By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
On a bright and near-cloudless Tuesday eerily reminiscent of 11 years ago, two ceremonies here remembered the victims of the airplane terrorist attacks on the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001.
At observances at firehouses on Route 206 and Woods Road, the names of the more than 400 police, Port Authority and first responders who died that day trying to rescue trapped people were read solemnly.
In the morning at the Station 37 building on Route 206, about 30 volunteers of the fire company, auxiliary and fire safety offices assembled in formation in front of the company’s memorial monument featuring twisted bolts and a small piece of steel from one of the World Trade Center towers.
At dusk at Station 38 on Woods Road, bagpipers and bugles added somber touches to a similar ceremony. Well more than 100 members of the public, including Cub Scouts in uniform who sat on paver stones in front of the company’s monument of a piece of Trade Center steel.
At both events, the sentiment was similar: We must never forget the victims, the families who were touched and the need to remain constantly vigilant from enemies. Three sets of five peals of a fire engine’s bell marked the collapse of the north and south towers of the Trade Center and firefighters fallen in the line of duty. Flags were lowered to half-staff for the ceremony, then reraised.
”It’s great to live in a town where the fire companies take the initiative to remember. It makes you proud,” said Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, a Hillsborough resident who attended the morning ceremony and spoke briefly in the evening.
At Woods Road, he said it was appropriate steel monuments were the centerpiece. The metal is strong, resilient and enduring, “and so are we,” he said.
The Station 37 ceremony was the first at its memorial. Boy Scout Tim Kwaak designed and built a patio area of pavers and stone benches, and Abel Escamilla, also a volunteer firefighter, landscaped the area.
The event was again organized by former station chief Patrick Kelly, who reaffirmed his intention to have a ceremony reading the names every year “as long as I have breath in my body,” he said.
At Woods Road, Fire Chief Charlie Nuara said 9-11 “is our Pearl Harbor,” similar to the surprise attack that brought the U.S. fully into World War II.
Monsignor Raymond Cole of the St. Joseph’s parish in Millstone said the newly rising 17776 Tower in New York City “is a sign of hope” that says we will never forget nor give up.

