People gathered in Clermont to mark the 9/11 attacks at the city’s fire station.
The crowd heard from U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Jeremy Johns. He was sitting in his Apopka High School classroom when the towers fell and decided that day to join the military.
"I thought why would someone want to do that to another country, why would someone do that?" Sgt. Johns said.
Former New York City firefighter James Brown also spoke. His fire station was right across the street from the World Trade Center, meaning he was one of the first people inside minutes after the first plane hit.
"I ended up getting buried by the cascading debris of the north tower," Brown said. "I resigned myself to the point where this was the day I was going to die.”
Four of Brown’s colleagues at the station were among the thousands of victims, as was one police officer who Brown said was just a few feet from him during the collapse. They were honored at the commemoration by the playing of TAPS.
Brown, who now lives in Central Florida, said because of new terror threats, it's more important than ever we don’t forget the tragedy of 9/11.
“There’s a lot of kids who are coming of age now who have no idea the effect this event had on this country," Brown said. "It’s really important to me that we don’t forget. If we forget we are destined to allow ourselves to let it be repeated.”