Three weeks have elapsed since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and already Robert Cimetta has told the tale of his great escape more than 100 times.
The former National Hockey League player has conveyed his story to friends, family and acquaintances. He is now recounting the horrific events of Sept. 11 to audiences in the Tampa Bay area to raise money for families of the New York firefighters who lost their lives.
"I can still see the faces of the firefighters and policemen and other emergency personnel racing by as I was descending down that stairwell," Cimetta said. "They were going right into harm's way."
Before Cimetta's life can return to some sense of normalcy, he and colleagues, Daniel Hoffe and Alan Silva, have decided to talk to local organizations, schools and churches about their harrowing escape from the 61st floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center. Through these speaking engagements, they are raising money for the New York Firefighters 9-11 Disaster Relief Fund and the Uniformed Firefighters Association-Widows and Orphans Fund.
After one week, the three raised $15,000 (U.S.). And they won't stop until they reach a $50,000 goal.
"You feel so grateful and so lucky for what happened you want to do something to help," said Cimetta, who was raised in Toronto. "We feel we won the toss of a coin. What would have happened if our building was struck first? That second plane hit in the 70s [floors] just above where we were.
"It's pretty fulfilling to talk to these groups. A lot of people feel violated because of what has happened and they are really interested in hearing what it was like to be in the World Trade Center. They are really touched."
The 31-year-old former first-round draft pick of the Boston Bruins, who wound up playing 54 games for the Bruins in the early 1990s and 49 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs, joined a financial investment firm last spring. A third knee operation had prompted him to retire in the summer of 2000 after six seasons playing in Germany.
He was entering the final stage of his training program with the financial firm -- three weeks of seminars in the south tower of the World Trade Center. On Sept. 11, Cimetta arrived at the centre for a 7:30 a.m. seminar. Seventy-five minutes later, the seminar took a short break. Cimetta went to the washroom, and when he emerged, a fire alarm rang.
"I just assumed it was a drill," he said.
Cimetta remembers every detail of that horrific day. He knows it took him 18 minutes to descend from the 61st floor to the 32nd.
"It was getting hot in the stairwell," he said. "I saw one of the doors cracked opened, so I decided to take a break and get some fresh air. Then we heard this PA [public address]announcement: 'Building 1 has been compromised, but Building 2 is secure.'
"At that very moment, the second plane smashed into our building. I can't describe the force we felt. But the building was really rocked. It knocked some people down. You could feel it sway. The floor was moving underneath your feet."
Panic set in among the people who had been making their way down the stairs in orderly fashion.
"At this point, we have no idea that an airplane has crashed," he said. "I thought it was a bomb. There were people with us who went through the 1993 bombing [at the World Trade Center]and they said this was a lot worse."
As Cimetta raced down the stairs, he wondered whether he was heading into the fire. "It felt like we were animals inside a burning barn," he said. "My heart was racing. My knees were shaking. Women were screaming. I thought I was going to die."
Cimetta reached into his pocket for his cellphone and dialed home to his wife, Susan, in Bradenton, Fla.
"My thought was to call her and tell her how much I love her and our [18-month-old]daughter [Vienna]" Cimetta said. "But I couldn't get any reception inside that stairwell."
Cimetta calculates that it took him 15 minutes more to get from the 32nd floor to the lobby of the building. When he made it down, all he could see was debris and dust everywhere.
He was then ushered down one more floor to the concourse level and out through the subway exit.
"I was still oblivious to the fact it was a plane that had crashed into the building," he said. "It wasn't until I emerged from the subway exit and there right in front of me was this jet engine lying on the street, cordoned off by police tape. I looked up and saw these towering infernos.
"I know the word has been used a lot, but it was surreal. It was like a movie. You looked up and it was so far up that you could not hear the fire."
Cimetta's ordeal was far from over. Ten minutes later, the building that he had escaped from imploded. Again, he sprinted down the streets of New York, this time trying to avoid the cloud of debris that was chasing him.
"A light ash was falling on me, but the main cloud was 50 yards behind me," he said. "When the building came down, you could see it tilt first. But I guess those buildings were designed to implode. If not, it would have taken out about five blocks."
A few minutes later, the other tower went down. Cimetta was once again on the move. He then remembered his wife and daughter.
"My cellphone wouldn't work, so I borrowed someone's. The experience was just as traumatic for [his wife] She was watching it all unfold on CNN and she had no way of knowing that I got out."
In fact, when the news of the attack against the first building broke on television, Susan called Cimetta's mother, Louise, in Toronto.
"I knew Robert was in New York, but I had no idea that he was in one of the World Trade Center towers," Louise said.
The next day, Cimetta awoke to a different New York.
"They say it's the city that never sleeps, but it was hibernating the following two days," Cimetta said.
Cimetta and his colleagues were stuck in the city for three more days. Finally, they rented a car and drove 23 hours non-stop to Florida.
For a few days, Cimetta would wake from his slumber in the middle of the night, unable to return to sleep.
"The first few nights were so difficult," he said. "You wake up exhausted, but you can't get back to sleep because you are thinking how you can't believe you made it out.
"Then you watch television and see all those people who lost wives and husbands, sons and daughters in the buildings. It makes you feel really angry.
"It's hard to go back to a normal life."