Former FDNY Lieutenant Describes Being Trapped in WTC Collapse

Ten years after 9/11, former New York firefighter Mickey Kross has returned to Ground Zero.

Now retired, he had a miraculous escape on the 11th September 2001, when he and 13 others became trapped on the third floor of the World Trade Center.

“The stairways started literally vibrating and this very loud noise, a roar, literally a roar over my head,” he said. “I didn’t know the building was coming down but I knew something was happening in my vicinity.”

Kross recounted the rush of air caused by the falling floors above, as the building, ravaged by fire, began to pancake.

“So I started actually being lifted up and that’s when I grabbed my helmet and ducked in a corner. Just got a small as I could. And then started getting hit and then it went quiet,” he said.

He and his men took cover in part of a stairwell that managed to withstand thousands of tons of falling concrete and steel.

Kross knows they were very lucky, with 343 of New York’s firefighters dying in 9/11.

“People two floors above me, they all died,” he said. “And two floors below me, they all died, and just that little area we were in, the 14 of us, survived.”

He spent nine months at Ground Zero digging through the rubble or the “pile,” as it was called, sifting through huge mounds of steel and concrete looking for remains.

“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,” said Kross.