James Riches would have turned 30 on September 12th. He came from a family of uniform-wearers, either FDNY or NYPD. He himself spent eight years in the NYPD with Brooklyn South Narcotics before moving to the FDNY in 1999.
Some months after 9/11, Riches’ father, a retired FDNY firefighter, buried his mother in the morning and was at Ground Zero when they found his son’s body in the afternoon.