The Little Rock Fire Department was extremely honored to be asked to host FDNY Rescue 5 from the Remembrance Rescue Project. Little Rock was the first stop on the Project’s 2014 Tour. After leaving our City, other stops will include Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, and California.

Rescue 5 was stationed on Staten Island, and responded to the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001. After the collapse of both towers, only one man from Rescue 5 survived.

Firefighter Bo Hagar, along with Captain Dennis McCann coordinated with the Remembrance Rescue Project, along with the Clinton Foundation to bring the retired FDNY fire truck to Little Rock. Firefighter Hagar and Captain McCann greeted, and talked to guests at the Central Fire Station, as well as gave educational presentations to schools at the Clinton Presidential Library using a comparative curriculum called “9/11 By the Numbers”. The presentations consisted of numerous photo’s, including timeline photos of September 11’s events. The firefighters explained 9/11 to the students by comparing FDNY’s statistics with LRFD statistics, and describing how an event of that magnitude in Little Rock would destroy the entire Little Rock Fire Department.

Firefighter Hagar retold the story of Bill Spade, the only surviving member of the twelve Rescue 5 men that responded that morning. The “Survivors Story” along with the comparative presentation educated the students by painting a picture of an event that most of them weren’t alive to witness, and the program is summed up by the firefighters explaining that every generation has events that happen in which everyone can recall exactly what they were doing at that particular time.

The firefighters encouraged the students to learn about these events, and pass the stories along. That something would happen within their generation that they will remember for eternity, and they need to pass those events along to their younger generations. This is how history is preserved, and the sacrifices made by many are honored.