story7350.xml

story7350.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-14

My brother, Danny Pesce, 34 years of age, worked at Cantor Fitzgerald and was on the 105th floor on the morning of September 11, 2001.

Danny phoned me the minute he heard an explosion. My name is Angela Frunzi and I was at home at the time of the attacks on the World Trade Center. Danny phoned me at exactly 8:47 a.m. and said, "Ange, it's me, put the television on, something just exploded on my floor."

I had channel 4 on as my usual morning routine and there was nothing there. As I am on the phone with Danny I switch to channel 5 and there was Dan's building on the screen with what appeared to be the outline of an airplane in Tower 1. I said, Dan, it looks like a plane hit your building. Danny screams to his coworkers, "A plane hit us!" I heard the panic in his voice and said, ok ok, this can't be, this had to be an accident. Dan, I'll call you right back.

I hung up the phone and called my husband who is a detective in Brooklyn. He had no clue what was going on, but said, I'm going to make my way downtown Manhattan and get your brother out! I said, ok, please get him out of there, it looks bad!

I automatically phoned Danny back and he picked up in a second and said, Hello! I said, Dan, please get the hell out of there. I see, smoke and flames coming out of your building. You need to get out! He said, yeah, we are starting to get the smoke in here now. I then told him, to put a wet rag over his mouth and get out! He said, ok! and left the phone receiver off the hook.

I heard other voices trying to figure out what to do. No screamning, but you could hear some panic. Danny was calm the whole time. I could hear Danny's voice the clearest but couldn't make out what he was saying, and I just hung onto the receiver as Danny and the other voices got further away. I felt such a panic come over me and just began screaming into the receiver, "Danny! Danny! Danny! Danny! Danny!" and eventually hung up. I wanted to say I loved him, I just felt so helpless. I couldn't save him. I knew the situation was bad. I knew I wasn't going to see him again.

I just stood frozen watching the next plane hit the second tower. I said to myself, Oh My God, they (the terrorists) are trying to kill us. We are all going to die! I then phoned my husband on his cell phone, he was already by the Battery Tunnel and was stopped. All traffic came to an abrupt halt into Manhattan. I began screaming, do not go any further. Come home, it is the terrorists! They are killing us all! Come home now, I need you home now. I can't lose you too! My husband then headed back to his office, feeling just as helpless as I was.

My mom then phoned me and said her program was interrupted with the horror at the World Trade Center. She asked me, "isn't that your brother's building?" I said, yes, ma, I just spoke to Dan, he should be making his way out now. I'll be right over!

We all looked at the television in horror. Me, my mom, my dad, and my 2 year old son. Thank God the baby was too young to understand what was happening to us at that time. We were ok for a while, thinking Danny was making his way down the whole time. But when Tower 2 collapsed that is when we just collapsed onto the couch. So helpless. What a horror! We couldn't believe our eyes! Life has been torture since that day. We will never be the same without my brother Danny.