The museum-like display of 9/11 memorabilia in the Sugar Grove basement is gone.
Some of this impressive collection Mike Fagel accumulated over the years has been donated to the village’s library for display, while some went to the College of DuPage. And the remainder, now tucked away in boxes, will go the Haymarket Center in Chicago, where Fagel is a volunteer leader at retreats that help first responders recover from trauma.
When it comes to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, that changed this country and the lives of those who worked in the ruins of the World Trade Center in New York City, however, out of sight does not mean out of mind.
“I just felt it was time to share for future generations,” says 74-year-old Fagel, who as a FEMA emergency management expert arrived at Ground Zero a few days after the World Trade Center devolved into a roughly 120-foot mountain of twisted remains, and stayed for over 100 days helping with logistics, safety and support as thousands of volunteers, including teams from Aurora and Naperville’s fire departments, went to help at the site.
“It was time to share and keep the memory alive,” he tells me, “and not smoldering in my soul.”
Fagel admits every time he looked at those artifacts on the basement shelves, “it sparked sadness and anger” over the many lives lost and for those still suffering from illnesses and injuries.
“Neither one,” he says, “are good feelings.”
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On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Fagel also acknowledges the “baggage” he still carries from those three months working directly with the New York City Fire Department and federal law enforcement agencies.
Some of it is psychological. It wasn’t until a few years ago he realized how much it had impacted his family and personal life. Some is physical. Fagel has battled three forms of cancer, an autoimmune condition and PTSD – all certified by the National World Trade Center Health Program as tied to Ground Zero, and is currently operating with one kidney and one of two lungs functioning at 25%.
This year alone, he’s had over 80 medical appointments, he said. “But knock on wood, I’m still alive,” says Fagel, who is well aware of the many first responders he worked alongside who can’t say the same.
According to the most recent data from the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, 9,677 workers and survivors exposed to Ground Zero have died from illnesses associated with the toxic site, including 5,892 from cancer.
Randy Leek, who was a member of the six-man Technical Rescue Team from the Aurora Fire Department that went to help at Ground Zero, told me he’s been relatively healthy since coming back from four days working in the Twin Towers rubble pile – with one startling exception. He experienced a massive heart attack in February of 2024 that struck without any warning, leaving his wife to “bring him back” with CPR before being rushed to the hospital.
Cardiac problems are not generally considered among the signature illnesses associated with Ground Zero, but subsequent testing found elevated levels of mercury in Leek’s system, which the doctor told him was frequently seen in firefighters and is a “precursor to cardiac issues.”
Unfortunately, Mark Lockwood, chief of training for that AFD rescue squad, died three years ago from brain cancer, one of many illnesses widely associated with World Trade Center toxins, says Leek who, at 65, still keeps in touch with surviving members of the team that joined 40 members of the Chicago Fire Department on this historic mission.
Now all retired, they also include Gary Pozzi, who described the experience as “surreal” in an interview with me five years ago; Will Torres; Tim Pogue; and Jason Demas.
None of them, Leek insists, thought about any physical consequences when they set up camp in front of an elementary school that, three blocks from Ground Zero, was surrounded by so much white toxic dust from the collapsed towers that “we had to sweep and shovel it away.”
Team members arrived at the still-smoldering wreckage the morning of Sept. 13, 2001, but it didn’t take long, he says, to realize when a 110-story building is reduced to rubble “nine stories high,” it unlikely will yield survivors.
“That took the wind out of our sails,” Leek recalls. “We went there for rescue, hoping we would find a void or space” where a victim could still find air. “Unfortunately, there was nothing.”
And after it became apparent they were working a massive crime scene, the Aurora firefighters became part of a bucket brigade, filling and passing along five-gallon containers they knew carried the remains of thousands of souls.
The sights these local first responders saw and the odors they smelled will stay with them forever. For Fagel, who was with the North Aurora Fire Department and had been active in FEMA emergency response since 1995, the terrorist attacks changed the trajectory of his career – shaping the regional, national and international work he still does as an accredited Homeland Security teacher, author and expert in this field.
“My mission,” he says, “is to train as many people as I can while I’m still alive.”
Leek, who retired from the Aurora Fire Department in 2023 as battalion chief, also sees the benefits of sharing, and in fact, on that long return trip to Illinois, his team made a pact to never turn down the opportunity to talk about 9/11 because “people need to learn from this.”
Lessons, unfortunately, tend to fade with time.
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Funding for crisis training has slowed considerably, Fagel points out. And many first responders were too young to remember 9/11 or weren’t even born when it happened. But both men mention another important reason why this attack on America should never be forgotten: the unprecedented swell of support and gratitude that followed that dark turning point in history.
“We played a very small part but what we saw was a very big part: people helping people,” says Leek, also recalling the landscape of American flags hanging from fences, bridges, buildings, trees and vehicles on their trips to and from New York, and the letters firefighters received from children, thanking them for their bravery.
He and Fagel insist the 9/11 narrative must always include a lesson about unity. And both will be delivering that message on this 25th anniversary.
Fagel, who spoke at the Sugar Grove Public Library on Wednesday, will give the opening remarks at the Batavia Fire Station during a 9/11 remembrance event on Friday morning, then drive to Oshkosh Wisconsin, where he will address around 600 people at the EAA Aviation Museum.
Meanwhile, Leek will share his experiences with middle and high school students in his hometown of Byron, Illinois, carefully curating his words to offer not only a historic account of the attacks on America but a message of hope for our youngest generation who will know 9/11 only as a chapter in history.
That message: “We are united for a purpose … to look out for each other and help one another … and to not face difficult times alone.”