Ceremonies Honor Lives Lost 15 Years Ago

HYANNIS – The thousands of lives lost on September 11, 2001 were honored at events across the region Sunday.

It was the 15^th anniversary of the terror attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Two events were held in Barnstable Village, including a traditional ceremony at the Barnstable Fire Department and a second at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church.

The Hyannis Fire Department’s ceremony inside the station displayed the department’s piece of steel collected from the rubble at the twin towers.

Prayers, poems and songs of remembrance were offered during the ceremony, including remarks from Rabbi David Freelund, a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner from Celeste How and the Tolling of Last Alarm Bells, which marked the lives of the emergency personnel who died in the line of duty 15 years ago.

Like the steel plate which was sat in its placard table near a makeshift podium, audience member and Hyannis Fire Captain Tom Kenney was there when the towers collapsed.

Attendees at Sunday’s Hyannis Fire Department 9/11 Memorial Ceremony examine a piece of steel collected from the rubble created by the 2001 terror attacks.

He was sent there as a member of the Massachusetts Urban Search and Rescue Task Force, one of 28 government relief teams which assist in disasters like the one which took place that day.

“I’m very thankful that people still do remember,” he said. “All those lives lost – people are still dying every day as a result of being exposed [to the wreckage].”

Kenney said he was overwhelmed to realize that there are now teenagers who were born after the world-changing event.

He said he hopes emergency crews nationwide take a message of courage from those who risked their lives that day in order to save others’.

“Those guys delivered that morning, they knew when they went to those buildings and saw what they were up against that the conditions weren’t favorable,” he said. “But you know what? They did it anyway.”

Other events to marke the September 11th terrorist attacks were held in Harwich, Yarmouth, Provincetown, Falmouth and Dennis.