13 December 2001

Panama Gives Heroes' Welcome to Visiting New York City Firefighters

Washington -- Three firefighters from New York City have received an extraordinary heroes' welcome in Panama from fellow firefighters, government officials, and ordinary citizens on their recent goodwill visit to that country.

During their three days in Panama November 26-28, the trio -- Benjamin Cotten, Lieutenant Miguel Ramos, and Captain Erick Weekes -- participated as guests of honor in a series of commemorations and programs that not only marked Panama's Independence Day and National Firefighters' Day, but also recognized the selfless bravery of New York City firefighters in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States.

A total of 343 members of the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) lost their lives in the collapse of the 110-story twin towers of the World Trade Center. The ultimate sacrifice by so many firefighters attempting to save civilians trapped in the two buildings has become an inspirational tale of courage throughout the United States and the world.

Cotten is a fire department forensic photographer; Ramos is president of the FDNY Hispanic Society; and Weekes, who is Panamanian-born, commands Ladder Company 126 in the New York City borough of Queens. The Panama Fire Department, the Panama City mayor's office, and the Panama City Centennial Committee jointly organized their visit.

The three New Yorkers received the first inkling of the reception in store for them in Panama upon their arrival at midnight November 25. The commander of Panamanian firefighters, Colonel Leopoldo Mojica, led Cotten, Ramos, and Weekes from the airport arrival gate past two rows of uniformed, saluting Panamanian firefighters. After exchanging greetings and mementos, the three visitors were then escorted on a 30-minute ride into downtown Panama City in a motorcade of fire trucks and rescue vehicles, with lights flashing and sirens blasting.

During the motorcade ride, the slightly stunned and overwhelmed New York firefighters repeatedly remarked that they "never expected anything like this."

"From the moment we arrived, the Panamanians went all out for us," Weekes recalled in a telephone interview two weeks later. "The reception was tremendous; we were treated like dignitaries."

Perhaps the highlight of their stay came two evenings later, on November 27, just prior to the traditional Desfile de las Antorchas, or Parade of the Torches, an annual event by firefighters in Panama. Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso, standing on a dais almost directly beneath her country's own World Trade Center building, presented Panama's highest medal for bravery, the Orden Manuel Amador Guerrero, to the Fire Department of New York in a nationally televised ceremony. She spoke of the "unjustified attack ... against liberty and democracy" that killed thousands of innocent civilians September 11.

Weekes, whose family emigrated to the United States in 1967 when he was 15, said that, as a Panamanian-American, meeting President Moscoso and receiving the award from her were great honors that ranked among the most memorable moments of the entire visit for him.

Accepting the medal with gratitude on behalf of his department, Weekes said the real heroes were not the survivors such as himself but his 343 fallen comrades.

Following the award ceremony, the three FDNY representatives, together with President Moscoso, Panamanian government dignitaries, U.S. Embassy Charge d'Affaires Frederick Becker, and Colonel Mojica led Panamanian firefighters carrying more than 1,200 torches on a 10-kilometer route past thousands of cheering onlookers.

The following day, Panama City Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro gave the New York firefighters the keys to the city, while Colonel Mojica presented them with the Meritorious Honor Award medal.

"The Panamanian firemen were very sympathetic to what we had gone through at the World Trade Center," said Weekes, a veteran firefighter of 22 years.

On the morning of September 11, Weekes was at his home in the Bronx but immediately returned to duty when a general recall order went out for all 10,000 New York City firefighters. He was already at his firehouse in Queens assembling his company when the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed at 10:05 a.m., and en route to the disaster scene in commandeered city buses when the north tower collapsed 23 minutes later.

Weekes spent the next 36 straight hours working at the attack site, and almost every single day thereafter for the next two and a half weeks.

Although his company did not lose any men that day, Weekes said that at Ladder Company 118 in Brooklyn, where he previously had served as a lieutenant from 1991 to 1998, every firefighter on duty that morning perished at the World Trade Center.

The solidarity that Panamanian firefighters showed to their counterparts from New York City is but one of the many demonstrations of support that has been echoed throughout the Western Hemisphere and the world. On December 11, for example, firefighters from Canada, Brazil, Panama, El Salvador, Uruguay, and Chile participated in commemorative ceremonies in those nations marking the three-month anniversary of the attacks. The Chilean firefighters arrived at the U.S. Embassy in Santiago that day in a procession of seven fire trucks to deliver a memorial wreath.

Nearly three months before, in the days immediately following the September 11 attacks, firefighters in Ecuador, Venezuela, and Canada also paid tribute to their fallen American colleagues with floral wreathes or memorial tributes at U.S. diplomatic missions in those countries.

On September 22, several hundred firefighters from throughout Ecuador gathered in front of the U.S. Consulate General in Guayaquil to offer condolences for their fallen comrades in New York. In a moving ceremony, the Ecuadorians, many of whom had attended training courses in New York, presented a large wreath and commemorative plaque in memory of the dead.

"Duty led them to heroism, heroism led them to death, and death opened for them the gates of glory," read the inscription on the plaque.

Or, as Weekes said simply, "Firefighters are like a brotherhood the world over."