The Other Heroes of 9/11

The four-legged ones:

The working dogs didn’t have the protective gear, but they worked tirelessly, to search for anyone trapped alive in the rubble. Corliss recalled that the rescue teams rarely got even four hours of sleep. The rescue dogs acted as therapy for the brave firemen and rescue workers of the emergency services, their little ray of hope amid death and debris.

During the aftermath of 9/11, search and rescue dogs found so few living people that it caused them great stress because they believed they had failed. Handlers and rescue workers had to regularly hide in the rubble in order to give the rescue dogs a successful find and keep their spirits up.

One of the unsung heroes of 9/11 was a guide dog, Roselle, who led her blind owner, Michael Hingson, from the 78th story of the North Tower, a staggering 1,463 steps out of the building to the safety of a subway station.