COVINGTON, Ga. – Firefighters and staff at Covington Fire Department station 21 paused for a moment of silence Tuesday morning to honor the memory of the lives lost 17 years ago today. 

Nearly 3,000 people died Sept. 11, 2001 when terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners and crashed them into two skyscrapers in New York City, The Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and an empty field outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Among the dead were 343 New York City firefighters who perished when the Twin Towers collapsed.