9/11 Facts

When the World Trade Center fell on September 11, 2001, a Halifax police dog named Trakr and his handler drove 15 hours from Nova Scotia to help. Buried under 30 feet of unstable rubble, Trakr found Genelle Guzman-McMillan - a Port Authority worker trapped for 27 hours and the last of the 20 live survivors pulled from the debris. Seven years later, a contest chose Trakr as the world's most "clone-worthy" dog. He died before the results arrived. In June 2009, five cloned puppies - Trustt, Solace, Valor, Prodigy, and Deja Vu - were delivered to his handler.

Bretagne, a golden retriever, worked Ground Zero for 10 days after 9/11 as a 2-year-old. She later responded to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Ivan. When she died at 16 in 2016, firefighters lined the sidewalk and saluted her - then carried her out draped in an American flag.

Steve Buscemi was an FDNY firefighter with Engine 55 for four years before he became a movie star. When the World Trade Center fell on 9/11, he went back to his old firehouse. For five days he worked 12-hour shifts digging through the rubble. He declined every interview and photo request the whole time.

Gander, Newfoundland is a town of just 10,000 people. When US airspace shut down on September 11, 2001, 38 jetliners carrying about 6,600 passengers and crew were ordered to land there. Residents turned schools, churches and legion halls into dorms, cooked around the clock, and refused every payment offered. Bus drivers even walked off a picket line to help. The last stranded flight did not leave until September 15.

The John J. Harvey was a New York fireboat the FDNY retired in 1994, and volunteers bought her at auction in 1999 and restored her. On September 11, 2001, the water mains at Ground Zero were broken, so the fire department radioed the old boat back to ask if her pumps still worked. Her volunteer crew pumped beside two FDNY fireboats for 80 hours. She is 95 now and still gives free public trips.