‘I was burning alive’: Survivors of 9/11 attacks describe how they narrowly avoided being killed
It’s almost 20 years since the September 11 attacks but for many survivors, the pain and trauma are still raw.
Some were left with life-changing physical injuries, while many still struggle with the mental torment caused by the events of that day.
One of the most severely injured survivors, Lauren Manning, suffered burns to more than 80% of her body.
“By any medical standard, I should have died,” she tells Sky News.
Lauren had just entered the World Trade Center’s North Tower when the first hijacked plane crashed into the building, sending a fireball hurtling down a lift shaft and into the lobby.
The first hijacked plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center
“There was this incredibly loud, piercing, whistling sound and an instant later I was engulfed in flames,” she says.
“The pain was incalculable, crushing, penetrating deeper and deeper.
“I was burning alive. There are no other words for it.”
As Lauren fought against the flames, she ran outside and across a road before dropping and rolling on a grass embankment where a man tried to help her.
“I didn’t fall down and die in a heap of flames – I struggled against them,” she says.
“I was screaming to him: ‘Get me the hell out of here!'”
As she lay severely injured, Lauren watched in horror as terrorists smashed a second plane into the World Trade Center’s South Tower.
Nearly 3,000 people died in the 9/11 attacks. Pic: AP
She saw people fall from the skyscrapers, knowing that her colleagues from financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald were trapped on the upper floors.
All of the company’s 658 employees in the office on September 11 were killed that day.
On the ground, Lauren – who had previously escaped the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center – managed to find an ambulance but her chances of survival were slim.
“The burns were extraordinary,” she says.
“It burnt 82.5% (of my body), most of it third-degree.
“More than 20% was fourth or fifth degree, which means you lose the muscle or the bone – so various amputations (were needed) on fingers on both hands.”
• ‘I was so afraid my son would not recognise me’
Lauren spent six months in hospital after suffering burns to more than 80% of her body. Pic: Lauren Manning
Lauren was rushed to hospital and eventually placed in an induced coma before being moved to a specialist burns centre.
Over three months while she was in a coma, her husband Greg would read Robert Burns poems and play music from their dating days.
“Perhaps it had an impact on me, knowing I was loved,” she says.
“My parents drove hours and hours expecting me to be dead – and they were there every day.”
Several days after waking from her coma, Lauren’s then one-year-old son Tyler visited her for the first time since the attack.
Lauren was reunited with her son about three months after 9/11 attack. Pic: Lauren Manning
“I was so afraid that he would not recognise me,” she says.
“He came down the hall and there he was walking. A beautiful little soul.
“He did not recognise me at first…. but he came back towards me and he recognised me, I guess through the eyes and the voice.
“That was everything I needed.”
Lauren spent more than six months in hospital but her recovery – which involved several operations – took nearly 10 years.
“You get burned – which is probably the most sadistic form of human torture – and it takes years and years,” she says.
Lauren pictured with her husband Greg and their two sons Jagger and Tyler. Pic: Lauren Manning
Lauren, whose second son Jagger was born in 2009, still has contact numbers listed in her phone for many of her colleagues who died on 11 September 2001.
“The notion of the murders and the terror and the death are never far away,” she adds.
• The fire official who narrowly escaped Twin Tower collapse
Lynn Tierney arrived at the World Trade Center after both planes had hit the Twin Towers.
The deputy commissioner at New York City’s fire department had been due to attend a job interview on the 68th floor of the North Tower that morning – but her plans had been drastically changed by the terror attacks.
Lynn Tierney was a deputy commissioner at New York City Fire Department. Pic: NYC Fire Department
“It was a horrific scene outside,” she says.
“Both towers were burning… it was engulfing the upper floors.
“But in addition to the flames, the worst thing was there were people jumping (from the towers).
“I saw a couple jump with their hands together. That was unbelievable.
“It continued the whole time we were in the lobby. You could hear it. It was a terrible sound.
