By Mary O’KEEFE

“I will never forget; we were on a 20-minute break and I went to the opposite end of my floor to see the view from the other side of the tower. I looked out the window and I saw the North Tower on fire.”

Those were memories told by Kevin Danni who shared his remembrances of Sept. 11, 2001 at Bob Smith Toyota on Friday, Sept. 11 after the community’s Patriot Day Motorcade, hosted by the Early Rodders and the Crescenta Valley Chamber of Commerce. Danni is a friend of Pete Smith, who had invited him to speak. 

Danni started his internship with Morgan Stanley in New York City on Sept. 10, 2001. The North Tower was struck by American Airlines Flight 11 at 8:46 a.m., which was the fire he saw outside the window.

He was in the World Trade Center South Tower on Sept. 11 when, at 9:03 a.m. EST, terrorists flew United Airlines Flight 175 into the tower.

He, and others on the 61st floor of the South Tower, thought the fire in the North Tower happened because of an explosion. At that time no one thought a plane had struck it. After seeing the fire he ran back to the conference room to meet with others on the floor.

“Our management team made the call to evacuate all of Morgan Stanley [employees]. We [at the time] were the largest tenant in the South Tower – 30 floors of office space. My training class was on the 61st [floor],” Danni said. “The Port Authority had told our head of security Rick Rescorla to keep Morgan Stanley [employees] in their offices because they were dealing with the North Tower. They did not want so many floors evacuated in the South Tower. They, of course, did not know that a second plane was enroute in the air. So by the grace of God, Rick said, ‘No. I’m going to get my people out right now.’” 

Danni, and others, started climbing down the stairs. 

“I went down from [floor] 61 to 55 and that’s when the second plane hit my tower, just 20 floors above me. Right then and there I knew we were under attack, that it was terrorism. I thought [at the time] it was a bomb. I remember the truck bombing in 1993,” he said. (In February 1993, a bomb was detonated in a parking garage beneath the World Trade Center. Six people and an unborn child were killed and thousands were injured.)

Rescorla’s call to evacuate everyone was a life-saving decision. Rescorla is credited with saving over 2,700 people. After Morgan Stanley employees began to evacuate and Rescorla made certain they were on their way to safety, he went back in. According to reports the last time he was seen was on the 10th floor, before the tower came down. 

As Danni was climbing down the stairs, he vividly remembers firefighters making their way up the stairway. 

“I probably passed 30 heroic firefighters [who] were going up to fight the fire. I’ll never forget their voices, their faces. They told us ‘You’re going to be okay. There’s a path. Keep going. It’s secure.’ That really comforted me as I was going down those stairs,” he said. 

Danni was able to get out of the building and found chaos on the street.

“I’ll never forget looking up at these magnificent towers, both [of them] on fire and I realized I had to contact my family,” he said. 

Danni remembers seeing firefighters continue to enter the building as he exited. As he ran from the area he saw the dust cloud from the towers falling in the streets. He got as far away from the towers as he could. He knew he had to get to a phone and call his family to let them know he had survived. He was dating his wife Elena at the time. She was with his family who were sitting by the phone just waiting. 

“I can’t imagine what it was like for my mom, for all the moms out there, what they were going through,” he said. 

Danni had played football at St. Francis High School in La Cañada and college football too so he was in good shape. He said he “ran as fast as he has ever run” through the streets to outrun the cloud of dust created by the falling towers. 

Many cellphones did not work after the terrorist attacks but Danni doesn’t even remember if he had a phone with him.

“There were about four people in line [when] I ran to the payphone. I had my World Trade Center badge on and I was sweaty and out of breath. There was a woman on the phone and she looked at me and asked ‘Were you in the tower?’ I said ‘yes’ and [added] ‘I’ve got to call my family.’ She grabs me by my tie, yanks me over to her and [asked for] my phone number. I gave it to her and the next thing I know she hands me the phone. It’s my Aunt Kathy on a collect call to my mom’s house in South Pasadena. I’ll never forget, [my aunt] says ‘Kevin’s alive.’ And I could hear my family cheering in the background,” he said. 

He was so grateful that Elena was there with his family.

When he returned to his hotel there were other employees there; but some were missing and hadn’t yet checked in. However, eventually it was learned that everyone on their office floor had survived.

He was able to get a flight back to Southern California a few days later. He said there are many memories of the day but one that has really stuck with him is how so many people helped and supported him. Danni added that he felt so blessed that he survived and felt it is important to continue to share his story.

“I can’t go through a [Sept. 11] anniversary without thanking our first responders – our firefighters, our police officers, our brave men and women in our military who ran into conflict as we were running away,” he said.

The South Tower was the second to be struck but the first to fall. Danni added it took 57 minutes from impact to collapse; it took him about 40 minutes to evacuate. 

During the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks over 3,000 people died. Over 4,500  more people, many of them first responders, have died during the years since 9/11 due to toxic exposure. 

Photos by Sean DOORLY, Donna LIBRA and Mary O’KEEFE