Sedona residents are invited to the Sedona Fire District’s annual memorial observance for the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks at 9 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 11, at Station 6 located at 2675 State Route 179.

“I think there are some parallels to COVID in the sense that whereas 9/11 united a nation, COVID divided a nation,” Fire Chief Ed Mezulis said. “One was a terrorist strike, and the other was a worldwide pandemic, but ultimately for me, it helps me reflect on, you know, something that Chief Alan Brunacini from Phoenix Fire said, and it’s just, ‘Be kind.’ Those are two big experiences in my adult life. I think, reflecting back, they both taught me that you just don’t know what the future holds, and you don’t know how long you have. So just be kind and enjoy the moment.”

Mezulis, SFD Governing Board Chairman Dave Soto and Sedona Mayor Scott Jablow will deliver remarks following an invocation and the event will end at 10:03 a.m. with a free pancake breakfast that is new for this year’s ceremony.

“We’re hoping to kick off right at 9:03 [a.m.]. We’re picking 9:03 because that was the time of the World Trade

Center South Tower crash or impact,” Soto said. “The timeline was such that 17 minutes prior, the first plane had hit the North Tower, then following the South Tower, there were two other incidents. Those will set the tone for the presenting of the colors, the raising and lowering of the flag. We will have a few speeches, and then the conclusion of which we’ll break for the memorial breakfast.” 

“This year is not landing on a marked anniversary, typically identified by five-year increments,” Mezulis said. “What we wanted to do this year is have a short remembrance ceremony. But more importantly, we want to provide a space for us to serve breakfast to the community. Theme is solemn remembrance blended with an opportunity to spend time with our community is kind of what we were shooting for.”

Guests are encouraged to start arriving around 8:45 a.m. for the ceremony, which will begin promptly at 9:03 a.m. to coincide with the timeline of events that took place 22 years ago.

“It’s a memorial breakfast [but] we tend to have celebrations of life, rather than to have it [be a completely] somber moment, although it is,” Soto said. “But after the fact we could talk about things that affected in a good way. In a manner that you have something in common with somebody sitting across the table from you during a breakfast like this that brings the community together. There’s many community members that have a connection to the incident. Just to touch the steel beam that is the memorial, it brings tears to people’s eyes.”

A steel girder from the World Trade Center was installed in 2016 outside SFD Station 6.

Parking is available at the adjacent Jewish Community of Sedona and the Verde Valley synagogue south of Station 6 and the Christ Lutheran Church north of the station.

“Come out to spend time with the community, come out to have an opportunity to remember those we lost and come out to get to know your fire district,” Mezulis said.