Roselle the 9/11 guide dog
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 19 April 2023
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001, a New York guide dog called Roselle was hailed as a hero for helping her owner safely down 78 flights of stairs and away from the Twin Towers before they collapsed.
In this programme, first broadcast in 2017, Simon Watts speaks to Roselle's owner, Michael Hingson.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.
(Photo: Roselle and Michael Hingson, right, meeting a 9/11 rescue team. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From global current affairs to art, science and culture, |
| 0:05.0 | the documentary from the BBC World Service tells the world's stories, |
| 0:10.5 | search for the documentary wherever you get your BBC podcasts. |
| 0:20.0 | Welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:24.0 | Today we're telling you the remarkable story of how a guide dog named Reselle |
| 0:28.0 | helped save the life of her blind owner during the 9-11 attacks. |
| 0:32.0 | In 2017, Simon Watts spoke to the man she saved. |
| 0:47.0 | On the morning of September 11, 2001, Michael Hingson was on the 78th floor of the World Trade Center. |
| 0:54.0 | He was working as the office manager for a data storage firm. |
| 0:58.0 | We had planned to conduct four sale seminars that day. |
| 1:02.0 | 50 people coming in in the course of the day and we had food arranged for them. |
| 1:07.0 | Reselle was asleep under my desk. |
| 1:09.0 | I was reaching for a stationery to create a list of all of the people who were attending the seminars. |
| 1:14.0 | When we heard a muffled thump or explosion, |
| 1:18.0 | and then the building began to literally tip in one direction, |
| 1:23.0 | and the building actually tipped about 20 feet before it stopped and came back to its regular position. |
| 1:29.0 | We had no idea what happened. |
| 1:39.0 | In fact, the 9-11 hijackers had flown one of their airplanes into the North Tower of the Trade Center, |
| 1:45.0 | 20 floors above Michael's office. |
| 1:48.0 | His colleague David Frank began to describe what he could see. |
| 1:52.0 | David looked out the window and saw things falling outside the window and started shouting, |
| 1:56.0 | oh my god, Mike, there's fire and smoke above us. |
... |
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