September 11th. Michael is blind and escaped tragedy thanks to his dog

Vafter five years, it is still well present in the memory of all the fateful September 11th attack on the Twin Towers in New York. 

If the victims continue to be remembered, also those who survived continue to reveal the stories of that day.

Michael Hingson, who has been blind since birth, was in his office at the North Tower of the World Trade Center when he heard an explosion. Next to him was Mr Frank, who, seeing that there were flames and smoke, said that both had to leave quickly.

Under Michael's desk was Roselle, her labrador-bred guide dog, asleep.

Although at that moment the thesis of a terrorist attack did not even occur to them, Michael immediately called his wife to inform her that there had been an emergency situation. After that, and in the company of the colleague and the dog, he began to descend the building. The animal played a key role in saving himself.

Bitch led him down the stairs 

The three, note, were on the 78th floor of the building and 15 floors above the building was beginning to be consumed by the crash of the first plane.

Roselle always walked beside the man, guiding him around the obstacles. But on the stairway, where people piled up, there was often not enough room to perform this function, so he walked by his heels while Hingson clung to the banister and went down.

As they went down, Hingson repeatedly told Roselle: “Good bitch, Roselle. You are doing an excellent job”, recalls the man, saying that he knew that his best friend would feel “the fear of all people” and so he had to prove to him that he “was fine”.

When they reached the 50th floor, the first doubts began to arise as to whether they could save themselves, with David claiming they could not.

However, Michael was determined and did not hesitate to assure him: “If Roselle and I can get down the stairs, then so can you.” And having said that, they kept coming down.

Michael and Roselle© Getty Images/Kitra Cahana  

At that moment, the man remembers to realize that the firemen were going up and gave them a single order: “keep going down and out of there”.

Michael, David and Roselle ended up getting out of the building and only getting out on the street was that David could see what was really going on and managed to report the situation to his blind colleague. “Oh my God, Mike, I can only see a huge cloud of smoke. Everything is gone,” he said.

About ten minutes after they left the building, Michael recalls to People magazine, the building collapsed. At the end of the day, they returned home and the man recalls that for the animal “everything was fine. Nothing frightened her.”.

Roselle was awarded a prize of dog excellence in 2002 and in 2011, Michael wrote a work in his honor. The dog died in June 2011, at age 14.

Michael, who was now a widower, moved to California with his 9th guide dog. Roselle has, however, always a special place in her memory and whenever she remembers that day, 25 years ago, she attributes the calm that allowed her to leave the building safely.