LONDONDERRY — Eleven years have come and gone, but Fire Chief Kevin MacCaffrie won't soon forget that fateful morning.

It was a crisp, fall morning eerily similar to the one breaking over Londonderry on Tuesday morning, and MacCaffrie was just a year into his job as the fire chief in Bedford, Mass.

He was sitting down at his desk to enjoy a rare moment of quiet and a cup of coffee when he heard the news.

“My secretary came in and told me to turn on the television quick,” MacCaffrie said. “We watched in the day room as it all unfolded.”

Over a decade later, a small crew at Central Fire Station paused from their duties Tuesday morning to gather in front of the station's flagpole, their heads bowed in remembrance of their fallen brothers and sisters. MacCaffrie, who led the crew in a moment of silence, followed by a reading of the Fireman's Prayer, said he fears some of the younger generation might have already forgotten that terrible day.

“You ask kids in their 20s … and they just can't seem to remember where they were that day,” he said.

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