“I can’t imagine the choice they were faced with. I was just thinking about their families. It was just horrific.”
People watch smoke billow from the Twin Towers. Pic: AP
Lynn had travelled to the scene with 12 firefighters from two different units – all of whom later died during the rescue effort.
She walked into the lobby of the North Tower through a window after the exploding jet fuel had blown out the glass.
But at that point, fire chiefs had already determined they wouldn’t be able to put out the flames.
“The mission became purely rescue, to try to go up and get out as many people as possible,” she says.
Lynn was working to help coordinate the rescue effort from the north side of the North Tower when suddenly the South Tower collapsed.
• ‘The dust was so thick you could almost chew it’
People flee after the collapse of one of the towers. Pic: AP
She says she “ran like hell” and jumped into a loading dock about 80 yards away.
“The dust was so thick you could almost chew it,” she says.
“It was gritty so you couldn’t take a breath up your nose or anything.
“I was having trouble breathing. Everybody was.”
After entering the loading dock, Lynn says a police inspector tried to shield her with his body.
“That’s the only time I thought about dying,” she says.
“I just thought: ‘God, just let it be fast.’ I don’t want to linger in here like a miner for 18 days and be crushed at the same time.”
After getting to safety, Lynn was in New York City Hall when the second tower collapsed, about two blocks away.
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9/11: ‘People decided between burning and jumping’
The force of the building collapse blew the hall’s doors open and as smoke and dust came into the building, Lynn hid in a staircase.
Some 343 firefighters died that day and Lynn wrote about 100 eulogies for the victims.
On one day alone, 23 funerals were held.
“These emotions from 9/11 are always under the surface,” says Lynn, who later became president of the 9/11 Tribute Centre and held the role until 2007.
“You learn to live with it. I call it ‘keeping a bolt in your heart’.
“It’s overwhelming sometimes. The oddest thing for me is I lived through it.
“I can’t believe I got out of there. That’s the biggest surprise.”
• The British trader who felt Twin Tower plane crash
Briton Charlie Gray thought an earthquake had hit New York when he was working in the North Tower on 11 September 2001.
The London-born trader, who was employed by broker firm ICAP, was stood in the office on the 26th floor when the building “shook and moved”.
Charlie Gray escaped the September 11 attacks in New York
Suddenly, he saw debris falling from the upper floors.
“You could see this stuff was really burning,” Charlie tells Sky News.
“We thought it must be something like a bomb.
“Nobody had to tell us. Everybody just headed for the stairs.”
Charlie and his colleagues began walking down the tower but they were slowed down as more and more people entered the stairwell, before they passed three firefighters on the 17th floor.
“As they passed us we heard on their radio another plane has hit the South Tower,” Charlie says.
“It had taken about 17 minutes to get down nine floors.”
• ‘It was like a warzone’
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What is the legacy of 9/11?
Charlie describes the scene outside the World Trade Center as “like a warzone”.
He says he saw body parts on the street and cars that had been destroyed by falling debris.
A “black charred body” landed about 30ft away as he walked to the ferry terminal and he watched 20 people jump from the towers, he says.
“What was their option?” Charlie asks.
“You stand and either die of smoke inhalation, you burn to death, or you take that quick leap and get it over with.”
After boarding a ferry, Charlie “heard a rumble” and watched as the South Tower came down.
“In less than a minute, the dock where we were just standing was a mass of dust and dirt,” he adds.
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Charlie says 20 of his friends were killed that day – including one he saw in the lobby of the North Tower shortly before the first plane struck.
He says a psychiatrist later diagnosed him with a form of PTSD called “guilt disorder”.
“I was having trouble getting my head around why so many people died and I didn’t,” Charlie says.
After moving back to the UK in 2016, he now gives motivational speeches but admits he still sometimes struggles with the emotional toll of 9/11.
“I get a little teary now and again,” he says.
“I think about things and get a little bit upset because it was an awful day.
