Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department


The Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department is a volunteer fire department in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The department provides fire protection and emergency medical services to the boroughs of Shanksville and Indian Lake as well as to Stonycreek Township. The response area is approximately with an estimated 2,500 residents. Additionally the department is responsible for a stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

September 11 terrorist attacks

On September 11, 2001, the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department responded to the United Airlines Flight 93 crash scene to search for survivors. They found a smoking crater to deep, and to wide surrounded by burning wreckage of the aircraft. None of the 44 people on board survived. Flight 93 was one of four airliners hijacked that day as part of the al-Qaeda terror attack on the United States. It is widely held that the Flight 93 hijackers intended to use the aircraft to attack the United States Capitol building in Washington, DC. An assistant chief was one of the first on the scene, within seven or eight minutes. Firefighters from nine other local companies also came to the crash site.

Shanksville Firehouse memorial

New York City fire fighters donated a memorial made from a steel cross from the World Trade Center and mounted atop a platform shaped like the Pentagon. Hundreds of firefighters riding motorcycles escorted the beams from New York City to Shanksville. It was installed outside the firehouse on August 25, 2008.