A sculpture dedicated to fallen fighters within the Firefighters Memorial Park features a new addition just in time for 9/11 observances: pieces of steel beams from the World Trade Center wreckage. The park, shown Thursday Sept. 9, 2021, is at 6401 W. Oakey Blvd.
Friday, Sept. 10, 2021 | 2 a.m.
Visitors to Firefighters Memorial Park in Las Vegas may notice a new installation on a sculpture that’s been at the park since it opened in 2002.
Just ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a steel beam recovered from the rubble of the World Trade Center was added to the pedestal of the sculpture that honors firefighters.
“It just gives it a nice touch,” said Las Vegas Fire & Rescue spokesman Tim Szymanski. “It’s now got a piece of metal from the World Trade Center, and it could mean a little bit more to some people that go out to visit.”
A total of 343 New York City firefighters were among the nearly 3,000 people killed after terrorists crashed hijacked commercial airliners into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C. Another plane hijacked that day went down in Pennsylvania after passengers fought back.
The firefighters were killed as they responded to the Twin Towers, which collapsed.
The centerpiece of the Las Vegas park, 6401 W. Oakey Blvd.,is a 20-foot sculpture of a shiny bronze firefighter’s helmet resting on a fire ax. Plaques contain the names of fallen firefighters, poems and prayers.
The beam was picked up by a steel worker and eventually donated to Las Vegas Fire & Rescue about five years ago, Szymanski said. Before it was added to the sculpture, it was kept at the fire department headquarters.
“We wanted it to be where people could see it,” Szymanski said. “This is a 24-hour city, so we wanted people to have access to it to see it, not only during the day — like in a museum or something —but at anytime.”
Szymanski said he contacted the city’s parks and recreation department about six months ago about moving the steel beam to the park. Workers cut it into two pieces and bolted them to the base of the sculpture.
It wasn’t easy to transport and cut the beam, Szymanski said. “It’s not like steel on a car. This is real steel from a skyscraper, and it’s thick,” he said.
John Banks, a retired Las Vegas firefighter who designed and sculpted the memorial, said he thought the chunks of World Trade Center steel added to the impact of the piece.
There is a sense of awe surrounding the power it took to deform and twist the metal, he said.
The beams have already garnered attention from parkgoers.
“I just like the way they have everything set up,” said Kevin Frederick, 55, of Las Vegas. “It’s a really cool place.”
The new installation is among several activities Las Vegas Fire & Rescue is doing in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The department will once again join in a tradition known as the Tolling of the Bells on Saturday, sounding alarms at 6:45 a.m. PDT, the approximate time the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed.
American flags at the park and at firehouses across Southern Nevada will be lowered to half staff. A flag donated by the New York City Fire Department will be lowered at Las Vegas Fire Station 5 on Hinson Street.
The city will also plant a pear tree at Police Memorial Park on Saturday. The seedling, gifted by the World Trade Center Memorial, came from a tree that survived being crushed by rubble during the collapse of the Twin Towers. Each year, seedlings are gifted to three cities that have experienced hardships.
Las Vegas was given the seedling last year, along with another that was planted at Fire Station 5 in honor of the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting on the Strip.
