DEP Invoice or Financial Record, September 30, 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Staten Island Mourns Its Heavy Losses Home to 5% of the City’s Population, but 20% of Missing Firefighters

Photographs by Mar>' DiBiase Blaich for The New' York Times Cards, notes and letters adorn the walls of the Rescue 5 station on Clove Road in Staten Island. Lt. John Peters and his wife, Roni, feel some guilt because he came back safely after the attack. cent of the city’s population, is home But the trade center attack has drawn Staten By AMY WALDMAN to more than 20 percent of the lost Island closer to New York than ever. It has even with JIM O’GRADY firefighters. Rescue Company 5 in restored a link that the borough’s leaders thought Concord sent 13 men to the World was severed forever. Each Saturday after Labor Day, Trade Center. Only one came back. the Staten Island Athletic Club holds For decades, New York’s garbage came to a race in memory of Marty Celic, a “I got a lot of friends who went the Fresh Kills landfill. But last March, after a firefighter who died on the job, at down in those buildings,” said John long political fight. Fresh Kills was closed and the age 23, in 1977. In recent years, Mar­ Palladino, a tree pruner from Port borough rejoiced. The celebration was short­ ty’s younger brother, Tom, has popu­ Richmond. “And I got a lot who are lived, however. larized the race, shortening the dis­ still trying to dig them out.” Just six months later, trucks laden with the tance from 10 miles to 4 and provid­ The tragedy has shaken a pla.ce trade center’s grim debris creep along the Staten ing plenty of beer at the finish. that may have geographic proximity Island Expressway toward the landfill, where the to Manhattan but that has kept its rubble is sorted. Similarly laden barges move The event says much about this within view of commuters on the ferries. Some borough of 440,000 people, many of sociological distance. With shopping island residents have begun to express concern whom are the city’s firefighters and malls and housing developments (bearing names about the effect on everything from their physical police officers. It is a close-knit com­ like Aspen Knolls), many parts of Staten Island and emotional health to property values. munity linked by everything from feel far more suburb than city. Domenick Crisci had run a launch at Fresh running clubs to churches to civic Residents regularly say “out here” to de­ Kills for 15 years. He was applying for a job on the associations. scribe where they live. They view the harbor as a Staten Island Ferry when the call came to go Now the race will say even more. moat that keeps Manhattan at bay; many island back to Fresh Kills. It will be run next year in memory residents who escaped the World Trade Center At times in recent days Mr. Crisci has found not only of Marty, but also of Tom ran instinctively toward the ferry. himself crying as he works. “Sometimes you Celic, 43, senior vice president for Firefighters who willingly work in some of can’t help it — you just break down,’’ he said. liability at Marsh and McLennan. He the city’s roughest neighborhoods see the borough “It’s not garbage,’’ he said over and over as is among those missing from the as a haven they can return to (and as city trucks bearing the scent of smoke rumbled by. World Trade Center. residents, they receive extra points on the depart­ “It’s the trade center.” So are another Marsh and McLen­ ment’s entrance exam). Residents who work in The use of Fresh Kills disheartens Eric nan employee and three firefighters the aggressive financial universe of Lower Man­ Ogren, too. He runs a gas station and deli less who were active in the borough’s hattan also gladly retreat to a place more about than a mile away. His younger brother, Joseph, running groups. A total of 178 Staten community than about competition. half of a set of firefighting twins, has not been Island residents, or former residents Staten Island has defined itself in opposition found. But his crushed truck, Mr. Ogren knows, is who recently moved, are dead or 10 the rest of the city. It offers, from shore or at the landfill. missing, according to a tally com­ ferry, a view of the Manhattan skyline, not im­ piled by The Staten Island Advance. mersion in it. As the only borough that reUably votes Republican, it helped bring Rudolph W. Of those, 78 are firefighters who live on the island, which means that Staten Island, home to about 5 per- Giuliani into office. It long harbored a secession movement, which essentially ended with Mr. Giu­ liani’s election. MVrimGS Onne> NYC-WTC_000152280