An eye-witness to the 9/11 terrorist attacks who recently spoke out about his family's experience for the first time shared how a ...
An eye-witness to the 9/11 terrorist attacks who recently spoke out about his family's experience for the first time shared how a stranger helped get him, his wife and their six-month-old baby to safety 20 years ago.
Anthony Paris, who contributed to the 9/11: Life Under Attack documentary for British network ITV, was living six blocks away from the World Trade Center and could see the towers collapse from their apartment building.
He and his wife, Kyra, were forced to evacuate their home with their six-month-old son, Daschiel, after a dust-ball carrying debris and other infinite organic matter moved towards their neighborhood at a speed of approximately 60mph, Paris said.
The couple - struggling with the decision of whether to flee or stay put - was rescued by a Good Samaritan who was helping several area residents get to safety.
‘It's weird how this happens but there are angels in this world.' Paris told.
'I ran into him as I'm walking out of the building. He's like 'I got a truck, I'm loading a bunch of people on, you wanna come?''
Paris was living six blocks away from the World Trade Center with his wife, Kyra, and their six-month-old son Daschiel (pictured). The family could see the towers collapse from their apartment building
The couple struggled with the decision of whether to flee or stay put. Paris said they made the decision to evacuate after after a dust-ball carrying debris and other infinite organic matter moved towards their neighborhood at a speed of approximately 60mph
As seen in self-recorded video that Paris provided to the documentary, which is now available on the ITV Hub, he and Kyra struggled with the decision to leave their apartment.
In the video, Paris is heard describing the situation to his friends over the phone: 'There's dust and smoke all over the building. There's no way we can leave right now…. There's people running in the streets, there's dust all over the streets. If we leave with Daschiel, he's covered with dust.'
'We can't take him outside,' Kyra echoes.
Paris continues: 'This is really scary...'
He told MailOnline that he ultimately made the decision to leave after the power went out and he saw both debris and the dust-ball moving in.
'I remember going downstairs and opening the front door -- there was paper flying around...there was so much dust and debris. You could see there were just particles of stuff in the air,' he explained.
‘I swear to God I thought the world was going to end. I was like 'ok, this is it, this is how it goes...That was when I realized we had to get out of there.'
Paris said he entered fight-or-flight mode, trying to find a way to safely get his family out.
'I’m walking downstairs trying to figure out how we're going to evacuate...I just happened to run into this guy who had that truck that we got on.'
He said the truck driver told him he was evacuating people and invited him to come.
'And I said, "yeah, let me get my family and we'll get on the truck and then we can just high-tail it out of here,"' Paris shared.
'I was literally like 'where did this guy come from?' I mean, he doesn't even live in the building. I don't even know who he was. He was just some guy with a truck.'
'He literally was just like, "I got a truck, we're going," and I'm like '"great." I grabbed Dash and Kyra and we jumped on the truck and we headed out of there.'
Paris said he did not get the truck driver's name or stay in contact with him.
Paris (pictured with Daschiel, now 20) said he entered fight-or-flight mode, trying to find a way to safely get his family out. He said: ‘I swear to God I thought the world was going to end. I was like 'ok, this is it, this is how it goes...That was when I realized we had to get out of there'
Daschiel (pictured) - now in college - is doing well, although he suffers from allergies and asthma that Paris believes may be the result of the debris and poor air-quality after the attacks
The Paris family safely made it to their friends' house. It was several months before they were able to return to their home.
Paris, who is currently living in Westchester, says he is commemorating the 20th anniversary of 9/11 by sharing his story for the first time.
'I've never spoken about it with anybody,' he said.
'I've done some compartmentalizing...I think I have PTSD.'
He said he suffers extreme emotional episodes but has never talked about 'the most insane thing that's ever happened to me'.
'I didn't want to sound like a victim,' Paris shared.
However, he says sharing his footage and story with the documentary makers has provided an 'opportunity for some closure'.
Daschiel - now a 20-year-old college student - is doing well, although he suffers from allergies and asthma that Paris believes may be the result of the debris and poor air-quality after the attacks.
'He deals with it well,' Paris said of his son's conditions.
'It gets him down every now and then ... He seems to have gotten better.'
9/11: Life Under Attack uses footage from first responders, military command centers, citizens, air traffic control, commercial airlines, private phone calls and public broadcasts to unveil how chaos erupted throughout New York City.
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