A Long Beach man who built and maintained a small Sept. 11 memorial was crushed to find it destroyed on Saturday.

But on Sunday, his eyes were tearing up for a different reason.

Members of the Long Beach Fire Department came to Bill Murphy's California Street memorial to repair the damage that was done to the structure.

Murphy says plants and flags were previously ripped out of the memorial in the past, but when he went out to turn on a small flickering candle on Saturday, he was dismayed to find it destroyed. He called the police department and filed a report.

The story of the vandalism was shared on Facebook, and by Sunday, members of the fire department came out to reconstruct the memorial.

The show of community support moved Murphy to tears. "I can't believe it," he told News 12. "It's just amazing. I'm very thankful."

The fire department is urging whoever is responsible for damaging the memorial to come forward and apologize to Murphy.