SAN JOSE — Two decades later, David Lerma holds back tears when he recalls digging through the rubble of the Twin Towers.

The 64-year-old retired San Jose Fire captain was one of four department firefighters deployed to New York City the week after 9/11 to search for survivors. For more than two weeks, he spent 12-hour shifts scraping up piles of rock, pebbles at the remains of the World Trade Center and dust into 5-gallon buckets and tossing them in enormous trash containers.

All he found was a few fire helmets and tattered pieces of uniforms.

“I really wasn’t able to help like I was trained,” Lerma said in an interview outside the San Jose Fire Department Station 1 Saturday morning, his voice wavering. “It was just overwhelming. I’ve never seen so much destruction in my life.”

Lerma was taking part in a San Jose Fire Department procession and memorial to note the 20-year anniversary of 9/11 — also known as Patriot Day. It was a scene played out in varying ways across the Bay Area on Saturday, as residents, first responders, veterans, politicians and others gathered to commemorate the terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington, D.C.,  and Pennsylvania in 2001.

At San Jose, a somber procession of bagpipers and drummers marched down Market Street behind two historic fire engines, one of which carried San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. Dozens of fire personnel walked behind them as San Jose residents — some waving American flags or decked out in Fire Department New York gear — watched in silence.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Sept. 11: San Jose firefighters observe the 20-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks with a procession down Market Street in San Jose, Calif., Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group) 

In Pleasanton, where retired service members lined the front of Alameda County Fairgrounds amphitheater to fire rifles on command, about 100 attendees stifled sobs and wiped away tears as they listened to Dublin resident Deborah Lloyd describe how 9/11 ripped through her family.

“My father called, stammering and struggling to speak, but he was able to formulate these words: ‘United (Airlines) called,'” Lloyd told the crowd, recalling how she lost feeling in her legs as she learned her sister, Amy King, was among the passengers on United Airlines Flight 175, the airplane that plunged into the World Trade Center’s south tower that morning.

“That moment seemed to last forever,” Lloyd said. “My head was spinning and I felt as though I was outside of my body, repeatedly saying, ‘No, no, no.'”

PLEASANTON, CA – SEPTEMBER 11: Deborah Lloyd, of Dublin, speaks about her sister Amy King, a flight attendant who was killed during the September 11th terrorist attacks, at a memorial held on the 20th anniversary at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif., on Saturday, September 11, 2021. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group) 

All told, nearly 3,000 people died that day, including 343 New York firefighters. Thousands more people were injured, while others still suffer from exposure to toxic debris.

For those without a personal connection to the attacks, Saturday’s anniversary provided a window to explain the staggering importance of the event to those who were too young to recall the experience.

Ruth Salas, who lives a few blocks from the downtown San Jose fire station and whose nephew is a fire dispatcher, showed her 6-year-old daughter Genesis a documentary about the attacks last year. On Saturday, Genesis donned a miniature Nomex fire suit and carried an American flag drawing with the letters “RIP” she had drawn herself.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Sept. 11: Genesis Samarron, 6, attends a twentieth anniversary observance of the 9/11 attack wearing firefighter clothes and carrying a handmade sign for the 2977 lives lost, Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021, in San Jose, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group) 

“I can’t answer her questions about, ‘Why do these things happen?’ But I want her to be able to have empathy, and feel for people,” Salas said.

Fremont resident Tejinder Dhamir, who attended the Pleasanton memorial, likewise counts no family or friends among 9/11 victims. But, as a member of the Sikh faith, he has continued to feel its aftershocks nonetheless.

In the years since 9/11, he has watched friends and family experience racism borne out of the attacks, like a taxi driver friend who was often called “bad names,” he said.

PLEASANTON, CA – SEPTEMBER 11: Soldiers from Camp Parks attend a September 11th memorial held, on the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif., on Saturday, September 11, 2021. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group) 

“They attacked us because of the turban,” said Dhamir, gesturing at the maroon head garment he had worn to Saturday’s memorial. But, “our community wanted to volunteer to help right away. From then on, all the way until last year with the coronavirus — we want to help.”

Dhamir wasn’t the only one to connect the commemoration to contemporary catastrophes. In a brief speech, Liccardo thanked emergency responders who “violated every human instinct” to escape danger, likening them to the police officers who ran into the VTA light rail yard moments after the mass shooting earlier this summer, and the 41 local firefighters who were dispatched to fight wildfires in the Sierra Nevada until just a few days ago.

Since 9/11, “we face different battles, perhaps,” Liccardo said. “This pandemic, violent extremism that continues, of course — climate change, and so much else that our first responders are called to fight.”

Lerma, the retired firefighter, said that he wants the anniversary to provide people a moment to grieve — and appreciate the togetherness that can emerge out of shared pain.

“I’m just hoping that this day will make people think,” he said, “that we can unify like we did then.”

PLEASANTON, CA – SEPTEMBER 11: Alameda County Fire Captain Justin Hoglund rings a bell in honor of September 11th victims during a memorial held, on the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif., on Saturday, September 11, 2021. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group) 
PLEASANTON, CA – SEPTEMBER 11: Army Specialist Tlaloc Perales plays the trumpet during a September 11th memorial held, on the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif., on Saturday, September 11, 2021. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group) 
SAN JOSE, Calif. – Sept. 11: San Jose firefighters observe the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks with a ceremony in front of Station 1 in downtown San Jose, Calif., Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group) 
SAN JOSE, Calif. – Sept. 11: Torey Page, with her husband Joey, brought their 2-year-old daughter Savannah, to a twentieth anniversary 9/11 observance held in San Jose, Calif., Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)