| The annual Wood-Ridge 9/11 Memorial Service was held at Veterans' Park on Valley Blvd. on Thursday, September 11th. This is the 24th year WR residents, families and friends have gathered to honor and remember those we have lost due to the terrible events of that day.
The WRFD provided the color guard for the event and WR Firefighters Ron Phillips Jr. and Dan O'Beirne played the bagpipes.
Fire Chief Kevin Cribben offered a Firefighters' Remembrance.
He explained how members of the Wood-Ridge Fire Department and EMS were dispatched twice on 9/11. At 10:15 a.m., WR EMS was sent to Liberty State Park and escorted to Ellis Island to treat and transport the first survivors, and "they were given the grim assignment of setting up a temporary morgue."
At 10:45 a.m., the Wood-Ridge Fire Department was requested to responded to New York City but "as they approached the George Washington Bridge, their convoy was stopped due to security concerns about the bridge. They were relocated to a staging area at Overpeck Park, while other members of WRFD stood by at the fire house.
Days later, on September 14, WRFD Rescue 903 was requested to assisted at the Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island "there they spent the day searching crushed vehicles and assisting the NYPD and FBI as part of an emergency recovery team," said Cribben, and that “as always, the members carried out these duties courteously and professionally, so much so that the FBI agent in charge of the operation would call the fire house a few days later and ask if they would return and continue their work.”
He explained that two members of the Wood-Ridge Fire Department have succumbed to 9/11 related illnesses. Timothy A Sullivan, who drove the ambulance was "exposed to the toxins that would eventually take him from us." He died on January 5, 2022.
Sullivan served WRFD for 48 years and was cited for bravery on five different occasions. In March 2023, his badge, #10, was retired from the department.
WRFD firefighter James J. Bartlett was in Staten Island on September 14, and was also exposed to toxins. He passed away on May 21, 2023. He served WRFD for seven years, and his badge was retired in October 2023.
NEVER FORGET |
