From FDNY to North Canyon: Teacher shares his memories of Sept. 11
Screenshot/PVSchools
In a video released by PVSchools, former Superintendent Todd Cummings spoke with Hennessy about his experience on Sept. 11 and how the events continue to resonate 25 years later.
William Hennessy, an automotive technology teacher at North Canyon High School, was a New York City firefighter on Sept. 11, 2001. He shared his memories of that day as part of a 2025 PVSchools commemoration led by former Superintendent Todd Cummings.
“Today we want to say the names of those who perished and highlight our first responders,” Cummings said in the video.
A FDNY firefighter remembers 9/11
Hennessy was off duty the morning two hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center. Like millions of Americans watching the events unfold, his first reaction was disbelief.
“My first thought was that it was an accident,” Hennessy said. “I didn't ever think that anyone would ever do something like that on purpose.”
That changed quickly.
After seeing reports directing police officers and firefighters to report for duty, Hennessy headed to his Manhattan firehouse, home to Engine 39 and Ladder 16. The firefighters normally assigned there had already responded.
Hennessy and other firefighters commandeered a New York City bus and headed toward Ground Zero.
“I was so gung ho to get in to fight this fire because I think every firefighter wanted to put the fire out,” Hennessy recalled.
As the bus approached Lower Manhattan, that determination began mixing with fear.
“Then I started getting nervous when I didn't see the World Trade Center,” he said.
Hennessy remembered sitting alongside veteran firefighters as a cloud of dust engulfed the bus. Eventually, they got out and began confronting the devastation around them.
Among those Hennessy worried about were members of Engine 39, who had been inside the World Trade Center when the North Tower collapsed.
The firefighters had been trying to evacuate when they realized one member of their company was missing. Instead of continuing out, Lt. Jim McGlynn and the others went back to find him.
They were still inside when the tower came down.
Hennessy said he had just gotten off the bus when two firefighters from Queens approached him and asked whether Engine 39 was from his firehouse.
“They go, ‘They're giving a mayday from inside,’” Hennessy recalled.
The problem was almost impossible to comprehend: The firefighters were calling for help from inside a building that no longer appeared to exist.
After hours of searching, rescuers located members of Engine 39 and Ladder 16 in the rubble.
Hennessy remembers watching McGlynn emerge.
“He had inches of just caked-on who knows what on his face, and he had these tears that were going through like tributaries,” Hennessy said.
The firefighters survived, along with Josephine Harris, the civilian Ladder 16 firefighters who had been helping down the stairs when the tower collapsed. Her survival and the firefighters' rescue became one of the better-known stories to emerge from Ground Zero.
More than two decades later, Hennessy said the experience continues to shape the way he looks at life.
He recalled a lesson from one of his lieutenants, Danny Williams: After Sept. 11, “every day is a parade, and every meal is a banquet.”
Hennessy eventually left firefighting, earned a master's degree in education and found another way to serve his community. He is now in his 13th year teaching in PVSchools.
“I always have just wanted to help people,” he said. “Maybe that's how I found teaching.”
Asked what he most wants students and others to remember about Sept. 11, Hennessy focused on the commitment first responders make to strangers.
“They will show up no matter what, anywhere, anytime, for anybody,” he said.
Firefighters do not ask about politics, religion, income or identity before answering a call, he said.
“If you call the fire department anywhere in the country, they will put their lives on the line for you, your family, for anybody,” Hennessy said.
The Sept. 11 attacks killed 2,977 victims, including 343 FDNY firefighters, 23 New York City police officers and 37 Port Authority police officers.
Cummings also used the district's remembrance to recognize people with Arizona and educational connections who were killed in the attacks.
He named Gary Bird, the only Arizona resident killed in the attacks, as well as Katie McCloskey and Kathy Hawk Nicosia, two graduates of John Adams High School in Cummings' former school district.
McCloskey was working in the World Trade Center, while Nicosia was a flight attendant aboard American Airlines Flight 11.
For Hennessy, however, remembering Sept. 11 is about more than recounting what happened that morning. It is about preserving the idea of service that emerged amid the destruction.
“This is our country's history,” Hennessy said. “It's 250 years of this amazing history of people who are willing to help each other.”
PVSchools' remembrance was produced with assistance from Paradise Valley film and media students.
Cummings encouraged the community to use the anniversary to stop and reflect on the attacks and the people who responded.
For Hennessy's students, that history is not confined to a textbook or museum because one of the people who answered the call that morning now stands in their classroom.
Teaching 9/11 to a new generation
Hennessy's account is also part of a broader effort by PVSchools to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks for a generation of students born years after they occurred.
Across the district, students and staff are being encouraged to wear red, white and blue on Sept. 11 and campuses will observe a morning moment of silence. Social studies teachers also have access to age-appropriate lessons about the attacks and their historical significance.
Students are taking part in telling that history as well. PVSchools students in the Career and Technical Education Film and Production program produced a digital history that will be shown across the district. The project highlights local connections to Sept. 11, including Hennessy's experience as a New York firefighter.
The activities are being held as part of Patriot Day and the National Day of Service and Remebrance, which commemorates those killed in the 2001 attachs and recognizes the first responders and others who served in the aftermath. View the video interview on Instagram.
Editor’s note: A grant from the Arizona Local News Foundation made this story possible. The foundation awarded 15 newsrooms to pay for solutions-focused education reporters for two years. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.
Meet Stacy Stacy Mantle is joining the team at Independent Newsmedia, Inc. as an Education Solutions journalist, thanks to a grant from the Arizona Community Collaborative. She has a long history in education that ranges from teaching junior high and middle school to developing curriculum and standards-based assessments.
Community: A longtime advocate for animal welfare, Stacy is deeply involved in rescue efforts and volunteers with several nonprofit organizations.
Random Fact: Once upon a time, she shared her home with a pet coyote and two wolf hybrids. The experiences were wild enough to become the subject of her first book!
Education: She holds a BA in English with a minor in Political Science, a Post-baccalaureate in Secondary Education, and an MBA with a emphasis on Marketing.
Hobbies: In her spare time, Stacy writes fast-paced urban fantasy novels, crafts small-batch artisan soap, and is always up for hiking or off-roading through the Arizona wilderness with her husband of 23 years.
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