Fragments of 9/11 Wreckage Coming To Two Fire Departments

A week ago, the Des Plaines Fire Department received a "piece of the tower"--a 33-inch high, 114-pound steel beam found in the World Trade Center wreckage. The department plans to use it in a 9/11 memorial.

This week, the North Maine Fire Protection District, which borders Niles, Glenview, Des Plaines and Park Ridge, will get its own fragment of steel from the 9/11 debris. 

The timing of the two events, punctuated as it was by Sunday's assassination of Al Queda leader Osama bin Laden, reinforced the solemnity of the relics to firefighters.

"This isn't just a piece of steel. It's so much more than that. This represents the 3,000 people who lost their lives in the Sept. 11th attacks," said Des Plaines Deputy Fire Chief Ron Eilken.

"And not just them. It affected everyone in the nation and it still does today. We don't fly the same way, we don't travel the same way, children lost their parents, people lost friends. This has affected every one of us." 

Both fire departments were among 1,200 governments and non-profit groups which applied for the remnants from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is distributing them to groups that plan to use them in memorials.

Des Plaines firefighters hope to incorporate the relic into a memorial at City Hall and dedicate it during the 10-year anniversary ceremony in September. The city has held remembrances every year. 

North Maine Fire Protection District, which wants to add its steel fragment to an existing 9/11 memorial in Ridgewood Cemetery in Des Plaines, is expecting the relic to arrive any day.

"It's a piece of metal that was part of (the World Trade Center). It's six feet long and four inches wide," said Fire Chief Rick Dobrowski.

The New York and New Jersey Port Authority, which is working in conjunction with the Sept. 11 Families Association, approved both fire departments' applications for the mementoes. 

"Once we take possession of it, it has to stay in our hands or go back to them and they would redistribute it to others," Dobrowski said. "It's very emotional for them."

It was also emotional for former Des Plaines firefighter Rick Ornberg, who has visited Ground Zero. Wanting to see the wreckage up close, he drove to Des Plaines from his current home in Wisconsin on Thursday. The item had arrived on Friday, April 22 and the Des Plaines firefighters had opened it on Monday, April 25. 

Eilken, of Des Plaines, recalled that on the day the towers collapsed, he was at a training session with other firefighters, watching the attacks unfold on television. 

"Everyone remembers where they were that day. It was something to see how this brought us together as a nation," he said.  "I remember I was driving home and I saw a big group of people standing in a circle around the American flag on a flag pole and they were holding hands and praying. How often do you see something like that?"