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Fullerton Man Honors 9/11 Victims With Memorial Yard Display

FULLERTON (CBSLA.com) — For the 13th year, an Orange County man remembers the victims of the 9/11 terrorists attacks in the yard of his Fullerton home.

Engineer Scott Townley of the Orange County Fire Authority has planted between 3,500 and 5,000 flags in his yard in the 800 block of N. Woods Avenue.

The memorial began with a single, hand-made sign and about 20 flags in 2001.

To date, it includes 417 crosses for the firefighters, police and port authority officers who died helping victims in New York City.

The memorial also includes an 8-foot tall wooden cross with the names of every victim killed in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in the Pennsylvania plane crash of United Flight 93.

This year, Townley added a military wall bearing the 13,000-plus names of the men and women who have died fighting the war on terrorism.

Visitors may also share their feelings with a sign-in book.

"I had one of the firefighters who was actually on the pile in New York after the Towers fell, and he came and he was sobbing the entire time. He wrote a note, and the note was smeared, the ink, and I know it was because he was crying. It was powerful," Townley said. "I read every single one of those notes to me.

(©2014 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)

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