George Campbell couldn’t bring himself to drive past the site where he searched for his fallen brothers. Now, he spends his days there telling stories he says the world can’t forget
NEED TO KNOW
- Retired FDNY firefighter George Campbell was on the scene the day the Twin Towers fell on Sept. 11, 2001
- While he avoided the site for years after the attack, he now volunteers there as a docent for the 9/11 Memorial & Museum
- “It was important for me that we keep the story alive,” Campbell says
For 23 years, George Campbell actively avoided the area near the World Trade Center where the twin towers once stood. “I would literally go out of my way to drive and not pass it,” he says.
But since March of 2025, after retiring from a 37-year career with the New York City Fire Department, Campbell not only returned to the site where so many of his friends were killed, but decided to volunteer there as a docent for the 9/11 Memorial & Museum.
“It was important for me that we keep the story alive,” Campbell tells PEOPLE. Several times a month, he shows for his shift before 9:30 a.m. and stays for seven hours…