25 years ago, two strangers met in the twin towers and escaped on 9/11. What happened next?

‘In fact, we’ll be blood brothers for life. Come on, buddy. Let’s go home,’ what Brian Clark (right) said to Stanley Praimnath when he saved him on the 81st floor of the south tower. Photograph: Courtesy Brian Clark

He has told the story hundreds of times, but it never seems to fade. If anything, it only becomes more vivid. “Oh, gosh,” exclaims Stanley Praimnath, his voice cracking with an “ooooooh!” as if bearing a weight. “It’s like reliving that day.”

Nearly 3,000 people died in the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington DC on September 11 2001. But Praimnath and another office worker, Brian Clark, were two of only four individuals known to have survived from above the impact zone in either tower of the World Trade Center. The two strangers met in the smoke and fire of the 81st floor of the south tower, and walked down 1,620 steps into the rest of their lives.