Firefighters' transatlantic bond forged by 9/11

A transatlantic friendship between two firefighters forged after the 9/11 attacks is still going strong 25 years later.

Paul Smith from Northfield Fire Station in Birmingham first met Andy Horan, who works for the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), after West Midlands crews raised money for their colleagues abroad.

On 11 September 2001, Horan was off-duty when he saw the attacks on the World Trade Center unfold on television but headed straight out to help, while Smith watched on horrified from thousands of miles away.

The pair became firm friends when Horan visited Birmingham to see the charitable response. "From a really dark day, something positive came through," Smith said.

The attacks killed 2,977 people, including 343 firefighters.

When Horan, who had served for 17 years in the fire department at the time, arrived in Lower Manhattan he said it was like a war zone.

"There were cars burning. We were able to get people out of surrounding buildings but we didn't know which way to send them," he said.

He said he personally knew about 40 colleagues who died that day.

In Birmingham, Smith and his colleagues felt helpless watching the catastrophe unfold.

He contacted BBC Radio WM presenter Professor Carl Chinn, who travelled to New York after the attacks to broadcast for the station.

"It was unbelievable, it was something that was almost impossible to comprehend," Chinn said.

The presenter visited what is now known as Ground Zero and said the scene of devastation was horrific.

When he returned home, he and Smith helped raise money for the families of those killed in the attacks.

One charity car wash with other fire stations across the West Midlands raised over £4,000 in one day.

"It was incredible," Smith said, describing people getting off buses to hand over cash.

In total, West Midlands Fire Service raised about £280,000.

Smith realised he wanted the New York firefighters to visit Birmingham and see the response themselves, and began fundraising to make it happen.

Six months after the attacks, Horan and three of his colleagues were greeted at the airport by Irish dancers and taken straight for breakfast, where an extraordinary family connection between he and Smith was uncovered.

"My mother-in-law's brother, his garden backed on to Andy's mother's house in New York," the British firefighter said.

The pair quickly made a connection, and Horan said the whole visit was life-affirming. They watched a Wolverhampton Wanderers game, and were put up by a Birmingham hotel for free.

"The people we met were incredible, the love and the warmth, everyone was just fantastic," he said.

Over the years the mens' friendship grew, and Horan became godfather to Smith's son.

But his New York counterpart said the focus 25 years on should not be on them.

"I was at service for the FDNY last night," he said. "They read off everybody's names. People who were retired and came in, people [who] got sick after. It took about an hour to read the names.

"It was not just their job, it was their duty. It is about these guys."

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