Brian Clark
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Brian Clark is one of the survivors of Al Qaeda's attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001.
Clark is noteworthy as he is one of only four people in either tower to escape from a floor above the plane's impact.
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[edit] The first impact
Brian Clark was an Executive Vice President of Euro Brokers Inc. on the 84th floor of the South Tower. He also served as a volunteer fire-warden and began organizing an evacuation of their office immediately after the first plane hit the North Tower at 8:46AM.
About ten minutes later, the building security made an announcement over the P.A. system encouraging people to go back to their offices. They told the tenants that the South Tower was secure.
[edit] The second impact
The second impact occurred at 9:03AM just a few floors below Clark's floor. He turned on his fire-warden flashlight, and gathered his remaining colleagues, a party of seven. They started down one of the three stairwells. When they got to the 81st floor they encountered two people who were trying to ascend to the roof, where they thought they could get fresher air.
[edit] The debate
The pair of people ascending from the lower floor described the stairs as impassable, blocked by fire and smoke. They tried to convince Clark's party to join them in climbing higher.
[edit] Clark rescues Stanley Praimnath
Clark was called out of this debate when he heard a voice calling for help. Some of the drywall that was supposed to enclose the stairwell had fallen away so Clark and his co-worker, Ron DiFrancesco, left the others to seek out that voice. DiFrancesco was soon overcome by smoke and returned to the stairway.
Stanley Praimnath was buried under some fallen debris. With Clark's help he was able to extricate himself. When they returned to the stairwell the others were gone. So Clark and Praimnath went down. According to an interview with both of them in a special documentary aired in 2005, Stanley was so grateful that Clark rescued him that he hugged and kissed his saver, rather surprising Clark.
[edit] Clark and Praimnath's descent
Clark and Praimnath's descent through the floors of the impact was impeded by some debris and smoke. But by removing the debris, it was passable.
The airliner that struck the North Tower had struck it perpendicular to the North face. And it is believed the impact severed all the elevators and all three stairwells. But the airliner that struck the South Tower struck at an angle. It apparently severed two stairwells but left Stairway "A," the one they were using, more or less intact.
A few floors below the impact they encountered one of Clark's colleagues, José Marrero, ascending and using a walkie-talkie. Marrero had received a call from another of Clark's colleagues above, David Vera, saying his party needed help. Clark tried to convince his colleague not to ascend but Marrero insisted on going higher to help Vera and the others.
At the Skylobby on the 44th floor Clark and Praimnath encountered a Port Authority employee, who was tending to a severely injured tenant. He told them that the phones were out on that floor. He asked them, when they had access to a working phone, to have someone send an EMT to care for this injured tenant.
The phones were working in Oppenheimer's offices on the 31st floor. Clark was on the telephone for over three minutes before his 911 call was understood.
This call might have been the only chance for rescue workers to learn that there was a clear stairwell that the several hundred people trapped above the impact could try to use to escape.
Clark described how he and Praimnath did not feel a sense of urgency, and after calling 911 they each made one brief personal call.
When they got to the Ground floor there were rescue workers, and one advised them to run, once they exited onto Liberty Street on the south side of the complex.
Clark described how, when they had got about two blocks away, his new friend Stan told him he thought the buildings were going to go. Clark was skeptical, repeating how solidly built the Towers were -- he didn't finish the sentence when Tower Two started to slide down.
[edit] Afterlog
Clark thanks Stanley Praimnath for saving his life. He feels that the act of going and freeing Praimnath drew him out of a debate that might have ended with him joining the others who went up to their deaths.
Sixty-one of Clark's colleagues were killed in the attack. Clark was later appointed by his company's management to be President of the Euro Brokers Relief Fund, created to help take financial care of the families of those who were lost.
[edit] Roof rescue impossible
It should be noted that roof rescue from a fire is generally impossible. Like with most high rise buildings, the roof doors to both World Trade Center towers were kept locked. Even if the doors were open, there was a strong updraft from the smoke and flames that would have made a helicopter landing very difficult.
Finally, even if a helicopter was able to land on the roof, they generally do not seat many people. This fact combined with the relatively short amount of time it took for the towers to collapse would have only resulted in a small amount of people being rescued.
[edit] Brief biography
Mr. Clark was born and raised in the Canadian province of Ontario. He married his high school sweetheart there, and after university, he worked for a year at Euro Brokers' Toronto office. After that, he moved to New York City to work for Euro Brokers in the World Trade Center. He and his wife bought a house in New Jersey and raised four children. He spent 27 years working at the World Trade Center before September 11, 2001.
