Before any elected official or public-safety chief spoke Friday morning, the crowd gathered at Fire Station 1 watched a video of Father Mychal Judge, the New York Fire Department chaplain, addressing firefighters on Sept. 10, 2001.
The next morning, Judge entered the North Tower with firefighters responding to the attacks. He was killed when debris from the collapse of the South Tower tore through the North Tower lobby. His body was among the first recovered, and he was designated Victim 0001 — the first officially recorded victim of Sept. 11.
That was how Coral Gables opened its commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Then came the rituals the city has repeated for years: an invocation, presentation of the colors, the national anthem, remarks from elected and public-safety leaders, and a Ceremony of Remembrance built around a tolling bell, a final radio call and “Taps.”
A mayor who remembers watching it unfold
Mayor Vince Lago, who was a student at Florida International University on the morning of the attacks, told the crowd he watched the day unfold in real time, in disbelief, alongside a country grappling with confusion, fear and profound sadness.
He noted that nearly 3,000 people were killed in New York, at the Pentagon and aboard Flight 93 over Pennsylvania. Every name, he said, left behind a family that has lived for 25 years with an empty chair, a missed milestone and “an immeasurable loss.”
Lago also turned to those still living with the consequences of Sept. 11: first responders and recovery workers suffering illnesses linked to their service at Ground Zero.
“Their sacrifice did not end when the fires were extinguished,” he said, “and our responsibility to honor and support them must not end either.”
He closed with the refrain printed on the program and repeated throughout the morning: remember the lives taken, honor the heroes who answered the call and never forget.
Police and fire chiefs reflect on duty
Police Chief Edward J. Hudak Jr. spoke about officers who run toward danger. Fire Chief Marcos De La Rosa followed with remarks about the firefighters who climbed into the towers as others were evacuating.
Former Mayor Don Slesnick, who led the Coral Gables City Commission on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, and was preparing to open a meeting when news of the attacks reached the dais, returned 25 years later to lead the Pledge of Allegiance.
Also recognized were former mayors Dorothy Thomson, Raul Valdes-Fauli and Jim Cason, along with former Commissioner Kirk Menendez and Miami-Dade County Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez.
A bell, a radio call and a bugle
The ceremony’s final segment proceeded without applause.
A fire department bell sounded three sets of five tolls, a traditional fire-service signal honoring fallen firefighters. Long before radios, departments used coded bell signals to communicate; the 5-5-5 toll became a sign of honor and respect when a firefighter died in the line of duty.
A ceremonial final radio call followed over the department’s dispatch frequency, ending with the words: “Your watch has ended. We have it from here.”
Then came a moment of silence and “Taps,” as the Police and Fire Honor Guard stood at attention with a bagpiper before retiring the colors.
In closing, organizers offered a statistic intended to explain why the ritual carries a different responsibility 25 years later: nearly 37 percent of the country’s population, they said, was either not yet born or too young to remember Sept. 11 when it happened.
For a growing share of the audience, Sept. 11 is no longer a shared memory being revisited. It is history being learned.
That transition was reflected nationally Friday. At the National September 11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan, organizers added a seventh moment of silence to the six traditionally marking the attacks and collapses. The new observance honored first responders, recovery workers, survivors and others who died in the years afterward from illnesses and injuries related to Sept. 11. It will become a permanent part of the annual ceremony.
The Coral Gables Fire and Police departments held their 25th-anniversary ceremony at Fire Station 1 as communities across the country marked a quarter century since the attacks.
