Twenty-five years ago today, thousands of first responders rushed toward danger as the September 11th attacks unfolded in New York City.
Firefighters, police officers, emergency medical workers, and other responders raced to the World Trade Center to help people trapped inside the towers and those trying to escape.
The attacks claimed the lives of 2,977 people.
Among them were 412 first responders in New York.
The New York City Fire Department lost 343 firefighters and emergency medical personnel.
The New York City Police Department lost 23 officers, while 37 Port Authority Police officers were killed.
Eight private emergency medical workers and one New York Fire Patrol firefighter also died.
For many of the responders who survived, the work did not end when the towers collapsed.
Thousands were exposed to smoke, dust, and hazardous materials while searching for survivors and recovering victims at Ground Zero.
In the years since the attacks, many first responders and survivors have developed serious illnesses connected to their exposure at the World Trade Center.
As part of my research for this story, I sat down with two area first responders, Tom and TJ Weikart, who have served our community for decades.
We talked about September 11th, the sacrifices made by first responders, and what that day continues to mean to those who have dedicated their lives to helping others.
Bellefontaine Mayor Dave Crissman also has a personal memory of that morning.
On September 11th, 2001, Crissman was on duty with the Bellefontaine Fire Department.
That morning, the department received a call from a firefighter’s wife telling them to turn on the television because a plane had hit the World Trade Center.
They turned on the TV and saw the hole in the tower and smoke pouring from the building.
Then, while listening to the reporter, they watched the second plane hit the other tower.
Crissman immediately knew this was no accident.
He says, as a firefighter, he knew that if he were a New York firefighter that morning, he would be at Ground Zero in some way.
But while the attacks were unfolding thousands of miles away, the Bellefontaine firefighters still had a job to do.
Crissman says they continued responding to calls that day, but the attitude of both the fire department staff and the people they were helping was noticeably different for many days afterward.
He also remembers how quiet the community became without airplanes in the sky.
I also asked people on social media over the past few days what they remember about September 11th, 2001.
Their memories show just how differently that morning unfolded for people across our community.
Nathan Motter was one week into the police academy.
He didn’t have class that morning and had decided to sleep in.
His aunt called and told him to turn on the television.
He turned it on about five minutes before the second plane hit the World Trade Center.
He remembers his aunt saying, “I think we’re under attack.”
After the plane hit the Pentagon, she told him, “We’re watching history unfold before our very eyes right now.”
Later that afternoon, Motter was called into work at The Lima News, where he was a part-time sports writer.
Because of his experience as a general assignment reporter, he was asked to write reaction stories for a special edition newspaper.
Over the following weeks, the newspaper’s coverage became focused almost entirely on the attacks.
Brian Evans was just beginning his career as a reporter at the Bellefontaine Examiner.
He was at the Bellefontaine Police Department gathering news reports when the attacks happened.
He remembers how eerie downtown Bellefontaine felt in those moments.
For EJ TRex, the memories go back to being young and watching the events unfold at home with his parents.
His father called his mother from work, crying, and told her to turn on the television.
He says the experience stayed with him and eventually helped inspire him to enter public service.
Diana Gamble was working with the Logan County chapter of the American Red Cross.
She was out to lunch when she heard what had happened.
By that afternoon, local disaster-relief volunteers were being placed on alert, and additional emergency training was being planned.
Gamble remembers Logan County sending five people to assist with the response, including Cynthia Defibaugh to Shanksville, Joe Berger to Washington, D.C., and Connie Regula, Marsha Smith, and another mental health counselor to New York City.
She also remembers the phones ringing constantly with people who wanted to help or donate blood.
Gamble says the Logan County community stepped up, even though she personally wanted to go but couldn’t leave because the local Red Cross office had only two people working there.
Anthony Bernard was getting ready for the first day of chopping corn silage at a dairy farm.
After finishing morning chores, everyone was preparing to get to work when they became glued to the television.
At first, they thought the first plane crash was a horrific accident.
Then they watched the second plane hit.
Bernard says two things stand out in his memory: how Americans came together and how quiet the skies became in the days that followed.
Jill McKelvey was teaching at Benjamin Logan High School and team teaching with Luann Schmidtmeyer.
Students and teachers were asking questions about how a plane could have hit the first tower.
They eventually turned on the classroom televisions, and students watched the second plane hit live.
McKelvey remembers it as one of the most confusing times of her life as a teacher because she had no answers for what was happening, and everyone was watching it unfold in real time.
For Jean Siebert Wright, the day became intensely personal.
She remembers frantic phone calls among family members trying to determine whether two relatives who were New York City firefighters were safe.
One cousin had the day off but was called in to help with the aftermath.
Sadly, the family soon learned that her cousin’s husband, Dan, was last seen going up the stairs in the South Tower shortly before it collapsed.
He left behind his wife and three children, all under the age of ten.
For Cheryl Prickett Schroeder, the morning began with a trip to get gas for the mower.
She heard about the attacks on the radio, went to her parents’ house and watched the towers fall on television.
She remembers looking toward the south and wondering whether Wright-Patterson Air Force Base could be the next target.
Her husband was on a business trip in Chicago, and she remembers feeling alone as she tried to figure out what she would do to protect her children if something else happened.
She later learned that her husband and his colleagues had considered visiting the Sears Tower but changed their plans.
His usual rule of driving instead of flying when a destination was within six hours ultimately allowed him to drive home.
And Chad Wilkinson remembers that morning, too.
He had done the Morning Show that day and had scheduled a half-day off so he could take his dad to a medical appointment.
He was talking with Lou Vito when the first plane hit the tower.
At the time, they thought it was an accident.
He left the station to pick up his dad, and by the time they arrived for his appointment, the second plane had hit.
That’s when he knew we were under attack.
He spent the next few hours watching everything unfold from a waiting room while talking with Bill Tipple and helping arrange news updates throughout the day across the radio stations.
There were so many questions and so few answers, and they were trying to make sense of what was happening.
Later that afternoon, after he got his dad home and settled, he returned to the radio station.
He continued to help get news updates on the air while, like everyone else, anxiously waiting for answers and trying to understand what was happening to our country.
Before he left for the night, he and Ken Keller talked about what to do with the Nite Mix Show in light of everything that had happened.
They decided to simply let the listeners call in.
They would give them an opportunity to talk about the day, share their thoughts, and express whatever feelings they were experiencing.
It wasn’t until he got home and started talking with my wife that the emotions of the day really hit me.
Everything had happened so quickly.
We had spent the entire day focused on getting information on the air and trying to keep up with events as they unfolded. There simply hadn’t been time to stop and take in the magnitude of what had happened.
It was only when I finally got home, away from the station and the constant flow of information, that the reality of September 11th began to sink in.
Twenty-five years later, the memories remain.
For some, September 11th is remembered through the television images.
For others, it is remembered through a phone call, a classroom, a workplace, a quiet sky, a family member who never came home or a decision that changed the course of their lives.
And for first responders, it is also a reminder of the people who ran toward the danger when others were trying to escape.
Today, we remember the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives on September 11th, including the 412 first responders killed in New York.
We remember their families.
We remember those who survived.
And we remember the courage, sacrifice, and service of the men and women who answered the call that day.
