Source: madison.com

Published: April 20, 2007

A World Trade Center maintenance worker who helped more than a dozen victims escape from the building's north tower before it collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001, is speaking on the UW campus Saturday.

William Rodriguez, of New Jersey, is believed to have been the last man to get out of the World Trade Center alive. He is scheduled to talk at 7 p.m. in Room 3650 of the Humanities Building.

Rodriguez, who worked at the World Trade Center for 20 years, used his master key for the north tower to open stairwell doors for fire department rescue crews. He exited the tower just as it was beginning to collapse and dived under a fire truck.

Now, without a job and claiming to have been abandoned by his government, Rodriguez is on a lecture circuit telling audiences about his experience.

Rodriguez will be introduced by local 9/11 conspiracy theorist Kevin Barrett, who believes the U.S. government was responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks and is author of "Truth Jihad: My Epic Struggle Against the 9/11 Big Lie."