Memories of 9/11: The Fraternity of Firefighters

One of Avon fire chief Frank Root's most treasured possessions is a hat he never wears. What makes the hat special is the giver. The hat, embroidered with the initials FDNY and a football, was given to him by one of the many New York City firefighters he befriended in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Root was a firefighter in Elyria in 2001. After the second plane hit the World Trade Center, his father, Frank Sr., who was still fire chief in Avon, called his son to see if he would go to New York with a truck. While they didn't go to New York – so many fire departments just showed up in the aftermath that others were being turned away – he got to know many FDNY firefighters when Elyria's fire department became a sister station with Engine 48/Ladder 56 in the Fordham section of the Bronx.

Root and other Elyria firefighters went to help out at the station there, going on runs and marching in the New York St. Patrick's Day Parade. But it was getting the New York guys out to Ohio that was special. It was out here, hanging around the station talking shop or having fun at Put-In-Bay, Root said, the FDNY firefighters could just relax and leave their anguish behind for a while.

"Everyone came together," he said. "We were ready to go that day if we got the word. Being there for (FDNY) was that important."