Bellmore remembers 9/11, 16 years later

The setting sun drew the shadows of the Bellmore service men and women who stood in two rows leading to the Bellmore Fire Department’s 9/11 Memorial, on Monday night.

Dozens of community members gathered during the department’s annual Wreath Laying Ceremony to commemorate Bellmore volunteers and New York City Firefighters Kevin Prior, Adam Rand and Sean McCarthy, who died in the line of duty during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Mary Ann Rand and Gerard Prior placed flowers at the base of the memorial in remembrance of their children. Prior was 28 when he died and Rand was 30.

The Bellmore community also remembered Sean McCarthy, who survived the attacks, but died in 2008 after a long battle with a cancer that was caused by breathing the contaminated air at Ground Zero. He was 36.

Bellmore Fire Department Chief Thomas Stoerger delivered a speech to the community, saying that the firefighters’ legacies would be remembered, “whether it be by pictures or listening to stories of the past [while] sitting around the firehouse.”