"We All Fall Down" - Pasquale Buzzelli & Louise Buzzelli
Cover Art Credit: Hope Buzzelli
In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, an urban legend grew. It was the story of a man who survived the collapse of the North Tower by surfing the debris down as the building broke apart and collapsed into the ground below. That man was Pasquale Buzzelli. As it turns out, he did not surf the debris down to the ground. His story of survival is nothing short of extraordinary.
On September 11, 2001, Pasquale Buzzelli worked for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on the 64th floor of the North Tower. He was a Structural Engineer. At age 34, he and his wife Louise were expecting their first child. She was seven months pregnant. She was home in River Vale, New Jersey when he telephoned her at 10 am to tell her that he and a group of his co-workers were getting out of the building by walking down Stairwell B. He assured her that he had investigated the proposed escape route and confirmed it was viable. Everything was going to be okay, he told her.
Whether either of them believed a single word he said about how everything was going to be okay, shortly after he hung up with Louise he and his co-workers began their trip down Stairwell B with Pasquale in front - leading the way. He had made it as far as the 22nd floor when the whole building shook and the stairwell started to heave. He dove for cover to avoid falling debris. Suddenly, he was in free fall.
Two hours later, he regained consciousness. When he opened his eyes and looked around, he was in the great wide open. He was on a slab of concrete 180 feet below where the twenty-second floor had been. He was in the open air - on a piece of concrete atop a seven-story stack of debris in the middle of the Pile. He had badly injured his right leg and right foot. The pain was intense but it was also purposeful. It alerted him to the fact that he was still alive, which made getting home to Louise and his soon-to-arrive child his top priority.
He shouted for help. At some point, FDNY firefighter Mike Moribito heard him and, having already disobeyed orders not to search the still-burning wreckage of the two towers, and alerted other firefighters that they had a civilian alive who they needed to get the hell out of there. It took some doing, but get him out of there they did. Pasquale Buzzelli made it home to River Vale and to Louise. The couple's first child, Hope, arrived, a couple of months later. Another daughter, Mia, joined the family thereafter.
-AK
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