WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES SEPTEMBER 9, 2021 21
Middle Village resident honors lives lost 20 years ago
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
CMOHAMED@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
For the past 19 years, the 9/11 Vigil
Committee in Middle Village
has held a candlelight vigil and
prayer service at Juniper Valley Park
to honor and remember those who
perished in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks at the World Trade Center
towers.
The committee — which is made
up of a group of volunteers from the
Middle Village and Maspeth communities
— was established immediately
following the tragic events of that day.
It has brought together hundreds of
members from churches, schools and
local organizations to Juniper Valley
Park’s 9/11 memorial garden, where
a granite plaque was installed in remembrance
of the thousands of lives
lost at Ground Zero.
As the number of attendees has
dwindled over the years to 400
people, Frank DeBiase, president of
the 9/11 Vigil Committee, said he is expecting
a larger gathering this year to
commemorate the 20th anniversary
of 9/11.
According to DeBiase, who was also
a fi rst responder at Ground Zero, it is
of utmost importance to remember
and never forget the events that unfolded
on 9/11.
“Forgetting something like this
is outright upsetting. I go to local
schools and are invited by teachers
to speak to kids about it,” DeBiase
said. “It’s just as important to always
remember and share these things
with them.”
Like his neighbors, DeBiase lost
two dear friends who were 9/11 fi rst
responders.
DeBiase, who is a retired corrections
captain of the Support Services
Division on Rikers Island, recalls the
events of 9/11 vividly.
He started his workday at 5:30 a.m.
with a cup of coff ee and a bagel before
hopping on the highway to Rikers
Island.
While he reported to the commanding
offi cers conference room for the
weekly planning meeting, his secretary
burst in and said, “Sir, put on the
TV. The World Trade Center has just
been hit by an airplane and is on fi re.”
As DeBiase and his team watched
the news on television, they were all
trying to make sense of the situation,
he said.
“‘Must be a freak accident,’ ‘those
poor offi ce workers’ and ‘that will
be a tough fi re to get under control,’
were some of the comments that went
around the room,” DeBiase said.
As minutes passed, with the news of
a second aircraft hitting the Pentagon
and another hitting the other World
Trade Center tower, and yet another
plane crash in Pennsylvania, DeBiase
said it became all too evident that the
nation was under attack and that the
city was “Ground Zero.”
While DeBiase’s unit — which was
usually called when a water main
broke, or when electric outages occurred
when Rikers was fl ooding or
snow was piling up — was sure that
at any moment they would get a call to
dispatch their heavy equipment (payloaders,
back-hoes and bulldozers)
to the scene of the attack, they were
prepared and readied all personnel
to respond to the unprecedented
emergency, he said.
“There were thousands of people in
the twin towers when the attacks took
place and a rescue eff ort was in full
swing,” DeBiase said.
Later that day, DeBiase, along with
offi cers and civilian tradesmen, were
dispatched to the NYC Morgue in
Manhattan.
DeBiase’s unit helped convert the
street adjacent to the facility into a
high-volume intake area for the receipt
of human remains. Tents were
erected for everything from examination
tables to fi ngerprinting stations,
photography stations and rest areas.
There was even a makeshift chapel.
As they got closer to the World
Trade Center site, the streets were
empty and abandoned. There was an
acrid smell of “burning everything,”
DeBiase said.
“The scene was surreal. Mountains
of ruin, countless volunteers passing
buckets of hand-dug debris from one
to the next. It was a sea of humanity,
determined to fi nd some way of help,”
DeBiase said. “So many lives lost,
so many friends — it was the same
thought going through everyone’s
minds.”
While DeBiase assisted in the transfer
of remains from the ambulances
to the pathologists and then to the
refrigerated trailers, he says he will
never describe or discuss what his
team recovered on a regular basis as
they sift ed through the rubble.
When an ambulance arrived containing
the remains of a fi refi ghter
or police offi cer, workers at the site
would stop what they were doing and
line the street.
“We would all stand at attention
and salute the vehicle until the fallen
‘hero’ was removed and sent to the
pathologists for processing. Unfortunately,
this ritual continued several
times per day, weeks on end,” DeBiase
said.
While working at Ground Zero
among the thick smoke and stench,
DeBiase developed a sore throat.
His mother, who was a teacher at St.
Margaret’s in Middle Village, sent a
delivery of 1,300 pounds of candy and
throat drops donated by students.
“We had enough to last us for the
duration of the recovery eff ort. It was
gestures like that which defi nes who
and what we are as a people during this
most challenging time,” DeBiase said.
For DeBiase, he will always be
proud that he was in some way involved
in the 9/11 recovery eff ort.
“The torn rotator cuff I sustained
while lift ing a body out of the wreckage
and the subsequent surgery will
always remind me of the job we did
in the aft ermath of that horrifi c day,”
DeBiase said.
In 2002, DeBiase received an
“Outstanding Duty Award” from his
department and although the word
“hero” was written in the citation, he
says he does not “in any way, shape or
form feel like a hero for what I did as
a fi rst responder.”
“I reserve that distinction for the
hundreds of fi refi ghters, police offi
cers and patriot civilians who perished
that day in the most cowardly
act of terrorism our country has ever
known,” DeBiase said.
Frank DeBiase, president of the 9/11 Vigil Committee.
Courtesy of DeBiase
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