The Palm Coast Fire Department and Palm Coast Professional Firefighters IAFF Local 4807 are joining to bring the Sept. 11 Remembrance Rescue Project – a New York Fire Department vehicle restored and preserved after 9/11 – to Palm Coast in early March.
The nonprofit Remembrance Rescue Project was created by firefighters to restore, preserve and share former FDNY Rescue 4 and Rescue 5 from 9/11 as educational tools, historical artifacts and memorials.
A major goal is to help people, especially youngsters, understand the events of Sept. 11, 2001, when 2,606 civilians, 343 firefighters, 23 New York City and 37 Port Authority police officers were murdered killed when the Twin Towers collapsed after being attacked by Islamist terrorists, and what that day means to members of the fire service and the country as a whole. Almost 400 more were murdered in the four planes the 19 hijackers used for their attacks, and at the Pentagon, the target of one of the planes. Some 3,051 children lost a parent that day.
The Remembrance project’s rescued truck was at the Twin Towers the day of the attacks, where 98 FDNY vehicles were destroyed. After the truck was restored, it was in service in New York until 2010. In July 2011, a group of firefighters bought one of the rescues from the city before it was scrapped, to create the Remembrance project. It had an immediate catastrophic engine failure. Rescue 4 was brought back from the scrap yard and restored, using Rescue 3’s doors.
The Project now works with fire departments across the country to host the Rescues throughout the year.
The public has been able to visit the Rescue Remembrance Project and see the vehicle at several events this week, and Palm Coast firefighters have taken it to area schools and civic organizations.
Thursday, March 5, the truck will be at the Palm Coast Elks Lodge at 53 Old Kings Road North from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Friday, March 6, from 9 a.m. to noon, it will be at Palm Coast Fire Station 25, 1250 Belle Terre Pkwy.
“The city of Palm Coast is home to thousands of transplants from the Metropolitan New York area, and many of our residents have deep, personal ties to the terrorist attacks of September 11th,” said Palm Coast Fire Lt. Kyle Berryhill, president of the Palm Coast Professional Firefighters IAFF Local 4807. “Over the last 10 years, the city has hosted a September 11th remembrance ceremony, with overwhelming community support. The Rescue Remembrance Project is yet another way for a community to never forget the sacrifice of September 11th.”
Patrick Juliano, a Palm Coast firefighter-paramedic and a member of the department’s honor guard commander who’s played a key role in organizing the 9/11 memorials, said: “The Remembrance Rescue Project allows the Palm Coast Fire Department and Palm Coast Professional Firefighters to continue on telling the story of 9/11. As a community with a predominant northern population, we have strong and personal ties to 9/11. It is our goal to educate our community on the events, honor those that served, celebrate those who survived and remember those we lost.”
For more information, contact the Palm Coast Fire Department at 386/986-2300.
Watch a profile of the Project, produced by Allen City TV in Texas:
YankeeExPat says
My wife and I went to the Palm Coast Elks Lodge today to see and touch a piece of modern American History. We stayed and reflected on that piece of equipment and the lives of those lost who rode in it. . 20 feet away is a twisted I beam from the World Trade Center. We were alone except for another woman and the volunteers attached to the exhibition. My thoughts on the way home were if Americans are too quick to forget. We hope that generations from now will always remember what happened that day.
David S. says
I was a vol firefighter in PG county for a long time and this sad occurance will be remembered for a lifetime.Even though I was unable to see the rescue unit I never forget the brave men who lost their lives that day,they have a special place in my heart.