Schuylkill County Commissioner Gary Hess says he thinks about 9/11 often.

“It’s a day that will just not go away in your head,” he said. He remembers the following day was his 20th wedding anniversary.

He was at his business when he found out the planes hit the twin towers in New York. “This is for real. This is an attack. I was scared,” Hess said.

He started calling family members, something you do when an unfortunate incident occurs.

The horrible events of that day “brought everybody together,” he said.

The sense of violation that occurred heightened the need to be aware of your surroundings, Hess said.

Commissioner Barron “Boots” Hetherington said he was working on his farm when his wife screamed for him to turn on the TV. The terrorist attack shattered his feeling of safety.

“Someone found a way to violate that safe feeling. That’s the day the world changed,” he said.

He said the experience left him feeling “like you had a knot in your gut.”

Hetherington watched coverage of the attacks on TV that night. It made him hesitant to travel far away.

“We didn’t go to Florida that winter,” Hetherington said.

Tamaqua Fire Chief James Connely said he was at work when he learned of the attack. He was the assistant fire chief in the borough then. The collapse of the towers was unexpected, he said.

“There was not much hope,” for rescuing those in the buildings, he said.

Later that night American Hose, the fire company he belonged to in the borough, had a scheduled training. Afterward, they watched coverage of the tragedy on TV.

Disbelief

“Everybody was sort of in disbelief that this happened,” he said.

The death of the firefighters gives Connely “more thought on any incident for firefighter safety. To lose any life at a fire is tragic,” he said.

Connely said it is his mission that “everybody goes home on his watch,” as fire chief. Thankfully, he has been able to achieve that so far.

Ryan Township Fire Chief Tom Price II said he was at his home when he awoke and he saw someone watching it on TV.

“I didn’t think it was real at first,” he said.

Going outside later in the day he didn’t see any planes flying overhead, a common occurrence where he lives.

“The skies were totally clear,” he said.

Knowing what happened

There are people alive who don’t know about 9/11, he said. It is important, they know what happened.

“Patriotism seemed to be the thing afterwards and people were proud to be flying their flags,” he said.

Schuylkill County Emergency Management Coordinator John Matz was at his job in Reading in 2001. He also was the fire chief in Deer Lake and West Township. Like others, he watched the news on TV,

“There were people who wanted to leave work. People who wanted to get kids at school,” he said.

He also remembers looking outside and seeing no planes. He said there was a general concern in the county if an incident might happen here.

“It was a scary time,” he said.

The tragic outcome has resulted in the “need to be better prepared,” he said.

Matz said additional training has taken place because of 9/11. As EMA coordinator, he is constantly looking to become more skilled on the type of threats that exist.

Frank Zangari, president of the Schuylkill County Fire Chiefs and chief of the Girardville Fire Department, was also at work during the tragedy.

“It seemed like the world stopped. We will never forget what we did that day. There is no one in America that will forget,” he said.

Zangari said Herbert Berger, a former Schuylkill Haven resident who lived in Harrisburg in 2001 was a battalion chief with the Harrisburg Fire Department, went to New York City that day to help as part of Task Force One. Berger died in December 2019 at age 67 from cancer.

“He was dispatched the night the incident occurred,” Zangari said.

The death of Berger was a “big loss,” Zangari said.

Those who responded to save others that day demonstrated courage, Zangari said.

“That rescue effort by men and women by the United States is the world we would want to live in everyday,” Zangari said.