In a solemn ceremony on a rainy morning, city firefighters gathered Sunday with police officers and emergency personnel at the Bowling Green Fire Department’s central station to remember the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in a 10th anniversary memorial ceremony.
A steady rain that fell through much of the event moved the ceremony into the Moltenberry Headquarters Fire Station on East Seventh Avenue, though the stage from which the speakers addressed the crowd remained outdoors.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania after terrorists hijacked commercial airlines, two of which crashed into the World Trade Center towers and another that slammed into the Pentagon. A fourth crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers took control of the aircraft.
Sunday’s ceremony paid tribute to the first responders who died in the attacks.
“Never in American history has our nation’s public infrastructure suffered such a tragic loss,” BGFD Chief Greg Johnson said.
In all, 343 firefighters, 60 law enforcement officers and eight emergency medical providers lost their lives responding to the attacks.
Several BGFD firefighters, Bowling Green Police Department officers and Emergency Medical Services personnel from The Medical Center took turns reading the names of the first responders killed that day.
The remembrance was punctuated by a bell-ringing ceremony saluting the firefighters who died 10 years ago.
Traditionally, three rings of a bell would signify the end of a shift. BGFD firefighter Keith Potts gave the bell three sets of three rings in honor of the firefighters who died, denoting that their duties have been completed.
Following the bell-ringing ceremony, Sgt. Jeff Manning of the Glasgow Fire Department played a mournful rendition of “Amazing Grace” on the bagpipes.
Randy Fathbruckner, EMS director for The Medical Center, put into stark terms the toll that first responders took fighting the fires and tending to the dead and injured in the aftermath of the attacks.
Fires continued to smolder in New York for nearly 100 days and an estimated 14,000 to 19,000 people at the scene began suffering from chronic respiratory ailments afterward.
“One in five Americans knew someone that was either killed or hurt in the attacks,” Fathbruckner said.
Retired BGPD Assistant Chief Marieca Brown sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” near the beginning of the ceremony and Marty O’Callaghan, wife of BGFD Assistant Chief Brian O’Callaghan, sang “America the Beautiful” shortly before the closing.
The ceremony was one of several held throughout the area. Members of the local Rolling Thunder chapter planned to clean headstones belonging to veterans at Fairview Cemetery on Sunday afternoon.
Stephen Racz of Bowling Green Rolling Thunder Chapter 3 said the group’s vice president, Daren Bowen, noticed the condition of veterans’ headstones at another cemetery, which led to Bowen suggesting cleaning headstones at Fairview as a service project.
“We thought it was appropriate that our service project entail something with the veterans, and our chapter decided we would take this upon ourselves as a service project,” Racz said.
In Barren County, Glasgow joined several other communities by sounding outdoor warning sirens for one minute at noon on Sunday as part of a National Moment of Remembrance. Several churches also rang their bells during that time.
