When the World Trade Center was engulfed in smoke and flames on September 11, 2001, a security guard carrying a flashlight and bullhorn appeared to six people who were struggling to find a way out of the South Tower.
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who → engulf → Tower
He was Dereck Lovell, who was filling in that day and had never previously worked on their floor.
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who → fill → floor
Lovell guided the group towards a functioning staircase, helping them escape from a building that would collapse minutes later.
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that → guide → building
Nearly 25 years on, the man those survivors credit with saving their lives is facing a different fight.
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survivors → credit → fight
In interviews with PEOPLE, Doug Brown recalled how Lovell helped the group escape, while Lovell revealed that he is battling kidney cancer and now needs a transplant.
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he → recall → transplant
A chance assignment on a day that changed everything
Lovell, now 68, was working as a security guard at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
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Lovell → change → September
He had been filling in as a security guard on the 70th floor of the South Tower when the second hijacked plane struck the building.
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plane → fill → building
The impact sent Lovell flying from his chair towards an elevator.
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impact → send → elevator
He suffered a shoulder injury but was able to continue helping people evacuate.
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people → suffer → injury
As smoke spread through the tower, he carried a flashlight and bullhorn while directing workers towards a usable staircase.
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he → spread → staircase
Among those searching for an escape route were Doug Brown and five colleagues from Morgan Stanley.
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Brown → search → Stanley
Brown, who was then an associate national sales director, recalled that the group was surrounded by smoke, flames and collapsing ceilings.
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group → recall → smoke
The stairways they knew about had been destroyed, leaving the group disoriented.
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they → know → group
Visibility was so poor that Brown could see only about an arm's length ahead.
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Brown → see → ?
Then he heard Lovell's voice.
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he → hear → voice
“Follow me,” the security guard told them, according to Brown's recollection.
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guard → follow → recollection
Lovell led the six people to a staircase only about 15 feet away.
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Lovell → lead → staircase
Brown had never known the stairwell was there and initially mistook it for a broom closet.
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stairwell → know → closet
That small discovery became critical to their survival.
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discovery → become → survival
The guard kept helping even after finding an escape route
Lovell did not simply direct Brown and his colleagues towards the stairs and leave.
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Lovell → keep → stairs
After helping the group get into the stairwell, he continued searching the floor and found three more employees whom he also guided towards safety before beginning his own descent.
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he → help → descent
For Brown, the encounter remained one of the defining moments of his life.
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encounter → remain → life
“If Dereck hadn't been there,” Brown told PEOPLE, “I think best-case scenario we would've had dumb luck and found that stairwell.”
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we → tell → stairwell
Brown and his colleagues later managed to identify the security guard who had helped them.
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who → manage → them
Days after the attacks, they tracked Lovell down and invited him to Morgan Stanley's temporary offices in Jersey City, New Jersey, where they thanked him personally.
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they → track → him
Lovell recalled the meeting, saying that everyone hugged him and thanked him.
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everyone → recall → him
The connection between Lovell and Brown did not end that day.
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connection → end → Lovell
The two have remained in contact for almost 25 years.
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two → remain → years
A second rescue unfolded during the escape
Brown's own journey to safety also involved another life-saving act.
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journey → unfold → act
While descending the tower, Brown and a colleague encountered Silvion Ramsundar, an investment executive who had been on the 78th floor.
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who → descend → floor
Ramsundar was severely wounded and covered in blood.
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Ramsundar → wound → blood
The two survivors fashioned a makeshift compress from a handkerchief to slow the bleeding from a wound near his heart.
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survivors → fashion → heart
They then helped Ramsundar descend roughly 60 floors before reaching an ambulance, only minutes before the South Tower collapsed.
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Tower → help → ambulance
Doctors later found that a piece of metal about the size of a playing card had lodged near Ramsundar's aorta.
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piece → find → aorta
He also suffered a broken collarbone and a collapsed lung.
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He → suffer → collarbone
Ramsundar has previously told PEOPLE that he remains grateful to Brown for helping him survive that morning.
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him → tell → Brown
The stories of Lovell, Brown and Ramsundar illustrate how survival on September 11 often depended on strangers helping one another amid conditions that were changing by the minute.
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that → illustrate → minute
Nearly 25 years later, Lovell needs help
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Lovell → need → help
The relationship between Lovell and Brown has taken on a new meaning as the 25th anniversary of the attacks approaches.
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anniversary → take → attacks
According to PEOPLE, Lovell was diagnosed with kidney cancer last September.
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Lovell → accord → cancer
…and 15 more, not listed.
The Aporia
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