FDNY Captain: ‘9/11 is always with me’

PALM HARBOR, Fla. — To mark the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, a number of ceremonies will be held across the Tampa Bay area.

Many of the ceremonies will host first responders who worked at the site of the Twin Towers, as well as survivors and any community members who wish to show their support and attend.

Ret. Capt. Louis Kikis with the FDNY was positioned outside of Lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001.

He was just starting a 24-hour shift when the attacks began. He says on the morning of Sept. 12, once he and his fellow firefighters were cleared from their shift, a group of them jumped into a friend’s van and headed towards the World Trade Center.

“We found a spot where we parked and we went to the pile and started digging for people,” Kikis recalled. “The first few days were horrible. From then on every day… you went to the pile, then you attended funerals or masses, then you went back to work, then you went back to the pile.”

Kikis said he repeated the same pattern until he retired from the FDNY the following year and moved to Palm Harbor.

“9/11 is always with me and it’s always with everybody,” he said. “Like a Vietnam veteran, you’re never going to forget, it’s always with you.”

Kikis said he’s grateful to have his family and be relatively healthy, as many of his friends are not, or have passed away from 9/11-related illnesses.

“What I’m hoping is that things go as smoothly as they have been financially for our people,” he said, looking to the future. “I hope people get better, if that’s possible. Then if they have to go — I hope they don’t suffer.”