Editor’s note: The story below originally ran on Sept. 11, 2017 to mark the 16th anniversary of 9/11.

The World Trade Center poked through the clouds in a photo captured 17 years after the 2001 terrorist attacks

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Steve Buscemi is known for portraying mysterious men, gangsters and bad guys in Hollywood — but 18 years ago, on Sept. 11, 2001, he played a very different role.

The Brooklyn-born actor used his background as a real-life New York City firefighter to rescue 9/11 survivors from the rubble of the World Trade Center.

From 1980 to 1985, Buscemi worked in downtown Manhattan’s Engine Company 55, a few blocks from the disaster, and he rejoined his former comrades amid the wreckage on the day of the attacks.

“He put in 60 hours on top of the pile, pulling out victims,” retired NYFD battalion chief Richard Ardisson, who was at the site with the actor, told PEOPLE in Oct. 2001. “Not delivering coffee or giving moral support. He was exhausted and covered in soot.

“He said he wanted no recognition. He said, ‘These are my brothers.’ ”

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Buscemi, who took the FDNY civil service test when he was 18 and worked as a firefighter in the 1980s, worked 12-hour shifts for days after 9/11, reported Business Insider.

“It was a privilege to be able to do it. It was great to connect with the firehouse I used to work with and with some of the guys I worked alongside,” he said. “And it was enormously helpful for me because while I was working, I didn’t really think about it as much, feel it as much.”

Hardly anyone knows about Buscemi’s heroic actions, because he declined most interviews at the time.

But the Brotherhood of Fire Facebook page posted a photo of him in 2013, with the caption:

“Do you recognize this man? Do you know his name? Lots of people know he’s an actor, and that his name is Steve Buscemi. What very few people realize is that he was once one of New York’s Bravest.

“In 1976 Steve Buscemi took the FDNY civil service test when he was just 18 years old. In 1980 Steve Buscemi became a New York City Firefighters. For four years, Buscemi served on one of FDNY’s busiest, Engine Co. 55 in Manhattan’s Little Italy. He later left the fire service to become a successful actor, writer and director.

“After 9/11/2001… Brother Buscemi returned to FDNY Engine 55.

“On September 12, 2001 and for several days following Brother Steve worked 12-hour shifts alongside other firefighters digging and sifting through the rubble from the World Trade Center looking for survivors.