>> reporter: somewhere in that debris, jay jonas and his team, when suddenly they see a piece of sky. >> and all of a sudden a ray of sunshine hit the stairway. and i looked up, and could see like a little sliver of blue sky. i said to the guys, guys, there used to be 106 floors over our heads. now i see sunshine. so i think we're on top of the world trade center. i just shake my head. i says, i can't believe i'm here. >> reporter: of the last 25 people out of the south tower, florence was number 18. we have followed her for nearly 20 years, and we will never forget seeing those reflecting pools for the first time. the names of the fallen etched in bronze. and florence's friend, jill maurer-campbell. >> i always remember jill's smile. i try never to think about the way she died. as a company, we were very, very close. we all knew jill. >> reporter: she was a young mother who proudly brought her baby to work. and now 20 years later -- a phone call from jill's son. >> oh. i was so happy to talk to him. >> later tonight here, you will hear what was said in that phone call. it's hard to i

>> reporter: still inside the north tower, captain jay jonas can feel the building sway. >> i got a coupleh us still inside. >> reporter: fire chief rich picciotto. >> and then, all of a sudden, there's no stairs. and i'm just freefalling in blackness. so my thoughts were, please, god, make it quick. because it's going to be over in a split second. and all of a sudden, black, nothing. and i thought i was dead. >> reporter: the collapse suffocating the city for blocks. >> everybody get out! we had a collapse of the second tower! ugent, urgent! >> miss, get in here. get away from the blast. don't open -- >> here it comes. get behind. >> oh, my god. oh, my god. oh, my god! you're right. oh, my god, you saved my life. [ crying ] >> ma'am. >> i'm just tired. >> thousands of tons of debris on top of us. this is a crypt. we're never getting out. >> there were beepings everywhere. later i found out that first responders carry locators, and they were going off everywhere. >> reporter: somewhere in that debris, captain jay jonas and his team. when suddenly, they see a piece of the sky. >> and all of

time, jerry, jim and al, he took off but before we left, we went to visit judy jonas, the wife of jay jonaswas in ladder 6. she survived the collapse in stairwell. we made our way down to the trade center after that. arthel: when you arrived to lower manhattan, where did you go first and what did you see and how did it strike you when you saw it face to face? >> new york city bus and all the firefighters went on it and we drove to lower manhattan and came around the tunnel and came in through the american express on the rear side and got off the bus, walking through 6 to 8 inches of dust and the cloud and smoke and we went to american express building and came out the other side. all the windows had been blown out and you can finally see all the collapse, all the material from the two towers that had been in the collapse and the other pieces in the air. it was overwhelming at the time and then we broke into our small groups and we started searching for survivers. arthel: what visions or smell or emotions lingered in the days, the weeks, and years after that, jim? >> at first it's overwhelmi

jeremy castle's uncle is jay jonas, the captain of 6 truck, who we found in the stairwell with the rescuersing the collapse and he survived. we stopped by to see his wife to give her assurances we were coming down to help him and be part of the effort. we raced down to new york city and came into the firehouse in the bronx. >> i know nicole has some questions. i'm curious, what were those initial -- fog of war, i'm sure -- what were the initial hours and days like for you here? >> well, i don't think we thought it was going to collapse. then when it did, you thought about the tragic loss of life. the number of people that were here in the towers and our brothers and sisters that were working down here at the trade center. you knew that there was a lot of people killed. a large number of people will be our brothers and sisters in the fire department. then we come to find out later that the number that we lost. but coming down here, traveling to the city and coming down to this site, you think about trying to find somebody, hopefully a survivor. after that, you want to find the remains of any