‘Every day is a gift’
Silver Lake native embraces life after escaping 9/11 attack
For George Hessler, there is no such thing as an ordinary day.
Twenty years after escaping from the World Trade Center’s north tower just minutes before it collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001, Hessler said he continues to embrace what life has to offer.
“Every day is a special occasion,” he said in a recent conversation with the Akron Beacon Journal. “Every day is a gift.”
Hessler, a Silver Lake native and a 1977 graduate of Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, was working at Lava Trading LLC on the 83rd floor of the north tower when terrorists crashed a commercial
jet into the building nine floors above his office at 8:46 a.m, on 9/11.
Hessler, his co-workers and others spent the next 90 minutes slowly moving down multiple smoke-filled stairwells where the group’s emotions alternated between feelings of panic and calm. He recalled the swaying of the building like a boat after the plane first hit, a flashover fire in a hallway and the collateral damage to the north tower after the south tower collapsed.
When he recently spoke with the Beacon Journal, he referred back to the recollections he wrote down on Sept. 12, 2001.
Looking back on the morning of 9/11
On Sept. 11, 2001, Hessler arrived at his office about 8 a.m.
He read the newspaper, made some calls and then thought about going to a conference on the top floor of the building to hear a speaker and have breakfast. After reviewing his own to-do list, he decided he would try to go up later in the day.
That seemingly trivial decision saved Hessler’s life.
“It shows you how fickle life is or how your life is just hanging in a simple decision like that,” Hessler said.
“It was just luck of the draw that I decided to be lazy,” he said, laughing.
At about 8:46 a.m., Hessler said there was a “blast” that “shook the building,” and knocked some items off his book shelf.
He ran out of his office to the main floor, looked out the window and said he saw, “a shower of debris.
“It was a sunny day and I saw small particles that sort of glistened in the sunlight as they went flying down by the windows.”
He and his co-workers speculated on whether the blast was a plane or helicopter hitting the building or possibly a bomb or even an earthquake.
The building was swaying back and forth “by feet,” Hessler said, and he was afraid the tower might tip over.
“It was the first of many times between the impact and the shaking of the building that I thought I might die,” Hessler recalled.
The structure then stabilized after a couple minutes. Hessler went back to his office, shut down his computer, called his wife, Carol, told her something major had happened and that she should turn on the TV. He also said he could smell gas.
“Get out of there,” Carol told him.
‘A ball of fire started shooting toward me’
After hanging up, Hessler picked up the books on the floor and put them back on the shelf, thinking he may not return for about a week. He collected his cellphone and daily planner and walked out of the office.
The swaying of the building caused the doors to be wedged, so Hessler and his co-workers kicked open the main entrance door of their office. They opened it far enough so each person — 16 were in the office that day — could slide out sideways.
They walked into the main corridor of the 83rd floor, with Hessler leading the group. As he walked around a corner, the end of the hallway burst into flames.
The jet fuel had come down the elevator shaft and ignited a fire on the wall.
“A ball of fire … started shooting toward me and I ducked back behind the corner and it went flashing down the hall,” Hessler said.
Hessler and his co-workers ran back into the company office, then exited a short time later, but ran in the opposite direction and found a stairwell.
They walked down the stairs, which exited on the sky lobby on the 78th floor. At that point, they needed to find another stairwell.
Hessler said the 78th floor was “a mess,” with damage to the walls, smoke in the air and people running in multiple directions. He looked at a sign in the hallway and used it to guide them to another staircase.
As the group went down a new stairwell in pairs, they covered their faces with paper towels to protect themselves from the smoke and ash. He remembers it smelling like fuel oil, smoke or an electrical fire. Sometimes they would shift to a single file line to make space for someone being moved quickly for medical treatment or for exhausted firefighters who climbed up the steps with 40 to 50 pounds of gear.
“It took us a long time to go down,” Hessler said.
He said he recalled hearing what sounded like a missile coming in and hitting something when his group was on about the 50th floor. At that time, he didn’t realize that it was the sound of the south tower being struck by a commercial plane.
“I was thinking that was our building having problems,” Hessler said.
‘We kind of thought that was the end’
There was also a “period of calm,” he said, where members of his party talked about how the fire was way above them and that they could take their time.
At about the 20th floor, some firefighters were handing out water and as the stairway got crowded, Hessler’s group was diverted to another stairwell.
This third staircase they used was leading to an exit on to a second-floor balcony that overlooked a lobby, but as the group drew closer to the door, Hessler said “the building started shaking.”
“I think what happened was [the south tower] was coming down and it was blowing out all the glass in the lobby,” he said.
People starting pushing their way back up the steps into the stairwell.
“I ended up almost a flight higher,” he said. “Somebody slammed the door shut because the lobby was just becoming a mess. The roar got louder and louder, and we kind of thought that was the end, at least I did.”
