{"id":467455,"date":"2026-09-18T02:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T02:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/467455\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T02:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T02:44:09","slug":"los-al-fire-tech-students-form-own-memories-of-9-11-to-honor-343-firefighters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/467455\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Al fire-tech students form own memories of 9\/11 to honor 343 firefighters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo by David N. Young
\nMr. Weatherman\u2019s Fire Tech class joined by firefighters from the Orange County Fire Authority at the base of the LAHS flagpole to honor the 343 firefighters who died heroically on 9\/11. The class created a memorial using 343 mini American flags to shape a \u201c343\u201d which now rests at the base of the campus flagpole. <\/p>\n

Early Friday morning, while family members read the names of their loved ones lost on 9\/11 two thousand, five hundred miles away in New York, fire technology students at Los Alamitos High School were honoring brave firefighters with their own flag-line memorial.<\/p>\n

On the 25th Anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, firefighting professionals from Orange County Fire Authority joined fire tech students and their instructors, gathered around the American flag at LAHS with their own heartfelt memorial.<\/p>\n

With old-glory waving in the wind above, students, administrators, and fire professionals solemnly paid tribute to 343 men and women from various fire services who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001, in service to others.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made sure they understood that these flags represented not just people from the past, but their families. They were husbands and wives, just normal people who answered a call before losing their lives,\u201d said Ryan Weatherman, the fire tech instructor at the school.<\/p>\n

The memorial included 343 small American flags, one for each firefighter who died on that tragic day, woven together into a piece of art that read \u201c343.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Friday morning, it was placed at the base of the large American flagpole in front of the school\u2019s multi-story administrative building on Cerritos Ave. in Los Alamitos.<\/p>\n

According to Weatherman, the project proved moving and instructive, especially for students not yet born when the tragedy occurred.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a fire tech program here. I\u2019m the EMT program director for North Orange County ROP and Los Alamitos. We also teach fire technology here as the students\u2019 elective option, and back there is a student art project for a memorial art project. It\u2019s the number 343 with 343 American flags in it, representing all the firefighters who died on 9\/11,\u201d he said on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really cool thing for all of these students who are interested in a career in the fire service but weren\u2019t even born and did not witness the 9\/11 attack, to kind of imagine and make the sacrifice of these firefighters very real,\u201d he said.
\u201cIt (9\/11) really changed a lot in the fire service,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s really important that the students understand that (being in the fire service) is not all just about you or being heroes and cool stuff like that,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about helping your fellow person, helping anybody whenever they call, whatever the need may be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s really important and why we connect the students with the flags, to connect them. When we were putting them together, each flag represented a firefighter, but also their family,\u201d said Weatherman.<\/p>\n

Students agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were honoring all the firefighters that gave it all at 9\/11 and things they did knowing that they might not be going to be able to come home,\u201d said student Cole Michael Hurley.\u201cThat they risked all so other people may live is a beautiful thing, and we should honor them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hurley also praised the fact that Los Al High has a fire tech program at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo go into a class where you get to work hands-on with all the equipment is a very cool class, and I\u2019m very happy and very lucky to have a class where I get to be what I want to do in my future,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m very grateful for Los Al to have that.\u201d
Another student, Cole Romero, said, to him, working on the project brought home the bravery and generosity of service demonstrated by the firefighters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese men and women knew the risk; they knew what they were doing, they knew they might not come home at the end of the day, but they decided to give up the rest of their lives to save so many more who could have died in Sept. 11th,\u201d said Romero.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis place (LAHS) is very nourishing, and it teaches you a lot about how the fire department works and how everything goes, and it\u2019s just very, very helpful and very promising to help our futures out,\u201d he added<\/p>\n

In addition to an engine company from the Orange County Fire Authority, Supt. of Schools Dr. Andrew Pulver and Principal Cara Vienna looked on as prospective firefighters joined the professionals for the 343-flag memorial.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis project drove home the point that this job does require a lot, it connected the past with the future and made sure the students knew that you have to study and practice like your life depends on it, because one day it probably will,\u201d said Weatherman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo by David N. Young Mr. Weatherman\u2019s Fire Tech class joined by firefighters from the Orange County Fire…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-467455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}