Irmo Fire Chief's Charity Still Making an Impact 10 Years Later

For Irmo Fire Chief Mike Sonefeld, seeing the World Trade Center engulfed in flames and smoke on Sept. 11, 2001, sent an immediate message to the brain: "How can we get up there and help?"

“I don't think people outside of the fire service understood the amount of fire that was going on there,” Sonefeld said. “It just looked like smoke to the average person.”

“My first thought was to go,” he said. “How can we get up there and help?”

Now 10 years later, Sonefeld is still lending a helping hand.

Sonefeld is one of many people in the Midlands who have worked to create The First Responders' Remembrance Memorial. The monument is a tribute to those who died on Sept. 11, 2001, including 416 first responders and also names 47 first responders from the Midlands, who have died in the line of duty since Sept. 11.

"Four hundred and sixteen died that day, but we are still losing them 10 years later from disease, cancers and stuff like that," Sonefeld said.

The names of the men and women first responders, which include firefighters, emergency service personnel, police and the five branches of the military, are engraved on the two 25-foot granite towers featured at the memorial.

The memorial, which was unveiled on the 10^th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, is located at the Columbia Metropolitan Center and also includes two steel beams from the north tower of the World Trade Center. The beams, which stand in the center, are crossed representing the country uniting after the attacks.

The unveiling ceremony featured family members of those first responders being honored, first responders from both Lexington and Richland counties, the former 2001 White Knoll Middle School students who raised money for the Fire Department of New York Ladder 101 truck, and guest speakers including Gov. Nikki Haley.

“Getting those beams was a big gift to the state,” Sonefeld said. "They (the leadership of New York) gave it to the state because of how we've treated them and the fact that we have not forgotten here.”

The two beams, which were secured by Dan Hennigan, a retired U.S. Army Officer and New York native, are from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The idea for the memorial came in 2009, but the actions of some White Knoll Middle School students in 2001 helped pave the way.

In 2001, students from White Knoll Middle contacted Sonefeld and Columbia Fire Chief John Jansen about purchasing a fire truck. After some research and generous donations through fundraisers, the group was able to donate more than $500,000 for a fire truck to Ladder 101 in Red Hook, Brooklyn, N.Y.

In 2009, Sonefeld helped with an essay contest about the attacks that Hennigan was sponsoring. Two middle school students were taken to New York for a ceremony at the Brooklyn Wall of Rememberance. It was then the idea for a memorial in South Carolina was ignited.

“When we left there, he (Hennigan) said we need to build a wall in South Carolina,” Sonefeld said. “We started working our contacts in New York to find out how to do this.”

"We had $750 in our pocket and an idea in our head," he said. “It's been an unbelievable journey. We've hit so many walls and every time we'd hit a wall it'll point us in a direction that was even better than what we were trying to do.”

Most of the work done for the memorial, about $600,000 worth of labor and materials, has been donated or done for free, Sonefeld said.

Sonefeld said he would always remember the support from the community and businesses along the way to building the memorial. He also said the memorial itself will forever be with him and a part of history.

“We've met so many business people, individuals that have helped us from the stone carver all the way to the engineering of this,” Sonefeld said. “The greatest thing (about the memorial) is that we will be able to write in stone 9/11 and the relationship between New York City and South Carolina. When I'm dead and gone you can't slant it with politics, you can't pretend it didn't happen. It'll be there. Nobody can dispute it.”