Wilfred Amanfu: A Lucky Escape

ON SEPTEMBER 11, Wilfred Amanfu lost one of his best friends, a coworker and fellow Ghanaian immigrant named Japhet Aryee. Aryee was a track star in Ghana who came to the United States to study accounting and decided to stay. Yet in spite of losing such a close friend that day, Mr. Amanfu's level-headedness in the face of danger saved his own life and the lives of countless strangers.

Mr. Amanfu remembers that morning: "I was walking straight to my boss's desk, and his desk was by the window," he says. "By the time I said 'good morning,' he didn't even say good morning back, and we heard a boom, and there was this big ball of fire out there. The fire kind of shot toward our building, forth. For the moment, I hit the floor, and I came back up and looked outside, and I saw a big hole on the building, Building One.

Everybody who was looking outside said that's a bomb. At that time, all I knew was to get out of the place, so I started going outside."

That's when he saw Margarita Mahil, a coworker originally from the Dominican Republic. "Because Margarita was new [on the job], she didn't know what to do. So I yelled at her, 'get out of here,' so she followed me," he says.

At first, Ms. Mahil took her friend Wilfred's advice and began leaving the building via the stairwell. But then she heard an announcement saying everything was all right, and that everyone should return to their offices. So she tried to do just that.

That's when the second plane hit, fortunately before she was able to return to her floor. "Had Wilfred not told me to get out, I would have been sitting with everybody [on the 86th floor] when the second plane hit," trapping her on that floor until the building collapsed.

But Margarita Mahil was not the only person Wilfred Amanfu helped that day. Mr. Amanfu was on the 66th floor, descending the stairs, when the building was hit by the second plane.

"All of a sudden, we heard a boom again," he says. "For some reason, I wasn't afraid, I did not panic, and I started controlling people to stay on the stairways."

Mr. Amanfu says he kept urging his colleagues to "keep on going, don't stop, keep going, don't stop, keep going." He says that it took him 45 minutes to get out of the building, and shortly thereafter it collapsed.

"I was one of the lucky persons," he says.

But how did Wilfred Amanfu know to leave the building, even when the authorities were saying everything was safe? "I saw the fire, the first explosion," he says. "I actually saw people dropping off from the first building. To me that was enough to tell you something's happening. And again, I say, I believe in God. It was intuition and God talking to me, saying 'Wilfred, get out.'!

ON SEPTEMBER 11, Wilfred Amanfu lost one of his best friends, a coworker and fellow Ghanaian immigrant named Japhet Aryee. Aryee was a track star in Ghana who came to the United States to study accounting and decided to stay. Yet in spite of losing such a close friend that day, Mr. Amanfu's level-headedness in the face of danger saved his own life and the lives of countless strangers.

Mr. Amanfu remembers that morning: "I was walking straight to my boss's desk, and his desk was by the window," he says. "By the time I said 'good morning,' he didn't even say good morning back, and we heard a boom, and there was this big ball of fire out there. The fire kind of shot toward our building, forth. For the moment, I hit the floor, and I came back up and looked outside, and I saw a big hole on the building, Building One.

Everybody who was looking outside said that's a bomb. At that time, all I knew was to get out of the place, so I started going outside."

That's when he saw Margarita Mahil, a coworker originally from the Dominican Republic. "Because Margarita was new [on the job], she didn't know what to do. So I yelled at her, 'get out of here,' so she followed me," he says.

At first, Ms. Mahil took her friend Wilfred's advice and began leaving the building via the stairwell. But then she heard an announcement saying everything was all right, and that everyone should return to their offices. So she tried to do just that.

That's when the second plane hit, fortunately before she was able to return to her floor. "Had Wilfred not told me to get out, I would have been sitting with everybody [on the 86th floor] when the second plane hit," trapping her on that floor until the building collapsed.

But Margarita Mahil was not the only person Wilfred Amanfu helped that day. Mr. Amanfu was on the 66th floor, descending the stairs, when the building was hit by the second plane.

"All of a sudden, we heard a boom again," he says. "For some reason, I wasn't afraid, I did not panic, and I started controlling people to stay on the stairways."

Mr. Amanfu says he kept urging his colleagues to "keep on going, don't stop, keep going, don't stop, keep going." He says that it took him 45 minutes to get out of the building, and shortly thereafter it collapsed.

"I was one of the lucky persons," he says.

But how did Wilfred Amanfu know to leave the building, even when the authorities were saying everything was safe? "I saw the fire, the first explosion," he says. "I actually saw people dropping off from the first building. To me that was enough to tell you something's happening. And again, I say, I believe in God. It was intuition and God talking to me, saying 'Wilfred, get out.'!