Keighley firemen were making a special journey today to deliver a cheque to a New York fire crew who attended the World Trade Center on September 11.

Keighley's blue watch was horrified to see footage of the terrorist attack and empathised with their trans-Atlantic counterparts.

"We were all devastated by what had happened and to see pictures on the news of firefighters being killed really brought it home," explained fireman Bob Whitehead.

Today Mr Whitehead with colleagues Graham Lightowler and Stuart Shackleton, from white watch, flew out to New York to deliver a cheque for over £5,000 from fundraising vents.

Mr Whitehead continued: "All blue watch have been involved. We had two collections, at Sainsbury's and Morrisons at the end of last year.

"We also raised money at a social evening and in total we raised about five times more than we expected."

Blue watch accessed the Internet to keep updated on the situation and noticed one crew who had lost ten members at ground zero.

Their families will benefit from the money raised.

Graham Lightowler said: "We wanted to send the money directly to the widows and orphans of those people.

"What happened over there was horrific but we wanted them to see that the support they had was tremendous.

"We are taking over issues of the Keighley News to show them what the people of Keighley did out of respect."

Mr Whitehead added: "We just want to thank the people who contributed because they were so generous and all so appreciative of the work we do here. We also want to make it clear that we are privately funding our flights over there - all the money raised will go to the New York crew."

As well as the cheque, blue watch will also be presenting the New York firefighters with a plaque in remembrance of those who lost their lives and in support of their work.

The plaque was made free of charge by Keighley Engraving, Lambert Machine Tools, and features the tip of the hose known as a 'branch' from 1942.

The solid brass branch was mounted on a wooden plinth with an engraved plaque.

Manager of Keighley Engraving James Scatchard said: "I think everybody was so touched by what happened on September 11 that we all wanted to help in whatever way we could.

"We just wanted to show our support for the firefighters in New York and for the firefighters over here who do such a good job."