Hartsville Fire Company Readies Arrival of Steel From WTC

The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey has given the Hartsville Fire Company the green light to pick up a piece of the steel from the World Trade Center. Eight representatives from the department will drive up to New York to pick up the steel and bring it to the Eddington Fire Company in Bensalem before it’s official transport to Hartsville on April 23.

“We’re going to rally at the Trevose fire station around 2 p.m.,” said John England, member of the fire company’s 9/11 Memorial Committee. “The full procession up Street Road will have flashing lights, motorcycle escorts, the whole thing. We should arrive at our station by 2:30.”

Hartsville was rewarded the piece as recognition for its annual 9/11 memorial it has performed since 2003. A display of 343 American flags on the front lawn of the fire station represents each New York City firefighter who died on that fateful morning.

An evening memorial service features attendees reading the names of all 343 firefighters as the flags wave in the late summer breeze.  Two additional flags were added to honor volunteer firefighters John Kulick and Tristan Smith who were killed in action in Iraq after joining the military in response to the Sept. 11th attack.

At the conclusion of the service, the 343 flags are retrieved from the lawn by the audience, and stored carefully until the next year.

The steel will be placed on a rolling cart so it can be displayed in front of the fire department’s building, then stored at night. Once construction is completed on the planned memorial, the steel will be permanently placed outside.

The full memorial is being designed and constructed by a donor living in New Hope. The Hartsville Fire Co. is raising money to fund the construction. “We need at least $25,000, maybe as much as $50,000,” Hartsville Fire Company member and 9/11 Memorial Committee Chair Ed Pfeiffer Warminster Patch in February. “We need a complete re-freshening of the front of the station so we can properly host the memorial.”