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CNN Live At Daybreak
America Under Attack: Number 7 World Trade Center Building Survivor
Aired September 13, 2001 - 08:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Joining me right here, north of where Martin was just talking from, is Ron Saladino, who works for Salomon Smith Barney.
RON SALADINO, SURVIVOR: Yes.
ZAHN: Welcome. Tell us where you were when both of the World Trade Centers were struck.
SALADINO: I was on the 28th floor of No. 7 World Trade working in the southeastern corner.
ZAHN: OK. Now for folks who aren't familiar with New York, Building No. 7 or No. 7 was in fact the building that collapsed much later in the day.
SALADINO: Yes, around 6:00 yesterday evening.
ZAHN: Did you see either one of these planes slamming into the north tower or south tower?
SALADINO: No, I didn't see any of the planes.
ZAHN: What did you hear?
SALADINO: At around 8:40, I heard a tremendous explosion, followed by what felt like an earthquake rumble. After that immediately, we looked towards the southern window and saw debris -- building parts, glass and metal shatter to the ground.
ZAHN: And what did you do?
SALADINO: At first I was stunned. I didn't know what to do. I had maybe one breath of air in the whole of action, dashed to the window, looked up and saw a hole as wide as the World Trade Center, about 20 to 30 stories high with flames pouring out of every end.
ZAHN: Everybody has had a different description of then, you know, how they reacted to that. Did you think you were doomed?
SALADINO: At that point, I didn't know what to think. I was scared for my life. It's something you hear about in other countries, but you don't really know what it feels like until it actually happens, you know, in the city you work and the building right next to you.
ZAHN: So tell us what happened from that point on.
SALADINO: From that point on, everyone seemed to be in awe -- just staring at the giant hole in the northern World Trade Center. We were soon (ph) to see bodies fly out of the window minute after minute, free fall, two, three, four, maybe five seconds down to their death at the bottom.
ZAHN: Some of those folks were jumping from the, you know, the windows because they were trapped; some of them just forced out by the pressure of the explosion.
SALADINO: Uh-huh.
ZAHN: So you're watching this...
SALADINO: Yes.
ZAHN: ... from the window.
SALADINO: Absolutely.
ZAHN: You're not thinking, I'm going to get out of this building, because this building, if one of these other ones collapses, it's going to be a goner too?
SALADINO: Uh-huh. At first, I was...
ZAHN: Are you surprised that you stood there and watched this thing rather than say, hey, I'm getting out of here.
SALADINO: Well, looking back at it now, it was just a blur in my memory. Eventually someone did say, let's evacuate and let's get downstairs. And initially once that clicked in my head I knew to, you know, run to the stairs and run downstairs as quickly as possible.
ZAHN: How long did it take you to get out of your building?
SALADINO: About two minutes. I must have ran down the stairs as fast as possible.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: Yes, we need to explain that building was only how many stories?
SALADINO: Forty-eight, I think, in total, maybe 47.
ZAHN: You say only, I mean, that's a massive building by anybody's standards anywhere else in the United States.
SALADINO: Yes.
ZAHN: But the other buildings dwarfed it. They were 107 stories. The most remarkable thing is hearing some of your colleagues across the street describing trying to get out of the north tower, and it taking over an hour to get out.
SALADINO: Yes.
ZAHN: Once you got to the street, what happened? Were you pelted with flying debris?
SALADINO: Well, initially when I got down to the ground floor, the second plane had hit the southern World Trade Center, and again, people started to panic. People started to cry. People started to get away from the front lobby windows. After that, security guards then pushed people down the escalator around the back entrance and up towards Greenwich Street, getting people as north as possible away from the incident.
ZAHN: And once again, a lot of folks might not be familiar with the geography of the city, but once you arrived at Greenwich Street, which is not too far from there, did you see either one of the buildings collapse?
SALADINO: Yes, I did. About 10 to 20 blocks off, I stopped to catch my breath. I turned and looked around, and the southern World Trade Center began to just buckle. About 50 consecutive bangs, and it went -- fell down like a waterfall. And after that, there was chaos in the streets. People didn't know what to believe. They were...
ZAHN: Were they screaming? Were they -- what were they...
SALADINO: People were crying. People were saying the city is under attack. People were mentioning that the Pentagon got hit by a plane also. I mean, that's when I almost started to get really upset.
ZAHN: You know what is fascinating to me is one of our previous guests was describing trying to get out from the midsection of the north tower, and he said people were quite orderly.
SALADINO: Yes.
ZAHN: I mean, some of whom had been through the '93 World Trade Center bombing -- that there was not a sense of panic until they got to the lower floors.
SALADINO: Uh-huh.
ZAHN: And Martin Savidge was just reporting about all the kerosene, that firefighters were surprised to have learned a number of victims on lower floors. But they were inundated with water. One of the sprinklers had gone on in the building, and that was the point at which I think people realized that they were in trouble.
Martin (sic), I'm going to ask you to assist me here. This is really quite stunning to share with folks that are joining us right now. These are pieces of paper from Cantor Fitzgerald, which I'm going to have you hold this for the brokerage firm. Singed -- I don't know the camera can pick this up -- but singed pieces of paper that were blown out of the wreckage of the World Trade Center.
And these actually showed up in the yard of one of our correspondents, Peter Stiles, I am told out in Brooklyn.
SALADINO: Wow!
ZAHN: So this stuff ended up miles and miles away.
What do you know about the safety of any of your friends that worked in the other two buildings? Are you missing friends at this point -- missing colleagues?
SALADINO: I don't know. I had no friends or co-workers who worked in No. 1 and 2. There actually was an individual who worked on my floor that was -- or that he actually fell and broke his leg. But I found out that he's safe and OK with family and friends. So everyone else who I know of is safe.
ZAHN: You're a very lucky man, and I hope that ultimately you can erase some of these horrific images that you have shared with us this morning.
Thank you, Ron Saladino.
SALADINO: Thank you.
ZAHN: Appreciate your time.
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