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WTC Firehouse reopens

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

But the low-key return to their old station was typical of the unassuming crew who reside there. They saw no need, and they had no desire, to make a fuss.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg arrived to preside at the official reopening, but the media coverage on the day was almost minimal. On the evening news such reports as there were gave the basic details: Ten House was operational once again and the neighborhood was certainly the safer for it. It was, the broadcasters concluded, a marker of returning normalcy, a welcome sign that life was finally moving on. If only.
This week the firehouse doors are firmly closed to the steady stream of curious passersby. It’s not, as you might expect, a natural response to the rapidly dropping temperatures. The reason is as simple as it was unforeseen: the moment they open the firehouse doors they’re overwhelmed by the constant arrival of well-wishers, curious sightseers and neighborhood residents.
“The minute you open the door, people run up and ask you questions,” a young firefighter told a reporter last week. And as if to prove his point at that moment, a small group of Danish visitors immediately approached the locked entrance. Undeterred by the closed doors, they rang the bell. After a moment, a polite and patient firefighter appeared and answered their questions. Would he agree to be photographed? Would he gather up the crew perhaps?
Between them, Engine 10 and Ladder 10 lost five members in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The firehouse itself was extensively damaged on Sept. 11, 2001. Following the collapse of the twin towers, tons of debris fell on Ten House, blowing out windows and doors, flooding the building with three feet of debris and destroying the ventilation system. But thousands of tourists still pass by the site each week and each time the front bell rings it’s usually someone who wants to talk about Sept. 11. The disruption to their work is both practical and profoundly emotional. Many unannounced visitors openly weep as they talk to firefighters about the events of that terrible day. And although the firefighters genuinely want to welcome each guest, there’s no question that this kind of hospitality takes its toll.
How do you comfort a weeping stranger if you’ve only just met them? Should you even attempt to? What if you had to do this every day? And what about your own feelings? Have you gotten over the things you saw on that day?
Questions like this inevitably arise with each visitor, and so it’s no wonder if the crew feels a little ambivalent about welcoming each new guest. Because even yet, the unspeakable scale of the devastation wrought on that day has the power to hold and horrify the mind.
Just across the street from Ten House the little chapel that became famous as the refuge for exhausted emergency workers has finally cleared away the thick gray layers of dust and debris that had settled over it in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Over 235 years in continuous use, St Paul’s Chapel once celebrated the inauguration of George Washington, but today it has become an unwitting testament to human courage, a place that was set apart from the grief, toil and exhaustion outside — here the rescue workers ate, slept and cried. Massage therapists, podiatrists, chiropractors, counselors and countless other volunteers all gave their talents and time here to help heal the worn-down bodies and souls of all those who worked at ground zero.
Of course, they and the world have now moved on. But still the crowds of curious sightseers arrive in great numbers each day.
“It would have been nice to have been on the West Side, so we wouldn’t have to look at it,” firefighter Anthony Konczynski said ruefully, glancing across the street at where the twin towers stood. His mixed feelings are echoed by many of the rescue workers in the area. In its 134-year history, Ten House lost only five fighters, with the other five lost on Sept. 11. You can easily forgive them if they’d like to put the past behind them and move on.
The reopening was difficult for Rosaleen Tallon from Yonkers, whose 27-year-old brother, Sean, was one of the five firefighters killed in the attack.
“It’s so hard, because our guy isn’t coming back to us,” she said. “To see it opening and not have him here — that’s why it’s really hard.”
As the first unit to respond to the attack, the crew of Ten House has inevitably and unwittingly become the focus of so much unsought public admiration and gratitude that it can be overwhelming for them at times. So the doors are currently closed, but they’re never locked.
“We’ve been here since every one of these skyscrapers came up,” Engine 10 Captain Thomas Meara said. “We’re glad to once again be protecting life on Liberty Street.”

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