9/11 'emotional, not painful' for S.L. attorney

SALT LAKE CITY — The day started with him helping a woman get back on her feet after she fainted.

It ended with three little girls helping him get back on his feet by buying him a pink toothbrush.

In between, the worst terrorist attack in American history unfolded.

Salt Lake attorney Brent Baker will never forget Sept. 11, 2001, but for reasons that might surprise you.

He had flown to New York City to negotiate the sale of a dot-com business he and his brother had developed. On Tuesday morning he was scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. with Ed Straub, president of AON, a large life insurance and consulting company headquartered in the south tower of the World Trade Center on the 109th floor.

He stayed Monday night at the Hilton property on the World Trade Center Plaza, got up Tuesday morning, put on his suit and tie and freshly shined leather-soled shoes, had breakfast in the hotel restaurant, looked at his watch, it was just a few minutes before nine, and got up to walk to the south tower. Just as he was leaving the hotel he saw a woman's knees buckle and watched her faint right in front of him. He rushed over to help. When she came to she explained what had startled her: She watched an airplane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center.

Brent looked up.

"I saw the same thing the rest of the world saw, this teeny little gray streak way up on the side of the building," he recalls. "I thought some little plane had gone off course. I couldn't process how that had so disrupted her that she fainted, but I got her up and she slowly went on her way."

Now he was running late for his appointment.

He half ran to the south tower, showed his identification to the security guard and made his way to the elevators. When the door opened, he was part of a large throng that began to surge inside.

Then, at that very instant, a sonic roar violently shook the building. He retreated out of the elevator. "I didn't have a choice," he remembers. "It was instant mass hysteria. I didn't realize there were that many people around, but it was like a herd of gazelle on the run. I just went with the flow."