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Eugene Fasullo (1931-2020) began his career at the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey in 1958 and rose through the ranks of the engineering department. On February 26, 1993, Fasullo held the critical position of Chief Engineer. At the time of the terrorist attack, Fasullo was working on the North Tower’s 72nd floor when he boarded an elevator to go down for lunch. The truck bomb in the below-grade parking garage detonated while he was descending and disabled the elevator in between floors. Fasullo and eight other passengers were trapped in the elevator for over four hours in the dark and with smoke billowing up the elevator shaft.

The trapped passengers used beepers as a light source, and worked together to pry open the elevator doors, burrow a hole through a two-inch-thick gypsum wall using various objects to dig through — including Faullo’s car key — and squeeze their bodies through the hole into a restroom located on the 58th floor. The group then descended the unlit stairwells to the main concourse to seek medical treatment for smoke inhalation. Fasullo, however, stayed at the World Trade Center late into the night to assist with the recovery effort. He inspected the crater created by the bomb and discovered structural damage to 3 World Trade Center.  He would spend tireless weeks thereafter in emergency response meetings and leading the team of responding engineers working on stabilizing, decontaminating, and reconstructing the damaged World Trade Center.