Yes, it is a small world. That was proven again, on a windy Saturday morning in Jersey City.  Gong Club member John “Rince” Rinciari stepped out of the organization's quarters at Summit and St. Paul's avenues to collect the blown away garbage containers.  A local resident helped him collect the containers and a new friendship was immediately formed.

Rince introduced himself to the neighbor.  “My name is John.”  Reply: “My name is John (he spells it “Jan.”  “I'm 72.”  Reply” “I'm 72.”   

Rince explained that he was a retired Yonkers Emergency Service Unit police officer.  His neighbor, Jan Demczur, said he was a retired maintenance worker for the Port Authority of NY & NJ.

Rince said he responded to the World Trade Center on 9-11 with his ESU members.  Jan replied, “I'm the Squeegee Man.”  

Rince had heard of this man's heroic actions on 9-11.  He asked Demczur if he had gotten sick from the terrorist attack.  He answered by saying he had throat cancer.  The retired cop showed his new friend the scar on his throat from 9-11 throat cancer.  An instant bond was formed between the two.  

Rinciari has survived five different cancers since 9-11.  Rinciari and his ESU members responded to the WTC, arriving after the twin towers had collapsed.  His crew was assigned a rescue/recovery mission by the NYPD.  

Jan Demczur planned on cleaning windows that morning.  At 8:47 a.m. Demczur, along with five other men, where in a north tower elevator when the building was struck by a passenger plane.  When the plane hit, the elevator, that was close to the 70^th floor, swung like a pendulum and began to fall until someone hit the emergency button.  

For ten minutes the men waited, 500-feet above ground, until a crackly voice announced over the intercom that there had been an accident.  Smoke then began to pour into the shaft and the intercom went dead. There was still power providing the elevator with light, however.  

Demczur and the other men forced open the elevator doors and held them open with a six-foot pole, used by the maintenance worker.  Demczur took the rubber piece off of the window washing cross bar and began using it like a knife to scrape the sheet rock that was in front of the occupants. 

He scrapped through four sets of one-inch thick sheet rock.  Demczur said his hand turned numb and the squeegee fell into the space between the wall and the elevator, and down the shaft.  He then used the hand-held piece of the squeegee to continue to scrape, as smoke and dust continued to enter the elevator.   

A hole was gouged that was about 12-inches x 18-inches.  It was enough for the thin man of the group to crawl through.  But it wasn't that easy.  They now had encountered a layer of white tiles.  The men joined in punching a hole through the tiles that led to a bathroom.  

They sent the “skinny guy” through the hole to summons help.  He made it over a sink and out to the floor.  He came back with a firefighter, Firefighter Louie Cacchioli, who assisted the men out through the hold they had made.  They were still unaware of exactly what had happened.  

The men joined the line of people going down the stairway.  When they reached the 15^th floor they heard the sound of the south tower collapsing.  At 10:23 a.m., they ran into the street, to safety.  About five minutes later, the north tower fell.  

Jan Demczur was a hero, and he received many awards and recognition for his life-saving actions.  Recognition from the International Window Cleaning Association to President George and Laura Bush.  

Demczur attends the 9-11 memorial every year.  But, like many, he doesn't care to discuss the events of that tragic day.

Demczur occupies his retirement time with a flea market of assorted items that he acquires from his garage, around the corner from the Gong Club quarters, on St. Paul's av.  He now has a new friend in John Rinciari and the members of the Gong Club.  

Retired Detective Rinciari has been a fire buff for most of his life., growing up in the Bronx and hanging out at the busiest firehouses during what was known as “The War Years,” when the Bronx (and may other cities) were burning.  

The Westchester  County native found out about the Gong Club organization through a friend and member that he grew up with.  He is the club's newest member.  A 72-year-old “rookie”!  

“My life started hanging out in a Bronx firehouse when I was in the second grade, he said.  Now, in my later years, I'm at peace knowing it will end in the firehouse!”