Twenty-two years ago, nearly 100 members of the Los Angeles Fire Department were deployed to help with emergency response and recovery efforts following the 9/11 terror attacks on the other side of the country.
On Monday, Sept. 11, city and county elected officials, firefighters and members of law enforcement from throughout L.A. County came together not only to remember those who perished in the attacks, but to pay tribute to the heroes who responded to the call of duty more than two decades ago, and to the survivors and their loved ones.
“We are gathered here as a community to fulfill our ongoing promise and commitment to never ever forget,” LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley said during a morning ceremony at the LAFD Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center near Dodger Stadium. Behind her stood a 23-ton steel column from the base of the destroyed World Trade Center which volunteers brought to L.A. in 2003.
“We come together faithfully and with pure purpose, each and every year, to honor and remember the lives taken from us,” Crowley said.
In total, 2,977 victims from 93 nations died in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks when hijackers crashed planes into the Twin Towers in New York City’s World Trade Center, into the Pentagon, and into a field in Pennsylvania. The victims included 2,753 from Ground Zero in New York City, 184 people at the Pentagon and 40 people aboard United Airlines Flight 93 in Pennsylvania.
Crowley said 343 firefighters and paramedics, and 23 police from New York City, along with 37 officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, died that day while trying to save workers in the Twin Towers, not to mention thousands more who died later due to health issues stemming from exposure to hazards during the rescue and cleanup efforts in the months that followed.
“All of our lives have changed forever when terrorists attacked our nation and our very livelihood. In fact, the world changed as we knew it right before our own eyes,”…
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