9/11 and What Happened a Week Later

Who can forget September 11, 2001? Over and over in a state of shock we watched coverage of people jumping to their deaths and buildings falling down - an event destined to be seared into our collective memory, a trauma which we all share to this day. You know how bad 9/11 was but you may not know what happened in our building here in Chicago about a week later. This is a true story, this really happened.

Trouble Was Brewing.

At that time, I worked for LaSalle National Bank in the historic Field Building, one of the oldest Windy City skyscrapers situated at Adams & LaSalle across the street from The Rookery. We shared the block with Harris Bank & Trust, who occupied a newer building almost as tall as ours next door on Monroe. Although my co-workers and I were only on the 18th Floor, we knew that this was too high for assistance from Fire Department personnel if we ever took the kind of hit the Trade Towers had suffered on 9/11. Watching repeated footage of those tragic events had been unnerving - especially for those who worked in lofty perches - so even though life had seemed to return to normal, we were feeling vulnerable when one day about a week later, our building began to fill up with smoke.

"I smell smoke" somebody said and we all agreed but one optimist volunteered: "Maybe we're okay and Harris Bank is on fire." Hope springs eternal and so did we as we jumped up and rushed over to look out the windows, only to be confronted by the sight of Harris Bank employees lined up at THEIR windows looking eagerly over at us. By this time, thick black smoke was scudding skyward and from far below came the wailing of sirens heralding the arrival of firefighting personnel.

Sanity still held the reins as someone phoned Building Management for an update and was told that everything was fine and we should stay at our desks. The problem: we knew that "Everything is fine, stay at your desks" is what some of the doomed people in the Trade Towers had been told and we weren't buying it. Neither were the Harris Bank employees who now jumped back from their windows and raced out of sight. That was the last straw - "EVERYBODY GET OUT NOW!" somebody shouted and that's just what everybody did, in a thundering stampede which rushed by as I sat at my desk, prudently changing back into walking shoes.

By the time I followed out into the hall, most of my co-workers had crowded into the elevators which amazed me because in our annual fire drills, we had been warned to avoid elevators at all cost in a "possible fire situation". Feeling a bit smug, I now bolted down the hall and entered the "Smoke Tower." Back in the 20's, when the building was designed, some forward-thinking person had included a special staircase sturdily built, fireproof and insulated from smoke or other possible contaminants, which could be used during a disaster to get from the 42nd floor down to the Lobby. The "Smoke Tower" as a possible means of escape had been an inspiration and now there I was, loping gazelle-like and unfettered down its stairs past 17, 16, 15 ... et al. just in time too because as I reached the 14th floor sounds from behind and above me indicated that others had remembered the Smoke Tower. Doors crashed open, people shouted back and forth and hundreds of feet now thundered along behind me but just out of sight. Their panic was infectious and I ran all the faster. Other people may have been afraid of Terrorists that day but all I could think of was keeping a distance between me and the excited mob following me down the stairs.

At the bottom, we were confronted by a chaotic scene in the Lobby - a crowd of people wandering about wearing expressions of fear, bewilderment, excitement or just hoping we could all go home. Firemen exuded dignity and authority. It was their job to break the news that everything was fine and now we all had to go back to our desks and finish the work day! Seems that the reason for all that smoke (to say nothing of the mass exodus to the Lobby) had been ... a cardboard carton which had caught fire in one of the dumpsters out in the alley and ignited other waste materials also. The rest was history.

Grateful but a bit tired, we staggered back to our desks and were recuperating, red-faced and sweating, when Dorothy walked in, as cool as a cucumber. She had been making copies in the sound and smoke proof Copier Room and in our mad haste to save ourselves we had left her behind to perish! Now she strolled over to her desk and sat down, as though nothing had happened because - as far as she was concerned -- nothing had.

As time went by, we of LaSalle National Bank and the folks at Harris Savings & Trust resumed our customary air of professional dignity. (After all, we were Bank Employees!) We never reminisced much about the excitement ignited by the burning carton and I feel a little foolish "spilling the beans" and sharing the event with you now ... but every time I think about that day when we all thought we were going to die, I just about die laughing and I figured on this sad anniversary of 9/11, we could all use a little cheering up!