Houston firefighters have marked the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks with a city-wide remembrance honouring those who died and the department members who travelled to New York to help at Ground Zero.
The central ceremony was held at Fire Station 8 on Louisiana Street, where ceremonial bell tolls, a static flag display and messages broadcast over the Houston Fire Department’s dispatch network recalled the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.
Fire stations across Houston took part simultaneously, pausing their normal duties for the commemorations. The department said its observance was intended to remember both the victims of the attacks and the first responders who faced the immediate danger and the long-term health consequences that followed.
Houston Fire Department remembers 9/11 responders
Fire Chief Thomas Muñoz said the anniversary reflected the enduring bond between firefighters, regardless of where they serve.
“Once a firefighter, no matter what city or what town, what country—you’re always that,” he said. “And we did send some people to support those firefighters out there, but it just reminds us as firefighters for who we are, what we do.”
The Houston Fire Department said its central ceremony also recognised the local firefighters who joined Texas Task Force 1 and were deployed to New York after the attacks. Ten HFD members took part in the recovery effort.
Among those remembered was Captain Anthony “Tony” Tortorice, who died in 2011 from cancer linked to toxic exposure during his work at Ground Zero. His death was later recognised as a presumptive line-of-duty death connected to contaminants at the site.
HFD said only two of the original ten members remain active with the department, including Captain Jason “Bear” Wilson.
Wilson recalled arriving in New York amid the immediate aftermath, when the scale of the disaster had not yet fully registered.
“I don’t think we really understood the magnitude of what had happened at that time,” he said. “It didn’t sink in. There was just that adrenaline rush—I didn’t see until maybe later on that day.”
For him, the human cost became clear as the task force travelled through the city.
“There were families standing along the route holding pictures. ‘Please find my mother, please find my brother or my father.’ And that really started to sink in—that these people were tirelessly standing out there asking us to find them,” Wilson said.
Wilson was honoured by the department at a ceremony the previous week, receiving its Medal of Valor for his service at the World Trade Center.
The Houston observance came as communities across the United States commemorated the attacks, which claimed nearly 3,000 lives, including 343 firefighters from the New York City Fire Department.
Chief Muñoz said the department had a responsibility to preserve the memory of those who died and to recognise the courage shown by first responders both on September 11, 2001, and during the recovery operation that followed.
