AMID all the heartbreaking television footage of the New York terrorist attack, some of the most moving involved the city's firefighters.

Film shot in the World Trade Centre after the first jet had hit caught workers, shocked and scared, descending the stairs. As they sought the safety of the outside world, firefighters marched resolutely past them, up into the towering inferno. They were weighed down by their equipment and the knowledge that they faced an extremely dangerous task.

Yet they did not hesitate.

We now know that many of those rescuers, whose courage we witnessed from the comfort of our front rooms and offices, will not have made it.

Around 300 firefighters were killed when the twin towers collapsed. They gave their lives in a desperate attempt to save others. That is the very definition of heroism.

The New York firefighters walked up those stairs with purpose enough to give every one of us pause for thought. In an era dominated by greed and selfishness, they acted with phenomenal selflessness. We might ask ourselves how many of us would, or could, have done the same.

Firefighters everywhere are not well paid yet regularly put their lives on the line for others.

Even confronting the naked terror at the World Trade Centre, the fire crews did not balk. It was the ultimate display of professionalism.

North Yorkshire is fortunate to be protected by a similarly remarkable team of firefighters. These men and women risk all for our wellbeing. They know better than anyone what their New York counterparts would have felt as they entered the burning skyscrapers. They feel the anguish of the survivors, now searching for their many dead friends and comrades in the rubble, more keenly than the rest of us.

This is why North Yorkshire's firemen and women were compelled to do something for the families of their US counterparts. Soon after the disaster, they began a collection. Local people, desperate to do their bit to help, have responded with unprecedented generosity. Almost £30,000 has been raised in little more than a week.

The firefighters are running a remarkable campaign, and we want to help. So we are asking our readers to dig deep and take the total as high as possible in the coming days.

York Fire Station commander Barry Kirkpatrick aims to hand over a cheque to an American firefighter a week today.

This will be symbolic of the friendship between old York and New York.

Let us make that cheque as big as possible. We must give what we can to the loved ones of those who have given everything.

Updated: 10:21 Friday, September 21, 2001