Members of the Irvington Fire Department give an official salute during their impromptu memorial service outside headquarters in Civic Square on Monday, Sept. 11, in honor of firefighters and other first responders who made the ultimate sacrifice after the terrorist attacks at the Twin Towers, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field in Pennsylvania.
IRVINGTON, NJ — The Irvington Fire Department held its own impromptu 9/11 Memorial Tribute outside its Civic Square headquarters Monday, Sept. 11, marking the 16th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and an empty field in Pennsylvania where an aborted attempt on the U.S. Capitol tragically ended when passengers overpowered hijackers and crashed the airplane.
“We just came out today to show respect to our brothers and sisters on 9/11. This is the 3rd Platoon and we’re just out here making sure that we pay our respects to everything that happened at that time,” said FMBA Local 305 Vice President Mike Scott, who organized the tribute along with union President Alex Lima, and other firefighters of all ranks. “A couple of guys here were actually there during that time, so we actually had some of our firefighters from Irvington actually down there at 9/11. We don’t just fight fires. There are about 80 different things that we do besides fighting fires. A lot of people have that misconception that we sit around and do absolutely nothing and wait for a fire to happen, but that’s totally untrue.”
Public Safety Department Director Tracy Bowers was unable to participate in the tribute, but said he was with the firefighters in spirit.
“The tribute was authorized by me and the fire chief,” said Bowers on Tuesday, Sept. 12, in reference to Irvington Fire Department Chief Antonio Gary. “It’s always a good thing to commemorate the lives of those emergency service workers who served us gallantly, as well as the victims who perished on that tragic day, 9/11. We continue to pray for their families.”
Scott thanked Bowers and Gary for allowing the firefighters to have a memorial tribute and echoed his sentiments of gratitude to all the “heroes and heroines” of 9/11 and today.
“We just wanted to put something together,” said Scott on Monday, Sept. 11. “Actually, one of our members helped us put this together. We just wanted to do something to remember. … This is something for us. It’s a service thing.”
Lima agreed, saying it’s their job to try and save lives.
“It’s a shame that the township didn’t do something for 9/11 this year, the way that we’ve done in the past, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t do anything ourselves to honor the men and women, our brothers and sisters, and friends, families and loved ones that died on 9/11,” said Lima on Tuesday, Sept. 12.
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