9/11 survivor recounts haunting escape from 81st floor of World Trade Center tower

David Paventi recalled his escape from the 81st floor of the World Trade Center's North Tower on 9/11, 23 years after the terrorist attacks killed nearly 3,000 Americans.

"We never left that one stairwell, thank God, because, obviously, we were able to get out." "One of the firemen … I remember him looking up and saying, ‘I get to do all this for 35 grand a year.’'" "It's sad to me that it takes an event like that for people to recognize the level of freedom that we enjoy in this country." Audrey Conklin is a digital reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business. Email tips to audrey.conklin@fox.com or on Twitter at @audpants.

The day before, Sept. 10, Paventi remembers looking out a window of the skyscraper on a day that was so muggy and foggy he couldn't see the streets below.

"There was another gentleman … that was up there with me that day — he and I had went and got coffee that morning and went upstairs — and I remember him saying to me, ‘How do airplanes not hit this building?’" Paventi recalled.