25 years after 9/11, local firefighters say it’s why they serve today

Annual tributes include a US flag hoisted on a CCFR truck for Egan Drive commuters, memorial gathering at Riverside Rotary Park

By Mark Sabbatini

Juneau Independent

On Sept. 11, 2001, Brady Fink was a glass-bottom tour boat operator in Sitka and Tell Spragg was an eighth-grade student in Petersburg still asleep before school when the first plane hit one of the twin towers at the World Trade Center. Both said they are firefighters now because of that day.

"I don’t think I would have had interest in the fire service if it hadn’t happened," said Spragg, an engineer for Capital City Fire/Rescue who has been a firefighter for 15 years. "Nobody really talked about firefighters, the fire service, and I think it sparked interest."

For years both have also volunteered on the 9/11 anniversary to accompany a ladder truck at dawn to the Mendenhall Wetlands Scenic View Turnout on Egan Drive, where a U.S. flag is hoisted as a tribute and reminder to passing traffic.

Spragg and Jeff Smetzler, a newly hired battalion chief for CCFR, attached the flag to the end of the ladder just before 6:30 a.m. before it was raised to full height and horns of acknowledgment from motorists began sounding.

The ladder truck is expected to remain at the turnout until about 9 a.m., after which it will be driven to the 25th anniversary of an annual 9/11 memorial ceremony scheduled from 9:40 to 10:15 a.m. at Riverside Rotary Park.

The gathering marks the anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack in the U.S., which had profound impacts that day and during the quarter-century since. Al-Qaida extremists hijacked four commercial jets, crashing them into both twin towers at the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The death count has continued to rise over the years beyond the 2,996 official tally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency in 2025 reported more than 24,000 responders working at the World Trade Center site or a debris-sorting site have developed cancer, and more than 8,000 responders and survivors have died — although the report doesn’t state how many of those deaths are due to illnesses related to the attacks.

Fink, a CCFR engineer, said he was getting ready for a day of tours on 9/11 when his boat captain told employees about the attacks. During the following months he was asked by longtime Sitka Fire Department Engineer Scott Foss, who retired in 2024 after 38 years of service, about becoming a firefighter.

"When I got asked to join the fire department it made me feel like I needed to do something to serve my community," Fink said. "I never was in the military and I wanted to do something to serve."

Smetzler, a longtime firefighter in Spokane, Washington, until relocating to Juneau, said he was a probationary firefighter just starting his career when 9/11 happened.

"Our day was a very somber day, like everybody else’s," he said. "It was quiet. A lot of people coming into stations and thanking people and crying."

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.