It’s been seventeen years since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the National City Fire Department continues to remember the lives that were lost.
National City firefighters held their annual 9/11 Breakfast and Remembrance Ceremony Tuesday morning to honor the first responders who lost their lives rescuing people during the Sept.11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.
“It’s very important that we continue to do this,” said retired National City Battalion Chief Don Miner. “The reason is that we never forget. We all kind of use that phrase many times, but when we first started doing this 16 years ago, we said we’re going to do some type of ceremony to make sure that we never forget. That we don’t forget the first responders, the military, all of the different people that perished on that day and made the ultimate sacrifice. So, we’re going to keep doing this as long as we can so that we don’t forget.”
The fire station had a previous address off 333 E. 16th St. But shortly after the attacks, Miner said the department — with approval from the city— changed the address number to 343, signifying the 343 New York firefighters who died during the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
The events of Sept.11, 2001, were a terrorist attack that killed nearly 3,000 people in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
New York City Fire Department lost 343 lives during the attack. The New York City Police Department lost 23 officers. The Port Authority Police Department lost 37 officers. Paramedics and EMT’s from private EMS units lost 8.
Since the attacks, 162 firefighters responding to the scene have died from cancer and other related illnesses.
In National City this week firefighters cooked and served breakfast burritos for those in attendance.
Walkways leading up to the fire station were lined with min-sized, garden American Flags as people walked down to make their way to the event.
As they have every year, there were display tables with artifacts from Ground Zero, a list of the names of each firefighter who died and firefighters from New York were present at the event.
Students from National City Middle School were on hand to learn about the Sept. 11 attacks, reminding Miner the reason for the remembrance ceremony.
“This is why we do this,” he said. “To remember for us, and a whole new generation of young students and kids that probably weren’t even born yet (when the attacks happened).”
