A guide dog named Roselle led a group of people including her blind owner down 78 flights of stairs before the North Tower collapsed on 9/11. She only stopped to give kisses to a woman who was having a panic attack.
Roselle the guide dog did her job calmly through the ear-splitting noise and crashing debris that engulfed the 78th floor of the North Tower. Her owner, Michael Hingson, blind since birth, smelled jet fuel. Yet he trusted that his dog would not lead him into danger.
Unsure if Roselle could hear him or see hand signals through the smoke, Hingson gave the command “Forward.” Stopping only for dog kisses to calm a panicked woman, the canine-human team led a group of people down more than 1,463 steps to safety.
