Greg Carafello arrived at his office in New York’s South Tower shortly after 7am on 11 September 2001, unaware that the morning would alter the course of his life.
More than two decades later, the 66-year-old is working in the same World Trade Centre complex once again – this time from the 85th floor of One World Trade Centre.
Carafello’s digital printing business occupied the 18th floor of the South Tower. He and the employee who was in the office escaped safely after the first aircraft struck the North Tower, reaching ground level before the second plane hit at 9.03am.
“What happened was you hear a concussion, like a sonic boom almost,” he recalled in an interview with CBS New York. “It just changed your whole life in a second.”
The South Tower collapsed at 9.59am. Carafello later learned that his close friend James Martello, who worked for Cantor Fitzgerald in the North Tower, had been killed.
For years, Carafello said he had no wish to return to Manhattan. He eventually went back into business in the city and, on 1 May 2015, signed a lease at One World Trade Centre.
He is now regarded as the only business tenant from before the attacks to have returned to the World Trade Centre site, where he continues to work alongside his son.
Greg Carafello’s return to the World Trade Centre
Carafello has also devoted much of his time to preserving the memory of 9/11. Since September 2012, he has volunteered as a docent at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, guiding visitors through its exhibits and explaining the events surrounding the attacks.
He works a regular Friday shift with six other volunteers, a group known as “Friday’s Finest”, and has completed more than 1,550 hours at the museum.
In July 2026, Points of Light named him a Daily Point of Light honouree in recognition of his work educating visitors and younger generations about the attacks and their aftermath.
Carafello said returning to the site and speaking about what happened had helped him confront the loss and confusion that followed the attacks.
“Freedom’s not free,” he told CBS New York. “People pay a price. It’s normally warriors who pay it, but that day, it was just people going to work.”
