Bangor solemnly applauds Firefighters receive spontaneous gesture at gathering

BANGOR – Like many of their counterparts around the nation, members of the Bangor Fire Department paused Wednesday morning to remember the hundreds of New York City firefighters who lost their lives while trying to save the lives of others in the aftermath of last year’s terrorist attacks.

Arguably one of the ceremony’s most moving moments came at its end, when the more than 100 somber onlookers gathered on the sidewalk in front of the firehouse on Main Street began to clap quietly for what would become several moments of applause during which not one person spoke.

The applause from a grateful community began as members of the Bangor Fire Department, most of them wearing dress uniforms, began to file back into the firehouse from the driveway out front where they stood in orderly rows throughout the ceremony. It did not end until all of the estimated 80 firefighters who took part had left formation and returned to the firehouse.

Calling the destruction of the World Trade Center the worst loss of lives in the more than 250-year history of fire service, Fire Chief Jeff Cammack noted that more than 400 emergency responders died while trying to bring order to chaos. He said they did so willingly because it was their job. Many more people would have perished had it not been for their efforts. Emergency responders and other Americans must not let their spirit of willingness to serve others die with them, he said.

“We will demonstrate to the world that we have not lost our spirit, our compassion and our willingness to help others,” he said, ending his remarks with a moving poem about firefighters’ love for their work titled “May They Not Be Forgotten.” Cammack said that U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy read the poem during a tribute to the six firefighters who died while battling a warehouse blaze in Worcester, Mass., a few years ago.

Lt. David Bickford, president of the local firefighters union, spoke of what Sept. 11 must have been like for the firefighters, police and others who responded to the crisis, not yet aware that it was the result of an act of terrorism. One can only imagine what they felt as they saw the devastation, as they climbed up stairways, encountering injured, scared and confused victims attempting to make their way to safety outside, he said.

“When the second plane impacted, they knew that this was no accident,” Bickford said, his voice breaking with emotion. “One can only imagine what the firefighters felt as the first tower fell.”

During the ceremony, representatives of the city’s fire and police departments, as well as Mayor Michael Crowley, Police Chief Donald Winslow and the Rev. Robert Carlson, also remembered the events of last Sept. 11 and how they changed the nation.

Fire service is a profession that is steeped in tradition and Wednesday’s ceremonies were filled both with tradition and with symbolism.

At 10:05 p.m., the exact time the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed a year ago, a Bangor Fire Department bell rang three sets of five chimes in remembrance of the 343 New York City firefighters who lost their lives while trying to save the lives of others. The chiming of the bells was a variation of the signal 5-5-5-5 that is transmitted when a New York City firefighter dies in the line of duty.

Stacked in a small pile on the sidewalk in front of the Central Fire Station on Main Street was the turnout gear one firefighter would wear to a fire or other emergency. The protective clothing, from boots to helmet, was set out to represent the firefighters who died in the line of duty last September.

Bagpiper Dick Trott played a slow, mournful rendition of “Amazing Grace,” which has become synonymous with firefighters’ funerals.

The song and bagpipes have been part of firefighter and law enforcement ceremonies and funerals in the United States since the late 1800s and early 1900s, when thousands of immigrants began arriving on the East Coast from Ireland and Scotland, according to fire service histories. Many of these Irish and Scottish immigrants became police officers and firefighters in various Eastern cities, including New York and Boston, and brought with them their bagpipe heritage.

In Bangor and the rest of the state, flags were flown at half-staff as a show of respect for the victims and their families, in accordance with the wishes of Gov. Angus King.