Thursday marks the 24th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, which killed 2,977 people aboard two hijacked commercial airplanes that flew into the World Trade Center in New York City, aboard a United Airlines flight that crashed into a farm field in Shanksville, Penn., and when a fourth American Airlines plane crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
Long Islanders have many close connections to the attack in New York — many city firefighters and employees at the World Trade Center called Long Island home, and many local fire departments responded to assist with the recovery efforts that day and in the weeks after the attacks.
Pieces of steel from the World Trade Center have become monuments throughout Long Island, and many will be the sites of commemorations on Sept. 11. Below are the details of local commemorations we’ve been able to confirm so far.
We will update this post if we receive more information. (If you have more details, please email them to us at editor@eastendbeacon.com)
Riverhead
On Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025, the Town of Riverhead will host a prayer ceremony, led by Riverhead Town Clerk, Jim Wooten, to honor the victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at 10 a.m. at the Riverhead World Trade Center Memorial Park at the corner of Riley and Edwards Avenues in Calverton.
On Thursday evening, the Sound Park Heights Civic Association will host its annual Candlelight Walk and Remembrance. A procession will begin at 6:00 p.m. from Marine Street in Reeves Park and proceed to the 9/11 Memorial Park on Sound Avenue and Lt. Thomas Kelly Memorial Road (Park Road).
Reeves park resident Thomas Kelly, a member of FDNY Ladder Co. 105 in Brooklyn, perished while responding to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, at the age of 38.
The Flanders Fire Department also holds an annual memorial service at the Flanders Memorial Park on Flanders Road and Fanning Road at 6:30 p.m.
Southold
The Southold Town Fire Chiefs’ Council’s Southold Town Firefighters’ Memorial and Remembrance Ceremony will be held on Thursday, Sept. 11 at Jean Cochran Park on Peconic Lane in Peconic. Attendees will gather beginning at 5 p.m., with the official ceremonies to start at 6 p.m.
The Southold 9/11 Memorial Committee and members of the community place 2,977 American flags throughout the park prior to the ceremony in honor of the people who were killed in the terrorist attacks.
During the ceremony, members of the Mattituck, Cutchogue, Southold, Greenport, East Marion, Orient, Plum Island, Fishers Island, and Shelter Island Fire Departments will pay their respects and lay wreaths honoring the fallen.
The Greenport School will hold a ceremony Thursday morning at 7:45 a.m. on the front lawn by the flagpole. Members of the school and Greenport Village community will “gather to honor the lives lost and the bravery of first responders and community members,” according to the school district.
East Hampton
The East Hampton Town Fire Chiefs Association is slated to hold its annual memorial service at Hook Mill between Methodist Lane and Pantigo Road on Sept. 11 at 6 p.m.
Southampton
On Monday, Sept. 8, Southampton Town Department of Public Safety and Emergency Management employees placed 343 flags in the ground in front of their facility in Hampton Bays in remembrance of the 343 FDNY firefighters killed on Sept. 11, 2001.
On Sept. 11, 2001 343 FDNY firefighters, 63 law enforcement officers and thousands of civilians lost their lives in the attack. Since then, countless more people have suffered and perished from illnesses related to their exposure to the smoke, ash and stress of their response on that day and in the weeks and months of recovery efforts after the attacks.
Many of the fire departments in the Town of Southampton, and throughout the region, will also be sounding their horns and sirens at times between 8:46 and 10:28 a.m. on the morning of Sept. 11 to mark the times at which the towers were struck and fell, as well as the times that the Pentagon was struck and the time that Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The sounding of horns and sirens in Southampton Town is being coordinated locally through the Southampton Town Fire Chiefs Council.
“The Department of Public Safety and Emergency Management asks everyone to take a moment to remember all of those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001,” said Town Code Compliance and Emergency Management Administrator Ryan Murphy. “We remember all those who lost their lives that day just going to work as normal and all those who gave their lives in an attempt to help and rescue individuals in the Towers. It is also important to reflect and renew the spirit of our country and our communities when we recall how we pulled together in response to this horrible event in our history.”
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