Crime & Safety
9/11 Memorials Set for Tuesday
Fairfield and Suisun City fire departments will honor the fallen Tuesday.
Local fire departments will be holding memorial events Tuesday to honor those lost on September 11, 2001.
Tomorrow's events, mark the 11th Anniversary of the attacks and Fairfield and Suisun City will join the nation in 9/11 observances.
From 6 a.m. to noon, Tuesday, the station at 621 Pintail Drive in Suisun City, along with the KROC Center, will have two steel beams from the World Trade Center on display on a trailer in the KROC Center parking lot.
Find out what's happening in Suisun Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
According to fire department officials, the public will be able to view and touch the beams from 6 a.m. to noon as firefighters stand guard. In addition, music will be playing and the fire bell will be rung at the precise time the towers fell.
The September 11, 2001 terrorist attack was the largest attack ever conducted on American soil.
Find out what's happening in Suisun Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
According to NYMAG.com, about 2,819 people were killed that day. Of that, 343 were fireman, 23 were New York City police officers, 37 were Port Authority police officers. In all, 2,996 lost their lives on that fateful morning, more than 6,000 were injured.
The steel beams came to Suisun City via an application filled out by Fire Chief Mike O’Brien in 2009. The beams arrived in 2011 and fire officials hope to raise funds to use them in a public art display.
Suisun City however, is not the only place in Solano County to have received beams, Dixon, Rio Vista and the Travis Air Force Base Fire Department have some as well.
Also tomorrow, at 7:30 a.m. the Fairfield Fire Department, at 1200 Kentucky Street, will be conducting an hour-long ceremony, according to Fire Chief Vincent Webster.“There will be a helicopter fly-over in slow formation and they peel off in respect of the firefighters and police officers that were killed,” he said. “Our local guest speaker is retired Marine Sgt. Major Jessie Branch.”
He added one police officer and one firefighter who were killed will be highlighted during the ceremony.
Webster said he was on a strike team working on a grass fire outside Angels Camp when the attacks began.
“We were on the fire line securing the fire line and getting ready to come back into base camp when a local resident came running down the street and told us what was going on,” he said. “She said, 'Here come down to my house and you can see it on TV,' When I finally got to her house, both towers were burning and just as I walked into her house, the first tower collapsed. We were just in awe. As I was walking out to get back to the group, the second tower collapsed. It was just an eerie, eerie feeling.”
Webster said he will never forget where he was or what he was doing on that day.
