This year, we will mark 20 years since the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
For one retired firefighter, the tragedy and a firefighter’s helmet called him home to New York to help.
In the heart of the South Bronx is Engine 73, Ladder 42, and in the hearts of firefighters at the Prospect Avenue fire house are the heroes lost on Sept. 11, 2001.
“What do you feel when you look around here?” CBS2’s Jenna DeAngelis asked retired FDNY firefighter Jerry Sanford.
“Oh, it’s just, it just floods back to me, looking at the house,” Sanford said.
The last time Sanford was inside the fire station was nearly 20 years ago and he says it all “started with a helmet.”
“There’s the helmet, 1914. This is kind of amazing,” he said.
Sanford was working as a public information officer in Florida when a fire chief there showed him the antique helmet with the number 42 on it, which Sanford recognized.