09/11/2026
On September 11, 2001, one of the most powerful photographs of that tragic day captured FDNY Ladder 118 crossing the Brooklyn Bridge toward Lower Manhattan. Behind them, the World Trade Center burned. While thousands of people were desperately trying to escape the city, the firefighters of Ladder 118 were heading directly toward the danger. For several members of the company, it would become one of the last photographs ever taken of them.
Ladder 118 responded to the World Trade Center and went to the Marriott World Trade Center hotel, where firefighters helped evacuate people trapped inside. Six members of Ladder 118 — Lt. Robert Regan and Firefighters Vernon Cherry, Leon Smith Jr., Joey Agnello, Pete Vega, and Scott Davidson — lost their lives that morning. They knew the danger in front of them, but their duty was to help others, and they continued forward.
That photograph represents far more than a fire truck crossing a bridge. It represents courage, sacrifice, and the willingness of first responders to run toward danger while everyone else is running away. The men of Ladder 118 were fathers, sons, brothers, husbands, friends, and firefighters. Their final response became part of a much larger story of heroism shown by firefighters, police officers, EMTs, civilians, and countless others on September 11.
Twenty-five years later, we still remember September 11, 2001, and the 2,977 innocent people who were killed in the attacks. We remember the first responders who gave everything trying to save people they had never met, and we remember those who later suffered and died from illnesses connected to their work at Ground Zero. The image of Ladder 118 making that final trip toward Manhattan remains a reminder of what courage looks like.
Never forget September 11, 2001. Never forget those who went in and never came home.