Supporting their brothers, sisters

For Sycamore Assistant Fire Chief Marc Doty, being a firefighter means you’re part of a brotherhood.

“The fire service is really supportive when we lose a brother or a sister,” Doty said.

And when more than 300 firefighters were killed during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, Sycamore and DeKalb firefighters wanted to support New York City firefighters in some way.

Since it was such an immense tragedy, everyone wanted to flock to New York to help with recovery efforts, Doty said. But the city and the International Association of Firefighters requested that firefighters from across the country attend funerals and memorials of those firefighters who had died, he said.

Typically, when public servants are killed in the line of duty, their funerals or memorials tend to draw large groups of their own, DeKalb paramedic Lt. Mike Thomas said. Because of the massive loss of firefighters, the FDNY was unable to give all of its firefighters an appropriate funeral, he said, hence the request for support from other departments.

Sycamore and DeKalb fire departments each sent groups to New York City in the months after Sept. 11 to attend funerals or memorials. Doty said it helped the grieving FDNY community to be able to talk with out-of-town firefighters who understood the job.

Doty said they kept in mind that they were there to support the FDNY community and firefighters’ families – wherever they lived. When Jim Lyon, a retired Sycamore firefighter, first went to the International Association of Firefighters memorial in Colorado Springs, Colo., he met a woman named Rose Foti, whose son Bobby, an FDNY firefighter with Engine 16-Ladder 7, was killed at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.

Lyon became good friends with Foti, who also met other Sycamore firefighters in New York City and once visited Sycamore to cook for the firefighters, he said.

Lyon, who has visited the Colorado memorial several times, said it was emotionally draining to see the hundreds of names of the deceased listed on its granite walls. He said he couldn’t imagine what the Sycamore firefighters who went to New York City went through.

DeKalb Fire Chief Bruce Harrison said he was at a training event in Maryland on Sept. 11. In the class with him were firefighters from New York, and their reactions to the news is something Harrison won’t soon forget.

“The memories are intense, and the memories are intact,” Harrison said.

The morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when DeKalb firefighter Joe Cahill saw the initial image on TV of the fire in one of the towers, he said he first thought, that’s going to be a lot of work for those guys, putting out a high-rise fire.

But once Cahill learned it was much more than a fire in one of the towers, Cahill said he was filled with an incredible sense of loss and sorrow, not just for emergency personnel, but for the civilians.

“Also a great sense of vulnerability that harm can come our way when we don’t expect it like that,” Cahill said.

Cahill recalled attending a funeral on Long Island, N.Y., after arriving in the city in December 2001. The crowd attending the service spilled out from the building, and speakers were set up outside to allow others to hear.

“It’s such a brotherhood,” Cahill said. “It truly was an honor to go there representing the firefighting service.”

Thomas and Lt. Tom Murphy recalled visiting the FDNY’s 10 House, named for Engine 10-Ladder 10, which is located next to ground zero. At the time they happened to be there, the remains of three firefighters found at ground zero passed by on stretchers draped with a flag. Thomas, Murphy and the others in the group were able to be part of the processional and pay their respects.

Murphy called the moment “gripping” and said it was a reminder of why they were there.

“You’re here to support these guys that are working 24/7 on this pile,” Murphy said.

Thomas said attending a funeral the first night they were in New York City set the tone that the trip would be an emotional one.

Murphy also spoke of the feeling of brotherhood and the realization while in New York that all firefighters, whether in a large or small community, have the same task.

Doty, Cahill, Thomas and Murphy all mentioned the warm welcome they received by New York firefighters as well as citizens, from boxes of hats and T-shirts to free meals.

“People went out of their way to thank us for coming,” Cahill said.

“They pretty much gave us the hospitality, and we’re there to help them,” Murphy said.

Ten years later, Cahill said firefighters know the threats of the job are real but they enjoy serving their communities. Firefighters appreciate the respect they receive from others, he said.

Murphy said he believes Sept. 11 is an event that’s shaping America’s history.

“I just hope that the public realizes that and sees the remembrance for what it is,” Murphy said.

“This day doesn’t belong to firefighters. It doesn’t belong to police officers. It belongs to the entire country,” Thomas said.