Philly officials gathered to honor first responders who died on 9/11. For those who lived, ‘there’s no danger of ever forgetting.’
Police, firefighters, and Mayor Jim Kenney remembered victims of 9/11 in a ceremony at the Betsy Ross House Sunday.
It was 21 years ago when firefighter Adam K. Thiel left his Virginia home and his 2-week-old daughter to respond to the Pentagon, not knowing he wouldn’t return to her until three days later. By then, the world had changed.
On Sunday morning, Thiel — now the commissioner of the Philadelphia Fire Department — stood in the pouring rain in an Old City courtyard and rang a memorial bell in honor of the 2,977 who died on Sept. 11, 2001, hundreds of them firefighters and other first responders.
And he wondered aloud about how those like his daughter who have no memory of the attack might remember it.
“I hope that one can remember, whether or not one was involved — or even alive — in that event,” he said. But for those who responded, “there’s no danger of ever forgetting.”
Thiel was among a handful of city officials who gathered Sunday morning at the Betsy Ross House for an annual 9/11 remembrance ceremony hosted by the Philadelphia Flag Day Association and the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
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Police and firefighters, marching alongside the Philadelphia Police and Fire Department Pipes & Drums, paraded down Arch Street from the Fireman’s Hall Museum, which they left at 9:59 a.m., the moment the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed.
Mayor Jim Kenney said he found it hard to believe it has been 21 years since “this devastating act of terrorism changed our lives forever.” He said the nation “came together to heal and did not let fear take over our lives,” saying the city has similarly become stronger over the last two years as it grappled with the pandemic and other challenges.
“I know this,” he said, “because I’ve witnessed the heroic actions of our first responders and essential personnel throughout the pandemic, Hurricane Ida, and other emergencies, and they do this day in and day out in service of others.”
Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said that while the world saw “the very worst of what people can do” on that fateful day, it also saw strength and resilience.
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“It’s difficult to juxtapose the atrocity of September 11th with the beauty, the selflessness that so many people exhibited,” she said. “There were literally hundreds of everyday people who risked their lives to extend a hand to a total stranger.”
And she said those lost more than two decades ago were “more than just their occupation.”
“Police officers, firefighters, medics, soldiers, bankers,” she said. “They were mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, grandmothers, grandfathers, neighbors, and friends.”