About 60 people gathered on the Derby Green Friday to remember the lives lost in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The ceremony was held at a new memorial on the Green. The structure includes mangled steel salvaged from one of the World Trade Center towers.
The steel sits on a Pentagon-shaped granite pedestal.
Derby’s volunteer Hotchkiss Hose Co. #1 sponsored the remembrance.
Mayor Anita Dugatto called the attacks “incomprehensible,” and said as people were “scrambling out” of the buildings, hundreds of firefighters, police officers, and paramedics were “scrambling” to get into the buildings.
“Stories of heroism have become the fabric of that day,” she said.
Past Derby Fire Chief William Nicoletti was instrumental in obtaining the piece of steel for the monument.
“We have something here in Derby that will always reflect a national tragedy,” he said.
Nicoletti urged people to connect with the monument.
“Put your hand on the piece of steel,” he said.
Bricks at the base of the memorial are being sold for $100 each to help fund the monument. The pedestal will be inscribed with information about what happened on Sept. 11, 2001.
The memorial is a permanent reminder of an event that changed the U.S.
“What’s very troubling is in about a week or so this will all be forgotten until next year. We must not let that happen; we in Derby will not let that happen,” past Derby Fire Chief Gary Parker said.
Parker said he would encourage everyone to visit the Sept. 11 memorial in New York, as well as memorials in Shanksville, Pa., where United Airlines Flight 93 was taken down by passengers, preventing it from flying to Washington, D.C., and at the Pentagon, where American Airlines Flight 77 crashed.
“Remember those who perished and those who survived (and keep them) in your prayers,” Parker said.
