Los Angeles City Council holds 25th anniversary 9/11 remembrance, honors first responders

The Los Angeles City Council opened a special meeting Friday to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, with Councilmember Park calling for a moment of silence and urging the city to 'never forget' the scale of the loss and the courage of first responders.

Councilmember Park said the day "marks the memory, vows to never forget" and recounted how Los Angeles mobilized to assist New York in the days after the attacks, noting that about 70 members of California Task Force 1 deployed to Ground Zero. "When New York needed help, LA showed up," Park said. The remarks framed the council's remembrance as both memorial and a reminder of the continuing obligations to those affected.

The council heard from LAFD Chief Jamie Moore, who described how the city's deployments to Ground Zero informed improvements in urban search-and-rescue, interoperable communications and unified command structures the department uses today. "September 11 reinforced the importance of specialized training, urban search and rescue, interoperable communications, intelligence sharing, unified command," Moore said.

Michael Barbarino, a retired FDNY member who responded at Ground Zero, gave a first-person account of searching the pile and urged the council to remember both the victims and the long-term health toll on responders. "I pledged to never forget those individuals and their bravery," Barbarino said, noting that thousands lost their lives and many continue to suffer 9/11-related illnesses. The council closed the presentation portion by inviting the chamber to observe the anniversary and lighting City Hall in memorial blue that evening.