One year after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks firefighter Ken Uzeloc had the honour of representing Calgary colleagues at a memorial in New York.
Five years after the attacks killed thousands of people, including hundreds of emergency workers, the 39-year-old firefighter still hasn’t forgotten their sacrifices or how terrorism that day changed the world.
“Everything changed,” he said today.
“Anything is possible now.”
Uzeloc was one of several Calgary firefighters in New York to support fire crews — including more than 300 paramedics and firefighters who died trying to save others — who were on the front-lines of the disaster during a ceremony one year later.
He said marching in the procession and seeing relatives accept medals of bravery on behalf of those emergency crews offer images he will never forget.
“To see the sheer number of people out to support them, thousand and thousands of firefighters from all over the world — it really emphasized the world of brotherhood,” he said.
He also said a visit to Ground Zero offered a view of the destruction, “a big empty hole which was like five or six blocks of Calgary,” which could only be seen in person.
“The television cameras and photos didn’t do it justice,” he said.
“It could have been Bankers Hall and it could have been 50 or 100 firefighters going up to fight a fire.”
To mark the fifth anniversary of the attacks Uzeloc wore a pin given to him by members of the NYFD’s Ladder 25, a station which lost seven members on that day.
