Firefighters remembered at State Museum ceremony

Posted at: 09/11/2012 2:59 PM | Updated at: 09/11/2012 3:38 PM
By: Bill Lambdin

Tweet

ALBANY - At the State Museum in Albany, there is a gallery dedicated to relics recovered from the collapsed Twin Towers taken down that day 11 years ago.

There is the burned and twisted hulk of the Engine 6 pumper truck that was destroyed, with four of its six crew members trapped in the North Tower and killed as it collapsed.

Family of the lost men, retirees from the Engine 6 Company, current members. All there to mark six moments of silence; key events of that morning exactly 11 years ago.

"September 11th, 2001, the department lost not simply 343 members, but we lost one member 343 times," said a New York City Fire Department officer leading the ceremony.

Arlene Beyer is the widow if 37 year old Paul Beyer, lost in the North Tower that day. She came to Albany when the truck was put on display ten years ago.

This was her first return since then.

"So I'm making peace with it," Beyer said. "When I look at that engine I see Paul smiling. I see him with his arm out the window and very proud, you know, doing a job that he loved."

Lieutenant Governor Bob Duffy, a former Rochester Policeman, stood with the New York City fire fighters during the ceremony.

"It is about remembering the courage, the sacrifice, the selflessness, the service," Duffy said.