TONIGHT, the son of arguably the most high-profile victim of the World Trade Centre attacks, will collect a £32,000 cheque to support a fund set up in his father's honour.

David Higgerson spoke to Chris Ganci about the fund, his father and why his trip to Lancashire is so poignant...

SIX days after two aeroplanes hit the World Trade Centre towers, Chris Ganci stood in front of the smouldering remains -- 60 acres of devastation made up of rubble, dust and twisted metal.

It was amid such horror that Chris made one solitary vow that his father would never be forgotten -- and nor would the 300 firemen who perished in America's worst post-war disaster.

Chris's father was Peter Ganci, the New York fire chief who always lived to the rule that he would never send his crews into a building he would not enter.

It was to be a motto which cost Peter, 54, his life on September 11, a fact which has kept his second youngest son, Chris, awake almost every night since.

Peter was buried in the first tower and escaped, only to be killed in the second one.

Chris said: "I don't know whether it was good or bad for me to go there but it made up my mind that I had to do something.

"Each of the firemen was incredibly brave. They were working in what can only have been absolute hell.

"Bodies were falling from the sky, buildings were falling down.

"After the first tower collapsed, they rushed into the second tower to help other people out. They died.

"To me, the scene I saw represented both the best of humanity and the worst.

"I still can't comprehend what prompts someone to commit such an act but the bravery of the firemen showed just what man can do.

"It was so hot in those towers that even the steel was melting. The massive piles of steel which were the towers were so compact you just couldn't find space.

"I went down after they found my father's body. I can still remember where it was, in between the two towers on what was West Street."

Chris knows the story of his father's bravery off by heart.

He said: "My dad would never send a person into a building he wasn't willing to go into himself. He was in the first tower when it collapsed. He was buried.

"The Mayor Rudolph Guiliani, of New York City was down there too. Thirty minutes later, my dad came digging out, mad as anything.

"He assumed command and started getting everybody out of there.

"He told the mayor and the other officials to go two blocks north and set up a new command post.

"They thought my dad was coming with them but he headed south to help more people.

"The Mayor turned around and said: 'Pete, God bless you.' My dad said back to him: 'God bless you.'

"I have only been to Ground Zero once. It was enough for me though to know that I had a duty to keep the memory of the firemen alive."

Out of that determination came the Peter J Ganci Memorial, which Chris, who still holds down a job at a pharmaceutical firm, has been working on ever since that visit to Ground Zero.

He said: "Keeping my father's memory alive has been quite easy. He was so well known and achieved so much that he had done much of the work for me.

"But many of my friends were also firemen, and they died. They were the same age as me, 25 or 26.

"They became just faces in a crowd, like a footnote and I was worried their memories would be forgotten.

"Firefighters aren't the best paid people in the world.

"One of the first things I aimed to do with the memorial was set up scholarships in each of the communities the firemen had come from.

"Each year, the family of that fireman can come together and help pick someone who deserves a scholarship to help them through further education.

"That way, every year, a group can gather and the name of that fireman be remembered, as well as for what he did.

"I had a friend, Mike, who died. He would have been jipped if this hadn't been set up.

"He would have lost his life and not been remembered."

He added: "The other thing I hope to do is provide money for firemen to become better educated.

"They need that education to progress, be it within or outside the fire service. Many of them haven't had the best education.

"It is about improving things, making something good come from something very bad."

The memorial has brought Chris to Lancashire this week.

Some £62,000 has been raised for American firefighters by people in Lancashire since September 11.

Around £32,000, or around $45,000, will be handed over to the memorial fund at a ceremony in Preston tonight.

Peter Ganci had been friends with deputy chief fire officer John Williamson for around 15 years after the pair met at a conference.

Peter visited Lancashire on many occasions and played a part in developing the county's new arson reduction policies.

Chris said: "I went to Italy before Christmas to get some money which had been raised like in Lancashire but this trip is much more special.

"My father had such fond memories of Lancashire, he always came back with a smile on his face, telling stories about where he had been and what he had done.

"I am amazed by the amount of money which has been raised but it shows how people can pull together in the face of tragedy.

"I wanted to see Lancashire and I am thrilled to be here but also very sad.

"I want to meet the people and see the places my father did but by doing that I am getting sadder and missing him more.

"It is so nice that he is remembered here. It is a sweet-bitter trip for me."

Chris flies back to America on Saturday but he has a message he wants to leave behind.

He added: "Whatever evil took place that day, there was that much good also. My father is a crowning example of that.

"The worst of humanity, which was displayed that day, was cancelled out by what my father and others did.

"I remember that 25,000 lives were saved because of my father and his firefighters.

"There are 25,000 other families in New York who don't have to go through the pain I'm going through now because of them.

"You have to see Ground Zero to appreciate what went on. So much happened there, so much of it good.

"That is why their memory should live on."