Quarter-Century After 9/11, Last Remaining Firefighter from Famed 'Ten House' Crew Still Protects Ground Zero

Nearly a quarter of a century after hijacked airliners destroyed the World Trade Center, Sal Argano continues to report for duty at the Manhattan firehouse situated directly across from Ground Zero. At 65 years old, Argano is the sole remaining firefighter still stationed at the historic facility who was on the roster during the catastrophic attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Located just across an intersection from where the Twin Towers once stood, the station houses both Engine 10 and Ladder 10, earning it the enduring department nickname "Ten House." The facility was the closest fire station to the World Trade Center complex, placing its members on the immediate front lines during the nation's deadliest terrorist attack.

Argano’s survival on that fateful Tuesday came down to a routine administrative assignment. On the morning of Sept. 11, he was temporarily on loan to a different fire company in Brooklyn rather than working out of his regular post in Lower Manhattan. When the hijacked planes slammed into the skyscrapers, Argano was not in the immediate blast zone.

Following the impacts, Argano rushed back across the river to Lower Manhattan, where he discovered Ten House battered and severely damaged by falling debris and intense heat, though the structure managed to remain upright. The tragedy took an immense toll on his company: six of Ten House’s own members were among the 343 New York City firefighters who lost their lives in the collapse of the towers.

The reality of that morning continues to weigh heavily on Argano decades later. He readily acknowledges that had he not been detailed to Brooklyn for that specific shift, he almost certainly would have perished alongside his fallen company brothers, a sobering thought he admits crosses his mind on a regular basis.

Today, Ten House occupies a unique role in New York City, balancing its rigorous emergency response duties with its function as a living memorial. Operating in the shadow of the rebuilt complex, the station's personnel serve both as frontline first responders to local emergencies and as ambassadors to the countless visitors who stream past the firehouse daily.

Tourists and mourners routinely gather outside the building to pay their respects, with many pausing to view the expansive bronze memorial relief installed along the station's exterior wall. The artwork solemnly catalogs the names of the hundreds of department personnel who gave their lives during the rescue and recovery efforts at the site.

Other visitors stop to photograph the station and take selfies beside the gleaming red rigs of Engine 10 and Ladder 10 when the garage doors are rolled open. The sight of the operational trucks parked in their bays creates a powerful and immediate visual bridge between past sacrifice and present-day service for those walking toward the memorial plaza.

The station’s global profile requires a specific mindset from the firefighters assigned there, according to Capt. Terence Brody, the 55-year-old commanding officer of Ladder 10. Brody, who joined the station in 2016, emphasizes that anyone working at Ten House must welcome the constant public attention, noting that people from every corner of the world recognize the firehouse and stop by to offer greetings and express gratitude.

Brody himself holds vivid memories of the attacks from his days as a young trainee in the fire academy. On the morning of 9/11, academy instructors mobilized cadets, loaded them onto buses, and dispatched them directly into the chaos of Lower Manhattan to assist in the initial response.

The conditions Brody encountered at Ground Zero were surreal and disorienting. Pulverized concrete and ash hung so heavily in the atmosphere that it mimicked a heavy snowfall, creating an apocalyptic landscape that contrasted sharply with the clear, bright late-summer morning that had preceded the disaster.

In the harrowing days following the towers' collapse, Ten House was repurposed into a vital operations base. It served simultaneously as an incident command center and a much-needed shelter where physically and emotionally exhausted emergency personnel could seek temporary respite amidst the smoldering ruins.

For firefighters who arrived years later, the station offered a front-row seat to the prolonged, monumental reconstruction of Lower Manhattan. Ladder 10 firefighter Robert Favata, 46, was assigned to the company straight out of the fire academy in 2008, a period when the adjacent disaster site was still an enormous, active excavation pit.

Favata initially doubted whether the reconstruction efforts would ever reach completion given the sheer scale of the devastation and void. Today, that vast crater has been replaced by a completely reimagined urban landscape, anchored by the National September 11 Memorial and Museum and surrounded by modern skyscrapers.

Directly across from the firehouse doors, massive twin waterfall pools now occupy the original footprints of the Twin Towers, bounded by bronze parapets bearing the names of nearly 3,000 victims. Deep beneath the plaza, the museum preserves remnants of the tragedy, including structural steel beams and a crushed fire engine.

Through every stage of the neighborhood's transformation, Argano has remained a steady presence at Ten House, frequently seen greeting travelers, local residents, and fellow first responders from around the globe. As the 25-year milestone approaches, he endures as a vital link between the station's darkest hour and its enduring dedication to duty.