The Memorial Service to honor the 344 firefighters and paramedics killed in the line of duty during Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and to recognize the sacrifice made by their families will be held in New York City on Sunday, Nov. 18.
Quick Event Facts
Many details are still in progress, but here are the facts about the Nov. 18th Memorial Service:
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The International Association of Fire Fighters, IAFF Locals 94 and 854, the Fire Department of New York, and Mayor Rudy Giuliani have formed a partnership to produce the memorial service, which is expected to be the largest gathering of firefighters in history.
Giuliani, IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger, FDNY Fire Commissioner Tom Von Essen, Local 94 President and IAFF 1st District Vice President Kevin Gallagher, and Local 854 President Pete Gorman will all deliver remarks at the memorial service. President George W. Bush, New York Governor George Pataki, and religious leaders are also being invited to speak.
The memorial program will start in the early morning hours with a procession of uniformed firefighters and paramedics, led by FDNY personnel and union leaders, in the midtown Manhattan area. The two-hour service will begin at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 18, 2001 at Madison Square Garden.
Information on the memorial service will be posted and updated regularly on the IAFF web site at www.iaff.org. Firehouse.com. In addition, the IAFF has established an email address memorial@iaff.org and a phone bank at (703) 359-0057 to answer questions from IAFF members and others about the memorial service.
The exact route of the procession will be announced in the near future. All uniformed personnel will be expected to participate in the procession. Locations for firefighters to stage in the early morning hours of Sunday for the procession will also be announced. City streets around Madison Square Garden will be closed and Jumbotron screens will be erected so that all personnel will be able to view the service in Madison Square Garden.
"The IAFF is proud to be part of this historic partnership between the city, the fire department and IAFF union leaders to stage this solemn memorial," Schaitberger said. "We fully expect that IAFF members from every state and Canada, as well as firefighters from across the world, will travel to New York to participate in the memorial service."
All those planning on attending the memorial service will be expected to make their own travel and lodging arrangements. The IAFF has already been working with area hotels, major airlines, Amtrak, and other travel services to provide special rates to memorial service attendees and information will be posted on Firehouse.com and the IAFF web site as it becomes available.
The use of honor guard units will be strictly regulated by the IAFF and will be assigned positions in the procession. All honor guards will be required to register with the IAFF by sending an email to memorial@iaff.org.
The IAFF has extensive experience in staging memorial services following multiple line-of-duty deaths and IAFF staff members have been on the ground in New York to begin the process of staging the Nov. 18 service.
Both the IAFF and Firehouse.com are working on coordinating special travel and accomodation arrangements and will post those as they become available once the date is formally announced.
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