New York firefighters announced Monday the death of one of their own, made famous by a photo alongside President Bush on the ruins of the World Trade Center, after the attacks of September 11, 2001. The photos showing September 14, 2001 Robert “Bob” Beckwith, then retired at age 69 and wearing a firefighter's helmet and mask, standing near George W. Bush, had traveled the world.
“This iconic photo with President Bush captured a moment that was both exhilarating and heartbreaking,” New York Fire Chief Laura Kavanagh said in a statement, announcing his death at the age of 91. years.
She saluted Bob Beckwith as one of many retired New York firefighters who visited the World Trade Center (WTC) site in the days and months following 9/11 to assist in emergency operations. relief”.
Perched on the “Ground Zero” site of the ruins of the WTC twin towers in southern Manhattan, the American president with megaphone in hand, rallies America and New York by shouting to rescuers: “I hear you.
I hear you.
The rest of the world hears you.
And those who brought down these buildings will soon hear all of us.”
Retired FDNY Firefighter Bob Beckwith, remembered for his bravery on 9/11 and standing with former President George W. Bush as he surveyed the damage shortly after the attacks, has died at the age of 91. https://t.co/ewoYnisQlW pic.twitter.com/NEco6t3tiz
— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 5, 2024
The president has an arm around the shoulders of Bob Beckwith, who sometimes has a fixed gaze with a slight smile, sometimes a very smiling face.
The former Republican president said he was “proud to have had Bob by (his) side at Ground Zero and the privilege of remaining in contact with this patriot for years.”
343 firefighters died that day
“Bob” Beckwith, born in 1932, had been a firefighter in New York from 1965 until his retirement in 1994. The jihadist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States (2,977 deaths in total and nearly 6,300 injured according to a official report) had brought New York to its knees, after the two WTC towers were destroyed by two airliners rushed by the Islamist group Al-Qaeda.
In these skyscrapers, 2,753 people lost their lives that day, including at least 343 firefighters who intervened there.
In 2021, a compensation fund for victims of September 11 estimated that there were now more people dying from illnesses linked to the destruction caused by the attacks - cancers in rescuers who cleared Ground Zero - than people killed the day of these attacks which marked History.