{"id":342315,"date":"2026-09-09T23:35:03","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T23:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/342315\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T23:35:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T23:35:03","slug":"fdny-commemorates-lives-of-members-lost-on-and-since-9-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/342315\/","title":{"rendered":"FDNY commemorates lives of members lost on and since 9\/11"},"content":{"rendered":"

When they talked on 9\/11 about facing a new world, city officials didn\u2019t envision a fire department<\/a> that would continue to suffer traumatic losses from a 25-year-old terror attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot tell you your lived experience in this quarter century,\u201d FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said at a special FDNY commemorative ceremony<\/a> on the cusp of the 25th anniversary of the 9\/11 terrorist attack at Staten Island Ferryhawk Stadium Wednesday. \u201cI cannot pretend to know your pain. First, in losing so many in a single day, and then continuing to lose our people to illness in the years since.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know each of you carry a different story. Your losses fall in different years. Your loved ones wear different names. Your burdens, however, are all the same. You are united in grief and love, and that spirit is what brings us to this moment, to this stadium, to this skyline.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FromFrom left, FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito, FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore and Mayor Zohran Mamdani are pictured during the FDNY’s memorial service to commemorate the 25th anniversary of 9\/11 attacks and honor the 343 FDNY members who died that day, as well as the FDNY members, active and retired who have since died from World Trade Center-related illnesses at Staten Island University Hospital Community Park stadium on Staten Island on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (FDNY)<\/p>\n

In the weeks and months that followed, the number 343 was seared into the psyche of every New Yorker, representing the number of brave FDNY members who died on 9\/11.<\/p>\n

That number has since been surpassed by the 453 who have since died from cancers and respiratory illnesses related to toxic air at the site. Families and firefighters at Ferryhawk Stadium were there to remember them all.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe FDNY holds a memorial service to commemorate the 25th anniversary of 9\/11 attacks and honor the 343 FDNY members who died that day, as well as the FDNY members, active and retired who have since died from World Trade Center-related illnesses at Staten Island University Hospital Community Park stadium on Staten Island on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (FDNY)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe terrorist attack has had a profound impact on this department,\u201d said FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito. \u201cThere was grief, there was anger, and there was an enormous sense of loss. In two terrible and deliberate moments, we lost 343 members.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MembersMembers of the FDNY salute during the national anthem at a memorial to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9\/11 attacks, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in the Staten Island borough of New York. (AP Photo\/Pamela Smith)<\/p>\n

But even in the face of that loss, that anguish, the department still had to go on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to rebuild, we had to bring new members and prepare them for a job that had changed overnight,\u201d Esposito said. \u201cWe were faced with the new world. We had to strengthen our preparedness, and we had to learn from everything that happened that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople attend an FDNY memorial to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9\/11 attacks, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in the Staten Island borough of New York. (AP Photo\/Pamela Smith)<\/p>\n

Esposito looked on as a procession of flag-carrying uniformed firefighters filled the stadium\u2019s base paths as the sound of bagpipes filled the still, warm air.<\/p>\n

Above them, the faces of the fallen appeared on giant monitors as their names were read to the silent crowd that included Mayor Mamdani.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe FDNY holds a memorial service to commemorate the 25th anniversary of 9\/11 attacks and honor the 343 FDNY members who died that day, as well as the FDNY members, active and retired who have since died from World Trade Center-related illnesses at Staten Island University Hospital Community Park stadium on Staten Island on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (FDNY)<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are so much more than numbers,\u201d Esposito said. \u201cThey are names, we know, faces we remember, people we worked with, learned from, laughed with, and relied on. I knew and worked with many of the members we lost that day. And in the year since, I have watched far too many friends and colleagues become sick. Those losses have been heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When they talked on 9\/11 about facing a new world, city officials didn\u2019t envision a fire department that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,11,10,12,261,265],"class_list":["post-342315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-news","tag-nyc-crime","tag-sub-county-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}