Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, East Meadow residents and first responders gathered to remember the nearly 3,000 people killed that day and reaffirm a promise that has endured for a quarter-century: Never forget.
The East Meadow Fire Department hosted its annual remembrance walk and ceremony on Sept. 11, bringing firefighters, emergency medical personnel, police officers, community organizations, local officials and residents together to honor the victims and the first responders who served during and after the attacks.
Uniformed members of the fire department and other service organizations assembled at East Meadow Fire Department headquarters before marching to Veterans Memorial Park, where the ceremony took place.
The observance held added significance this year as the community marked the 25th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and United Airlines Flight 93.
Among those killed were seven people with ties to East Meadow — four World Trade Center workers, two firefighters and a police officer. Their names remain etched into the community’s memory and are inscribed on the memorial at Veterans Memorial Park: Ann Walsh McGovern, Carlos Dominguez, Stephen Mark Fogel, Stephen LaMantia, Claude “Dan” Richards, Daniel Brethel and Thomas Patrick DeAngelis.
The 1,800-pound marble monument was erected in 2014 by the East Meadow Kiwanis Club. It features an etching of the twin towers, a steel beam recovered from ground zero and a footstone bearing the words, “In the name of freedom/To those who lost their lives/September 11, 2001.”
Members of the fire department place a new wreath at the memorial each year in tribute to the seven local victims and all those who died in the attacks.
The ceremony also honored the firefighters, police officers and emergency medical personnel who died from illnesses linked to their work at ground zero in the months and years after Sept. 11.
East Meadow’s connection to the response began immediately after the attacks. All seven of the community’s volunteer fire companies responded to New York City that day or in the days that followed. Some members provided coverage at vacant FDNY firehouses, while others reported to staging areas or worked at the 16-acre disaster site.
Among those remembered was Brethel, a captain with FDNY Ladder Co. 24 in Manhattan and a former captain of East Meadow Fire Department Engine Co. 1. Brethel, an East Meadow native who later moved to Selden, served with the local department for 10 years before joining the FDNY.
The community also paid tribute to East Meadow firefighters who died in later years from illnesses attributed to exposure to toxins at ground zero: former Ladder Co. 2 Capt. Rudolf Halveka, FDNY firefighter Joseph A. Hatzelman and former Engine Co. 3 Capt. Raymond Pfeifer, who also served with the FDNY.
Pfeifer became a nationally recognized advocate for first responders suffering from 9/11-related illnesses while battling cancer himself. He made repeated trips to Washington, at times using a wheelchair, to press lawmakers to extend the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. The legislation was renewed before Pfeifer died in 2017.
The anniversary ceremony honored not only those killed on Sept. 11, but also the responders whose months of work at ground zero carried consequences that emerged years later.
For East Meadow, the passage of 25 years has not diminished the loss. The annual gathering remains an opportunity to remember civilians who went to work that morning, the first responders who rushed toward danger and the volunteers who left their own community to help a city in crisis.
A quarter-century later, their names, service and sacrifices remain at the center of East Meadow’s remembrance.
