DALLAS — After the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the Dallas Fire Fighters Association sent multiple members to New York City for two months.
They attended funerals daily in support of the New York City Fire Department. 343 FDNY firefighters died that day.
Darr Dwight Pierce is a retired Dallas firefighter and former president of the Dallas Fire Fighters Association, IAFF Local 58. He was part of the first group to travel to New York.
Pierce was attending a firefighters meeting in Midland, Texas that day. He remembers watching the news unfold on television with his colleagues. "This is not right," said Pierce. "We were under attack."
He knew the loss of first responders in New York City would be tremendous. "I told the guys, and they all agreed. We all said we lost a bunch of firefighters today. That's the nature of the beast. If something is on fire, the guys are going in there," said Pierce.
While in New York City following the attacks, Pierce said the memorial services were heartbreaking. "You're running right behind the bagpipers. They get back in their car, and we get right behind them in our car, and we go to the next one, and the next one, and the next one. I think the most [funerals] we did in one day was six or seven memorials for the fallen guys and that was daily, every day, week after week."
Pierce keeps a photo of the burning towers in a frame at home. At the bottom of the image, a fire truck is seen on the road. He said, "It's a picture of Truck 118 going across the Brooklyn Bridge, headed toward the towers. As you can see, the towers have already been struck and they're on fire. None of them go home."
Since then, more firefighters who responded to Ground Zero have been diagnosed with or died of cancer, likely linked to the toxins they were exposed to at the World Trade Center.
Pierce served for nearly 41 years as a Dallas firefighter. He said 9/11 was a life-changing moment in his career.
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