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WTC steel to be dedicated at ceremony in Flanders

TIM GANNON PHOTO | The Flanders Fire Department World Trade Center Memorial.

Flanders Fire District will unveil a new addition to Firemen’s Memorial Park Sunday morning, when they hold a memorial for the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that brought down the World Trade Center twin towers in New York.

A piece of steel from the wreckage has been incorporated into a new memorial at the park, off Flanders Road.

The district’s memorial ceremony will begin Sunday morning at 8:15 a.m., according to Brian Williams, chairman of the Flanders fire commissioners.

“We will dedicate the World Trade Center steel, and then we’ll have a little memorial service,” he said. “We’re trying to have it coincide with the times when the planes hit the two towers, at 8:45 and 9:03 a.m.”

The fire district first got word from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in February that the steel was available, and they picked it up from JFK Airport on July 19 and brought it back to the firehouse with an escort from the Southampton Town Police and the Patriot Guard, which often provides escorts at soldiers’ funerals.

Mr. Williams said he was one of five Flanders firefighters who went to ground zero a few days after Sept. 11 to provide overnight light support for crews searching through the rubble.
“Just to see the devastation and destruction there was unbelievable,” he said.

The new memorial was completed this week and will be ready for Sunday, Mr. Williams said.

After the service, residents are invited to the Flanders firehouse for refreshments, he said.

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