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Brian Clark doesn’t like to call himself “lucky,” but he’s grateful he’s alive after escaping the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.
“I prefer to think of it as good luck and a blessing,” Clark told Global News.
As people prepare to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Clark said he tells his story whenever asked because he wants people to understand his experience and loss.
At approximately 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001, Clark was in his office in the South Tower of the World Trade Center when he heard a noise.
“Boom, boom, this loud noise, the lights above were flashing, what the hell when I looked up and in my peripheral vision, I spun around and right above the office glass, 84 floors in the air, flames were swirling in the glass,” he said.
American Airlines Flight 11 crashes into the North Tower.
Shortly afterward, Clark saw people engulfed in flames, they started jumping from the building.
He called his wife, then his father, to tell both he was OK.
Minutes later, at 9:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower. Clark’s office was on the west side, above the impact.
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“What happened in the first second was our room, exploded is the wrong word because you think of an explosion, I just say everything was destroyed,” Clark said. “It rains everything from the ceiling, AC ducts, speakers, workmanship.
“It wasn’t fun and for 10 seconds, I was scared.”
The moments afterward remain vivid for Clark, who begins his escape.
He started down and met various people on the way.
A woman thinks she should go up rather than down the stairs. He never saw him again.
He also helped a man on the 81st floor after hearing something.
“I heard it muffled, ‘help, help, I’m buried, is anyone there,’” Clark explained.
Clark is able to save a man. They are still friends to this day.
They finally reached the lobby and were told to run and not look up.
“We ran two blocks south and when we ran out of gas, we stopped running,” he said.
The two men arrived at a nearby church and finally looked back.
At 09.59, the South Tower collapsed after burning for 56 minutes.
“The building kind of swayed and then went straight down, boom, boom, boom,” he said.
The church he reached with the people he helped in the tower protected the couple from the rubble that covered the streets when the building collapsed.
Minutes later, when the North Tower collapsed at 10:28, Clark was inside a separate building.
Returning home, his wife believed he had been murdered, and Clark was unable to call her until some time later.
When she answered the phone, the man on the other end said, “Hi, honey.”
“I don’t know what they’re going through at home because I’m fine,” he said. “I said, ‘Hi, darling, it’s me.’ He collapsed on the floor.”
In addition to the two crashes at the World Trade Center complex, one flight hit the Pentagon and another crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pa. In total, 2,996 people died in the accidents and thousands were injured.
A total of 61 men from his company were killed that day, leaving him with conflicting emotions.
“I’m grateful that it worked for me, I’m sad that it didn’t work for a lot of other people. But those are the emotions that remain in me, mainly sadness,” Clark said.
—with files from Mike Armstrong of Global News
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