Hessler said he looked up at the ceiling, expecting it to cave in at any moment. It then became quiet, but the power went out and water started pouring down the steps. His group was told the exit they were trying to access was
blocked.
“The previously calm crowd became panicky,” Hessler recalled.
‘The lobby looked like a war zone’
They walked back up to the fifth or sixth floor, and after 10 to 15 minutes, they found an exit on to the balcony of the north tower’s lobby.
“The lobby looked like a war zone,” Hessler said. “Ash everywhere, windows broken, debris all over the floor.”
When he and others made it outside, they climbed over aluminum coverings that Hessler said looked like metal library book shelves and walked down the steps that are now known as the Survivors’ Stairs.
Once outside, Hessler called his wife, who told him many people died when the building collapsed. She was talking about the south tower. Hessler was confused because the north tower had not yet collapsed and he was, at that moment, unaware the south tower had fallen.
“Then the phone cut off,” he said. “I tried again and again but I couldn’t get her.”
After walking for a few blocks toward Grand Central Station, he heard people screaming. The north tower had collapsed. Hessler estimated he exited the north tower at 10:21 a.m. and the structure collapsed seven or eight minutes later.
He walked to Grand Central Station and was told to “get on a train [and] get out of here.”
As he rode on the train, a man sitting next to him saw the ash on his pants and shoes and asked Hessler if he had worked at the World Trade Center. He said he had, and described the situation as “terrible.”
When he got to his West Harrison home, about 1 p.m., his wife was extremely glad to see him since she had not heard from him since their phone call was cut off hours earlier, Hessler said.
Carol had seen one building collapse, talked to him, lost the connection and then saw the other tower fall a few minutes later.
“For some period of time, she thought I was dead,” Hessler said.
‘I hope that we don’t give up’
The next 24 hours were spent reconnecting with people from his company and trying to figure out if everyone had survived. He said there were 13 people on the 83rd floor that died that day, but everyone from Lava Trading made it out.
Hessler read from a piece that he wrote on Sept., 12, 2001: “In the long run, I hope that this will be a setback, but not a dead end. I could’ve died when the plane crashed into the building, when fire filled the hallway, when smoke filled the stairwell or when the buildings collapsed. But just as we didn’t give up when faced with these things yesterday, I hope that we don’t give up on our company and that we take action to make our company survive this tragedy. With God’s help, we will.”
Hessler said he and his co-workers soon decided to rebuild the company.
They raised funding and later built an office in a seven- or eight-story building in Greenwich Village, which was a monumental change from being in a skyscraper.
“[After 9/11] I think a lot of people were fearful of tall buildings, and the vulnerability that they present,” Hessler said.
He said he retired about two years ago after working in a series of positions where he did stock trading electronically using computer platforms. He served as CEO at the last three companies where he worked.
‘Never become complacent’
For a few years afterward, Hessler said he thought about 9/11 “as the day when somebody tried to kill me.”
“This was not an accident,” he stated.. “It was an act of terror. It was an attack.”
He feels Americans must remain mindful of the lessons that can be drawn from the terrorist attacks on 9/11.
“I think that quote of ‘Never Forget’ should probably also mean never become complacent,” Hessler said. “I’m not a political person at all, but I think we do have to always be on guard for people who are trying to kill us. I think it’s sad to think that, like al-qaida, there’s still many people, including many in Afghanistan, who want to kill us.”
He added it was also “very sad” to think about the many Americans who died in the war in Afghanistan.
For Hessler, there were two parts to the tragic events of 9/11: “One is the sadness and the other is looking forward and being very happy to be alive.”
He prefers to focus on the second part of that statement and has tried to maintain a sense of optimism.
“I’m very hopeful for the future and very blessed to have been given a chance to live,” Hessler said.
Starting a new chapter with hope
Since 1998, the Hesslers have lived in a home in West Harrison, New York, about 25 miles north of New York City. They have three daughters: Christine, 26; Nicole, 22; and Hope, 18.
This year, as the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11 approaches, Hessler said he and Carol will be helping Hope pack her belongings to attend Northwestern University.
The significance of this imminent moment is not lost on Hessler. He and Carol chose to name their youngest daughter Hope as an expression of hope for the future after the 9/11 attacks. “It’s definitely in our minds,” he said. Hessler said he remains cognizant of enjoying life as much as possible. He and Carol are thinking about moving to California. He enjoys golfing, skiing, wine, good food and culture and said there are places they could live on the West Coast where they could enjoy those activities more.
“What’s driving that is my desire to continue to enjoy life or embrace life as much as I can,” Hessler said. “I feel that motivation … to actually take action to make sure that I’m really taking advantage of this gift of life that I’ve been given.”
Reporter Phil Keren can be reached at pkeren@thebeaconjournal.com, or on Twitter at @keren_phil.