Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department
Operational area
Country United States
State Pennsylvania
CountySomerset
BoroughShanksville
Agency overview[1]
Employees28 (2014)
Website
Official website

The Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department is a volunteer fire department in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.[1] The department provides fire protection and emergency medical services to the boroughs of Shanksville and Indian Lake as well as to Stonycreek Township. The response area is approximately 62 square miles (160 km2) with an estimated 2,500 residents.[1] Additionally the department is responsible for a 15-mile (24 km) stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

The impact crater at the crash site. Engine 627-1 can be seen in the background.

September 11 terrorist attacks

Shanksville Volunteer Firefighter Coat at the Flight 93 temporary national memorial.

On September 11, 2001, the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department responded to the United Airlines Flight 93 crash scene to search for survivors.[2] They found a smoking crater 8 feet (2.4 m) to 10 feet (3.0 m) deep, and 30 feet (9.1 m) to 50 feet (15 m) wide.[3] None of the 44 people on board survived.[4] Flight 93 was one of four airliners hijacked that day as part of the al-Qaeda terror attack on the United States. It is widely held that the Flight 93 hijackers intended to use the aircraft to attack the United States Capitol building in Washington, DC.[5]

Before the crash - the fire department's assistant chief, Rick King, was off-duty and on the phone with his sister in Lambertsville. His sister told him about the sound of a jet engine flying overhead. Rick walked out on his porch to hear the impact and see a plume of black smoke.[2]

After witnessing the crash, Rick drove into Shanksville to his family-owned store, grabbed his firefighting gear and headed to the fire station, where he informs the dispatcher "This is a large jetliner, probably related to what’s going on [in New York and Washington]" and, along with three on-duty firefighters - Keith Custer, Merle Flick and Robert Kelly - arrived at the crash site within seven or eight minutes. They would later be joined by Chief Terry Shaffer and county coroner Wallace "Wally" Miller.[6]



Knowing it would be an active crime scene, firefighters extinguished fires and gathered debris from the plane using portable water packs, rakes and shovels, until FBI officials from Pittsburgh arrived on-scene at around 2pm, the firefighters joined the Pennsylvania State Police in securing the crash site as investigated.[7]

After a long day at the crash site, Shanksville firefighters returned to their station around 8:00 PM.

Shanksville Firehouse memorial

New York City fire fighters donated a memorial made from a steel cross from the World Trade Center and mounted atop a platform shaped like the Pentagon.[8] Hundreds of firefighters riding motorcycles escorted the beams from New York City to Shanksville. It was installed outside the firehouse on August 25, 2008.[9]

Heart4Terry campaign

In 2021, Terry Shaffer - the department's chief at the time of the September 11th attacks - was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension and congestive heart failure. These conditions were not covered by the World Trade Center Health Program. A crowdfunding campaign was launched for a new heart. More than 500 donors raised more than $100,000 to cover his expenses, and Shaffer received a new heart in April 2022.[10][11]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "About SVFD". Shanksville Fire Department. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  2. 1 2 Long, Cindy (September 13, 2001). "Pennsylvania Disaster Workers Respond to Flight 93 Tragedy". Red Cross. Archived from the original on 2008-10-29. Retrieved 2008-09-07.
  3. ↑ "'None of us will ever forget'". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 2001-09-12. Retrieved 2008-08-24.
  4. ↑ Sara, Rimer (2001-09-18). "A Nation Challenged: The Pennsylvania Crash; 44 Victims Are Remembered, and Lauded". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-08-24.
  5. ↑ Fouda, Yosri; Fielding, Nick (2003). Masterminds of terror : the truth behind the most devastating terrorist attack the world has ever seen (1st North American ed.). New York: Arcade Pub. ISBN 1559707089.
  6. ↑ McMillan, Tom (2014). Flight 93 : the story, the aftermath, and the legacy of American courage on 9/11. Guilford. ISBN 978-0-7627-9522-2. OCLC 890814040.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. ↑ "'After the plane crash, just about every day was Flight 93 in one form or another'". FireRescue1. Retrieved 2023-02-10.
  8. ↑ Ganassi, Michelle (2008-08-25). "NY firefighter donating steel to Shanksville". Daily American. Retrieved 2008-08-22.
  9. ↑ Gaskell, Stephanie (2008-08-25). "Pa. site of 9/11 crash gets WTC beam". New York Daily News. Retrieved 2008-08-25.
  10. ↑ Whitmore, Loretta (2022-04-21). "9/11 Fire Chief Gets a New Heart". National Foundation for Transplants. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  11. ↑ "Support Heart4Terry Campaign". National Foundation for Transplants. Retrieved 2023-08-05.

40°01′04″N 78°54′24″W / 40.01773°N 78.90665°W / 40.01773; -78.90665

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