Hear stories from FDNY firefighters who worked on 9/11 at mobile exhibit visiting Idaho Falls

From near to right: Pat Clancy, David Turner, Rich Duffy, and Kevin Calhoun. These are immoderate of nan retired firefighters who are moving astatine nan 9/11 mobile exhibit. Other pictures see artifacts. | Andrea Olson, EastIdahoNews.com

IDAHO FALLS — A group of retired firefighters from New York are giving tours to nan eastbound Idaho organization astatine a mobile grounds that showcases a portion of history. It’s a uncommon opportunity to perceive what happened done their experiences.

Retired FDNY Lt. David Turner is 1 of them. He mislaid 15 group from his firehouse connected September 11, 2001. 

“It was nan darkest days of my life,” he recalls. 

Terrorists from al-Qaeda hijacked 4 commercialized airplanes and collapsed 2 of nan planes into nan precocious floors of nan North and South Towers of nan World Trade Center. 

A 3rd level went into nan Pentagon successful Arlington, Virginia. Passengers connected nan 4th hijacked level fought back. Read much here. 

Nearly 3,000 group were killed arsenic a consequence of what happened that day. 

Turner remembers he had conscionable gotten disconnected a 24-hour displacement and was home. 

“My woman sewage a telephone telephone from her sister and said, ‘Where’s Dave? Is Dave working?’ And she said, ‘No, he’s here.’ ‘Turn connected nan TV.’ (We) turned connected nan TV and saw what was going on,” Turner said. “I raced down to nan firehouse and by nan clip I sewage down there, my institution had already left.”

He grabbed his cogwheel and met up pinch different firemen. By nan clip he sewage down to nan Twin Towers, they had already fallen. 

“At that point, we were conscionable trying to find guys from our companies, find survivors, but location were none. It was very tough,” Turner said. 

He recovered retired that his motor institution was successful nan Marriott Hotel, getting group retired of location erstwhile a building had travel down. 

“It took retired half nan Marriott Hotel. So our guys were successful nan hallway, and it crushed them all,” Turner said. “The only logic we cognize that is location were different firefighters from a different company, and they sewage out, but they were capable to show us.” 

Twenty-three years later, nan tragic time is still taking people. Turner told EastIdahoNews.com that 2 firemen conscionable died past week from FDNY owed to 9/11-related cancer. 

RELATED | 9/11 Never Forget mobile grounds coming to eastbound Idaho

The mobile exhibit 

Turner helps amended communities astir 9/11 and gives tours done nan Tunnel to Towers Foundation astatine nan “9/11 Never Forget” mobile exhibit. It’s presently successful Idaho Falls astatine The Waterfront astatine Snake River Landing, 1220 Event Center Drive, until Sept. 11. Check nan schedule below.

It’s free to enter. 

“Doing this is bully therapy. We each opportunity nan aforesaid thing. The guys we mislaid there, they’re nan heroes,” Turner said. 

This is nan first clip nan mobile exhibit has been successful Idaho Falls. Billy Puckett is nan section head pinch Tunnel to Towers Foundation and drives it crossed nan country. 

“It’s 1,300 quadrate feet. It’s marque new. We conscionable debuted this 1 successful May. It’s really neat because it’s sewage caller artifacts and relics different than we had successful our different grounds that we retired,” Puckett said. “What’s present is very special, and it each has a meaning. The stories that are down those pieces are genuinely amazing.”

Pat Clancy, a retired firefighter who lived successful New York, said nan mobile grounds is very emotional. He helps springiness tours conscionable for illustration Turner does. 

“We’ll show nan story, and everybody that was live past tin consciousness this emotion because we were frightened that day. We were terrorized, and a batch of nan children don’t cognize what we went through,” Clancy said. 

He emphasized it’s important for children to study what happened. 

“I ever say, ‘Look astatine your parent’s face, everybody.’ And they look, and I go, ‘Do you retrieve wherever you were that day?’ The parents commencement crying and say, ‘Yeah.’ And I show them (the children), ‘That’s what coercion does,'” he said. 

Inside nan exhibit. | Andrea Olson, EastIdahoNews.com

The grounds was brought by Heroes Defense 

Heroes Defense, a section nonprofit, brought this grounds to Idaho Falls. 

“Much of nan grounds is simply a re-creation of what you would spot astatine nan New York City 9/11 Memorial Museum. It’s a really typical opportunity,” said Director for Heroes Defense Jesse Ferney. “We don’t cognize if it will ever beryllium successful Idaho again.”

He added section creator Elena Johnson will beryllium doing a charcoal drafting unrecorded and successful personification astatine nan Tunnel to Towers event. It’s a drafting of a firefighter holding an American Flag. 

Ferney said anyone who would for illustration to bargain a raffle summons will person a chance to triumph it connected Sept. 11. It’s $20 a ticket, and nan money will spell to Heroes Defense. The nonprofit has a “sole intent to supply support, resources, and assistance to those individuals fighting for our freedoms and nan American measurement of life.” 

Click here to study much astir its ngo and helping first responders. 

On Sept. 11, those progressive successful Tunnel to Towers will subordinate Heroes Defense and nan metropolis of Idaho Falls astatine nan unveiling of a caller 9/11 Memorial. It consists of a portion of alloy salvaged from 1 of nan collapsed World Trade Center towers.

It will beryllium held astatine nan Idaho Falls Fire Department Station 1 Headquarters astatine 10 a.m. and nan nationalist is invited. 

Come study and remember

Turner encourages group to sojourn nan mobile grounds while they still can. It will beryllium an unforgettable experience. 

“It’s truthful important because we are already twenty-three years out. It seems that group are conscionable losing connection, forgetting things, aliases possibly not caring,” Turner said. “The top point is getting nan schoolhouse kids successful here…in present is simply a world of information. They tin inquire questions, and they will beryllium answered.”

Outside nan grounds astatine The Waterfront. | Andrea Olson, EastIdahoNews.com