“20 years now, Where'd they go?”

Bob Seger posed that question 35 years ago and it has likely been asked today by every adult old enough to have witnessed the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. For all of us involved in public safety, this is a day we remember every single year, and for Firefighters in particular, we recall the 343 FDNY Firefighters that were killed when the World Trade Center towers came down. Not counted in the 343 is Patrolman Keith Roma, of the NY Fire Patrol (an organization similar to Rochester’s own Protectives) who was also killed while rescuing multiple people from the towers. According to the NYC Fire Wire, in the 20 years since, at least 279 other NYC Firefighters have died due to illnesses contracted while working ‘The Pile’.

Six hundred and twenty-three.