{"id":283962,"date":"2026-09-11T18:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T18:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/283962\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T18:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T18:42:13","slug":"reading-marks-25-years-since-9-11-with-solemn-remembrance-at-city-park-reading-eagle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/283962\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading marks 25 years since 9\/11 with solemn remembrance at City Park \u2013 Reading Eagle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twenty\u2011five years after the 9\/11 attacks, city leaders shared the importance of not letting the day\u2019s meaning fade into history.<\/p>\n

The Reading Fire Department\u2019s annual remembrance ceremony in City Park drew city officials, school board members and state lawmakers, all gathered to honor the nearly 3,000 people killed and the first responders whose actions inspired the nation.<\/p>\n

\"ReadingReading Fire Chief Robert Leonard II speaks during Reading\u2019s commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, on Friday in City Park. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n

For city fire Chief Robert Leonard II, the anniversary is personal. Leonard was a 16\u2011year\u2011old junior firefighter in Prince George\u2019s County, Md., when his high school abruptly dismissed classes on Sept. 11, 2001.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone came in the class and told us what was going on,\u201d he recalled. As parents arrived to pick up students, his sister asked him, \u201cWhat are we gonna do?\u201d<\/p>\n

Leonard drove her home, then headed straight to the firehouse. Within minutes, he said, firefighters told him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as I got to the firehouse, they said, \u2018Rob, get your gear together. We just got transferred to D.C.\u2019\u201d Leonard recalled.<\/p>\n

When the seventh alarm sounded at the World Trade Center, Leonard heard Prince George\u2019s Engine 11 respond. Soon after, his crew was sent to the Pentagon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe things that I saw and the things that I smelled I will personally never, ever forget,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rage and confusion followed him home that night, but the experience cemented his calling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what made me want to become part of the fire service,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Leonard, hired in Reading in 2025 after a 20\u2011year career in Maryland, became the first city fire chief to speak at the ceremony who wasn\u2019t serving in Reading on 9\/11.<\/p>\n

\"ReadingReading Police Assistant Chief Aaron Demko speaks during Reading\u2019s commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, on Friday in City Park. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n

Deputy Police Chief Aaron Demko also traced his career to the attacks. The Berks native was an 18\u2011year\u2011old \u201cnavigating my way through society\u201d when he watched the towers fall. Within days, he enlisted in the Marine Corps as an infantryman.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew a fight was coming,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He deployed to Iraq during the initial invasion and again during the mid\u20112000s surge.<\/p>\n

Demko said what remains clearest to him is the unity that followed.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolice and fire personnel ran into the chaos that day together, shoulder to shoulder,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Seventy\u2011two police officers and 343 firefighters died on 9\/11, the deadliest day in U.S. history for both professions.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir sacrifice and resolve unified this country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mayor Eddie Moran, who lived in Brooklyn and worked in Manhattan in 2001, described the lasting impact on New Yorkers. \u201cWhen that day was over, things never really went back to normal,\u201d he said. He recalled calling his wife to tell her to take their twins to safety, then phoning his workplace to ask where he should report. The aftermath, he said, became part of daily life\u2014constant security, constant vigilance. But he also remembered \u201chow a city and a nation came together\u201d in the days that followed.<\/p>\n

Speakers emphasized the responsibility to ensure 9\/11 does not become just another chapter in history, especially as a generation of young adults has grown up with no memory of the day.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Manny Guzman noted that some attendees were schoolchildren in Reading classrooms when teachers struggled to explain the images on TV, while others weren\u2019t even born. He urged the crowd to remember not only the attacks but \u201cthe choices that were made\u201d\u2014from office workers carrying strangers down stairwells to the 40 passengers and crew of Flight 93 who voted to fight back.<\/p>\n

\"ReadingReading Fire Marshal Jeremy Searfoss reads the names of the 343 New York firefighters who died on Sept. 11, 2001, during Reading\u2019s commemoration of the 25th Anniversary on Friday in City Park. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n

Fire Marshal Jeremy Searfoss detailed the ceremony\u2019s traditions, including the striking of the four fives, a historic fire\u2011service honor signaling a firefighter\u2019s death in the line of duty. He recited the Reading Fireman\u2019s Prayer before reminding attendees that the 343 FDNY members who died<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 343 members of the FDNY didn\u2019t set out that morning knowing that they would become part of American history,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were firefighters doing what firefighters have always done: protecting their communities and helping people in need. Their sacrifice reminds us that the fire service is built on something bigger than an individual. It is built on brotherhood, it is built on trust, and it is built on courage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Searfoss concluded with a reading of all 343 FDNY names beneath the September Tree, planted in 2002 to honor the victims and symbolize, as its plaque reads, \u201cthe daring heroism of the FDNY firefighters and the sheer resiliency of the American spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FromFrom left, Reading Firefighter Union Local 1803 president Micahel Shoumliksy, Reading Fire Chief Robert Leonard II and Mayor Eddie Moran place a wreath at the Sept. 11 tree during the city\u2019s commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, on Friday in City Park. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)
\n\"MayorMayor Eddie Moran speaks during Reading\u2019s commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, on Friday in City Park. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twenty\u2011five years after the 9\/11 attacks, city leaders shared the importance of not letting the day\u2019s meaning fade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,182,139,28,736,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-283962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}