Post date: Sep 05, 2011 3:56:37 PM
Retired firefighter Mickey Kross returns to Ground Zero recalling an unforgettable tale of escape. Sharon Reich reports.
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - It's a remarkable story. Retired New York City firefighter Mickey Kross visits Ground Zero and remembers how he and thirteen others survived as the World Trade Center crumbled around them.
Kross was trapped on the third floor of the North Tower when the call came to evacuate.
Mickey Kross, 9/11 survivor and retired New York Firefighter saying (English):
"The stairways started literally vibrating and this very loud noise, a roar, literally a roar over my head and I knew something was going, I still didn't, I didn't know the building was coming down but I knew something was happening in my vicinity and so, and then the wind, tremendous wind. ..... I started actually being lifted up and that's when I grabbed my helmet and ducked in a corner. Just got as small as I could. And then started getting hit and then it went quiet."
Kross and his crew made it out alive, but 343 firefighters died that day as they tried to rescue those trapped in the towers.
In the months that followed, Kross worked at Ground Zero, sifting through mounds of steel and concrete, looking for the remains of the fallen firefighters.
Mickey Kross, 9/11 survivor and retired New York Firefighter saying (English):
"We dug with our hands, and that's what we did. It was a simple job and it was an important job and I got a lot of gratitude out of it."
While he retired in 2006, Kross still visits the crew at Engine Co. 16, Ladder Co. 7 on Manhattan's East 29th Street, where he worked for more than 20 years.
At the firehouse the names of those who were on duty on 9/11 remain written on a chalkboard, frozen in time, and images of the nine crew members who died on September 11th line the walls serving as a memorial.
Captain James Doddy says that many in the FDNY have spent the last ten years focusing on healing.
James Doddy, Captain, New York Fire Department, saying
"As tragic as it was that we lost these men what you try to keep in mind is there's lives to be lived, to go on, to keep, to remember these men and embrace what they were but realize they would want you to live."
But even as they look ahead, it's clear that this day looms large for those in the house, including Ladder 7 truck driver, Brian Finley.
Brian Finley, New York fire fighter saying
"We always used to say, if you were leaving or getting detailed to another company nearby, you'd always say like 'see you at the big one'. There is no more big ones. That was it."
Finley and the rest of the fire crew plan to honor the lives of the nine who died with a special fundraiser on September 9th.
Sharon Reich, Reuters