Floral Park Engine Company hosts 9/11 tribute

A moving ceremony hosted by the Floral Park Reliance Engine Company in April paid tribute to two heroes of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks from Franklin Square and Floral Park.

The Reliance Engine hosted the famed, 30-foot by 55-foot, 9/11 Patriot Flag and Tractor Trailer Memorial Wall in a program attended by hundreds of local residents. The flag, which travels every day nationwide, making it through all 50 states, and Memorial Wall stopped in Floral Park to honor victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The flag flew over Floral Park during a ceremony at the Floral Park Reliance Engine Fire House. Firefighter Ken Fairben served as the program master of ceremonies, and was joined by engine company members from Garden City, Elmont, Franklin Square, Floral Park and other local departments.

Local firefighters and police officers, the New York Police Department, emergency service personnel and community members came out to remember and reflect upon those lost on Sept. 11. A memorial flag and special book were available to community members to sign and inscribe a special tribute.

Sen. Jack Martins, of Elmont, and county legislators Vincent Muscarella and Rich Nicolello, were joined by Floral Park Mayor Kevin Greene, Mayor-Elect Tom Tweedy, Trustees Dominic Longobardi, Mary Grace Tomiecki and Jim Rhatigan. Martins said the ceremony was “poignant and very meaningful to the hundreds that gathered.”

“We stood together to remember, reflect and pay tribute to two heroes and many community members and neighbors who touched the lives of so many in Floral Park and Franklin Square,” Martins said. “Their names are on that wall, and in many memorials throughout our state. We will never forget them.”

Along with the Patriot Flag, a “rolling memorial,” which consists of an 18-wheeler tractor trailer, owned by a Minnesota trucker, was part of the ceremony. The truck contains murals of firefighters, police officers and emergency personnel, and all 9/11 victims’ names are painted on the truck, in alphabetical order. The ceremony paid special tribute to two local firefighter heroes: Keith Fairben, of Floral Park, and Ronald Kloepfer, of Franklin Square, who were lost in the Sept. 11 attack.

During the program, high winds caused the cables holding the 75-pound flag to snap, so firefighters and police officers caught it and held it outstretched during the ceremony. At the end of the ceremony, the more than 100 attendees of the event worked together, side-by side, to fold the ceremonial flag.

The Patriot Flag is going to be at Ground Zero on Sept. 11, 2011.