BUFFALO, NY (WKBW) — Exactly 23 years ago to the day, thousands of people lost their lives in the September 11 attacks.

Lisa Amatura was in a meeting on the 78th floor of the North Tower when the first plane hit.

“I looked out the window and admired the Statue of Liberty,” she said. “Not long after, the first plane hit and it felt like a big explosion, maybe like a gas line or something.”

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Amatura walked down the stairs, paying attention only to the floor markings on the walls.

“Every floor had the number of the floor you were on engraved on it,” she said. “I just made a point of always concentrating on 78, 77 and 76. It wasn’t until we got to the 50th floor that we realized there was another plane there.”

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Unbeknownst to Amatura, she was expecting her second child during her struggle for life.

“I only found out on September 13 that I was pregnant with Francesca,” she said.

She says she is lucky to be alive and now volunteers for the Tunnels to Towers Foundation, which aims to provide homes for veterans in memory of a firefighter who died in the 9/11 attacks.

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A week after the attacks, Jim Volkosh and 48 other firefighters climbed into eight ambulances to help the New York Fire Department with the cleanup.

“One of the things we saw was billboards with photos of missing people on them. It was undoubtedly moving. It was something we had never seen or dealt with before,” he said. “So it took a while to get used to the novelty and it took a while for everyone to focus on their tasks.”

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Volkosh says he will never forget the destruction of New York City.

“The sight of the pile and the smoldering rubble and every now and then a body being brought in in an ambulance with no lights,” he said. “You basically had to tune out everything around you and concentrate on your task.”

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Volkosh hopes everyone remembers the victims and first responders.

“We must not allow people to forget this,” he said.