As an honor guard lowered the U.S. flag to half-staff outside the Park City police station Friday morning, Lt. Vaifoa Lealaitafea sang the national anthem. It was the start of a ceremony honoring the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives on the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack in New York City.
Park City Police, Park City Fire, North Summit Fire and Summit County Sheriff’s officers, along with local elected officials, shared poignant stories of what they remember and who they lost.
Park City Councilmember Bill Ciraco was at work on Madison Avenue in Manhattan the morning of 9/11. At 8:48 a.m., he was on the phone with a friend who worked in the World Trade Center’s north building. Known as Tower 1, it was the first to be struck by the planes.
“His desk was on the 101st floor, and I was on the phone with him when the plane hit the building,” Ciraco said.
Ciraco said his first thought was it was just a small tourist plan that had gotten out of control. But soon it became clear it was something much bigger.
“There were images of the World Trade Center number one on TV with an enormous gash in the side and thick black acrid smoke pouring out, and it was at that moment that I knew that my friend was not going to make it out,” he said.
The anniversary is always somber for Ciraco. He hopes the people who lost their lives that day will never be forgotten.
Park City Police Chief Wade Carpenter shared his friend John “Rince” Rinciari’s story. The first responder has suffered for years from health issues tied to his Yonkers Emergency Services Unit’s efforts to pull victims from the tower rubble that day.
Carpenter said Rinciari witnessed thousands of dust-covered civilians march away from Ground Zero and hundreds of police, fire and EMS vehicles standing empty.
“As Rince and his crew approached the scene, searching for survivors, he was struck by the haunting cricket-like noise emanating from firefighter pass units or alarm locators that sound when the wearer doesn't move for 15 seconds,” Carpenter said.
Rinciari and other first responders spent days searching for survivors, then bodies, without proper gear. Carpenter said masks and construction respirators finally arrived on the third day.
Due to exposure, Rinciari has repeatedly suffered from respiratory illnesses — and he’s not the only one. New federal data shows at least 6,000 people have died due to 9/11-related illnesses in the years since.
Park City resident Scott Zink also spent days searching for people on 9/11. A New York Police Department officer at the time, Zink was just about to go home after a night shift when the first tower was hit.
“As we were heading into Manhattan, the second plane flew past me, and I watched it flying into the World Trade Center,” Zink said. “Right there, the world changed. You knew it wasn't an accident.”
Zink said he was lucky to make it out alive. He was originally supposed to go into the South Tower, but a decision was made not to send more first responders inside.
When the North Tower began to tilt, he took cover in a nearby parking garage. When the South Tower started to collapse, he hid under a van as chunks of concrete the size of semi trucks fell around him. Zink said the day was marked by this pattern.
“You got up, dusted yourself off, and went back in because we were OK and we needed to save people. The frustrating part is we really didn't get to,” he said.
In the weeks and months afterward, Zink started talking about the experience as part of mandatory therapy and hasn’t stopped.
Now 25 years later, Zink said talking about what happened is therapeutic. He says the best advice he’s received is to just continue to live your life.
“3,000 people went to work in the morning, expecting to be a normal day and go home. None of them expected to be the last day on earth,” he said. “Live your life, remember your family, hug your family before you leave, because you never know what the day will hold.”
Zink said it’s also important to remember what happened and honor those who were lost. If history is forgotten, he said, it repeats itself.
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