NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Weeks before the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, a rookie firefighter answered his first call: a small kitchen fire in an Upper West Side apartment. Years later, the woman who lived there continues to remember the young hero.
As WCBS 880’s Mack Rosenberg reports, in late August 2001, Rosalinde Block’s kitchen caught fire.
“The super had come up to me saying, ‘Your apartment’s on fire and your kid is in the hospital,’” Block says of the day.
Her son, Joe, was inside the Upper West Side apartment at the time, but thankfully 25-year-old rookie FDNY firefighter Michael D’Auria was on the job that day.
Her son was alright after D’Auria rescued him from the burning home, and weeks later, Block and her son went down to the firehouse – Engine Company 40, Ladder 35 – to meet their hero.
"D'Auria came bounding over saying, 'Ma'am I'm the probie for this house and you were my very first fire, he called it his first nozzle," Block remembered. “We just talked about how excited he was about being part of the fire department and we were just so grateful."
Just weeks after that interaction, the Staten Island native would unfortunately die at the World Trade Center.
"He was one of the first that went in," Block said.
His name is now one of the 343 firefighters listed at the 9/11 memorial.
Block later formed a lasting friendship with D’Auria’s mother, who says the 25-year-old once told his sister: "I know when I die it's going to be in a big way and it's going to change the world."