SQUEEGEE SAVED FIVE LIVES

Squeegee saved five lives

Back to the Victim's Page

by James Langton

In one of the most amazing stories of survival from the destruction of the World Trade Center, a window cleaner has been revealed as a hero who saved the lives of five other men using only his squeegee.

Jan Demczur was trapped in an express lift with the group in the north tower on his way to work when the first hijacked plane hit the building. The lift "swung from side to side like a pendulum'' he recalled yesterday, and then stopped.

After 10 minutes, they were told over the intercom that there had been an explosion. Shortly after, smoke began to seep through the doors. Using the handle of Mr Demczur's squeegee several of the men forced open the doors, but discovered they were on the 50th floor, 500ft above the ground, where the lift did not stop. In front of them was a wall.

At this point, Mr Demczur, a Polish immigrant who once worked as a builder, had a brainwave. Realising the wall in front of the lift was only made of plasterboard, he began using the metal edge of his window washer as a crude knife, cutting into the surface.

By now, the lift had begun to fill with smoke, but the men were able to breathe by dipping handkerchiefs in a container of milk one of them had just bought. The plasterboard panels were an inch thick, and Mr Demczur had just began cutting into the third when disaster struck. His hand slipped and the squeegee dropped from his fingers and down into the lift shaft.

All that was left in his bucket was another squeegee handle with a metal end. The men pressed on with the work and finally hit a layer of white tiles. After breaking through, they found themselves looking into a bathroom through a hole barely a foot wide and 18 inches deep. Taking it in turns, the six men clambered out of the lift to be met by astonished firemen clearing the tower.

Mr Demczur remembers making sure he still had his bucket. "The company might not order me another one,'' he told the New York Times. As the firemen hustled them down the emergency stairs they heard the thunderous roar of the south tower collapsing.

The group reached the ground floor at 10.23am, running to safety for the next five minutes. Behind them, the north tower also began to collapse. Their escape had taken 95 of the 100 minutes it took from the moment of impact to the tower's collapse.

Another of the men in the lift, Shivam Iyer, an employee of the Port Authority of New York, paid tribute to the window cleaner who saved their lives. "That man with the squeegee,'' he said. "He was like our guardian angel.''

A major American magazine is to publish a 54-page tribute to those who died in the New York terrorist attacks.

Vanity Fair will produce its second issue within a month for the first time in its history to chronicle the 11 September atrocities. It will include a portfolio of photographs featuring heart-rending images of firefighters and civilians who lost loved ones in the World Trade Center attacks.

The issue will also include written reflections on the tragedy and on the character of America in general.

The special edition will be available in Britain on 12 October.