NEW YORK — Keith Vance, son of Larry and Diana Vance, was working only one building away from the World Trade Center the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. He was in a meeting with coworkers when their boss said, “A plane hit one of the Twin Towers.” Keith looked up as the second plane hit the other tower, and his boss exclaimed that everyone “better get out of here!”
As the building emptied, Vance was one of the last to leave. He telephoned his wife, Magdelena, to tell her he was all right.
Vance and others went over to get a better look at the Twin Towers, which were burning violently. About 3,000 people were inside. Some people were trapped in the upper parts of the towers. As he watched, firemen and police went into the burning building.
Vance saw people begin jumping out of the building from hundreds of feet in the air. Tragedy was everywhere, and some of the firemen went up five or six floors hoping to get to the top, but it was too far. Many of them were inside the building when it imploded and collapsed to the ground.
Ash came from the burning building like a huge cloud. Vance began running to get away from the cloud but it caught up with him and another woman who was also running away. He saw what was like the blade on a snow removal truck next to the curb and he took her hand to hide behind the blade. But in a few seconds, they could see it offered no protection. So, they both got up and began running away as the ash cloud almost smothered them. The woman turned away to run in a different direction, and Vance could no longer see her, so he moving away from the cloud.
Vance had walked the Manhattan streets hundreds of times before, so he went where he thought would finally be some streets with no ash over them. Finally, the air was better, but the ash was so thick he could not see what was left of the towers. A policeman who stood across the street went over to Vance and said that several streets and blocks would be closed off, and suggested Vance head to Central Park.
Keith wanted to get somewhere where he could get more of the ash off his eyelids so he could see better. When he made it to Central Park he sat down on one of the benches, with trees behind him and grass in front. He saw several men across the flat grassy part and one seemed to be standing and looking at him. Then the man began crossing the grass and asked, “What happened to you?”
Vance told him about what happened to the towners. The other men had been in the park for a long time and had not heard about the attack. “Hey,” they asked, “what is all over you?” Keith told them that it was ash that came from the towers.
The man who seemed to be the leader of the group introduced himself and said he had a nearby hotel room where Vance could go and get a shower to clean off the ash. He also said he would look for extra clothing, because Vance’s suit was caked in ash.
Vance stopped for a moment and looked at Ray Romano and asked, “Are you the star of the popular TV show ‘Everybody Loves Raymond?’”
The fellow smiled and said, “Yes.” It was Ray Romano, famed actor and comedian. “This is my crew of writers and others and we came here to talk about the show for next year.” Vance smiled and Romano said, “Come on. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
Romano found his clothes fit Vance and said, “Don’t worry about getting them back to me.” Then he asked Vance if he was hungry, to which he answered, “Oh boy, am I ever.”
Romano then treated him to a nice dinner, and even let Vance stay the night in the hotel.
The next morning, Vance was able to cross the bridge and return to New Jersey and his wife. He thanked Romano profusely for his help on that tragic day.
—This is a retelling of Keith Vance’s story, with assistance from Larry and Diana Vance, and originally written by Brian Gray and published in the Oct. 11, 2001 Special Sectional of the Monroe Times.
