Beverly Hills Remembers Victims of Sept. 11

Hundreds gathered in front of the Beverly Hills Fire Department Sunday afternoon to remember the , and to witness the dedication of the .

“Ten years ago, we watched in disbelief as the lives of 2,977 people were extinguished in minutes and the rest of us found ourselves reconciling with the unthinkable,” Mayor Barry Brucker told the crowd. “We witnessed the collapse of a dream and a profound loss of innocence. We witnessed 411 emergency workers—firefighters, police officers and other unknown heroes—run full speed ahead into danger, chaos and horror.”

The 9/11 Memorial Garden, located adjacent to the fire department on the corner of North Rexford Drive and Burton Way, features a 30-foot, 1,900-pound steel structure beam that once supported the World Trade Center in New York City. Fire Chief Tim Scranton selected the piece of steel used to create the memorial.

“I chose that piece because it represents America,” Scranton said. “It’s bent, it’s broken, it’s hurt, but it didn’t fall apart. It didn’t break. It was resilient.”

The memorial is designed to honor all the lives who were lost in the terrorist attacks a decade ago. Benches surround the memorial, allowing visitors to view the memorial while contemplating the meaning and magnitude symbolized.

“My greatest wish is that this memorial will become, not just a place of sad remembrance, but also a symbol of hope for a much, much brighter future of peace and tolerance,” Brucker said.

Brad Burlingame, brother of American Airlines Flight 77 pilot Capt. Charles “Chic” Burlingame, presented the keynote address for the ceremony. Chic’s plane was flown into the Pentagon after being taken over by hijackers.

“Ten years ago today, my wife and I woke up like any other Americans. What I didn’t know was that at that very moment, Capt. Charles Burlingame was in a fight against the terrorists who had burst into his cockpit,” Burlingame said. “The struggle lasted almost five minutes. Chic was a pretty tough guy, but he was outnumbered and was one of the first to die in the war against terror.”

While Chic’s wife hoped searchers would find his wedding band in the rubble, only Chic’s passport and a prayer card from his mother’s funeral 10 months earlier were recovered. The prayer card is currently on display in an exhibit featuring Sept. 11 memorabilia at the .

Although a decade has passed since the single largest loss of life from a foreign attack on U.S. soil, the impact of those events was evident to anyone at the ceremony who happened to look up. Beverly Hills SWAT team snipers were strategically placed on all nearby rooftops to protect those gathered from anyone attempting to interfere with the event.

Cub Scout Ryan Robertson, 9, was born one week after the Sept. 11 attacks. He was at the ceremony to see the memorial and to “thank the firefighters for trying to help our country.”

Ryan has learned about Sept. 11 in school, but said it doesn’t scare him.

“I don’t think anything like that will happen again,” Ryan said. “We’re prepared now.”

Aside from the city’s afternoon ceremony, that coincided with the collapse of 2 World Trade Center—the south tower and first tower to fall.

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