Two memorials to those who died in the terrorist attacks of 10 years ago were held in Hillsborough on Sunday.
Woods Road Fire Company No. 3 unveiled its memorial garden in a noon ceremony. The centerpiece is a piece of World Trade Center steel sitting atop a marble pedestal.
Ex-chief Brian Brownlie pulled the covering off the vertical piece of steel to unveil the full memorial. The pedestal reads, “In honor and remembrance of the 2,752 heroes and victims of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, Sept. 11, 2001, and to celebrate the enduring spirit of all Americans.”
At 10 a.m. at Volunteer Fire Company No. 2 on Route 206, people got a preview of a centerpiece of a future memorial. A second I-beam from the New York City debris, just received a few days earlier, was on display as emergency services personnel read the list of the 343 comrades who gave their lives trying to save others that day.
Former Chief Pat Kelly said the bolts in the concrete were torqued to give some sense of the violence of the destruction.
The company is planning a memorial garden in which the steel will be prominent, he said.
Mr. Kelly remembered he was siting in his office in Edison on Sept. 11, 2001.
Like everyone else, he said, he thought a small plane had gone off course.
”Then all hell broke loose,” he said.
Remembering those who died in the rescue effort is important to Mr. Kelly.
”They’re all brothers,” he said. “I knew a few of them. We all face similar situations and you can’t understand what it’s like unless you’ve been there. It’s almost as like a piece of you is taken.”
’Assistant Chief Bruce Vatter gave Mr. Kelly a 9-11 commemorative medal to recognize his years of organizing the ceremony. Mr. Kelly accepted but said later, “It’s not about me.”
He said he would be back with the ceremony next year “if it has to be only me reading the names.”
Mark Brownlie, president of the Woods Road company and chairman of the memorial garden committee, called the turnout “phenomenal” for the dedication and service. His anxiety in seeing things run smoothly was jolted when his father fainted in the crowd, and was rushed to the hospital.
The paver area is surrounded with four vase-shaped Zelkova trees and one weeping Redbud, Clethra shrubs and ornamental grasses throughout, and holly bushes across the front.
A series of speakers offered their thoughts.
Charlie Nuara, chief of the Woods Road company, said, “I can’t remember what I did this morning, but I’ll always remember where I was and what I did when that first plane hit the tower,”
Monsignor Ray Cole of St. Joseph Church in Millstone said Sunday was “a day of sad memories and tremendous possibilities.”
Assemblyman Peter Biondi said, “I stand here with two emotions. One is sorrow and the other is just plain damn anger to what they (the terrorists) did to this country.” He reminded the audience, “Freedom isn’t free.”
Woods Road volunteer fire fighter Carmine Nuzzolo spoke about his service as a paid fireman in New York City, bringing some smiles as he described the personalities of some of the comrades with whom he had worked.”343 firefighters died that day,” he said. “Most I never met, but I knew them all. They were my friends, and I miss them.
Resident Jenn Haley, who attended, wears a bracelet for Port Authority Sgt. Robert Kaulfers, who died that day. A family friend, he was close to her father, she said.
She also remembered firefighter Michael Lynch, whose brother she previously worked for. He left nine siblings, and they have formed a foundation that has given $2.3 million in education grants to children of firefighters and other victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and other disasters.
”It’s amazing how different people throughout your life touch you,” she said.
She said her husband, Dennis, now a retired Plainfield police officer, volunteered for months to work on “the pile” of debris at Arthur Kill landfill, searching for any bits of remains or effects that could prove a person’s fate or salve a relative’s wound.