“It will never go – that monkey will always be on my back.
“But I found talking about it and sharing my experiences with people helped me get through it.”
Donald Trump has celebrated the 100th day of his second term with a campaign-style rally in Michigan.
During his 90-minute speech the US president mocked Joe Biden, falsely claimed he won the 2020 presidential election and defended his decision to impose tariffs on countries around the world.
Speaking in front of electronic screens reading “100 days of greatness”, Mr Trump attacked “radical left lunatics”, briefly took on a heckler and boasted about his administration’s “mass deportation” efforts.
“Removing the invaders is not just a campaign pledge,” he said. “It’s my solemn duty as commander-in-chief. I have an obligation to save our country.”
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He played a video of migrants his administration claims are gang members arriving at a notorious prison in El Salvador, with those in the crowd cheering the images of deportees having their heads shaved.
During his speech, during which he called up several of his top team to the stage, Mr Trump claimed his administration has delivered “most profound change in Washington in nearly 100 years”.
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100 days of Donald Trump
Mr Trump also briefly touched on tariffs, saying China, which is facing tariffs of 145%, “has taken more jobs from us than any country has ever taken from another country”.
Pic: AP
But he said his tariffs did not mean Beijing and Washington cannot “get along” and said he thought a trade deal with China was near, adding: “But it’s going to be a fair deal.”
“I think it’s going to work out,” he says. “They want to make a deal. We’re going to make a deal. But it’s going to be a fair deal.”
Donald Trump speaking in Michigan. Pic: AP
Mr Trump dances at the end of his rally. Pic: Reuters
He claimed his administration had “already ended inflation”, but last month the Bureau of Labor Statistics said while inflation slowed in March over the past year, it had in fact risen 2.4%.
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‘You haven’t seen anything yet’
Mr Trump, who has frequently criticised Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell in recent weeks, said: “Interest rates came down, despite the fact that I have a Fed person who’s not really doing a good job, but I won’t say that. I want to be very nice. I want to be very nice and respectful to the Fed.
“You’re not supposed to criticise the Fed. You’re supposed to let him do his own thing. But I know much more than he does about interest rates, believe me.”
Mr Trump also defended his administration’s steep tariffs on cars and car parts, hours after he signed an executive order aimed at easing the impact of his tariffs on US carmakers.
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“We’re here tonight in the heartland of our nation to celebrate the most successful first 100 days of any administration in the history of our country,” Mr Trump said.
He later added: “We’ve just gotten started. You haven’t even seen anything yet.”
From the White House these past 100 days, I’ve chronicled the whirlwind that’s reshaping America.
Getting beyond the West Wing and out of Washington has been harder. The volume of news has necessitated a near-constant presence in the US capital.
Every single day, there has been something. Of course, this has been entirely intentional for the president and his team of proud disrupters.
They pledged to govern differently, and on that promise, they have more than delivered.
To fix America, Donald Trump first had to convince people that it is broken. Many didn’t need convincing. Look for decline here and you’ll easily find it; communities left behind.
Look for bureaucracy and waste – you’ll find that too. Common sense silenced by wokism? Many can relate to that. Immigration out of control? Politicians have been struggling with that for decades.
In just 100 days, Mr Trump has harnessed all of that into a package of change that feels like nothing short of a revolution.
Despite the tsunami of news, my colleagues and I have managed to escape from the White House. And it is there, beyond Washington, that the more subtle but no less profound changes to the fabric of this nation can be felt.
Whether it be innocuous tattoos that might now be associated with gang membership, free speech opinions penned on social media, or the willingness just to chat about politics, one startling thing I have observed these past 100 days is a growing sense of fear.
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Does Trump really ‘run the country and the world?’
A passion for politics
Anyone who has worked as a foreign correspondent in America will tell you that Americans love to give their opinion on politics. And they do it, always, with word-perfect articulation. There is no better place in the world for a ‘voxpop’.
