Many firefighters from across the state are in Manchester attending the annual convention of the Iowa Firefighters Association.

IFA past president and retired Osage firefighter Gene Evans says the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is on everyone’s mind. “Whether it be by blood or the badge, we are all brothers and sisters, ” Evans says. “And if you hurt one of us, you hurt all of us.”

Evans says it is something that lingers for firefighters. “September 11th of 2001 was a bad day for America, for the fire service. Three hundred-43 of our brothers and sisters perrished in the initial collapse of the towers, and that memory haunts us to this very day,” he says.

They firefighters at the convention paused their drills for a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. today. That’s the time the first plane hit the World Trade Center.

(By Janelle Tucker, KMCH, Manchester)