Reading time: 2 minutes 
Summary for: 9/11 firefighter marks 25th anniversary of attacks in PragueA New York firefighter who responded to the World Trade Center attacks joined Prague officials and emergency workers this week to mark the 25th anniversary of 9/11, bringing a firsthand account of a tragedy whose health consequences are still claiming lives.
Jim Manahan, 69, was welcomed at Prague's Old Town Hall by Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda on Friday before attending a memorial ceremony on Kampa. Manahan was a New York Fire Department commander on Sept. 11, 2001, and spent months working in the aftermath of the attacks.
His visit came as memorial events across the United States and Europe marked a quarter-century since nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attacks. For Manahan and many other first responders, however, the consequences have continued long beyond 2001.
'I don't know anyone who doesn't have health problems'
Manahan commanded 10 fire units in Queens at the time of the attacks and reached lower Manhattan shortly after the second World Trade Center tower collapsed. He told Czech media that he personally knew about 30 of the 343 firefighters killed that day.
He later spent months working at Ground Zero, where firefighters searched through debris that remained hot and smoking well into the autumn. Manahan recalled a vast cloud of dust so thick that firefighters sometimes needed windshield wipers simply to see where they were driving.
"I don't know anyone who doesn't have some kind of health problem," Manahan told Seznam Zprávy. Many surviving firefighters suffer from lung conditions and other illnesses, he said. Manahan himself has been treated for cancer and continues to undergo medical monitoring.
The long-term toll of 9/11-related illnesses has now far surpassed the number of first responders killed on the day of the attacks. According to the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund, 9,677 people had died from conditions associated with the attacks as of the end of July.
The debris around Ground Zero exposed responders and residents to a mixture of asbestos, lead, fiberglass, pulverized concrete and other hazardous materials. Manahan told Seznam Zprávy that firefighters knew at the time they were breathing dangerous air despite official assurances about its safety.
Prague remembers 9/11
Manahan's Czech visit also included meetings with Prague firefighters and a charity event in Opatov, where he watched firefighters take part in a drill involving a simulated climb to the 23rd floor.
He later met Prague emergency workers for a discussion about lessons learned by American firefighters after 9/11 and the health problems responders continue to experience.
On Friday, Svoboda welcomed Manahan to Old Town Hall before the two attended a commemorative event at the New York Firefighters Memorial on Kampa. Manahan also visited the memorial during a previous trip to Prague five years ago.
"His testimony about those moments is powerful and reminds us what true heroism means," Svoboda wrote on social media following their meeting.
Manahan also spoke about the bonds among New York firefighters after the attacks. Some stations lost a quarter of their members, he said, leaving survivors to support the widows, children and parents of colleagues who had died.
The Sept. 11 attacks killed 2,977 victims after al-Qaida hijackers seized four passenger aircraft, crashing two into the World Trade Center and another into the Pentagon. A fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers fought back against the hijackers.
