Pablo Ortiz | |
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| Born | (1952-01-25)January 25, 1952 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | September 11, 2001(2001-09-11) (aged 49) New York City, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Collapse of1 World Trade Center during theSeptember 11 attacks |
| Occupations | Navy SEAL Construction superintendent |
| Known for | Acts of heroism, evacuation efforts, and heroically rescued occupants of the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks |
Pablo Ortiz (January 25, 1952 – September 11, 2001) was an American construction superintendent, and formerNavy SEAL.[1] He worked for thePort Authority of New York and New Jersey, the organization that managed theWorld Trade Center, and is credited with playing a central role in rescuing people who were trapped in the North Tower's upper floors during theSeptember 11 attacks.[1][2][3] Survivors describe last seeing him ascending a stairwell to go rescue more people with his friend and colleagueFrank De Martini.[4]
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On September 11, 2001, Ortiz and De Martini were working on the 88th floor of theNorth Tower of the World Trade Center,[5] situated a mere five floors below the impact zone ofAmerican Airlines Flight 11, which struck between the 93rd and 99th floors.
They were having breakfast with co-workers and De Martini's wife, Nicole, when Flight 11 crashed above them. The impact injured some occupants on their floor, including Elaine Duch. Doors were jammed shut when the door frames were twisted. Ortiz, De Martini and their colleagues, Peter Negron, Carlos da Costa, and Mak Hanna determined that only one stairwell could be made accessible, after clearing some debris, sending the occupants of their floor down that stairwell. They freed 25 - 40 employees,[6] which includes the following: Joanne Ciccolello,[7] Daria Coard,[8] Jim Connors,[9] Patricia Cullen,[10] Donald Di Domenico,[11][12] Elaine Duch,[13] Abdel Elgendy,[10] Gerald Gaeta,[14] Jeffrey Gertler,[15] Donald Jodice,[16] Joseph Light, Moses Lipson,[17] Gail Mitchell,[18] Georgia Oppella,[16] Judith Reese,[10] Anita Serpe,[14] Dorene Smith,[10] Lila Speciner,[19] Frank Varriano,[20] and Gilbert Weinstein.[21] Nicole also escaped with the group, as well as Silverstein Properties workers who had offices on Floor 88. This included Roz Morris[22] and a woman named Slyvia, who was with Morris.[23] Another Silverstein Properties employee who was freed Charles Magee, who died in the attack after staying behind and helping people.[24]
Varriano helped carry Lipson down the stairs as he was 89, while Gertler and Serpe helped Reese as she was asthmatic. Firefighters would tell Gertler and Serpe to escape so they could help Reese.[10] Reese and those firefighters did not survive.
Larry Silverstein, founder of the company. wasn't at the towers that day due to his wife forcing him to go to a dermatologist's appointment.[25] Another worker for Silverstein Properties, Geoffrey Wharton, was in the Lobby when flight 11 hit. Wharton was one of 4 people to be the last to leaveWindows on the World alive.[26]
They set about rescuing their fellow occupants on the next floor up.[1][4] There were two different groups saved by the five men. The first group, consisting of Rick Bryan,[27] Raffaele Cava,[28] Mike Charrio,[29] Dianne DeFontes,[30] Carmella Fischelli,[29] Akane Ito,[31] Nathan Goldwasser,[32] Stephanie Manning,[33] Harold Martin,[34] Tirsa Moya,[28] Ronald Scott,[29] Robert Sibarium,[35] Walter Pilipiak,[36] and Yoshiharu Mori[37] were near the stairwell.
DeFontes was the only person from her company (Drinker, Biddle and Reath) to be in the office at the time. Another coworker, Ailyn Abin, was in the lobby and quickly escaped.[38] The rest of the group came from two companies,MetLife and Cosmos and seeked shelter in DeFontes's office. Mak Hanna was ordered to carry an elderly man (Raffaele Cava) down the stairs, which he did along with Moya. The remaining four men freed the second group, which had Evan Frosch,[39] Thomas Haddad,[10] Frances Ledesma,[40] Lynn Simpson,[41] and Sabrina Tirao.[42][43]
The four men then went up to the 90th floor, and freed more workers, which included Christopher Egan,[10] Richard Eichen,[19] Lucy Gonzalez,[44] and Anne Prosser.[45][46][47] They then went to floor 91, and freed 18 people, which included electricians Anthony Segarra, Anthony Vangeli and Michael McQuade.[10] Segarra died of his burns he got from Flight 11 on November 28, 2001.[48] Also out of the 18 people were Vanessa Lawrence, aScottish painter, and Gerald Wertz, who worked on the 93rd floor.[49] They were in an elevator together and Lawrence was about to get off on her floor.[50] Two workers on the 91st floor, Elizabeth Thompson and Megan Craig also survived. Both women were in the lobby when flight 11 crashed. Thompson was one of 4 people (which includes Wharton) to be the last to leaves Windows On The World.[51] Craig, another artist, entered the lobby to go to work.[52]
Realizing that they couldn't ascend any further, they went down, freeing a further six people from the 86th floor, including Louis Lesce.[10] They then made it to the skylobby, where they freed Anthony Savas, who was stuck in an elevator.[53] John Griffin, a worker for Silverstein Properties who was also on floor 88, also helped free Savas.[54][55]
Ortiz, De Martini, da Costa and Negron all died, still trying to save fellow occupants, when the building collapsed at 10:28 A.M.[1][4][56] Also among the dead were John Griffin, Judith Reese and Anthony Savas. Ortiz's remains were never found. An estimated 77 people survived the attacks due to their rescue efforts.
In August 2003 authorities released many transcripts from 911 telephone calls, and from the radios of first responders.[5]Jim Dwyer's summary of those transcripts described, in detail, the heroic acts of Ortiz, De Martini and their colleagues. Dwyer eventually wrote a book about the collapse,102 Minutes, where he wrote they "pushed back the boundary line between life and death in favor of the living".[1][57]
Altogether, Ortiz, De Martini, Pete Negron, and Carlos da Costa helped at least 50 trapped people by acting as citizen first-responders, New York Times reporters Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn estimated in their 2011 book 102 Minutes.
That morning, Raffaele Cava, age 80, was working on the 90th floor of the north tower. After the plane hit, no one could open the exits, so he went to another office and sat with Dianne DeFontes and Tirsa Moya. The hall floors were melting. Suddenly, two men in the stairwell pried open the door, walked in and ordered everyone to go. They were Frank De Martini and Pablo Ortiz, Port Authority employees who worked one flight down, and who took it on themselves to climb up and down 14 floors, getting scores of people out. They never left.
As they were getting ready to leave, Hanna said De Martini insisted Hanna and Ortiz go to the 89th floor after he heard someone banging on the door. Despite the smoke from the upper floors, they managed to open the door, allowing those trapped to escape—including the 89-year-old man. The men made their way down to the 78th floor. De Martini and Ortiz stayed behind while Hanna made the 46-minute journey to the ground floor with Mo
As for Mr. De Martini and Mr. Ortiz, the transmissions disclose only fragments of their efforts, but taken with the accounts of the people they saved, add to a powerful narrative of heroism and loss.
Sometimes the rescuers were fellow civilians. Port Authority employees Frank De Martini, Pete Negron and Pablo Ortiz roamed through the north tower helping to free trapped people. They did not make it out alive.
Frank De Martini and Pablo Ortiz: The "Heroes of the 88th Floor," as they've been memorialized, these employees of the Port Authority, an architect and a construction inspector, respectively, "pushed back the boundary line between life and death in favor of the living," wrote Jim Dwyer in the New York Times, helping to rescue at least 50 people.