LOVELAND, Ohio — The Loveland-Symmes Fire Department will host a memorial ceremony Sept. 11 marking the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, the department said in a Facebook post.
The ceremony is set for 7:30 p.m. at the Loveland-Symmes Firefighters’ Memorial, 200 Harrison Ave., along the Little Miami Bike Trail in downtown Loveland, according to the department.
Deputy Fire Chief Billy Goldfeder, a nationally recognized voice on firefighter safety who has served as a chief officer since 1982 in departments across Ohio, Virginia and Florida, will deliver the keynote address, the department said. He began his firefighting career in 1973 and is a graduate of the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officer Program. Goldfeder serves on the boards of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and the September 11th Families Association, and he has received the International Association of Fire Chiefs’ Presidential Exemplary Service Award three times, in 2005, 2013 and 2022, along with the Congressional Fire Services Institute’s Mason Lankford Fire Service Leadership Award in 2021.
The Rev. Bill Hounshell will officiate the ceremony, and Ralph Quisno will provide music, according to the department.
The Loveland-Symmes Firefighters’ Memorial was erected in 1997 at the corner of Harrison Street and Railroad Avenue. Four pillars surround a concrete vault holding a time capsule of 1997-era department badges, uniforms, newspapers and documents, topped by a bell salvaged from the riverboat Reuben Springer that served as Loveland’s fire alarm until 1934. The memorial also holds a section of steel recovered from the World Trade Center’s North Tower and a plaque honoring the first responders killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, along with a second plaque memorializing nine firefighters who died in a 2007 furniture store fire in Charleston, South Carolina.
The information contained in this story was obtained from the Loveland-Symmes Fire Department.