World Trade Center hero: Ukrainian with a squeegee (06/30/02)

World Trade Center hero: Ukrainian with a squeegee

by Andrew Nynka

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - For over 11 years Ukrainian Jan Demczur worked as a window washer in the World Trade Center's Twin Towers. He considers himself a quiet, unassuming and simple man - not a hero. And he certainly never considered his squeegee a hero's tool.

But Mr. Demczur's actions on September 11, 2001, have been regarded as heroic and what remained of his squeegee was placed on temporary display in the National Museum of American History.

In the chaos of the tragic events of 9/11 Mr. Demczur, a member of Ukrainian National Association Branch 86, found himself and five others trapped after traveling up the North Tower in an elevator that was near the 70th floor which he said "suddenly dropped" to the 50th. After having worked in the building for over a decade it was an experience that, although he admitted was somewhat unnerving, was not abnormal. He mentioned that a cable broke on an elevator running between the building's six basement levels some years ago.

The difference, said Mr. Demczur who was unaware that a commercial airliner had crashed into the building, was that the elevator was rapidly filling with a thick, noxious smoke.

When the elevator was falling, Mr. Demczur recalled, someone hit the stop button and the elevator shuddered to a halt. Mr. Demczur, who worked for American Building Maintenance, and the five men, all engineers or consultants for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, heard a voice over the elevator intercom.

"What happened?" the voice asked, according to Mr. Demczur.

He recalled a stunned group inside the elevator. Then, only moments later, the intercom added, "We have a problem on the 91st floor."

"We knew we had to get out. We couldn't stay there," Mr. Demczur said. The group tried pushing through the elevator's ceiling panels but had no success.

It was at that point that Mr. Demczur thought of his wife and two children. He was uncertain of seeing them again, he said. After managing to pry open the elevator doors, the six men saw a sheetrock wall opposite them. Their express elevator was not meant to stop at the 50th floor. Mr. Demczur, who has experience with building materials from his days in the Polish military, thought the men could cut through the wall. However, no one had a knife.

"I looked back in my pocket," Mr. Demczur said, "and saw the squeegee."

The six men took turns hacking through the inch-thick wall with the squeegee blade only to find two more layers of sheetrock. They tried kicking through the wall, but had little success.

At one point, Mr. Demczur remembered, the 18-inch blade holder slipped out of his hand and down the elevator shaft. Fortunately, he still had the squeegee handle, which he had removed earlier because it made cutting the wall easier.

It was only after they cut through the three layers that they managed to kick out a two-by-four and tile, and realized they had broken through to a bathroom.

After nearly one hour inside the six men got off the elevator and began their descent from the North Tower. Having reached the 12th floor, Mr. Demczur said he heard a tremendous roar and felt "the building shake violently." He wouldn't know it until he got outside, but the South Tower had just collapsed.

Mr. Demczur, who was born in Slawno, Poland, in 1953, mentioned that he feared descending too far into the building's six basement levels. "There was so much smoke that I couldn't tell where I was. I thought I recognized the lobby, but when I got out of the stairs all I could see was dust and smoke."

The firemen guided Mr. Demczur outside, where he found a curb to rest only half a block from the North Tower. He said he looked up and could no longer see the South Tower, but saw fire and smoke billowing from the North Tower. Only moments later, Mr. Demczur added, people began screaming and running from the North Tower.

Mr. Demczur said he looked up and saw the building's antenna shake from side-to-side and the building begin to crumble in on itself.

Following the collapse of the North Tower Mr. Demczur made his way to the Selfreliance (New York) Federal Credit Union on Second Avenue where his wife, Nadia Demczur, secretary of UNA Branch 86, worked. He was still carrying what remained of his squeegee.

The National Museum of American History marked the half-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on March 11 with a temporary display of World Trade Center artifacts that included Mr. Demczur's squeegee in its September 11 condition - dust and all.

According to the museum's website, a permanent display will be ready for the one-year anniversary and will include a gallery of approximately 50 objects representing the three sites affected by the terrorist attacks. The website wrote, "Representing the escape from the World Trade Center are the squeegee used by window washer Jan Demczur to break out of an elevator and the shoes of office worker Cecilia Benavente removed to speed her exit from the 103rd floor of Tower 2." The exhibit is scheduled to close on January 11, 2003.

Although he grew up in Poland, where he served his mandatory two-year term in the military before accepting an offer from his aunt to move to America, Mr. Demczur underlined that he is Ukrainian. (Some press reports referred to him only as a Polish immigrant.) His parents were forced from the Lemko region during the Polish government's 1947 repatriation of Ukrainians to newly acquired northern and western Polish territories - an operation code named Akcja Wisla - and only later did his parents resettle in Poland.

But it was in the Polish military where Mr. Demczur first learned his plumber's trade - a specialty that later helped him earn a position with a more financially lucrative Polish building company. He says he almost chose to follow a building job to Iraq, but after weighing the options decided he would be better compensated in the United States.

Mr. Demczur, who has been actively involved in the Ukrainian community ever since he emigrated in 1980 to the Ukrainian neighborhood in New York City's East Village, said he lost people he knew that day - people he had worked with for over a decade.

He called that day an "overwhelming experience - one that has left me up many nights." He said he still carries emotional baggage and has yet to return to work. Although he said there is no problem in finding work, he feels he is not ready to return.

Mr. Demczur's story was also featured in The Jersey Journal, The Star-Ledger and The New York Times newspapers. He was later honored by over 700 of his colleagues for his actions on September 11, 2001.

As for returning to work, Mr. Demczur said, "I'll go back. But when I do go back, I only want to clean windows that I can get to with a ladder."

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