Ganci, Mosiello, and Chief of Operations Danny Nigro rushed there from their command post in downtown Brooklyn. Driving there in Ganci's car, they arrived on the scene in less than 10 minutes, and set up a command post on a ramp leading to a garage near the North Tower, in time to see United Airlines Flight 175 hit the South Tower at 9:03 A.M. According to Newsday, Ganci and others were in the basement of the South Tower when it collapsed at 9:59 A.M., but they dug themselves out of the rubble that had caved in on them. Ganci ordered his men to set up a different command post in a safer location, farther north of the buildings, and ordered Mosiello to acquire backup. However, Ganci himself returned to the buildings, coming to stand in front of 1 World Trade Center, where he was directing the rescue efforts with a multichannel radio, when the building collapsed. He and Mayor Rudy Giuliani had spoken just minutes before, when Giuliani had left for his command post, following Ganci's instruction to Giuliani for the fire commissioners and others to clear the area because it was apparent the North Tower would fall. However, Ganci himself did not evacuate the area, saying, "I'm not leaving my men", and remained at that location with William Feehan, first deputy commissioner of the fire department. Ganci and Feehan were killed when the North Tower collapsed at 10:28 A.M. After a rescue dog located Ganci's body, Ganci's fire team, including Mosiello, pulled it from beneath four feet of debris. Ganci's former supervisor, Howard Safir, commented that Ganci "would never ask anyone to do something he didn't do himself. It didn't surprise me that he was right at the front lines. You would never see Pete five miles away, in some command center." Ganci was survived by his sisters, Mary Dougherty and Ellen Ganci, his brothers, Dan and Jim, his wife, Kathleen, their sons, Peter Ganci III (a firefighter assigned to Ladder Company 111 in Brooklyn) and Christopher (also a firefighter in the FDNY), and their daughter Danielle, who lived with Ganci in Massapequa, New York. Legacy and memorials Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan was unofficially renamed for him as Ganci Air Base. On Memorial Day in 2003, the post office at 380 Main Street in Farmingdale, New York, was named for him. In 2003 Ganci's son, Chris Ganci, wrote