FDNY Firefighters Stand in for Bride's Dad, Killed on 9/11

Megan Sims

cleveland.com

(TNS)

A bride’s emotional TikTok video has gone viral, showing how members of her late father’s fire station stepped in to represent him at her wedding nearly 24 years after his death on Sept. 11, 2001.

Kristin Schnacky was just three years old when her father Kenneth Marino, of FDNY Rescue 1, died in the collapse of the Twin Towers, Parade reports.

The video begins with Schnacky in her wedding dress walking through an ornate wooden door held open by a white-gloved doorman.

“My dad couldn’t show up to my wedding because he was taken from us on September 11th, so look who did,” she wrote over the clip.

As she descended the red-carpeted steps, she was greeted by a line of firefighters standing at attention in front of their truck.

The bride explained that both current and retired firefighters from her father’s station attended the ceremony. Visibly emotional, Schnacky wiped tears from her eyes as she posed for photos with the firefighters.

“I finally understand why they say ‘It’s a brotherhood,’” she wrote. “I know my dad was smiling down knowing I was taken care of.”

Her wedding, which took place at Rockefeller Center’s 620 Loft & Garden rooftop venue with St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the background, had already gained attention online when office workers from about 35 floors above captured footage of her walking down the aisle.

The connection to her father particularly resonated with TikTok users.

One commenter noted, “They all look so proud.” Another wrote, “All these years and they still showed up. Your dad must have been a hell of a guy.”

Many commenters shared personal connections to Marino, including someone who wrote:

“Your dad saved my dad’s life on 9/11. In the stairwell. He shoved my dad downstairs for his safety while he climbed the stairs to help.”

Another commenter identified Marino as “one of the few to make it up to the higher floors of the North Tower to fight fires.”

According to Parade, Marino’s body was never recovered after the attacks. Schnacky chose to get married in New York City to feel closer to her father on her wedding day.

“Thank you for never forgetting FDNY,” she concluded in her post.

This story was written with the assistance of AI.