9/11 emergency responders memorial ceremony held in Winnebago County

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — Community members and first responders gathered at the Winnebago County 9/11 Emergency Responders Memorial in Rockford to honor the sacrifices made by emergency personnel on September 11, 2001.

The ceremony included the laying of a wreath near a piece of steel beams from the World Trade Center, a solemn reminder of the nearly 400 first responders who lost their lives while trying to save others on that tragic day.

“People should understand that those individuals, our firefighters, our first responders, they ran into those towers when everybody else was running out. They were there to do a duty, to have a purpose to save lives. And they saved thousands of lives,” said Brian Carlson, vice president of Winnebago County 9/11 Emergency Responders Memorial.

The memorial, built in the mid-2010s, also includes a section dedicated to local first responders who have died in the line of duty.

At Midway Village Museum, firefighters participated in a bell-ringing ceremony, a tradition over 150 years old, marking the end of service for a fallen firefighter.

Since the 9/11 attacks, over 400 New York City firefighters have died from related illnesses, surpassing the number killed on the day of the attacks.

All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by WTVO. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat from a broadcast script into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by WTVO staff before being published.