“Dad, I’m Here”: Son of 9/11 Firefighter Assigned to His Father’s Firehouse

“I always wanted to come to the place where my father worked.” For Scott Larson, joining the New York City Fire Department has brought him to the firehouse his father once called his workplace.

Larson, now 29, was four when his father died in the September 11, 2001, attacks by al-Qaida. His father, who was 35, had been temporarily assigned from his regular station in Woodside, Queens, to lower Manhattan when the attacks took place.

Larson’s father was one of 343 New York City firefighters killed that day. Two hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center, a third hit the Pentagon and a fourth crashed in Pennsylvania. About 3,000 people died, leaving tens of thousands of spouses, parents and children grieving and shocking people around the world.

The attacks came early in George W. Bush’s first term and fundamentally changed U.S. national security policy. They also led to decades of war, mainly in Iraq and Afghanistan, in which more than 900,000 people died. For families such as Larson’s, September 11 also permanently transformed individual lives.

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I always wanted to come to the place where my father worked.