It has been 24 years since 9/11, and in honor of the 2,977 lives lost that day, memorials have since been erected across the nation, most notably at the site in Manhattan where the World Trade Center’s two towers once stood.
There are thousands of monuments to the courage displayed on that day. New Jersey has more than 150 in towns across the state that incorporate pieces of the tower wreckage.
Haddonfield is one of them.
The borough’s memorial stands at the Plaza of Haddon Fire Company No. 1 on North Haddon Avenue, a fitting location given the number of first responders who sacrificed their lives that day
Its centerpiece is a twisted and bent piece of steel from the North Tower, mounted on a pillar with a plaque explaining its origin and inscribed with the words “In Honor of the Lives Lost. Never Forget.”
The piece was dedicated on Sept. 11 in 2013, when Butch Brees was president of the fire company. He was the driving force behind the idea, inspired by another company.
“Audubon Fire Company had gotten a piece of steel from 9/11,” he recalls. “They have a beautiful tribute right outside of their station. It’s a very large piece,” he adds of that town’s 7,000-pound artifact.
Then-fire chief John Carpenter explained to Brees that Ground Zero remains were in the possession of the New Jersey and New York port authorities, and acquiring a 9/11 relic would require an application to reassign ownership of the piece to the Haddon Fire Company.
The artifact was picked up at JFK Airport in New York. Brees and the fire company were responsible for transporting it to Haddonfield, so Brees built a box with carpet lining to protect his precious cargo.
The object that now sits at the 9/11 memorial was smaller than some others to accommodate its perch outside Haddon Fire Company.
“We said, ‘That’s perfect,’” Brees recalls.
But the steel artifact was misshapen and could not be easily mounted. To help respectfully display the borough’s piece of 9/11 history, Brees turned to John Giannotti, known of course as the man behind the borough’s historic dinosaur sculpture.
“He came over, took a look at the piece, meeting with us, and he said, ‘It’s like a broken wing of a bird,” Brees recalls of the sculptor’s reaction. “It’s kind of like a victory celebration with a broken wing.’”
Giannotti – known for his use of bronze – – brought Brees and the artifact to the foundry he uses for his own sculptures, where employees demonstrated how the mounting could be done.
“That’s kind of how that piece got to that shape, and how it was mounted,” Brees recounts.
The flagstone and brick base the artifact sits on was made by a friend of Brees’ who works in construction. The memorial plaque was then attached to its front. Four pins at the bottom of the mount ensure the steel remains securely in place.
Haddon Fire Company’s 2013 dedication of the memorial included Battalion Chief Martin Ford, captain of Ladder Company 131 in Brooklyn on 9/11.
Off duty that day, Ford arrived at the site of the wreckage after both towers had collapsed, with five of his fire brethren inside. At the borough memorial dedication, he spoke of what it meant to him that memorials were still being erected more than 12 years after the tragedy.
“It’s an honor to come to dedicate this piece of steel in the memory of everybody that was lost,” he told the Courier Post newspaper. “It’s 12 years later, and it’s nice to see the memory is being kept alive.”
