This story was originally published by NBC New York 10 years after the attacks.
The black Cole Haan brand shoes, his leather briefcase and gray suit are like relics from a museum in Edward Fine’s closet.
“These are the shoes I wore that day,” he says. “The suit is the same, only clean, of course.”
Fine put away everything he was wearing on Sept. 11, 2001, when a photographer took a photo of him walking away from the Twin Towers, covered in dust and debris, with a cloth over his mouth. The photograph later became an iconic image of the day of the attacks.
“I didn’t want anyone to take my picture,” Fine says now. “I didn’t stop to pose for that photo and I had no idea it had been taken.”
The photo ended up on the cover of Fortune magazine, with the headline “Up From the Ashes.” And with that, Fine became the face of that historic day.
Sitting in the backyard of his home in Watchung, New Jersey, Fine was able to recount the day in incredible detail.
“Ten years are etched in my memory. “It was absolutely horrible, but this event is etched in my memory and will be etched in my memory for as long as I live, every little detail,” she said.
Fine did not work at the World Trade Center. The investment advisor was simply visiting because he had an appointment in the North Tower, which was the first to be hit and the last to fall.
He was on the 87th floor, waiting for an elevator to go down, when the plane crashed. He remembers the long descent down the 87 flights of stairs, along with hundreds of others. As he sped away from the towers, he was still thinking about how he would get to his next appointment when the South Tower collapsed.
“I looked back and saw a huge cloud of debris spreading across the block, and the EMT worker yelled at me to get off,” Fine said. “Moments later you could feel the hot debris falling on your body, it felt like warm ash.”
“When I finally got up, I opened my eyes and they stung, but I couldn’t see anything either, just darkness,” he said.
The now famous photograph was taken when he was lifted off the ground, beneath several feet of debris. Fine limped away because his knees hurt from going down so many stairs.
He believes he survived for a reason.
Since walking away from the worst terrorist attack in American history, Fine has found a new passion.
For the past decade he has worked for Unilife, a company that makes single-use syringes, to help protect healthcare workers from unnecessary needle stick injuries.
And when she’s not working, she spends time with her granddaughter, focusing on the important things in her life. “No matter how dark the day is, tomorrow comes and we are going to make tomorrow a better day than today,” she says.
2023-09-11 23:25:45
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