Tahlequah Fire Department Honors 9/11 Victims With Memorial Flowerbed

The Tahlequah Fire Department is honoring those who lost their lives on 9/11 in a special way.

Firefighters used donations to make a flowerbed memorial outside one of the stations in town.

"The main thing is that they will never forget,” said Tahlequah Fire Dept. Chief Casey Baker.           

For Tahlequah firefighters and anyone who drives by Station One, there's now a daily reminder of service and sacrifice.

"It's something that's beautiful to the city. And something that the firefighters can be proud of and that the citizens of Tahlequah can be proud of,” Baker said.

Baker says the city contributed leftover stones and bricks. Dirt and gravel came from public works and the flowers are from an anonymous donor. On and off-duty firefighters donated their time to build.

"There's a stone that's in the flower bed that is marked 'Never Forget 9/11.' So hopefully it will stay there from now on, and everybody can remember it,” Baker said.

A former medic who responded to Ground Zero helped lay the stone here at the memorial. Ralph Winburn now works as a nurse in Tahlequah. 9/11 was supposed to be his day off, so he worked without any gear. Winburn says for the first 13 hours, he didn't have any patients. He spent the following seven months at Ground Zero identifying bodies. 

Baker says when he called Winburn to help, he was at the dentist. 

"He actually left the chair to come down and do it. That's how much it meant to him and how much it meant to us,” Baker said.

He also wants people to remember the first responders who have died since and are still suffering from 9/11 related illnesses. He says it's a heavy reality with the risk firefighters take every day.

"It's tough. And firefighting is not an easy job,” Baker said.

Two decades later, these firefighters vow to always remember.

"For sure in Tahlequah, the firefighters will never forget what happened,” Baker said.