Community Corner

Bellmore FD Remember Their Fallen on 9/11 Anniversary

Hundreds gathered at the Bellmore Fire Department's Wreath Laying Ceremony in honor of Firefighters Kevin Prior, Adam Rand and Sean McCarthy.

Doreen Wheeler, was engaged to Firefighter Kevin Prior, when he died during the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. 

"We were going to get married in July the following year," she said. "It was booked and everything." 

She said that even though it has been 12 years since that tragic day, it is still hard.

"It's a sad day," she said. "We memorialize him every year."  

Wheeler and about 100 others attended the Bellmore Fire Department's 9/11 Wreath Laying on Wednesday evening to honor Firefighters Kevin Prior, Adam Rand and Sean McCarthy.

Prior, who was a six-year member of the New York City Fire Department, was 28 at the time of his death.

Rand, also a six-year member of the New York City Fire Department, was 30 at the time of his death.

McCarthy, who was 36 at the time of his passing, died from cancer in 2008 after developing health problems because he breathed contaminated air at Ground Zero.

Attendees watched in silence as wreaths with the firefighters names were placed on the Bellmore Fire Department's World Trade Center Monument.

Legislator Dave Denenberg offered words of encouragement. 

"The commercial says that we are stronger than the storm and if we are stronger than a storm that God created, then we certainly are and have always been stronger than any man made storms," he said. "In each generation when we were attacked, we pulled together united and emerged stronger than ever before."  


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