Thursday, October 1, 2026
The Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center irrevocably changed life for New Yorkers. Parents, siblings, friends and neighbors were lost, leaving families shattered and communities around the world forever affected.
Each year, the promise to “never forget” carries renewed weight — especially for those who witnessed the tragedy and continue to hold its memory close.
In Nassau County, memorials have been erected in nearly every community, whether outside a fire department headquarters, a school, or a municipal building. They are a solemn site, often featuring melted beams from the towers, an impressive plaque that bear the names of those who perished.
In Eisenhower Park, Nassau County’s largest publicly run space, there’s dedicated memorial space near the lake of Merrick Avenue that includes a replica of the Twin Towers. Opened in 2007, it memorializes the nearly 3,000 people killed in Manhattan, at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va. and aboard Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania.
But tucked elsewhere in Eisenhower Park is a lesser-known memorial honoring one of Long Island’s most closely connected communities: its volunteer fire service. For the 25th anniversary, Nassau County is revamping the site, creating a new stone structure dedicated to not only those who perished on 9/11, but also those who have died since due to 9/11-related illnesses.
The aging 9/11 firefighters memorial in Eisenhower Park in East Meadow is being replaced with a new tribute honoring Nassau County volunteer firefighters.
For the firefighters and officials who gathered at the site earlier this year for the groundbreaking, the project was about far more than replacing weathered stone.
“It’s more than just words,” Nassau County Chief Fire Marshal Michael Uttaro said of the promise to remember. “It is a promise, and it is a promise that needs to be kept today and for generations to come.”
The existing memorial, along Park Boulevard near Field 6/6A, bears the names of 19 Nassau fire service members who died on Sept. 11 and 30 more who later succumbed to illness. After years of exposure to the elements, officials said, the memorial has aged and needs replacement.
The new memorial will feature large gray stones bearing the names of the fallen and commemorative words honoring those who “answered the call” and “placed themselves in harm’s way and made the ultimate sacrifice to help a stranger.”
For many involved in the project, those names are personal.
County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s nephew, Thomas Jurgens, a Meadowmere Park firefighter and military veteran, died while rendering first aid to a badly burned woman in the lobby of 2 World Trade Center. His body was never recovered; only his sidearm and shield were found.
“We talk every day about the 3,000 people who were murdered on that day,” Blakeman said, “but we don’t talk enough about the number of people that were saved that day.”
Ralph Esposito, chairman of the Nassau County Firefighters Memorial Endowment Association, grew emotional as he recalled his own time at Ground Zero and the firefighters who died there — and those who continued to suffer years later.
“The memorial will be for more than stone and steel,” Esposito said. “It will be a permanent promise that the sacrifices of the Nassau County volunteer firefighters will never be forgotten.”
That sense of brotherhood — and of loss that has continued for nearly a quarter-century — remains at the heart of the memorial.
The memorial is not yet completed. Earlier this year, county officials said the memorial is expected to be completed in September.
To read more from the Herald's Remembering 9/11, 25th anniversary special section, click here.
