Rancho Cucamonga hosting remembrance ceremony at 9/11 Memorial Park
Twenty-five years after the 9/11 terror attacks, Rancho Cucamonga is working to make sure people never forget, including the generations who didn't witness the sacrifices made or experience how the country changed overnight.
Rancho Cucamonga Fire Department Chief Mike McCliman and his crew are the guardians of the towering columns salvaged from the World Trade Center in 2001, which are now featured at the Spagnolo 9/11 Memorial Park.
"The two windows that you see were actual windows," McCliman said of the structures at the park, which is hosting a Remembrance Ceremony at 8:30 a.m. on Friday. 'I could not imagine being somebody that was working in one of the towers, being above the fire floors, looking out the windows, and what they must've been thinking. Actually gives me chills."
The charred frame that sits at the center of the park was given to Rancho Cucamonga fire and city leaders who rushed across the country to help after the attacks 25 years ago. Now, it soars above the memorial park along with artifacts from the two other crash sites that day.
"To try to give a full experience of what took place that day, and just remembering the three different places where people lost their lives," McCliman said.
The park is the only such tribute of its kind in the country, and also features a walkway that represents the flight path between New York and the crash sites of the other two hijacked planes.
"This is from Shanksville, parts of the plane, Flight 93, that went down in that field in Pennsylvania," McCliman said.
City leaders created encasements for the park's historical pieces, including one that honors the passengers who heroically banded together in their final moments.
"So many brave people sacrificed their own lives to take down a plane that was potentially headed for Washington," McCliman said.
Within months of the park's opening in 2025, the first 9/11 Remembrance Service took place. This year, the event starts at 8:30 a.m., with Honor Guard and Last Alarm Bell Ceremonies beginning at 8:46 a.m., when Fire Station 178 firefighters will sound the station's growler at the moment of the first tower strike.
McCliman says that 9/11 Remembrance Ceremonies and that park make history tangible.
"I don't know about you, but for me, it's just gut-wrenching," he said. "I'm hoping that future generations know they have somewhere they can come and just try to understand what happened that day."
Greg Pullon, the fire department's youngest firefighter, who wasn't even two when the attacks occurred, said that his dedication to service was shaped by the sacrifices of 9/11's first responders.
"Every single one of them knew that they were doing it for a cause, and 343 did not make it home," Pullon said.
