Journalist recalls being inside World Trade Centre on 9/11

0:00Tomorrow will mark a quarter of a century since the September 11 terror attacks that changed the world forever. This week's Seven News has been reflecting on that historic moment and today the perspectives of Steve Evans. The Cabrera Times journalist was in the World Trade Centre when the first plane hit. The aftermath he gave a TV interview that would flash around the world as the building collapsed behind him. Whatever the cause, the terribleness, the hugeness of what's happened, so huge in fact the most of the people around simply can't understand what happened. People were just standing around, talking to them, nodding their heads. Extraordinary, well Steve Evans joins us now from London this afternoon. Steve, thank you for agreeing to share the memories of this awful day with us. Take us first of all back to that moment as that tower fell down behind you.

1:04It was the moment really when it became real to me. The whole thing was the word is surreal. It was such an incredible incident. It came out of a blue sky and those two passenger jets, full of people, crashed into those towers. And it was unbelievable until the jumpers started. You remember the heat in those towers was intense, a thousand degrees, four times the temperature of an oven and people chose to jump to their certain death. And in effect exploded on the sidewalk rather than face that heat. But that moment when the North Tower collapsed was the moment when I realized in my gut this is a very serious business. This is going to change history really. It's the moment when I suddenly thought that debris is coming at me faster than I can run and I'm very lucky to say that I was wrong there.

2:09But there were all kinds of tragedies. I talked to a widow after whose husband had been in the North Tower above the impact and she talked to him on the phone saying try the roof, try the roof. Maybe you can get out there and he'd come back to the phone saying no way out there. And then she'd seen the collapse of the North Tower and the death of her husband. So there were a myriad personal tragedies, Chris. At least 3,000 of them that day as you know, Steve, take me back, rewind 102 minutes before the towers fell when the first plane went into the North Tower. You were inside the South Tower, describe what happened. I was very lucky. I was meant to go to a meeting half an hour after the impacts and I was killing time on the ground floor. I came out, I went to a news agency shop across right underneath the tower and used his phone to broadcast on the BBC.

3:10Then the second plane went in and he said, we're out of here. And I then spent time being a journalist and worried about being a journalist. One thing that strikes me now is the change in atmosphere. New York felt united. The word I think is noble after those attacks. People started wearing the stars and stripes. I bought a jersey which had the stars and stripes on it and I wore it proudly. I felt like it was an attack on me. I have to say it's my personal view. I wouldn't wear that jersey today. Well, Steve, we appreciate you sharing those memories with us today, an extraordinary moment that you thankfully survived and when so many didn't. But thank you for those memories. Now, you can watch reflections on 9-11 from the people who were there on the 7 News Australia YouTube account right now.