What began in the shadow of 9/11 turned into a friendship that has lasted 25 years.

Paul Smith, from Northfield Fire Station in Birmingham, first met FDNY firefighter Andy Horan after West Midlands crews raised money for firefighters and families affected by the attacks in New York.

On 11 September 2001, Horan was off duty when he saw the attacks on the World Trade Center on television and went out to help. Smith watched from Birmingham.

The attacks killed 2,977 people, including 343 firefighters.

Horan had served 17 years in the Fire Department of the City of New York at the time. He said when he arrived in Lower Manhattan, it was like a war zone.

“There were cars burning. We were able to get people out of surrounding buildings but we didn’t know which way to send them,” he said.

He said he personally knew about 40 colleagues who died that day.

In Birmingham, Smith and his colleagues felt helpless as they watched events unfold. He contacted BBC Radio WM presenter Professor Carl Chinn, who travelled to New York after the attacks to broadcast for the station.

“It was unbelievable, it was something that was almost impossible to comprehend,” Chinn said.

Chinn visited what is now known as Ground Zero and said the devastation was horrific.

After returning to Birmingham, he and Smith helped raise money for the families of those killed. One charity car wash, involving other fire stations across the West Midlands, raised more than £4,000 in one day.

“It was incredible,” Smith said, describing people getting off buses to hand over cash.

In total, West Midlands Fire Service raised about £280,000.

Smith then decided he wanted New York firefighters to come to Birmingham to see that support for themselves, and began raising money to bring them over.

Six months after the attacks, Horan and three colleagues arrived in Birmingham, where they were greeted at the airport by Irish dancers and taken for breakfast. There, Smith said, they found an unexpected family connection.

“My mother-in-law’s brother, his garden backed on to Andy’s mother’s house in New York,” Smith said.

The two became close friends. Horan said the visit itself stayed with him.

“The people we met were incredible, the love and the warmth, everyone was just fantastic,” he said.

During the trip, they watched a Wolverhampton Wanderers game, and a Birmingham hotel gave the visiting firefighters a free stay.

Over the years, Horan became godfather to Smith’s son.

Smith said: “From a really dark day, something positive came through.”

But Horan said the attention, 25 years on, should stay on those who were lost.

“I was at service for the FDNY last night,” he said.

“They read off everybody’s names. People who were retired and came in, people [who] got sick after. It took about an hour to read the names.

“It was not just their job, it was their duty. It is about these guys.”

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