By Don Evans
And Raanan Geberer
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BROOKLYN — When the World Trade Center towers collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001, a good number of the firefighters who died were from Brooklyn firehouses — especially those closest to the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges.

And these firefighters were among the many who were remembered Thursday at memorial services throughout the borough.

In Brooklyn Heights, Ladder 118 on Middagh Street in Brooklyn Heights lost seven men, and even now, tourists visit the firehouse to pay their respects. Squad One, an elite unit in Park Slope, lost 12 firefighters that fateful day. And the Richard Street Firehouse in Red Hook lost seven firefighters. Sally Regenhard, the mother of one fallen Red Hook firefighter, Christian Regenhard, became a public advocate for the families of firefighters.

Thursday at the Middagh Street firehouse, fighters, families and neighbors stood together in the doorway of the stationhouse as a Catholic priest spoke a prayer of remembrance for the eight members of Hook & Ladder 118 and Engine 205 lost in the 9/11 WTC attack.

Father Michael A. Carrano prayed as he has for the previous six memorial ceremonies, followed later in the morning with a Mass at his Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Lady Virgin Mary located in the same block as the firehouse.

Both firefighting companies were early arrivals at the scene on that tragic day and were severely battered by the falling debris, two survivors, John Sorrentino and Tom Hayes, recalled. Both are now retired.

Framed photographs of the firemen who lost their lives adorn a memorial wall behind the two parked fire trucks. They are Lt. Robert T. Wallace of Engine 205 and from Ladder 118: Capt. Martin Egan Jr., Lt. Robert M. Regan, FF. Vernon P. Cherry, FF. Leon Smith Jr., FF. Joseph Angello, FF. Scott M. Davidson and FF. Peter A. Vega.

Seventy-nine victims of 9/11, including many Brooklyn firefighters, are resting in a special “Firefighters Grove� at Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. One of the graves, of Firefighter Michael Bocchino, is adorned with a granite figure of a firefighter in bunker gear.

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