Toronto firefighters remember the FDNY 343 who perished at Ground Zero

Torontosun.com
Sept. 13, 2021
Jack Boland

Two decades later they tolled the bell at Toronto Fire Station 343 for the 343 FDNY firefighters who valiantly lost their lives in the Twin Towers terrorist attack.

They can never forget and will never forget their firefighter colleagues who rushed to save others after two hijacked commuter jets slammed into the World Trade Centre buildings in lower Manhattan.

A memorial ceremony was held at the fire station on Hendrick Ave. -- near St. Clair Ave. W. and Christie St. -- with the Last Post being played by a Canadian Navy bugler and Amazing Grace by a Toronto Fire Services bagpiper.

The local neighbourhood gathered on sidewalks for a full minute of silence with little children in hand and those at a nearby cafe halting their breakfast and coffee.

Firefighter Chris Tessaro said on Sept. 1, 2001, he was a recruit at the Toronto Fire Academy and was on the job for three or four months.

“We were at the training centre at the Bermondsey fire hall and a District Chief came peeling into the yard in his Chief’s car and said ‘the U.S. is under attack,’” he recalled.

Tessaro and his fellow firefighters thought, “well this is some kind of training exercise -- some kind of drill.”

“And it turned out to be very, very real,” said Tessaro.

He wanted and others to go help with the rescue efforts in New York City “because that’s what we do, it’s the nature of the job.”

“Our immediate visceral response was we need to go to New York City,” said Tessaro.

Tessaro said he had friends at the Stapleton Fire Hall on Staten Island who responded after Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower.

He said the night and day shifts rallied aboard a Staten Island ferry with their trucks and gear and headed up the Hudson River.

“The ferry didn’t make it across to the island. The second plane came in over their heads and hit the (South) Tower,“ said Tessaro. “And they sat there and watched the Towers come down.”

He said a lot of those firefighters “felt guilty about not being able to be there” because they couldn’t get into Manhattan.

“If they had made it there, they would have been dead,” Tessaro said.

Toronto Fire Platoon Chief Rodney Johnston used the words “commitment” and “sacrifice” when thinking back to those 343 firefighters who ran into the World Trade Centre to save those inside and perished when the buildings collapsed.

Johnston has travelled both for work and with his family to the 9/11 Memorial site and as he spoke Saturday he held his emotions in check.

“It is very heartfelt. It really hit home and resonated with me,” said Johnston.