"We were just a few short stories below the strike zone. I got to tell you, I have never felt anything like that before in my life. We were in this stairwell and it just started violently shaking back-and-forth back-and-forth. The concrete spidering out. The handrails breaking away from the walls. The steps like waves in the ocean under our feet. We feel this heat ball. We smell the jet fuel and all these things rocking back and forth."
Arguably the most memorable moment from that day was when Joe reached the 35th floor.
The 35th floor was the first time he encountered first responders in the building.
"They knew, they knew they were going up the steps to try and fight a fire they couldn't beat. To try and save lives that they couldn't save. And they knew they were going up those steps and they knew they were never coming back."
Dittmar told WBOC we must never forget this historical day because of the brave police officers, firefighters and first responders who sacrificed their lives.
Joe's story does not end at the 35th floor. He was blessed to have made it to ground zero. However, only seven out of 54 people in 105th floor conference room survived that day.
"I have a couple of flags that were flown in commemoration of a couple of these friends. And on or around the 11th, I fly those flags in their memory, so that they realize I haven't forgotten them."
To learn more about Joe's story, check out his website by clicking here.