On Friday, September 9th at 10:00am the Fairfield Fire Department formally dedicated a memorial to the first responders lost on September 11th, 2001. The simple ceremony will take place in front of Fire Headquarters, 140 Reef Road in Fairfield, where Chief Richard Felner acknowledged receipt of the steel obtained from the debris recovered from the World Trade Center site. A plaque commemorating the events has been placed at the base of the memorial alongside a small flower garden.
“The process of obtaining this piece of history started over a year ago when the Port Authority of NY/NJ, the owners of the World Trade Center, announced that they would offer items to departments that wished to have them,” explained Lt. John Cronin, who with the help of Fire Fighter Joe Rainis and Chief Felner made the necessary arrangements. “The application process included a request for the steel, verification of the department intent, a contract authorizing the transfer of the artifact and a certificate of insurance to obtain the steel. Each step in this process required considerable work by both the department and the Port Authority culminating in the steel’s retrieval from a Port Authority hanger at JFK in New York in late May. This piece of steel is a 1 inch thick I-beam about 24 inches high, 48 inches long and weighs over 600 lbs.”
I’m sure all of these fire departments erecting memorials to 9/11 using debris from the WTC have the best intentions, but frankly it is ghastly and should be removed!
I responded to the WTC on 9/11. Everything and EVERYONE was micropulverized. Wading through the ash one instantly understood that people were among the ashes. To take something, or to allow something to be taken from that sacred ground is morbid. All of the debris should have been disposed of via burial, and if any portion should be saved for a memorial, it should be at the WTC site itself.
FDNY lost their firefighters that day, not Easton or Fairfield, or any of the other area departments building memorials with pieces from the WTC. If you want to remember FDNY guys, go hop a train and visit their houses in NYC, but in the meantime – GIVE THE DEBRIS BACK or GIVE IT AN APPROPRIATE BURIAL!
What will be next? Saving a cracked windshield from a ‘cool’ fatal accident for everyone to look at??!!
Do the right thing.