For children in the English Montreal School Board, the date of September 11, 2001, is not etched into their memories.
“I wasn’t born yet,” said 16-year-old Andy Zimmerman.
That’s why students aged 12-17 from the EMSB spent Thursday at Montreal’s Firefighter Training Centre, learning about the terror attacks from retired New York firefighter Bill Spade. He spoke to students via Zoom about the carnage and chaos of 21 years ago.
“As I was driving up West Street, the street was filled with body parts everywhere,” Spade said, holding back tears, “and I knew we had lost so many people already.”
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The first responder was in the World Trade Centre’s North Tower when it came down. Spade told the audience that in that moment, he thought he was going to die.
“I said goodbye to my wife, I said goodbye to my son Billy,” he said.
Spade is the only firefighter on duty from his firehouse to survive.
“You really get to understand the full story and how it impacted one person’s life. So if it impacted one person’s life that much, I imagine how many other people’s lives it has impacted,” said Rosemount High School student Alessandra Cristiano.
Her classmate Zimmerman said hearing Spade’s firsthand account is “really sad.”
“I’d say I’m really happy that I didn’t have to go through that. But I feel really bad for the people that did it because no one deserves that in life,” he told Global News.
Local firefighters say as more and more children are born post-9/11, it’s even more important to carry on the memory.
“It’s very important to us, to all firefighters and police officers and paramedics. We think it should be important to the next generation, we think it will be,” said Gordon Routley, Montreal Fire Department assistant director.
So that the thousands of lives lost on September 11, 2001, will never be forgotten.
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