Orange County 9/11 tributes mark 21 years of remembrance
Orange County residents and officials joined first responders Sunday in a series of local tributes held to mark 21 years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks killed nearly 3,000 people and as a symbol of solidarity and remembrance.
The Orange County Fire Authority held its annual remembrance ceremony at 8:30 a.m. at the agency’s headquarters at 1 Fire Authority Road in Irvine. Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer participated in the event, at which honor guard members conducted a bell-ringing ceremony.
“Lives were lost, and heroes were born that day. Ordinary people were transformed into extraordinary people to save the lives of strangers,” Spitzer wrote on Twitter. “God bless our firefighters, our police officers and our military — and God bless America!”
Locally, Huntington Beach’s Operation Open Water — an affiliation of surfers, adventurers and advocates who support first responders, military service personnel and veterans — held its third annual 9/11 Honor Challenge at Huntington Beach High School.
About 100 people assembled at the school’s Sheue Field Sunday afternoon to participate in the tribute, during which participants charged up and down the bleachers, approximating a 110-flight stair climb equivalent of the number of stairs in the World Trade Center.
The stair climbing was one in a series of physical challenges, each designed as an act remembrance to different victims of Sept. 11, that took place on the field as first responders, military personnel and civilians tested their mettle for a good cause.
As the day continued, the American Legion’s Huntington Beach Post 133 partnered with officials in a Day of Remembrance Patriot Day ceremony outside City Hall. Flowers were laid at the base of a memorial, installed in 2016 and featuring two granite pillars, representing the World Trade Center towers, and pieces of steel taken from the Twin Towers with the words “We Will Never Forget.”
In addition to remarks from Huntington Beach Mayor Barbara Delgleize and Fire Chief Scott Haberle, a lone bugler played “Taps” while firefighter Alex Hernandez struck the “Four Fives” — a series of rings used by the New York City Fire Department to honor those killed in the line of duty — on a ceremonial bell.
In the city of Costa Mesa, fire personnel gathered with city officials and residents for small ceremonies at each of the city’s six fire stations. Together, they listened to a countywide radio broadcast and participated in a moment of silence.
In other tributes Sunday, Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes and Fire Authority Chief Brian Fennessy spoke at the Richard Nixon Library and Museum in Yorba Linda in a remembrance ceremony, according to City News Service, while citizens in Newport Beach held a Patriot Day Paddle around Newport Harbor.
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