Firefighters reflect and honour fallen colleagues and 9/11 anniversary

“We just started watching TV with complete amazement as to what was unfolding down there. A couple of hours later we start seeing the aircraft flying over Gander and landing, and that’s when the US closed their air space, and it was just one aircraft after another.”

Passengers sat in the airplanes for a while before the call was made around 7:00 p.m. to start unloading. Cole was in charge of getting people from the aircraft into the terminal using school buses as transport.

Flight crews were housed in the hotels, while the passengers had schools and social halls set up for them to use as shelters. It took almost 24 hours before all the passengers were unloaded from the aircraft and set up in town.

Cole says the good people of Gander, a town of around 11,000 people, welcomed their unexpected visitors with open arms.

“There was people doing everything from picking up passengers and taking them to their houses for showers, food, places to stay. If they were walking on the side of the road people would stop and ask them where they were going, take them to Walmart or Shoppers, or wherever they needed to go. The entire community chipped in and helped out where they needed to.”

Cole says he spends every 9/11 anniversary reflecting on the day and the firefighters lost when the World Trade Center buildings collapsed.

“There were people from all over the world who stopped in Gander, and they had no idea where in the world they were, let alone if they were safe. Reflecting on the fact we were able to provide them a safe haven and comfort them. A lot of them in the beginning didn’t know what actually happened.”

Cole is happy to see the federal government acknowledge and support the sacrifices firefighters make in this country by making Firefighters’ National Memorial Day an annual event.

Acting Chief of Red Deer Emergency Services Tyler Pelke says the event is very personal to him, especially when he thinks about everything he’s seen in his 27 years as a firefighter, both on the front lines and now in an administrative role.

“I’ve seen line-of-duty deaths, I’ve seen firefighter friends of mine, colleagues whom I’ve worked with both hurt and injured and unfortunately some killed in the line of duty in actual fires. Some friends lost due to presumptive illness, things like cancers. First responders are generally the ones running towards danger, and they sign up for that. We sign up for that job.”

Pelke says ideally everyone goes home safe, but they are well aware of the risks working in a high-hazard field such as firefighting.

“A lot of job-related stresses come from that too. So it’s a very important time to pause and reflect, and for the community, it offers them a time to become a part of that if they choose to do so.”

There will be an in-person ceremony that is open to the public on Sunday at City Hall Park starting at 9:30 a.m.

Pelke says members of the Red Deer Fire Department will be on hand, as they have also invited members from surrounding communities.

by Jordan Davidson (Twitter: @JordanDHeyNow)

Firefighters reflect and honour fallen colleagues and 9/11 anniversary

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