There is a passion for politics that I haven’t seen anywhere else I’ve lived and worked. Until now. Over these past 100 days, I have increasingly found a reticence that reflects an America changed by this president and his style.
I’m in Detroit at the moment, in Michigan, the battleground state that helped to deliver Donald Trump the presidency back in November. I was here back then, too, and recall the enthusiasm with which people would discuss the upcoming election. There was enthusiasm for Trump and enthusiasm for Harris.
An indictment of the times
Now the response to my questions is, so often, “no thanks, I’d rather not”. Sometimes people ask where the report will be seen. “Will it be on in America?” Think about it – this is America. What an indictment of the times, that people fear offering their opinion – whatever side of the aisle they sit.
Very often, it’s businesses that are extremely cautious of being associated with one political view or another. Such is the animosity now between the two sides.
After a day of perseverance in Detroit this week, a few folk did talk to us. Their answers were revealing.
In a park, I met Marie Freeman who said people are now “more angry”. Her view is that America has lost something over these past 100 days.
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“I definitely want us to move forward in a positive, more empathetic way. I think with Trump being such a hardcore president, we lose the empathy, we lose the grace for our fellow neighbours. We’re all so angry because we’re under angry leadership. And that’s not good.”
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She articulated a vibe which I recognise in so many parts of this country right now. A lack of grace and empathy.
Yet, yards away, a couple walking their cats stopped to chat. I asked how they would rate these past 100 days. Two tens out of ten for Trump’s performance.
US
Trump ‘very disappointed’ in Russian strikes on Ukraine and calls for Putin to ‘sit down and sign a deal’
Donald Trump has said he’s “very disappointed” with Russia as he continues to push for a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine.
On Saturday, the US president met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Vatican for their first face-to-face meeting since their explosive White House summit.
The Ukrainian president said the meeting ahead of Pope Francis’s funeral could end up being “historic.” Hours later, Mr Trump questioned Vladimir Putin’s appetite for peace in a Truth Social post.
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From Saturday: Trump meets Zelenskyy at funeral
Speaking before boarding Air Force One on Sunday, Mr Trump again said the meeting went well, and that the Ukrainian leader was “calmer”.
“I think he understands the picture, I think he wants to make a deal,” he said, before turning to Mr Putin and Russia.
“I want him to stop shooting, sit down and sign a deal,” the US president said, adding he was “very disappointed that they did the bombing of those places (including Kyiv, where nine people were killed in a Russian airstrike on Friday) after discussions”.
However, Mr Trump said he thinks Mr Zelenskyy is ready to give up Crimea, which the Ukrainian leader has repeatedly said he would refuse to do.
He added that “we’ll see what happens in the next few days” and said “don’t talk to me about Crimea, talk to Obama and Biden about Crimea”.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, while Barack Obama was president.
Meanwhile, US secretary of state Marco Rubio told Sky’s US partner network NBC News that a peace deal to end the war was “closer in general than they’ve been any time in the last three years, but it’s still not there”.
“If this was an easy war to end, it would have been ended by someone else a long time ago,” he added on the Meet the Press show.
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It comes after North Korea confirmed it had deployed troops to fight for Russia, months after Ukraine and Western officials said its forces were in Europe.
State media outlet KCNA reported North Korean soldiers made an “important contribution” to expelling Ukrainian forces from Russian territory, likely to be the Kursk region.
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KCNA said leader Kim Jong Un made the decision to deploy troops to Russia and notified Moscow, and quoted him as saying: “They who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honour of the motherland.”
It also quoted the country’s ruling Workers’ Party as saying the end of the battle to liberate Kursk showed the “highest strategic level of the firm militant friendship” between North Korea and Russia.
Last June, Mr Kim and Mr Putin signed a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty after a state visit – his first to the country in 24 years.
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From June 2024: Putin drives Kim around in luxury limo during state visit
The North Korean leader promised at the time “full support and solidarity to the Russian government, army and people in carrying out the special military operation in Ukraine”.
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