Robert: Coming from the stairs, you walk into the kitchen. So it was a kitchen, a bathroom, fire escape. Next room we turned into a bedroom. Next room was a front room that was Billy’s pull out bed, I think. Is that 3 or 4 bedroom? Yeah. Three rooms, railroad flat with 2 windows in the front. But the most bizarre thing, we got in there, I don’t know, September, and we were painting. It was at night and I think some of my friends came. We were all painting. The windows are open. I’m looking out. And I’ll never forget this. It was so bizarre. And I’m not really one of these guys, but it was a really, the World Trade Towers really lit up. It was a beautiful autumn night, one of the first ones. And I remember looking up and saying, if this place ever catches on fire, that’s the window I’m going out of. It was the most bizarre thing. I just said it. And then literally, this shit hits the fan. That’s the window we end up in. There was a lot of smoke and a lot of fire. You can see the heat coming from the walls. It was sort of a bizarre orange glow. By the time I got to the kitchen, that area was hot hot. Enough to push me back. You could literally, it was so involved. The smoke coming up and the flames coming up from below. I mean, there was so much heat and flame and smoke that no one could see us out the window. Like, you would yell and no one, I remember the first fire trucks coming up, and they went right to the back where the fire escape was. I mean, they didn’t even stop. I mean, they went to the back and no one and the people in the street were yelling. I remember that and pointing but the smoke would come up and cover us completely to the point where breathing was, I don’t know how long we’re on that window. So what breathing was, you could I mean, literally, it was so involved. And I remember the truck came in and they positioned the ladder, and I started moving. And by then, it was fucking hot. I mean, when I say hot, like, my back was I mean and breathing was it was, it was in between smoke and, it was hot. Real hot. And I saw the ladder coming in, and I was like, I don’t know how long I can hold. And they positioned the ladder, and I was like, oh, I know. I was gonna do it. Like you see God. It was just too…You know, I kept looking down. Can I walk? Can I go like this down the building? He said(the fireman who rescued Robert), you know, I think I was on the job a week. And that was my first fire. And I was the rookie, so they made me go back, after the next day to take the crime scene photographer in the buildings. And he’s like, you know, the window next to you, he goes, they were up against the window. Those kids and, you know, dead. Against that same window, which we went out. When he said that, I, like, froze because I may have blocked out what I heard just to keep my sanity. Apartment building directly on the corner. So when you look at the building, we were the 2 windows on the corner facing Washington Street. And on the side, we were the corner, we were the building like this. They were in the inner apartment. You know, they were very sweet. The kids were sweet. I remember the grandfather. He actually helped me with things like borrowing hammers and the kids were running in and out because I was coming from classes and stuff. I don’t remember anyone else in the building but they were their family next door to us. And I don’t, it’s, it’s, you know, it’s you don’t go through something that and not and not appreciate every day of your life and how quickly it can turn on a dime. And then every day, you think, you know, why me? Why was I a survivor and they weren’t? And then you learn the horror after the fact. Like, she, you know, she torched the fucking place. We were the first yuppies for what we understand. And I think some of the people who she knew in the building, she told that night to get out. We had heard that. And we heard that she’d (the owner of the building Olga Ramos) paid someone, and then she went insane or whatever. But she killed a lot of people. I remember the last time I saw her (Robert’s neighbor Ana Mercado). That day, I came home, and I needed to borrow a hammer. And they would sometimes leave their door open because the kids would run and play in the in the stairs and everything. And, she was on the phone, and I remember asking her, I said, hey, can I borrow a hammer? And she said, oh, yeah, yeah, she hung up and she gave me the hammer. Shy is the right word. Very beautiful soulful eyes. Like and when she was with her kids, she lit up. That’s what breaks my heart. I mean, she was a good mom. I mean, it’s I don’t know how to explain it. It’s I don’t feel guilty for living, but I’m not sure I earned, I paid back enough to warrant living. You know, you sort of think that you were spared for a reason. So it’s one of those things where you have to constantly check-in and say, was I worthy to jump out that window? You know, if he had to save 10 people, should I have been to 10 or should that beautiful family next to me been the group that lived. You know?