Crime & Safety

Fallen Firefighters to be Honored in Urbandale

Two memorials -- one the statue of a firefighter -- will honor fallen comrades on Oct. 16

Urbandale firefighters have been cleaning and polishing, watering new sod and preparing for a ceremony next month to honor fallen comrades, including 343 firefighters and paramedics who died 10 years ago trying to rescue people from the World Trade Center towers. 

The Oct. 16 ceremony will dedicate a 750-pound piece of a steel beam from the wreckage of the World Trade Center.

The steel will be placed at an angle on a piece of limestone on a concrete base just south of the flagpole in front of the , at 3927 121st Street.

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To the right of the flagpole will be the concrete statue that honors Mike Mercurio, an Urbandale firefighter who died of a heart attack after fighting a fire in 2005.

Urbandale Fire Chief Jerry Holt said he would like to have dedicated the steel from the Trade Centers on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, but the fire department could not get the site ready in time.

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Last week, firefighters were watering new sod and replacing the base and the top of the flagpole in preparation for the Oct. 16 ceremony, which is National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend. Similar ceremonies across the country will honor 72 firefighters who died in the line of duty in 2010 and 17 firefighters who died in previous years, according to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. 

The Urbandale Fire Department got the steel from the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. The Port Aurhority made the steel available to fire departments across the country. All they had to do in Urbandale was get the steel back here.

Holt said Urbandale shared the transportation costs with the Clear Lake fire department, which brought back two pieces of steel -- covered by American flags -- on the back of a flat-bed truck.

The public is invited to the Oct. 16 ceremony, which begins at 2 p.m.


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