VIDEO: Community Comes Out for September 11 Memorial Dedication

Members of the community came out to the Tri-State protection district to witness the dedication of the September 11 memorial Sunday. The Tri-State fire department serves the communities of Burr Ridge, Darien, Willowbrook and unincorporate Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills.

The unveiling of the memorial brought back memories for a lot of people who were touched by the events of that day.

"My best friend, he just got engaged on 9-11, and he was so proud and everything, and [his fiance] got on the plane, and she didn’t know it was going to be hijacked," said Ed Chodl, a Willowbrook resident. "Then he called me as he was watching the television, and he said 'Ed, my fiancé is gone.'"

"I lost a very dear friend of us, David Harlow Rice. He died in the South Tower," said Woodridge resident David Skinner. "It took a few days to find out that he was actually killed there. So it was a prolonged sense of grief—not only with what happened to the entire country—but finding out that David had perished also."

One local resident was in the South Tower when the attacks took place. He had been in New York on business and escaped the building by walking down 60 flights of stairs.

“That’s the closest that I’ve ever come to think there was a good likelihood that I was going to die in that that stairwell," said Tom Jones, a Darien resident. “On a day like today as I and thousands of other people were fleeing the building down those stairwells. It was New York’s firefighters that were entering those buildings.”

Three hundred and forty-three firefighters died on September 11. On Sunday, members of the Tri-State Fire Department each took turns placing glass marbles into the water at the base of the memorial—one marble for each firefighter who was lost that day.

The Memorial at Tri-State Fire Station 2 was built using an I-beam from the World Trade Center. Tri-state firefighters and members of the Warriors Watch traveled to New York in June to bring it back.

"It’s a piece of sacred steel," said David Nelson, a Warrior Watch rider. "It was a privilege to be a part of bringing this steel back, and what it represents. I was glad to be involved, and it was something that I will never forget."

"I can’t imagine what it would take to twist a piece of steel like this," said Tri-State Fire Chief Michelle Gibson. "All the kids that were not born on Sept. 11 or are new to the event. I think as they're being educated in school and from our families, they can actually bring them here to see the devastation...We want to keep the memory going for all those people who died."

Deputy Fire Chief Paul Ross said he looks at the piece as not only being a memorial, but a symbol.

“I look at it as a piece that brings strength, and it shows that our country’s strong. It shows that we’re strong, and it shows that we have perseverance.”