South Florida first responders who rushed into danger after Sept. 11, 2001 terror attack vow to "never forget"

CBS News Miami is hearing from first responders in South Florida who were called to duty to help at Ground Zero in New York City and the Pentagon in Virginia in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Retired Miami-Dade Fire Captain Gabe Nemeth looks at a 25-year-old memory.

It's the helmet he wore during the response to the terrorist attack in New York City.

Nemeth – a member of Florida Task Force 1 Urban Rescue team – was deployed to Ground Zero almost immediately after the attacks on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

"The smell, the sounds, you know? Fires were still happening and all that," he said.

Nemeth's helmet is on display, along with other memorabilia, in a small room located inside Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Station 3.

The memories of those days at the World Trade Center are still fresh.

"The magnitude of it, it forced you to just sit and just get your head, you could not believe that those towers had collapsed," Nemeth said.

Retired Chief Carlos Castillo was the team leader, first sent to Washington, D.C. and the Pentagon.

"What sticks out the most was a big chunk of the most secure building in the world, a big chunk of it was taken out," Castillo said.

Castillo then moved to New York where the terror attack on the Twin Towers suddenly became personal.

"Someone called and said, 'Hey. Ray Downey was missing,'" Castillo said.

Ray Downey – a New York Fire Department fire chief – was in charge of the Special Operations Command. Downey and Castillo were close professional friends.

Downey died when the towers collapsed. Castillo's crew was searching the pile of rubble for bodies. Downey's body was eventually recovered, and 343 New York City firefighters died.

For Castillo, "this was personal," and still is.

Chief Eduardo Trapero is in charge of Fire Station 3 where firefighters maintain a Memorial Truck – always in service with the names of all 343 firefighters killed in the attack scrolled in a banner around the base of the truck that they call "Big Red."

Trapero maintains contact with New York firefighters he meets during his visits in New York. 

"I try and go back every year to see old friends and pay respects," he said.

He showed CBS News Miami a wristband he still wears 25 years later, 

"I always wear this FDNY 'Never Forget,'" he said. "Something I always wear. I cherish it. Just to respect our brothers and sisters that died on that day." 

Task Force 1 worked 12-hour shifts, and their mission wasn't a rescue operation – it was all about recovery.

Castillo remembers his fellow firefighters working their way through the rubble

"The whole pile very silent when people were removed, that sticks out vividly," he said.

Gabe Nemeth reminds us, "It was very important to us here to continue to never forget.'"

A rusted piece of a World Trade Center steel girder sits on a concrete monument outside the fire station symbolizing connections between Miami and what happened that day in September 2001.