Wylie Fire Rescue will hold a ceremony on Friday, Sept. 11, marking 25 years since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The ceremony takes place at Fire Station #4, 3200 McMillen Drive, where the department's "Never Forget" sculpture stands as a permanent memorial. The installation contains actual steel recovered from the World Trade Center, according to the city's public art page.

Wylie Fire Rescue said in an event announcement that the ceremony will honor the 343 firefighters, eight FDNY emergency medical personnel, 72 law enforcement officers and thousands of military members and civilians who died on Sept. 11, 2001.

Steel you can touch

Artist Terrence Martin designed the sculpture, which features two 13-foot aluminum towers shaped to echo the World Trade Center skyline. The names of all 343 firefighters killed that day are laser-cut into the facade. Each tower has a badge-shaped "window of remembrance" that lets visitors reach inside and touch a mounted piece of the original World Trade Center steel.

Red and orange LED lighting illuminates the interior at night. The light glows through the laser-cut names and decorative features. A shallow mirroring pond, roughly four feet in diameter and six to eight inches deep, surrounds the base.

The City of Wylie commissioned the piece through a public art request in 2021 with an $81,000 budget. Installation was scheduled for spring 2022. In his 2021 proposal, Martin wrote that visiting the fire station and meeting its personnel made the project personal.

"I was able to feel an intimate and emotional connection that day, and it has stuck with me," he wrote.

The sculpture sits at a 15,000-square-foot facility that also houses the city's backup 9-1-1 dispatch center and an ICC 500 storm shelter, according to the city's website.

Open to all

Residents who cannot attend the ceremony can visit Station #4 at any time to see the sculpture. The department encouraged the public to stop by 3200 McMillen Drive and take a moment to reflect.

The Friday, Sept. 11, ceremony is scheduled to run from 7:45 to 8:30 a.m., according to the Wylie Area Chamber of Commerce's events calendar.