'Last Alarm': Skokie Fire Department Honors 9/11 Victims

SKOKIE, IL — Sometimes called Patriots Day, Sept. 11 has become a national day of remembrance honoring the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

In Skokie, the fire department is hosting remembrance ceremonies at the flag poles of all of its stations, starting at 8:57 a.m. on Wednesday.

A "last alarm" bell ceremony is scheduled for 8:59 a.m. — the time that the World Trade Center's South Tower collapsed 23 years earlier — followed by a minute of silence at 9 a.m.

The public is invited to each remembrances ceremonies at all three Skokie Fire Department stations:

• Fire Station 16 at 7424 Niles Center Road
• Fire Station 17, 8157 Central Park Ave.
• Fire Station 18, 9024 Gross Point Rd.

Americans felt a collective trauma as first one and then another plane flew into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.

As the truth dawned on people watching from their TVs that America was under attack, another plane took aim at the Pentagon.

A fourth was brought down in a field in Pennsylvania in a final act of heroism by passengers who realized their flight had been hijacked.

At least 2,973 people lost their lives in the attacks. The somber anniversary is marked across the country with memorial services, moments of silence and community events.

Among them were eight Illinois residents.

Jeff Mladenik, 43, of Hinsdale, died aboard Flight 11.

Dan Frederic Shanower, 40, of Naperville, was killed at the Pentagon.

Robert Arthur Rasmussen, 42, of Hinsdale, as well as five Chicago residents — Kathy Bantis, 44; Andrea Lyn Haberman, 25; Suzanne Kondratenko, 28; Darya Lin, 32; and Susan Sauer, 44 — died at the site of the World Trade Center tower collapses.