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Rumford firefighters Lt. Brian Lyle, second from left, and Jeff Stetson, third from left, salute the flag on Sept. 11 as it’s raised at the old Central Fire Station on Congress Street. Other town employees join them in remembrance of the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, on Sept. 11, 2001. (Bruce Farrin/Staff Writer)

Town officials held a 9/11 flag raising ceremony Thursday morning on the 24th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

Town Manager George O’Keefe said the town had not had a 9/11 flag raising ceremony, at least since his time in Rumford in 2021.

“We did some much needed restoration work on the flag pole this year, and it seemed appropriate to hold a brief ceremony, raising the flag on the 24th anniversary of 9/11,” he said.

The attacks were on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, on Sept. 11, 2001. A fourth plane, thought to have been targeting the U.S. Capitol or the White House in Washington, D.C., crashed in a field outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania, when passengers revolted against the hijackers. In all, the four crashes killed 2,996 people, including the 19 hijackers, and injured thousands more.

O’Keefe said the town could make the old Central Fire Station a 9/11 memorial site.

“What I see as meaningful is the opportunity to have a commemoration of 9/11 in one specific spot in the town, which, at the moment, doesn’t exist,” he said. “So maybe, if the Select Board wanted to make this a memorial site to 9/11 at some point in the future, I think that would be meaningful.”

The new fire station at 61 Falmouth St. was dedicated in May.

Bruce Farrin is editor for the Rumford Falls Times, serving the River Valley with the community newspaper since moving to Rumford in 1986. In his early days, before computers, he was responsible for...