On the 22nd anniversary of the attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, a retired Rochester firefighter is in New York City with his fellow first responders.

The Brooklyn native is a former New York City firefighter.

What You Need To Know

  • A retired, 25-year veteran Rochester firefighter returns to his roots at the FDNY on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks

  • Brooklyn native and former NYFD firefighter Rey Palacios returns went to NYC on  the morning of the attacks to help

  • Palacios returns every year on Sept. 11

“I always wanted to be a fireman since I was a little boy," said Rey Palacios, who spent many years with New York City Fire Department’s Battalion 32 in Brooklyn.

Palacios was a volunteer firefighter there until beginning a career as a professional baseball player. After a 14-year career, including a three-year stint in the major leagues with the Kansas City Royals, Palacios spent 25 years as a Rochester firefighter.

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, he was outside and heard a neighbor scream.

“So when she started screaming even louder that they're blowing up the towers, I'm like, ‘What?’” Palacios recalled. “So I turned the TV on. And when I saw what happened I was like, I got to get out of here because I got my family over there. And my nieces work in the towers, my cousin works in the towers [and] my brother was supposed to be in the towers.”

Palacios headed straight to his home city and his beloved fire hall.

"When I started driving down, I went down on my motorcycle, I took my gear on my bike and then I was on my way to the firehouse, and it was a big hole,” he said. “I said, ‘Oh my God.’ And it just hit me right there.”

Palacios got word that his firefighter cousin was safe but hurt and his nieces had safely, but barely made it out of the towers.

“They were all full of that white powder and everything but they turned out all right,” he said.

 Palacios headed to Ladder 101 Engine 202 Battalion 32 in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

“Out of all the firemen who got killed, that battalion lost the most in the whole FDNY,” he said. “They lost 19 guys in that one battalion."

That included Palacios’ best friend.

“That's the firehouse I grew up in as a little boy, I used to go there and ride my bike there all the time,” Palacios said. “Because, my uncles, when they would do overtime at that firehouse I would go, I would meet up with them and we'd go hang out, eat lunch at the firehouse. I'd ride on the truck with them. You know, they used to take me all over the city wherever they're working.”

The firefighter was unable to leave and immersed himself in the effort to help.

“I basically worked on the pile,” he said. “[I] fought some fires. We looked for bodies. We found a lot of body parts and things like that. Awe were crawling around down in these piles and these holes look up for people. Everything was pulverized. The pressure fire trucks were embedded into the ground. I mean, you look at a fire truck. It's all the way up here and a beam from the tower was hit his truck and drove it through the ground. You know, it was just massive, massive destruction.”

Banged-up firetruck doors hang on the wall of the firehouse, a reminder of the destruction.

“But it was tough, you know, the guys stuck it out,” Palacios said. “No matter what, send a fireman to do a job, it's going to be done, until it's over. They'll go to the end. It doesn't matter.”

On this anniversary, and on every Sept. 11, Palacios returns to the fire hall and to what had once been the World Trade Center.

“I would like to send a message to the people to never really forget what these brothers and sisters have done,” Palacios said. “I’ll never forget that.”