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By: Hellen Zaboulani
Family members of fallen 9/11heroes were appalled to learn that a memorial plaque was found in the junkyard, after the city sold off fire trucks for scrap.
As reported by the NY Post, New York City has been getting rid of older firetrucks by selling them for scrap—but didn’t bother to save the memorials for firefighters who gave their lives. A FDNY rig, with a tribute honoring five Brooklyn firefighters killed at the World Trade Center was found this month in a scrapyard in New Jersey. “This is very insulting and disrespectful to the memory of these people listed – including my son – and all the others who were massacred that day,” said Sally Regenhard, whose son Christian died at age 28 and whose name was memorialized on the truck. “This is very sacred to the families.” The mural was honoring Regenhard, Lt. Anthony Jovic along with Firefighters Anthony Rodriguez, Christian Regenhard, Ronnie Henderson and Mike Ragusa of Engine Co. 279 in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
Per the Post, the plaque was scheduled to be crushed and sold as scrap metal, but was salvaged last week by a group of New Jersey firefighters. Retired NJ firefighter Jim Sullivan had spotted a row of five FDNY trucks in the junkyard and had stopped to take a look. He said he was “shocked” to find a mural intact on one of them. He convinced the yard’s owner to delay scrapping it so he can make arrangements to return it to the Red Hook firehouse. Sullivan reached out to the Wayne firefighters – including Chief Michael Payne – who on June 11th came to the scrapyard and utilized rescue tools to cut out the side of the truck honoring the fallen heroes. On Thursday, some of the Wayne firefighters drove out to Red Hook to return the sacred memorial. The mural will be on display at the indoor shrine honoring the heroes who lost their lives in the 9/11 terror attacks at the shared firehouse for Ladder Co. 131 and Engine Co. 279. “We’re very appreciative,” said Eddie Cane, 45, of Engine 279. “We do pride ourselves as a department for never forgetting the ones we lost.”
City officials said the rig was sold last May to Camp Auto and Truck Parts in Wayne, NJ, for $4,000 through a third-party online auction house. Per the Post, the sale was part of a larger transaction which included about 15 FDNY trucks for the scrapyard. Camp Auto employees said that at least a half dozen of the trucks had some sort of tribute to 9/11firefighter victims on them. Most of those rigs aren’t in the yard anymore, as they have already been sold or scrapped for parts. Don Campanello, who owns Camp Auto and Truck Parts, said the returned memorialized rig was just “days away from the chopping block” when it was saved.
“This wound up with a great ending in that the memorial will still be preserved and was returned to the Red Hook firehouse, but the conclusion could’ve been much worse,” said Glenn Corbett, a professor of fire science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “’9/11, ‘Never Forget’ is still important to a lot of firefighters.” He and Mrs. Regenhard said they hope the troubling incident will push city officials to create new protocols ensuring that memorials on municipal vehicles are removed before being sold.
