Drawing

A resident of Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, Brandon Smith traveled into Manhattan on the morning of September 11, 2001, to attend a business meeting in the Financial District. The downtown meeting represented a second interview for a job prospect. Smith intentionally allotted himself extra travel time to collect his thoughts over coffee before his appointment.
 
After his coffee stop, Smith decided to step outside to smoke a cigarette near the World Trade Center. He had no work or personal associations with the World Trade Center but knew the Towers were en route to his meeting destination, so he stopped there. Smith was on the Plaza just outside the North Tower of the World Trade Center when he heard a strange whirring noise overhead, followed by an explosion of swirling debris and the instructions of a frightened security guard to evacuate the area. Smith hurried toward the revolving doors of the North Tower and was suddenly afire, scalded by a fireball of superheated jet fuel that had poured down the elevator shafts, exploded through the lobby, and engulfed the revolving glass doors and anyone pushing through them. He was in unbearable pain and succumbed to shock. Some minutes later, he was taken by ambulance to St. Vincent’s Hospital for emergency treatment in critical condition.

On September 12, 2001, Smith’s family arranged for him to be transported by ambulance to the Burn Center at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, NJ. There, he spent a week on a respirator for smoke inhalation damage to his respiratory system and underwent numerous skin grafts on his hands and ears. He ultimately survived.