Twenty-five years have passed since September 11, 2001. Time does not make the loss less significant or the courage shown that day any less extraordinary. For the families who lost loved ones, survivors, first responders, and communities forever changed by the attacks, anniversaries can bring grief close again.
This year, San Francisco came together to remember those who were taken, honor those who answered the call, and reflect on what that day taught us about courage, service, and our responsibility to one another.
San Francisco Answered the Call
On that fateful day, San Francisco police secured the area surrounding City Hall, kept traffic at least a block away, and erected metal barricades. One account describes an officer cautioning a resident who approached him about delivering a package, an ordinary interaction that captured the uncertainty officers and residents were navigating together that morning.
San Francisco’s support soon reached across the country. San Francisco Police Officers Association (SFPOA) President Chris Cunnie announced that the association had established an NYPD Survivor Trust Fund through the San Francisco Police Credit Union, inviting people to contribute in support of members of the East Coast law-enforcement community.
It was a direct expression of solidarity: when one community was hurting, another stepped forward to say, You are not alone.
Firefighters Went Where They Were Needed
On the day of the attacks, SFFD firefighter Tom Rey and ten colleagues from Station 1 decided they needed to go to New York. They secured a flight when limited commercial service resumed and arrived on September 16.
After obtaining federal clearance, the firefighters joined the search-and-recovery effort at Ground Zero. Their assignment included searching unstable spaces for survivors and remains, work that demanded both physical courage and profound emotional endurance. Rey’s crew searched through the night until dawn and returned for six more nights. During the day, they changed into dress uniforms and stood honor guard at the nearly continuous memorial services at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
When they returned home, members of Station 1 printed shirts to support the families of fallen firefighters. San Franciscans kept coming to the station to contribute, helping the crew raise more than $50,000.
Two months after the attacks, SFFD firefighter Al Douglas traveled to New York with colleagues to attend funerals for fallen firefighters. The group expected to attend two services, but New York firefighters asked them to join a third memorial after another colleague’s remains were recovered.
Their presence could not take away the grief. It could, however, ensure that grieving families and an overwhelmed fire department did not have to carry it alone.
Care Beside Ground Zero
Service and support also took quieter forms.
A Salvation Army team led by San Francisco’s Major Neil Timpson deployed to Ground Zero, working 12-hour shifts at a relief station near the recovery site. Team members provided coffee, juice, soup, hot meals, cots and a quiet place to rest. Other members of the relief operation distributed clothing, shoes and hard hats. Team members also carried food and drinks directly to steelworkers, truck drivers and crane operators who were reluctant to step away from the recovery effort.
One especially moving story came from Salvation Army Captain Tom Olsen of South San Francisco. Olsen found a police officer’s cellphone and saw a contact labeled “Mom.” He called the number and arranged to return the phone. It was a small act amid an almost incomprehensible tragedy.
Because recovery is often built from small acts: a meal, a place to rest, a uniformed presence at a funeral, or a phone returned to a family.
Community Is How We Survive
September 11 showed us the courage of police officers, firefighters, paramedics, dispatchers, recovery workers, and countless others who stepped forward when their communities needed them. It also showed us that public safety is never created by first responders alone.
First responders may run toward an emergency, but it takes an entire community to sustain them, care for affected families, and begin the long work of healing.
“Community is not an extra layer of public safety; it’s the foundation of it,” said Ixchel Acosta, Executive Director of the San Francisco Police Community Foundation. “It’s the only way we survive adversity. We honor the courage shown after September 11 by strengthening those relationships here at home, between officers, residents, businesses and community organizations, and by choosing, again and again, to show up for one another.”
To every police officer, firefighter, dispatcher, paramedic, and relief worker who stepped forward: thank you.
To the families who have carried unimaginable loss for twenty-five years: we remember with you.
And to the San Franciscans who donated, volunteered, traveled across the country, or simply offered comfort to someone who needed it: you demonstrated what community looks like when it matters most. That responsibility now belongs to all of us.
The San Francisco Police Community Foundation brings together people from San Francisco’s businesses, nonprofits, and neighborhoods to support police officers, strengthen community-police relationships, and advance public safety throughout the city.
Partner with us to build community and public safety across the city, and help ensure San Francisco is prepared to meet moments of adversity the way strong communities do: together.
Learn more about the Foundation or make a contribution today.
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