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Stateside Comment FIRE’s US Correspondent Catherine Levin pays her respects to fallen firefighters at the new National September 11 Memorial Museum
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t last, after much speculation the Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, announced his choice for FDNY Fire Commissioner. Daniel Nigro returns to the FDNY after 12 years of retirement to lead the second largest fire service in the world. He is well regarded here as he was Chief of Department (the level below Commissioner and the head of the uniformed service) on September 11, 2001, and led the search and recovery efforts. His appointment coincided with the opening of the new National September 11 Memorial Museum on May 21. There has been a lot of controversy here about the museum and its shop. There has been particular criticism of the ticket price, which at $24 (about £14) puts it at the high end of entrance fees for similar attractions in the city. It is easy to get sucked in by what the media say, so I decided to form my own opinion and visit the museum on a hot day in early June. Descending into this deep, dark and cavernous space carved out of the partial subterranean footprint of the Twin Towers, so much is so familiar and yet still so shocking. There are two wrecked fire engines exhibited here. The first stands proudly alone as tourists inspect its shattered remains. All 11 responding members of Ladder Company 3 were inside the
North Tower and killed when it collapsed at 10.28am. A total of 343 members of FDNY died that day and many have died since due to medical problems caused by working at the site of the collapse. The second fire engine stands in the exhibition area dedicated to a detailed chronology of the events on September 11. It is also in poor shape and surrounded by the equipment used by firefighters that day. PPE is proudly displayed; covered in dust from the collapsed Twin Towers and never worn again. And then there is a shiny red motorbike. It stands oddly bright amongst so much debris and the industrial looking iron girders of the Twin Towers, which stand distorted but proud in the huge spaces of the museum. It is called the
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“A total of 343 members of FDNY died that day and many have died since due to medical problems caused by working at the site of the collapse” FDNY Dream Bike. Gerard Baptiste of Ladder Company 9 bought the bike early in 2001 with a view to restoring it to its former glory. He never got to achieve his ambition after he responded on September 11 but those who survived did. Their efforts are shown here and the ten roses painted on to the gas tank represent the members of Ladder Company 9 and Engine Company 33 who died that day. I emerged from the cool, dark space of the museum into
the bright, hot, open space of the open air memorial site. The shock of the loud sound of water rushing into the vast pools which now sit on the footprints of the Twin Towers is in stark contrast to the silence of the museum. The quote from Virgil’s Aeneid that is written in large letters forged out of remnant World Trade Center steel and sits high up on the wall inside the museum now seems so apposite: “No day shall erase you from the memory of time.”