On September 11, 2001, 343 FDNY firefighters lost their lives.
We remember the number. But behind every one of those 343 were people with families, friends, dreams, and stories worth remembering.
In “Better Angels: The Firefighters of 9/11,” artist and author Dawn Howkinson Siebel honors those lives through an extraordinary collection of portraits and personal stories, reminding us that behind every face was a life that mattered.
We remember the number: 343. This book remembers the people.
On September 11, 2001, 343 members of the FDNY lost their lives. In the years since, the number itself has become part of American memory. But every number had a name, a family, a firehouse, a history, a personality, and a life already in progress.
Better Angels: The Firefighters of 9/11 brings those lives forward again.
Artist Dawn Howkinson Siebel spent more than three thousand hours over six years creating individual portraits of the fallen firefighters on burned blocks of wood. In partnership with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, the completed Better Angels exhibition traveled across the United States, including a presentation at the World Financial Center overlooking the World Trade Center site.
Now the portraits are gathered with some of the stories behind the faces.
Here are legendary chiefs and young probationary firefighters. Fathers whose children had not yet been born. Brothers who entered the fire service together. Coaches, musicians, veterans, carpenters, cooks, practical jokers, marathoners, and men who had spent years waiting for the chance to join the FDNY. Some were off duty and went anyway. Some were preparing to retire. Some were still climbing when others were coming down.
In this book, their stories unfold alongside the events of September 11, the experiences of survivors, the other first responders who died that day, and the continuing toll of 9/11-related illness.
Abraham Lincoln called upon “the better angels of our nature.” For Dawn Siebel, these firefighters embodied that ideal: ordinary human beings capable of extraordinary service to others.
Three hundred forty-three is a number. Better Angels remembers 343 lives.
Remember the lives behind the number.
“Better Angels: The Firefighters of 9/11” is more than a tribute. It’s a lasting reminder of the humanity, courage, and sacrifice of 343 individuals whose stories deserve to be remembered.
Explore the book and help keep their stories alive.
Such a moving tribute - a book for all of us, but particularly for so many of us for whom it wasn't a national tragedy - but a terrible loss in our local neighborhoods. You've brought me again to tears . . . Kevin Kane / Bronx, NY