reeskujo
11-21-2006, 02:48 PM
Name: David Lim
Age: 46
Residence: Lynbrook, New York
Story: Lim, a Port Authority K-9 officer, was in the South Tower when American Flight 11 slammed into the North Tower. Leaving his canine partner Sirius behind, he ran up to the North Tower's 44th floor before heading down after the second collision. He was on the fourth floor with six firefighters escorting an elderly woman when the building fell.
In their words: "There are only 14 people on this Earth who know what it's like [to be] in a 110-story building when it collapses."
-- Firefighter Sal D'Agostino on the "special club" who were inside the towers when they fell and survived.
15 seconds of hell
K-9 officer lives through North Tower collapse
David Lim and his K-9 partner Sirius, a yellow Labrador, before September 11. Sirius was crushed by the collapse of the South Tower while Lim was helping firefighters in the North Tower.
NEW YORK (CNN) -- David Lim knew things were bad when he clambered up the North Tower stairs and looked at those going down -- some burned, others bloodied, most fearful.
But the Port Authority police officer thought everything was in control: He had worked at the World Trade Center for 19 of his 22 years on the force, and it wasn't going anywhere.
Then around the 34th floor, he heard the rumble and felt a whoosh of air. The South Tower had collapsed: It didn't take long to realize the North Tower could be next.
When he arrived on the fifth floor, he spotted firefighters from Ladder Company 6 helping a grandmother from Brooklyn, Josephine Harris. He jumped in and with the others took hold of her and slowly headed down a flight of stairs.
Then it happened: The horrific sounds, crunching crashes and choking dust, as 110 stories of steel, concrete, equipment and people collapsed on top of them.
"I knew it was our building, because there was nothing else left," said Lim. "It lasted about 15 seconds, but it felt like forever."
A floor lower, a floor or two higher, and he might be dead. But Lim, Harris and firefighters Mike Meldrum, Matt Komorowski, Bill Butler, Tom Falco, Sal D'Agostino and John Jonas were somehow alive in Stairwell B on the fourth floor.
Five hours later, with the aid of Lim's cell phone, help from Ladder Company 43 and plenty of personal resilience, they poked through what would have been the stairwell's sixth floor. As he crawled over the debris field to safety, Lim cried out for his K-9 partner Sirius, a yellow Labrador that he had last seen in the South Tower.
In the subsequent months, Lim and his new comrades from Ladder 6 were hailed as heroes for running into the North Tower and successfully urging hundreds to safety. But Lim said he is hesitant, and maybe too lucky, to embrace the label.
"The reason we took this job is because people needed our help," he said. "I did my job well that day, but I don't know if I'm a hero. I think the people who died that day were heroes
I'm not posting this to depress anyone I just feel that it's very important that we honor and remeber the canine rescuers on that horrble day as well as the human ones.....Ree
Age: 46
Residence: Lynbrook, New York
Story: Lim, a Port Authority K-9 officer, was in the South Tower when American Flight 11 slammed into the North Tower. Leaving his canine partner Sirius behind, he ran up to the North Tower's 44th floor before heading down after the second collision. He was on the fourth floor with six firefighters escorting an elderly woman when the building fell.
In their words: "There are only 14 people on this Earth who know what it's like [to be] in a 110-story building when it collapses."
-- Firefighter Sal D'Agostino on the "special club" who were inside the towers when they fell and survived.
15 seconds of hell
K-9 officer lives through North Tower collapse
David Lim and his K-9 partner Sirius, a yellow Labrador, before September 11. Sirius was crushed by the collapse of the South Tower while Lim was helping firefighters in the North Tower.
NEW YORK (CNN) -- David Lim knew things were bad when he clambered up the North Tower stairs and looked at those going down -- some burned, others bloodied, most fearful.
But the Port Authority police officer thought everything was in control: He had worked at the World Trade Center for 19 of his 22 years on the force, and it wasn't going anywhere.
Then around the 34th floor, he heard the rumble and felt a whoosh of air. The South Tower had collapsed: It didn't take long to realize the North Tower could be next.
When he arrived on the fifth floor, he spotted firefighters from Ladder Company 6 helping a grandmother from Brooklyn, Josephine Harris. He jumped in and with the others took hold of her and slowly headed down a flight of stairs.
Then it happened: The horrific sounds, crunching crashes and choking dust, as 110 stories of steel, concrete, equipment and people collapsed on top of them.
"I knew it was our building, because there was nothing else left," said Lim. "It lasted about 15 seconds, but it felt like forever."
A floor lower, a floor or two higher, and he might be dead. But Lim, Harris and firefighters Mike Meldrum, Matt Komorowski, Bill Butler, Tom Falco, Sal D'Agostino and John Jonas were somehow alive in Stairwell B on the fourth floor.
Five hours later, with the aid of Lim's cell phone, help from Ladder Company 43 and plenty of personal resilience, they poked through what would have been the stairwell's sixth floor. As he crawled over the debris field to safety, Lim cried out for his K-9 partner Sirius, a yellow Labrador that he had last seen in the South Tower.
In the subsequent months, Lim and his new comrades from Ladder 6 were hailed as heroes for running into the North Tower and successfully urging hundreds to safety. But Lim said he is hesitant, and maybe too lucky, to embrace the label.
"The reason we took this job is because people needed our help," he said. "I did my job well that day, but I don't know if I'm a hero. I think the people who died that day were heroes
I'm not posting this to depress anyone I just feel that it's very important that we honor and remeber the canine rescuers on that horrble day as well as the human ones.....Ree