(In September 2004, I wrote the following article for The Bernardsville News. It’s the story of A.Q. “Skip” Orza, II and his wife, Holly. Skip escaped the World Trade Center’s North Tower after terrorists slammed a jet into it on Sept. 11, 2001. The Orzas reflected on that horrifying day three years later.)

Holly Orza turned on her television set in time to watch a jet plane rip into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. The adjacent North Tower had a gaping hole from an earlier jet attack with smoke and flames pouring out.

The terrifying images were particularly unbearable because her husband, A.Q. “Skip” Orza, II, worked on the 80th floor of one of the New York City landmark’s office towers.

“I was sure Skip was dead,” Holly Orza said, recalling Sept. 11, 2001. “I was sure Skip was sitting at his desk and was blown up. I wasn’t very hopeful at that point. It just didn’t seem possible.” 

A chaotic scene ensued at the Orzas’ Bernardsville home as tearful friends began racing over to comfort Holly and hope for good news. The telephone kept ringing off the hook. The anxiety and despair finally ended more than an hour later with one phone call. 

“It’s me,” Skip Orza told his wife.

Holly was relieved by learning her husband had survived the deadliest terrorist attack in history, but again became fearful. The television showed the South Tower collapsing to the ground.

“Get out of there,” she told her husband. Skip was already safe, however. He had called his wife from a store several blocks away from the World Trade Center, out of harm’s way. How he got there was a combination of good fortune, quick thinking and the direction given by rescue workers.

Unbeknownst to his wife as she watched on television, Skip Orza’s office in the North Tower was 11 floors beneath the first jet’s impact point. He had already begun his way down dozens of flights of stairs to safety when a second jet struck the South Tower.

Three years later, the Orzas reflect often on the day that changed their lives and how more than 2,600 people perished on Sept. 11, 2001, but Skip did not. “People kept asking me how I got out,” said Skip Orza. “I said it just wasn’t my time to die.“

Her husband survived, but Holly Orza can understand the ordeal of others who lost spouses at the Trade Center that day. “It was just chaos until Skip called,” she said. “I know what that type of terror and fear feels like for those wives who didn’t get that call.” 

‘Get the hell out’

Skip Orza arrived at work at about 8:15 a.m. on Sept. 11. He was busy answering e-mail when he heard a loud noise and felt the building sway dramatically. Orza immediately suspected a terrorist attack, but did not know that a jet had struck less than 15 floors above him. His employer – RLI Insurance Co. – had established an office in the Trade Center in 1998. He grabbed his briefcase and quickly encountered two other RLI employees.

“I told them, ‘Get the hell out of here,‘ ” Orza recalls. Fire drills had trained Orza and his co-workers to leave their office and turn left toward an exit. But a ceiling had collapsed and was on fire, blocking that route. They soon found another exit and began making their way down a flight of stairs.

The descent was orderly, considering the circumstances. There were rumors that a small plane had hit the building, said Orza, but no one feared the North Tower would eventually collapse. “If that had been the case, there would have been unbelievable amounts of panic,” he said. “No one would have gotten out.” 

After only a few floors, Orza encountered a man who was badly burned on his head, arms and upper body. Orza helped him down the stairs about 40 floors where he turned the man over to rescue workers.

It was becoming hot and the people climbing down the stairwell were soon drenched in sweat. The pace of the descent slowed at the 25th floor as Orza and others encountered firefighters going up in an attempt to fight the blaze raging above them. They were clad in heavy gear and Orza marveled at their ability to continue climbing the stairs in the heat. One of the firefighters told the evacuees what had actually happened – that commercial airliners had now struck both Trade Center towers.

“You knew the air traffic control system just didn’t break down and cause that to happen,” said Orza. “You knew the buildings were hit on purpose. You didn’t know why or who did it.” 

The stairs ended at the mezzanine level. From there, Orza got a glimpse of the plaza. The Trade Center’s trademark globe in the fountain was half destroyed.

Blood near a curb

Police and firefighters continued to move Orza and others along. They soon made their way to street level where police advised the evacuees to keep walking and not look back as they traveled up Broadway. Heeding that advice, Orza did not see the people jumping to their deaths out of upper-story Trade Center windows, choosing that fate over incineration.

A short distance from the towers, he noticed a large puddle of blood near a curb that was covered with newspaper. Orza believes someone who had stood there was struck by falling debris. About two blocks away, Orza saw a jet engine lying in the street near a Staples store. 

At City Hall, Orza turned around to look at the damage done to the towers. “The building codes there were very rigid,” Orza said of the Trade Center. “I thought the fires would be put out by either the sprinkler system or the firefighters.” Orza kept walking, part of the multitude fleeing the area.

 A block south of Houston Street, he heard a roar and screams. Orza turned around to see the South Tower collapsing. “From our angle, it looked like the top of it went right off,” said Orza. 

Orza’s cell phone needed to be recharged early that morning. He did so, but realized on his way to the Bernardsville train station that he’d forgotten to bring it with him. He did not return home to get it. As the South Tower came down, he ducked into a Levi’s store and the employees let him use the phone to call Holly. 

Skip eventually made his way to his aunt’s home on 17th Street where he spent several hours. While there, Orza watched news coverage of the Trade Center attack in stunned disbelief like the rest of the nation. He knew many had perished but was skeptical of initial news reports that suggested the number was in the tens of thousands. He later hooked up with a fellow RLI employee and spent the night in the city at his home.

‘Why did I survive?’

Friends began leaving the Orzas’ home after it was learned that Skip was safe. Later that day, his wife had the task of explaining what had occurred to the couple’s two young sons after the school bus brought them home. Up to then, the youngsters were unaware of the tragic events at the Trade Center.

The next morning, Skip Orza arrived back in Bernardsville by train at about 10:30 a.m., disheveled and clad in the same suit he wore when he escaped the Trade Center. “He looked like hell and smelled like jet fuel,” said Holly. “I broke down and cried when I saw him.” 

Once home, Skip began responding to 61 phone messages from people who had inquired about his safety. In the ensuing days, he attempted to get his life back to normal. But he could only sleep one or two hours at a time for about three weeks.

“I would see the television coverage and feel guilt,” he said. “Why did I survive? You would just sit there and think about it for days.”

Several post-9-11 events are seared into Skip Orza’s memory. One was a memorial service for victims held in Bernardsville’s Olcott Square. He attended and found it hard to handle emotionally. He also had a business meeting in downtown New York City on Sept. 19 and walked with a colleague to within a block of the still-smoldering Trade Center site.

“We stood there for 45 minutes,” he said. “It was mind-numbing. You just couldn’t believe the buildings had come down and people had died.” 

During periodic trips to New York City in subsequent weeks, Skip Orza would stop and read the fliers plastered on telephone polls and other locations by people who were seeking information about loved ones and friends missing since Sept. 11. “I would start reading these things and tears would come to my eyes,” he said.

Holly Orza also had difficulty moving on from the 9-11 experience. “I really don’t remember any conversations I had for the first few weeks,” she said. “Nothing seemed normal. The shock and grief I endured left me exhausted.” 

After 9-11, RLI relocated its former World Trade Center office to Summit. The shorter commute gave Skip Orza more time to be involved in the community.

It was a traumatic ordeal, but 9-11 gave the Orzas a new perspective on life. “You look at every day with a more positive attitude,” said Skip Orza. “You wake up and think – Good. I have another day to live.”

“Now,” said Holly Orza, “I never get off the phone with a loved one without saying, ‘I love you.’ “

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