NJ couple, both Port Authority employees, recall World Trade Center escape 25 years later
FAIR LAWN, New Jersey -- Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, former Port Authority employees Vincent and Rosemarie Borst said the events of that day remain etched in their memories as they recalled their escape from the World Trade Center and the fear of losing loved ones.
Vincent Borst, whose office was on the 82nd floor of Tower One, said he was at work when an explosion shook the building.
"My office was on the 82nd floor, tower one. It was an explosion that rocked the building. So much so that it almost knocked me off my feet," he said.
After recovering from the initial shock, Borst said he gathered co-workers and began evacuating.
"So I went back and told my boss and we collected a bunch of staff. We got them all together and we started to descend down," he said.
The evacuation stalled when the group reached the top of the mechanical equipment room on the 76th floor.
"But then we were at the top of the mechanical equipment room on the 76th floor and could not continue to evacuate," Borst said.
He said they returned to the 77th floor and entered the Port Authority Inspector General's office, where employees were waiting for instructions.
"So we went back upstairs to the 77th floor and then went into the Port Authority inspector General's office, which the staff were still sitting there. They were waiting for announcements. I said, well, I think this was the announcement. We have to go, searching for another way down," he said.
A Port Authority project supervisor and former fire safety director following the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Borst said his knowledge of the building helped him navigate an alternate route.
"It was like a scene out of the, Towering Inferno. There was a passageway through. It was very dangerous because there was fire, smoke and the diesel fuel, which smelt like kerosene," he said.
At the same time, Rosemarie Borst was in the Tower One concourse getting coffee when panic spread through the building.
"And they're all screaming, get out of the building! So I turned around and I started to run, but I didn't know what I was running from or running to. So it was very scary," she said.
Rosemarie Borst said both her husband and her sister were in the tower.
"And my sister was also up there. So, yeah, she was on 88 and he was on 82," she said.
As she fled, she feared neither would survive.
"And I thought he's gone. I lost him, so was my sister. I don't know what I'm going to tell my children. I don't know what I'm going to tell my parents. Because at the time, my parents were still alive," she said.
Inside the building, Vincent Borst said evacuation efforts grew increasingly difficult as evacuees and firefighters shared the same stairwell.
"It was more challenging now because that's the only staircase that went to the lobby, and the fire department was coming up. So it was very congested," he said.
After reaching the lobby, Borst encountered extensive damage and thick smoke.
"it was horrific. Running straight, I passed the coffee station in the gap. And then I turned into it by mistake. And, was just being like, in the hurricane," he said.
"When I opened my eyes. It was the same as if they were closed."
Borst said he eventually found his way out by feeling along walls and locating a stairway leading to the street. Throughout the ordeal, he also worried about his family.
"I had no idea what she was. I had to make a very tough decision twice. 93 bombing. I had to let her go. I just went through tower two, coming down on top of me. I had no idea. I had no idea that that was the tower that came down," he said.
Reflecting on the survival of her family, Rosemarie Borst said she continues to view it as a blessing.
"Three of us were there and three of us survived. How is that possible when you had other families that had one family member in there that never made it out alive? We are blessed," she said.
As New Yorkers mark the 25th anniversary of the attacks, the Borsts said the memories of Sept. 11 remain as vivid as ever.
